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The Battalion Friday, Nov. 18, 1988 Page 7
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent-elect George Bush Thursday
named New Hampshire Gov. John
Sununu White House chief of staff
and tapped wily campaign strategist
Lee Atwater as chairman of the Re
publican National Committee.
Bush’s selection of Sununu as his
top White House adviser prompted
the resignation, effective in January,
of long-time aide Craig Fuller, who
said he had told Bush he was eager
for the job.
Bush said he would like Fuller, co-
chairman of the transition team and
his chief of staff since 1985, to con
sider a role in his administration but
that he chose Sununu because he
was the right man for the job.
“John Sununu has the back
ground and experience necessary to
work not only with his former col
leagues in the nation’s statehouses
but also to build a constructive
relationship with the U.S. Con-
gress,” he said.
Atwater will succeed Frank Fahr-
enkopf Jr., who announced months
ago that he would relinquish the
GOP chairmanship at the end of
President Reagan’s term and return
|to Nevada to practice law.
Bush said Atwater’s function will
be winning elections.
While Republicans have won the
presidency in five of the past six
lections, they have been less suc-
essl'iil in Congress, where Demo-
rats hold comfortable majorities in
wth houses.
The Republican National Com
mittee will formally act on Bush’s
hoice in January.
Bush made the announcements
ifter meeting over breakfast with
Iritish Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher and his customary weekly
unch with Reagan.
Atwater is considered a master of
regative campaigning, and was an
rchitect of the strategy that helped
Bush wipe out a 17-point poll lead
>y Democrat Michael Dukakis and
omp to a 40-state victory in the
rresidential race.
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Obscure sites
to appear in
McNally atlas
CHICAGO (AP) — There’s
nobody home in Yturria, Texas,
except maybe a few prairie drags
and armadillos.
But it’s on the map, along with
51 other obscure sites that have
made the big time for the first
time in the 1989 Rand McNally
Road Atlas, due to appear this
week in stores nationwide.
Michael Dobson, director of
cartographic services at Skokie-
based Rand McNally, said late
Wednesday most of the towns
were put on the map because
travelers wrote to suggest they be
added.
“In most cases they had
pointed out a town that had some
value to the traveling public and
there was no reason it shouldn’t
be on,” Dobson said.
Yturria, about 50 miles north
of Brownsville, has no human
residents.
But it was added this year be
cause it is the site of the Yturria
Ranch, recognized as a historic
site by the state of Texas.
“Yturria’s on there more as a
point of interest than as a pop
ulated place,” Dobson said. “We
really look at places and say, ‘Do
they have a travel-consumer re
lated value?’ In some cases they
might be the only point of signifi
cance in the area.”
Dobson said lie receives thou
sands of letters each year from
travelers who suggest changes.
Those have led to 18,116 new or
different items in the 1989 atlas,
which covers the United States,
Canada and Mexico.
Vermillion, Kan., was added
after Dobson received a letter
from a man who said the 167
mostly elderly residents of Ver
million enjoyed looking at the at
las and planning trips, both real
and imaginary.
Rohwer, Ark., was added after
someone wrote to note that it was
the site of an internment camp
for Japanese-Americans during
World War II, Dobson said.
“We felt there was a historical
significance to that,” he said.
Sununu, 49, an engineer by train
ing and a former Tufts University
professor, has no previous experi
ence in Washington.
He has a reputation for being a
quick study, highly intelligent and
assertive.
Some also regard him as arrogant
and abrasive, traits that could hurt
him in working with Congress.
Sununu made light of that reputa
tion Thursday.
“I’m a pussycat,” Sununu said
“Let me tell you about Washington.
Certainly I have a lot to learn in re
gard to the details. I think I’m a
quick learner.
“I consider a great number of
congressmen to be close frineds,
both Democratic and Republican.”
Jewish lobbyists have criticized the
New Hampshire governor for being
the only governor to refuse to en
dorse a proclamation attacking a
1975 U.N. resolution that equated Zi
onism with racism.
“I’m very sensitive to that issue,”
said Sununu, who is partly of Arab
descent.
He acknowledged that he was a
considered a conservative Republi
can governor and had no intention
of changing his political philosophy.
But he promised to be a “honest
broker” and consider both sides of
Sununu is credited with helping
revive Bush’s candidacy with a vic
tory in the New Hampshire primary
last February after the vice president
finished a poor third in Iowa’s cau
cuses.
After her meeting with Bush,
Thatcher described him as a leader
with a very, very wide knowledge
who needs no introduction to for
eign affairs. But she said she told
him a fresh approach was needed in
the Middle East.
Bush has already named two long
time friends, James A. Baker III and
Nicholas F. Brady as the cornerstone
members of his Cabinet, as secretar
ies of state and treasury, respec
tively. Brady replaced Baker at
Treasury after Baker quit in August
to become Bush’s campaign chair
man.
Farmers wait for insurance checks
to cover crops lost during drought
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of farm
ers are waiting for government insurance checks
to cover crops scorched by last summer’s
drought, as the agency that handles the program
wrestles with its biggest caseload they’ve ever
seen.
The government will end up making about $1
billion in crop insurance payments for the 1988
season, an official said, but for a pair of South
Texas farmers who have been waiting for their
checks since summer, the delay has been tough
on their cash flow.
“I’d be bankrupt if I didn’t have a seed corn
crop,” said Edinburg farmer Gene Houts, who
has been waiting since July for insurance pay
ments on cotton and corn crops devastated by the
drought. “It’s the only thing that keeps me
going.”
Harlingen cotton and grain farmer Tommy
Funk said,“There must be a tremendous backlog
because we’re not getting much satisfaction down
here. I’m about ready to go to Washington on it.”
Funk said he received a check for a withered
grain crop early on, but has been waiting since
late August for a check in the thousands of dol
lars on his cotton crop.
Houts said he was appealing to Sen. Phil
Gramm, R-Texas, and Rep. Kika de la Garza, a
Mission Democrat and chairman of the House
Agriculture Committee, to investigate the situa
tion. He said he knows of several other Valley
farmers in similar circumstances.
John Marshall, chief executive officer of the
Federal Crop Insurance Corp., said the U.S. De
partment of Agriculture agency has received
more than 53,000 claims and has processed and
paid about 44,000 of them.
But that leaves 9,000 other farmers waiting for
“There must be a tremendous back
log because we’re not getting much
satisfaction down here. I’m about
ready to go to Washington on it. ”
— Tommy Funk,
Harlingen cotton and grain farmer
their checks, and Marshall said a few thousand of
them have had delays of over 60 days, while a few
hundred have had to wait more than the 90 re
quired days.
“This is the heaviest workload we’ve ever had,”
Marshall said. “The unprecedented volume led
to some of the delays.”
On top of that, the agency has been phasing in
a new computer system and has had to work out
the bugs.
“We’ve solved those problems and they are
humming along now,” Marshall said. In addition,
overtime shifts were instituted to meet the crush
of claims due to the drought.
The FCIC writes and pays directly on 20 per
cent of crop insurance claims, with the remaining
80 percent handled through private companies
that are reinsured by the agency, Marshall said,
meaning that thousands more claims have been
filed.
But he said the private companies have on the
whole been more efficient than the government
in getting the checks out.
Marshall expects $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion in
crop insurance payments will eventually be made
for drought-devastated crops, with the govern
ment picking up about 90 percent of the total
cost.
In an average year, he said, the entire system
pays out $1.40 for every $1 in premiums taken
in, but this year the ratio is more than $3 for ev
ery $1 in premiums.
A representative of two insurance companies
that work through the office of FCIC said: “The
horror stories are all over. I don’t know if they’re
going to clean it up in 90 days. I think we’ve got a
real horror story going. The poor farmer — the
guy is getting short-shrifted and it’s FCIC’s
fault.”
Presidents-elect of U.S., Mexico
plan Dec. 1 meeting in Houston
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent-elect George Bush said Thurs
day he will hold a pre-inaugural visit
with Mexico’s incoming president
and promised not to take unilateral
actions on issues affecting that coun
try’s well-being.
Bush made the pledge in a letter
he sent to the Bilateral Commission
on the Future of United States-Mex-
ican Relations, which issued a report
containing a series of recommenda
tions on solving cross-border prob
lems.
Bush’s deputy national security
adviser, Col. Sam Watson, presented
the letter to commission members on
receiving a copy of the 238-page re
port. The commission, comprised of
prominent Mexican and U.S. citi
zens, spent two years preparing the
report.
Among other recommendations,
the report said unilateral measures
Kentucky has
highest rate
of smoking
ATLANTA (AP) — On the day of
the Great American Smokeout, a
government report released Thurs
day shows Kentucky with the na
tion’s highest smoking-related death
rate. Utah has the lowest.
Kentucky reported 176 smoking-
related deaths for every 100,000 res
idents in 1985, the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control reported. Utah re
ported just 45 smoking-related
deaths for every 100,000 people
over the course of the year.
Nationwide, smoking killed
314,574 Americans that year.
The worst states, after Kentucky,
were West Virginia, with 172 smok
ing-related deaths per 100,000 peo
ple in 1985; Arkansas, 164; Rhode
Island, 164; and Florida, 161.
must be avoided on issues affecting
the two countries.
“I fully agree that two new admin
istrations taking office at about the
same time gives us tremendous op
portunities to work together,” Bush
said in the letter.
At a news conference earlier,
Bush appeared taken aback when
asked about reports he will hold a
get-acquainted meeting Tuesday in
Houston with his Mexican coun
terpart, Carlos Salinas de Gortari,
who will take office Dec. 1.
He stopped short of confirming
the encounter would take place but
said that any such meeting would
symbolize the importance he places
on relations with “our front yard . . .
neighbors.”
But Bush then quickly launched
into an explanation of what he hopes
to accomplish from such an early
get-together.
“When and if such a meeting is
announced, I will address myself to
the question,” Bush told reporters.
“But, if I were to have a meeting
with the incoming president of Mex
ico before he is sworn in on Dec. 1
while I am still in transition, it would
be to symbolize the importance I
place on the relationship with Mex
ico.”
The vice president’s office late
Thursday night confirmed that
Bush and Salinas would meet and
have lunch at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston next week.
“Their meeting symbolizes the
close relationship of our two coun
tries and the vice president’s high re
spect for Mexico,” Bush spokesman
Steve Hart said. “It is intended to
further develop a close consultative
relationship and a bilateral approach
to problem solving.”
Chemical company gets fine
for contaminating Texas soil
ODESSA (AP) — The Texas Wa
ter Commission has fined an Odessa
chemical company $4,000 and or
dered it to clean up soil contami
nated in 1986 and 1987.
The penalty, imposed Monday,
requires Rexene to submit a cleanup
plan within 180 days. Rexene is then
required to initiate the plan and
clean up the contaminated ground.
Jon Wheeler, Rexene’s vice presi
dent of administration, said
Wednesday the company agreed to
accept the fine and would begin to
undertake further corrective actions
to clean up the contarhinated soil if
the Texas Water Commission found
it necessary to do so.
Wheeler said Rexene voluntarily
notified the Texas Water Commis
sion that it had discovered an unin
tentional discharge of limited indus
trial waste on Rexene property in
December 1986.
It is the second water pollution
penalty imposed against Rexene this
fall.
The first occurrence resulted in a
$24,000 fine by the Texas Air Con
trol Board in October for violations
of the state ACB rules and the Texas
Clean Air Act.
Kevin Hamby, assistant director
of public information for the TWC,
said its investigation uncovered
three violations:
® Dissolved-phase hydrocarbon
contamination.
• Xylene releases in product stor
age tanks.
• Solid waste sludge contami
nation from the facility’s waste-water
treatment plant.
The violations were discovered
during a TWC investigation after
Rexene, then El Paso Products
Corp., reported free-floating hydro
carbons in shallow groundwater
Dec. 15, 1986, and Feb. 23, 1987.
The TWC said it will continue to
monitor the situation to make sure
no further soil contamination oc
curs.
“It appears that the contami
nation is all trapped within the prop
erty, but obviously we are concerned
for the nearby aquifers that provide
drinking water,” Hamby told the
Odessa American.
Terry James, TWC District 10 bi
ologist in Odessa, said Rexene is be
lieved to have stored sludge in un
lined holes in the ground. The
contaminants seeped through the
soil into nearby groundwater.
James said a plume of contami
nants lies underneath the Rexene fa
cility.
“It has been estimated there is in
excess of 500,000 gallons of this
stuff sitting on top of the groundwa
ter zone,” James said. “It has also
been detected in the drinking-water
aquifer.”
The extent of the contamination
in the aquifer has not been deter
mined, he said.
James said the TWC also is inves
tigating possible petro-chemical pol
lution in Monahans Draw, a stream
that runs through Odessa and
nearby Midland.
In the first penalty, the ACB con
tended that Rexene was in violation
of a permit condition for failing to
operate and maintain a vapor-con
densation control device, which is
used to steam-clean tanks and rail-
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