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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 1992)
fall result dy says loes show is that •esources now in e getting very low hat we really need >very effort to ex- re of the interna- " he said, rain and unsea- >1 temperatures ogress of crops in the state, biggest crop, cot- the 25-county re- Lubbock, was hit : of the 3 million on planted there 1 and replaced by Estimates of the 'gion's economy $1.5 billion, ow if you'd say it is not real good,' 1 his, who leads the Economics depart- Tech. "The cotton everely hurt by e second year in a s farmers havere- :ommodities have U in the past two ^reduction costs d 3 percent, An- eports tous and the markets of the July unem- ort, scheduled foi ay, Dodge said. ; expect a gain of ifarm payrolls foi rease in the unem- to 7.7 percent. la ell 117,000 and un- eached 7.8 percent Federal Reserve to rates. That has stock and bond reacted little to as omic data released ;overnment said its ig gauge of future vity, the Index of ators, fell 0.2 per- ; first decline in six paign ican life, that's cer- rayle both attend- foreclosing any her Quayle should :ket. red by reporters in der Bob Dole's of- xates that up to a ty's senators may P convention later ouston. )w that's trueal "But I'll tell you Republican sena- blican convention, 5 to be able to see )t going to be hid- rent." 'makers applaud- : reference to the articipation in the r ention of Democ- ial leaders, ae left the Capitol eat meeting, very, upbeat." ng ready for otu riuch more, we’re take them on in ish said. "It was a -ting." iof glass ntion Surface Toward i measures out- me neared com- s were installing in-link fence be- m and the park- s began clearing s the street from jse as the "offr an site. head of sched- "Almost every- except for chairs or. Obviously, 2 need to be cov- d." Vol. 91 No. 189 (6 pages) e Battalion “Serving Texas A&M Since 1893” Thursday, August 6, 1992 Notice The next issue of The Battalion will be published on Aug. 26. Normal publication will resume on Aug. 31. Serbs force Muslims out of homeland SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Some 300 women, old men and chil dren walked through a no-man's land to reach the battle-scarred capital Wednes day after being forced from their homes by Serb militiamen. The refugees said the Serbs drove them by bus from Rogatica, 52 miles east of Sarajevo, early in the day, and forced them to walk most of the last five miles between Serb and Bosnian government- held lands. "They told me to get out and crawl," said Bajro Misic, who lost his legs in an accident 10 years ago and arrived in Sara jevo with one artificial limb. He raised his hands to reveal palms bloodied from crawling along the moun tain road. The refugees arrived just before curfew Wednesday night as mortars began pounding Sarajevo. The Muslim-led gov ernment has been battling for most of a week to break the Serb encirclement of the city. It has failed so far. Over a million Bosnians have fled their homes in the fighting that pits Serb na tionalists against the mostly Croat and Muslim forces of the Bosnian govern ment. Many of the refugees were forced out in "cleansing" campaigns intended to create ethnically homogenous areas. Most of these accusations have centered on the Serbs. The Rogatica refugees, fed at a bombed-out school and then taken to a relief center, said they had been held for up to two months at a school in their hometown. The refugees said they generally were well-treated there, but Misic said Sakib Gagula, a friend who helped him get around, had been shot at point-blank range by the Serbs. "They pointed the gun and pulled the trigger," said Misic. Others confirmed the account. On Wednesday, the Serbs entered the school and ordered the people to leave, with no explanation, they said. Hajrija La- tovic, a Muslim woman, said a soldier hit her in the ribs with his rifle butt. Accounts of ethnic cleansing and of concentration camps allegedly run by some groups led acting U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger to call Wednesday for a war crimes investiga tion for Bosnia-Herzegovina. The United States also sought an ur gent meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The leader of Bosnia's Serbs denied his forces were operating concentration camps, and invited international agencies to see for themselves. The Muslim-led Bosnian government also invited the United Nations, Red Cross and journalists to inspect its prison er-of-war camps. Stabbing victim recovering Student attacked behind Northgate Julie Chelkowski The Battalion Chad Owen Dickson, a 24-year old Texas A&M veterinary med ical student, is in stable condition after being stabbed early Tuesday morning. Dickson was injured in the parking lot behind the Dixie Chicken after an argument broke out among three men. According to a College Station Police report, a white male and a Hispanic male were arguing with the victim, when the white male took a handgun from his truck and pointed it at the victim. After the victim backed away, the sus pect put the gun down and the two engaged in a fist fight. Witnesses reported that during the fight, the Hispanic male ap- ! preached the victim and stabbed i him several times. Dickson was transported to St. Joseph Hospital where he was treated for two stab wounds in his abdomen and two lacerations on his right arm. One of the wounds was reported to be eight inches long. Lt. A.W. Onstott of the College Station Police Department said the suspects were identified as Tony Compion and Curtis Breedlove. "It (the stabbing) was an incident where a person was confronted by a jerk. When you have 3,000 people in one area and one looking for trouble, it's hard to find that one." -Richard Bennig, manager of Duddley's Draw The two suspects involved in the incident have been arrested and charged with aggravated as sault. Compion was charged with the actual stabbing of Dickson while Breedlove allegedly bran dished a loaded 9mm semi-auto matic pistol. The argument started because of comments directed towards a woman Dickson was with, On stott said. : This past year, the University Police Department and the CSPD have combined forces to patrol the Northgate area. Richard Bennig, the manager of Duddley's Draw, said with the help of UPD and CSPD, assaults in the area are not common. "This is the safest place to be," he said. "It (the stabbing) was an incident where a person was con fronted by a jerk. When you have 3,000 people in one area and one looking for trouble, it's hard to find that one." This is the second stabbing in College Station this week. The College Station Police reported that Michael Blakeley of Caldwell was stabbed in the abdomen Sun day night by a white male in the Wolf Creek Recreation Center parking lot after an apparent ar gument. Blakeley was admitted to Humana Hospital and released Tuesday. The two stabbings are an un usually high number of assaults for this time of year, Onstott said. But with the change of season, these numbers may soon increase. "This is pretty rare," he said. "It (the summer) has been real slow, but it's starting to pick up since people have been moving back to College Station." NASA takes rest, rethinks project L.A. police face federal charges Officers receive civil rights indictments CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Atlantis' astronauts reeled out a satellite on a thin cord Tuesday in a risky experiment never before performed in space. But the 12 1/2-mile cord jammed at about 850 feet, and the crew gave up for the night. "We're going to do some dis cussion here about where we want to go from here," Mission Control told the crew. Mission Control told the astro nauts to get some rest for another attempt at mid-morning on Wednesday; some of the seven crew members had been up for 20 hours. Four crew members went to the bed; the rest kept watch on the satellite, left flying above the shut tle at the end of 843 feet of cord. NASA extended the mission to an eighth day, to Saturday, be cause of trouble with the cord and a delay in releasing another satel lite over the weekend. The astronauts were supposed to unreel the half-ton Italian satel lite on a 12 1/2-mile, wire-and- fiber tether as thick as a shoelace. Scientists expected the tether, when fully extended, to generate up to 5,000 volts of electricity as it swept through Earth's magnetic field during a planned 30-hour South test. But the cord unwound in fits and starts, and after three at tempts, the astronauts had man aged to reel out the satellite no more than 843 feet. Mission Control said the prob lem could be a snag on the reel. Twice during the attempt to unreel the spacecraft, the satellite swung over the shuttle on its cord. But commander Loren Shriver fired the shuttle's jets to steady the tether and satellite and avert the possibility of an out-of-control satellite wrapping its cord around the shuttle. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Feder al civil rights charges have been leveled against the four policemen whose acquittals on most state charges in the beating of motorist Rodney King led to deadly riots. Indictments handed down late Tuesday and unsealed Wednes day charged officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno with aiding and abetting each other in beating, stomping and kicking King under color of law. The fourth defendant, Sgt. Stacey Koon, was charged with failing to prevent an unlawful as- sault by the officers under his command. U.S. Attorney Lourdes Baird said prosecutors will not allege that the beating was racially moti vated, although the defendants are white and King is black. "As far as a racial motivation, that is not part of these charges and we are not making that alle gation," Baird said. She said the right that is al leged to have been violated is the right of all citizens to be free of unreasonable assault by police of ficers "regardless of race or sex." King was "very emotional and to a certain extent overwhelmed with the moment" as he watched the announcement on television, said his attorney, Steven Lerman. Attorneys for Briseno, Wind and Koon didn't immediately re turn calls seeking comment. "I'm not real happy about it," Powell said of his indictment. "I didn't do anything wrong. I can't believe they're doing this to me again." The indictments capped three months of grand jury hearings launched shortly after the April 29 verdicts in the officers' state trial set off rioting so severe that Na tional Guardsmen were sent in. The riots caused millions in dam age and 52 people were killed. President Bush denounced the state jury's decision. Baird main tained there was no political pres sure to return indictments before the presidential election and said she never discussed the case with the White House. The state trial was moved from Los Angeles County to suburban and predominantly white Simi Valley in adjoining Ventura County. Baird said she expects no such shift of location in the federal trial. The federal district draws on seven counties for its jury pool. She said the investigation was continuing but declined to say if additional indictments were ex pected. The defendants were expected to surrender Thursday, she said. Each defendant was charged under a post Civil War-era civil rights statute that carries a maxi mum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Baird said the indictment re flects no criticism of the state case against the officers. Riot victims question food stamp delay WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite President Bush's dec laration of a disaster after the Los Angeles riots, more than 20,000 needy resi dents had to wait more than a month for emergency food stamps because the Agriculture Department decided they could get by without the aid. Some are still waiting. Bush declared Los Angeles a disaster area on May 2, after four days of the worst civil disturbances in the nation's history. The declaration was followed by promises of aid from a number of federal agencies. The Agriculture Depart ment responded quickly with tons of free food. But local offi cials said there were long lines, not enough free food to fill the need, and emergency food stamps were still necessary. Applicants for those food stamps said they were unable to obtain fresh food, milk and baby formula because of the fires, looting, power outages and lost income from disrupt ed jobs. Los Angeles County's re quest for them was rejected May 8 by Sharon Levinson, the Western regional administra tor of USDA's Food and Nutri tion Service, which runs the food stamp program. Levinson wrote to the county ;hat it had failed to demonstrate the need for the stamps. Protests in for change in PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Nelson Mandela led 100,000 cheering black marchers to the seat of white power Wednesday in one of the biggest demonstrations ever to demand an end to President F.W. de Klerk's government. The African National Congress also staged rallies in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and other cities as part of its mass action campaign. Police arrested more than 600 protesters, most for occupying government buildings. The demonstrations were the latest in a series of ANC protests calling for the removal of the government. But De Klerk, whose position seems unshaken, has said that only negotiations, not mass protest, will resolve the country's political crisis. Still, the huge turnout will help buttress the ANC's claim to represent the majority of South Africans. The march came after a two-day strike in Africa call government which some 4 million black workers stayed home to demand an interim government by the end of the year. "The campaign for peace and democracy must become a tidal wave," Mandela told the roaring crowd in Pretoria. "An interim government of national unity is an urgent and critical step." "De Klerk must go! De Klerk must go!" the crowd chanted. Some government and opposition leaders hope the ANC, boosted by the success of its protests, will be ready to return to the talks, saying it has a new mandate from the people. Mandela has indicated talks could resume within weeks. "I look forward to the day when Mr. Mandela will once again see me in my office," De Klerk told reporters later. "He needn't speak to me from the lower part of the Union Building. There's an open door here." fight for A&M enrollment Navigators help provisional freshmen overcome mandatory summer school courses, enroll for fall Pilotfish By Tanya Williams The Battalion Just as upperclassmen at Texas A&M are fretting over upcoming finals and looking forward to the end of the second summer session, a special group of freshmen join them in their relief of the end of summer. Provisional freshmen, or Pilotfish, are finishing their summer just as all summer school students are, but they are not attend ing just to get a jump on class hours, but rather to assure that they will be allowed to enroll as Aggies in the fall. Provisional freshmen, students who have applied and been accepted to Texas A&M under a provisional agreement, must enroll in nine to 12 class hours during the summer before their freshman year and maintain a GPR of 2.0 with no failing grades in order to gain full admittance to A&M in the fall. The courses they take are core curricu lum courses such as the required History 105 and 106 courses, as well as English and Political Science courses. "These courses are a lot more difficult," said Kim Henry. "A lot more in-depth." Henry, who will be an accounting major in the fall, credits some of her success in the provisional program to the Pilotfish pro gram organized by the Aggie Orientation Leader Program and the Department of Student Affairs. The Orientation Leader program as signed a number of Orientation Leaders, or Pilotfish Navigators, to a group of eight to nine pilotfish to help them navigate the friendly, but sometimes dangerous waters of Texas A&M academics. Cris Matoon, a senior finance and ac counting major and a Navigator, took his responsibility as a navigator very seriously. "I felt it was my responsibility to do whatever it took to help the pilotfish suc ceed at Texas A&M both academically and socially." Matoon said. The summer began with Navigators just answering questions and organizing social outings such as bowling, Matoon said. Soon students realized that there was more to college than a social standing. "Soon students realized that they needed to buckle down." Matoon said. To deal with students' worries about their academics. Navigators organized study sessions for eight different subjects as well as test and note-taking help sessions. Matoon even went to class with students to help them learn the proper way to take notes. Navigators also put together a study group phone list of 45 to 50 students so that other pilotfish may be easily contacted. "The study sessions helped promote uni ty and naturally broke down lines," Ma toon said. "They (the sessions) built friend ships." All pilotfish did not choose to participate in the program, but instead decided to tack le A&M alone, Matoon said. Also all that participated in the programs did not make it through the summer. "I had one student call today," Matoon said. "To say she was going home and would try to transfer into A&M at a later date." One of the provisional freshmen that is remaining to enroll in A&M says she has made it through a difficult but fun summer and she looks forward to the fall at A&M . "The atmosphere at A&M is so laid- back," Cynthia Palmer, a Chemical Engi neering major said. "I like it."