84$.
[he Battalion
TATE & LOCAL
3
li Friday, June 8,1990
ii per collider passes spending recommendation hurdle
ssociated Press
hat
hat;.
‘e apf,
isasil
s avs f ■ The superconducting super col-
choii^ lider leaped over its first 1991 fund
ing hurdle when a House subcom-
ivithtiBiittee Thursday unanimously
[j . accepted the White House’s spend-
II ing recommendation of $318 mil-
ich mj
n
ualac
“sid
ire in.;
pose
lion.
I “We are fully funded,” Rep. Jim
Chapman said, emerging from a
osed session where the energy and
ater development panel of the
ouse appropriations committee
ok the action.
The step marks the first time a
Spending request for the collider has
en met in full at the subcommittee
vel, Chapman, D-Sulphur Springs,
id.
The recommendation will be
ken up next week by the full ap-
ropriations committee and will
likely reach the House floor later
his month.
The measure includes $168.9 mil
lion for construction, $116 million
|or research and development and
33 million for capital equipment.
The super collider is part of a bill
ppropriating $20.9 billion for en-
rgy and water projects in 1991. The
easure includes about 25 new pro-
0I( |,l e cts, Chapman said.
With the backing of a five-year au-
horization plan approved by the
;" 0[I ' House last month, super collider
■ties)i proponents are confident it will re-
o.u;
'redj
Committee begins reviewing project ideas
DALLAS (AP) — Somewhat like selecting
options for a new family car, members of an
advisory committee began fielding sugges
tions from top physicists about what the
planned superconducting super collider
should do.
Fourteen groups representing more than
1,500 scientists began making presentations
Thursday about possible projects, including a
“Siberian snake concept” and another to shoot
subatomic particles underground to Arkan
sas.
“Some of the best physicists in the world are
obviously eager to go,” Roy F. Schwitters, di
rector of the SCC laboratory, said.
When completed, the 53-mile particle acce
lerator is expected to confirm many theories
about matter and energy while disproving
others.
Schwitters said Thursday that completion is
at least eight years away, adding that it’s “too
soon to say” how much the total cost will be.
Current estimates say about $8 billion.
The project passed a critical test Thursday
when a House subcommittee in Washington
unanimously accepted the White House’s
spending recommendation of $318 million
for the super collider.
The experimental programs being touted
in Dallas by representatives of the 14 groups
not only included recommendations for possi
ble experiments, but concepts for detectors
that can record results of experiments.
More than 100 people, including many of
the world’s leading physicists listened as the
presentations unfolded Thursday. The oral
presentations were scheduled to continue Fri
day.
The proposals will be evaluated by the advi
sory committee during the summer and the
fall. The committee will make its recommen
dations Nov. 1-3.
Alan Krisch of the University of Michigan
led off Thursday with a pitch to include spin-
correcting devices in the collider. He stressed
the importance of considering the rotation of
the protons as they are shot out around the gi
ant ring.
Under the proposal from Krisch’s group, a
series of eight half-meter-long magnets would
be placed every 3 kilometers. At each point,
the magnets would force protons to flip over
180 degrees.
“Whatever imperfections there are in the
facility would cancel each other out,” Krisch
explained.
The technique is called the “Siberian snake
concept,” and one of its creators, Y. Derbenev
of the Soviet Union, will soon be conducting
research at Ann Arbor, Mich., alongside
Krisch.
Another group wants $150 million to
search for the Higgs particle, which has
eluded scientists so far. Group spokesman
Dick Lander said the particle’s attributes have
been predicted by many, including namesake
Peter Higgs. The super conductor has been
designed to be large enough to find one.
“If it exists, it should show up as a particle
that decays into four other particles. It’s al
most guaranteed the way the theory is written
that we’ll find it,” he said.
year authorization bill capping
llider a
alto:
v (tit:
t
aftoi
uses.:
>exui
istra
g
.11 SOU)
evens
then;
urelv
is, an;
-sew. 11
profi:
I,
ceive full funding by the time it
leaves Congress.
But Chapman cautioned, “The
budget summit may come in and
change some of these numbers.”
“Whether this holds all the way
from here to the White House, that’s
what the legislative process is all
about,” he said.
The collider, to be built south of
Dallas, is a 54-mile underground
ring where protons directed by su
perconducting magnets will be
smashed together by scientists study
ing the fundamentals of matter. It
will be the largest scientific instru
ment ever built.
Rep. Joe Barton, whose district
will be the collider’s home, arrived to
congratulate Chapman as the panel
broke up.
“This is phenomenal,” Barton
said. “To come right at the mark in
this budgetary environment is just
amazing.
The collider, a Department of En-
ergy project, is now estimated to cost
about $8 billion. But the department
is expected to provide another esti
mate by the end of the summer.
After several hours of floor de
bate May 2, the House passed a five-
KAMU-TV documentary takes
second at Houston film festival
By JAMES LOVE
Of The Battalion Staff
A KAMU-TV documentary addressing the issue
of dropouts in Bryan and College Station public
schools finished second recently in the 12th annual
Houston International Film Festival.
“School Dropouts,” which aired as a three-seg
ment program during the spring as part of the “15
Magazine” series, was produced by Bruce Biermann,
producer and director of KAMU-TV.
The 30-minute special was awarded the second-
place Silver Award and selected from 85 interna
tional entries in the “Local Television Program
ming” division of the competition.
The program was based on the 1987-88 Student
Dropout Research Project conducted by the Texas
A&M University/School Collaborative.
Biermann said this is not the first time he has
tackled a tough issue as a producer and director.
“I often find myself researching the ‘not-so-fun-
to-hear-about’ stories,” Biermann said. “It’s not I’m a
dark, depressing person. It was just something that I
felt I should do.”
Biermann said the award was a surprise and an
honor, but he believed he had an obligation to in
form people about the dropout problem.
“I want people to know what’s going on,” he said.
“I believe the airwaves are public property, and since
I work in public broadcasting, I feel that I have an
obligation to inform people.”
Biermann said he learned a lot in making the pro
gram and was especially shocked to hear what some
of the young students at risk had to say in their cas
ual conversations.
“In listening to some of the fourth and fifth grad
ers, it became overwhelmingly obvious to me that
this is not a government problem; it’s not the school’s
fault, or too much television,” Biermann said. “This
is a family problem.”
Biermann said the families of potential dropout
students were deficient in values and were not teach
ing their children to have goals or to value them
selves.
He said many families did not eat dinner together
or show interest in each other. Oftentimes, family
conversations were negative, he said.
“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” he said. “The
schools are no longer teaching math and science.
They’re having to pick up where the families are fail
ing by teaching the students to have pride in them
selves and to set goals for their lives.”
Beirmann said he hoped his program helped peo
ple understand more about the dropout problem in
the local area and what they can do to help.
_ fed
eral spending on the collider at $5
billion. Texas has pledged $1 billion
and $2 billion is expected to come
from foreign countries and other in
vestors.
A delegation of government offi
cials led by Deputy Energy Secretary
Henson Moore is nearing the end of
a two-week trip to Japan, South Ko
rea and other countries in the Far
East to invite participation in the
project.
Chapman said the subcommittee
appropriated $317.8 million for the
collider with little discussion.
“It went very smoothly,” he said.
“The subcommittee staff and mem
bers did not want mark-up to be a
debate forum for the project.”
Earlier Thursday, the ranking Re
publican on the subcommittee. Rep.
John Myers of Indiana, said he
hopes the United States will make
the most of technology yielded by
the super collider’s construction and
use.
Myers told a coalition of compa
nies participating in the the atom
smasher that the country hasn’t capi
talized on scientific breakthroughs
in recent years.
Barton told the group he was con
fident the collider would be funded
on its own merit. But the “bigger pic
ture” being framed by the budget
summit could cause problems, he
warned.
blasts animal activists
Health secretary defends scientific research
Associated Press
Secretary of Health and Human
Services Louis Sullivan, with an indi
rect reference to a Texas Tech scien
tist whose lab animals were stolen,
blasted animal rights extremists
Thursday for disrupting important
research.
Sullivan called animal research
“an integral part of mankind’s striv
ing for the betterment of humanity.”
Actor David Birney, who ap
peared with Sullivan and others at a
news conference designed to blunt
an animal rights rally at the Mall this
weekend said, “There is an enor
mous potential for the cure and
management of many diseases that
are significantly derived through an
imal research.”
Several participants mentioned
last July’s break-in and theft of cats
from the Texas Tech lab of physiol-
ogist John Orem. The loss of the cats
and vandalism at the lab set back
Orem’s research of sudden infant
death syndrome about 10 months,
he said recently.
Researchers are looking for a
cause for the disorder, which kills
about 8,000 children annually.
“When the animal rights activists
broke into John Orem’s lab ... they
claim to have liberated five cats,”
Jana Koch, whose 9-year-old daugh
ter received an animal-tested pace
maker shortly after her birth, said.
“What they didn’t emphasize is
they also will have liberated 8,000
babies this year from their chance to
grow up,” Koch said.
Sullivan said, “The humanity of
animal research iS'embodied in the
work of the medical researcher ur
gently seeking a solution to the tra
gedy of sudden infant death in the
crib.”
Lenore Rumpf, whose 18-month-
old son was placed on an animal-
tested heart-lung machine just after
his birth to treat a defect, said her
niece died from sudden infant death
syndrome last December.
“We really must support medical
researchers, not impede their ef
forts,” she said.
Estimates of the damage to
Orem’s lab range from $50,000 to
$85,000. An underground group
called the Animal Liberation Front
claimed responsibility for the break-
in. No arrests have been made in the
incident, officials say.
Similar break-ins and thefts have
cost the nation’s medical schools $6.5
million during the past five years,
said Dr. Tom Bowles of the Associa
tion of American Medical Colleges.
A bill by Rep. Charles Stenholm,
D-Stamford, that makes it a federal
crime to steal animals from research
facilities and farmlots will be dis
cussed by a HouSfe agriculture sub
committee next week.
Stenholm said he became inter
ested in the animal research issue af
ter animal thefts at Orem’s lab and
several agricultural operations.
Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minnesota,
who is a member of the House ap
propriations committee, said he sup
ports such legislation.
“They are a strong, growing, pow
erful movement,” Weber said. “I be
lieve it’s reasonable to state there is
no political movement that more di
rectly threatens the quality of life of
the American people in the 1990s
than the animal rights movement.”
Sakowitz prepares to close its Texas stores after failing to find new buyer
HOUSTON (AP) — Sakowitz, a fixture
in the state’s retail business for decades, is
closing its stores in Texas after failing to
find a new buyer for the financially trou
bled chain.
A liquidation order was signed Wednes-
lay by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tina Broz-
:nan in New York for the four Sakowitz
Stores in Houston and the one in Dallas.
About 420 Sakowitz employees will lose
their jobs once the liquidation sale is com
pleted. The going-out-of business sale is ex
pected to begin next week and end late next
month.
L.J. Hooker Corp., which owns 80 per
cent of the chain, has been disposing its as
sets under bankruptcy court supervision. It
plans to keep the Sakowitz store in Cincin
nati open indefinitely to maximize the value
of the Hooker-owned mall in which it is lo
cated.
Former Sakowitz chairman Robert Sako
witz had tried to prevent the liquidation,
but he couldn’t find investors willing to
back his efforts to make a bid. He is the
grandson of one of the two men who
founded the chain 88 years ago in Galves
ton.
Observers in the Houston retail industry
said the liquidation would mark the end of
an era.
“Besides the unfortunate business of
people losing their jobs, Sakowitz was an in
stitution in Houston,” Ed Wulfe, president
of Wulfe & Co., a retain consulting com
pany, said.
Sakowitz Inc. lost $4.4 million in the fis
cal year ending Jan. 31. During the past
three months, it lost $1.3 million.
Wilhelm Mallory, the acting chairman of
Sakowitz Inc., said the chain has been losing
money because of inadequate inventory or
merchandise to pull in customers.
But enough inventory is left, Mallory
said, for a successful liquidation. The sale is
expected to generate enough money to pay
Sakowitz’s debts in full.
STAR TEL
Summer school may not be easy,
but your choice for STAR TEL is.
Come by and see us in the M.S.C.
or the Pavillion May 31-June 8.
Or call the office at 779-2830.
A tradition at Texas A&M since 1981.
f e
r\** •
JL
r • y 1
3
f fG3l
r* * * i
LanJ
Mario & Sons Pizzaria
&. Italian Restaurante
PIZZA SPECIAL.
NORTHGATE
ACROSS FROM
THE POST OFFICE
846-0379
2 topping 16” large
Dine-in or delivery
T.
99
tax
NBA FINALS & WORLD CUP SOCCER ON T.V.!
ENTIRE MENU AVAILABLE FOR DELIVERY
A. A I.. A A..A.. A. .£t-
A A ^ A A A A.,.. A A- . A. A A A-.. A A A A A A ^ A •> c. C A
iFkmws
E ! R RS
Don't forget
FEE OPTION 23
for your VHS copy of
1989-1990
Texas A&M University's Video Yearbook