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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1992)
1 ie te years that issue lan - wk r multiple ; a feediss the increae- dustr)' wi didn't rei aid. use it's an ? would re in that m of theSie ?y kill him Comit ise he red- 5upermr. i next."' what :o id/' ; Black JGoli > come nd na- partici- peants, eroplex ere she ning a id run- f these are for is well te and Gold are for Texas Ts has attend Tour- lunity d role ncour- pus as a take t any- Davis : steps cation ility." Monday, September 7,1992 TATE The Battalion Page 3 Bullet train backers need funds Financial troubles will probably delay high-speed rail until turn of century THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DALLAS — Backers of the Texas bullet train say they need more time to sell investors on the $6.8 billion venture. But time may not be on the side of the Texas High-Speed Rail Corp., which would violate its franchise agreement by not secur ing financing worth $170 million by Dec. 31, state officials said. "I have steadfastly maintained that the schedule imposed by the state is super aggressive,” said Glenn Biggs, chairman of the pri vate Frencn-American investment group that holds a 50-year fran chise for the train. "To focus on this one event is shortsighted.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS VIDOR, Texas — Neighbors in this all-white town of about 10,000 are worried. After a seven-year battle, a federal judge has ordered the integration of public housing. That means blacks are coming. And so is the Ku Klux Klan. U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice of Tyler has or dered 121 East Texas public hous ing projects to be integrated, in cluding one here. "This will change the image of Vidor like nothing else will,” Car los Renteria, director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Ur ban Development's regional de segregation program, told the Houston Chronicle. At the same time, Renteria said, HUD officials consider the Vidor project — operated by the Orange Under its agreement with the state, Texas High-Speed Rail can not buy land until it arranges the financing. In the last month, foreign train manufacturers have agreed to put up at least $20 million cash. Initial project investors and a few other investors have put up another $10 million cash. "We will raise $30 million cash by Dec. 31,” Biggs said. "It's the other commitments to come that we still need.” Corporation officials said this summer that there is little chance County Housing Authority — one of the most difficult to desegre gate, "given the history, or at least the perception, of the Ku Klux Klan in the area.” Vidor has long been known as a bastion for the white supremacy movement. In fact, few blacks have ever lived in Vidor, just eight miles east of Beaumont, which is home to about 40,000 blacks. Ac cording to the 1990 census, no blacks live in Vidor now. "We've worked hard for 20 years to change our image,” May or Ruth Woods said, adding there have been no major Klan activities here in years. Four handpicked black families — including four women, two men and nine children — are planning to move from Beaumont and Port Arthur to Vidor in Octo ber. A few months later, two more black families also will arrive. the 200-mph trains would be run ning before the turn of the centu- ry- „ Officials originally had promised 90-minute service be tween the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Houston by 1998, with service to Austin and San Antonio a year later. But backers say it will take until after the state's Dec. 31 deadline to let investors consider results of a ridership study now under way. Nonetheless, Railroad Commis sion Chairwoman Lena Guerrero said she would not support an ex- Ultimately, Albert Harrison, who operates a desegregation program for four public housing authorities in Jefferson and Or ange counties, said he hopes to re cruit sufficient volunteers to pop ulate 40 percent of the Vidor com plex with minorities. "Oh, there's going to be trouble all right,” Ross Dennis, president of the residents' council for the 74- unit complex, said. Most residents are willing to accept a few black families, but an attempt to move that many blacks to Vidor, Dennis predicted, "would mean open warfare.” Already a cross has been burned. Michael Lowe, the grand dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, said his Waco-based group will conduct a rally on the steps of the Orange County Cour thouse in Orange Sept. 19. tension. "The $170 million equity com mitment by December of '92 is their promise — not mine. I sup port deadlines because there are a lot of people who live along the corridor who are concerned about the sale of their property. I consid er the franchise agreement en forceable,” Guerrero said. Railroad Commissioner Robert Krueger predicts the bullet train will fail. "The economics are faulty, the ridership numbers are fantasy and the very credibility of the manag ing consortium is suspect," he said. Bush, Clinton at dead heat in Texas polls THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DALLAS — Texans regis tered to vote aren't excited about either presidential nomi nee and are almost equally split between George Bush and Bill Clinton, according to a published poll. The Dallas Morning News Poll, published Sunday in a copyright story, showed a sta tistical dead heat between President Bush and his Demo cratic challenger. Clinton would be the choice of 42 percent of the 1,027 regis tered voters surveyed statewide by telephone. Forty percent would favor Republi can nominee Bush. In the poll, 19 percent said they were undecided or sup ported neither major con tender. "Texas is really up for grabs, and the economy is the issue,” said Micheline Blum of the New York polling firm that conducted the survey Aug. 30- Sept. 3. The poll has a margin of er ror of plus or minus 3.5 per centage points. The survey also presented a three-way presidential sce nario which included unde clared candidate Ross Perot. The billionaire halted his inde pendent campaign July 16, but has won a spot on 43 state bal lots this fall, including Texas. Asked how they would vote if Perot were an active candi date, 30 percent of the respon dents picked the Dallas busi nessman. Bush had 30 percent, Clinton had 29 percent and the rest were undecided. "As people are looking at Mr. Perot around the country he's not as important a factor any more, but he's still an im portant factor in Texas,” said Ms. Blum of the polling firm Blum & Weprin Associates Inc. Privacy proposal raises controversy over accessibility to public records THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN — A state lawmaker says she wants to protect people, especially women, from stalkers who gain information about their targets through public records. But some media organizations fear that such pro posals could inhibit access to those records for legiti mate purposes. Tony Pederson, chairman of the group Texas Me dia, said there is a fine line between protecting a per son's privacy and encroaching on the public's right to know. Texas Media is a coalition of seven news organizations devoted to protecting First Amend ment rights. Rep. Sherri Greenberg, D-Austin, said she doesn't want to cross that line. But she says she wants to stop the ability of a person from getting what she says is private information through motor vehicle li cense plate and public utility records. "I fully support the Texas Open Records Act and freedom of the press, but we have a situation right now where information is available that was not in tended,” Greenberg said. She said she knows women who have been ha rassed by strangers who have gotten unlisted tele phone numbers by calling a public utility or have ob tained names and addresses through motor vehicle records. For example, for a $2 charge, a person can submit a license plate number to the Texas Department of Transportation and receive the name and address of the vehicle owner, in addition to information about the vehicle and lien holder. Greenberg is crafting legislation that would allow Texans the option of not allowing their telephone numbers to be released without their permission. "All we want to do is protect the right of privacy for those who have chosen to have their phone num ber unlisted,” said Greenberg. "The intent is not to limit access to open records but to protect the right of privacy, particularly for women.” The proposal details with other legislative efforts to make stalking a crime. Lawmakers say current laws are too weak to stop stalkers before they commit a crime against the peo ple they are harassing or threatening. Federal judge orders Texas town to integrate housing + f T<U‘TO%J9{G Mr. Bill’s Classes Time mon 9/7 tue 9/8 wed 9/9 thur 9/10 Chemistry 102 5-7 p.m. Chp 14 Chp 14 & 15 Chp 15 Review Test 1 Chemistry 101 7-9 p.m. Chp 2 Chp 3 Chp 4 Review T est 1 Physics 201 9-11 p.m. C^p 1 Chp 2 Chp 2 & 3 Chp 3 & 4 Physics 218 11-1 am. 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