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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 1990)
Texas A&M Battalion Former student finds calling Former A&M football player returns to College Station to counsel A&M athletes. See Sports Page 5 >1.89 No. 172 USPS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas Friday, July 13,1990 fenine checkup Photo by Sondra AT. Robbins (Left to right) Dr. M.R. Herron, Kim Pavelock and Charles Elli- Clinic. Dr. Herron is specifically working with greyhound dogs for thorpe examine an injured greyhound dog at the Small Animal the race track business that will be legal in Texas in October. Yeltsin resigns; move threatens to cause exodus MOSCOW (AP) — Populist Boris N. Yeltsin quit the Communist Party on Thursday in a move that could start the exodus of liberals that Pres ident Mikhail S. Gorbachev has warned could destroy his reform movement. Yeltsin’s dramatic announcement to the 28th Communist Party con gress capped a day in which nis or thodox Marxist foe, Yegor K. Liga- chev, was vanquished in a bid for the party’s No. 2 job. For more than two years, Gorba chev has balanced the party between liberals, led by Yeltsin, and hard liners led by Ligachev. The depar ture of Gorbachev’s two antagonists marked a triumph for Gorbachev’s centrist politics. Yeltsin, elected president of the Russian republic in May on the strength of nis populist program, be came the first non-Communist leader of that huge territory in 72 years of Soviet power. The burly, white-haired reformer strode down the center aisle to the podium in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses and read without emo tion from a sheet of paper to a silent audience. He said that as newly elected pres ident of Russia he could no longer obey only the policies of the Com munist Party. “In connection with my election as the chairman (president) of the Su preme Soviet of Russia and my great responsibility before the people of Russia, taking into account the tran sition of society to a multiparty sys tem, I cannot fulfill only the deci sions of the Communist Party,” he said. “I have to bbey the will of the peo ple and their all-powerful represen tatives,” he said. “Therefore in con nection with my obligations, I declare my exit from the party.” Yeltsin’s announcement was greeted with some applause, whistles of derision, and shouts of “Shame!” He left the podium and walked out of the congress hall without further comment. Yeltsin said he had planned to make the announcement after the congress, but was forced to do it ear lier because he was nominated for the party’s Central Committee, which will be elected before the con gress adjourns. Gorbachev said Yeltsin’s resigna tion would not be discussed at the congress, but otherwise showed no reaction. Outside the hall, however, one ? rominent military official called eltsin’s actions disgraceful. Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov said Yeltsin made a “shameful speech.” The Communist Party helped Yeltsin “and suddenly he throws it up and leaves it,” Ogarkov said. Yeltsin’s resignation led the Soviet evening television news program “Vremya.” The announcer declared the resignation a “sensation.” "Blood drive collects 201 pints ^ m emergency one-day b\ood drive ■sdnesday at First Baptist Church the )f isjryan collected 201 pints for area ■spitals drastically short on blood supply. n.at ijoe Brown, communications di- ■tor for the city of Bryan, called K blood drive a success, even P- m ' ||>ugh the figure of 201 pints is ■ver than the 240 collected at about ■s time last year. " ' ■ We’re very pleased with the out- ■ne,” Brown said. “It also was a pm press because so many organiza- ■ns helped out in the project.” The city of Bryan, Bryan Police Department, Brazos County and Bryan’s First Baptist Church spon sored the blood drive. Despite the added blood, Brazos County still is far short of its needs. Brown said the hospitals in Brazos County are almost 2,000 pints short of the amount of blood used here during the past year. Officials said the blood drive was necessary because donations usually are down in the summer because many people take vacations and are busy with other activities. OU encourages youth continue education laid, blist Jpis win By JULIE MYERS Df The Battalion Staff (Texas A&M students aren’t the )nly students on campus getting an - m pademic leg up this summer. I h Youth Opportunities Unlimited, a [IjMlwately funded, eight-week pro- ‘“hm, brought 14- and 15-year-olds m Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Hous- ih and San Antonio to A&M to ex- rience college life and encourage em to continue their education. The program gives 123 students a ance to do something different s summer by earning nigh school math credit and gaining work expe- rience in campus jobs. 1 I Wash Jones, YOU job developer, Rd students were not selected from ays; local areas because part of the pro gram’s purpose is to take them away from their home environment and show them other areas. “They need to know they don’t have to stay in their home situation,” Jones said. Students in the program are con sidered at risk of dropping out of school, either because of academic or economic reasons. Jones said students who qualify ei ther are doing poorly in high school or come from a family situation that makes it hard for them to stay in school. Students from large families, for example, sometimes feel pressured to drop out of school, get a job and help support the family. See YOU/Page 4 „ angers residents nds exposed to cancer-causing radiation ■RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Peo- -rPlt who live downwind from the j/^ranford nuclear reservation reacted i3lfl|rith anger and relief Thursday —^about the government’s disclosure ■at enough radiation spewed from nis f the base to cause cancer. ■ratf “I feel like they used us for guinea igt°pigs, and I don’t feel like they cared be rone iota what happened to us either, “Obr our families,” said Betty Perkes, a thafarmer in Pasco, which is next to the ns a '560-square-mile reservation. erlJJ An independent panel of scien- Jits released preliminary data js "Thursday that showed some resi- , ^ nts ' n l h e early years of atomic- linjPbomb building in the 1940s could 'rivajfive been exposed to large doses of ^radioactive iodine. For a few infants, ie doses were as high as 2,900 rad iver three years. One rad is the id ''ahount of radiation a body organ -e J’would absorb from about a dozen issjjest X-rays. br 15 The preliminary study results ■me a day after Energy Secretary eyejames Watkins admitted past Han- IJrd emissions may have caused ct jiakh problems. John Till, a South Carolina con sultant who chaired the 18-member panel of scientists and experts, cau tioned that the figures were not meant as health risk estimates. But, Till added, “These numbers are significant because that is a lot of folks. That dose level is significant enough to strongly justify a thyroid dose study.” A parallel study by the federal Centers for Disease Control will use the exposure estimates to try to doc ument cases of thyroid disease among Hanford-area residents. The Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project con cluded that most people living near the Hanford site from 1944 to 1947 were exposed to low doses of radia tion. The study covered 270,000 people living in 10 Washington and Oregon counties. The radioactive iodine was pro duced when spent reactor fuel rods were chemically dissolved to pro duce weapons-grade plutonium and uranium. When it concentrates in the thyroid gland, iodine-131 can cause cancer and other diseases. A&M team helps airborne hospital By SEAN FRERKING Of The Battalion Staff An airborne hospital and teaching facility is giving hands-on experience to an architectural team from Texas A&M and providing better eye care for people in developing nations around the world. Project ORBIS is an international, humanita rian organization dedicated to fighting blindness worldwide and promoting peaceful cooperation among nations. Interestingly, ORBIS means “of the eye” in Latin and “around the world” in Greek. The non-profit group operates aboard a 20- year-old DC-8 airplane and has flown to more than 60 nations since it began operation in 1982. A&M’s College of Architecture got involved with Project ORBIS when architecture student Richard LaSalle was searching for project ideas for his medical facility class in 1985. Dr. George Mann, LaSalle’s professor, con tacted Oliver Foot, ORBIS’s president and excu- tive director. Foot told Mann ORBIS had been looking to update its medical facilities by purchasing a DC- 10 jetliner and said the organization could use preliminary floor plans for the new plane. After the intial floor plan was completed, con tact between the two groups was maintained. Then, in 1988, Collen Dement, also an A&M architecture student, was flown to Beijing to work on a more detailed floor plan for the DC- 10. After Dement’s graduation, A&M’s Dr. Ward Wells and A&M senior Ben Childers continued the project by flying to Honduras in June. Wells, a professor of architecture who special izes in interior design, said the two met with the medical staff of ORBIS in Honduras to get an idea of how the operation actually worked. “When we met in Honduras, we gained a lot of hands-on experience,” Wells said. “It’s really a great chance for Ben to deal with a more realistic situation than we can provide in the classroom.” He said Childers and he are interested in the location of certain supplies, the design of the op erating room and storage compartments. “We won’t be doing any of the actual engi neering, though, ” Wells said. Childers could not be reached for comment. Dr. Holly Peppe, director for external affairs for Project ORBIS, said student projects from A&M have been very helpful to the organization. “The students at A&M have really helped us at ORBIS,” Peppe said. “Their plans have given us some great ideas on how to improve the design of our medical facility.” Peppe said final plans for the jetliner will be drawn by professionals, but the work done by students is worth the expense of flying students to locations around the world. Peppe said the DC-8 is divided into three dif ferent compartments. Besides the operating room, the plane has a post-op and a classroom fitted with the latest in medical technology. “We have the audio-visual capabilities of a TV studio,” Peppe said. “During the operation, the doctor can talk the operation through and local doctors can ask questions. We find this teaching procedure is extremely effective.” Project ORBIS offers a three-week training program to countries at the invitation of their governments and local doctors. Each week, a visiting faculty team of volunteer eye surgeons join an international 25-member team of doctors and nurses to demonstrate and share surgical skills with host-country doctors. Project ORBIS has been endorsed by the sec retary general of the United Nations and leaders from 58 nations as an international ambassador of goodwill. The politically nonaligned organization has taught more than 10,000 doctors and treated more than 10,000 patients. ORBIS is funded by donations and gifts-in kind from corporations, foundations and indi viduals and by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development. Peppe said she hopes ORBIS can continue its work and help every person who needs it. “We all want to stop blindness,” Peppe said. “With the help of students like those at A&M, we know we can do it.” Multiple-queen mounds mean more fire ants Scientists re-evaluate impact of insects By KATHY COX Of The Battalion Staff Discovery of multiple-queen fire ant colonies is forcing scien tists to re-evaluate the insects’ im pact on the environment. Instead of traditional single queen ant colonies, scientists now are discovering mounds with two or more queens, said Bart Drees, a Texas A&M Agriculture Exten sion Service entpmologist. “This means these fire ants are non-territorial,” Drees said. Fire ants traditionally are thought of as territorial insects, he said. For example, if one ant mound is dumped on another, the fire ants in the two mounds would fight to death. But ants in multiple-queen col onies do not attack one another. “Now we’re seeing mounds built closer together,” Drees said. “This can mean ten times as many ants.” Because scientists originally were thinking in terms of single queen colonies, he said this dis covery means the ants could have a greater impact than previously thought on the environment. Fire ants affect both humans and animals. Ants are a nuisance to man, Drees said, because the mounds are considered ugly and can pose medical problems. “Some people are medically sensitive to ant bites,” he said. Fire ants identify a food source and recruit workers to collect it. “If something is competing for the food source, the ants will at tack it,” Drees said. Fire ants affect animals, but Drees said there are no reports of the insects killing off any endan gered species. There have been reports of de clining numbers of snakes, horn toads and lizards due to fire ants, he said. “Unfortunately, these reports are anecdotal, not documented,” he said. Fire ants, which are native to South America, are thought to have been brought to the south ern United States by cargo ships. Dirt used for ballast (to balance the ships) might have been in fested with fire ants, Drees said. Two kinds of fire ants, black and red, are found in the United States, but the black fire ant has not spread like its red relative. “Perhaps the black fire ant is just not as aggressive,” he said. But the red fire ant has been spreading, although rather slowly, and reaches as far north as southern Oklahoma and its west ward expansion covers about one-half to three-fourths of Texas. Drees said freezing weather can stop the ants’ progress, espe cially to the north, because ants are killed by a freeze. Dry areas also slow the ants’ progress, he said, because they need water to survive. Western spreading could be slowed by dry weather. Drees said, but if fire ants reach the Rio Grande, they can use the river as transportation to western states. “They use rivers as highways,” he said. Fire ants cannot be eradicated, so Drees said he prefers fire ant management, or a “program ap proach” to suppress fire ants. Chemical methods are not per manent, he said, and biological control (such as using other spe cies of ants to prey on fire ants) is being studied but is not effective alone either. “We need to use all the tactics toghether to suppress fire ants,” Drees said. In the hot, dry conditions of summer, fire ants begin to forage indoors for the food and water they need. A continuous approach is needed for fire ant control around the home, Drees said. He first recommends a bait form of insecticide around the area. This should be followed by a cleanup of “escape mounds” around the area with individual mound treatments, such as drenches or dusts.