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The Battalion
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The following incidents were
reported to the University Police
Department from June 29
through Tuesday:
BURGLARY:
• An Apple Macintosh com
puter was taken from an office in
Sbisa Dining Hall.
• A Compuadd computer, a
hard disk, monitor and printer
were stolen from an office in the
Psychology Building. A video cas
sette recorder and a camcorder
also were stolen.
• An upright welding machine
was stolen from the utility plant
on Olsen Road.
• A woman reported that a
staff parking sticker was removed
from her car.
MISDEMEANOR THEFT:
• Nine bicycles, two bicycle
tires and one backpack were re
ported stolen from various loca
tions around campus.
• A Hobby Hall resident re
ported that someone entered his
room and stole his compact disc
player and one disc.
• A student reported that the
rear license plate was taken from
her car.
• A man reported that a radar
detector was stolen from his mo
torcycle.
• A student reported that
someone stole his wallet from his
backpack, which he left unat
tended in the Sterling C. Evans
Library.
CRIMINAL MISCHIEF:
• Several new campus mark
ers were damaged.
• A man reported that some
one tried to hotwire a utility vehi
cle.
• A window in the Reed Mc
Donald Building was broken.
CREDIT CARD ABUSE:
• Someone rented a car at Eas-
terwood Airport by using an ex
pired American Express Card
that he said was valid.
WEAPONS PROHIBITED:
• After stopping a vehicle for
a traffic violation, an officer
found that the driver and passen
ger had a firearm and a small
amount of marijuana.
CRIMINAL TRESPASS:
• A student reported that
someone entered her apartment
at Married Student Housing
twice.
• A student at Married Stu
dent Housing reported that
someone entered her apartment
and removed a flower from a vase
and put it on the table. Investiga
tion continues.
HARASSMENT:
• The Texas A&M Employ
ment Office received three
obscene phone calls.
• A Caldwell man reported
that while he was in the third-
floor restroom at the library, a
male passed him a note with sex
ual connotations.
Florida governor
OKs bill to help keep
guns from children
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) —
Gun owners in Florida are required
to take reasonable steps to keep
loaded weapons out of the hands of
children under a bill signed into law
today by Gov. Bob Martinez.
The legislation doesn’t take effect
until October, but a national gun-
control advocate says lives probably
already are being saved.
“People in Florida and elsewhere
have become more aware of the dan
gers of leaving loaded firearms
where children can get access to
them,” said Bernard Horn, state leg
islative director for Handgun Con
trol Inc.
Publicity on gun accidents involv
ing children not only has increased
public awareness but prompted
more safety measures, Horn said in
a telephone interview from his
Washington office Tuesday.
Lawmakers from about two dozen
states have contacted Horn’s organi
zation about the Florida bill, includ
ing California, New York, Illinois,
Ohio, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Mas
sachusetts, Maryland and Virginia.
“I think we’re going to see some
action in some of these states,” said
Dennis Smith, director of public in
formation for the Center to Prevent
Handgun Violence, a nonprofit pri
vate research organization in Wash
ington.
Florida lawmakers passed the leg
islation in June after three children
were killed and two wounded in sep
arate gun accidents around the state
during a single week.
“I think the unfortunate tragic
deaths speak for themselves,” Sen.
John Grant, a Republican who spon
sored the bill, said.
The legislation requires gun own
ers to take reasonable precautions to
keep loaded weapons in their homes
and businesses out of the hands of
children under 16 years old, such as
using a trigger lock or keeping the
in a la
weapon
locked box.
If a child shoots someone as the
result of a careless gun owner, the
adult could be charged with a felony,
punishable by up to five years in
prison and a $5,000 fine. A gun
owner faces a misdemeanor and up
to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine if a
minor threatens someone with the
gun or displays it in public.
lean-air proposals face criticism
ndustry, environment groups battle over specifics of Bush plan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
1 Bush administration tried Wednes-
I day to calm growing criticism of its
I draft clean-air legislation and urged
I opposing environmental and indus-
I try critics to stop “nitpicking this
thing apart.”
■ Officials said they were worried
hat intense criticism of the pro-
Hposed legislation, before it even
cached Congress, could lead to leg
islative gridlock similar to that which
as prevented passage of a bill the
ast decade.
“This is the best hope we’ve had in
long time to break the 10-year log
jam,” said EPA chief spokesman Da
vid Cohen. “We are being absolutely
faithful to the president’s commit
ments. To start nitpicking this thing
apart may pave the way to the grid
lock that has prevented re-authori
zation of the Clean Air Act.”
After eight years of inaction on air
pollution by the Reagan administra
tion, Bush promised on June 12 to
“curb three major threats to the na
tion’s environment and to the health
of millions of Americans: acid rain,
urban air pollution, and toxic air
emissions.”
But he only had available then a
14-page outline for the first major
presidential proposal for cleaning
the nation’s air since 1977. As legis
lative drafters worked to fill in de
tails of the bill, copies of their work
ing language have leaked out and
the opposing sides have begun react-
ing.
This week, environmental groups
and the chairman of the House envi
ronment subcommittee contended
the latest draft, dated June 30, weak
ened the president’s promise for a
strong pollution-fighting campaign.
Industry groups said the Environ
mental Protection Agency was trying
to make the language tougher than
Bush wants.
The environmental side said
Shooting in crowded restaurant
leaves 3 Vietnamese men dead
a
P
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y
PORT ARTHUR (AP) — Two gunmen apparently
[seeking revenge entered a crowded Vietnamese restau
rant Wednesday morning and shot three men to death
as frightened diners fled, authorities and witnesses said.
[ Within four hours police had arrested Phuc Dinh
Tran and Dac Van Tran at their Port Arthur home and
recovered a 12-gauge pump shotgun, authorities said.
The suspects were arraigned on murder charges
Wednesday afternoon by Jefferson County Justice of
the Peace Barbara Dorman and jailed in lieu of
$500,000 bond each.
The shooting occurred around 10:45 a.m. when two
men entered the Tau Bay Vietnamese Restaurant with
a shotgun and fired at the three men, who were seated
at a table, said Capt. J.E. Huebel of the criminal investi
gations division.
Two men were dead at the scene when police ar
rived, and a third man died at St. Mary’s Hospital, au
thorities said.
The names of the victims were being withheld pen
ding notification of relatives.
“It appears, from what we understand this wa« a
spill-over from a fight at a tavern last night,” Huebel
said.
“I guess these were the losers who came back and
shot the others while they were in this little Vietnamese
cafe,” he said. “The two of them just came in with a
shotgun and blew them away.”
The owner of a next-door grocery store said he no
ticed a large crowd of diners in the restaurant when he
walked to his Vietnam Market this morning, and later
was startled by the sound of shotgun blasts.
“I heard two shots, but the people told me there were
three,” said Khoi Tran. “It was real loud. I didn’t think
it was shooting at first, but I came to the front and I saw
some people running out and they said it was shooting.
“I closed the store and called the police,” he said,
adding that witnesses told him most of the customers
fled through a back door.
Huebel said both the victims and the assailants are
Vietnamese natives, and that the shooting occurred in
an area populated with numerous Vietnamese busi
nesses.
Bush’s proposal was weakened in
sections on auto pollution, emission
of toxic chemicals and reduction of
the substances causing acid rain.
An industry coalition said the
draft was tougher than Bush prom
ised on auto emissions, took away
the flexibility of states to deal with
their particular pollution problems,
and unnecessarily increased require
ments on industry to reduce acid
rain.
William Rosenberg, assistant EPA
administrator for air and radiatioin,
said, “It’s unfair to say we’re deviat
ing” from Bush’s wishes, adding that
the proposal would “get the job done
in a cost-effective way. You have a
bill that’s 286 pages. The fact sheet
was 14 pages. When you get to the
specifics it’s much more compli
cated.”
“The legislative language is a far
cry from what the president said he
wanted to do: achieve clean air for
every American,” said Rep. Henry
A. Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of
the House Energy and Commerce
environment subcommittee. “In the
area of smog, they seem to be willing
to give in (to the auto industry)
rather than assisting breathing
Americans to give them a break.”
William Fay, head of an industry
coalition called the Clean Air Work
ing Group, said, “We think exactly
the opposite. My response is that
someone got carried away in draft
ing this thing. There are things in
the staff draft that go far beyond
what the president suggested.”
One of the most crucial disputes is
over motor vehicle pollution. The
draft language would reduce the ex
haust standard for unburned fuel
from 0.41 grams per mile to 0.25
grams. But while the current law re
quires that each car meet the stan
dard, the draft legislation would
permit automakers to achieve the re
duction by averaging all their autos.
Religious groups react to Supreme Court rulings
n
id
1
NEW YORK (AP) — A potpourri of reactions
to recent Supreme Court decisions on abortion,
executions, holiday displays and the flag has
swirled through religious circles.
Views were about as mixed in the religious
household as in society at large.
One odd situation found Jewish leaders upset
because the court had approved displaying a
Jewish symbol. Regarding the flag, President
Bush ignited conflicting religious reactions for
wanting new laws to shield it.
Such a constitutional amendment or legis
lation is needed, said the Knights of Columbus,
to remove the court’s inference that burning or
otherwise abusing the flag is an “acceptable form
of protest.”
The Roman Catholic fraternal order noted its
stress on patriotism education in backing mea
sures to “save the flag from desecration.”
On the other hand, the general synod last
week of the United Church of Christ said such
legislation would “exalt” the flag beyond a “trea
sured symbol” of America and restrict the very
freedom the flag symbolizes.
Similarly, the American Jewish Committee
said such legislation would erode the First
Amendment which “protects the freedom of all
of us,” including “even crazy people who see fit
to burn the American flag.”
The court’s upholding of the death penalty for
■ 16- and 17-year-olds and the moderately re
tarded was denounced by Protestant, Jewish and
Roman Catholic leaders.
It is “an outrage” that must be changed, said
the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, head of the
United Methodist Board of Church and Society.
It called the decision “reprehensible” to “people
of faith.”
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, term
ing capital punishment a poor way to deter
crime, said he is “disappointed and saddened” by
the court decision allowing that penalty for mi
nors and the retarded.
The AJC said it “is appalled” by the decision,
adding that capital punishment “degrades and
brutalizes” society and becomes a “mockery of
justice” in executing the young and retarded.
A total of 30 youths, all younger than 18 when
they committed murders, now are on death row,
and the courts have estimated about a fifth of
nearly 2,200 others awaiting execution are re
tarded to some degree.
The abortion decision evoked the most volu
minous and diverse reactions, far more sweeping
than the decision itself.
Explicitly it held only that Missouri could pro
hibit state-based hospitals and personnel from
performing abortions. Other aspects remained
ambiguous. Previously, Congress itself had bar
red federal funds for abortion.
Neverthless, the impact was thunderous, on
both sides, one denouncing the decision as an as
sault on women’s rights, and the other saying it
signaled a turn toward protecting the unborn.
It is “the beginning of the opportunity to end
this dark night of our nation’s soul in which so
terribly many of the most defenseless among us,
our unborn, have been denied the right to life,”
said the Rev. Richard D. Land, head of the
Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission.
The decision is “a victory for life” and the big
gest winners “are the tiniest people of all — chil
dren within the womb,” said Archbishop John L.
May of St. Louis, president of the National Con
ference of Catholic Bishops.
However, some Jewish and Protestant leaders
decried the decision as threatening women’s
rights.
“The ruling is a deplorable attack on the reli
gious freedom of all Americans,” said officials of
the Union of American Hebrew Congregations,
vowing to oppose any state attempts to limit free
choice in abortion.
Fassett said the court had turned the clock
back 20 years on women’s right to choose abor
tion and the rulings “are highly discriminatory,”
putting the heaviest burden on the poor.
However, the Rev. James Heidinger, executive
of the denomination’s evangelical caucus, hailed
I he (Supreme Court’s abortion)
ruling is a deplorable attack on the
religious freedom of all Americans.”
— Union of American
Hebrew Congregations
the decision as “a clearly positive one.”
Thus, within denominations, as within the na
tion, feelings were divided on an issue which re
mained about as unsettled as ever.
The court’s curiously two-way ruling on reli
gious displays in Pittsburgh, banned a Christmas
creche (cradle scene) in a courthouse lobby, but
approved a Hanukah menorah (candelabrum)
on the outside.
Remarkably, Jewish leaders deplored the deci
sion favoring their own symbol, which the court
said was acceptable because it was religiously
neutral and stood near a secular Christmas tree.
The decision “will further hasten the transfor
mation of Hannukah from a religious to a cultu
ral event,” said Phil Baum, associate director of
the American Jewish Congress.
“This is the inevitable price paid for seeking to
enlist official endorsement for religious prac
tices.”
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779-4756
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707 South Texas Ave., Suite 101D
College Station, Texas 77840
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