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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.