The Battalion
Vol. 92 No. 175 (6 pages) 1893 - A Century of Service to Texas A&M - 1993 Monday, July 19,1993
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Italy clashes with
U.N. over Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia -
Italy's deputy army chief vowed
Friday his nation would not
obey U.N. demands to immedi
ately replace the controversial
commander of 2,400 Italian
peacekeepers or remove them
from the capital.
Gen. Mario Buscemi, Italy's
second-ranking military officer,
appeared set on challenging ,
U.N. officials within minutes of j
arriving in Somalia. He said he
supported talks with Somali
gunmen, whom the United Na
tions has branded as terrorists.
Italy has been at the forefront
of nations who have criticized
the U.N.'s handling of opera
tions in Somalia, saying the hu
manitarian mission has been
sidelined by aggressive military
tactics against Aidid and rival
warlords.
Hussein denounces
U.S. administration
BAGHDAD, Iraq — President
Saddam Hussein, facing an in
creasingly tense standoff with
the United Nations, accused the
Clinton administration Saturday
of "political insanity and racial
fanaticism."
In one of his harshest attacks
on Washington since Clinton
took office, Saddam also urged
other countries to distance them
selves from the United States —
an apparent attempt to drive a
wedge into the international al
liance that has supported actions
against Iraq.
"The Iraqi people will bow to
no one but God, and will reject
treachery, deceit and threats,"
Saddam declared in the speech,
broadcast nationwide on televi
sion and radio. It marked the
25th anniversary of the coup that
brought the ruling Baath party
into power.
J ^—-
Last bridge falls to
Mississippi River
WEST QUINCY, Mo. - In a
rush of water and a ball of fire,
the last bridge across the Missis
sippi River along a 200-mile span
was cut when a levee blew.
A half-mile north of the
Bayview Bridge, the levee failed
Friday night.
The water's force sucked a
barge through the levee breach,
and a gas station hit by flood wa
ter exploded, sending flames and
thick black smoke billowing hun
dreds of feet into the air.
The bridge, which had been
restricted to local and emergency
traffic only, was the last link
across a 200-mile span of the Mis
sissippi from St. Louis to Burling
ton, Iowa, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers said.
'Killer bees' claim
first U.S. victim
HARLINGEN - An allergic
reaction from dozens of bee
stings filled a rancher's lungs
with fluid and killed him, a
pathologist said Saturday in a
preliminary ruling.
Initial measurements showed
that the bees that swarmed Lino
Lopez were of the so-called killer
bee variety, bee researchers said.
That would make the 82-year-
old Starr County man the first
documented person killed by
Africanized honeybees in the
United States since the more ag
gressive strain crossed from
Mexico into Texas in 1990.
"I think he most likely got
enough poison from all of those
stings, whether they were
African or not, that he had an al
lergic reaction to it," said Ruben
Santos, the forensic pathologist
who performed the autopsy.
-The Associated Press
Midwest flooding threatens St. Louis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A levee collapsed Sunday in St. Louis,
threatening to submerge hundreds of
homes under as much as 10 feet of water,
and people in Wisconsin had to be res
cued from rooftops as the Midwest's
flood siege persisted mercilessly.
New storms cut a swath through six
states and menaced four others.
Des Moines, Iowa, suffered a setback
in its effort to restore running water to
250,000 people in their eighth day with
dry taps. A pump failure meant that ser
vice wouldn't be restored before
Wednesday, two days later than the
most recent estimate.
Among many cities and towns where
volunteers heaved sandbags was Hal
stead, Kan., 25 miles northwest of Wichi
ta. Heavy overnight rains threatened to
push the Little Arkansas River over its
banks for the second time in a week.
"Everybody's almost in a daze. There's
not been much sleep this whole last week,
and here we go again," said Chuck Ben
nett, police chief in the town of 2,000.
The toll in lives and property contin
ued to rise from more than a month and a
half of flooding: at least 28 deaths, at least
$7.5 billion in damage, 16,000 square
miles of farmland flooded and more than
24,000 homes damaged.
Among the latest developments:
— A 12-year-old boy was swept away
in a flash flood Saturday night in Sauk
County in south-central Wisconsin. Bara-
boo Police Chief Tom Lobe also said two
campers were missing and that other peo
ple were rescued from rooftops and cars
after the Baraboo River overflowed.
— As the Mississippi River neared an
expected crest at St. Louis, a levee in
south St. Louis gave way when the River
Des Peres, a major storm drain for the
neighborhood, pushed sandbags off the
top of a fortified dike.
North of St. Louis, sandbaggers gave
up trying to protect low-lying parts of St.
Charles city from the rising Missouri Riv
er, and dozens of residents fled.
Much of the rest of St. Charles County
already is under water as the Missouri
and Mississippi rivers have converged
there.
Downtown St. Louis is protected by a
floodwall 52 feet high, 5 feet higher than
the crest expected Sunday night and
Monday.
— Almost 42,000 people in Cape Gi
rardeau and Jackson, Mo., lost power for
several hours because of flood-related
problems at a switching station.
Worn Out Souls at the Hilton
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Dave Loving, Dan Carpenter, Mark Oakland and Steven Hilton Sunday afternoon. The free pool parties will be held
Kloesel, members of the R&B band 'Worn Out Souls/ on Sundays through mid-September ana will feature a live
perform during 'Sundance by the Pool' at the College Station band each week.
Instructors reflect on students' attitudes
By JANET HOLDER
The Battalion
Many factors influence a student's
ability to learn including the student's
and instructor's commitment and joint
cooperation to learn Texas A&M instruc
tors said.
Vincent Dimiceli, a math lecturer, said
some students may make the classroom a
more difficult place to teach and learn.
Dimiceli said he has separated stu
dents who talked to much in class be
cause other students complained they
couldn't pay attention to the lesson.
"A student gave a colleague of mine a
hard time and even brought complaints
to the office because he was asked not to
talk in class," Dimiceli said.
Rodney Paris, lecturer for the Acade
mic Enhancement Center said it maybe
difficult for a professor to correct stu
dents' classroom behavior, such as
sleeping in class because it is an adult
correcting an adult. It is the professor's
choice whether to discipline the student,
he said.
Paris said another problem that dis
rupts the classroom is that students have
become more visibly disrespectful.
"When I was in school if we had a pro
fessor with a heavy accent we would grit
our teeth, roll our eyes and close our
mouth," Paris said. "Recently I sat in on
an undergraduate class. A student made
a derogatory comment about the profes
sor's accent loud enough the professor
could hear. It used to be students would
correct each other when others were be
ing disrespectful now they don't because
they feel they don't have a right to tell
others what to do.
"It takes only a couple of people in a
class to make professors have the percep
tion that it is a bad class," he said.
In addition to negative attitudes in the
See Attitudes/Page 2
Trial continues
for local teen
charged with
stabbing death
Witnesses for defense
to take the stand today
By JENNIFER SMITH
The Battalion
The trial of a 16-year-old boy accused
of stabbing a classmate to death at a local
school continues today, and a full day of
testimony from witnesses for the defense
is likely.
Sherron Dante Greenwood is ac
cused of stabbing Billy C. Williams, 16,
on the morning of March 26 in the cafe
teria of Bryan High School's Lamar
ninth-grade campus where the two
were in a classroom for students with
discipline problems.
Greenwood's attorney, Michelle Es
parza, has said her client acted in self
defense and felt threatened by gang
members.
District Attorney Bill Turner is trying
to show that because Greenwood
brought a knife to school, his actions
were premeditated.
Only one witness, A1 Pulliam, testified
for the prosecution Friday before Judge
John Delaney recessed the trial until 9
a.m. today.
Pulliam, who supervised the disci
pline class, said he was talking with
Greenwood and another boy when
Williams and two other boys entered
the cafeteria. After a verbal exchange,
one of the two boys moved toward
Greenwood.
Pulliam said Greenwood moved away
in an effort to avoid the confrontation.
Although Pulliam said he never saw a
knife, he did see Greenwood lunge at
Williams in what seemed to be "a blow
to the chest."
Pulliam also testified that the two
boys involved in this incident were
friends and that he had never seen any
problems between them.
See Trial/Page 2
Gramm blasts proposed energy, fuel taxes
By REAGON CLAMON
The Battalion
Federally proposed energy and fuel
taxes would harm Brazos Valley busi
nesses and hit Texas' economy harder
than other states, said U.S. Sen. Phil
Gramm, R-Texas, at a group meeting of
Brazos county business leaders Sunday.
A plan proposed by President Bill
Clinton to levy a tax on energy measured
in Btu's (British thermal units) and a Sen
ate plan to levy a 4.3 cent per gallon tax
on fuel are now being debated in a
House-Senate conference committee
which began meetings last week.
Gramm doesn't support either plan.
Texas is the largest energy user in the
nation and while the cost of a Btu tax to
the average American family of four
Senator: increase in
prices unfair to Texans
would be around $400, Gramm said the
tax would cost Texas families around
$732, according to fuel consumption fig
ures from 1990.
"That's only talking about energy use
directly or indirectly," Gramm said.
"What that doesn't say is w’hat it would
cost Texas in competitiveness."
Gramm said the fuel tax would also
unfairly burden Texans because resi
dents, on average, drive farther to work
than in other smaller states. Gramm cit
ed statistics that indicated Texans use 60
percent more gasoline than people in
New York.
"This tax is basically unfair to people
who live in larger states," Gramm said.
Sunday's meeting was held at the
ALENCO plant at 615 Carson in Bryan,
which is owned by Redman Building
Products, Inc.
John Standard, the general manager of
ALENCO, told Gramm both the taxes
would hurt his company and consequent
ly hurt the community.
Standard said his plant uses a lot of en
ergy in manufacturing aluminum doors
and windows. The aluminum extrusion
process in particular. Standard said, uses
a tremendous amount of energy and
would cause the plant to be hit hard by a
Btu tax.
Standard said ALENCO would also
suffer if a fuel tax were levied since the
See Gramm/Page 2
Overpass construction on Briarcrest to cause delays
Minor traffic delays will greet motorists trav
eling in the area of the East Bypass at EM 1179 in
Bryan today. Contractor crews will be working
to set new beams on the existing bridge structure
to widen it for additional lanes.
Traffic using EM 1179 (Briarcrest Drive), the
west frontage road of South Highway 6, or the
southbound lanes of South Highway 6 will expe
rience delays during construction of the west
side of the overpass.
To avoid peak traffic times, crews will be
working to set the new beams across South
Highway 6 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and
4 p.m. only.
Motorists are advised to select alternative
routs in order to avoid delays. The Texas De
partment of Transportation urges motorists trav
eling EM 1179 or the East Bypass to allow extra
time to reach their destinations and to be alert
for flagmen and warning signs in the construc
tion zone.
Road construction on Briarcrest overpass
• Construction
on overpass
will slow traffic.
ANGEL KAN/The Battalion
Inside
Sports
•A&M rugby team places 2nd
in Summer Seven tournament
•Four Aggies dive into NFL
training camps
Page 3
Opinion
•Monday: mostly sunny,
highs in the mid to upper
90s
•Forecast for Tuesday:
partly cloudy, highs in the
mid to upper 90s
•Editorial: We must fight the
causes of youth violence
•Column: Blacks must conquer
self-imposed limitations
Page 5
Texas Lotto
•Saturda/s lotto numbers:
5, 9, 13, 32, 42, 45
•Estimated Lotto Texas
jackpot: $3 million