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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1988)
Texas A&M The Battalion Tuesday, November 15, 1988 r that | I20yari Sicilian > and; musk ( ' casseti over tfe ' of i aving ® nstead §; Supreme Court denies husband abortion veto R1S mid AME*" )L//VD: 64 Rea: Novef- Recree Dvemb- TITION ualifyiit; ie final: t.Tean-; heteaff WASHINGTON (AP) — The Su preme Court, amid speculation it is prepared to restudy abortion rights, refused Monday to give husbands le gal power to prevent their wives from terminating pregnancies. The justices, without comment, rejected arguments by an Indiana man who said he had “fundamental rights and interests in his unborn child.” The court let stand a ruling last July by the Indiana Supreme Court that said allowing a husband to block a wife’s abortion is barred by U.S. Supreme Court rulings in 19/3 and 1976. The justices in 1973, in their fa mous Roe vs. Wade decision, legal ized abortion nationwide and three years later struck down a Missouri law requiring spousal consent before a woman could obtain an abortion during the first 12 weeks of her pre gnancy. There has been considerable spec ulation recently that the high court, with a conservative majority solid- ifed by appointees of President Rea gan, may be prepared to overturn its landmark rulings on abortion rights. The Justice Department on Fri day urged the court to use a pending case from Missouri to consider throwing out Roe vs. Wade. Justice Harry A. Blackmun, au thor of the 1973 court opinion, said in September he believes there is a distinct possibility Roe vs. Wade will be reversed during the court’s cur rent term. But in the Indiana case acted on Monday, the court gave no indica tion of a willingness to reopen the abortion issue. The case stems from an attempt last summer by Erin Andrew Conn of Elkhart, Ind., to prevent his es tranged wife, Jennifer, from having an abortion. She was about six weeks pregnant at the time. A state trial judge issued a tempo rary order barring Mrs. Conn from having the operation performed, but a state appeals court threw out that order. Man’s death angers civil rights groups College Station, Texas Vol. 88 No. 57 USPS 045360 12 Pages Amtrak representatives Dave Omans and Greg Diggins hold a banner welcoming the new Amtrak service through College Station. Banners, band, balloons boost arrival of Amtrak service for CS amr DS: impious > can I Spc .LWINl 3 ETEII SUPER RMORi iPORT! PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Civil rights groups expressed outrage Monday at the beating death of an Ethiopian man, apparently at the hands of white supremacist “skin heads,” and said attacks by such groups have been growing nation wide. Two other Ethiopian men were injured in the attack early Sunday by three young men who had shaved heads and wore military jackets. Skinheads, bands of young toughs who espouse white supremacism and Senate OKs new classes in curriculum By Laura While Staff Writer A recommendation for the ad dition of computer engineering dasses in the computer science department was approved by the Faculty Senate Monday. The computer science and en gineering aegree program was developed and approved in early September, but has not been brought into compliance with the common first year of computer science curriculum. The new program will be in cluded in the next course catalog. Also approved was a recom mendation that the signature of the department head or a desig nated faculty chairperson, will be required on all graduate student petitions. In other business, the senate approved a resolution by the planning committee about resolv ing conflicts between official A&M publications. In the event that a conflict oc curs between the course catalog and the official publication of the Texas AScM University Regula tions, the Senate voted that regu lations will prevail. An ad hoc libraries committee to aid in the further development of major libraries on the A&M campus was formed by the Sen ate. A&M’s Sterling C. Evans li brary presently ranks 48th in the nation in terms of quality . The committee will make rec ommendations regarding the fu ture development of the Evans and the Medical Sciences Librar ies. Results of the study will be re ported to the Senate by April. In the Committee of the Whole, several senators admo nished Jackie Sherrill for making “blatant political endorsements with the 12th Man T-shirt.” The Committee of the Whole also discussed the rumor circulat ing in the College of Architecture that procedures are being vio lated with regard to new courses. In further action, the senate approved the addition of I I new courses. The senate also revised its by laws. are prone to violence, have been linked to two other slayings nation wide, and a multitude of criminal acts against blacks, Asians, Jews and homosexuals. “I think that what has happened is very tragic, the ultimate manifesta tion of racial hatred,” said Avel Gordly, associate executive secretary of Portland’s American Friends Service Committee, which works for peace and social justice issues. “It needs to be seen as something that has occurred because of the overall racial climate in this coun try,” Gordly said. Gordly, who also is a member of the Black United Front of Oregon Inc., called for elected officials to put all their resources to work on stopping such attacks. “We need to hear that these acts will not be tolerated and that the perpetrators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” she said. Herman Brame, executive assis tant for the Black United Fund, said local black leaders were discussing ways to exert pressure on white-su premacist groups. Police spokesman Dave Simpson said Monday that investigators had no leads in finding the men who at tacked Mulugeta Seraw, 27, Wond- wosen Tesfaye, 24, and Tilahule Antneh, 31. He said they may be skinheads. The Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment last month identified Oregon as a “hotbed” of skinhead activity. In Portland, skin heads have been linked to various acts of vandalism and at least two as saults, including the beating of an Asian man in March. About 2,000 skinheads are active in 21 states, according to a report is sued last month by the Anti-Defama tion League of. B’nai Brith, which surveys race- or religion-motivated crimes. Portland and the Northwest are ripe for such activity because so few members of minority groups live here, Brame said. The Northwest has been targeted by white suprema cist groups as the site for an Aryan “homeland.” Asked if Portland police were tra cking skinhead activity, Simpson would say only that the intelligence unit is aware of some of their activ ities. “Being a gang member isn’t against the law,” he said. “We deal with people who violate the law.” Seraw was pronounced dead at Emanuel Hospital & Health Center, where the two survivors were treated and released. Antneh and Tesfaye told police that three men and two women pulled up in a car when they dropped Seraw off at his apartment in a primarily white neighborhood early Sunday. The three men beat Seraw with a baseball bat and kicked him, Antneh said, and beat the other two when they tried to intervene. He said the attack lasted no more than two min utes. “The women inside the car were shouting. They were saying ‘Let’s kill him. Kick him,”’ Antneh told The Oregonian newspaper. “They (the men) never said anything. They just jumped us.” By Fiona Soltes Staff Writer The crowd waited anxiously along the sides of a crimson carpet leading to the new station’s plat form as balloons and banners fluttered in the breeze. The A&M Consolidated High School Band be gan an upbeat march, and with a long whistle, the train pulled into the station. But the cheers of the crowd weren’t from the scene of small-town America years ago. They came from about 500 Bryan and College Station residents welcoming back a piece of history —the first passenger train to stop in College Station for 30 years. Amtrak’s Texas Eagle line, which begins its first public run today, made an inaugural trip Monday for about 100 dignitaries from Bryan- College Station, Dallas, Corsicana and Houston, stopping for a ceremony in College Station at 12:45 p.m. Fred Brown, College Station City Council member and liaison between Amtrak and Col lege Station, was master of ceremonies for the event. “This train brings with it a lot of opportunities for the community,” Brown told the crowd. “Be fore, it brought short-term visitors and long-term residents to the community. History can now re peat itself.” Brown said the last passenger train that stopped at College “Station,” thus giving the town its name, was the Southern Pacific Owl that ran until June 8, 1958. It ran for 86 years, but ended its run because other transportation meth ods became more practical, he said. The new station, on Marion Pugh Boulevard, eventually will become a railroad museum about the first station in the area, then located on Well born Road. Robert Smith, vice president of finance and operations at Texas A&M, told the group that the first train to stop in College Station was espe cially important to A&M. “The passenger rail brought students by the thousands home for the holidays, to football games and was responsible for bringing young ladies in to the University for dances and other events,” Smith said. “Without the rail service, the school would not have survived. It certainly wotild have been more difficult for it to flourish.” College Station Mayor Larry Ringer and Bryan Mayor Marvin Tate also gave speeches, both saying they were pleased with the Amtrak’s decision to add the new stop and excited about the opportunities it presents to the community. “The excitement throughout the community is evident,” Ringer said. “Especially exciting is the fact that this is happening in College Station’s 50th year. It sure makes explaining the name a lot easier.” The crowd, which included dignitaries about to board the train bound for Houston, those who had arrived on the train from Dallas and many Bryan-College Station residents, seemed equally enthusiastic about the new service. E.C. McLarty was especially excited because his father was the engineer of the last passenger train to stop in College Station. “He would be delighted,” McLarty said. “As for me, I’m tickled to death. I’m pleased to see them bringing passenger service back to the area. And today’s turnout indicates there’s a lot of in terest.” Those who rode the train in from Dallas said they also were pleased with the new service. Raymond Bates, London coordinator for Con tinental Airlines, was one of the dignitaries on the train. “Everyone was very personable and caring, and the service was great,” Bates said. “This new service is going to give the airlines a run for their money, and I’m glad to see it. “Amtrak has a different attitude — they have a commitment to care. If the customers will sup port it, the new line will definitely succeed.” Amtrak’s assistant vice president for opera tions, Jim Larson, also attended the inaugura tion. “Today, we present you with the Texas Eagle,” Larson said. “In plans made in 1971, we had a dotted line running from Dallas to Houston say ing, ‘start up date to be announced.’ It took us 17 years to make that happen, but we finally made it.” And after 30 years without a station in College Station, many think it’s about time. Radio Moscow declares launch of space shuttle Buran success MOSCOW (AP) — The Soviet Union successfully launched its space shuttle Buran on its first, un manned voyage early Tuesday, offi cial Radio Moscow said. The radio made the announce ment just minutes after the sched uled 6 a.m. launch Tuesday (10 p.m. EST Monday) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet Central Asia. It gave no details of the launch, but the timing indicated the count down had gone smoothly despite fears that rising wind and ice would halt the launch for a second time. Technicians were concerned that the shuttle 'Buran — which is Rus sian for snowstorm — and its giant booster rocket, Energia, might get covered with a coat of ice. Correspondent Sergei Slip- chenko, referring to a failed attempt to launch Buran last month, said, “If the wind rises into a squall and the orbital vehicle (and) Energia become covered with a crust of ice, then launch time will be changed again.” U.S. officials won’t launch their space shuttle if there is ice on the booster rocket or orbiter, and cold temperatures contributed to the fail ure of booster rocket seals that led to the Challenger disaster in 1986. Technicians began fueling the 198-foot Energia — the world’s mightest booster rocket — with nearly 2,000 tons of liquid hydrogen, oxygen and kerosene, state-run Ra dio Moscow reported Monday night. Workers at the Soviet space center in the republic of Kazakhstan, toil ing in the glow of nearly 700 spot lights, labored overnight to prepare the gleaming white, triangular winged Buran for its computer-pi loted flight, Tass said. Buran is to separate from the En ergia once it is aloft, fly twice around the Earth on fully automatic control, then land at a special 2.7-mile con- HOUSTON (AP) — Rice Univer sity student Michael Grubbs says he entered the homecoming queen con test as a joke, but he still wants the privilege of representing the school at the annual Cotton Bowl game pa rade New Year’s Day. Thejunior from Plano said he be lieves Cotton Bowl officials have re acted by deciding, “It’s a joke, we want it to end here.” But he has no plans of dropping the matter until he understands why he can’t have the honor he was voted to receive. “I’d love to go,” Grubbs said. “I deserve to. I won.” However, school officials have been unwilling to play along with the joke that began when Grubbs’ friend started distributing a petition that enabled him to win. Crete runway eight miles from its launch pad at Baikonur. The first try at putting the reusa ble space vehicle into orbit was scrubbed Oct. 29 with only 51 sec onds left in the countdown, when an access arm did not pull far enough away from the spaceship and com puters automatically stopped the launch. V. Filin, the deputy chief engineer “I was supposed to be presented at the homecoming game, but that didn’t happen,” Grubbs said of Sat urday’s match against Baylor. “I have no idea why,” he added. “I tried to call some people, but I got the big run-around.” The athletic department directed Grubbs to the student association, which sent him to talk to Rice cheerleaders. “They said, ‘We have nothing to do with it,’” he said in frustration. The snub comes from a school whose students elected a refrigera tor as their homecoming queen seve ral years ago. Rice’s homecoming queen usually represents Rice at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, but the Cotton Bowl com- for the booster rocket, blamed the failure on a joint between the access tower and the spacecraft. Few technical details have been made public about the Buran, a lookalike to the U.S. shuttle, and state-run media have only indirectly indicated its cost. The Buran can carry up to 10 cos monauts, Tass said. mittee vetoed his appearance, Grubbs said. “I’m not really mad about it,” he said. “It was kind of a joke. I ran, I had fun, but I don’t think it’s right to get jerked around ... I won fair and square.” Rice President George Rupp said to the Houston Post, “He has not talked to me, and I have no com ment about it.” After his friend started circulating the nominating petition, Grubbs said, “I got a lot of encouragement, so I ran and won,” he said of the ac complishment he is not embarrassed of receiving. His parents were among those who appreciated the joke, sending him a congratulatory bouquet of long-stemmed red roses. Rice homecoming ‘queen’ denied traditional honors