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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
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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
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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
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Detectives
classify
recent fires
JPD suspects arson
in Fowler Hall blaze
By Ursula J. Burrell
The Battalion
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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
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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.