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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1990)
TATE and LOCAL E|^:| riday, December 7, 1990 The Battalion urder increase in Texas lamed on poverty, gangs eyes, >ur shirt ' hands, essfina r n Bryarj he hot |DALLAS (AP) — A woman is shot death as she unwittingly walks a gun battle between two 18- -old men arguing over a baseball teen-ager is shot after a high ool football game in a confronta- n with another youth who appar- jtly stepped on his tennis shoes. Two teen-agers are shot to death id two are wounded in a fight over pld tooth that f ell from the mouth lone of them. That’s just in Dallas. |The number of murders has ged in Texas’ three largest cities s year, part of a nationwide trend t worries many experts and citi- There have been 414 homicides in las so far this year, compared to 1 for all of 1989 and a previous re- |rd of 366 in 1988. Houston police say 555 people ve been murdered compared to 2 in 1989. By this time last year, 2 people had been slain in Texas’ “in this country, we really do have an underclass.... To some degree, nothing in life looks very valuable to them. They don r t have a lot of options.” — Dean Kilpatrick, crime researcher largest city. And in San Antonio, police report 203 murders, up from 156 at this time last year and 169 for all of 1989. The Texas cities are not alone; the number of murders has increased in the other seven of the nation’s 10 largest cities. “We can expect most major cities to surpass all-time homicide rates this year,” said Dean Kilpatrick, di rector of the Crime Victims Re search and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Caro lina in Charleston. The reason is drugs, poverty and, some experts say, a growing disre gard for human life. “Little value is being placed on human life,” Kilpatrick said. “In this country, we really do have an under class. ... To some degree — to a lot of people in that underclass — nothing in life looks very valuable to them. They don’t have a lot of options.” Houston police have linked more than a third of the city’s homicides this year to drugs, said Debbie Mc- Menemy, statistical analyst for the department. Gang activity is blamed for the in crease in San Antonio, said Sandy Perez, a police spokeswoman. At least 30 deaths have been connected to the so-called Mexican Mafia, a gang that operates in Texas prisons and the city. I joins NASA in investigation f alleged hacker phone fraud )S them :hem- HOUSTON (AP) — The FBI has ned an investigation of an alleged mputer hacker ring accused of pil ing millions of dollars in tele- one charges from the Johnson ■ace Center over the past two ■ars. ®But NASA officials on Thursday “categorically denied” news reports oj large-scale, unauthorized use of Icpg distance phone service at the center. ■In a copyright story on Wednes- dav, the Houston Chronicle re ported that computer-assisted ■eves obtained telephone service that experts said could be worth $ 12 million — a breech described as the biggest in the nation. The Chronicle quoted sources in the computer underground who re quested anonymity as saying NASA’s phone exchange had become the primary conduit for “phone phreak- ing” in the months since the DEA sealed its breach. “Phreaking” is slang for unautho rized use of phone service, typically done to charge off extensive costs for tapping into electronic bulletin boards through phone lines to other computers around the world. “I can confirm that we are looking into the Johnson Space Center” inci dent, said FBI Special Agent Ro lando Moss in Houston. P be NASA officials disputed the esti mate. “The entire (Federal Telephone System) charges for the Johnson Space Center average about $3 mil lion per year,” the center said in a repared statement. “There has en no appreciable change in FTS call statistics from JSC nor indication of significant abuse of the FTS sys tem over the last several years. “The particular FTS service cited in the article was disconnected on Nov. 16, 1990, when JSC officials discovered that the service had been published in a so-called ‘hackers’ bulletin board,”’ the statement read. Reporter j ailed for contempt over source CORPUS CHRIST! (AP) — A district judge Thursday ordered a newspaper reporter jailed for refusing to answer questions about interviews with a capital er tn- At a pre-trial hearing, reporter Libby Averyt of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times refused 12 times to answer questions about the interviews with Jermarr Ar nold, accused of killing a jewelry store clerk during a 1983 rob bery. State District Judge Eric Brown of the 28th District Court cited Averyt for contempt of court, then released her on her own re cognizance until a 9 a.m. Friday hearing, to allow time for work to be completed for careeration. The judge said once Averyt ;oes to jail she will stay there until agrees to discuss the inter views. Averyt claimed protection un der the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a corre sponding provision in the Texas Constitution. ’ “I don’t want to go to jail,” the 26-year-old reporter said after Thursday’s hearing. “But my de sire to avoid jail is outweighed by my duty to stand up for what 1 believe in. “And I believe that if every time 1 interview someone, the en tire conversation could be scruti- candy fewer people wotil^” 1 be willing to talk to me. And if they will not talk to me, then 1 cannot fulfill my role as a reporter and inform the public.” Averyt and the newspaper’s at torney, Jorge Rangel, told the judge that free-speech provisions protect reporters from having to divulge the content of interviews, other than what is published. Rangel said requiring testi mony on unpublished material would have a '‘chilling effect” on the newsgathering process. Ethics reform Richards makes change top legislation priority AUSTIN (AP) — Ethics reform legislation will be a top priority in the 1991 Legislature, Gov.-elect Ann Richards says. The Democrat, who will be sworn in Jan. 15, said in an interview with the Associated Press that she already has discussed ethics reform with Bob Bullock, who will become lieutenant governor, and House Speaker Gib Lewis. “We are of one mind that ethics legislation should be No. 1 or 2 or 3 on our agenda,” Richards said. “It’ll be discussed and debated very early on in the session.” She also said former congresswo man Barbara Jordan has agreed to serve as her special counsel on ethics. The three state leaders made ethics reform an issue in their cam- and aides said the three met Wednesday to begin draft ing the legislation. Richards said she wants to require disclosure of lobby expenses of more than $ 100 per occasion and the cre ation of an ethics commission to oversee ethics law enforcement. She also said she would like to see a limit on campaign contributions. “I think there has to be limitation on the size of contributions from any source, whether it be a PAG (political action committee) or an individual,” she said. Richards said she wants an ethics package that includes full financial disclosure, including federal income tax returns for all statewide elected officials. “That way, the public has a very clear idea of whether there are any conflicts of interest,” she said. Tim Conger, press secretary to Lewis, said the four-term speaker wants to see a reform bill passed in the upcoming session. “He’s been committed to passing ethics for some time,” Conger said. “We made a fairly large push in the special sessions (earlier this year) to get ethics in the call and pass a bill.” Conger said that a low House bill number, usually reserved for prior ity legislation, had been set aside for ethics legislation. Bullock issued his own detailed ethics reform plan during the cam paign and reiterated last week that he wanted action. “Not only is the government short on cash ... it is short on credibility,” Bullock said. For nearly two years, dozens of news stories have detailed lobbyists’ lavish gifts to members of the Legis lature. These included everything from golf outings to vacations. An Asso ciated Press survey found that lobby ists reported spending more than Ann Richards $2.2 million on gifts and entertain ment in 1989 alone. Campaign contributions also have been under scrutiny, particularly af ter East Texas chicken magnate Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim distributed blank $10,000 checks on the Senate floor during a special session on workers’ compensation insurance. Several lawmakers also are work ing on ethics bills. Among them is a bill by Rep. Betty Denton, D-Waco, to create a Texas Elections and Ethics Commission. 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