Monday, October 10,1988
The Battalion
Page?
pfficials: Failure of zoning
slows war on pornography
HOUSTON (AP) — Sex is a $200
million-a-year business here that comes
in the guise of book shops, arcades, to
pless clubs, modeling studios and street
prostitution, and officials say lack of
zoning laws makes fighting crime more
difficult than in many other cities.
Authorities in other urban areas use
| zoning laws as a tool to restrict the loca
tion of sexually oriented businesses. But
in Houston, city officials have opted in
stead to wage a regulatory war on por
nography, a choice that many believe has
proven less effective.
! There are laws stipulating how many
sex aids a bookstore can sell and laws
regulating how far sexually oriented
businesses must be from homes, schools,
churches and each other.
Other laws regulate how close a
dancer can get to a customer, forbid so
liciting a drink in a strip joint and call for
bright lights in adult arcades.
But most are routinely broken by busi
ness owners who often fare better by
paying fines or appealing cases in court
than by complying with laws that cost
them money, authorities said.
“We know we can’t legally put these
places out of businesss and that’s not our
Global warming
could flood coast
HOUSTON (AP) — Experts
looking at the possible effects of
global warming under the greenhouse
effect suggest that a rise in sea level
and other changes could have disas
trous effects along the Texas Gulf
coast.
The Texas shoreline is more sus
ceptible to damage from rising seas
than the coasts of all other states but
one, said Stephen Leatherman, direc
tor of the University of Maryland’s
Laboratory for Coastal Research and
chairman of the Climate Institute.
“Essentially, the Texas coast is
one of the most vulnerable,” said
Leatherman, a coastal geologist and a
leading authority on sea level rise.
“The only other coast more vul
nerable is Louisiana, because of its
land-subsidence problems,” he said.
It’s hard to envision a lot of bene
fits for Texas from higher oceans
caused by the greenhouse effect,
agreed Jim Titus, the EPA’s project
manager for sea level rise.
Projects to prevent or mitigate
some effects of rising seas are all
going to cost money,” Titus told the
Houston Chronicle.
“People will have to ask, ‘would
we rather avoid global warming than
have all these costs,”’ he said.
Leatherman’s study covered the
northern third of Galveston Island,
the top of Bolivar Peninsula and a
mainland area encompassing Texas
City, La Marque and San Leon. Pro
jected consequences of higher seas
included:
• With a sea level rise of 7.8 feet
by 2075, flooding now associated
with a 100-ycar storm would occur at
10-year frequency with catastrophic
damage.
• By 2075, a rise of three feet
would place 94 percent of the study
area in the 100-year floodplain, and a
7.8-foot rise would increase that to
almost 98 percent. About 60 percent
of the area is now considered suscept
ible to a 100-year flood.
• The 15-year floodplain, which
now covers a fourth of the area,
would grow to a third of the area with
a three-foot rise in sea level. Half the
area, including as much as four-fifths
of Galveston, would be included with
a rise of 7.8 feet.
• Virtually the entire San Leon
peninsula, a residential area, would
erode by 2075 with a 7.8-foot rise.
Six percent of the whole study area
would be lost to erosion by 2075 with
a three-foot rise in sea level, and 12
percent would erode with a rise of 7.8
feet.
The greenhouse effect is the term
used to describe the warming of the
Earth’s atmosphere by the accumula
tion of carbon dioxide and other air
pollutants.
One widely expected impact is ris
ing seas, as water expands and melt
ing occurs in polar regions.
However, scientists say that any
projections of specific coastal
changes from rising seas hinge on
many variables, such as the amount
of greenhouse gases that man contin
ues to pump into the atmosphere.
Leatherman says some sea level
rise is inevitable because of the lag
between past and present emissions
of those pollutants and the green
house warming they will produce.
“The direction is set, although we
don’t know how far the sea will
rise,” Leatherman said. “ The point
is, it’s going to go up. If there’s any
thing hot-wired to temperature in
crease, it’s sea level.”
Basically, Leatherman said, only
three things can be done in response:
People can move back from the coast
line, letting it erode. They can armor
the coast with structures such as the
seawall built to protect Galveston. Or
they can replenish beaches with extra
sand, pumped from offshore to keep
pace with the rising sea.
purpose,” said City Council member
Christin Hartung, chairman of the coun
cil’s sexually oriented business commit
tee.
“Our purpose is to make sure they are
as respectable a business as possible by
adhering to the law,” she said. “Espe
cially in a city without zoning, we have
to be sure that neighborhoods and people
are protected.”
Most of the city’s strip joints and mod
eling studios have moved to areas per-
missable under city ordinance, while a
few have been granted extensions until
1991 to recoup their investment before
closing.
In 1985, the threat of the spread of
AIDS prompted a public health ordi
nance to regulate peep show booths,
where police say anonymous sex is com
mon. The ordinance requires owners to
carry an arcade permit, which will not be
issued unless booths remain well-lit and
in open view.
After more than two years, none of the
city’s arcades has applied for a permit
and police have branded the law as a
mockery.
About 50 clerks are arrested each
month as authorities atttempt to force
compliance, a method that draws crit
icism from defense lawyer Rokkie Rob
erts.
“We don’t have zoning and the city
wants to get rid of these businesses, so
what do they do?” Roberts said. “If
there’s anything obscene, it’s to arrest a
citizen for a crime they can’t go to jail
for.”
A few clerks have gone to jail, how
ever, and Roberts has vowed to appeal
their cases.
While city officials point to health
risks in such businesses, police stress
that the industry is riddled with violence
spawned by turf wars and greed.
“In any industry with a lot of money
to be made, people wil be fearful of los
ing their ground,” said Lt. Bill Brown
of the Houston Police Department’s vice
division. “But what we’re talking about
here is a real street mentality. ”
Natural gas crisis
feasible for winter
DALLAS (AP) — Americans could be
grappling with an energy crisis as early
as this winter because low prices have
depressed the production of natural gas,
members of the Dallas Morning News
Energy Board said.
“We are running the risk of getting
what would be an artificial crisis in natu
ral gas,” Tom Cruikshank, president of
Halliburton Co., told the newspaper in
its Sunday editions.
“The risk is that this temporary crisis
will spike prices up, which then runs the
risk of bringing in the federal govern
ment with regulation —and scaring con
sumers about availability,” he said.
The Texas Railroad Commission has
estimated that the state’s maximum daily
natural gas deliverability fell from 13.8
billion cubic feet in the winter of 1983-
84 to 12.3 billion cubic feet last winter.
Because recent winters have been un
usually mild, the system has not been
tested. But the fear is that any lengthy
cold snap will prove demand can, and
will, dangerously exceed available sup
ply.
“If we have a demand on the state of
Texas the same as we did in the winter of
1983 and 1984, every well in Texas
(flowing) wide open today could not pro
duce that volume of gas,” Texas Rail
road Commission chairman Jim Nugent
said.
“Unless we do something to get those
(drilling) rigs running, we’re going to
face a crisis,” he said. “When we do,
the price is going to accelerate up, and
we are going to face the distinct possibil
ity of the federal government stepping
in.”
The Natural Gas Policy Act, which in
stituted a complex price regulated system
and the Fuel Use Act, which prohibited
the construction of industrial plants fu
eled by gas, are the result of what was
thought to be a severe and perhaps per-
eath row inmate still awaits new murder trial
lof
DALLAS (AP) — It has been a year now since a
[Galveston courtroom erupted in euphoria at the words
a state district judge presiding over a hearing in the
:aseof death row inmate Clarence Lee Brandley.
“I shall recommend a new trial for the defendant,”
|said Judge Perry Pickett of Midland, who a month later
lutlined his reasons in findings of fact delivered to the
exas Court of Criminal Appeals, which had ordered
e 10-day evidentiary hearing.
“The court became convinced that Clarence Lee
' did not receive a fair trial, was denied the
ost fundamental rights of due process of law and did
ot commit the crime for which he now resides on
leathrow,” Pickett wrote.
Pickett went on to point an accusing finger at two
en who have long figured in the case and who ap-
aredbefore him at the hearing.
“The testimony . . . unequivocally establishes that
Gary Acreman and James Dexter Robinson are prime
suspects and probably were responsible for the death of
Cheryl Dee Fergeson,” Pickett wrote.
But Brandley still sits in prison waiting for Texas’
highest criminal appeals court to act on the recommen
dation for a new trial.
The absence of any detectable action has led to spec
ulation that the delay has somehow been politically
inspired and that no ruling will take place until after
next month’s elections.
But a year is not a long time to wait for a ruling from
the Court of Criminal Appeals, particularly in a case as
complex as Brandley’s, Rick Wetzel, the court’s chief
administrator said.
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manent shortage of natural gas in the late
1970s.
Board members said an energy crisis
of the 1980s would result from the na
tion’s failure to see and prepare for what
the future might hold.
“I think we’ll see some shortages this
winter in natural gas, not only in deliv
erability but in transportation and stor
age, and I don’t think we’ve prepared
ourselves to take care of the needs,” said
Kenneth Perry, president of American
Petrofina, an integrated oil and gas com
pany.
Natural gas prices may rise to $2.25-
$2.50 per thousand cubic feet during the
upcoming heating season — levels not
seen since 1985. But levels won’t fall
back to lows seen last spring. Perry and
others said. Wellhead natural gas prices
averaged $1.71 per thousand feet in
1987.
A solution — and a blessing for
Texas, which produces almost one-third
of the nation’s gas and holds one-third of
its gas reserves — would be to enlarge
the market for gas by promoting its use
in the energy-strapped Northeastern
United States, according to Texas Rail
road Commissioner John Sharp.
“We get the Yankee or whomever
hooked on gas . . . and its got to follow
that they must be concerned about those
peak demand periods in winter,” Sharp
said. “That would be enough incentive
to get the gas out of the ground. ”
In 1987, Texas’ share of U.S. natural
gas production dropped to 27.8 percent
— its lowest level since the Texas Rail
road Commission has kept statistics.
Meanwhile, U.S. consumption of natural
gas has fallen by 27 percent from peak
usage in 1972.
Gas is being touted for its positive
properties. It’s relatively cheap to pro
duce and transport and a cleaner fossil
fuel to burn, which could help solve acid
rain problems in the Northeast.
“The record in this case is mammoth. The transcript
of the evidentiary hearing in Galveston was longer than
most trials. There’s no telling when they’re going to
act,” he said.
On Aug. 23, 1980, Fergeson, 16, the manager of the
Bellville High School volleyball team, was raped and
slain in Conroe High School.
Brandley, who is black, and four whites, including
Acreman, were working at the school that day.
The others accused Brandley.
He was tried twice in Conroe, the first trial ending in
a mistrial, the second in a conviction, for which he was
sentenced to death.
In March 1987, Brandley came within six days of
execution, but it was stayed. Since then, a steady
trickle of evidence has shifted the focus of guilt away
from him.
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ARE YOU A HUNK?
Do you know a Hunk?
Do you want to meet a Hunk?
*#3 n;,
' If you are, or if you do, don’t miss the November 2,
1988 publication of Thumbs Up: “Hunk Hunt” for
Aggie Men!
f you’re one of those lucky Aggie girls who knows
a hunk, encourage him to enter! Or, if you’re an
plan and you think you should be included in
is pin-up issue, submit a full length photo with
ame, major and telephone number printed on
back to: “Hunk Hunt”, c/o The Eagle, P.0. Box
3000, Bryan, Tx. 77805; or apply in person to Eagle
Advertising. Photos must be received by October
19,1988.
Beta Theta Pi
Presents
THE BOURBON STREET BASH
Featuring
XAVION kj
l BOURBON
also appearing
THE KEROUACS
PROCEEDS BENEFIT
Special Olympics
OCTOBER 15, 1988
6:30-12:00 a.m.
Brazos County Pavilion
Tickets are $6.00; 8:00 at the door.
Cold beverages and Gideon’s Barbeque will be available
Tickets will be sold at MSC, Blocker and Sbisa.
THE BASH IS BACK!