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Weather
Friday will be partly cloudy with widely scattered
afternoon and evening showers, highs will be in
the 90s with lows in the 70s
— National Weather Service
1 *
THE
Ghost stories
Brazos Valley plays host to
several ghoulish tales
Page 3
Health tips
Eating out — how to reduce fat
intake when ordering out
Page 6
• f . i .y x f- : . . • .. • . ...
mSmSm
NEWS
.................
Federal judge rules
on Brady Law
SAN ANTONIO — The back
ground checks required under the
Brady Law don't constitute an undue
tiardship on authorities enforcing the
gun-control law, a federal judge ruled
today.
"The Brady Act confers great dis
cretion on each chief law enforce
ment officer to determine what is a
reasonable background search under
the circumstances,” U.S. District
Judge Ed Prado said in denying Val
Verde County Sheriff J.R. Koog’s
challenge.
Koog argued the law is unfair to
small departments that do not have
the personnel to make the back
ground checks.
The law, which went into effect
Feb. 28, has been challenged in six
states.
White House aide
to pay $13,000
WASHINGTON — David Watkins,
the White House aide who lost his job
after going golfing on a presidential
helicopter relented Tuesday and said
he will reimburse the Treasury more
than $13,000. He said, “I’m not ad
mitting I did anything wrong.”
White House spokeswoman Dee
Dee Myers released an outline of an
internal review into helicopter use and
declared, “There were no other in
stances of misuse.”
And the White House issued
tougher rules for using military air
craft, requiring even Chief of Staff
Mack McLarty to get permission be
fore hopping on a flight.
A Republican critic, Rep. Roscoe
Bartlett, said releasing an outline is
not enough. He wants access to all
militaty flight manifests.
“The inconsistencies in the infor
mation released by the White House
renders their efforts unreliable,” said
Bartlett, whose Maryland district con
tains the golf course Watkins visited.
Study shows prison
inmate increase
WASHINGTON — The number of
state and federal prison inmates
climbed to a record 948,881 last year
— almost triple the 1980 figure —
and Congress is poised to stiffen
penalties for dozens of crimes.
In a report Wednesday on inmate
populations at the end of 1993, the
Justice Department said the incarcer
ation rate for prisoners sentenced to
more than a year also set a record —
351 per 100,000 residents.
For several years, the United
States has been locking up a larger
portion of its people than any other
nation. In 1992, 455 out of every
100,000 Americans were in prison or
jail; South Africa under its old govern
ment was next, at 311 per 100,000.
Other findings from the report:
—The federal prison system is 36
percent over capacity and state sys
tems operate at between 18 percent
and 29 percent over capacity
—The highest incarceration rates
were for black males, 2,678 per
100,000, compared to 372 for white
males, 143 for black females and 20
for white females.
Elders approves of
lesbian Girl Scouts
WASHINGTON — Surgeon Gen
eral Joycelyn Elders says lesbians
should be allowed to join the Girl
Scouts, and politicians shouldn’t wor-
fy “about anyone’s bedroom but their
own.”
“I feel that sexuality is up to the in
dividual,” Elders said in an interview
with USA Weekend magazine.
Elders defended an interview she
gave The Advocate, a gay newspa
per, in which she said sex was for
pleasure, not just procreation, and
urged the Boy Scouts to admit homo
sexuals.
“I also think girls who are lesbians
should be allowed to join the Girl
Scouts,” she said. “None of us is
good enough, or knows enough, to
make decisions about other people’s
sexual preferences.”
“What goes on in someone’s bed
room is really none of my business,”
she said. “I don’t feel that policy mak
ers and decision makers should worry
about anyone’s bedroom but their
own.”
The interview, conducted April 22,
will run this weekend.
Jennie Mayer AThe Battalion
Ray Bowen, the new Texas A&M president, held his first press conference yesterday in 701 Rudder.
THURSDAY
June 2, 1994
Vol. 98, No. 150 (8 pages)
“Serving Texas A&M since 1893”
comes home
Bowen strives to become
'Academic president'
By Shellie D. Jenkins
The Battalion
^ s he took office Wednesday, Dr. Ray Bowen said he wanted to be
known as Texas A&M’s “academic president.”
XjL Bowen said the first items on his agenda are to meet people
and to develop an open relationship with students, faculty and
administration.
“I come to A&M with a strong academic agenda,” he said. “My
primary concern is for students and their academics.
“I want to be known as the academic president of A&M,” he said.
Bowen became the University’s 21st president after the Board of
Regents confirmed his appointment last Friday.
Bowen said he sees areas reflective of his academic concerns and
would like to do
what he can to address them.
One of those concerns is the lack of resources in the Sterling C.
Evans Library.
He said it is important for students to prepare themselves for the
world. He would also like to stress the importance of classroom in
struction.
Bowen also said he supports a multiculturalism requirement be
cause of the changing economic environment and its importance in
the academic curriculum.
“We need to open up better lines of communication to enhance
the academic experience,” he said. “I would like to work on this in
ternally as a family.”
Bowen said he is still shocked that he was chosen for the job.
“Right now it’s all still very emotional. I’m recalling my days
here as a student, now I’m president,” he said.
Please see Bowen/Page 7
Rostenkowski
Prosecutors paint
bleak picture of greed
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
17-count indictment against Rep.
Dan Rostenkowski portrays a
powerful House chairman who
persistently pursued opportuni
ties to reward himself, his
friends and political associates
at taxpayers’ expense.
In obtaining the 49-page in
dictment from a federal grand
jury, prosecutors served notice
Tuesday they intended to paint a
devastating picture of greed and
corruption run amok over 20
years.
The Chicago Democrat, who
turned down a possible plea bar
gain after lengthy negotiations,
was accused of using elaborate
schemes to plunder the U.S.
Treasury of nearly $640,000.
Rostenkowski is expected to
be arraigned over the next 10
days, although defense motions
could delay trial for months, if
not years. In theory, conviction
on all the charges could mean a
110-year jail term and $365,000
in fines, but it is impossible to
say what the sentence would re
ally be.
The indictment means that
Rostenkowski, one of the most
powerful and influential mem
bers of the House, automatically
loses his chairmanship of the
Ways and Means Committee.
It removes him as a key play
er in President Clinton’s cam
paign to win passage of health
care reform legislation this year.
There were reports that Ros
tenkowski was considering re
placing his defense attorney,
Robert Bennett. Chicago attor
ney Dan Webb, mentioned in
some reports as a possible re
placement, said through a secre
tary that he had not talked with
Rostenkowski and did not repre
sent him.
Neither Rostenkowski nor
Bennett had any comment on the
indictment. Rostenkowski’s
spokesman, James Jaffe, left a
taped message on his office an
swering machine that said: “We
have no statements to issue, we
have no schedule, we have no ba
nanas.”
The indictment charged that
in return for being placed on
Rostenkowski’s office payroll,
friends or relatives took pictures
at his daughter’s wedding,
mowed lawns, remodeled his
home or performed other tasks
that directly benefited the con-
Piease see Greed/Page 7
West becomes first female
Boa rdHHHHHHHHHHI
Philosophy
By Sara Israwe
The Bafi auon
Mary Nan West made history
May 1.2 when she was elected as
the first woman to chair the
Texas A&M Board of Regents.
West, who did not initially
want the job, re
places former board
chairman Ross D.
Margraves Jr. Mar
graves resigned
April 27 because he
thought it was in
the best interest of
the University,
West was reluc
tant to take the po-F
sition, primarily be
cause of the time it
will take. mV |
She said it is im- |
portant to give 100 percent
when involved in something.
Texas A&M Chancellor
comes to mind.
“One thing I believe so firmly
in is integrity - that also encom
passes, honesty,” she said. “I
was reared to believe a hand
shake is like a contract.”
To be a regent, Mobley said.
, integrity
education is important today.
West is chairwoman of the
hoard of the San Antonio
Livestock Expedition, which
has raised thousands of dol
lars for college educations.
She is planning to work with
Brooke Leslie, A&M
student body presi-
"Uppermost in my mind
Are the students and what student government,
will benefit the students
because that is what the
regents are there for."
— Mary Nan West,
Board of Regents Chair
West said the stu
dents are the focal
point of her plans.
“Uppermost in
my mind are the
students,” she said,
“and what will ben
efit the students
because that is
what the regents
William Mobley was pleased
with the Board’s decision to
elect West. He described her as
honest and a candid listener. .
West said when she de
scribes her philosophy of life,
integrity is the first word that
it takes clear vision, the ability are
to work with a wide variety of At a meeting with members
constituents and high expecta- of the A&M Mother’s Club in
tions and standards. May, West assured them
West described what being a there were no plans in the
regent meant to her. ■- works to privatize food ser-
Tt takes a great deal of pa- vices,
tience, common sense, and “As far as I know, it was
forthrightousness,” she said. only talk,” she said.
Although West is not a col
lege graduate, she feels a college Please see West/Page 7
Judge orders Guard to reinstate lesbian colonel
Stew Milne /The Battalion
Roller tag
By the Associated Press
Cody chases his sister Kayce in the Academic Plaza Tues
day while their mother Shelly Eversole, a senior accounting
major from Bryan,studies.
SEATTLE (AP) — The military ban on homosex
uals serving openly suffered at least a symbolic set
back Wednesday when a federal judge ordered rein
statement of a National Guard colonel dismissed af
ter she acknowledged she is a lesbian.
The case involved an unusually high-ranking and
well-regarded officer, Margarethe Cammermeyer,
chief nurse for the Washington State National
Guard from 1986 until her involuntary discharge in
July 1992.
“The government has discriminated against
Colonel Cammermeyer solely on the basis of her sta
tus as a homosexual and has failed to demonstrate a
rational basis for doing so,” U.S. District Judge
Thomas-Zilly said.
Cammermeyer’s Fifth Amendment rights to due
process and equal protection were violated by her
1992 discharge, he said. Zilly was not the first judge
to make such a ruling, and the issue is certain to be
considered by higher courts.
Cammermeyer works at the Veterans Ad
ministration hospital at American Lake near Taco
ma, Washington.
“I am absolutely ecstatic. I feel like a kid ... The
first thing I did was holler so everybody at the hospi
tal knew what was going on,” she said.
“It seems like a vindication of all the struggles so
many of us have had. I can’t say that I’m speechless.
It’s just very exciting.”
Asked if she looks forward to being back in
uniform, Cammermeyer said, “If I can still
squeeze into it.”
Washington National Guard spokesmen did not
immediately return calls seeking comment.
Both sides indicated previously that a challenge
to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco was likely whatever Zilly’s finding.
Justice Department spokesman Joe Krovisky de
clined comment from Washington, D.C., saying
agency attorneys had not read the decision.
A review of the evidence showed “the rationales
offered by the government to justify its exclusion of
homosexual service members are grounded solely in
prejudice,” Zilly said.
He noted that military experts who testified at an
April hearing “conceded that their justifications for
the policy are based on fear and dislike of homosexu
als.
“‘Mere negative attitudes, or fear, are constitu-
Please see Guard/Page 7
oaay s
Aggielife
Classifieds
4
Comics
8
Health Tips
6