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|ol. 93 No. 133 (12 pages)
Serving Texas A&M since 1893
emocrats offer health care compromise
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority
lader George Mitchell sparked fresh debate
dong fellow Democrats by suggesting
lavs to make President Clinton’s health care
Ian less costly. The White House said it
Isn’t endorsing any compromises.
^iRep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., said Mon-
dk the House subcommittee he chairs
|ill begin work Thursday on a version
jat does not include one of the most con-
iversial elements of Clinton’s plan.
I Alliances envisioned in the Clinton plan
4ould pool large groups of people to give
tlem purchasing clout in buying health
isurance at better prices than they could
■gotiate individually.
I Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers
lelcomed Mitchell’s alternatives to the
iisident’s plan as “yet another sign that
|ings are moving along.’’ And Sen. Jay
Rockefeller. D-WVa., said Mitchell had
Senate majority leader outlines possible scenarios;
White House says it won’t endorse compromises
“established himself as someone who’s
going to ram (reform) through the United
States Senate.”
“Mitchell did a real fine job of outlining
three different versions of employer man
dates,” said Sen. John Breaux, D-La., whose
plan would avoid forcing any business or in
dividual to buy insurance. “I don’t think
there’s a majority of support for mandates
before we move on (other) reforms.”
All of Mitchell’s alternatives would re
tain Clinton’s idea of making employers
help pay for their workers’ coverage. They
would lighten the burden by tinkering
with the benefit package, the subsidies
and the employer snare.
He got help from senior White House
advisers in framing his options for less ex
pensive ways to achieve health coverage
for all Americans.
Ira Magaziner, the senior White House
adviser wdio took part in the Democrats’
discussion at a weekend retreat, said of
Mitchell’s suggestions, “They were scenar
ios more than proposals. He was using
them to get a discussion going.”
As for the House bill drafted by
Williams, the Montana congressman said
states would perform the function of al
liances and could do so either by creat
ing mandatory consumer purchasing co
operatives, voluntary cooperatives or no
cooperatives.
His proposal would also provide more
generous subsidies for all small businesses,
with the majority of assistance going to
businesses with 25 or fewer workers.
Unlike the president’s plan, Williams
would exclude all such businesses from
his cooperatives. They would run their
own health coverage, but pay a 1 percent
payroll tax.
His proposal also would provide subsi
dies to low-income workers up to 200
percent of the poverty line instead of 150
percent as in Clinton’s plan.
He said his subcommittee would vote not
only on his draft but on a single-payer plan,
like the Canadian system, in which the gov
ernment pays most bills, without co-pay
ments for all women of childbearing age.
Williams said that his proposal would
cost $15 billion to $30 billion more than
the president’s over five years but that it
would be worth it.
The Democrats spent much of Saturday
discussing Clinton’s plan and alternatives
at a Williamsburg, Va., retreat. Clinton
joined them that evening and urged them
to press forward on health reform and
other issues. The president did not take
E art in the talk of possible compromise on
ealth reform, an aide said.
Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said “no
commitments were made” on the shape of
health care reform.
“We agreed to additional sessions,” said
Daschle, co-chairman of the Democratic
Policy Committee. “We are working on
building a consensus around the princi
ples the president has outlined,’’ said
Daschle, who is a candidate to take
Mitchell’s post when the Maine Democrat
retires at the end of the session.
Supreme Court
may renew ban
mi guns near
school grounds
'he Associated Press
0737
WASHINGTON — The Supreme
!ourt stepped into the national de-
ate over gun control Monday, say-
; it will consider reviving a feder-
ian on possession of guns within
100 feet of any school.
The justices agreed to decide
/hether a federal appeals court
rred when it essentially threw out
he 1990 Gun-Free School Zones
\ct as unconstitutional.
The Clinton administration is
tsking the high court to reinstate
both the law and the conviction
f a former San Antonio, Texas,
high school student who admit
ted he took a gun to school in
March 1992.
Alfonso Lopez Jr. told authori
ses he was to be paid $40 for de-
[livering the gun to someone else
to use in a gang war.
Dennis Henigan of the Center
to Prevent Handgun Violence ex
pressed hope Monday the court
will reinstate the law. Gun vio-
ence at schools has become a na-
ional problem, Henigan said,
adding that the 1990 law was a
sensible public safety measure.”
More than 200,000 children car
ry firearms to school every day, ac
cording to Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis.,
sponsor of the invalidated law.
Larry Pratt of the Gun Owners of
America said the lower court was
correct in throwing out the law.
Lopez’s conduct already was
banned by other state and federal
See Gun Ban/Page 12
ielife
Opinion
Sports
What's Up
Pg.3
Pg. 11
Pg.9
Pg- 8
A kiss is just a kiss
Jason Welbom/y’/ip AanielunJ
Brad Stevenson, a junior sports management major from Houston and Barbie Ander
son, a sophomore accounting major from Fort Worth, take part in the United Way Kiss
Off at Kyle Field on Saturday.
Aggies for Richards, Bush
hope gubernatorial debate
informs undecided voters
By Nicole Cloutier
The Battalion
Members of Aggies for George W.
Bush and Aggies for Ann Richards will
face off in a debate Tuesday in an attempt
to inform voters about the two guberna
torial candidates and their platforms.
The debate, which is being sponsored
by the League of Women Voters, will be
at 7 p.m. in Room 601 of Rudder Tower.
Bo Armstrong, debate coordinator and
one of the five people representing Bush
at the debate, said he hopes mudslinging
will not be a part of this race as it was in
last week’s runoff between Jim Mattox
and Richard Fisher.
“This has been one of the best efforts
between these two parties to work to
gether.” Armstrong said. “It has really
gone very smooth working with the
other party.”
Suzanne Chase, a representative for Ag
gies for Richards, said she hopes the de
bate attracts a variety of attendants.
“We hope to reach more people who
are seeking to get informed about the is
sues like crime and education,” she said.
“We both decided that it was not go
ing to do anyone any good to fill the
room up with Aggies for Richards or
George Bush because they have already
made up their minds who they are going
to vote for.”
Both Armstrong and Chase said the de
bate is targeted towards voters who are not
decided, although everyone is invited.
“This is really a great chance for them
to get to the issues,” Armstrong said.
Coordinators of the debate plan to ad
dress several issues that are important to
Texans, including crime, education, taxes
and spending, gun control, social family
values, welfare, jobs and juvenile crime.
Armstrong said if this debate is a suc
cess, another debate will be planned for
later in the year.
Both organizations will send represen
tatives who will address the issues and
elaborate on the candidate’s position.
An open forum is scheduled following
the debate to allow audience members to
question the representatives.
South African officials allow
Zulu leader’s party into election
The Associated Press
PRETORIA, South Africa — A break
through agreement to resolve South
Africa’s political crisis appeared imminent
Monday when Zulu leader Mangosuthu
Buthelezi dropped his demand for a delay
in next week’s election.
Buthelezi, President FW. de Klerk and
African National Congress leader Nelson
Mandela may approve Tuesday a proposal
that would bring Buthelezi’s Inkatha Free
dom Party into the April 26-28 election,
said a government source close to the
talks.
Ending the Inkatha boycott would be a
key to ending violence between pro -and
anti-election forces that has killed hun
dreds of people and threatened to make
voting impossible in some parts of the
country.
“I can say the discussions have gone
very well,” Buthelezi said after several
hours of talks with de Klerk. He added
that he hoped to have an announcement
Tuesday “that might be very positive.”
One of Buthelezi’s conditions for tak
ing part in the vote has been a delay in
the election, hut on Monday he conceded
that ANC and government opposition to a
postponement made this impossible.
“I don’t think there is any possibility
of postponing the election, although I
would prefer a postponement, but I am a
realist,” Buthelezi said.
Lecturer warns of future climate changes
North says greenhouse gases
responsible for temperature rise ^
I . ' ■. -
Amy Browning/yy/t* Battalion
Dr. Gerald R. North, professor of meteorology and oceanology, ex
plains climate systems as a part of the University Lecture Series.
By Melissa Jacobs
The Battalion
A faculty lecturer told students
and faculty members during a
University Lecture Series Monday
night that the climate system has
undergone drastic changes.
Dr. Gerald R. North, director
of the Climate System Research
Program at Texas A&M University,
said the climate system is a com
plicated subject.
“Probably the closest thing to it
are biological systems,” North said
during the program, “Climate
Change in the Last Century: Forced
or Natural?”
North, a distinguished profes
sor of meteorology and oceanog
raphy, explained the greenhouse
effect is heating due to gases in the
atmosphere. He said there is
abundant evidence the climate is
Warming because of increasing
concentrations of greenhouse gas
es in the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is one of the
greenhouse gases.
“Modern climate models say
doubling carbon dioxide leads to a
warming of about 2 to 40 degrees
Celsius,’ he said.
North said problems he has en
countered in his research include
biases in ways of measuring the
earth’s temperature. The tempera
ture of ocean water was once mea
sured by lowering a pail into the
water and measuring the tempera
ture of the water in the pail, he
said. Whether the pail was made
of canvas or wood could make a
difference in the temperature.
“Also, the center of an urban
area is much warmer than that of a
countryside,” he said.
North said the effect that
aerosols have on the atmosphere is
still a question.
“We don’t know what they are
doing to the heat budget of the
planet,” he said. “Once the
aerosol gets above the stratosphere
it stays there a couple of years.”
North said the climate change
will result in higher tempera
tures, lower precipitation, an in
crease in the sea level by about a
foot or two and changes in the
frequency of hurricanes.
‘A model suggests that in Texas.
there would be less precipitation,”
he said. “It is likely that the hur
ricane frequency will change, but
we don’t know which way.”
North said there are a lot of
problems left with climate research.
“There are enough problems to
keep me here a while,” he said.
“A realistic goal is that we will ac
tually know where the error bar is
in ten years. The government
thinks we should be there now but
we have a long way to go."
Gorazde falls to Serbs
despite cease-fire pact
The Associated Press
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Confounded by Bosnian Serb
guns they cannot silence, international mediators and UN. officials ac
knowledged Monday there was nothing they could do for the terrorized
Muslim enclave of Gorazde.
“The town is at their mercy,” said the U.N. commander for Bosnia,
Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose. "We are on the edge of a major humanitari
an catastrophe.”
While Serb artillery pounded Gorazde, U.N. officials said Serb leaders
had committed yet again to a cease-fire and the deployment 'of U.N.
troops in the eastern enclave, home to an estimated 65,000 people. But
there was no immediate sign it would be anything different from other
broken pledges in recent days.
Russia’s special envoy, Vitaly Churkin, lashed out at Serb leaders after a
weekend of trying to negotiate a halt to the fighting at Gorazde, saying
he had never heard so many broken promises.
Churkin offered little hope to the thousands of refugees huddled in
the ruins of Gorazde trying to escape explosions and bullets from snipers
and machine guns. “In my view, there is very little way to control the sit
uation,” he told reporters in Zagreb, Croatia, and predicted a bloodbath
if Serb troops moved into the town.
In Washington, President Clinton played down the possibility of further
air attacks on Serb forces around Gorazde. He renewed his call for an end to
the U.N. ban on arms shipments to Bosnia’s Muslim-led government.
U.N. officials said there would be little gained by calling in more
NATO air strikes like the limited raids over the past week that did not
blunt the Serb offensive.
The only military officer in Gorazde to guide NATO planes was
among seven British officers evacuated at dawn, U.N. officials said.
Hampered by that muddled sense of purpose and lack of will, the Unit
ed Nations could do little but express outrage at the Serb attacks on
Gorazde, one of six “safe areas” declared by the Security Council a year ago.