y, April 24,198
:rsity of Houston Sys-
possible merger will
m, but recently broke
ry talks by citinj
ion and disagreemeni
. Craig Washington,
is filed a resolution
ibility study to place
lantly black Texas
ersity under the UT
ms, prompting out
: TSU students,
mhandle, A&M and
irking last week to
mergers with West
niversity in Canyon,
hn Smithee, R-Am-
duced a resolution to
West Texas State and
niversity in Lubbock
item.
rnent of universities
ible in their requests
n the taxpayers and
they don’t become
their credibility," he
' Texas and the tax-
tinned to putalotof
her education solely
that high-tech and
n are going to bail us
k of Texas. At some
; going to be looking
it every Universits
he best of its ability
ids it can get. That's
as an Aggie I want
the money there is.
material candidate,
ird of caution. From
that comes out of
copies pockets, you
some results.”
the question that
.rayle, Williams said,
-st official act would
: a series of schools
oilitation centers so I
ly show what I think
: said.
most of his time in
'f the campaign has
eloping a staff and
bating campaign is-
ers. But his biggest
n conditioning him-
tudents and alumni
■ of Texas “teasips."
onghorn voters out
aid. “I spent a long
t to say teasips, bull
has apparently paid
d his first contribu-
a conservative Dent-
the University of
nates he will need
>n for his campaign,
he will put up him-
u tions are definitely
1
’ achievements that
' do myself, but this
m,” he said, “leant
telp.”
Ip, he might end up
g-
week.
case continues to
st on Capitol Hill,
week with little else
mains out of session
extended Passovet
louse does not re-
rsday when action is
tpplemental appro-
the current fiscal
•use banking panel
Dn its version of a
up the S&L indus-
•mniittee said Iasi
report on Wright,
nvestigating how a
jmpany bought ai
i an oil and gas well
putting up only
— and sold it the
),000.
ts history.
3u go in the United
r , is new,” she said,
el and experience
story. You’re walk-
t’s incredible,
mportant to Mos-
and Jews. We all
that for recreation
ie beach, go skiing,
ig, scuba-diving
ee weeks there, 1
s been really disap
it straight home,
t was like a tease
'ant to see much
itry. That’s why 1
er the three-week
there for a year
o me.”
program provides
e way to get to Is-
ound-trip airfare,
tours and a free
pe are included in
vont volunteering
obtained from the
'flee or the Hillel
snter.
The Battalion
WORLD & NATION 9
Monday, April 24,1989
Families welcome survivors
Battleship Iowa returns home to solemn ceremony
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The
scarred battleship USS Iowa made a
somber return Sunday to its home
port, where about 3,000 family
members and friends of the crew
welcomed loved ones who escaped
an explosion that killed 47 sailors.
Sailors in whites with black arm
bands lined the rails as the huge ves
sel docked at the Norfolk Naval
Base’s Pier 5 at 5:41 p.m., just one
minute later than Navy officials had
estimated. Twenty minutes later,
families started filing aboard the
ship, exchanging tearful embraces
with the returning sailors.
“They wanted to get here on
schedule and were anxious to get
home,” Capt. Steven Karalekas said.
The explosion Wednesday
flashed through the Iowa’s No. 2
gun turret, which extends six decks
down into the ship. There were 11
survivors inside the turret, all on the
lowest deck loading powder from
the ship’s magazines, the Navy said.
The surviving crewmen of No. 2
turret stood on top of the fire-black
ened turret as the ship pulled into
the pier, with full crews on the ship’s
two other turrets.
The No. 2 turret was in the same
position as when the explosion oc
curred, facing right with the left and
right guns elevated. The center gun,
where the blast occurred, was de
pressed.
Navy teams who entered the tur
ret immediately after the blast found
the No. 2 gun’s breech open and un
damaged, with the practice projec
tile that the gun was to have fired
still there, The New York Times re
ported Sunday.
This indicated the explosion oc
curred while the powder bags were
still being loaded into the gun, the
Times said, citing unidentified
sources.
When the 887-foot vessel first ap-
eared there were scattered cheers
y those on the dock, but all re
mained silent as the ship pulled into
the pier. The somber mood was
heightened by the lack of bands, and
few waves were exchanged as the
ship docked.
Adm. Powell Carter, commander
in chief of the Atlantic Fleet, was on
the dock to greet the vessel. As it
docked, three Marines raised a flag
to half-mast at the stern of the ship.
The Navy kept the news media
about 300 yards from the families,
and reporters were not allowed to
talk with the families or the crew
men.
The violence and power of the
turret explosion was shown in an
amateur videotape released by the
Navy on Sunday. The tape was made
by an officer on the bridge of the
Iowa who wanted to record the fir
ing of the big guns.
The detonation, which appears to
blast away the gasket-like rubber
“bloomers” that seal the turret’s gun
slits, is followed by a jet of intense
fire and thiqk smoke from the front
and base of the gunhouse.
The videotape cut immediately to
damage control firefighters spraying
heavy streams of water onto the tur
ret.
Throughout the Norfolk area,
churches dedicated prayers Sunday
morning to the families of Iowa
crewmen.
“We have lost 47 of our number in
a tragic way,” said Cmdr. John L.
Fitzgerald, a chaplain, in a service at
the Norfolk Naval Air Station. “Our
faith helps us to handle what science
cannot answer, the mystery of
death.”
A red rose, a yellow ribbon with
the number 47 on it and a book con
taining the names of the dead were
taken to the altar.
We have lost 47 of our number in a tragic way. Our
faith helps us to handle what science cannot answer,
the mystery of death.
— John L. Fitzgerald
Navy chaplain
Soviets turn critical on space program
MOSCOW (AP) — Soviets once danced in the
streets to celebrate their country’s space suc
cesses, hailed by the party as proof of the superi
ority of socialism.
But with chronic shortages of everything from
toothpaste to housing, the cheers are now
drowned out by calls to spend available rubles on
Earth.
The Soviet space program has become the lat-
esttarget of criticism as President Mikhail S. Gor
bachev’s policy of “glasnost,” or openness, un
leashes long-suppressed public complaints.
Untold billions of rubles were spent to put the
first Sputnik satellite in orbit in 1957, to make
Yuri Gagarin the first man in space in 1961, and
to achieve other space feats.
On April 12, the anniversary of Gagarin’s
flight in Vostok-1, a newspaper recalled how So
viets celebrated the news by singing and dancing
through the streets.
But more than 31 years after Sputnik circled
the globe, Soviet space exploration has not real
ized the prediction of rocket pioneer Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky, who said said harnessing the cosmos
would bring “mountains of bread and enormous
power” to those who mastered it.
Soviets began soul-searching about space ex
penses after a series of problems with their coun
try’s space program.
The problems coincided with official pressure
tocuta$162 billion budgef deficit and grdwing
impatience with shotttuges of food, consumer
goods and housing.
In part for economic reasons, the Mir space
lab will be without a crew for three months start
ing Thursday when three cosmonauts return to
Earth.
The debate on Soviet space spending is remi
niscent of the American public’s questioning of
the billions of dollars spent on the Apollo project
in the 1960s and 1970s to put men on the moon
while some Americans lived in poverty.
Controversy over space spending spilled into
the open early this year in the campaign for a
new Parliament.
Candidates, including maverick communist
Boris N. Yeltsin, received some popular support
when they suggested the space program be put
on hold for a few years.
The Kremlin already has reduced outlays for
another institution once outside public criticism,
the military. Last year, Soviet leaders announced
that some defense plants will be converted to
produce consumer goods, food and building
supplies to parry chronic shortages.
Adding fuel to the space-spending controversy
were the November launch of the $10 billion
shuttle Buran; the loss in September and March
of two unmanned Mars probes, Phobos I and II,
at a cost of a half-billion dollars; and embarrasing
delays caused by technical problems and human
error in the landings of the last two crews from
Mir last year.
Opposition grew when space offiykds hungry
for foreign currency last month chose a Japanese
for the first commercial trip to Mir. The price tag
was $11 million.
Defenders of space exploration emphasize the
benefits of technology and information transfers
to the Earth-bound economy.
The Tass news agency recently reported that
more than $2 billion was spent on space research
in the Soviet Union last year and that economic
benefits totaled $3.2 billion.
Satellites have gathered weather information,
extended television and telephone service, aided
navigation of ships and located mineral and oil
deposits, according to articles in state-run media.
But media reports have said industry is not ad
equately using the information and technology,
and they have criticized the spendthrift attitude
of government agencies involved in space tech
nology.
Pravda and other newspapers say public sup
port has declined because space officials tout suc
cesses and hide problems.
Space scientist Roald Sagdeyev said officials
must work hard to save the space program and
also acknowledge failures.
“We have one very serious task: to restore the
people’s faith, though glasnost, through truthful
information that is honest to the end,” he told
colleagues at a recent meeting about the Phobos
problems. “We must show and prove to the peo
ple that without space, mankind doesn’t have a
future.”
Mexican government urges
dissident teachers to end strike
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The
government has urged dissident
teachers to go back to work Mon
day and end the strike provoked
by a bitter struggle inside one of
Latin America’s largest and most
powerful unions.
The Presidential Palace issued
the back-to-work call from the
Federal Conciliation and Arbitra
tion Tribunal shortly before mid
night Saturday.
The call was rebuffed by the
dissident National Coordinate,
which announced a mass march
for Monday.
A similar demonstration last
week rallied tens of thousands of
people to the Zocalo, Mexico
City’s huge central plaza.
Coordinate leader Teodoro
Palomino told the newspaper Ex
celsior the strikers would not go
back to work until their demands
for democratic reforms in the
union were addressed.
He said strikers weren’t break
ing any laws.“We aren’t stopping
students from going to school,”
he said.
“The parents are backing us by
keeping their children home.”
Dissident teachers nationwide
walked off the job last Monday in
what they called an indefinite
strike aimed at democratic re
forms in the union and higher
wages.
The strike, which began Mon
day, shut down thousands of
schools and riveted national at
tention on a long and bitter battle
inside the National Education
Workers’ Union.
The union, with a membership
of more than 1 million, is one of
the largest and the most powerful
in Latin America.
The dissident National Coordi
nate claims about half the union
members as adherents.
The union battle centers on
longtime union chief Carlos
Jonguitud Barrios, probably the
most important, of the old-style
Mexican union bosses still in
power now that the head of the
oil workers is in jail.
pr
MSC
Political
Forum
SARAH
WEDDINGTON
featured speaker
on
ROE v.WADE
Xrl
Where It's Been
Where It's Going
Monday, April 24
MSC 201
8:30 p.m.
Reception to follow
This program is presented for educational purposes, and does
not neccessarilv represent the views of MSC Political