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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1990)
The Battalion Vv\\ 111 ///. WEATHER 1 TOMORROW’S FORECAST; Mostly sunny and cool HIGH: 60 LOW; 40 ' Vol.89 No.99 USPS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, February 21,1990 ast Germans cheer Kohl odrow appeals for immediate reunification Out in left field EAST BERLIN (AP) — East Ger- ian Premier Hans Modrow, [pressed by mass emigration and a Icrumbling economy, appealed Tues- Iday for immediate reunification italks under a formula worked out I with the Allied victors of World War II. Helmut Kohl, the West German [chancellor, urged Modrow’s govern ment to create a social security sys tem as generous as West Germany’s as a means of stopping the flight. Kohl made a campaign trip to [East Germany, lending his support to conservatives there and telling a [ rally of 90,000 that his government will provide aid to help tne troubled country’s social safety net. The chancellor, a Christian Dem ocrat, was repeatedly cheered by the large crowd in the city of Erfurt, who waved West German flags and shouted for quick unification. He tried to justify his refusal to give massive aid to the current in terim, Communist-led government. “I was not ready to invest billions in a system if I can’t see that the citi zens will benefit,” Kohl said. The crowd responded by shout ing, “Helmut, Helmut.” More than 400,000 people have left the East for West Germany in the past year, most of them skilled workers, after giving up hope of sig nificant improvement in living con ditions at home. Kohl met with West German in dustrial leaders Tuesday to draft plans for “solidarity with East Ger many,” and told journalists his gov ernment would help finance unem ployment benefits and pensions for East Germans. He was vague about the degree to which West Germany would under write the costs of East Germany’s transition to capitalism, however, saying only that Bonn could provide “start-up financing” for the benefits. Points Plus, A&M negotiate mhhhhhh m * gfH - igg lliiiii ... >311 By PAM MOOMAN Of The Battalion Staff Points Plus, a local business, would like to join forces with Texas A&M to help students manage their money, but the University may not welcome the alliance. Jody Read, owner of Points Plus, spoke at Tuesday’s Student Senate meeting. Points Plus uses a plastic card that subtracts the amount of purchases from the cardholder’s account. The service is free to cardholders. Seventeen different types of stores in Bryan and Col lege Station accept Points Plus, Read said. Points Plus also offers bill-paying services for a nominal fee. “One of the largest problems students have in this community is managing their money,” Read said. Read has been negotiating with A&M for several months to get Points Plus accepted on campus. Read said there was a question raised by Mary Eliza- bpth Herring, one of A&M’s attorneys, about the insur ability of the funds. The funds, which are in Caldwell National Bank, are under FDIC protection, Read said. Robert Smith, A&M’s vice president of finance and administration, was also at the meeting. He said A&M had two conditions for Points Plus to meet, and one has been satisfied. Now the University is demanding proof of insurance, although neither Smith nor Herring ex plained exactly what kind of proof A&M needed before it would accept Points Plus on campus. Herring did say that A&M’s concern is how money will be returned to students in the event of the failure of Points Plus. In other business, Ron DeLord, state Senate candi date, said he was running on an education platform. Texas spends more money to put someone in prison than to educate a child, he said. “We can send a kid to Harvard cheaper than we can incarcerate them,” he said. Texas ranks 31st in the nation on education spend ing, DeLord said. “We’re operating like the whole world is ‘Ozzie and Harriet,’ ” he said. But Texas needs to improve the sys tem that exists, he said. DeLord supports a voting student representative on the Board of Regents. “You have a right to be represented,” he said. “I’m not frightened by democracy.” DeLord also said he supports structured gambling, such as a lottery, and he opposes a state tax. Halbouty: Lack of corporate values puts nation’s ethics, welfare in danger ByANDYKEHOE Of The Battalion Staff Michel T. Halbouty is simply dis gusted with corporate America. In a presentation sponsored by the MSC Great Issues committee Tuesday, Halbouty spoke about the “Moral and Ethical Values in Free Enterprise,” or as he said, the lack thereof. “The greed and avarice in today’s business world- has replaced the tra ditional work ethic,” Halbouty, Class of’30, said. “The total disregard for ethics in business today borders on the obscene.” Halbouty, an internationally re nowned earth scientist and engineer, is chairman and chief executive offi cer of the Houston-based Halbouty Energy Company. He recently re ceived the University’s top honor for career achievement, tne Distin guished Alumnus Award. With the hostile takeovers and rporate raiders of the past decade, nb< business that shows a greater desire to destroy corporations than to build them. The results of such actions, he says, will be costly to the welfare of the entire country. “People are just out to make money, thinking to hell with the con sequences,” he said. “In the end, it will be our nation, with its layoffs and setbacks, that loses the most.” Halbouty blamed the United States’ poor technological standing 3 zj? \ ji T.. '» *2* ? -H .pib : * . . ,• w- , S - v >r, ' / y> 's&ml - ’Mm . ’ . v ■ '<■« ■ £& : - , A ><4^ * - ^, mamg Jody Goodman, a junior finance major, watches the A&M-Lamar game Tuesday afternoon from a Photo by Scott D. Weaver transformer in the intramural softball fields.He said he sits there to collect home-run balls. Halbouty said he sees a trend in See Halbouty/Page 6 Alumnus stirs crowd in Grove Williams announces future goals, sparks heated confrontations among students Tab on money spent for governors race could reach $50 M By CHRIS VAUGHN Of The Battalion Staff Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams whipped up the crowd gathered at the Texas A&M Grove Tuesday before reaf firming his wish to increase the war on drugs without increasing taxes. Williams, Class of’54, was making his first campaign appearance since the deaths of five friends and busi ness associates in a plane crash last Wednesday. The Midland oilman led the crowd in Aggie yells before deliv ering a 20-minute speech outlining his plan to build more prisons, send young drug offenders to military- style boot camps, and hire more law enforcement officials to fight the drug war. Williams’ speech sparked several discussions, including a heated con frontation between a member of the Corps of Cadets and a man who dis agreed with Williams’ positions. Williams is leading fellow Repub lican candidates Kent Hance, Texas Railroad Commission Chairman; Tom Luce, Dallas attorney ; and Jack Rains, former Texas Secretary of State, by the most recent polls. The Republican and Democratic primaries are March 13. Williams said Texas can afford to do more in the drug war by cutting back on state expenses instead of raising taxes. “I am not going to raise taxes,” he said. “I want to make cuts and streamline our existing state govern ment. I want to make government better, not bigger.” Williams has said he proposes cut ting all state operational budgets by 7 percent except in education, crimi nal justice and health care; putting a freeze on all state hiring in areas ex cept education and criminal justice; repealing the state’s current wage law; and selling all state planes and printing shops to private owners. He said that by streamlining the state government, more money can be spent to build more prisons, cre ate boot camps as an alternative for young people with drug offenses, in crease the number of law officers and begin drug education in kinder garten. Although the drug war remains Williams’ highest priority, he said, he would try to lower the number of high school dropouts in Texas, in crease the vocational training for Texans, and deregulate the trucking industry. “I want to restore the wonderful business climate of Texas,” Williams said. “You need to elect more Re publicans to office. The Democrats don’t care about the Texas business climate.” Williams said that he has no opin ion on a state lottery and would let the voters decide if one should be es tablished. “We should just throw it out for the people to vote on,” he said. “I’m not a gambling man.” Williams told the crowd that he is dedicated to being the first A&M graduate to serve as governor. “I’ve always been proud of being an Aggie,” he said. “The lessons I learned here and the friendships I made at this beloved University have stayed with me forever.” ates spent ' land Photo by Jay Janner Bryan resident Scotty Voelkel, part of a small group of protes ters, argues with a Williams supporter at Tuesday’s rally. Several students who disagreed with Williams held up signs during his speech before getting into dis cussions with Williams supporters after the speech. Most of the dis cussions revolved around Williams’ position on the drug war. One man asked Williams if he thought a ban on assault rifles would fight the drug war more effectively than boot camps. “We should punish the guy who commits the crime and not take the rights away from the rest of us,” Wil liams, a member of the National Ri fle Association, said. AUSTIN (AP) — The $93,432 a year, but seven for governor already have more than $20 million trying to it, and analysts say the final tab could hit $50 million. The bulk of the money is going to produce and broadcast television commercials, exposure that’s man datory for reaching the state’s 17 million residents. Texas is so large that to blanket it, a candidate must purchase air time on more than 70 stations in 21 TV markets, including outlets in Arkan sas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. “Campaign costs are going up be cause of television and postage. The television advertising is so expensive and the markets are so numerous, it costs a ton to run for office,” said George Christian, political consul tant and former press secretary to President Lyndon Johnson. “It’s unfortunate,” he said. “But it’s a fact of life in Texas.” Four Republicans and three Dem ocrats are vying for nominations in the March 13 primaries to succeed retiring Gov. Bill Clements, the state’s only Republican governor in 100 years. Top spender is the man who according to polls is the leader in the Republican primary field: million aire oilman Clayton Williams. He has spent $6.4 million — more than $4 million of it from his personal bank account — and first aired tele vision commercials in August. State Treasurer Ann Richards, who leaped to national attention by keynoting the 1988 Democratic con vention, leads in Democratic race polls but lags in fund-raising at $2.1 million. The Democratic financial lead goes to Attorney General Jim Mat- Absentee voting begins today Absentee voting begins today and will last until March 9. On-campus absentee voting in the Democratic primary will be in 146 MSC. Republican on-campus absentee voting wil be in 138 MSC. The other three county absentee poll ing sites are the Brazos County Court house on 26th S t r e.e t in Bryan, Ben Milam Elementary Ridgedale Street in the College Station trict administration Welsh Avenue in College Station. All registered voters in Brazos County can vote absentee at any of the four polling sites, regard less of the precinct in which they are registered. All four precincts will have a complete list of registered voters, so voters who have moved or lost their voter registration cards and don’t know where they should vote, can vote absentee. Illustration by Doug LaRue School on Bryan and School Dis- office on tox, who has raised more than $4 million and spent $3.7 million, in cluding almost $2 million on tele vision ads in the past month alone. Former Gov. Mark White raised $3 million since joining the Demo cratic race in November.