The Battalion
! ST ATE & LOCAL
Friday, July 21,1989
rot Clements blames Senate for failure
>e to reform workers’ comp system
en
bbs
^ree Slaved
irst perpeir.
id say thaitl
Js thingsil
liters old
) strong,
h is the ik
er heard.
AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Bill Clements said
hursday he hopes political heat will force the
Senate to concede to the House’s business-backed
pproach to reform the workers’ compensation
system.
And that heat may have been turned up as the
nsurance industry said it needs an approximate
30 percent increase in workers’ comp insurance
premium rates.
Lawmakers failed during a special session that
ended Wednesday to reform the insurance sys-
Item that compensates workers for on-the-job in-
uries. Clements called the 30-day session specif
ically to address the issue.
Clements blamed the Senate for the impasse
and said he will call another session this fall.
They need to get home and feel the pulse of
the people” he said. “I’m going to remind you
election time is coming up, and that pressure will
build up.”
But senators said they weren’t to blame.
“The governor just doesn’t know what he’s
[talking about,” Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan,
[said.
Other senators said the governor, a Republi
can, want to turn workers’ comp into a political
game and try to bash Democrats.
The state workers’ comp system has been crit
icized as tagging employers with high insurance
rates and injured workers with low benefits. But
attempts to change the law have been deadlocked
since January .
The House, backed by business, has tried to
make it more difficult for injured workers to ap
peal disputed cases to a state district court.
The Senate, supported by trial lawyers and la
bor, has pushed for stronger job safety measures
and agreed to limits on jury trials. However, it
was unwilling to restrict access to the courts as
much as the House.
Clements blasted members of the Senate con
ference committee for the impasse, and said
some of them have a conflict of interest because
they handle workers’ comp cases in their law
practices.
“If you look into the phone book, some of
those senators are actually advertising for comp
cases,” Clements said. “These are the same peo
ple who are serving on the committees and trying
to rewrite the law.”
Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby said the House and Senate
conferees had made progress and could produce
a bill if given the opportunity. He asked Clem
ents to call another special session before the fall.
But Clements rejected the idea.
“They have had about six months of opportu
nity to get together and exchange ideas and it has
been non-productive to date,” he said.“So we’ll
try a little bit different approach.”
If Clements calls a special session in Novem
ber, it will be shortly after the State Board of In
surance receives a request for an approximate 30
percent increase in workers’ comp insurance.
Workers’ comp premiums have increased 148
percent over the past four years.
Richard Geiger, a spokesman for the National
Council on Compensation Insurance, said in
creases have been needed to offset claims and
medical costs during a period when the Texas
economy took a downturn.
Paul Wrotenbery, chairman of the state Board
of Insurance, said one of his major concerns is
the deficit growing in the assigned risk pool —
which is set up for businesses that are unable to
purchase conventional coverage.
e Earth
'uck. "It's
hen wcrei
me land mi
mean 3,G
t’s the ten:
it."
Earth has
; would ns
) Europe
through
Magazine says minimum of $100 million
needed to rank on list of richest Texans
gram, it w
xpert
y, “These
awdust."
isking yoim
, “What it
“ Earth is
ing him I
is the oldSi
is had told
s was rei
1 he got
st another
f to keepi
tally ii
n-ups
ry schooll
iselfbefaj
AUSTIN (AP) — Times m ay be
tough in Texas, but it still takes $100
million in net worth to make the list
of the 100 richest Texans, according
to the first such ranking by Texas
Monthly magazine.
Dallas businessman H. Ross Perot,
with a net worth of $3 billion, tops
the list in the August 1989 issue.
Perot is listed as the fourth richest
man in America by Forbes mag
azine.
Second in Texas is Dallas finan
cier Harold Clark Simmons, 58, with
an estimated worth of $ 1.6 billion.
Third, fourth and fifth are Mar
garet Hunt Hill, 73; Haroldson L.
Hunt III, 71; and Caroline Rose
Hunt, 66, all of the $1 billion Dallas
hotel and oil-and-gas empire
founded by Arkansas oilman H.L.
Hunt.
Forbes lists Margaret Hill 39th in
the nation, with worth of $1.2 bil
lion. It also says Ray Lee Hunt, 46,
part of H.L. Hunt’s second family,
has an individual fortune of $1.3 bil
lion and ranks him 34th in the U.S.
Texas Monthly ranks him 37th in
the state and says he shares his for
tune with siblings June, Helen and
Swanee.
Rounding out the top 10 of the
Texas 100 are the Bass clan, “far and
away the richest family in Texas,”
with holdings in oil and gas, real es
tate, stocks and other investments to
taling at least $5 billion, the mag
azine said.
Descended from the legendary
Texas wildcatter Sid Richardson, the
Fort Worth family members listed
include Perry Richardson Bass, 74,
and his sons, Sid Richardson Bass,
47; Edward Perry Bass, 47; Robert
Muse Bass, 41; and Lee Marshall
Bass, 33.
Forbes lists Robert Bass as the
20th most wealthy person in the
U.S., with an estimated fortune of
$1.6 billion. Sid Bass is ranked 52nd,
and Lee Bass, 53rd, both with $ 1 bil
lion.
Youngest and at the bottom of the
Texas 100 is Austin’s Michael Dell,
whose computer firm has produced
a $100 million fortune for the 24-
year-old.
On the “close-but-no-cigar” ros
ter, the magazine listed Texas Gov.
Bill Clements, whose worth is esti
mated at $70 million; Lady Bird
Johnson, Robert A. Mosbacher, and
T. Boone Pickens, all with $75 mil
lion; and William Dean Singleton,
$50 million.
The total worth of Dallas resi
dents on the list is about $13.5 bil-
p outside
md 1
flat snl
:iy twofcfljf
i’t take lie
grain i
■ a com
■ who In' 1 :
ith their
ground-
the Eni 1
verted. G
read on]
r joun
ittaliofl'
State approves
new design of
Texas plates
AUSTIN (AP) — New Texas
license plates that include the
state flag and its motto, “The
Friendship State,” have been ap
proved by the state highway com
mission.
“Our state name comes from
the Indian word ‘tejas,’ which
means ‘friendship,’” said Ray
mond Stotzer, engineer-director
of the State Department of High
ways and Public Transportation.
“Including it on our license
plates spreads the word about our
people’s legendary hospitality
and warmth,” Stotzer said.
The white plates, with shaded
blue borders at the top and bot
tom, will display the state flag,
name and motto. Combinations
of letters and numbers will be in
blue, rather than black, and will
be separated by a red silhouette
of the state.
Most counties will start to issue
the new plates by April 1, 1990,
after the old-plate supply is used
up. The new design will be only
for passenger cars.
Police shoot gunman
holding woman hostage
in Austin med center
AUSTIN (AP) — A gunman one
law officer said seemed bent on sui
cide held a hospital secretary hos
tage for about two hours at Seton
Medical Center before being shot to
death by police early Thursday af
ternoon.
Deputy Police Chief Ken Williams
said the gunman, who was not a pa
tient, was killed after charging police
officers as he carried a handgun.
An officer on the scene who spoke
on the condition he would not be
identified said the hostage, identi
fied by a hospital spokesman as
Marsha Anderson, 64, was the
mother of a police officer.
Williams refused to disclose more
details, but police and hospital offi
cials said Anderson was selected at
random. She was not harmed.
“As far as I know he probably
never had seen her, and she proba
bly had never seen him — he just
walked in the door,” hospital spokes
man M.A. Bengston said.
Williams said the officer was sum
moned to the hospital during tele
phone negotiations.
Anderson was not harmed physi
cally, but Bengston said that as a re
sult of the traumatic incident, the
woman was with her family, profes
sional counselors and “pastoral care
people.”
Williams said the man was shot af
ter charging police. “He came out
with a gun in hand,” he said. “As
soon as he saw where our officers
were located, he pointed the weapon
at them, charged towards them, and
we ended up shooting him.”
He said seven shots were fired, all
apparently by the officers.
The identity of the man was being
withheld pending notification of
next of kin, a spokesman for the
Travis County Medical Examiner’s
Office said.
The officer requesting anonymity
said tapes of telephone conversa
tions indicated the man wanted to
commit suicide by confronting po
lice. The gunman, the officer said,
made comments such as, “It’s going
to take a lot of nerve to do what I’m
about to do,” and “This lady may be
the last person I’ll ever see. I’m
counting on you to do your job.”
lion; Fort Worth, $6.6 billion; and
Houston, $5.9 billion. Twenty-three
on the list are women.
Combined net assets of the Texas
100 are about $33.6 billion. Fifty on
the list inherited most or all their
fortunes. Twenty-three are women.
The source of a $200 million
worth attributed to Anne Hendricks
Bass is listed as “divorce.” Her split
from Sid Bass came with the largest
settlement in Texas history, the
magazine said.
A&M prof wants law
to force MIPs to attend
alcohol-awareness class
By Kelly S. Brown
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
People who drink alcohol know
two things — where to buy it and
how to drink it, but a Texas A&M
safety educator wants to add a
third ounce of knowledge — what
alcohol does inside the body and
mind — and he wants these facts
to be learned early in life.
Dr. Maurice Dennis, who also
is an industrial education profes
sor, is pushing for a Texas law re
quiring minors convicted of alco
hol possession to attend a class
that would cover the role of alco
hol in society, laws related to alco
hol, advertising and how drink
ing effects each individual.
Dennis said he perceived a
need for such a required class af
ter results from a year-long study
of minors in his alcohol education
class showed many of the young
people had serious drinking
problems.
“I knew there was a lot of mis
information about alcohol out
there,” Dennis said, “but there’s
also misinformation about people
with alcohol problems, and until
this study, I was one of those na
ive people.”
Dennis said early indicators
showed many of these young peo-
E le ended up in the class not just
ecause “they got popped at the
Chicken for having a beer in their
hand, but a high percentage of
these kids really had a drinking
problem and didn’t know it.”
He said a survey of nearly 100
class participants found one-third
of the minors exhibited problem-
drinker behavior, while more
than half of them did not know
their behavior was symptomatic
of problem drinking.
After the evidence became
clearer, Dennis wrote a proposal
to the Texas Commission on Al
cohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA)
to develop a screening instru
ment that would better test
whether a person has a real prob
lem.
In the first six months of Den
nis’ program, 88 minors took the
five hour class (broken up into
two sessions), while 400 to 600
Minor In Possession citations
were issued in Bryan-College Sta
tion during that same time pe
riod. Since the class is not manda
tory, minors are sent to Dennis’
program through a judge’s refer
ral.
Dennis said most of the class
participants are Texas A&M stu
dents, but high school students
often attend the program as well.
“People who have a real prob
lem are not going to be cured in a
five hour program,” Dennis said.
“That’s why if we can identify an
individual’s problem early on in
this class, we might be able to di
rect them to where they can re
ceive help, before they hurt
themselves or someone else.”
The survey showed that young
people are five times more likely
to have a car accident with the
same blood alcohol content than
older people.
Nearly half of those surveyed
admitted drinking to forget prob
lems and more than half reported
times they could not remember
what they did while they drank.
Legislature ends special session
after fruitless days of bickering
i *
AUSTIN (AP) — In the end, it ended.
That’s about all that can be said for the special session
of the Legislature that lurched to a halt Wednesday
night after 30 fruitless days of bickering over workers’
compensation reform.
This failure followed the 140-day stalemate of the
regular session, which ended May 29 with no workers’
comp solution.
And that impasse had followed a $450,000 study of a
workers’ compensation system that almost everyone
said needed help.
Two days before the special session ended, Cov. Bill
Clements judged the session harshly.
“We met here for one purpose and one purpose
only, and that’s for workers’ compensation ... If we
don’t tend to that, then I would term the session an ab
solute failure,” Clements said.
It was the governor who has insisted since January
ANALYSIS
that an overhaul was needed of the system that pays
benefits for workers killed or injured on the job.
It is the governor who says lawmakers will be back in
November to try, try again.
“The problem is just what it’s always been,” Clements
said.
So is the impasse.
Business says the system is too costly. The House
agreed. It wanted to reduce the amount of court in
volvement in the process of resolving workers’ comp
disputes between insurance carriers and employees.
Lawyers and organized labor said the system doesn’t
pay enough, that injured workers have a right to go to
trial, and that worker safety in Texas is a disaster.
Their cause won the Senate, which demanded
beefed-up job safety provisions and said the House pro
posals on litigation would make it difficult for an in
jured worker to receive fair judicial review.
The two chambers negotiated. And negotiated.
Then, they negotiated some more.
When the final gavel fell, they still hadn’t settled the
three biggest differences — how to resolve disputes be
tween the insurance carrier and injured worker when
there is a disagreement over benefits, devising a
method to calculate those benefits, and job safety.
Maybe the special session was ill-fated from the start.
At first, Clements said he would wait to convene the
special session so lawmakers would have time to hear
from the grassroots.
But he changed his mind, calling the special session
only three weeks after the regular session had ended.
If there was public opinion for lawmakers to hear,
more time might have helped.
Then, just when some House and Senate negotiators
said a solution might be in sight, an East Texas busi
nessman strolled through the Senate chamber with a
fistful of $ 10,000 checks.
Chicken magnate Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim told senators
about his workers’ comp costs, said he might have to
move jobs to Arkansas, then offered nine senators
$10,000 checks with the payee’s name left blank. They
were campaign contributions, Pilgrim said.
The checks also were a public relations nightmare.
Once the news leaked, nearly all the senators re
turned the money. Many of them said they found such
a contribution inappropriate in mid-debate.
The checks had another effect: they made it almost
impossible for any senator to change his vote without
inviting questions about motive.
The House and Senate did find time in 30 days to re
peal a law they created in the regular session — one that
allowed police departments to withhold the names of
felony crime victims.
That law, which had taken effect in mid-June, caused
havoc and left at least one newspaper with blank space
where its police blotter had been.
Clements has indicated he will sign the repeal bill.
Lawmakers, following President Bush’s signal, voted
to make flag burning a crime and called on Congress to
propose a constitutional amendment doing the same.
0.
MEAT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCE
JULY SPECIALS
OPEN SATURDAY JULY 22nd
PRICE PER POUND
PORK
BOSTON BUTT ROASTS (BONELESS)
ASSORTED PORK CHOPS (4/PKG.)
BEEF
STEW MEAT (EXTRA LEAN)
RUMP ROASTS (BONELESS)
SIRLOIN TIP ROASTS (BONELESS)
LAMB
SHOULDER ROASTS (BONELESS)
LAMB LEG ROASTS (SEMI - BONELESS)
LAMB CHOPS
SAUSAGE & BACON
FRESH PORK SAUSAGE (1 LB. / CHUB)
FRESH BRATSWURST (5 LINKS / PKG.)
SLICE BACON (THICK SLICED, 1 LB. / PKG.)
REGULAR
SALE
30-40 LB. BOX
$1.65
$1.29
$.99
$2.29
$1.89
$1.49
$2.29
$1.89
$1.49
$2.85
$2.09
$1.89
$2.85
$2.09
$1.89
$2.79
$1.99
$1.79
$2.99
$2.29
$1.99
$3.99
$3.29
$2.99
$1.69
$1.29
$.99
$2.29
$1.79
$1.49
$2.49
$2.19
$1.99
★ 10LB. BOX
Other Beef, Lamb, Pork, Sausage, Dairy Products, Honey, and Farm Fresh Eggs are available. Prices effective
while supplies last or until July 31, 1989. We are open for business Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
and on Saturday July 22nd from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We are located on the West Campus between the Kleberg
Center and the Horticulture/Forest Science Building. (Phone: 845-5651)
SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE
Contact Lenses, Ends
Au 9- 25, 7qo q £
Only Quality Name Brands
(Bausch & Lomb, Ciba, Barnes-Hinds-Hydrocurve)
$ ITOi00 $'JiSf 00 pr.*-STD. CLEAR DAILY WEAR |
oy SOFT LENSES J
$
$
99 00
99 00
pr*-STD. EXTENDED WEAR SOFT
LENSES
pr.*-STD. TINTED SOFT LENSES
DAILY WEAR OR EXTENDED WEAR
SAME DAY DELIVERY
ON MOST LENSES
Call 696-3754
For Appointment
^CHARLES C. SCHROEPPEL, O.D., P.C.
DOCTOR OF OPTOMETRY
iu *Eye exam not included.
Free care kit with exam and pair of lenses.
707 South Texas Ave., Suite 101D
College Station, Texas 77840
1 block South of Texas & University
SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE SALE
FREE
HAIRCUTS!!!
BECOME A
SUPERCUTS
MODEL-BY
APPOINTMENT
ONLY
Our licensed cosmetologists
will cut your hair July 24-28
with all the style you de-
mand-at no cost. Just call
696-8600 for Appointment.
SUPERCUTS
1519 S. Texas Ave.,
College Station
Men, women, children.
Minimum age 10 years.
Shampoo at home day of
cut.