Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 1989)
N ieBattalion WEATHER TOMORROW’S FORECAST: Partly cloudy and cool in the morning with the clouds disap pearing by midafternoon. HIGH: 90s LOW: 70s Iir!?" Vol. 88 No. 179 USPS 045360 6 Pages «Cii!*— — College Station, Texas Friday, July 28, 1989 Firemen steamed over tickets issued by University Police By Richard Tijerina STAFF WRITER wo to tied. Mz )7toct ation. es. Blue 'er. ipy. Rtf Navasota residents Bryan Storey, left, and Eddie Bosse watch an American Legion baseball game from the empty upper-level seats of Olsen Field under overcast skies Thursday afternoon. Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack The two were there to watch Bosse’s older brother, the catcher for the College Station team, play in the team’s game against Cy-Fair. Some of the 3,000 firemen staying at Texas A&M for the 60th Annual Texas Firemen’s Training School became so steamed Thursday over parking tickets they’ve received they decided to do something about it. Tickets they have received for parking in unauthorized areas since they’ve started the Training School July 16 sparked about 10 firemen to confront the A&M Parking and Transit Services at Southwest Sav ings on University Drive. Firemen on the scene said they were unhappy that their vehicles had been towed away, and blamed the University and ongoing con struction for the lack of parking space. “When you’ve got 3500 firemen up here, five or 10,000 summer stu dents and 7,000 faculty, you’ll run out of parking room,” one fireman said. “What’s happened is they’ve had to rearrange everything and ev erybody is confused.” Sponsored by the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas, the training school holds ses sions to teach firemen the latest fire fighting techniques through opera tional classes, student participation, class discussion and field exercises. The training school ends August 4. Director of Parking and Transit Services Tom Williams said firemen have been coming in all week to complain about the parking prob lem, and that the problem is the fire men haven’t paid attention to in structions given to them on where to park. “The staff has to be on the job at 8 o’clock, students are here and they pay to park,” Williams said. “Fire men were designated a number of parking areas. Some of them just didn’t park where they were sup posed to park. A lot of the lots are empty so there’s plenty of space.” Williams said either a map the Parking and Transit Services gave to the Firemen’s Training School that detailed authorized parking spaces wasn’t distributed correctly or the firemen simply ignored it. These recent parking problems with the Firemen’s Training School might cause the Parking and Transit Services to become more involved with different conferences that re quire special parking, Williams said. One fireman suggested signs be posted in parking areas around cam pus designating which were available for firemen and which were unau- See Protest/Page 6 Union workers demand halt of work on B-52s I tobe j ands oil proved® imickfH did vl SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A gov- v ijye Jgninient employees union is calling ■or a halt of work on B-52s at Kelly ■ir Force Base until investigators determine the cause of a fatal fire . rflnd explosion aboard one of the “‘fombers. R One civilian worker was killed and n ill other employees of the Directo- ■K rate of Maintenance Aircraft Divi- sion were injured in the Monday ■laze and blast as workers attempted ling. l|to fuel the plane. ra gemfl| Ramiro Martinez, president of the luceedfl Kelly Air Force Base Chapter of the ding'Jmmerican Federation of Govern- yyjth, ment Employees, said other employ- routFifies may be in danger working near dkmjBie planes during fueling, urate i Martinez alleged the bomber was eing fueled in an unauthorized rea. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses say fire fighters sent to battle the blaze were [delayed by a locked gate. itar al reffl , broat id. ige c« r sho» The San Antonio Express-News reported Thursday that eyewit nesses, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Air Force firefight ers in six fire trucks had to wait up to 10 minutes until someone unlocked jthe gate. No fire truck was standing by as a))(#1 the bomber was fueled, and emsel'ft heir 6 ,oTfi togeit man said! ngf km taining the flames was left to a small flightline fire truck not equipped to deal with a major blaze, the witnesses told the newspaper. Civilian worker Jesus Pedraza Jr., 38, was killed in the blaze. Eyewitness reports and other alle gations of unsafe practices during fueling of aircraft at Kelly are under investigation by the union, Martinez said. His group sent a letter to base officials telling of their concerns. Gen. Alfred Hansen, commander of the Air Force Logistics Command at Wright-Patterson AFB at Dayton, Ohio, is heading an Air Force-ap pointed investigation board looking into the fire. Other board members from bases throughout the nation also will investigate. Kelly spokesman Phebe Brown said she had no comment on unoffi cial statements about the response time of base firefighters. “We have no idea what caused the accident,” Brown said. “There is a thorough investigation under way.” Details and any comments on pos sible causes of the accident will not be released until the investigation is complete, which could take 30 days, Brown said. Crash of Korean DC-10 in Libya kills at least 82, hits cars, 2 houses ROME (AP) — A Korean Air DC- 10 jetliner crashed short of a fog bound airport in Tripoli, Libya on Thursday, killing at least 82 people — including four on the ground — as it cartwheeled through an olive grove, authorities said. It was the second crash of a DC-10 in eight days. A United Air Lines DC-10 crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, on July 19, killing 111 people. The Korean plane, carrying 199 people, hit two houses and cars and split into three flaming pieces before it came to rest about a half-mile from the airport. More than 110 people were hospitalized, the official Libyan news agency reported. Korean officials said most aboard Flight 803, which originated in Seoul, were South Koreans return ing from vacation to their jobs on en gineering and construction projects in Libya. There were about 78 dead from the plane, according to the first sec retary of the South Korean Embassy in Tripoli. The diplomat, who iden tified himself only as Mr. Chun, said Libyan officials reported that four people were killed when the plane’s landing gear slammed into two houses. Chun said many of the victims were badly burned, making a count of the dead difficult. He said 18 crew members sur vived, and four of them were slightly injured. Also surviving were three Japanese passengers, he said. All other passengers were South Korean except for seven Arabs, he said, and four of those, possibly Libyans, were believed to have been killed. The plane approached the airport in heavy fog, and Chun said there was no mechanical problem or ex plosion. “We don’t know if the pilot made an error or if the tower made an er ror,” Chun said. “The captain is con scious. He thinks he did not do any thing wrong.” Survivor Kwon Hyuk-hwi told the Korean Broadcasting System he was reading a book in the first-class sec tion when an announcement was made that the plane was about to land. “Instantly there was a crushing impact and then came shrieks by horrified people. I kept my body as low as possible and lost conscious ness,” he said. The plane cartwheeled for about 400 yards before breaking into pieces, another South Korean diplo mat in Tripoli, Chang Kyung-soo, told Korean TV. The official Libyan news agency. JANA, said the plane slammed into two houses and hit cars on a road near the airport, which is set amid groves of olive and lemon trees about 35 miles south of the coastal capital of Tripoli. Federal regulators reject call to ground DC-10s sTrff leal fora !: nrobjl 1 Attorney general candidate Bryant faces accusations of diverting funds DALLAS (AP) — An airline pas sengers association on Thursday called for the grounding of all Mc Donnell Douglas DC-10 jetliners in the U.S. until any structural defi ciencies are fixed, but federal regu lators and the aircraft maker re jected the call. The International Airline Passen gers Association wants the Federal Aviation Administration to order the planes out of use in the wake of the July 19 crash of a United Air lines DC-10 in Sioux City, Iowa, that killed 111, said spokesman Daniel Smith. Citing the Sioux City crash, Smith said it is evident that the aircraft’s dual hydraulic systems, necessary for flight control, do not work and the systems need to be separate. IAPA wants to “first, find out what’s wrong with the aircraft; and secondly, get it fixed,” said a letter delivered Thursday to FAA chief James Busey in Washington. Smith said the organization has not ruled out court action to get the planes grounded, but in the letter said, “We believe it is far better for you to act independently, free of any imposed direction from outside the FAA.” Smith also claimed there are other design deficiencies in the planes, which entered commercial fleets in 1971. At least 17, or 3.8 percent, of the 445 DC-10s built have been wrecked because of their problems, Smith said. By comparison, 1.2 percent of the Lockheed L-lOlTs have been wrecked, and 1.5 percent of the Boe ing 747s have crashed, he said. FAA spokesman Jay Leyden said. See DC-10/Page 6 AUSTIN (AP) — Texas Attorney General I candidate John Bryant was accused by one op- p ponent of shepherding a weakened consumer jkbill for a constituent who later gave him H $50,000, and criticized by another for diverting |i federal campaign funds to his state race. But spokesmen for Bryant dismissed what || they called the “tag-team attacks” as evi- H dence that the Dallas congressman is the candi- g date to beat in the Democratic Party primary in || March. “At the very least, they both acknowledge that ■ John Bryant is the front runner,” Carlton Carl, ™ Bryant’s press secretary, said. State Rep. Dan Morales, D-San Antonio, said IG. Ray Miller, director of a Dallas-based alterna- jtive operator telecommunications company, contributed $50,000 to Bryant three days after Bryant watered down legislation aimed at regu- ■ lating Miller’s industry. “I can think of nothing more harmful to the H well-being of our party and our state than the i fl perception that an elected official’s vote is for | sale to the highest bidder,” Morales said. Houston attorney John Odam said Bryant is violating the spirit of campaign finance laws by dumping funds he raised from federal political I action committees into his attorney general cam- I P ai gn. Odam said federal contributors gave Bryant I more than $600,000 believing that he would use jH the funds to finance future congressional races. Bryant has offered to return federal PAC 'M money, but Odam said that was “a tacit admis sion that it is unethical to spend that money in the attorney general’s race.” Odam sent a 10-point ethics code, which in cludes not accepting any out-of-state PAC funds, to Bryant and Morales, saying if his op ponents refuse to abide by the code, “I will “I I will do my best to make sure all Texans find out who among the candidates in this race merely talk about ethics in government and who delivers.” — John Odam, Houston attorney do my best to make sure all Texans find out who among the candidates in this race merely talk about ethics in government and who delivers.” Morales sent a letter to Bryant saying he should return the $50,000 contribution from Miller “and step forward to explain your ac tions.” Morales said Bryant limited the authority of federal regulators to restrict exorbitant sur charges for calls routed through private switch boards. Morales said these charges are the main source of revenue for International Telecharge Inc., which Miller directs. But Bryant’s spokesman, Carl, said the bill was not supported by the alternative operator service industry. “The bill says if these alternative operator service companies don’t thoroughly clean up their act and comply with the law they will be put out of business. “It’s certainly not the kind of thing those com panies would be entirely happy with,” Carl said. Carl said Miller made the contribution be cause he and Bryant have been friends for years. John Pouland, campaign coordinator for Bryant, said Bryant has offered and returned some federal PAC funds. “We probably have returned several thou sand dollars,” he said. Odam’s declaration of not taking out-of-state campaign contributions was an empty gesture, he said. “He’s not going to take out-of-state PAC funds because no one is going to give him any,” Pouland said. “It’s easy to give up something you don’t have.” But Odam said he already has received some out-of-state PAC contributions, and plans to re turn them. Computer system aids parking permit mailouts By Cindy McMillian STAFF WRITER A&M students will have one less line to wait in this August thanks to a new computerized method of distributing parking permits. More than 21,000 parking per mits and bus passes were mailed two weeks ago to students who re quested them during telephone preregistration. Tom Williams, director of A&M’s Department of Parking, Transit and Traffic, said the old process required students to register for permits in person and often involved a long wait in line at the beginning of the se mester. Williams said the new permits were mailed along with the fee slips and registration materials sent out by the fiscal department this month. Williams’ department used a computerized bar-code reader to get information from the registration materials and as sign hang-tag permits to students. The hang-tag permits, which slip on rear-view mirrors, will re place window stickers for all auto mobile permits. Williams said the tags should be more convenient for students since they move easily from car to car. The system also eliminates the need for registration of vehi cles with the department. The mail distribution system and hang-tag permits were tried on a trial basis last year with a small sample of students, Wil liams said, and both were well-re ceived. He said another new service of fered this fall will be a shuttle sys tem called Dial-a-Ride. From 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., students may call 847-RIDE from any location on campus and have a bus come and take them to the parking lot. Williams said students may call from campus buildings or from any of the recently installed emergency phones. One bus will be available for the service ini tially, he said, but more may be added if necessary.