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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 1988)
Wednesday, September 14, 1988rrhe Battalion/Page 5 ...CAROLINE'S A C\NNhf\ON. tAERKlTT'S A CRESCEWT ANP in A C R0\S5ANT. WHAT'S GOIHG OH HERE? WHAT ARE *>U G[>1S DOItiG? by Scott McCullar Lawmakers re-examine child abuse ianer.- sat 7^ dder. /aldo by Kevin Thomas M0NSEN5E.' WE'RE ON THE VERGE OF A GREAT SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY! nr wipei! 6 pj. ( Jou, Ir ms in l Senate: mental health care cheats patients, taxpayers mrt AUSTIN (AP) — Something has leberg tom: very wrong” in the Texas sys- n inf: sm of caring for the mentally re- rded, the head of a special Senate ^^Bmmittee said Tuesday, calling ' tes)stem near failure. “In short, it almost looks like . undone set out to design a system m v ’|at short-changes both the mentally K^Wecl and the taxpayers,” Sen. arlo Truan, D-Corpus Christi, .id at a meeting of the Senate ealt i Services subcommittee. a He state for decades has battled pi pith inadequate funding, outdated i Ij^Bnent. tom i orders, controversy I^H^Hiostility over the best way to ire lor the retarded, Truan said. 5 “Not one of those issues has gone vay.” he said. “They have multi- ■§. From where I stand, I see a stei i that is on the verge of fail- udfr :e- '' The subcommittee, which is ud\ing the financing, of commu- ty facilities for mentally retarded 1,1,, :ople, heard from Department of ental Health and Mental Retarda- jn officials about state funds given help start up private community )mcs and about contracts between fotmer state employee and the [hen ate ‘ The department, through the Prospective Payment Program, has provided $1.46 million in start-up costs to community facilities since 1985, auditor William Montalvo said. Montalvo, internal audit direc tor for the MHMR department, said just $96,845 has been repaid. The program was designed to comply with a federal lawsuit set tlement that included moving re tarded people from state institutions to community homes. State funds are provided through the program to mental retardation authorities, which contract for community serv ices. Start-up costs are one-time fund ing needs associated with beginning a program, such as facilities and equipment. Truan questioned whether it is constitutional for the state to pro vide such start-up funding to private businesses, and he questioned con tracts between the agency and for mer employees. He cited the exam ple of Donald Taft, former director of outreach services for the Corpus Christi State School. The day after Taft resigned his state job in 1985, he signed contracts with the school to provide services, Truan said. In 1986, Taft’s company also signed a contract with Fort Worth State School, Montalvo said. In the contracts, Taft was ad vanced a total of $347,827 in start up funds without a payback provi sion, Montalvo said. Jane Rowley, a spokesperson for Taft, said he had no immediate com ment. She said Taft was out of his Corpus Christi office working on preparations for the possibility that Hurricane Gilbert would affect Texas. MHMR officials said nothing ille gal was found in the contract. Department Commissioner Den nis Jones also outlined planned ad ministrative changes that could in clude prohibiting contracts between mental health or mental retardation authorities and former employees for a period of time. ABILENE (AP) — A Texas law maker who said he was only partly joking when he suggested branding convicted child abusers claimed that Texas was not correctly handling punishment for child abusers and molesters. “If there was any way to stick a branding iron in the middle of their head that said ‘child abuser,’ I’d go for that,” Rep. Doyle Willis said at a meeting of a delegation from the House Select Committee on Child Abuse and Pornography. Willis of Fort Worth said Monday that punishment for molesters should be somewhere between what the penalty is now and “doing what the Arabs do and cut off their hands.” “In order to get to these people who abuse children we’ve got to change our method of punishment,” Willis said. “It’s just not getting it across.” A delegation met at Abilene to hear concerns of local citizens and service agencies and take their sug gestions for legislation to help com bat child abuse and molestation. Willis said he has just celebrated his 80th birthday. Some of the 12 speakers made recommendations that committee members indicated may someday find their way into the law. Pamela Sites, a representative of People Against Child Abuse of Abi lene Inc., asked the committee to consider a change in the law to disal low unadjudicated probation for convicted child abusers. A probation term, when not adju dicated, allows an offender’s crimi nal record to be wiped clean if the term of probation is successfully completed. A person convicted of child abuse or molestation should be required to retain the criminal record. “I can assure you, the child they abuse will carry the scars,” said Sites. But Steve Chaney, a senior staff attorney with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s office and a member of the committee, said disallowing unadjudicated pro bation would limit the discretion of prosecutors. A judge, if an offender on regular probation violates the terms of that probation, may impose a prison sen tence of only up to 10 years, Chaney said. When unadjudicated probation is violated, however, the entire range of punishment is available, including life in prison, he said. September storms have lethal history frequec private (I is ilia' ii pro fexas unemployment jrops to 6.6 percent 11 j 1 : DALLAS (AP) — Texas employ- m ' li lent improved in part during the se '^ ast vear because jobless workers left fins | ie Btate, while continued high un- 1 tnployment in the Rio Grande Val- s ninii'‘M k , as influenced by Mexico’s eco- Hie woes, analysts said Tuesday, n WdUmhiie q ie joi)l ess ra te nationwide 1 eclined 0.6 percentage point over mayofyiear, it dropped much more dra- a®eally in Texas and several other H Hs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta- veP sties said. i a nu® Along with the Lone Star State, ied nlf Iiftssippi, Wyoming and Idaho bell si'Kunemployment rates decline by ingle':lore t h an 2 full percentage points Id SC! i the 12 months ending in July, the idate ederal government said. 1 not if “T here has been movement in the lireetion of recovery. But some peo- ile, rather than wait around, just left state,” said John Kruse, labor market analyst for the Texas Em ployment Commission in Austin. The state’s unemployment rate in July was 6.6 percent, compared with 8 percent the previous month and 8.7 percent in July 1987, the federal government said. “To some extent, we were just so far down that we did not have any where to go but up,” said Kruse, “al though I suppose we could have had an out-and-out depression. We were close to the bottom, I guess, in terms of where we could go, unless there was a major depression.” An economic slump continued in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area of South Texas, with 14.8 percent unemployment, the federal labor bureau said. That was preceded only by Flint, Mich., with 14.9 percent. The lowest unemployment was at Burlington, Vt., at 1.8 percent. Associated Press No hurricane with a “G” name has ever visited Texas but September storms have a history of being deadly. Coastal residents are keeping a wary eye on Hurricane Gilbert as it blasts westward through the Carib bean toward the Gulf of Mexico, forcing cancellations of plane flights and stranding tourists. “We’re pulling out all our genera tors, reviewing our plans and urging everyone else to do the same,” Gal veston City Manager Doug Mat thews said Monday. Packing winds of up to 130 mph, the hurricane tore off rooftops, dis rupted communications and poured up to 10 inches of rain on Jamaica, where reports said at least 30 people died. The storm Tuesday was lash ing the Cayman Islands. “We have to go back to 1980 and Hurricane Allen to see any hurri cane that’s as large as this one,” di rector Bob Sheets of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said. Allen, called “the storm of the century,” developed winds of 185 mph before storming the South lonvicted killer’s plea for reprieve lenied by State Court of Appeals ie nts HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The Texas Court of Hinal Appeals on Tuesday refused to halt the exe- tio^i later this week of a death row inmate convicted killing a Galveston convenience store clerk in 1980. Attorneys for Warren Eugene Bridge, who faces le al injection before dawn Thursday, took their case to Kederal courts to seek a reprieve. Bridge, 28, was convicted of the Feb. 10, 1980, rob- fylshooting of Walter Rose, 62. Attorney Anthony Griffin contends in his appeal that rors in Bridge’s capital murder trial were not allowed 'consider mitigating circumstances during the pun- tment phase of Bridge’s trial. In his appeal, Griffin is citing arguments used in an- |er appeal filed on behalf of Texas death row inmate 'hriny Penry, whose case the U.S. Supreme Court has Hd to hear. ■“Penry basically questions the Texas statute and the Bute not allowing mitigating circumstances,” Griffin id [Tuesday. “We’re saying the statute on its face has foblems.” (Tlte Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, however, said ie issue in the Bridge case should have been raised af- |the convict’s 1980 trial. ‘‘He shouldn’t be allowed to raise it at this late date,” te appeals court said. Griffin said his appeal would be filed before U.S. Dis trict Judge Hugh Gibson in Galveston. The Bridge case is making its second trip through the federal courts, according to Griffin. Earlier this week, State District Judge Roy Engelke of Galveston refused to grant Bridge a reprieve. Rose was shot four times with a .38-caliber pistol as Bridge and his co-defendant, Robert Joseph Costa, robbed the convenience store of $24. Rose died of his wounds on Feb. 24, 1980, four days following the arrest of Bridge and Costa. Costa was convicted of aggravated robbery and sen tenced to 13 years in prison. He was released under mandatory supervision in October 1986 after serving five years and eight months in prison. Bridge has said he is sorry that Rose died, but com plained in a recent interview that his life on death row is worse. “He didn’t know he was going to die when he went to work that day,” Bridge said. “I sit here on death row for 7'/2 years and think about dying, and I believe Mr. Rose got a better deal.” If Bridge is executed, he would be the 28th Texas in mate to die since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that capital punishment was constitutional. Although the Texas total is the highest in the nation among states with capital punishment, he would be only the second in the state this year. Texas coast on Aug. 9, 1980. Two people were killed in Corpus Christi. The only two Gulf hurricanes this year were September storms. Debby drenched Mexico, killing at least 39 people and leaving thousands home less. Florence later flooded parts of Louisiana as it sloshed ashore. The worst natural disaster in U.S. history took place in September of 1900 when a hurricane pushed a wall of water across Galveston Is land. It killed 6,000 to 8,000 resi dents and caused $30 million to $40 million damage. One-quarter century earlier, most of the town of Indianola, in the coastal bend between Galveston and Corpus Christi, was swept away by a hurricane that claimed 176 lives. In more recent times, Hurricane Carla pounded the Port O’Connor area in September of 1961, leaving 34 people dead and causing damage estimated at $300 million. Wind gusts were estimated at 175 mph. In dianola is just 5 miles north of Port O’Connor. In 1967, Hurricane Beulah claimed the lives of 13 South Texas residents when it hit the Brownsville area in September. Here is a list of major September hurricanes that have affected the Texas Gulf Coast: Sept. 3-12, 1971; Hurricane Fern; Middle Coast; 2 dead, $30.2 million damage. Sept. 18-23, 1967; Hurricane Beulah; Brownsville; extreme inten sity; 13 dead, $150 million damage. Sept. 16-20, 1963; Hurricane Cindy; Port Arthur; no deaths; $11.6 million damage; 24 inches of rain in Jefferson, Orange and New ton counties. Sept. 11-13, 1961; Hurricane Carla; Port O’Connor; extreme in tensity; 34 dead. $300 million dam age; wind gusts estimated at 175 mph, storm tide 18.5 feet at Port La vaca. Sept. 23, 1941; Texas City; 4 dead, $6.5 million damage. Sept. 4-5, 1933; Brownsville; 40 dead, $16.9 million damage. Sept. 14, 1919; south of Corpus Christi; extreme intensity; 284 dead, $20.3 million damage; winds 110 mph, storm tide 16 feet. Aug. 13-14. 1932; Velasco (Freeport); 40 dead: $7.5 million damage. 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