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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1992)
identialitv iuch made we have aid. Theci protectee, Tt know It rsede th Mark! Mostly cloudy with scattered showers, highs in the 70s Take time today to do something for yourself. If you don't love yourself first, no one else will either” - Tanya Williams, Columnist Page 11 TEXAS A&M COLLEGE OF MEDICINE Upgrade helps school accomplish goals, receive funds Page 2 END OF THE STREAK: A&M defeats TSU after losing 12 straight games Page 5 has coopci -ial assassr and will IA Direc! Me no put ;es proposi The Battalion vow Tilii 8 a ; The Dal i Wednes; ngthatstni tment pi al® from _ Local authorities are warning con- ‘cutive di:|kumers to watch out for offers that sound oo good to be true, because they proba- ly are. Larry Lightfoot, executive director of il is comi: he Better Business Bureau in Bryan, said id-fiscalie it is important for consumers to know so) thatl who they are doing business with before ” hesaii lansactions are made. -ntly will Lightfoot said the bureau has received ’peal a da ationalop: city as a fol. 91 No. 93 College Station, Texas ‘Serving Texas A&M since 1893’ 12 Pages Friday, February 14, 1992 Bryan bureau warns customers about scams, urges caution By Karen Praslicka The Battalion and LesK eal calls recently concerning door-to-door magazine salesmen who say they are sell ing the magazines to earn points for scholarship money for school. "Everybody can relate to needing money and needing an education," he said. However, those who bought the mag azines say they continue to receive bills, and have not received any magazines, Lightfoot said. Another recent scam the bureau has received complaints about is "advance fee loans," Lightfoot said. Consumers interested in receiving loans call companies and give their name, phone number, social security number and place of employment. They are told they are eligible for $5000 to $50,000 in loans, plus instant credit. Applicants are sent a packet of information to fill out, which must be returned to the company by overnight mail. The information pack et costs about $299. "It's so easy to get this money —sup posedly," Lightfoot said. Applicants are told their information will take six weeks to process, and then they will receive the money. Lightfoot said, however, that appli cants never hear from the company again. Those who call the company are told their applications are still being processed, or find out the phone has been disconnected. "It's hard to catch them (the compa nies), because by this time they're already gone," he said. Lightfoot said the bureau also warns against applying for certain credit cards. Companies offer the cards for $380, and tell applicants they will have $380 of cred it. There is a $65 fee to get the card. Lightfoot said this really does not es tablish any kind of credit, because the company is actually using the applicant's $380 for their "credit." The card's interest rate is 22%, and the companies make money from the interest charged the credit card user, he said. Lightfoot said that sometimes these kinds of problems can be avoided if con sumers take their time and think about what they are about to do. "All these problems can be eliminated See Think/Page 12 lesbian k; job the! oned tali '(aminati: headq® oymentl ^land n a t - examij; of seven d complet pplicatio he depai: 'ision hi decision domy lai les furthe Detectives classify recent fires JPD suspects arson in Fowler Hall blaze By Ursula J. Burrell The Battalion in its a[ tths to lointedt ? budjf dWTAt irder sa Fires set on Feb. 8 in trash cans in two breezeways in a residence hall have been classified as arson, not criminal mischief, a University Police detective said. "The arson statute in the Texas By then penal code states that a person reappfaj commits arson if they start a fire or cause an explosion with the intent berCtoi to destroy or damage a building, vehicle, structure or anything like that," Detective Will Scott said. The incident in Fowler Hall has been classified as an arson be cause of the possibility of endan gering human life, he said. Au thorities estimate the fire caused thousands of dollars of damage. "Around $8,000 to $10,000 of damage was done," Greg Mead, resident director of Fowler, said. "Bricks burned and soot covered the ceiling. The breezeway closest to Fowler-Keathley beach received the most damage." There is no evidence that the fire was started with a flammable liquid, Scott said. Firefighters on the scene said the fire seemed to have been ignited by a lighter or match. Fowler residents and Universi ty safety officials have taken steps See Recent/Page 12 m n official oanyci! lersoh 'nvirot- ct. ed Raii : firm of tantsto ■ssmenl ih train ect 1-C1 ar coo' kuthoo -nenda' mpaflf ydimio- jd role ! Texas 1 envi' isionei of tie voted ^ct to a the] iCnud istruc- ngthe ■risoo ,p of e kiss ail of r bid- lather o un- cause i rail' jfive ,euw rieer- least ,ject, only eject date and con- BILLY MORAN/The Battalion A dirty job Raymond Olson (left), a firefighter, and Lt. Terry Thigpin of the College Station Fire Department survey the damage to a Kawasaki Ninja motor cycle hit on Wellborn Road across from the tennis courts Thursday. Flooding continues Southern California prepares for onslaught of Pacific storm LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homeowners and emer gency crews battered by this week's killer floods, among the worst of the century, beefed up their de fenses Thursday as a big new Pacific storm loomed, drawing energy and moisture from the tropics. The storms that hit southern California beginning Sunday have dumped more than a foot of rain in some areas, killed at least seven people and swamped homes, businesses and streets and highways. Four people were missing. Preliminary damage es timates in Los Angeles County alone topped $7.6 mil lion. The region got a chance to catch up a little Thurs day during spells of sunshine as showery remnants of the latest storm front rolled through the Los Angeles area with thunder and lightning. "We're getting ready for the next big push," said Bob Collis, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Depart ment. "We've just ordered another 10,000 sandbags," said Malibu fire Capt. Virgil Lockhart. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the na tion's second largest school district, cancelled Friday classes for nearly 600,000 students. The district called it "a prudent common sense precaution." Meteorologists said the storms' strength and heavy rain resulted from El Nino, the sporadic warming of surface water in the eastern Pacific that generates strong thunderstorms over the equator. The jet stream can funnel that energy and moisture northward to fuel storms like the one expected to hit by late Friday with the potential for an additional 3 to 5 inches of rain. Monday's storm, which flooded part of the San Fer nando Valley and stranded motorists, "was computed to be a 100-year event," or the worst that might be ex pected in any 100-year period, said Rick Leifield, assis tant chief of engineering for the Los Angeles District of the Army Corps of Engineers. Yeltsin makes demands Anti-Semitism increases in Texas Leader pushes for unified military control MOSCOW (AP) - President Boris Yeltsin may form a Russian army this week if the former Sovi et states don't accept unified mili tary control, his aides said Thurs day, stepping up pressure on the eve of the commonwealth's third summit. Leaders of the 11-member Commonwealth of Independent States began gathering in Minsk, Belarus, for a difficult two-day meeting that leaders hope will re solve the divisive military dis putes threatening the association's future. Military schisms afflicting the 9-week-old commonwealth al ready have hurt the coordination of economic reforms in the former Soviet Union and thrown doubt on hopes for a harmonious al liance. Military officials on Thursday drew up 13 proposals intended for discussion at the summit, includ ing one setting each state's share of a common defense budget and See Ukrainians/Page 12 By Gina Howard Tire Battalion Anti-Semitic incidents reached a record high last year with, for the first time, more inci dents reported against Jewish individuals than against their property, an official from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith said. "The ADL has a mandate to fight anti- Semitic behavior, so we track incidents and fol low the trends," said Barbara Harberg, South west Regional Director of ADL. "For the past thirteen years we have seen an increase." Nationwide, 950 incidents of anti-Semitic harassment, threats and physical assault were reported, compared to 929 acts of vandalism, according to an audit published every year by the ADL. "Now we are becoming more and more concerned about the kinds of incidents that are being committed," she said. "The trend is to ward more violence." In Texas, a total of 45 anti-Semitic incidents were reported, which is almost double the 1990 figure. "We're very concerned because the num bers are up dramatically in Texas," she said. "We think some of the reason is that skin head activity is up in Texas. Also, this sort of activity tends to increase in times of deteriorat ing economic conditions. People look for some one to blame." Incidents that can be considered anti- Semitic may range from a Jewish person re ceiving rude letters or death threats to graffiti on buildings to murder, Harberg said. She said the Crown Heights incident in New York was an anti-Semitic incident be cause the murderers were yelling 'Heil Hitler' and 'kill the Jew' while stabbing Yankel Rosen baum, a Jewish man. "It is troubling how acceptable racist be havior is becoming," Harberg said. "When ex tremism enters mainstream political life what is acceptable behavior goes down. See County/Page 12 Survey misrepresents attitudes toward TCA, residents say Poll indicates overall approval of franchise By Alysia Woods The Battalion A survey commissioned by TCA Cable gives the local cable franchise a favorable report, but some resi dents say the results don't reflect the community's at titudes. Randy Rogers, TCA's General Manager for the Bryan-College Station office, said the survey was con ducted to find out what customers thought of TCA. The cable company commissioned the Gallup Orga nization, Inc. to conduct the local survey as a result of recent criticism about the quality of service TCA of fers its customers. All 400 respondents were current cable sub scribers in the Bryan-College Station area. Survey items for the study were developed by TCA Cable ex ecutives. "We wanted to find out the strengths and weak nesses of our services," he said. "Basically, we got a good report." However, Don Rice, a resident of College Station and an engineering technology professor at Texas A&M, said TCA and the community would have been better served had the company allowed mem bers of the community to become involved in ques tions asked in the survey. "They (TCA) asked questions that would have made them look good in the eyes of the city council," Rice said. Dr. John Eltinge, an assistant professor in the statistics department at Texas A&M, said it's impor tant that companies who conduct surveys present all See Customers/Page12 DAWN HELLUMS/The Battalion Council member Jim Gardner, Mayor Pro-Tern Fred Brown and Mayor Larry Ringer (left to right). The College Station city council unanimously passed an ordinance last night to regulate present and future cable companies that operate within the city. The council defeated a proposed amendment to the ordinance that would have limited the city's ability to tax cable advertising. The new ordinance will allow the city to tax advertising such as pro gram length commercials, commercials for video cassettes and commercials for 900 numbers. Other new regulations give the city the ability to raise the current two percent tax on gross revenue to five per cent — as well as redefining what gross revenue will consist of. Randy Rogers, general manager of TCA Cable, feels the new ordinance will give other advertising mediums an unfair advantage over cable. "This means if they do their advertising on cable, they would get a special tax that they would not have if they advertised in the newspaper, or radio, or on channel 3," Rogers said.