, June 2,
lically
petition
iigh seas
ntercollegiate
Id.,
ay.
A&M sailors
item Intercol-
he only team
itional races
two days of
ilors were in
tional Cham-
est A&M has
jnique situa
te train on a
s clubs,
oca ted on or
tercollegiale
ighlin, Jason
stage will be
earn in each
ran
n Page 3
ng someone
lay a game,
-focus and
they carry
i person. It
toward the
ns or Birds
we keep in
of reality,
a in their
ble and can
t in real life
qualify no
del.
lichael Jor-
part by the
ic for stay-
n a game
City. Peo-
d that he
ris full po-
>f a lack of
st time I
I believe I
ig that Jor-
J amazing-
apable of
decisions,
right or
anyone to
mistakes
;e. Jordan
on water,
or jumped
5s in a sin-
hough he
>e a few
e models
ay people
'a mile for
ley are the
fice what-
ithin their
reason,
ople that
adversity
e people
/orld liv-
people
ary abili-
em stand
ng fields.
/ are, but
Athletes
s on the
job. Off
the office
nd share
je to live
est possi-
its must
jree and
althcare
plasma-
definite
is offer
environ-
•ate with
In addi-
benefits
;u ranee,
d vaca-
•sement
ate con-
iclps at
or send
y to her
J EUTIC
sources
Los
: (213)
ur loca-
A
JION
The Battalion
Vol. 92 No. 151 (6 pages)
1893 - A Century of Service to Texas A&M - 1993
Thursday, June 3,1993
State runoff election
possible 'wild card'
Candidates' Senate chances depend
on voter turnout, area chairmen say
By STEPHANIE PATTILLO
The Battalion
The June 5 runoff election between interim U.S. Sen. Bob Krueger
and State Treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison has been described as a
"wild card" because no one knows who will win a runoff election,
which depends so heavily on voter turnout.
"It is real crucial," said Jim James, Brazos County Democratic
chairman. "It is like a wild card; no one knows what the turnout
will be. There is room for surprise."
Rodger Lewis, Brazos County Republican chairman, said voter
turnout in this election comes down to which group can get more of
its friends out to the polls to vote.
Dr. Nikki Van Hightower, A&:M political scientist, said the chal
lenge for the candidates will be winning over the uncommitted peo
ple who don't identify with either party.
But she said party affiliation is not a benefit to either candidate in
this election.
"It is a toss up between Democrats and Republicans," Van High
tower said.
"Both fare equally in representation in districts throughout the
state."
Dr. James Dyer, associate professor of political science and direc
tor of the Texas Poll, said party affiliations in the state are split
equally among Republicans, Democrats and independents.
Although there is no great party advantage for either candidate,
currently the polls show Hutchison has a lead of as much as 22 per
cent over Krueger, Dyer said.
Van Hightower attributes Hutchison's popularity in part to her
gender.
"Hutchison definitely has an advantage over Krueger with fe
male voters," she said. "This includes women who voted for Ann
Richards and moderate to liberal Republicans," Van Hightower
said.
Dyer said gender issues are significant in Texas elections because
people voted for a woman for governor.
"I'm not sure whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage," he
said.
In terms of political style. Van Hightower said Hutchison has the
advantage over Krueger as well.
"She is flamboyant and flashy," she said. "Because she is a
woman in the race she can wear bright clothing to stand out."
Krueger, on the other hand, has a "stodgy" political style and
doesn't have much charisma. Van Hightower said.
The campaign in general has been standard and not terribly excit
ing, she said.
Dyer said the campaign has gotten nasty in the last week because
both candidates have made personal attacks on each other.
"The candidates have made personal attacks to some extent be- .
cause they are floundering around to get a foothold," he said.
Although people are fairly unaware of this election and have
paid little attention to the candidates, Rodgers said the outcome of
the race is crucial in Washington.
"Changing one vote in the Senate makes a whole lot of differ
ence," he said.
James said, "If Texas has two Republican senators, then our influ
ence in Washington is nil. It is important to have both sides repre
sented."
Van Hightower agreed this is a race over who has control in the
Senate.
This is important to the president," she said. "This is a contest
between Republicans and Democrats, more so than we've seen in a
long time."
Graham escapes execution again
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HUNTSVILLE — Texas death row inmate
Gary Graham avoided the death chamber a
second time Wednesday when the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals granted him a reprieve
about 12 hours before he was to be executed
by injection.
Graham and his supporters, who have in
cluded a number of Hollywood celebrities,
have insisted he is innocent and have pro
duced what they say are witnesses who can
back up the claims.
"This is great news, wonderful news," An
thony Haughton, one of Graham's attorneys,
said. "Obviously, we're pleased. We were
hopeful the Court of Criminal Appeals would
do this, especially when they were taking so
long to come back with the case, that they
would give us some kind of relief."
Haughton had filed his appeal with the
state court, Texas' highest criminal appeals
court, some three weeks ago.
Bill Zapalac, an assistant Texas attorney
general who handles capital cases, said the
court issued the 30-day reprieve to await a
U.S. Supreme Court decision, likely by the end
of the month, in another Texas capital punish
ment case.
In the case being considered by the justices,
inmate Dorsey Johnson is challenging a now-
defunct Texas death penalty law that he con
tends unfairly limited a jury's consideration of
his young age — 19 at the time of his crime.
Graham was convicted under the same law
and was 17 at the time of his arrest for the May
13,1981 robbery and killing of Bobby Lambert,
of Tucson, Ariz., outside a Houston supermar
ket. Less than $100 was taken in the holdup.
Graham also pleaded guilty to 10 similar
robberies where a victim was approached in
the parking lot of a supermarket. In two of the
robberies, the victims were shot. In a third, a
woman was raped.
Graham was in the midst of a 90-minute
meeting with his family Wednesday when a
prison sergeant told him of the reprieve.
"Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!" his step
mother, Elnora Graham, exclaimed.
Graham's response was more low key.
"OK," he said.
Graham insisted he was with friends miles
away at the time of the Lambert shooting and
complained he was the victim of racism since
he is black and Lambert white. His attorneys
also produced witnesses who said Graham
was not the gunman.
Texas law, however, bars presentation of
new evidence longer than 30 days after a con
viction.
Prosecutors termed the new witnesses'
statements inconsistent and not credible.
Baseball team leaves for Omaha
STACYRYAmhe Battalion
Members of the Texas A&M Baseball Team join in the excitement at
yell practice Wednesday morning at Olsen Field. After yell practice.
the team left for Omaha, Neb. where they will play Kansas in the first
round of the College World Series.
Guatemala V.P. assumes power
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala's vice presi
dent proclaimed himself president Wednesday, dis
rupting an effort by political leaders to pick a re
placement for ousted President Jorge Serrano.
Gustavo Espina Salguero's announcement came a
day after the military forced out Serrano for impos
ing one-man rule.
The army named Espina Salguero as acting presi
dent while allowing political leaders to begin dis
cussing a permanent successor. Espina Salguero was
not among those named as a likely new permanent
president.
Espina Salguero made the announcement from his
home, surrounded by members of an elite military
unit that he said were his security guards.
T am informing you that, obeying constitutional
dictate, the successor to the president is solely and
exclusively the vice president of the republic," he
said.
From this moment on I am speaking to you as
the president of the Republic of Guatemala," Espina
Salguero said.
Presidency Secretary Antulio Castillo Barajas said
Wednesday in a radio interview that Espina Salguero
Would "serve until the end of Serrano's term" in Jan
uary of 1996.
The Congress went into emergency session on
hearing the news.
Before Espina Salguero's announcement. Defense
Minister Gen. Jose Domingo Garcia Samayoa ap
peared to be the de facto leader of Guatemala. He
pledged a swift restoration of democratic rule when
he ousted Serrano on Tuesday.
The president of Congress, Jose Fernando Lobo
Dubon, said party leaders met Wednesday to discuss
the choice of a new president. It was not clear what
would happen if Congress chose someone other than
Espina Salguero to finish Serrano's term.
Serrano flew to neighboring El Salvador where he
ensconced himself in a luxury hotel, according to au
thorities in that neighboring Central American coun
try. Serrano planned to go later to San Antonio,
Texas, to visit his ailing mother, the State Depart
ment said.
Rigoberta Menchu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate,
declared Tuesday that the change of command was
nothing more than a "military coup hiding behind a
civilian face."
Guatemala's Roman Catholic archbishop, Pros-
pero Penados del Barrio, said he supported the army
actions.
"All has been carried out within the bounds of the
law and without bloodshed," he said in comments
published Wednesday.
Hydrochloric acid spews
into Austin pool, injures 30
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Three girls re
mained hospitalized Wednes
day following an acid leak in a
city pool that injured more than
30 people, mostly children on
their first week of vacation from
school.
Two girls aged 13, and one 9-
year-old, were in fair condition
at Brackenridge Hospital,
spokesman Larry BeSaw said.
They and 21 others, aged 4 to
43, were treated at local hospi
tals for burning sensation to the
eyes and throat and nausea and
vomiting, officials said. Nine
others received treatment at the
scene.
The pool has been closed.
City officials say a mechanical
malfunction caused a pipe to be-
f in spewing hydrochloric acid,
ut they didn't know why.
"We have the mechanical
system under investigation,"
said Carolyn Nelson, deputy di
rector of the Austin Parks and
Recreation Department.
The water treatment system
in the pool, along with 10 other
city pools, has recently been
changed to one similar to most
home pools, in which liquid
chlorine, hydrochloric acid and
water are mixed and then re
leased in the pool.
Previously, the pools used
gas chlorine, which Parks and
Recreation officials said was
more dangerous.
Carmen Ortiz said she was
sitting at the side of the pool
when she saw a yellow liquid
shoot out of the side of the pool.
"It hit my daughter right in
the face," she said. "Then there
was this awful smell. My
daughter started coughing and I
said, 'Get out/ and pulled her
out of the pool."
Federal aid arrives for low income residents
Sports
•Baseball: College World
Series brackets & information
•NBA playoffs: Bulls steal game
from Knicks at the Garden
Page 3
Aggielife
*A preview of —
Musk’feiM
Page 4
By JAMES BERNSEN
The Battalion
Both Bryan and College Station
will receive $500,000 from a feder
al program that provides low in
come housing to poor families in
the community.
The Investment Partnership
Program (HOME) provides fund
ing to both cities and states for a
variety of relief programs in the
areas that the city deems most
needy.
Bryan and College Station both
received the maximum amount an
individual city can receive under
the program.
Robert Thielemann, Bryan
community development pro
gram technician, said the grant
will allow the construction of
twice as many homes as previous
years for low and very low in
come residents.
"We can stop spending the
block grant money we normally
use on such housing and use it for
other projects," he said.
Bryan will also double its reha
bilitation of some existing houses,
Thielemann said.
Many houses that are beyond
repair will be demolished and
new ones will be built for the fam
ilies, he said.
"Normally we are able to help
eight families through rehabilita
tion and eight through reloca
tion," Thielemann said. "Now we
will be able to help about 13 to 16
families through each program."
Jo Carroll, College Station ad
ministrator of community devel
opment, said College Station will
also be able to double its low-in
come housing.
"We proposed to build 95
housing units," he said. "But it's
really based on how far the funds
will go."
People receiving aid will be
taken off existing waiting lists of
families that earn below $28,000,
Carroll said.
The HOME program was creat
ed in 1990 by the National Afford
able Housing Act.
A press release from the Texas
Department of Housing and Com
munity Affairs said the program
has awarded $18.7 million to 63
applicants in Texas.
Henry Flores, executive direc
tor of the TDHCA, said the pro
gram allows local governments,
public housing authorities and
non-profit agencies throughout
Texas to provide assistance to
low income and elderly people in
their communities.
"More than 2,000 decent, safe
and affordable housing units will
be created," he said.
Medicine men
attempt to solve
Navajo illness
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - For
weeks, scientists have been ana
lyzing blood and tissue samples
and testing bacteria to try to find
out what's causing a flu-like ill
ness that has killed 13 people,
most with ties to the Navajo
Reservation.
Now the tribe will ask its med
icine men to try to solve the mys
tery.
"Western medicine has its lim
itations," Navajo Nation Presi
dent Peterson Zah said at a news
conference Wednesday.
"We're going to call on some
Navajo medicine people to help
us analyze the situation and to
see if there are other avenues that
are available to us as a nation so
that we can define what it is that
is causing these deaths," Zah
said.
The roughly three to four
dozen shamans who live on the
reservation in New Mexico, Ari
zona and Utah will get involved
later this week, Zah said.
He gave no specifics on what
they will do; it is taboo in Navajo
culture to discuss their work. Tra
ditionally medicine men are tribal
elders who perform ceremonies,
such as making sand paintings, to
cleanse and heal the spirit. Nava-
jos believe that leads to physical
recovery.
Zah also said families of Nava
jo victims will break another
taboo — not speaking of the dead
— to assist investigators and try
to help other residents of the
reservation.
About 175,000 people live on
the 17-million-acre Navajo reser
vation, which surrounds a
631,000-acre Hopi reservation
where about 12,000 people live.