Weather
Friday, partly cloudy with scattered
showers and thunderstorms. Highs in
the 90s, lows near 70.
— National Weather Service
THURSDAY
June 23, 1994
Vol. 93, No. 162 (6 pages)
“Serving Texas A&M since 1893”
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Rockets take NBA title, 90-84
DA invites A&M
employees to testify
Brazos County District Attorney
Bill Turner has sent out invitations to
a number of Texas A&M employees
lo appear before a grand jury next
week, Turner’s office confirmed
Wednesday.
The invitations give the employees
an optional opportunity to give
testimony at the hearings as Turner
be wrapping up an investigation
into alleged misconduct within the
A&M System.
Head of Chemistry
dept, steps down
mmmmmmffimsmmmmmm
Texas A&M’s chemistry department
head will step down from his position
Aug. 31, when his term expires.
Dr. Michael Hall said he wants to
return to teaching and to research
after two four-year terms as
department head.
Mary Jo Powell, associate director
of university relations, said an interim
will be chosen by the Dean of
Science before Hall leaves the
position.
Knox honors Aggie
Band anniversary
Artist Benjamin Knox will help the
Aggie Band celebrate its 100-year
anniversary Friday, when he unveils a
painting commemorating the
centennial.
Knox's painting will be unveiled at
the Sam Houston Corps of Cadets
Center tomorrow at 3 p.m.
Reproductions of the painting will
be offered in conjunction with the
band’s year-long celebration.
The unveiling is part of a meeting
of the Corps of Cadets Development
Council.
Baku String Quartet
performs today
The Baku String Quartet will
perform a free concert in the MSC
Flagroom today at noon.
The quartet, consisting of two
violinists, a viola player and a cellist,
is from Azerbaijan, part of the old
Soviet Union.
The quartet has performed
together since 1992.
The concert is sponsored by the
MSC Summer Programs Committee.
HOUSTON (AP) — Hakeem
Olajuwon lived up to his MVP
billing and the Houston Rockets
won their first championship
and gave the city its first major-
league title, beating New York
90-84 Wednesday night in Game
7 of the NBA Finals.
Olajuwon was brilliant — 25
points, 10 rebounds and seven
assists — and capped his own
triple crown with his first NBA
championship and the series
most valuable player award to
add to his regular-season MVP
trophy.
As he had all series, Olaju
won won the battle of centers
with Patrick Ewing 10 years af
ter Ewing’s Georgetown team
beat Olajuwon’s Houston squad
for the NCAA crown. Ewing fin
ished with 17 points and 11 re
bounds.
And with the title still up for
grabs down the stretch, the
Rockets stopped a Knicks team
that had the league’s best de
fense, holding them to three
field goals over the final 6:48.
They also ended the Knicks’
quest to make their city the only
one to win NBA and NHL titles
in the same year. The Rangers
ended their 54-year Stanley Cup
drought eight days earlier in an
other seven-game series.
The Knicks were within 78-75
when Olajuwon hit a short
jumper. Ewing missed a baseline
jumper and Vernon Maxwell,
part of the much-maligned
Houston backcourt, nailed a 3-
pointer with 1:48 left for an
eight-point lead.
When the ball went through,
Rockets coach Rudy Tom-
janovich stood with his arms
raised in front of the bench and
Maxwell fell to the floor near
midcourt and was mobbed by his
teammates as the Knicks called
Please see Rockets, Page 6
Ap Photo
Rockets Hakeem Olajuwon, 1993-94 MVP and 1994 NBA Finals
MVP, stops Knicks Patrick Ewing from scoring during a 1991 match.
<4* Mnrp Prisons packed
Charity festival lifts off today
By William Harrison
The Battalion
If you come for hot air
balloons at this year’s
Brazos Valley Balloon
Classic, you’ll get more
than you bargained for.
For starters, the sev
en-year-old festival,
starting Thursday and
running through Sunday
at Lake Bryan, features
the main event, balloon
racing, as well as power
boat racing. And heli
copter rides. And arts
and crafts exhibitions.
And carnival rides. And
a petting zoo...
But only if you can af
ford the $3 admission fee
(parking’s free). A three-
day pass costs $6, but
kids under 12 get in free.
Terry Boike, chairman
of the non-profit, charity
festival, said there’s no
price - and no event -
that can beat it in the
area.
“This is the biggest
event in the Brazos Val-
ley — bar none,” Boike
said. “The average event of this size would
charge $5-6, plus parking. Not for us.”
Around 180 workers prepared for the event,
which Boike expects to draw more than
30,000, better than the 18,000 that attended
last year’s Balloon Classic.
“This will be twice as big as last year,”
Boike said.
The event began seven years ago with 16
balloons and 600 people.
Now, with 50 balloons and added attrac
tions including three live bands a night, Boike
says he wants the festival to drive for loftier,
but attainable goals amid the national balloon
racing circuit.
“Our future goal is to shoot for the U.S. Na
tional Tournament, a five-day festival that av-
Iry,
left on Sandy Creek Road for three miles.
Gate Admission
* Thursday — 4-10 p.m.
Friday — noon till midnight
Saturday — 6 a.m. till midnight
Sunday — 6 a.m. till 8 p.m.
* Admission is fee,
$5 for all-night carnival rides
Watch for a picture page Monday
erages $25 million dollars
a day in economic im
pact,’’ Boike said. “It’s
like the Super Bowl;
you’ve got Walt Disney
balloons and these corpo
rate people - they come
with expense accounts.”
Boike said that it will
take 2-3 years of consis
tent success for the Clas
sic to attract the tourna
ment.
However, the event has
already attracted racers
like Robert and Jetta
Schantz from Balloon
America, a professional
balloon racing team out of
Jacksonville, Florida.
The two attend events
around the nation and in
vite the top 40 balloon pi
lots to compete for the na
tional title.
And this year’s champ
just happens to be Harold
Cliver, a resident of
Bryan, who invited the
two to attend the Balloon
Classic.
“(Cliver) called us six
months ago because we
were the only professional
balloon racing out there and asked, ‘How can I
get you tied into it?’” Robert Schantz said.
He said that the event offered him an op
portunity to travel further west and create a
larger base for his national tournament to be
held later this year in Anniston, Alabama.
Jetta Schantz broke nine women’s national
and world records for distance with a 292-
mile flight this January. She said she never
tires of balloon racing and the events across
the nation.
“People sometimes forget that the first
means that took man airborne was the hot air
balloon, followed by gas balloons, blimps and
planes,” she said. “It was lighter than air craft
Please see Balloons, Page 6
Fifty new prisons
deal with inmate
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
State and Brazos County offi
cials are taking new measures to
eliminate prison overcrowding.
Dick Lewis, spokesman for
the Texas Department of Crim
inal Justice, said the depart
ment is waiting to move more
than 30,000 inmates, currently
in county jails, to state prisons.
At the time, there is no space
in state prisons.
State officials consider the
number of inmates an emer
gency, so the Department of
Criminal Justice has been
asked to build additional space
as quickly and as economically
as possible, Lewis said.
It was authorized to spend
$168 million on the construc
tion of 50 prisons that would
house 74,432 prisoners.
“This demonstrates a com
mitment on the part of the
leadership of our state to deal
with the overcrowded prison
situation,” Lewis said.
He said the construction of
the new prisons is ahead of
schedule. The cost of the facil
ities is 15 percent less than
previous facilities because pre-
engmeered metal buildings are
being used instead of buildings
made of brick and mortar.
“We are fortunate that a
number of contractors are
working hard to accommodate
our schedule,” he said.
A state prison that will
house 334 prisoners in Navaso-
ta is scheduled to begin accept
ing inmates June 23.
The Texas Legislative Bud
get Board has also authorized
construction of 6,300 temporary
county jail spaces across the
state.
The Brazos County Jail has
added a temporary facility to
house 96 additional inmates.
The jail currently has 290 beds,
will be built to
overcrowding
The Department of
Criminal justice was
authorized to spend
$168 million on the
construction of 50 pris
ons that would house
74,432 prisoners.
"This demonstrates a
commitment on the
part of the leadership
of our state to deal
with the overcrowded
prison situation."
— Dick Lewis,
spokesman for Texas Depart
ment of Criminal Justice
but has more than 500 inmates.
Sergeant David Bishop, from
the Brazos County Jail, said
the new beds will not be able to
accommodate all of the in
mates, who are now sleeping on
the floors.
“It will help some,” he said,
“but it will not alleviate the
problem.”
An architect is currently draw
ing up plans for a facility that
will house another 144 inmates.
R. J. Holmgreen, a Brazos
County judge, said the problem
of prison overcrowding cannot
be remedied by building more
jails; but rather, the solution
must begin earlier.
“People are coming in faster
than we can build new places
for them,” he said. “We can’t
just keep building more jails;
we have to intervene early. We
have to keep juvenile offenders
from moving on to the deten
tion centers.”
Majority of rape victims underage
Today's Bat
Aggie! ife
3
Classified
4
Comics
6
Mail Call
5
Opinion
5
Reviews
4
State & Local
2
What's Up
6
Girls under 1 8
account for more
than half of rapes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Girls
under 18 are victims of more
than half the rapes reported to
police, and the younger the vic
tim the more likely that the at
tacker is a relative or acquain
tance, the Justice Department
reported Wednesday.
Girls under 12 are the victims
in 16 percent of rapes reported
to police, according to the grim
estimates from the department’s
Bureau of Justice Statistics. One
in five rape victims under 12 is
raped by her father.
Both the statistics bureau
and private experts said the ac
tual percentages of underage
girls raped are undoubtedly
higher than these numbers gath
ered from police reports because
the younger the rape victim the
less likely the crime is to he re
ported to police.
In separate data from 1991,
the statistics bureau said family
members or acquaintances ac
counted for 96 percent of rapes
of girls under age 12 in a three-
state survey and for 94 percent
in a survey of state inmates con
victed of rape. The percentage of
rapes by strangers increases as
the age of the victims increases,
which experts said reflects the
more sheltered lives of younger
females.
“People tend to think rape
happens to adults,” said FYofes-
sor Dean Kirkpatrick, director of
the Crime Victims Ftesearch and
Treatment Center at the Med
ical University of South Caroli
na. “A good thing about this
study is that it will help educate
people that rape happens to chil
dren and probably more often
than to adults.”
Young people are so frequent
ly rape victims because “the
youngest are the least likely to
fight back and often don’t realize
they are victimized,” said Karen
Hanna of the National Victims
Child rapes in the U.S.
Reported rapes during 1992 and percentage of victims under age
18 in 11 states and the District of Columbia which kept such data.
221 Number of victims
E&sa Percent under age 18
986
Please see Victims, Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
AP/Wm Schroeder