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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1989)
A&M 'he Battalion ol. 88 No. 78 USPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, January 18,1989 the o tie in r heyc. !9 withi ll awai n a rel 1 a disas ‘'•led tin Colisei ip point andfi ^ hom oringn adets ready for inaugural parade By Andrea L. Warrenburg Reporter Texas A&M’s pride and tradition will be well represented at Friday’s presidential inaugural parade when three groups Prom the Corps of Ca dets participate in the march down Pennsylvania Avenue. President-elect George Bush will review the Ross Volunteers, the Ag gie Band and Parsons’ Mounted Cavalry as they pass in formation by his stand. It was the second invitation the Cavalry has received to go to Wash ington, D.C. The first was for Ron ald Reagan’s 1985 inaugural parade, but the group had to cancel because of severe weather. The Cavalry, whose invitation was finalized before the Christmas holi days, has been busy with special pre parations including rebuilding trail ers to carry the horses and putting daylorl borium on the horses’ shoes to pre vent slipping in case there are icy roads. The Ross Volunteers and the Ag gie Band did not receive the final word on their invitations until after Christmas. We knew the Cavalry received theirs, so we were home just waiting and hoping for ours,” John Heye, executive off icer of the RVs, said. “I was almost in disbelief when it came. But it made people motivated and excited to come back early.” Allan Hess, commanding officer of the Aggie Band, said, “We haven’t had too much time to prepare. But the band is experienced with pa rades and we’re looking forward to Pallas ft South f knock -- % - halftin lied Ai •vers, oi half, tk ie on it, aza to le er led i ind six «ed thin coach I! eat agai made urt pti zers, wit 14 poiii :h,” Sf» "We diii re aggi e when io.” ippv ah way. it carele stick to le 48 he gam ep it gi ise we ax.” e a sei e road of their - red G® ator at ieasons Univen t ears M y acce| formal until i over on’t km hairnim nittee. he’s a respect itt well were i secon lace . st mon 11 tuple ctor tied ath Bd ion tlx , r espm itic def leased ad coa< isting m asst* eld f° r rce an 1 1-11 ^ open ime 1° the ft 1 iletic c ITxaS re top it. ;ery s e|1 rhere* lidn’ty iy thimi on had about ad the us i teres 1 It Fret good coad 1 date f° ( The groups will be traveling by- car and trailer, bus and airplane. Be cause the trip will cost thousands of dollars, a fund-raising campaign be gan as soon as the invitations ar rived. “We sent the guys home for the holidays to raise $300 apiece in do nations,” Scott Armstrong, executive officer of the Cavalry, said. “We also bought advertisements to be played on radio stations in Houston and Dallas asking for donations.” The Association of Former Stu dents provided a $30,000 gift to help the students. Congressman Joe Barton, who wrote a letter of recommendation to the parade committee on behalf of the Cavalry, will be presented with an appreciation plaque Thursday. After Friday’s parade, the stu dents said they are hoping for time to sightsee. “It’s a great chance for some of the guys to see a new place,” Hess said. “And marching in the parade is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The inauguration of a president doesn’t happen every day or even every year.” “It’s been a lot of hard work,” Armstrong said, “But we’re excited and honored.” The 252 musicians, 90 members of the Texas governor’s color guard, and the 32 Cavalry cadets with 26 horses, the cannon and the wagon will not march one after another in the parade, but will follow different groups. Lave coverage of the inaugural festivities begins Friday at 9:30 a.m. on KBTX-TV Channel 3 and con tinues until 3 p.m. r Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack Members of the Ross Volunteers prepare for their part in Friday’s Mounted Cavalry also will take part. Pictured from left are juniors inaugural parade in Washington, D.C. The Aggie Band and Parsons’ Carlos Tamez, Brian Robinson, Kenneth Fllavinka and John Albers. Man attacks schoolyard, kills 5 youths STOCKTON. Calif. (AP) — A young drifter wearing combat fa tigues opened fire with an assault title at sc reaming children in an elementary school yard Tuesday. Five children, all refugees from Southeast Asia, were killed and 30 people wounded before the gunman shot himself to deat h. Hie gunman, identified as Pat rick Edward Purdy, 26, originally of Stockton, had an “extensive criminal history” but police had no idea of a motive, said Lucian Neely, deputy police chief of t his agricultural city 60 miles east of San Francist o. Lori Mackey, who teaches deaf children at the Cleveland El ementary School, Said she ran to her window when she heard what she thought were Firecrackers. She said she saw a man stand ing in the schoolyard, spraying gunfire back and forth from a Russian AK-47 assault rifle as 400-500 pupils from grades 1-3 played at recess. She said when she realized what was happening, she took her 10 students into a rear room wher e they couldn’t be seen. "He was not talking, he was not yelling, he was very straight- iked, it did not look I like he was really angrt . it was just rnatter-of- factly,” she said of the gunman, whom she described as about 5- 10 with short dirty-blond hair. “There was mass chaos. I here were kids running in every direc tion.” she said. Purdy, also known as Patrick West, had lived most recently in Lodi, about 15 miles northeast oi See school* Page 7 Riots continue to spread in Miami MIAMI (AP) — Looting and vandalism spread Tuesday and seven people were shot, one fatally, in the second day of rioting sparked by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black motorcyclist by a white policeman. Sc hools were closed, a professional basket ball game between the Miami Heat and the Phoenix Suns was canceled, and some fans were stranded in the arena. Snipers fired at police, who cordoned off a 130-block area of the predominantly black Overtown neighbor hood. After nightfall, authorities told law-abiding citizens to remain indoors and began a block- bv-block sweep. "For the sake of our city, I appeal to every c itizen regardless of race to stay calm, get off the streets and stay in your homes, Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez said in a televised ap peal 1 uesday night. “We are arresting people and we are being a lot more aggressive in the enforcement of the law' and I think we have to be,” Suarez •added. “I don’t think fhis will continue after today.” Authorities said Overtown, just north of downtown, was largely quiet after police en tered. Within three hours about 56 people had been arrested. Most of those arrested were charged with looting violations. But the violence already had spread to Lib erty City, a separate black community several miles to the northwest, where looting and gunfire continued Tuesday night. Police said they made an arrest in the fatal shooting of a young black man in Liberty City at 10:20 p.m., but hadn’t determined il it was related to the rioting. Officer Eric Butler, wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot in the vest at 9:30 p.m. by a sniper who was later arrested on top of a three-story building. Butler was not seriously injured. Plans were made for up to 500 National Guard troops to be mobilized within two hours if the violence continued, said Brian Ballard, a spokesman for Gov. Bob Martinez. Top police officials said the tough stance would not bring a violent reaction by rioters because only a few people were violating the law. Trouble erupted again Tuesday afternoon when a white man in a luxury car reportedly Fired into a crowd of blacks in the area, wounding one person before driving away. “All I know is that one person was hit in the side,” police spokesman Angelo Bitsis said, adding that the unidentified victim was hospi talized in fair condition. Sporadic gunfire continued throughout the day. Police said officers rescued one shooting victim while under fire, and re turned lire at another man, injuring him in the leg. La,ter, a man with a bullet wound in his leg was arrested when he showed up at a hospital for treatment. A sixth person was shot in the leg in Liberty City. About 25 youths shattered car windows outside the Miami Arena on the border of Overtown, where the National Basketball As sociation’s Miami Heat was scheduled to play the Phoenix Suns Tuesday night. The game was canceled. A meat truck was looted and one white mo torist was beaten after his car broke down in Overtown. The car of Associated Press photographer Mark Pesetsky was burned and he was roughed up by a mob but not seriously hurt when he attempted to take pictures of the crowd that had gathered near the site of Tuesday’s shooting. Texas A&M begins construction of $21 billion biotech complex HOI STON (AP) — Texas A&M L’niveisity on Tuesday broke ground for a $21.5 million Institute of Biosciences and Technology, touted by officials as a project that would make Texas a national leader in biotechnology research. “ rim is the celebration of a dream come true,” A&M System Chan cellor Perry Adkisson said. “It is a dream of expanding our own grow ing el torts in biotechnology. It is a dream of expanding our firm com mit mi i t to the citizens of Texas — a com: mnent to the economic growth ol ihr ate.” 1* 1-story, 210,000-square-foot reseat u center is being built at the south end of the Texas Medical Cen ter in Houston at the site where, the famed old Shamrock Hilton stood. The hotel was razed last year. At ceremonies in the one-time parking lot of the hotel, nearly three dozen school, state and local of ficials turned a pile of dirt with silver shov els adorned with the Texas A&M logo and decorated with large ma roon ribbons. The goal of the center is to emphasize gene mapping and sequencing, gene therapy, and inves tigate animal models of human dis eases like muscular dystrophy, Alz heimer’s disease and Down’s syndrome. Other work is to deal with molecu lar and cell biology, including em bryo transfer and fertility research, and protein engineering, which in volves development (if improved di agnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for illnesses such as AIDS and hepa titis. “Biotechnology could be the shot in the arm needed for Texas,” U.S. Rep. Bill Archer said. “Texas not only has a tradition of rallying sup port for technology causes but the resources to get it done.” Archer compared the start of the center to that of the Jcihnson Space Center, which came to Houston 25 years ago. “It’s enormously important, not only to Texas and A&M, but to the world,” he said. School officials estimated the fledgling biotech industry will grow' to a $200 billion enterprise nation wide by the end of the century. They noted the federal government al ready is making research grants to taling $3 billion annually. The center would supply a link between traditional animal and plant research conducted at A&M and hu man health research at the medical center. Houston’s Medical Center is the largest medical complex in the world, employing 58,000 people. The A&M facility wrill be the 39th in the center. “It’s research that will provide a better quality of life for all of us,” David Eller, chairman of the A&M Board of Regents, said. “Bioscience research is not a shade-tree enterprise,” he said. “Sig nificant advances wrill not be made by lucky amateurs. Meese found guilty of ethics violations WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice De partment concluded Tuesday that former At torney General Edwin Meese III violated fed eral ethics standards five times in six vears and that his relationship with E. Robert Wal- lach “dictated government action” in major cases. Meese’s assistance to scandal-plagued Wed- tech Corp. and his efforts on behalf of a pro posed Mideast oil pipeline involved “three in stances in w hich friendship” betw een him and Wallach caused federal actions, said the re port by the department’s Office of Profes sional Responsibility. Wallach. who collected SI.3 million from Wedtech from 1982 to 1986. is awaiting trial in New York on racketeering and other charges. He is accused of peddling his Meese connection. “As a direct result of the preferential, im proper efforts of Meese and his staff, the Army” awarded a $32 million engine-build ing contract to Wedtech in 1982 w hile Meese was counselor to President Reagan, said the ethics report on Meese. Meese also violated ethics requirements, the report said, In failing to report a stock sale on his 1985 federal tax return and In participating in a Justice Department decision favoring (lie regional Bell telephone compa nies in which he held SI4,000 in stock at the time. “(The report) details conduct which should not be tolerated of any government employee, es pecially not the attorney general of the United States. ” —-Justice Department 11 Meese were still allot ne\ general, “we would recommend (to the next ranking de partment official) that the president take dis ciplinary action,” the report concluded. A department statement said no further action against Meese is warranted because he is no longer a government employee. Independent counsel James McKay de cided last summer not to prosecute Meese, al though McKay concluded Meese had proba bly twice violated conflict-of-interest laws in connection with his Bell holdings and had vi olated tax laws in connection with failing to report the stock sales. McKay’s report “far from vindicates Mr. Meese,” the new Justice Department report said. It details conduct which should not be tolerated of any government employee, espe cially not the attorney general of the United States." Attorney General Dick Thornburgh dis agreed with one aspect of the report, saving that Meese’s failure to dispose of his financial interest in the regional Bell companies re sulted f rom a failure to get adequate legal ad vice rather than from intent to violate ethics standards. At the White House, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said President Reagan believes “this report was unnecessary, partly because Mr. Meese has not been in the office for some time and partly because it was unwarranted." Fitzwater said Reagan believes his longtime friend did nothing wrong. The former attorney general, who re signed last year, immediately attacked the re port through his attorneys, who called it “a travesty of justice.” Meese spokesman Patrick Korten said there is an “emotional under tone” to the report that seems designed “to slam him personally.” Meese, according to the report, violated ethical standards which require government employees to avoid the appearance of impro priety when carrying out of ficial duties. But Korten said such a requirement is “a lousy standard.” He said appearance is a “subjective matter. It is not an objective mea sure. What appears improper to one person may look OK to another.” “He had a close personal relationship with Mr. Wallach," said Korten. "I don’t see why you can begrudge somebody of those friendships.” Bentsen Sr. dies in car at age 95 EDINBURG (AP) — Lloyd M. Bentsen Sr., father of Sen. Lloyd M. Bentsen and an early devel oper of Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley, was killed in a traffic acci dent Tuesday, police said. The senior Bentsen, 95, died in a two-vehicle collision at a rural intersection between Edinburg and Mission, Edinburg Police Chief A.C. Gonzales said. Bentsen remained active in his farming, ranching and real estate interests until his death. “He was here two or three times a week, sometimes every day,” said Bud Williams, foreman for the past 25 years at Bentsen’s 16,000-acre La Coma Ranch in Hidalgo County, one of six ranches Bentsen owmed. “He was one of the biggest developers down here, cleared thousands of acres.” Bentsen was on the podium during much of last summer’s Democratic National Convention, where his son was named the par ty’s vice presidential candidate. Sen. Bentsen’s Washington of fice said he left immediately for Texas after learning of his fa ther’s death. In Austin, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby said he would ask Gov. Bill Clem ents to order flags flown at half- staff the day of Bentsen’s f uneral. Clements said Bentsen was “a great Texas entrepreneur who contributed much to the people of our state, particularly those in South Texas.” Sen. Phil Gramm, in Washing ton, said Bentsen was “an entre preneur whose leadership and character have long since made him a legend in Texas. Texas has lost a true pioneer and a great cit izen.”