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Should the United States allow
college scholarships based on
race?
-Battalion columnists debate
the question
Page 7
sponsors symposium
on current women's issues
Page 2
No two in a row
UT gets revenge
on Lady Aggies
Page 5
The Battalion
with the mom®
1.91 No. 94
College Station, Texas
‘Serving Texeis A&M since 1893”
8 Pages
Monday, February 17, 1992
se.
mans
ternational delegation meets to discuss trade agreement
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of
otiators will meet behind closed doors
Js week in Dallas to grapple with the
ough issues standing in the way of a
'/ |prth American free trade agreement.
J Expectations are high that U.S.,
C 3 yc Mexican and Canadian negotiators will be
^ J 1 able to substantially resolve — or at least
sen — differences on thorny issues
ecting the agricultural, automotive,
:rgy, financial and textile sectors.
"The pressure is really on to produce
Dallas, otherwise I think it will be
ystically impossible to have a free trade
reement this year,” said Rep. Bill
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Richardson, D-New Mexico.
But government officials, while
expressing optimism about the pace of the
talks, are downplaying the results they
hope to achieve from the week-long
sessions.
Negotiators hope to refine the rough
draft produced last month by reaching
common ground on many "bracketed”
areas of disagreement. The differing
positions staked out by each country are
included in brackets in the draft.
At this point, "practically everything
that's major" remains in brackets, said
Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee.
The U.S. Trade Representative's Office
won't reveal how many areas remain in
brackets, although Trade Representative
Carla Hills has conceded "there are
many."
"Our hope is to try to remove a
substantial number of brackets," said
Timothy O'Leary, a Hills spokesman.
"Realistically, will we be able to
remove them all? It would be nice if that
happens, but probably unrealistic to
expect it that way."
A senior U.S. trade representative
concurred.
"In Dallas, we have a lot of hard work
to do and the hope and expectation is that
we can make a lot of progress," he said on
condition of anonymity.
"I expect we will end up the week
with some hard political issues not
resolved and the ministers will have to
grapple with those."
Bentsen, whose committee oversees
trade issues, said the Dallas talks
probably won't provide the breakthrough
needed to write a final text.
"How fast they can take those
brackets off, I wouldn't hazard an
estimate of time, but it's going to take
some," said Bentsen, D-Texas. "It's not
one of those things that's going to be
resolved this month, I don't think."
Hills regularly insists politics plays no
role in when she will submit an
agreement to Congress, although many
political observers say she must produce a
final text by April if lawmakers are to
consider it this year.
But an administration official said the
White House is carefully monitoring the
mood on Capitol Hill, gauging whether
rising protectionist sentiment and the
upcoming elections may torpedo passage
of a trade pact.
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Israelis kill
pro-Iranian
in Lebanon
Shiite Muslims vow revenge
for death of Hezbollah leader
SIDON, Lebanon (AP) -
Israeli helicopters blasted a
convoy Sunday carrying the
leader of the pro-Iranian group
Hezbollah, killing him and his
wife and son. Shiite Muslim
leaders vowed revenge and called
for a holy war against Israel.
The dramatic strike, which
could damage the Middle East
peace process, capped a day of
Israeli air attacks on south
Lebanon that left eight other
people dead and 29 wounded.
The Israeli strikes came less
than 48 hours after a raid on an
army camp inside Israel, in which
three Israeli soldiers were hacked
to death.
Hezbollah said its leader.
Sheik Abbas Musawi, 39, his wife,
Siham, and their 5-year-old son,
Hussein, the youngest of the
couple's six children, were
"martyred" in what it called "a
cowardly air attack." The terse
statement issued at the group's
headquarters in Beirut gave no
other details.
In addition to Musawi and his
killed, and 18 were wounded,
police said. They said eight of the
wounded were in "very critical
condition."
Hezbollah, or Party of God,
was considered the umbrella
group for the Shiite Muslim
holders of Western hostages in
Lebanon. It opposes the Middle
East peace talks, the next round of
which are to begin Feb. 24 in
Washington.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli
military acknowledged it had
carried out the attack on the
convoy, but suggested it had not
specifically targeted Musawi. It
said it "turned out" the Hezbollah
leader was in the convoy, which
was carrying militia leaders from
a meeting in the south Lebanon
village of Jibsheet.
The attack on Musawi's
convoy followed air strikes earlier
Sunday on Palestinian refugee
camps at Ein el-Hilweh and
Rashidiyeh, in which police said
four people were killed and 11
wounded.
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By Reagon Clamon
The Battalion
A Texas A&M student continues to doubt
the wisdom of a recent College Station City
Council decision to not build a recycling center
on Wellborn Rd.
Christi Ross, a senior communications
major, presented a petition containing 593
signatures of Bryan — College Station residents
protesting the council's recent decision to the
College Station City Council last Thursday.
The petition asked the council to reconsider its
decision.
Ross gathered the signatures after the city
council abandoned its plan to build the $60,000
center, following a recommendation from the
city's planning and zoning commission.
"I'm still kind of upset,"
Ross said.
The city claimed
Northgate residents
opposed the new facility.
But Ross said she heard
nothing but good things
about it from friends and
acquaintances who lived
and worked on Northgate.
"We got 593 signatures
from people that didn't like
the city's decision," Christi
said. "About twenty of those people were just
from Northgate."
Christi Ross
Ross said city officials did not have an exact
count of residents' complaints about the center.
Ross Said she was worried mostly for the
future of the handicapped employees of
Junction 505 who were supposed to be
employed at the new recycling center.
"My main concern was the people," Ross
said.
Mayor Larry Ringer, at Thursday's city
council meeting, said the city would try to find
jobs for any Junction 505 employees left
without work because of the city's decision.
"We are working with Junction 505 to see if
the city can employ these people," Ringer said.
Even if all the employees of Junction 505
get jobs, Ross said it is a shame that the project
didn't work out the way it was planned.
k
n. Upstairs)
Gambling addicts play perilous game
By Sharon Gilmore
The Battalion
More suicides result from
gambling addiction than any other
psychological problem. People
from all walks of life — including
college students — can become
addicted to legal or illegal
gambling.
In Bryan, legalized gambling,
in the form of Brazos Bingo, takes
place on Briarcrest and East 29th
Street, Tuesday through Saturday.
"Some people drive two and a
half to three hours to play bingo
on Friday and Saturday nights,"
said Liz Pohl, a bookkeeper for
Brazos Bingo.
As many as 350 people may
attend bingo on weekends and 250
people on weeknights, she said.
Players spend as little as $10 to $15
or as much as $50 to $60 in one
night.
One Texas A&M student said
she won $950 last semester, but
lost about $500.
"I went to bingo about twice a
week last semester and spent
around $30 each time," said Lisa
Vine, a junior parks and recreation
major.
David S. Wachtel, a clinical
psychologist at the Center for
Compulsive Behavior in Houston,
said 75,000 to 100,000 people in
Houston are gamblers. Wachtel
said by the time the average
gambler seeks treatment, he or she,
is about $70,000 to $100,000 in
debt.
A person may go to bingo
every night so they don't have to
deal with family and as a result
everyone gets caught up in the
problems, he said.
Dr. Valerie Lorenz, executive
director of the National Center for
Pathological Gambling, said about
three percent of all adults are
compulsive gamblers. She said
patients who come into her clinic
suffer from severe depression and
anxiety that causes chronic
headaches, migraines, stomach
knots and for students —
failing grades.
Most college students who
gamble are males involved in
sports and race betting, Lorenz
said. She said the center's gam-
See Groups/Page 8
Adoption in the '90s:
A new direction
Editor's note: This is the first in a 3-part series in The Battalion on
adoption in Texas and how it has changed over the years. Today's article
focuses on how open adoptions are replacing the confidential adoptions of
the past.
By Jayme Blaschke
The Battalion
Adoption, as defined by Webster's dictionary, is "The taking
and treating of the child of another as one's own," but no
definition, no matter how complete, could accurately convey the
emotional power of this word. Out of the entirety of the English
language, there are very few words that stir up as much passion
and controversy.
In reality, though, the definition of adoption is changing. In the
past five years, "open," or "disclosed" adoptions, once considered a
dangerous taboo, have replaced "closed" or "confidential"
adoptions as the preferred form of placement in Texas.
Jan Deets, director of family services at Alternatives in Motion
adoption agency in Humble, said the shift towards more openness
has had positive effects for everyone directly involved in an
adoption.
"Today's openness is absolutely much better than the closed
system," Deets said. "The closed adoptions never prepared families
for reality. When a child said 'Mom, tell me about the lady that
gave me up,' the mother couldn't, because it was a secret."
Because the closed system of the past forced birth mothers to
deal with the pain and guilt of pregnancy and loss silently, their
well being has received increased attention from the same agencies
that once told them to "forget it ever happened."
Birth mothers are encouraged to go for counseling as soon as
they contact an agency so they will be able to make the best deci-
See Adoption/Page 8