Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1992)
mber 18, W r boyi ed Kevin*! inter but the e was injurf fohnson sail thrown realized thi some han l&M e all-regior > excelled in ed to repre- all-tourna- twice been of in-season igh School A'ith Smith's ‘cords in ca- areer steals pioint field free throws utive fret asser n court, and ‘'ve needed said. "He is ier and wil iund him a em, that jus us as coadie s to get pit ng season a track ootball ached here, too, s 74-10. We kick, it was equate, but in the 1987 :e champi- these :ter at all. core was ould have ting with- g hit sup- Coryatt. 37-point 1 be enough ;ss some- e-Flite heli- ; 50-yard ent to Bates fhey idle it. »have spe nd they ive them une of 64-9 shutout ; cake, a excuse, re already uarterbad unning guys need- The Battalion Vol. 92 No. 59 (12 pages) ‘Serving Texas A&M Since 1893’ Thursday, November 19, 1992 ■■■■■■■■■■■I Search frees Bush of guilt Snoop attempt in Clinton files fails THE ASSOCIATED PRESS r ed >r jot D PRESS | WASHINGTON - A State De partment investigation concluded Wednesday that officials who snooped in Bill Clinton's passport files had been trying to help Presi dent Bush win re-election. State Department inspector general Sherman M. Funk, dis closing the results of a month-long probe, said: "There was indeed an attempt to use the Department of State, the records and the people of the De partment of State to influence the outcome of the election. "That is a very heinous activity and shame on the Department of State that it happened." The two most senior officials held responsible were the assis tant secretary of state for consular affairs Elizabeth Tamposi, dis missed last week by Bush, and the acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, Steven Berry, also disciplined. As for Tamposi's allegations of White House involvement. Funk said in a memorandum to Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagle- burger, "We found no evidence that the White House orchestrated an 'attack' on the Clinton files." Funk recommended that "less than 10" department officials be disciplined. Eagleburger disclosed that he had offered his resignation to Bush because of his distress over the department's political activi ties before the Nov. 3 election. "When this thing first devel oped and before the election, I of fered the president personally my resignation. He refused to accept it," Eagleburger said. He told reporters there were no plans to recommend criminal ac tion by the Justice Department against department officials. Funk had been asked to deter mine whether the department ini tiated the file search in response to reporters' requests under the Free dom of Information Act or whether administration officials were attempting to dig up damag ing information on the Democratic presidential nominee. Funk said the way department officials conducted the search made it clear they had not been merely responding to routine re quests from the news media. He cited in particular the breadth of the searches undertak en at a suburban records center on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. "Never, in our opinion, in the annals of the Freedom of Informa tion Act has there ever ben a FOIA search conducted with such ur gency, scope thoroughness and grade-levels of participants," Funk said. According to established proce dures, the requests should have been treated routinely. The search of Clinton's files was undertaken at the same time the Bush campaign was attempt ing to question Clinton's character by citing his anti-Vietnam War ac tivities as a graduate student in England and his 1969-70 visit to Eastern Europe. Aides to Tamposi also searched for passport files on Ross Perot but Funk said there was no evi dence this effort had been under taken in the hope of finding some thing politicariy useful. Lloyd Joyce, center, auctions off a box of basketballs during the The auction is held biannually to benefit the MSC hospitality Lost and Found Auction Tuesday afternoon in the MSC flagroom. committee’s area service projects. Resident reports assault at Treehouse Village By JULIE CHELKOWSKI Reporter of THE BATTALION An aggravated assault was reported Wednesday morning after a man was attacked and robbed in Treehouse Village Apartments at 800 Marion Pugh in College Station. According to College Station Police reports, Huy Fon Da Ngugen was assaulted by two or three white males at approximately 3:10 a.m. as he left the apartment's washateria. School finance bill still alive; provision added The attackers reportedly cut Ngugen in the arm with an unknown Weapon and hit him in the stomach before stealing a gold necklace and $54 in cash. Officers initially responded to a report of a stabbing, but the only injury appeared to be a small cut to Ngugen's left arm, said Detective Don Andreski of the College Station Police De partment. "It wasn't a stabbing, but apparently a cut — about a half inch cut, Andreski said. Ngugen received stitches at Humana Hos pital and was released. His assault was about the 60th assault so far this year, said CSPD Lt. Wayne Onstott. The number of aggravated assaults are down from last year by about 20 percent, and the number of robberies are down by about 35 percent, he said. The area around Treehouse Village has not had any other incidents this year, Andreski said. Officials at Treehouse Village could nqt be reached for comment about the assault. Church rejects idea of women priests THE ASSOCIATED PRESS t think he' Is someth^ nself." e office earl; r said he di ( « Baylor# ' the NCA ; three yeafj ms in trad AUSTIN — The Texas House debated a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday that would authorize redistribution of some lo cal property tax money from wealthy to poorer school districts. "After 20 years of litigation, we have an opportunity to put the public school finance crisis in Texas to rest once and for all," said Rep. Hugo Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi, who outlined the measure for his col leagues. The proposal would allow redistribution of local property tax money, but limit the amount to 2.75 percent of state and local public school money. Public education is funded mainly from local property taxes and state aid. The Texas Supreme Court has said similar revenues should be available to school districts that have similar tax rates. But it ruled in January that the current system of redistributing local property tax money among districts, within counties or groups of coun ties, violates the state constitution. It gave lawmakers until June 1,1993, to fix the system. the associated fress Roman Catholic bishops fail to reach agreement; ordination focus of debate WASHINGTON - Roman Catholic bishops defeated a keen ly controversial document on women Wednesday after strug gling over it for nine years. Women's ordination was at the heart of their disagreement. It was the first time in history that the bishops had failed to reach a consensus on an intended pastoral letter bearing their collec tive authority. Requiring 190 votes for pas sage, the teaching document re ceived 137 "yes" votes and 110 "no" votes after five hours of strenuous debate over two days. The repeatedly revised docu ment had been sharply assailed by many women's organizations and other Catholic groups. It would have precipitated "an other tremendous crisis in the church," said Archbishop Rem- bert Weakland of Milwaukee. "We would lose another generation of very wonderful women." The question of ordaining women emerged as the nub of the bishops' discussion, although Pope John Paul II has ruled the subject off limits. Asked if this meant "the genie is now out the bottle," Bishop Pierre R. DuMaine of San Jose, Calif., said "yes," adding at a news conference, "The debate will continue." Calling it the "driving" core of the debate here. Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago said: "You know as well as I that a simple fiat" decreeing silence "will not settle the issue." He won passage of a plan for more "study and dialogue" about the ban on female priests. "What we need now is to en gage our people, to truly listen, to explain, to challenge to show that our tradition really makes sense," he said. The rejected document on women firmly prohibited women's ordination. While af firming women's equal dignity, the document underlined sexual differences. It condemned discriminatory sexism, but said women partly share blame for it. The Vatican had intervened re peatedly in shaping the contents, but Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro declined to comment on the vote, calling it a decision of the American bishops. Briarwood Apartments increase security measures By TANYA SASSER Staff Writer of THE BATTALION A recent crime surge around Briarwood Apartments has left some residents concerned about the safety of the complex, howev er College Station police and Bri arwood employees said measures have been taken to ensure the area's safety . Lt. Mike Mathews, College Sta tion Police Department criminal investigations commander, said that although overall crime is down in College Station, the crime in the area near Briarwood Apart ments on Harvey Road is up by a small percentage- College Station police reported five major offenses in the area around Briarwood from Sept. 1 to the present: two aggravated robberies, two assaults and one sexual assault. During the same time period last year, there were only two ma jor offenses, Mathews said. "In all fairness to Briarwood, not all of these crimes occurred on their property," he said. "One of them occurred at the Seven Eleven over there, and another occurred in the vacant lot adjacent to the complex." Police don't really consider Bri arwood and the area around it to be a dangerous area, Mathews said. "We do have fluctuations," he said. "If you look at the big pic ture, overall crime is down and we're not in that bad of shape. Extra lighting has been put up around the complex as a result of the crimes, said Brenda Clark, Bri arwood employee. "We checked the lighting and put up extra lights where we could," she said. "We also talked to the courtesy officers (College Station police officers who patrol the complex at night) and asked them to patrol a little more." The lighting in the complex was poor before the new lighting was installed, said Tammy Bullard, a Briarwood resident. "I was scared at first because it was pitch black over here before that girl got raped," she said. "I hated that because it was really scary." Bullard said she feels safer now that the lighting system has been improved. "I would just try to get home early, but now they've put up lights everywhere you can imag ine, and I don't really get scared," she said. In a written statement to Briar wood residents, Briarwood man ager Carol Cienega said that addi tional lighting has been put up, but residents have knocked some of it down because they do not like it shining in their bedroom windows at night. Briarwood is being viewed unfairly because most of the crimes that have been reported have not taken place on Briarwood property, Cienega said. "We have contacted the City of College Station to request that the vacant lot across Rhett Butler Dri ve be cleared and cleaned up," the letter said. "The city feels that the lighting they provide is adequate. We feel the blame that has been placed on Briarwood is unjust." Zeta Psi's rescue cars from tracks By CHERYL HELLER RICHARD JAMES/The Battalion Reporter of THE BATTALION Texas A&M's Zeta Psi fraternity has been providing a community service in Bryan — rescuing cars that have become stranded on railroad tracks near their fraternity house. Since the fraternity moved into their house on 200 South Congress Street last April, six cars have become stuck on the tracks, which run down the middle of the street, when they tried to turn, said Zeta Psi President Keith Rash. "We can usually hear the bottom of the car grind against the tracks, and a couple of times our guys have run inside yelling that there's a car stuck on the tracks'," Rash said. The fraternity asked the city to paint the street to warn cars about the railroad tracks. Rash said. "It's only been painted for about a week, but I think it'll help a lot," he said. "We really got onto the city about painting the street af ter the man's car got stuck on the tracks when the train was coming." Interfraternity Council President Jamey Webster said that the Council has praised Zeta Psi for its service. "I think what triggered the awareness is that about two weeks ago, a man's car got stuck on the tracks when a train was coming," he said. "The guys ran out of the house and helped him push his car out of the w’ay just in time." The man's mother called the IFC to tell them how thankful she was that the fraternity members had helped her son get his car off the tracks, Webster said. "I think it's really good that the fraternity is doing this, and I believe that their actions will give the public a look at the positive side of the Greek system," Webster said.