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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1989)
The Middle East: Peace or Powder Keg April 12,1989 r?^d. Sxcel6e*ccef Javier Perez de Cuellar United Nations Secretary-General Robert C. McFarlane former National Security Advisor Ed Bradley Stansfield Turner former C.I.A. Director Co-Editor "60 Minutes" _*!'rMSC Wiley Lecture Series 8 p.m. Rudder Auditorium Tickets on sale now at the MSC Box Office Tickets $6-$8-$10 for all TAMU students, $8-$10-$12 for all others "Ecstasy for the ear!" - - ; - ^ The Swingle Singers April 15 Rudder Auditorium 8pm Imagine an entire orchestra, played on the human voice. And imagine that vocal orchestra playing the full range of music, from Bach to the Beatles. You have just imagined the Swingle Singers, "the world's most unique vocal group" (Boston Herald). The Singers use only their voices to create the full range of musical sound, from strings to percussion. Don’t miss this finale to the 1989 MSC OPAS season. 'The most extraordinary musical event of the year.,.The sound of this group is simply ravishing." - St. Louis Post-dispatch Tickets on sale in the MSC Box Office 845-1234 and through Dillard's Ticketron ^ This season we bring you the world. MSC. Opera and fVtloimimi Aits Society • Momoiial Student t enlei ol levas AV*cM t irmeivd v Page 4 The Battalion Tuesday, April 11,1989 Smith blasts Caperton’s workers’ comp proposal AUSTIN (AP) —The House plan for overhauling the workers’ com pensation system received a rough welcome from several senators Mon day, as one key legislator promised the Senate would not “roll over” be fore an army of lobbyists trying to push the bill through. Several senators said sweeping changes to the workers’ comp law passed last month by the House do nothing to correct the problems of rocketing insurance costs and low benefits to injured workers. “It seems to me that we’re being asked to buy a pig in a poke,” said Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan. The issue pits powerful special in terests — insurance, business, doc tors, trial lawyers and labor — in a fight over compensating workers in jured on the job. Businesses say they have been hurt by employer-paid workers’ comp insurance rates, which have Conroe man protests vault for toxic soil HOUSTON (AP) — A man who is protesting the construction of a burial vault for contaminated soil in his Conroe subdivision said he heard horror stories during a Washington D.C. meeting from people living near wood-treating operations, which produce toxic materials simi lar to those in the tainted soil. “I’m a hard person, but I found myself crying for these people,” said Darrel Jackson, one of 30 people from around the country who sought action on their common pol lution problem in an emotional meeting arranged by Greenpeace and the Environmental Defense Fund. Jackson said he met a California man who is dying of cancer, a Kansas woman whose baby was born with brain damage, and a Texarkana- area woman who told of neighbor hood children with skin ailments and breathing problems. All live near present or past wood-treating opera tions. Jackson is protesting the construc tion by his subdivision of what he calls a “horrible monument” — a burial vault, 8 feet tall, 300 feet long and 50 feet wide. The U.S. Environ mental Protection Agency would use it to store contaminated soil collected from around the Tanglewood East subdivision. The EPA plans to buy six homes in the subdivision and demolish them to get at some of the most con taminated soil. The subdivision was built on land occupied until 1972 by the United Creosoting Co. It used toxic pen- tachlorophenol (PCP) and creosote laced with low levels of dioxin as wood preservatives. Jackson, who runs a janitorial company and is president of the Tanglewood East Homeowners As sociation, said he is a conservative Republican and not a member of Greenpeace. However, he said he was impressed by the activist group’s efforts in Washington. He spent part of the weekend meeting with health and pollution scientists along with others in the group. Jackson said he also visited the of fice of his congressman, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, and was surprised by the attention he received. Instead of the quick brushoff he expected, two of Barton’s top aides spent two hours discussing his concerns. The entire group spent last Mon day afternoon meeting with a dele gation of EPA Superfund officials. “At one point they asked for a show of hands of people who trusted the EPA,” Jackson told the Houston Post. “One person held up his hand — and that was an expert, not a waste site resident.” He said Tanglewood East resi dents have been told at times that there is no health hazard in their neighborhood, and at other times that dioxin is one of the deadliest substances known. “They are sending us mixed sig nals,” Jackson said. “And some where, they are lying to us.” risen 149 percent since 1985. Meanwhile, labor groups say Texas working conditions are no toriously unsafe, and workers’ comp benefits are low. Texas ranks first in the nation in job fatalities among in dustrialized states. With the Senate meeting as a com mittee of the whole, which allows lobbyists and others access to the Senate chamber, Caperton blasted ££| I hope that message comes clear to the lobbyists that we are going to be heard on this and we are not going to roll over.” the intensive lobbying efforts sur rounding the issue. “Thos,e lobbyists who are suggest ing that we adopt House Bill 1 as it is without amendments . . . insult us individually, insult the institution and do a serious disservice to the process. “I hope that message comes clear to the lobbyists that we are going to be heard on this and we are not going to roll over,” he said. Although House Bill 1 was cii icized in the Senate, the bill’s author Rep. Richard Smith, R-Bryan, saii “I’m happy we’re moving forward. He predicted, however, the Sen ate bill will not be acceptable to tht House and a conference committee will be picked to hammer out thedi( ferences in the two bills. “We’re going to write the bill in conference committee,” Smith said. House Bill 1 would change ad ministration of workers’compclai® and eliminate the right to ajurytrial over disputed claims. The Senate version of the bill would retain the right to a jury trial and require employees to implemem stronger job-safety guidelines. Although retaining the right to jury trial, Sen. Bob Glasgow's bill would allow the record of the pre vious Industrial Accident Board rul ing into the trial. Currently, the I All’s decision is excluded from the trial. But Smith said that was not an ac ceptable compromise because it was the “threat” of a jury trial that fueled out-of-court settlements and drove up workers’ comp premiums. In earlier testimony before the Senate, Peter Barth, a consultant to an interim committee on workers comp, said, “Texas is not necessarih a low-benefit state.” Lecture series goes on without Perez de Cuellar By Fiona Soltes STAFF WRITER MSC Wiley Lecture Series will present “The Middle East: Peace or Powder Keg” at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Rudder Audito rium. United Nations Secretary-Gen eral Javier Perez de Cuellar has canceled his scheduled appear ance due to the unexpected crisis in Namibia. He will be replaced by Dr. James Jonah, assistant sec retary-general. Also participating in the panel discussion are for mer National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane and former CIA Director Stansfield Turner. Ed Bradley of CBS’ “60 Minutes” will moderate. Tom Rand, co-director of this year’s Program Symposia, said the panelists were chosen because of their international significance and knowledge of the Middle East. “We’re hoping people will get a greater sense of the Middle East and its potential for peace,” he said. "This is an issue of past, pre sent and future importance that needs to be addressed by the Bush Administration.” Rand said the panelists each will give an address before the discussion begins. Audience members may submit written questions for the panelists to a ta ble located on the first floor of Rudder from 7:30 to 8 p.m. the night of the program. Questions will not be taken from the floor. The lecture series is privately funded from an endowment by James and A.P. Wiley. One-half to one-third of the interest from the endowment is given for the series each year. Other funding comes from individuals, corpora tions and foundations. Tickets are $6, $8 and $10 for students and $8, $10 and $12 for nonstudents and are available at the MSC Box Office. Child welfare group holds general meeting C.A.R.E., the Child Advocacy Resource and Education Coali tion of Brazos County, will have its first general meeting Wednes day at 1 p.m. in the College Sta tion City Council Chamber at City Hall. Presentations will be given by Wendell Teltow, program direc tor for the Texas Coalition for the Prevention of Child Abuse, and Mary Kay Smith, president of the C.A.R.E. Coalition. C.A.R.E.’s purpose is “to sup port advocacy and prevention ef forts in the area of child abuse and neglect.” The goals of C.A.R.E. are: to educate the community with re spect to child abuse and neglect; to assess and increase the effec tiveness of programs and services for abused and neglected chil dren and their families; to fur ther the research of child abuse and neglect and to inform the legislature, state agencies, and the courts of needs of abused and ne glected children and their fami lies. The meeting is open to the public. For further information, contact Mary Kay Smith at 779- 7403. CDPE sponsors Health and Wellness Fair “Good Health: A Lifestyle You Can Live With” is the theme of the 1989 Health and Wellness Fair, which takes place today in the MSC walkway from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fair, sponsored by the Texas A&M Center for Drug Pre vention and Education, will pre sent representatives from com munity and campus organizations to stress health-related topics for students, faculty and staff. Among the sponsors with booths in the fair are the Ameri can Cancer Society, which will provide information about skin cancer, and the Brazos Valley Aids Foundation, which will hand out pamphlets and provide infor mation about AIDS. Alcohol awareness, smoking cessation, drug abuse prevention, highway safety, rape prevention and stress management informa tion also will be available. Deborah Doyle, a graduate as sistant in the center, said health screening may be provided by HCA Creenleaf Hospital of Bra zos County. “Everyone from the campus emergency care team to the cam pus police department will pro vide information at the fair,” she said. “It’ll be interesting and it’ll be informative. There’ll be some thing for everyone.” For additional information about the fair call the center at 845-0280. —Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan Bills®®? CallCCCS for free help. 822-6110 1-800-338-8622 Non-Profit and Confidential S(n Decis; HOUSTON abruptly cance that would fea space next me cosmonauts, si vision product The S >viet. crew aboard t the space stati< shuttle Atlanti a replacement uled, accord ir Houston Chrc The unexp< wondering wl plans. Congressior newspaper th; viet civilian sp the same bud NASA. The Soviet program was Sen: $46. AUSTIN ( Monday conti writing a state Finance Com proved a $46 proposal. The action lion by the E Committee o $46.9 billion ] biennium. Although th — roughly 1( current spend lars, they diff critical state s ons, educatior man services. And the tw funding appro Appropriati man Jim Rud< his panel’s pre without a tax i budget writer quires an incr tax. But Senate Kent Caperto BI0MEDICAI in 201 Veterir WOMEN IN ( 215 Reed Me UNDERGRA pizza at 6 p.m TAPPS: Bets FELLOWSHI open to all at STUDENT ‘Y coaches and BRAZOS CC Johnson will s VIETNAMES submit article grams Office. 0FF-CAMPU House. STUDENT C tion table in th DEER PARK N.O.W.: Jo J< and minoritie; PRO-CHOIC SPEECH CO tions are due TAMU COM F RECREATIO Read for the I hitting contes ALCOHOLIC for more infor STUDENT Y Red Lobster. MUSIC PRO( AGGIE DEMt UNITED CAR Presbyterian TRIATHLON pate in this 5H DATA PROC speak at7p.n RECREATIO canoe trip anc AGGIE SPEL 504 Rudder. PHI BETA LA TAMU SAILII ceremony at 7 PHILOSOPH Rudder. NARCOTICS 0280 tor more ALCOHOLIC for more inforr AGGIE BLOC the following MSC 10 a.m. AGGIELAND April 19. 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