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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1994)
ic popcorn inches to ers’ waists NGTON - Lookii ire at the movies!’ :k at the popcorn, fiir. irite snaclt is a hi Dry, a consumer onday. iblem is not pope he fatty coconut o it of tneaters nop id the Center for S ilic Interest, a nor group. ed fat in coconut Puesday, April I f ,?# ; mmsm 'X' ^ w | x is l&M8c§s$st&M . ;• - ^ < -.g s B : = r Source: NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE t.!,’ . 5 *2^ . ■ | ag | ' L, ife ™ 1 ated Press fW Texas A&M W V _ _ Tf # T/ie Battalion |ol. 93 No. 139 (12 pages) Serving Texas A&M since 1893 Wednesday, April 27, 1994 omado in Lancaster kills 3, destroys 200 homes he Associated Press LANCASTER — Residents ■ i picked through debris and desper ately sought out loved ones Tues- icorn from "tl snack foods said Michael Jacob: hfCSPI. owners argue that® to the movies onlf ?s a year, so where’s ; one of life's lilllepltr id William Kartoziit [ay following a tornado that de stroyed most of the business dis- [ict and as many as 200 homes. Three people were killed in the [onday night twister that tore irough this one-time cotton inning country, which has devel- ped into one of Dallas’ fastest-de- eloping suburbs. >f the National Asso© ■atre Owners, isumer group betei rs should know it!, shing. il small bag of tliett )ntains almost ante nmended allowance it, the kind that®. e, the center said, urn-sized bucketw: is 56 grams of satiw ans” fat, both bln ig arteries, thegroE lore artery-clogging! et from a whole di) h-fat foods: a bicc: reakfast, a Big Macs r of fries, and aste; th sour cream, cor the dreaded Den® ewater is proving toll if a disappointmeni : e controversy’s bigge fanners. what I would call a id-raising issue,"st: ed’s Brown, a consir who bills himselfm a source of damag:; on Whitewater. “I think there’s a lot of hard days ahead, a lot of them,” said Lancaster Police Chief Mac McGuire. A mattress hung from a tree in front of the 119-year-old Odd Fel lows Hall, which lost much of its second floor. A building which once housed a bank robbed by Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker lost all of its second floor except for a corner facade. The business district, which dates back to the years just after the Civil War, was left in ruins. A 20-foot clock in the middle of the town square showed 9:3 8 on its shattered face, testimony to when the tornado ended its destructive trek. Rebekka Henderson, 19, was at home with her mother and younger brother when the tornado tore through her neighborhood on the edge of the square. “We saw what was coming, so we closed ourselves off in an in side hall with the dog. Sirens went off. We were sitting with the dog, covering our heads. The house fell all around the hall. We could feel the wind through the floor,” she said. Ronnie Mitschke was at home with his family, planning a night of baseball and movies on the tele vision. The tornado intervened, forcing the family to take refuge in a mas ter bedroom closet. ‘‘A 1,400- square-foot house is now 2-feet tall,” he said. “The more I think about it the more I figure I should be dead.” Early estimates of insured losses from the powerful storm may reach $250 million, said Jerry Johns, president of the Southwest ern Insurance Information Service. The smell of broken creosote- treated wooden frames filled the square and the silence was inter rupted by the bulldozers clearing mounds of 120-year-old bricks from the streets. The fatalities occurred in the residential area west and northwest of the square. As many as six blocks of homes were destroyed and another five blocks suffered severe damage along the path that is 6 miles long and a half-mile wide, said trooper Robert White of the Texas Department of Public Safety. “I think we had one cardiac ar rest. The rest died in their homes” of injuries, White said. See Tornado/Page 5 How now brown cow? Taiwanese jet kills 259 during crash in Japan Tim MoogJThe Battalion A kindergarten student from Navasota Elementary School reaches out to pet a cow at the Dairy Cattle Center of Texas A&M's Animal Science Department. The children were on a field trip Tuesday morning to see the various animals housed at A&M. The Associated Press NAGOYA, Japan — A Taiwanese jetliner crashed and burned while trying to land at an airport in cen tral Japan on Tuesday night, killing at least 259 people and narrowly missing a nearby housing area. The China Airlines A300-600R Airbus had 271 people on board. Airport officials said 1 0 were be ing treated in hospitals and two were unaccounted for. Minutes before the crash, pilot Wang Lo-chi radioed that he would abandon his landing at tempt and try again, the Transport Ministry said. The pilot did not give a reason or indicate any trou ble. In his last transmission, he sim ply said: “Going around.” The plane, flying to Nagoya from Taipei, Taiwan, crashed sever al hundred yards to the right of the runway. Had it gone another 200 yards straight ahead, it would have hit houses. It ended up just short of several hangars of an air force base at the airport, and the quick response by airmen was credited with saving some lives. A Transport Ministry official said the fire was put out about 40 minutes after the crash, the second worst in Japanese aviation history. “When I got to the plane, it looked so had that I thought every one must have died.” - Taka hide Miyagi, a Nagoya district assistant fire chief Hours later, some 3,000 police, firefighters and troops were gin gerly lifting wreckage with cranes and by hand in the search for the remaining victims. The plane, Flight 140, was car rying 256 passengers and 15 crew members when it crashed at 8:18 p.m., officials said. ‘‘When I got to the plane, it looked so bad that 1 thought every one must have died,” said Takahide Miyagi, a Nagoya district assistant fire chief. “But then I heard a woman call ing in pain for help and I called for a stretcher and we rescued her,” he said. Yoshihito Horiba, another fire official, said many of the bodies were too badly mangled to identify even by age or gender. Some were See Crash/Page 5 Glasses still on schedule despite Nixon funeral . By Jennifer Smith The Battalion Texas A&M University stu dents will have classes today al though Gov. Ann Richards de- dared Wednesday a state day of mourning out of respect for for mer president Richard Nixon, who died Friday. In response to Richards’ an nouncement, A&M System Chancellor William Mobley de cided Tuesday morning to let the chief executive officers of System universities and agencies be re sponsible for developing and im- lementing a plan that keeps of- ces open which are required to conduct official state business. Texas A&M Interim President E. Dean Gage announced Tuesday that College Station and Galve ston classes will be held as scheduled, but employees not directly involved in providing classroom support or other key services necessary for planned or special events will be given the day off. Employees who work Wednesday may observe the day of mourning as a compensatory day off between now and August 31, 1994 with the approval of their immediate supervisor. Although Richards declared that state offices, agencies and de partments would be closed “as an appropriate tribute to our 37th president,”A&M officials said classes were not canceled because it is so late in die semester. Mary Jo Powell, associate di- See Classes/Page 5 Black South Africans get vote after 342 years The Associated Press JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Black South Africans made history Tuesday, voting by the tens of thousands to take control of their country for the first time since whites arrived 342 years ago. “We need freedom,” said 72-year-old Florence Ndimangele, voting with other elderly people near Cape Town. “We are tired of being slaves.’ Despite late-arriving ballots and lines so long in some places that peo ple collapsed, the mood among blacks casting the first vote of their lives was jubilant. Tuesday’s voting was reserved for the aged, invalids, people in hospi tals and the military. General voting begins Wednesday, when African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and President FW. de Klerk will cast their ballots. “Today marks the dawn of our freedom," Mandela said. For Gladys Shabalala, a 62-year-old retired nurse voting near Durban, it was a day of immeasurable significance. “There have been so many white elections,” she said. “I used to pass the posters on the road and dream about whether I would be able to vote. That’s why I came so early, to see if this is really happening.” Her seven daughters, she said, will see “a real new South Africa.” After two days of bombings by suspected right-wingers that killed 21 See South Africa/Page 4 Officials investigate illegal gambling racket By Jan Higginbotham The Battalion Texas A&M University officials are investigat ing a get-rich-quick scheme involving a num ber of unidentified individuals who have been participating in an illegal gambling operation. According to reports from the Student Con flict Resolution Center, these individuals ask students to invest $100 in a pyramid scheme. The investors recruit students to buy spots on See Editorial/Page 11 the pyramid, and once 10 more participants are found, they earn a $900 return. The other stu dents also help to recruit so they can work their way up the pyramid with hopes of getting the same $900 return. Gene Zdziarski, coordinator for the Student Conflict Resolution Center, said the center is now working to inform the public of the dan gers of getting involved in the pyramid scheme. “Our biggest concern now is getting the word out,” Zdziarski said. “Our standpoint as a University is to address the needs of the student body. The solution is to get this thing stopped.” The center has received a dozen calls con cerning the scheme, which Zdziarski said ap pears to be very widespread. One student, who asked not to be identified because of his involvement in the scheme, said pyramid activities are over. “It spread so fast that everybody is in it, so it’s at a standstill,” he said. “It’s over. Every body is either in or everybody is scared to get in. The people who have already gotten in and gotten out don’t want back in. “For about three days, it was like wildfire. All of the sudden, just within one night, it was at a standstill.” Zdziarski said it is important for students to realize there is no direct benefit or product from the investment. He said students also need to be aware that participation in such an activity is a crime. “The issue of criminal charges depends on the individuals,” he said. “The county attor ney’s office may decide to take action.” James Lindholm, investigating officer for the University Police Department, said the case is currently at a standstill because no complaints have been received. “If someone has been taken in by the pyra mid scheme, we are asking them to call in,” Lindholm said. “Until we get a complainant, we can’t do anything. All we can do now is try to ^arn the public.” Lindholm said such endless chain schemes are a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by a fine See Gambling/Page 5 Ceremony encourages employees to earn GED Stew Milne/77j« Battalion Some Texas A&M University employees earned their General Equivalen cy Diplomas (GED) through a program sponsored by the University. By Nicole Cloutier The Battalion Eight Texas A&M employees who earned their General Equivalency Diplomas were honored at a special commencement ceremony Tuesday. The graduates were part of a pro gram sponsored by the University to encourage A&M employees to gain their GED, which is the equiva lent of a high school diploma. The program, which has been offered since 1988 through A&M’s Human Resources Department, al lows employees paid time off to study for and take the GED exami nation. The program has commenced more than 100 employees since its beginning and currently enrolls 22 employees. Maria Magallanes, one of Tues day’s honorees, said she was glad she participated in the program. "It was definitely worth it,” she said. Many were appreciative of the opportunity and plan to continue their education. Hugh McElroy, associate director of Human Resources, said this can be the stepping stone to long-term goals. "Many of these graduates go on to Blinn and even Texas A&M,” he said. McElroy said graduates get more than just a certificate when they complete this program. “Some of these graduates already have their own famihes, some even have grandchildren, and it is really strong reinforcement for their chil dren to see momma or poppa, or even grandma studying,” he said. Head football coach R.C. Slocum, the guest speaker at the event, com mended the graduates for taking ad vantage of their power to choose and taking responsibility for the di rection of their lives. Slocum said they have taken suc cessful steps in a game more impor tant than football, the game of life. Slocum’s father dropped out of school at the age of 15 to help con tribute to the family income. “It was a noble cause when you think about it, sacrificing his own education for his family” Slocum said. “But he eventually reached a plateau with the education he had gained in the military. Then, when he stopped and realized that he was not happy with his lifestyle, instead of sitting back and making a bunch of excuses, he did something about it.” Slocum said he was in first grade when his father went back to get his GED, and he could remember his father sitting and studying with him. “And he was struggling with it too,” Slocum said.