f The Battalion
J STATE & LOCAL
& Tuesday, Jujy 17,1990
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What’s Up
Tuesday
NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS: will have a general discussion at 8:30 p.m. Call
the C.D.P.E at 845-0280 for more information.
STAGECENTER COMMUNITY THEATRE: will have auditions from 7 to 9 p.m.
at 3715 East 29th in Bryan. Call 846-0287 for more information.
Wednesday
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: will have a general meeting at noon. Call the
C.D.P.E. at 845-0280 for more information.
TEXAS ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION COALITION: will have a speaker at 7 p.m.
in 118 Civil Engineering Building. Call Charlie at 822-3577 for more infor
mation.
Items for What’s Up should be submitted to The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald,
no later than three business days before the desired run date. We only publish
the name and phone number of the contact if you ask us to do so. What's Up is
a Battalion service that lists non-profit events and activities. Submissions are run
on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no guarantee an entry will run. If you
have questions, call the newsroom at 845-3315.
Former students donate
is memorabilia to center
By ELIZABETH TISCH
Of The Battalion Staff
to
rying;
togei
Texas A&M former students are
rolling up their sleeves to search
their attics and closets for Aggie
memorabilia to donate to the new $3
million Corps of Cadets Center.
The center will be under con
struction in the fall.
Former cadet George Morgan
Crook, Class of ’20, from Paris,
Texas, is contributing a little bit of
A&M’s history 54 years after his own
death.
According to an interview with
the Paris News, Dr. J. Craig Ste
phens, a cousin of the Crook family,
discovered the A&M memorabilia in
the house of Crook’s sister, Thelma
Crook Johnson, after her death in
1989.
Stephens told the Paris newspaper
that Crook was obviously an out
standing cadet judging from his uni
forms which indicated his position
on the Corps Staff and the Ross Vol
unteers.
Among the uniforms, Stephens
found Crook’s World War 1-vmtage
"regular” cadet uniform, complete
with hat, cadet rank, ROTC em
blems and a crossed-rifle insignia
which was a sign of membership in
the infantry.
Also, a pennant used at the A&M
vs. University of Texas football
game in 1917 was found with the
rest of the historical items.
The pennant, which read “A.M.C.
— 7, t.u. — 0,” symbolizes an impor
tant year to Aggies. According to re
cords, 1917 was the year no one
scored against A&M’s football team.
The winter issue of First Call, a
publication from the Corps of Ca
dets Development Council, states the
center will enable the Corps “to pre
sent its history and visually illustrate
its programs and role in student life
while preserving one of the tradi
tions begun by the Corps — welcom
ing visitors to the campus.”
The memorabilia will be displayed
in the largest room in the center,
called the Hall of Honor.
The hall also will be where heroes
will be honored and A&M’s history is
featured.
Court hears plan for school funding
“I
If Texas had the will, there are untapped sources of
revenue that could be applied to public education.”
Craig Foster,
Equity Center director
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas has a way
to equalize education funding be
tween rich and poor school districts
without going broke. What the state
needs is the will to do it, an advocate
for poor school districts testified
Monday.
“If Texas had the will, there are
untapped sources of revenue that
could be applied to public educa
tion,” Craig Foster, director of the
Equity Center, said as the court hear
ing on the state’s new school funding
plan began its second week. “And
they could do it without breaking the
bank.”
Foster, whose Austin-based group
represents about 200 poor school
districts, said legislators missed an
opportunity to bolster the education
budget when they allowed several
so-called temporary tax increases to
expire.
The taxes, which raised $571 mil
lion, included an increase in the
business franchise tax, an insurance
surcharge and professional fees.
They were passed in 1987 to help
bridge a multi-billion dollar state
budget deficit. All had lapsed by last
January.
The legislative plan passed in
June would raise about $528 million
for the 1990-91 school year. It in
cludes increases in the state sales and
cigarette taxes and other state fees.
Poor districts say the latest plan
perpetuates the same system that led
the Texas Supreme Court to rule the
school finance system unconstitu
tional last year.
The new law doesn’t limit the
amount of money school districts
can raise from local property taxes.
Poor districts argue that wealthy dis
tricts can therefore continue to raise
more money through property taxes
than poor districts can.
Public schools are financed by
state funding, local property taxes
and some federal aid.
State District Judge Scott
McCown, who is presiding over the
hearing, said he hopes to decide if
the Legislature’s plan meets the Su
preme Court mandate by Sept. 1.
In an out-of-court development,
Texas Education Commissioner
W.N. Kirby said the new state fund
ing plan could fall $100 million short
if local school districts statewide raise
taxes, which would then recquire the
state to pay a higher matching share
to local districts. Because state funds
are limited, some districts, probably
wealthy ones, would not get the state
funding they’re entitled to, he
warned.
Assistant State Attorney General
Kevin O’Hanlon asked Foster if he
would rather the Legislature allocate
money to education than for health
programs that serve critically ill chil
dren.
Coast Guard licensing proposal
angers commercial shrimpers
CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) — Congress may disagree,
but Rockport shrimper George Polinard says he has no
need of a license to navigate his boat through Texas
bays and the Gulf of Mexico.
“There’s an awful lot of people who were born and
raised on the waters,” Polinard said. “They could oper
ate at night without fathom meters or compasses and
never have any problems.”
In 1988 Congress passed the Commercial Fishing In
dustry Vessel Safety Act, ordering the Coast Guard to
draft safety regulations for commercial fishing vessels.
The Coast Guard is accepting public comments on the
licensing and safety proposals until Aug. 20.
Polinard said he believes it makes sense to license rec
reational boaters or those who transport passengers for
hire, but that it doesn’t make sense to license shrimpers
and other commercial fishermen.
“We know what we’re doing on that water better than
anybody,” he said.
Coast Guard statistics, however, show that the com
mercial fishing industry outranks either mining or
quarrying as the most dangerous industries in the
United States.
There were 37 deaths per 100,000 workers in the
commercial fishing industry in 1988, compared to
nearly 34 deaths per 100,000 in the mining and quarry
ing industries, according to U.S. Department of Com
merce statistics.
All industries combined had an average of 5 deaths
per 100,000 in 1988.
“The good new's is the death rate is going down,” Lt.
Cmdr. Bruce Pickard of the Coast Guard said. “The
bad news is that the number of vessels lost is going up.”
In response, Congress passed the Commercial Fish
ing Industry Vessel Safety Act, requiring the Coast
Guard to draft safety regulations for commercial fish
ing vessels, including shrifnp boats. The act also calls
for the Coast Guard to submit a plan to Congress for
the licensing of commercial fishing boat operators.
Only Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Florida
have licensing programs for recreational vessels; no
states require licenses for operators of commercial fish
ing vessels.
“Right now there are no
for going out on the water,
major difference between licensing a vessel and licens
ing an operator. You register your car. Does that mean
you know how to drive?’
Wilma Anderson, who owns shrimp boats in Aransas
Pass, said she does not believe new licensing require
ments will create that much of a hardship for area
shrimpers.
She said shrimpers with vessels of a certain tonnage
have already been licensed, and that many other boat
captains have taken safety courses.
The president of the Texas Shrimp Association said
he is worried about overkill by the federal government.
Harris Lasseigne said he favors a mandatory two-day
safety training session for shrimp boat operators, but
objects to the flurry of new regulations.
“We’re getting oombarded left and right,” he said.
“First, you don’t have any regulations at all and then all
of a sudden you have a lot of regulations.”
The proposed safety regulations, published April 19
in the Federal Register, include requirements that ves
sels be equipped with readily accessible fire extinguish
ers, life preservers, immersion suits, visual distress sig
nals and survival craft. The regulations also require
individuals in the commercial*fishing industry to report
every injury or illness to their supervisors within seven
days, and for vessel owners, agents and masters to re
port all job-related deaths to the Coast Guard.
The new safety regulations may become effective as
early as 1991, Coast Guard Cmdr. Mike Rosecrans said.
For the 110,000 commercial fishing industry vessels
in the United States, the capital costs resulting from the
proposed regulations is estimated at $71.6 million, the
Coast Guard said.
professional requirements
” Pickard said. “There’s a
Beach erosion
causes worry
for officials
GALVESTON (AP) — Beachf
ront development may be good
for the economies of Texas Gulf
Coast cities, but state officials are
worried there may be no beach to
develop.
A study from the University of
Texas shows that almost half of
Texas’ shoreline and 56 percent
of the vegetation line retreated
between 1974 and 1982. State of
ficials are beginning to take note
of the erosion.
The General Land Office,
which was made responsible last
year for coastal management, is
conducting a series of workshops
and hearings and expects to an
nounce its recommendations on
preserving threatened beaches in
September.
Land office officials at a recent
hearing in Corpus Christi sug
gested the developers be required
to build farther from the water.
Other measures under consider
ation would require beachfront
developers to shore up their
property with sand. *
“The beach is going,” A.R.
“Babe” Schwartz, 63, a former
state senator who has lived in Gal
veston all his life, said. “Regard
less of what they say, it’s going.”
The General Land Office is es
pecially concerned about Galves
ton’s West Beach.
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J Pastors call on Richards to stop
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SAN ANTONIO (AP) —- A group
of San Antonio pastors called on
Democratic gubernatorial candidate
Ann Richards to withdraw herpub-
lic support for repeal of the Texas
statute outlawing homosexual activ
ity.
Asked about the law last week,
Richards said she doesn’t believe the
government should be interfering in
Texan’s private lives “on any issue
you can name.”
Twenty-three clergymen from
many denominations and churches
signed a petition which criticizes
Richards for accepting campaign
contributions from groups that pro
mote homosexual rights.
“What we do not want is a public
stand by a politician to have (the so
domy law) repealed,” Gilbert Perez,
pastor of the Temple of Praise
Church, told the San Antonio Ex
press-News.
“We think repeal of the Texas so
domy law is a bad public policy posi
tion for Ann Richards to take,”
Perez said, “and a position that
deeply disturbs us as ministers of the
gospel.”
Richards campaign manager
Glenn Smith said Richards hasn’t
changed her stance about keeping
the government’s say in peoples’ pri
vate lives to a minimum.
Perez said that the group wasn’t
endorsing Republican gubernatorial
candidate Clayton Williams. He also
said none of the pastors are con
nected with the Williams campaign.
Billy Hobbs, associate pastor of
Alamo City Baptist Church, said the
pastors also don’t endorse a lifestyle
in which it is acceptable to solicit a
prostitute as a young man.
The jab was aimed at Williams,
who has said he solicited prostitutes
while he was a teen-ager and while in
college.
In other political news, Richards
on Saturday won the endorsement
of the 5,000-member Texas Confer
ence of Police Officers and Sheriffs.
“In the Richards administration,
those men and women on the front
line will have a friend in the gover
nor’s office,” Richards said.
8 Driver’s race with
TSOI,
AMARILLO (AP) — Any driver’s decision to try to
beat an oncoming train at an intersection is “sheer stu
pidity,” an Amarillo police investigator said Monday in
the wake of a train-car collision that killed two girls and
critically injured one man.
Police said Monday they still hadn’t determined who
was driving the car that went around crossarms at a rail-
—' road crossing during the weekend. The accident just
before midnight Saturday killed Debbie Bright, 15, of
Amarillo and Christy Michelle Moore, 13, also of Am-
I arillo.
I A 24-year-old man, Cicolay Phanthourath of Am
arillo, was in critical condition Monday at Northwest
Texas Hospital, suffering from “multiple trauma all
over the body,” a nursing supervisor, who asked not to
| be identified, said.
Witnesses told police the driver of the 1986 silver
train ends in death
Mercedes apparently drove around the crossarms to
beat a Santa Fe Railway train through the intersection.
“It’s just sheer stupidity,” investigator Mike Weath
erly said. “The crossing arms are down for a reason. It’s
no big surprise there is a train coming.”
He could not say if one of Phanthourath or one of
the girls had been driving. “You can’t draw any kind of
conclusion because you can’t tell with drivers these
days. But we will figure it out shortly.”
Weatherly said he did not know if any of the victims
had been drinking before the accident.
Police said Santa Fe Railway employees tested the
cross arms after the accident and said tney were work
ing. The cross arms were not damaged.
Astronaut candidates Man sought
stay optimistic despite for assaulting
NASA’s recent troubles P oliee offlcer
See NASA Study/Page 4
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP)
— Several new astronauts said Mon
day they were confident the space
agency will overcome its recent rash
of problems and resume flying space
shuttles.
The astronaut candidate class of
1990 reported to work for the first
time Monday — the same day the
Bush administration ordered a re
view by outside experts of the na
tion’s long-term space goals.
But the news didn’t dampen the
spirits of the 23 astronaut candi
dates, who were chosen earlier this
year from nearly 2,000 applicants.
They talked briefly with reporters
on their first day at work.
“They’ll fix the shuttles. I don’t
have any doubts about that at all,”
Marine Corp. Maj. Terrence Wil-
cutt, one of seven pilot candidates,
said.
Dr. David Wolf, a mission special
ist candidate, added, “It’s very
prudent to shut down the shuttle
system until they fully understand
the problem.”
After undergoing a year of train
ing and evaluation, the 23 candi
dates will become full-fledged astro
nauts. It probably will take at least
two more years after that before any
of them get a shuttle flight assign
ment.
Besides the seven pilots, the 1990
class includes 16 mission specialists.
Eleven of the 23 are civilians and 12
are military pilots.
Of the five women selected, three
are military officers, including the
first woman to be named as a pilot
candidate. The class also includes El
len Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman
to be selected.
“It’s been a big day,” Air Force
Maj. Eileen Collins, who will be NA
SA’s first female shuttle commander
if all goes according to plan, said.
Despite the problems facing
NASA, Collins said she, too, is opti
mistic about NASA’s future. She also
was not dismayed to hear the Bush
administration had called for the
outside review of NASA.
“If our president feels it’s some
thing that needs to be done, it needs
to be done,” she said.
NASA has endured a spate of re
cent embarrassments, including
troubles with the $1.5 billion Hubble
Space Telescope and hydrogen leaks
that have grounded the space shuttle
fleet.
But several of the candidates said
problems with sophisticated ma
chines are not unusual.
“There are high points and low
points in any airplane or weapon sys
tem,” Collins said. “You learn to get
through the bad times.”
Navy Capt. Dan Brandenstein,
head of the astronaut corps, said he
was confident that the NASA leaders
in Washington will get the agency
through the current crisis.
“I don’t really think it was
needed,” he said of the call for the
outside review.
F.E. Sherwood
Brazos County Crime Stoppers is
seeking information about a 31-
year-old black male wanted for as
sault of a peace officer and motion
to revoke.
Floyd Earl Sherwood is described
by the Brazos County Sheriffs De
partment as a 6-foot-1 black male
weighing about 200 pounds.
Sherwood is 31 years old and has
black hair and brown eyes.
If you call Crime Stoppers and
your information leads to his arrest,
Crime Stoppers will pay you $250.
When you call 775-TIPS, you will
be given a special coded number to
rotect your identity, so you won’t
ave to testify in court.
Crime Stoppers also pays for in
formation on any felony crime or
the location of any wanted fugitive.
A FULL SERVICE SALON
209 Dominik
College Station, TX
(409) 696-3003
We fix $6 00 haircuts
■cut herei
DEFENSIVE DRIVING CLASS
July 20, 21, 1990 (6-10 p.m. & 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)
STATE APPROVED DRIVING SAFETY COURSE
Register at University Plus (MSC Basement)
Call 845-1631 for more Information on these or other classes
D&M EDUCATION ENTERPRISES
cut here
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