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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1989)
i trast ves i 11 Italian ffliiii •e Film Festival 1 ! >ve Story.” ere, I didn’t bot nan was, ” she rt eginning I didn't ovie; 1 had never Texas A&M The Battalion Vol. 88 No. 98 USPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas WEATHER FORECAST for SATURDAY: Partly cloudy and significantly warmer. Southeast winds. HIGH:68 LOW:45 Friday, February 24,1989 -wee’s first movie, retiring about I*, 1 can do this.’ “Rain Man”? ditional way | led me and said with Tom Cruise n. I said, ‘ it a try.” .‘written to accom. game tands a lady iot know rid and silver lice young man.” struck her abo it’s an example cl eserving a w re some genen ion also include) that Butler sav stand on end, t, Butler says, ry traditional ad 1 folk tales in tk iws the histon a; Fire guts dance hall; cause remains unknown i mimtam BILL of FJMB Photo by Dean Saito By Fiona Soltes STAFF WRITER Photo by Frederick D. Joe The Texas Hall of Fame, left, was gutted by flames Thursday evening. Above, a College Station firefighter, from a unit called in to back up the Bryan Fire Department, takes a quick air and water break before attacking the blaze again. The interior of the Texas Hall of Fame, a country and western dance hall on FM 2818, was gutted Thurs day night by a fire that burned for about an hour before firefighters brought it under control. The cause of the fire, which started near the front of the building, is unknown. Mike Donoho, assistant fire chief of the Bryan Fire Department, said the department was notified of the fire at about 5:30 p.m. The depart ment responded with four pumper trucks and one ladder truck. The College Station Fire Department sent one ladder truck and one pumper truck for back-up. “Upon arriving at the scene, the first units reported that the front portion of the building was fully en gulfed in flames,” Donoho said. Donoho said the firefighters had trouble entering the building be cause the doors were locked, but the worst problems came with the heat build up within the building. “In this type of building, the heat generally stays inside,” he said. “It’s very difficult for the firefighters to work for a long period of time. They have to come out and refresh them selves often because the heat takes away a lot of their energy. We had to rotate crews pretty rapidly.” The roof of the building was sag ging from the flame and heat dam age, he said. Firefighters had to cut a hole in the roof of the building to vent some of the heat from the inte rior of the building. Chuck Norman, the owner’s brother-in-law and the last person to be inside the building before the fire, said he left the club at about 4:30 to run an errand. Upon return ing at about 5:30, Norman said, he found the building on fire. “I started to go inside the build ing, but I just couldn’t because of the fire,” Norman, an employee, said. “There wasn’t anything to see but a solid sheet of flames.” He saw a woman in the parking lot who told him she called the fire department, he said. At about that time, he said, the door blew off the popcorn machine inside the build ing. Norman said he and other em ployees are planning to rebuild the hall, starting the clean-up today if possible. But Donoho said the area would have to be investigated first. Investigators from the city of Bryan and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission are looking into the cause of the fire, he said. “It’s up to the investigators whether or not they let people get in there and move things around,” he said. “They really need daylight to get in there and see things as they are. There’s a lot of heat damage, a lot of smoke damage and a lot of fire damage.” He said the investigations will fo cus on the area near the front of the building, where the offices and ticket window are located. Paul Emola, owner of the hall, said he has no insurance on the building. “Hopefully, we’ll re-open before too long,” Emola said. “But it will take a lot of work and lots of help from friends.” ) Senate committee votes against Tower, Bush ! , WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Armed Services Committee voted Thursday to reject John Tow er’s nomination as defense secretary, splitting 11-9 along party lines as it (landed President Bush the first ma jor defeat of his administration. The full Senate is expected to make a final decision on the nomi nation next week. During two and one-half hours of debate — mostly in the form of speedres — before the vote, majority Democrats said they felt no joy in opposing Tower but were compelled to do so. Some cited allegations over the past month of excessive drinking and of womanizing. Republicans alleged partisanship and suggested Tower was held to too high a standard. Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming said, “The majority believes we are confirming a defense god, not a de fense secretary.” In Tokyo, where Bush was attend ing the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the president was sticking by Tower and “there’s no consideration of any change.” If the full Senate should turn down Tower, it would be the first time in history a newly elected presi dent had suffered a rejection of a nominee to his first Cabinet. Texas, other countries pitch in for collider WASHINGTON (AP) — Non-federal sources can provide a “substantial” chunk of the $5.9 bil lion bill to build the super collider. Rep. Joe,Bar ton testified Thursday as Congress begins wres tling with how much to budget for the giant atom smasher. India has already agreed to put $50 million into the high-energy physics project, Texas has committed $1 billion, and officials of Japan, Tai wan, Korea and several Western European na tions have held preliminary cost-sharing dis cussions with U.S. officials. Barton told the House subcommittee on energy research and de velopment. President Bush has endorsed the supercon ducting super collider and recommended $250 million be appropriated in next year’s budget to ward initial construction of what would be the largest scientific instrument ever built. The Department of Energy has chosen a site in Ellis County for the 53-mile underground tun nel, but Congress last year agreed only to spend $100 million on the project and decreed none of the money could be used for. construction. Robert O. Hunter Jr., director of the office of energy research at the Energy Department, said “several hundred million” is a minimum estimate of the foreign contributions to the project, but the exact sum won’t be known for another year or two. The project is expected to face tough funding challenges this year as Congress grapples with budget cuts to a host of programs as well as fund ing requests from other high-energy physics and basic research projects. Burton Richter, director of the Stanford Lin ear Accelerator Center, the world’s highest en ergy electron accelerator, said there is a “real di lemma” in juggling funds between existing high- energy projects and construction of the super collider. If those programs are not supported in the in terim, by the time the SSC is built there won’t, be the scientists around to run it, Richter said. Leon M, Lederman, director of the Fermi Na tional Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, also urged the panel not to abandon other high-en- ergy projects during construction of the SSC. Barton, a Republican whose district includes the SSC site, argued the project is vital to the country’s world leadership in high energy phys ics. “If we ultimately lose our leadership position in high-energy physics, we will lose our leading edge in world economics,” Barton testified. He said he had seen estimates that show with con struction of the SSC, superconductivity projects would generate a market of more than $10 bil lion annually by the year 2000. “Currently, fully one-third of the production making up our gross national product is based on knowledge of the atom,” Barton testified. Senate OKs Ramirez for UT regent board with unanimous vote alter what go to say 3ur Classi- n help you big job. yaos, IT REAL 'YWEIGK1S (1 RESULTS .LY C0UB alion AUSTIN (AP) — The Senate on Thursday confirmed Dr. Mario Ramirez, a Starr County physician, asa University of Texas regent. The vote was 30-0. Ramirez is the only non-Anglo on the nine-member board, and re placed Chester Upham Jr., Mineral Wells, who withdrew shortly after being nominated by Gov. Bill Clem ents. Upham, a former state Republi can chairman, withdrew two weeks ago after black and Hispanic sen ators complained that Clements’ ap pointment of Upham and two other Anglo males had ignored women and minorities. Critics of the appointments said they had the votes to block all three nominees if a change was not made. Ramirez, a former member of the college coordinating hoard, had no opposition and received the rare tribute of seven senators rising Thursday to say he was an excellent choice for regent. Sen. Chet Edwards, chairman of the committee that reviewed Ram irez’s appointnment, said, “I think the fight was worth fighting. I can think of no principle more impor tant than that of all citizens of this state ought to have a right to the governing of our major institutions within Texas.” iifieit -2611 “I think perhaps the governor saved his best appointment for last,” Edwards, D-Duncanville, said. Black Sen. Eddie Bernice John son, D-Dallas, said, “I’m convinced, I think, that we have made an impact with our messsage.” She said 71 percent of Texas’ pop ulation is made up of females, blacks and Hispanics, and added, “I believe we will see a great deal more sensitiv ity” on appointments. Sen. Judith Zaltinm, U-Laredo, said Ramirez’s five children include two physicians, two lawyers — one a state district judge — and a teacher. “Dr. Ramirez will serve as a role model for all of our children to show our children no matter who you are, or how poor, or where you are born, that you will have the opportunity to rise to the highest levels,” she said. Sen. Hector Uribe, D-Brownsville, said Ramirez “is already a legend in his own lifetime in Starr County and in the Rio Grande Valley.” Other nominees confirmed 30-0 Thursday included: Texas Board on Aging — Dr. Carl Westbrook, Smith, Public Safety Commission — Al bert Alkek, Victoria. State Bar of Texas Directors —Dr. Joseph Beneke, Harris; Earl Chap man, Travis. Texas Motor Vehicle Commission — William Collins Jr., Tarrant; Nor man Jones, Harris. Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse — J. Coley Cow- den, Midland; Jerry Deere, Brazo ria; Randall Schmidt, Tarrant. Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Au thority — Dr. Charles Ladoulis, Har ris; Kathleen Vaughn, Chambers; Philip Werner, Galveston. Texas Housing Agency Directors — Margie Bingham, Fort Bend; Ed mund Carrera, El Paso. State Property Tax Board — George Bobbitt, Harris; Marvin Jones, Hutchinson; Arthur White, Dallas. Texas Water Commission — Buck Wynne III, Dallas. Prof, urges education leaders to prepare for world of future Photo by Kathy Haveman By Alan Sembera SENIOR STAFF WRITER Education leaders must change their ways of thinking to meet the changing needs of a growing population, Texas A&M architec ture professor George J. Mann said Thursday night at the 1989 Faculty Lecture. “We’re going to have to be come more aware of global is sues,” Mann said. “The world’s not going to get bigger to accom modate the 9 billion people we’re expecting by the year 2040.” This rapid increase from the present population of about 5 bil lion people means research and education programs must focus more attention on population planning, Mann said. The increasing population will put enormous burdens on natu ral resources such as water, air, energy and food, he said, and these pressures will pose a threat to peace and security around the world. Instead of spending enormous amounts of money on nuclear and chemical weapons, he said, governments should direct ef forts towards solving people problems. Educators and researchers must work in multi-disciplinary teams if they want to be effective in solving global problems, the professor said. The faculty at A&M has a wide scope of available information, Mann said, because the campus contains experts in a wide variety of fields. He said his field of architecture will play a large role in planning for the growth of the Earth’s pop ulation in the 21 st Century. Architects must think in wider George J. Mann terms of environment, beauty, people and solving world prob lems, Mann said. “As (Henry David) Thoreau said, ‘What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a habitable planet to put it on’ ” Mann said. “Urban planning, architecture, landscaping architecture and construction science have to work together if we’re going to be ef fective in a global setting,” he said. One example of a trend in ar chitecture that must change, Mann said, is the construction of complex buildings that have un- openable windows and can’t be naturally ventilated. “When our grandchildren ulti mately run out of fuel as a re source, they’ll be stuck with a lot of buildings that won’t be opera ble or inhabitable,” he said. Another change that architec ture must adapt to is the increas ing percentage of elderly people, Mann said. Most architecture currently emphasizes isolating old people, he said, but in the future it will need to stress interaction of all ages. In addition to teaching, Mann is a practicing architect and has undertaken numerous research, technical assistance and consult ing projects throughout the United States and in numerous other countries. Bush, Baker use Japan trip to pursue peace TOKYO (AP) — President Bush used the occasion of Friday’s impe rial Japanese funeral to pursue a Middle East peace, while his secre tary of state challenged the Soviet Union to pitch in with deeds instead of “simply rhetorical exercises.” On the eve of the services for the late Emperor Hirohito, Bush en gaged in a round of fast-paced diplo macy, meeting with a succession of world leaders including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli President Chaim Herzog and Jor dan’s King Hussein. After Bush’s round of meetings on Thursday, Secretary of State James A. Baker III suggested the So viets should contribute to the peace process in a “concrete way” by estab lishing full diplomatic relations with Israel, using its influence in Syria and denouncing “radical countries” such as Libya. Baker said a “new dynamic” for peace existed in the area and that Bush hoped to nurture it. The presi dent’s sessions with Mideast leaders provided a counterpoint to Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevard nadze’s 10-day tour through the re gion, where he attempted to advance Moscow’s role. A cold drizzle fell Friday as Bush and other leaders from 163 nations prepared to pay their final respect to Hirohito. An estimated 10,000 offi cial guests were to fill two large tents at the funeral site and hundreds of thousands more to line the streets to witness the funeral procession. i he 13-hour funeral began in the early morning with a private cere mony at the Imperial palace, to be followed later by a solemn ceremony in two giant, open-sided tents at To kyo’s Shinjuku Imperial Gardens. The park in downtown Tokyo once served as the garden for the imperial household.