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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1988)
Page 12/The Battalion/Monday, September 5, 1988 Kroger Center • Texas @ SW Pkwy • 693-8500 STUDY ABROAD JR. FULBRIGHT a Grants for Graduate Research Abroad Competition Now Open TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2:00-3:00 251 B1ZZELL WEST STUDY ABROAD OFFICE 161 W. 8izz«ll 845-0544 iiiier* r*aiuicda IVlOw tZii/V G ENE R A LWME ETING mmm M M Wmm m H mum ^ w wmm, mmm mmm n » . ' V//'-:, y. , By contrast, the public defender’s cused felons with a staff of eight sal aried lawyers — will have defended about 4,000 indigent defendants for $175 or less per case, the Dallas Times Herald reported. Since 1978, when county commis sioners made their first major at tempt to curb indigent defense costs, judicial spending on private lawyers for the poor has more than trippled. The 14 felony court judges blame the soaring cost of indigent defense on a rising crime rate, an increasing number of arrest by police, and a growing number of criminal cases filling their dockets. Critics however blame the judges and say they use a system that costs twice as much as its competition and has fallen out of favor in major cities nationwide. “The issue never changes; it’s something we have never been able to solve,” said lawyer Vincet Perini, who studied the rising cost of indi gent defense in the 1970s for the Dallas Bar Association. “It’s a cyclical matter that’s been turned into a po litical football . . . and that’s a dam ned pity.” Taxpayers began paying the ex pense of providing indigent criminal defendants an attorney after a land mark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court de cision. “The (taxpayers) who are being victimized by crime are getting a little bit upset that we have such tre mendously escalating costs for rep resenting criminals,” Commissioner Chris Semos said. Don’t look down Tim Denton, an A&M Consolidated student, by Rudder fountain makes a jump on his skateboard Sunday afternoon and Randy S< amardo as his friends D watch. — I’hotn by Kathy Havem \ id Denton - Program tries to improve Telethon has ■mages of neighborhoods S n md disease MONDAY SEPT. 5th ROOM 404 RUDDER 7 p.m. Organizational Mftetfng-Come jotrijth® dub tor all phowgrupnois from snapshoots, to ptofe^stonafA Many-executive positions are vacant, so come by and get invoivffd. There will be a short lour . ©^V • Student Loans-GSL, SIS and Plus Loans • 7-10 day Average Turnaround • FREE First Order of Checks With Student Loan Application and This Ad. We Finance Futures First Bank S^Trust 268-7575 Galleria Village • 1716 Briarcrest Drive • Bryan DALLAS (AP) — Mary Neil spends most of her time on Detroit’s West Side tending her flower gar den, trying to make something grow from nothing. The garden, dominated by pink petunias and cultivated from the rubble of a vacant lot next to her house, still has its fair share of weeds. But Neil says the weeds don’t concern her. She’s more concerned about planting seeds that will bloom in the future. Neil’s garden is symbolic of the surrounding neighborhood. The area still has a rundown look typical of many sections of Detroit —houses with broken windows and grass growing out of the cracks in the side walks. But thanks to projects spon sored by the 12th Street Missionary Baptist Church, the area about four miles northwest of downtown is edg ing toward a comeback. “Particularly in the black commu nity, we need economic devel opment,” Charlene Johnson, the ad ministrator of the church-sponsored programs, said. “We need to be able to use our own resources to do as much as we can for ourselves.” Perhaps the church’s most effec tive program has been REACH — Reach Everyone, Administer, Care and Help. Through REACH, the church has been able to help clean up the neighborhood by purchasing houses suspected of being drug dens. Johnson said the program has helped reduce crime in the neigh borhood but Detroit Police Depart ment officials said there were no “There are plenty of places where (drug dealers) can go and find abandoned houses. They don't want any hassles, and they don’t want to deal with an organiza tion as large as a church. ” — Charlene Johnson administrator available figures to corroborate the claim. Johnson also said that evicted drug dealers have not caused any problems for the church. “There are plenty of places where (drug dealers) can go and find aban doned houses,” Johnson said. “They don’t want any hassles, and they don’t want to deal with an organiza tion as large as a church.” The program also has had a no ticeable aesthetic effect on the area. “We’re concentrating on renovat ing houses in a small area, so we can have a visual impact,” Johnson said. The neighborhood still has dilapi dated homes with overgrown front lawns. However, houses with newly sodded lawns, fresh white paint, with beds of yellow and pink flowers can also be seen on the block. Activity in the neighborhood stim ulates the senses: the smell of fresh paint, the sounds of hammers bang ing away and power saws cutting through wood. The church finds out about po tential houses for sale mostly through word of mouth. It bought its first house through REACH in 1982 and has purchased 12 build ings overall. The program has re ceived $299,000 in grants in the past 24 months, allowing for the pur chase of five houses last year. Johnson said the average cost of renovation is about $18,000. The cost would be higher if the church didn’t receive a lot of volunteer help, she said. One who has benefited from the program is Philip Buggs. He said REACH sold him one of its homes for $16,000 after he failed to get a loan from banks. REACH gave him a 15-year mortgage, which he hopes to pay off in seven years. “Ownership is power,” Buggs said. “That’s part of the American dream. It trickles all the way down, and we want a little bit of it, too.” Buggs, his face and arms covered with tiny dots of paint, spoke from the porch of a house he was helping to renovate. He said he was painting as part of the church’s “sweat equity program,” in which a person in debted to REACH can work on church-owned houses to earn credit toward repaying the loan. AUSTIN (AP) — Celebrities gait j ered Sunday for Jerry Lewis’s at| nual Lal>or Day telethon, a drive l coax millions of dollars from viewenl for a battle against crippling disease! that touch one million Americzl families. The 21 '/a-hour event, which cori eludes at 6:30 Monday, benefits ifj Muscular Dystrophy Association am is dedicated in large part to tin young MD victims the comiccallsbl “kids. ’ Firefighters collected cash e| street corners across America, teetl agers sponsored dances and otkl events, and youngsters went doo:| to-door or held backyard carnivals; | raise money for the light againsi muscular dystrophy. Ed McMahon, the telethon'slontl time anchorman, was back agai'l along with co-hosts Sammy DavisJi| Casey Kasem, Tony Orlando, Noml Crosby and Julius LaRosa. Other celebrities scheduled toap pear during the show includedRj' Charles, Liza Minnelli, Engelber Humperdinck, Brian Wilson, Man reen McGovern, Kool and theGanE Charlie Cailas, Chuck Mangione.A Hirt, Rip T aylor, Pia Zadora, tbl Pointer Sisters, Harvey Kornffi Charo, Randy Travis, Joe William! Del Shannon and the Dallas Co» hoys Cheerleaders. Lewis, who has helped raise Sibil lion for the Muscular Dystrophy At sociation, said he expected to be set! by 120 million viewers in the open ing and closing hours of the telt thon. YESTERDAYS Daily Drink & Lunch Specials .t Billiards • Darts • Shuffleboard Near Luby's / House dress code 846-2625 Snakes... and -Tropical fish -Pet Supplies -Rabbits & Guinea Pigs -Reptiles 1703 Texas BrOWD’S Culpepper Plaza p |SH _ N _ pE TS 693-6547 Member FDIC Call Battalion Classified 845-2611 KEEP COOL with cold drinks from your large (4.2) dorm refrigerator Rent Now! semester year Brazos Refrigerator 846-8611 Free Delivery AM/PM Clinics CLINICS Our New College Station location « > offers Birth Control Counseling Women’s Services Female doctors on duty Student 10% discount with ID 693-0202