Monday, January 17,1989 The Battalion Page 5
s:
th
Mattox says insurance industry
might fail like savings and loans
AUSTIN (AP) — Decrying
“scoundrels” working for Texas in
surance companies, Attorney Gen
eral Jim Mattox said Monday the in
dustry could go the way of failing
banks and thrifts in the state.
“We may very well be seeing the
same thing happen in the insurance
industry that we’ve seen happen in
the bapking and savings and loan in
dustry,” Mattox said.
“But the problem that exists is, the
insurance industry is not fully in
sured by the federal government,
which can cause us major problems
if we see these companies going
down.”
Mattox also said if State board of
Insurance members do not step up
their process for taking control of
troubled insurance companies, “the
call for their resignation may very
well come within a relatively short
period of time.”
Mattox at a pews conference de
scribed as “incestuous” the
relationship between the board and
insurance companies.
The Insurance Board responded
with a statement calling Mattox’s
comments “unfortunate” and “re
grettable.”
“Texas clearly is not facing an in
surance solvency crisis, and Mr. Mat
tox is not serving the public by sug
gesting that one is imminent,” the
statement said.
“It is easy for Mr. Mattox to make
Pilot’s body honored
upon its return home
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del.
(AP) — The body of a U.S. Air Force
officer who was shot down over Li
bya in 1986 was returned Monday to
the United States and honored with
a brief ceremony.
Maj. Fernando Ribas-Dominicci,
who was 33 at the time of his death,
was killed in the 1986 U.S. air raid
on Tripoli. He was a captain at the
time and was promoted to major
posthumously.
The body arrived at Dover Ait-
Force Base shortly after 2 p.m. on a
C-141 Starlifter from Torrejon Air
Base in Spain.
The plane was met by Ribas-Do-
minicci’s family and an Air Force
honor guard, pallbearers and color
guard.
The family was proud of what
“Paul and Fernando and the rest of
the guys were doing in the defense
of democracy, freedom and the
good things that our country stands
for,” said his brother, Salvador Ri
bas-Dominicci, 37, of Mayaguez,
Puerto Rico.
He was referring to Capt. Paul
Lorence of San Francisco, who was
in the F-l 11 bomber with Ribas-Do-
minicci when it was shot down.
Libya had said the body it released
and flew to Rome on Friday be
longed to Lorence. An autopsy,
however, showed it was Ribas-Do
minicci.
Salvador Ribas-Dominicci said he
was angry because the body should
have been identified and returned
immediately after the plane w'as shot
down.
“Military people are supposed to
live by codes of honor . . . and ob
viously Gadhafi was trying to play
something with this,” he said.
He also said the return of his
brother’s body should not draw at
tention away from “chemical war
fare plans in Libya.”
“That has to finish. That has to be
laid to rest. 1 don’t know how they’re
going to do it. We will support our
president and our nation in clearing
the world of that danger,” he said.
Also attending the ceremony were
the major’s wife, Blanca Berain Ri
bas-Dominicci, 36, and his 7-year-
old son Fernando Jr., both of Aus
tin, Texas; another brother, Jose Al
fredo Ribas-Dominicci, 52, of San
Juan, Puerto Rico; a nephew, Miguel
Carlos Ribas-Dominicci, 23, and a
niece, Nivea Rosario Ribas-Domin
icci, 28, both ol New York.
Salvador Ribas-Dominicci said the
family would be briefed later Mon
day, and said he was confident the
body at the base belonged to his
brother.
He said burial would be in Puerto
Rico.
The body will be prepared for
burial at Dover Air P’orce Base which
handles the bodies of servicemen
and their dependents who die in Eu
rope, the Azores, Greenland and
Iceland.
criticisms based on inadequate
knowledge of insurance regulation
and the workings of the State Board
of Insurance.”
Insurance Board staff members
responsible for solvency regulation
have a fine reputation, according to
the board’s statement.
The 41 Texas domestic insurance
companies in receivership represent
5 percent of the total of Texas-based
insurance companies, the board
said. It said that percentage com
pares “quite favorably” with such
states as New York, California and
Florida.
The board said it hopes an “early
warning system” being developed by
the board will make the percentage
of Texas receiverships even smaller.
Mattox noted that National
County Mutual Fire Insurance Co.
— under a deficit of more than .$50
million — recently collapsed and was
declared insolvent. He said that was
not an isolated incident.
“We have seen the insurance in
dustry be an industry that at times
has attracted scoundrels,” Mattox
said. He said there are “a number of
scoundrels” among the 75-125 po
tentially troubled companies the In
surance Board is monitoring.
He said his office had been wait
ing a month for insurance board ap
proval to go to court against a trou
bled company, Texas Insurance Co.
of Houston, a major carrier of medi
cal malpractice insurance, including
coverage for blood banks.
“Just a glance at those public re
cords should have been a red flag to
regulators. But where was the state
board? Totally in the dark,” Mattox
said.
He said the company, which was
brought to his attention by Sen. Car
los Truan, D-Corpus Christi, “has
ties to questionable insurers and its
assets appear insufficient on the face
of publicly available financial
statements.”
Foster Brewer, company board
chairman, said, “We don’t know
what he (Mattox) is talking about. I
think Mr. Mattox is a good attorney
general and a good man. ... I trust
him but his information is not cor
rect.”
Brewer said liability insurance
represented a small percentage of
Texas Insurance’s coverage, and if
the insurance board had found any
thing wrong, it would have said,
“Shut them down.”
“We are in sound financial condi
tion,” he said.
The board said the company and
the agency that writes most of its
business are undergoing financial
and market conduct examinations.
Drug dogs get credit
for border patrol busts
EL PASO (AP) — Drug-sniff
ing dogs are getting most of the
credit for what promises to be a
record-setting year in the U.S.
Border Patrol’s fight against nar
cotics traffickers.
Since the federal fiscal year be
gan Oct. 1 — less than four
months ago — the Border Pa
trol’s El Paso sector has made al
most half as many seizures as it
made in all of fiscal 1988, which
was a record year. So far this fis
cal year, the El Paso sector has
made 421 seizures of drugs va
lued at $ 138 million.
This past weekend alone, Bor
der Patrol agents seized 792
pounds of marijuana and 14
pounds of cocaine in 16 incidents
in which 18 people were arrested,
Gus De La Vina, Border Patrol
chief deputy, said. Sniffer dogs
detected most of the drugs and
have been the reason for the
boost in seizures in the last year,
he said.
“It’s been a real good pro
gram,” De La Vina said. “We’ve
been rocking the drug smug
glers.”
The dogs’ accuracy and keen
sense of smell can be amazing.
One sniffer dog, Rex, helped
agents find 84 pounds of mari
juana his first dav on the iob. But
Rex can find much smaller
amounts.
For example, Rex once alerted
his handler, Ray Sanchez Jr., to a
suitcase after other agents had
opened it, searched and found no
drugs.
“I told them to look again,”
Sanchez said. “They opened it,
took out all the clothes and found
one marijuana seed in the bot
tom.”
Another time, Rex alerted San
chez to a truck stopped at a
checkpoint in south Texas. San
chez asked agents to check for
drugs between the truck cab and
bed. A cursory look yielded noth
ing. But agents, trusting the Bel
gian malinois’ nose, removed the
bed and found marijuana welded
into the frame.
“His sense of smell is amazing,”
Sanchez said. “I know now if
something’s there — no matter
how it’s hidden — he’s going to
get it.”
Rex has found about 100 drug
caches, Sanchez said. Before he
got Rex, Sanchez had made only
one bust in three years.
Rex and two other dogs began
working for the Border Patrol’s
El Paso sector in December 1987,
and now 14 dogs work the sector.
Doctor: Computers do not hurt eyes
By Stephanie Stribling
Reporter
As more people are initiated into the growing
society of computer literates, an increasing con
cern has surfaced concerning the computer’s ef
fect on eyesight. Can the extended use of video
display terminals permanently damage user’s vi
sion?
“No,” Dr. Barry Glenn, a Bryan ophthalmo
logist, said. “It may cause discomfort, like eyestr
ain.”
According to an article by industrial hygenist
John A. Pendergrass in National Safety and
Health News, studies have failed to confirm posi
tive evidence to support the theory that radiation
emitted from video display terminals can perma
nently damage the human eye. Pendergrass com
pared radiation levels emitted by computers with
those of other devices.
“Compared with diagnostic medical equip
ment, TV sets, FM radio waves, and even the nat
ural environment, the level of radiation emitted
by VDTs is scant,” Pendergrass said.
Although computer users often complain of
burning, tired, strained eyes, and blurred or
double vision after long periods of work, Bryan
ophthalmologist Mark Lindsay said these are
merely symptoms of muscle fatigue.
“It’s like if you go out and run five miles,”
Lindsay said. “Your legs hurt like crazy.”
Pendergrass said some studies have shown
many computer users experience discomfort be
cause their vision needs correction.
“It has been estimated that about 30 percent of
the population has some uncorrected eye disor
der,” Pendergrass said.
Glenn adds that the need for glasses does not
result from computer use.
“Working at the computer won’t cause you to
have to wear glasses,” Glenn said. “The eyes may
change, and you might be more comfortable
wearing glasses, but that is an eye change that
would most likely have occurred independent of
the computer. It may have been a natural pro
gression of the eyes anyway.”
For those computer users who experience vi
sual discomfort, Glenn said prescription glasses
are the answer for only a few people.
“A little bit of correction for some people
makes a difference,” he said. “Some people can’t
tell a difference.”
For those who cannot be helped by corrective
lenses, Pendergrass said other alternatives are
available for easing eyestrain, the best of which is
taking a short break periodically.
“Eyestrain is almost always relieved by res
ting,” Pendergrass said. “So breaks should be
scheduled throughout the day.”
He said computer screen glares also can cause
problems.
“The glare created by improper lighting or di
rect sunlight may cause eyestrain,” Pendergrass
said.
In “Computer Eye Stress” by M. Evans & Co.,
optometrist Anthony Hutchinson said glare can
be eliminated by moving the terminal or placing
a glare-proof filter over the screen. He said in ad
dition to glare, reflections sometimes are the
problem.
“If there’s a reflection on your screen of a
bookcase 15 feet behind you,” Hutchinson
writes, “you unconsciously refocus your eyes in
proportion to the distance of the actual bookcase
— and repeated back-and-forth jumps will lead
to eyestrain.”
Fie said this problem can be corrected by mov
ing the terminal or changing its angle.
?0 $101)1
jy Cl|
$100
10 $100
140 $40
dica-
40
100 $400
$400
$400
in 5400
to $4M
0 $400
$400
100 $400
0 $100
$100
$100
9 5
*d s
o $100
$100
o $100
40 $40
$40
$40
$40
3le $40
to $40
$40
40 $40
3 $200
$100
$200
$100
$200
$100
$200
3 $200
Genius!
How to be a genius:
1) Read The Chronicle —
the ultimate resource for real life.
Whatever the subject area, business, politics, science, education
or the arts, you’ll find examples of real-world applications every
day in The Houston Chronicle. You’ll be a social genius too, when
you read the latest movie, album and concert reviews in The Chronicle.
And you’ll have all the statistics and standings on hand in one of the best
sports sections in Texas.
2) Save on a full semester of The Chronicle:
Get Your Special Discount Subscription — Just $17.50
For Delivery January 16 Through May 9
(No Delivery March 13-17)
Call 693-2323 Or 693-7815 Or Use The Coupon Below
3) Develop an enormous intellectual capacity.
I
Subscribe to The Chronicle for:
■ Award Winning News Coverage
■ Best in Entertainment Reviews
■ Special Discount Subscriptions
The Chronicle
Special Discount for a full semester subscription, only $17.50, for Texas A&M
students, faculty and staff. Newspapers will be delivered January 16 through
May 9. (No delivery March 13-17.) Call 693-2323, 693-7815 or send check or
money order to: Houston Chronicle, 4201 College Main, Bryan , TX 77801.
Name
Address.
City
State-
Zip.
Phone.
The Chronicle