Texas A&M
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lo\. 88 No. 156 USPS 045360 8 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, June 15,1989
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Newt
jingrich, the conservative congress-
nan who sparked the investigation
[ifjim Wright, used the probe as a
~1P fund-raising tool aiming for
[‘major gains” in the next two elec
tions, letters he sent to potential con-
Iributors indicate.
He wrote four letters over the past
kear, asking the potential contribu-
lors to put pressure on the House
ethics committee in the Wright case
i well as give money. The latest let-
ker, dated the day after Wright an
nounced his resignation as House
eaker, sought a new contribution,
declaring the Texan was “not the
bnly corrupt Democrat.”
Gingrich, now the House Republi-
an whip, made the fund-raising ap-
eals as general chairman of GO-
PAC, a tax-paying organization that
tries to elect Republicans to state leg
islatures and sometimes aids local
COP candidates.
The organizadon said it raised
(1.9 million last year, up $500,000
[from 1987, but could not say imme
diately how much of that was due to
he letters Gingrich pegged to the
bright investigation.
Only days after he Filed a formal
lethics complaint against the Demo-
ratic House speaker, Gingrich be
an sending out the letters, some
Reagan made
|honorary British
might by Queen
LONDON (AP) — Queen Eliza-
eth II made Ronald Reagan a
night Wednesday, but without the
neeling and dubbing because the
nighthood is an honorary one
given foreigners, who cannot be
died “Sir.”
The Buckingham Palace an
nouncement ended days of specu-
ation about whether the former
president, whose easy manner and
jconservative ardor made him a Firm
friend of Prime Minister Margaret
“hatcher, would receive the highest
honor for non-Britons. Honors to
[foreigners are recommended by the
government.
Reagan told reporters outside the
palace: “I feel greatly honored.”
He emerged from lunch with the
queen with a box containing the in
signia of an honorary Knight Grand
3ross of the Most Honorable Order
of the Bath, one of the highest or
ders of chivalry.
“Sir” is a title reserved for Britons,
[but at dinner parties Reagan can sit
[closer to the queen than unknighted
[former presidents. He also can use
|the initials “G.C.B.” after his name.
Unlike Britons receiving knight-
|hoods, Reagan did not have to kneel
land be tapped on the shoulder by
[the royal sword. Instead, the queen
[handed him the order’s insignia: a
[star, badge and broad ribbon of
(crimson silk.
Reagan was the 57th American
[given an honorary knighthood.
[Other American honorary knights
[include philanthropist John Paul
[Getty II, Henry Ford III, former
[Secretary of State Dean Rusk and ac-
[tors Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Sid-
[ney Poitier.
telling contributors they could have
great influence on the investigation
that eventually toppled Wright.
Early on, prospective contributors
were thanked for “helping me force”
the bipartisan ethics panel to deal
with the Wright case.
By this spring, Gingrich’s re
newed thanks for forcing the ethics
panel’s hand were accompanied by a
new request for money to help GOP
candidates. The Democrats, Gin
grich wrote, were putting “a great
deal of political heat on me” because
of the case and hoped to use him as
an issue to defeat Republicans.
House Democrats elect Gephardt,
attempt to overcome ethics furor
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats on
Wednesday elected Richard Gephardt of Missouri as
majority leader, embracing a “no problems” former
presidential candidate in an effort to push beyond the
ethics furor that felled two top party leaders.
The Democrats then chose Rep. William H. Gray III,
D-Pa., to be majority whip, making him the No. 3 Dem
ocrat in the House, behind Speaker Thomas S. Foley
and Gephardt, and the highest-ranking black in Con
gress.
Gephardt defeated Georgia conservative Ed Jenkins,
181-76, and Gray won with 134 votes to 97 votes for Da
vid Bonior of Michigan and 30 for Beryl Anthony of
Arkansas.
The two victors, both considered liberals, Fill out the
new leadership team Democrats have had to install in
midterm because of the resignations of Speaker Jim
Wright of Texas, and Whip Tony Coelho of California,
both following ethics allegations. Foley, of Washington,
was elected speaker last week.
Gephardt accepted the No. 2 post with a call to Dem
ocrats to push aside what he said were Republican at
tempts to slander the party. A top GOP official was
forced to resign last week after sending out a statement
comparing Foley’s voting record to that of a homosex
ual congressman — an episode Democrats contend was
an example of typical Republican tactics.
“Some on the other side are committed to the dark
side of politics, smear, innuendo, rumors, cynical media
management, the politics of character assassination,”
Gephardt said. “But let us say . . . that we will win at the
ballot box not by the force of our slurs but the force of
our ideas.”
In the secret ballot, Gray won the whip’s post over
two rivals despite news reports that personnel practices
in his office were under investigation by the Justice De
partment.
Police hold three
in connection with
Bryan shootings
STAFF WRITER
A drug deal gone sour may be
the cause of three drive-by shoot
ings in Bryan Monday that killed
one and injured five. Police have
arrested two suspects in connec
tion with the murder.
Sgt. Choya Walling, of the
Bryan Police Department, said
40-year-old suspect Carl Alvin
Craddock of Dallas and 30-year-
old suspect Bruce Kevin Bannis
ter of Florida, have been charged
in connection with the murder of
Marion Leon Johnson, 38, of
Bryan, and the injuring of five
others.
Craddock and Bannister are
being held at the Brazos County
Jail in lieu of $100,000 each. One
other suspect also is in custody
while the investigation continues.
Walling said police believe the
three went on their shooting
spree after not receiving drugs
they had purchased with coun
terfeit money.
“We think the suspects had
been purchasing drugs with
counterfeit twenties for quite a
while,” Walling said. “After the
victims realized what the group
was doing, they decided not to
deliver some drugs and the sus
pects retaliated by shooting
them.”
Walling said Craddock was ar
rested at 11:55 p.m. at a conve
nience store on 3300 E. 29th
Street in Bryan. He said police
were able to find Craddock after
receiving tips from citizens.
Walling said Bannister was ar
rested at 7:05 a.m. Wednesday at
a duplex in the Pecan Ridge sub
division in Bryan.
“In connection with Bannis
ter’s arrest, detectives recovered a
beige Nissan Sentra reported sto
len in Houston,” Walling said. “It
is believed to be the one used in
the shootings.” Witnesses said the
suspects were driving a white
hatchback vehicle during the
shootings.
Walling said detectives seized
two sawed-off 12-gauge shot
guns, two .22-caliber pistols, as
sorted ammunition, drug par
aphernalia associated with crack
and cocaine, a television and
other items from the duplex.
Budding artists
Senior elementary education majors Laurie Jones and Joyce
Clough practice their dance, “Rise and Fall of a Flower,”
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenback
Wednesday afternoon in the Read Building. The dance was part
of a Creative Dance (Phed 311) class assignment.
Governor pledges
$5 million to help
cities’ traffic flow
AUSTIN (AP) — The governor’s
office is giving the green light — and
more than $5 million — to help
speed Texas motorists through traf
fic snarls and save fuel as well as
time.
Officials announced Wednesday
that $5.2 million would be made
available to Texas cities and towns in
a program to synchronize traffic
lights around the state.
“This common sense approach to
traffic management can save Texans
both time and money by improving
the flow of traffic in cities and towns
all across our state,” Gov. Bill Clem
ents said of the new project.
The governor said fewer than half
the estimated 13,000 traffic lights in
Texas are timed for maximum driv
ing efficiency, and he noted that au
tos and trucks burn more fuel per
mile in traffic than on the open
road.
“In fact, it has been estimated that
between 30 percent and 40 percent
of fuel burned in high traffic is
burned while idling at red lights,” he
said.
The funds being made available
through the governor’s Energy
Management Center will allow cities
and towns statewide to compete for a
share under guidelines being written
by the State Department of High
ways and Public Transportation.
State funds can be used to supple
ment up to 75 percent of a city’s
costs, said Jay Rosser, the governor’s
deputy press secretary.
Rosser said that about 50 percent
of the funds will go to the state’s
eight largest cities, 25 percent to cit
ies under 50,000 population and 25
percent to cities of 50,000 to
200,000.
China tells U.S. to stop
interfering in its affairs
BEIJING (AP) — The govern
ment Wednesday arrested more
student leaders and supporters of
the pro-democracy movement,
and it warned the United States
to stop interfering in China’s in
ternal affairs.
It also issued orders to expel
two American reporters —John
Pomfret of the Associated Press
and Alan Pessin of the U.S. gov
ernment-run Voice of America —
for violating martial-law regula
tions that banned most news
gathering.
State-run television announced
the arrests of two of 21 student
leaders named in a wanted list re
leased Tuesday, and issued a new
circular calling for the arrests of
three leaders of an independent
labor union.
Dozens of people nationwide
were shown being led into police
stations, some with their arms
wrenched in the air in a posture
called by Chinese “the airplane
position.”
While the mass arrests contin
ued, the People’s Liberation
Army reduced its presence in
Beijing and Tiananmen Square
was unguarded by tanks for the
first time since the military began
cracking down on the democracy
movement 11 days ago.
Authorities ordered Pomfret
and Pessin to leave China within
72 hours.
The order against Pessin fol
lowed a barrage of criticism of
VOA by the official Chinese me
dia as a rumor-monger.
Pomfret also was accused of
having contacts with student lead
ers and of obtaining unspecified
state secrets.
House subcommittee approves expenditure
of $200 million for building super collider
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House Appropria
tions subcommittee voted Wednesday to spend
$200 million to begin construction of the super
collider after President Bush assured the panel
chairman that several foreign countries would
share the costs.
Rep. Tom Bevill, the influential Alabama
Democrat who heads the House Appropriations
subcommittee on energy and water, said Energy
Secretary James A. Watkins told him at a White
House meedng before the closed vote that a $1
billion contribudon is expected from Japan.
Bevill earlier this year had insisted he would
not agree to fund the super collider in fiscal 1990
unless the Energy Department secured firm
commitments from foreign countries willing to
share the $4.4 billion cost.
‘Watkins assured all of us that they’re going
said h
to
ate
But on Wednesday, Bevill agreed to a bill that
has no requirements for any level of foreign par-
dcipation as well as no restrictions on the $200
million. Inidal construcdon could begin after
Oct. 1, the first day of the new Fiscal year.
have a good bit of participation,” Bevill
Wednesday.
Also attending the session were Rep. John My
ers of Indiana, the panel’s ranking Republican,
White House chief of staff John Sununu and
Budget Director Richard Darma.
Other potential contributors mentioned by
Watkins were Italy and India, Bevill said. India is
the only foreign nation to sign a commitment to
share costs of the particle accelerator and has
promised to contribute $50 million.
Although some Texans vowed to press for
spending $250 million, the level sought by Bush,
Bevill warned that final congressional approval
of even $200 million mav be tough.
After his meeting witli the president, Bevill is
sued a statement saying: “I told him I would put
the money in for him, but it may be difficult to
get it approved. It’s a good project, but the cost
of it concerns me a great deal. It will be up to
Congress to make the final decision.”
Under the subcommittee’s plan. $110 million
would be set aside to initiate construction at the
Ellis County site, including preparation for tun
neling of the 53-mile underground ring for high-
energy physics experiments that scientists hope
will help them understand the fundamental na
ture of matter. The remaining $90 million would
be used for research and development.
“It’s almost a dream that’s come true,” said
Waxahachie Mayor James Self. “It means a tre
mendous boost for Waxahachie and Ellis County
economically. And it places the Dallas-Fort
Worth area in the forefront of scientific discov
ery and research in the world.”
“Texas made out like a bandit in this bill,” said
Rep. Jim Chapman, a Sulphur Springs Democrat
and member of the subcommittee. “Odds are
good the full committee will support the subcom
mittee’s work.
“There were no requirements imposed that
would in any way handicap the Department of
Energy’s ability to move forward,” Chapman
said. “This is as positive a response from the sub
committee as we could get.”