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Vol. 88 No. 12 GSPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, September 13, 1988
Houston Astros pitcher Charlie Kerfeld signs an tion science major, Monday. Kerfeld was promot-
autograph for Robert Moore, a senior construe- ing the grand opening of Wings’n’Things.
Ex-foreman claims payoffs
kept plant defects hidden
FORT WORTH (AP) — An ex-
foreman for Brown 8c Root Inc.,
ivho complained of safety def ects at
he troubled Comanche Peak nu-
:lear power plant, claimed Monday
ae was later paid for his silence by
he project’s manager and a subcon-
:ractor.
Joseph Macktal, former electrical
foreman, and his attorneys have
filed a motion with the U.S. labor
secretary to strike restrictive por-
ions of a settlement agreement,
vhich Macktal alleges paid thou
sands of dollars to him.
“I own property within 30 miles of
he plant, Macktal said. “I own acre-
tge there and that was my motiva-
:ion in bringing my allegations for
ward. I told people, ‘Hey, guys,
ve’re not doing these things right.’
Phey wouldn’t listen.”
Macktal and one of his attorneys,
itephen Kohn of Fort Worth, re
eased copies of the agreement and
in affadavit at a news conference on
he steps of the Tarrant County
Jourthouse.
“The settlement agreement is
troof positive that whistle blowers
ire given money to withhold from
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
unresolved safety concerns,” Kohn
said, and called the new claims “Co-
manchegate.”
“This is the very surface indica
tion of a massive cover-up of health
and safety concerns at Comanche
Peak,” he said, adding he hopes
other whistle blowers now can come
forward with new information. “Us
ing money to buy silence is the most
dangerous mechanism of all.”
Macktal claims he was forced by
his former attorneys to sign the re
strictive agreement with Texas Utili
ties and Brown Sc Root, the subcon
tractor at the plant, in settlement of
a labor case.
“The agreement required that he
agreed never to voluntarily testify in
any court or administrative proceed
ing concerning Comanche Peak,”
David Colapinto, a Washington la
bor lawyer for Macktal, said.
“In effect, it was a gag order on
his testimony of safety concerns
about the nuclear power plant,” he
said.
Macktal claimed that, in the
agreement signed in January 1987,
his attorneys were paid $35,000 by
TU and Brown 8c Root. Of that, he
received $15,000. Macktal said he
was discharged from the subcontrac
tor in January 1986 after raising
safety concerns about the plant.
Meanwhile, the Fort Worth-based
Citizens for Fair Utility Rates Filed a
request Monday with the NRC to re
institute licensing proceedings in the
Comanche Peak case.
“That is what is so criminal about
that (the agreement); I wanted to go
to the NRC and I couldn’t,” Macktal
said.
Hearings scheduled before the
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board,
an arm of the NRC, on the plant
were dismissed in July after Citizens
Association for Sound Energy
reached a $10 million agreement
with TU officials.
Claims have repeatedly surfaced
on safety and construction defects at
the project, which is more than nine
years behind schedule and, at $9.1
billion, about 10 times the original
price projection.
Macktal said unresolved safety al
legations about the project have
never been addressed by the NRC
because of the settlement’s restric
tive terms.
Heat, drought raise food prices
WASHINGTON (AP) — Drought and hot weather
libbled at the nation’s corn and soybean crops last
nonth, but new Agriculture Department estimates
bowed Monday that most of the damage had already
>een done in J une and J uly.
Officials held to an earlier prediction that consumer
bod prices will go up an average of only 3 percent to 5
lercent this year, with about 1 percent of the rise
aused bv drought. A further increase is expected in
989.
The department estimated the corn harvest, which is
tnder way, at a five-year low of 4.46 billion bushels,
lown 37 percent from 7.06 billion bushels harvested in
987.
The new crop projections, based on Sept. 1 surveys,
vere down by less than 1 percent from the forecast a
nonth ago.
In May and June, before the drought tightened its
;rip, USD A projected the corn harvest at 7.3 billion
mshels, based on trends and an assumption of normal
veather.
Those projections were revised downward in July to
5.2 billion bushels, assuming tarmers got normal
weather the remainder of the season. In August, the
forecast was lowered to 4.48 billion bushels, the smallest
harvest since 1983, when drought and federal acreage
curbs reduced output to 4.17 billion bushels.
The soybean harvest was estimated at a 12-year low
of 1.47 billion bushels, down 23 percent from 1.9 billion
bushels produced last year but virtually unchanged
from the August forecast. Estimates last spring called
for about 1.88 billion bushels, and the July projection
was 1.65 billion bushels.
Production of all wheat was projected at 1.81 billion
bushels, down 14 percent from 2.1 billion produced in
1987 and 1 percent below the August forecast.
In May and June, USDA forecast this year’s wheat
output would be up slightly. The July projection was
1.84 billion bushels, and the August forecast was 1.82
billion bushels.
Overall, the department’s Agricultural Statistics
Board said U.S. crop production this year is expected to
drop to 88 percent of a 1977 base used as a comparison.
That would be the lowest since 1983.
Mobley: Constituents
should provide advice
President outlines goals at meeting
“There is no question in my mind that the Faculty Sen
ate has a legitimate and important role to play in our
University. I look forward to receiving your advice on
issues of importance to you. ”
— President William Mobley
By Laura White
Staff Writer
The Faculty Senate, students,
staff and administrators will be
looked to for advice on issues facing
A&M, President William H. Mobley
said Monday afternoon.
Mobley shared his views on lead
ership and outlined his primary
goals in a guest presentation to the
Faculty Senate in Rudder Tower.
“There is no question in my mind
that the Faculty Senate has a legiti
mate and important role to play in
our University,” he said. “I look for
ward to receiving your advice on is
sues of importance to you.”
Mobley said he plans to get the
constituent groups involved in the
decision-making process.
“I am a strong believer in partici
pative management,” he said. “I ex
pect and value broad-based partici
pation in the governance process
from all constituent groups, includ
ing the Faculty Senate.”
Mobley also stressed the impor
tance of establishing short- and long
term goals to measure the effective
ness of any new programs.
A major goal for the administra
tion in the coming years will be to
obtain more money from sources
other than the state, Mobley said,
and a major capital campaign will be
recommended to the board in the
coming months.
“A priority goal . . . will be to acce
lerate the development of the exter
nal resources needed to supplement
the increasingly tight state re
sources,” he said.
Mobley referred again to increas
ingly tight state resources when
asked about the future of the Ster
ling C. Evans Library.
The library, which ranks 48th in
the nation in terms of quality, is in
need of more holdings and space, he
said.
“The library will be put high on
the list of things donors could sup
port,” Mobley said. “Since this is a
state-wide problem, it would help if
the state would help out.
“It seems to be a zero-sum game,”
he said. “Out of marginal resources,
a greater percentage will go to the li
brary, at the expense of something
else.”
Mobley said he looks forward to
working with the Faculty Senate in
the future.
“Working together, I believe we
can take full advantage of the oppor
tunities ahead for this institution
and the state and nation it serves,”
he said.
In other business, the Faculty Sen
ate discussed the lack of faculty in
put in the recent NCAA decision.
The Committee of the Whole
made and approved a motion that
the Executive Committee negotiate a
primary role for the Faculty Senate
in the Athletic Council’s oversight of
the University’s athletic program.
The motion is an attempt to im
prove communication between the
Athletic Council and the Faculty
Senate. It will be forwarded to Mob
ley who will consider forwarding it
to the System policy makers.
The Senate also added six new
history courses, eight theater arts
courses, two sociology courses, 12
women’s studies courses, an anthro
pology course and an graduate-level
mechanical engineering course to
the University curriculum.
In addition, the Senate made mi
nor changes in 13 existing courses.
In further action, the Senate ap
proved the Graduate Council’s sug
gestion that Medical College Admis
sions Test scores be accepted in
place of Graduate Record Exams for
students applying for the combined
medical-doctorate program.
Ershad asks for more aid
to compensate for flood
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP)—The
president of Bangladesh appealed
Monday for more foreign aid to feed
more than 40 million people left
homeless by the flood, and doctors
tried to halt an epidemic of diarrhea.
More than 250,000 people were
suffering from diarrhea, the healtli
center said, with nearly 36,000 new
cases reported in the last 24 hours.
Many got the disease by drinking
water contaminated by raw sewage
and flood waters.
A senior doctor who declined to
be identified said about 5 percent of
the diarrhea patients have con
tracted cholera.
President Hussain Muhammad
Ershad said the $280 million in aid
so far promised to his country was
not enough even to rebuild roads
washed away by flood waters that
cover three-fourths of the country.
He said it was too early to estimate
the total amount of funds needed.
“For centuries the people of Ban
gladesh have lived with floods, but
never before have the rivers un
leashed such fury on her people,”
the 59-year-old former army general
told a news conference.
The government puts the official
death toll at 881 from the floods,
which started June 13 and reached
new heights in late August.
1 he health control center said 138
deaths were from diarrhea, while
the others were caused by drown-
ings, houses collapsing and snake
bites.
Daily tallies in Dhaka newspapers,
however, put the death toll at 1,647,
without giving a breakdown by cat
egory.
A substantial amount of emer
gency flood relief arrived Monday in
a giant U.S. military cargo plane.
The C-5a Galaxy contained water
purification units, water storage
tanks and 10,000 five-gallon water
containers.
The plane also brought the dep
uty U.S. aid director, Jay F. Morris,
and doctors from the Centers for
Disease Control in Atlanta, water
purification specialists, and Defense
Department transport and logistics
specialists.
The International Center for Di
arrheal Disease Research, funded
primarily by foreign aid, said it had
admitted 550 patients with diarrhea
in the past 24 hours, compared with
an average of 155 patients a day last
month.
The senior doctor who reported
the cholera problem said it was typ
ical that 5 percent of the diarrhea
cases would turn out to be cholera.
Local brief
The Bangladesh Student Asso
ciation will continue raising funds
to aid victims of floods that have
left more than 21 million people
homeless in that country.
The group will sell bangles and
crafts and take donations in the
MSC through Friday.
The group has raised about
$610 already for relief of flood
victims.
Dhaka newspapers also have re
ported isolated cholera cases from
people drinking flood-polluted wa
ter.
Ershad said there are only 8,()()()
doctors in Bangladesh, a nation of
1 10 million people. He said 30 mil
lion to 40 million people were ma
rooned by the flood or in need of
help.
He also said the flood had de
stroyed or damaged 8 million
houses. Since the average size of a
family in Banglasesh is six people,
that would appear to mean that 48
million are homeless, up from the 25
million reported previously.
Dukakis claims Bush ruined
battle with drugs, terrorism
Associated Press
Democrat Michael Dukakis
charged Monday that an unsteady
George Bush botched his assign
ments in the battle against drugs and
terrorism, while the Republican
nominee challenged Dukakis to state
his views on the U.S. strike against
Libya and invasion of Grenada.
Bush also named a panel of na
tional security advisers including
former Secretaries of State Henry A.
Kissinger and Alexander M. Haig as
well as Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was
Democrat Jimmy Carter’s national
security adviser.
Dukakis, launching a three-day
counter-offensive against Republi
can charges he would cripple Ameri
can defense and foreign policy, told
200 supporters at a union hall in
Philadelphia that Bush was disas
trously and completely and unforgi
vably wrong for not warning Presi
dent Reagan against selling arms to
Iran in an attempt to free hostages.
Dukakis said he would restore re
spect for America, which he said had
been undermined by Reagan-Bush
failures to combat terrorism, come
to grips with the trade deficit and
stop the avalanche of drugs . . .
pouring across our borders.
“In each of these areas, George
Bush has failed,” Dukakis said.
“I want to beat our foreign com
petitors; he’s willing to settle for sec
ond best. I want to crack down on
terrorism; he knuckled under to the
ayatollah. I want a real war on
drugs; his answer to drug kingpins
like (Panama leader Manuel) No
riega is J. Danforth Quayle.”
Bush, at a news conference in
Washington and later at a rally be
fore 1,000 flag-waving Cuban-
Americans in Union City, N.J., cud
geled Dukakis on defense and for
eign affairs as well as the economy.
“I will really admit that I am hav
ing trouble pinning down the liberal
governor of Massachusetts on his de
fense,” Bush said in New Jersey.
Bush demanded that Dukakis
spell out whether he supported the
1983 U.S. bombing raid on Libya
and the invasion “to free Grenada
from its Cuban masters.”
“I support those things; now, does
he support them? Let’s ask him that
question,” Bush said. If the answer is
no, he said, Dukakis would show
himself to have veered outside the
bipartisan mainstream on national
security issues. He also asked
whether Dukakis would admit that
your support for a nuclear freeze
was a mistake.
Dukakis had his owm questions for
Bush, ranging from the Iran-Contra
affair to why the Reagan administra
tion cut funds for the Coast Guard
and aid for state and local drug
agencies while it put General No
riega on its payroll. Noriega is under
indictment on drug trafficking
charges.
“What kind of judgment is this?”
Dukakis asked. “What kind of priori
ties are these? . . . We need better
leadership from the next president.”
Earlier, introducing Brzezinski as
one of his advisers, Bush said his ob
jective was to shape a foreign policy
built on the principles of
bipartisanship . . . realism, strength,
dialogue and engagement.
“The U.S. must live up to its re
sponsibilities in the world,” Bush
said.