The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 21, 1994, Image 1

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    ay • September 20 ; i
Police Beat
Indecent Exposure. Man opens
pants. Well, you get the rest.
Page 3
Opinion
COLUMNISTS DEBATE: Should Texas' prisons
ban smoking?
Page 7
•AI1ALIOINP
Sports
The Lady Aggie volleyball team
returns from the University of
Colorado/Coors Tournament to face
the Lady Raiders of Texas Tech.
Page 5
DNESDAY
September 21, 1994
Vol. 101, No. 18 (8 pages)
' ^ “Serving Texas A&Msince 1893”
NEWS
RIEFS
D D ! ,dnt courthouse
BY DRfliman executed
Haitians attacked as U.S.
troops unable to intervene
Marines expand mission to second city
BoaLVMmjuuiim,
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BlNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Ex-
c^orfiey George Lott, whose sudden
ooting spree two years ago in the
rrant County Courthouse left two
ft dead and three others wounded,
went to his death early Tuesday.
Itt, 47, spumed legal help that may
saved his life and was executed
ifter midnight. He had represented
If at his trial and in his appeals but
o motions in the courts,
want all of these cases to be
fed appropriately,” Drew Durham,
Ijassistant attorney general who
ftssed the execution, said. "But Mr.
I] itt made his choice. And he died with
just 18 months
(e|arriving on the Texas death row —
ed the shortest time a Texas
:e had spent on death row before
unishment was carried out. The
ge prison time for the 81 convicted
lers put to death since the state
ed capital punishment in 1982 is
| years.
fott had no final statement,
nding with a simple "No" when
by Warden Morris Jones if he
Banything to say.
frade deficit in July
UiS/s second worst
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Washington (ap) — Rising oil
■irices and a big drop in airliner sales in
July gave the nation its second worst
ifiejchandise trade deficit in history, the
jovernment said Tuesday. Financial
kets went into a tailspin.
The Commerce Department said the
Iferall deficit in goods and services
surged 21.6 percent to $10.9 billion as
mports remained near an all-time high
pile exports weakened considerably,
ftrhe worse-than-expected deficit
figure, which followed a June shortfall of
$9.04 billion, rattled Wall Street. Stocks,
ybOnds and the dollar all weakened.
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Jubilant sup
porters of Haiti’s exiled president cheered U.S.
troops on Tuesday, but police clubbed the demon
strators and fired tear gas as American soldiers
stood by, under orders not to get involved.
Some demonstrators became angry at the
Americans for failing to protect a man who, ac
cording to witnesses, was clubbed to death by a
Haitian policeman.
After the disturbances, senior U.S. military offi
cers here roared up to Haiti’s army headquarters
for a lengthy “talk to,” as one American officer put
it. At sunset, U.S. military police emerged from
their bases at the airport and seaport to begin mo
tor patrols along the perimeters.
Some American soldiers bridled at the orders
that prevented them from intervening when police
attacked supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
Haiti’s first freely elected president, who was oust
ed in a 1991 coup.
“I feel terrible,” said Specialist Douglas Walton
of Cincinnati, a soldier in the U.S. Army’s 10th
Mountain Division. “To see people beaten and not
be able to do anything.”
U.S. officials said, the troops would not interfere
in Haiti’s domestic affairs. In Washington, Gen.
John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, warned the risk of violence was high and
said,‘We can be taking casualties at any moment.”
A day after soldiers of the 10th Mountain Divi
sion, from Fort Drum, N.Y., began landing at the
Port-au-Prince airport, Marines extended the U.S.
military operation to Cap-Haitien.
About 1,600 Marines came ashore in armored
amphibious vehicles, helicopters and Hovercraft.
Haitian police cooperated with the American troops.
U.S. troops were not seen patrolling in Port-au-
Prince and appeared to be concentrating on consoli
dating defense positions and supply depots. Con
voys moved betweeb the port, airport, an industrial
park and a warehouse district where the Americans
were setting up bases.
The Marines’ objective was to secure the port
and airport at Cap-Haitien, then move inland to
take control of two roads and two bridges. Later in
the day, they were expected to move farther into
town to locations by a Haitian army barracks and
several police outposts and a prison.
American soldiers numbered 7,000 by day’s end.
A leading Haitian democracy activist, Evans
Paul, urged Haitians to stop demonstrating at least
until American peacekeeping forces reached their
planned deployment of 15,000.
“We’ve got to know how to manage this situation
and not react by chasing rainbows,” he said. “It is
too soon for mass popular demonstrations, which
are dangerous.”
Marine Lt. Col. Steve Hartly, commander of one
of the the two task forces landing Tuesday, said un
der the rules of engagement his men could only step
in when murder or rape was involved.
Several thousand Haitians were gathered out-
siefe the Port-au-Prince port Tuesday. Blue-uni
formed Haitian police had held back but one officer
ah one point attacked a demonstrator, hitting him
on the back of the neck with a club, witnesses said.
At least 500 angry Haitians massed around his
body, angry over the death. Some of the protesters
blamed the Americans.
“If they came to help us no one would be dead,”
said one demonstrator, Melax Dasluvaes. “I don’t
know why they are here.”
• Probable targets
Bale De Port
au-Prince
■?-/ iv 1 tkaii:
International Airport
Initial point of U.S.
T) troop deployment
Power plant
.T*
^Pok^au-Prince"-"'"
U.S. Embassy JJ
/! .-"f'# Armed Fi - • •
National Palace ,x , '
u 1
►.4 Armed Forces headquarters
cm c
■ I*# i Atlantic Ocean 20^riiles
200 km
25 km Gonave m
{ Jererrtle
mie
N 4
Caribbean Sea Port-au-Prince
Mission to date
* Monday: 3,000 U.S. soldiers coming by air and sea took over Port-au-Prince,
securing the main airport and seaport without firing a shot. U.S. and Haitian
military are preparing a cooperative plan to quell any violence.
# Tuesday: Elite U.S. Marines are expanding their peacekeeping mission to Cap-
Haitien. U.S. civil affairs personnel plan to clear the Port-au-Prince airport,
seaport and access routes of any remaining obstacles.
Mnw 1 f I $m l i iiiSi Hi $11111
APA/Vm. J. Gastello
HEDWARDS air force base,
Calif. (AP) — Space shuttle Discovery
and its six astronauts glided through
clear skies to a flawless desert landing
Tiiesday after an 11-day mission that
included the first untethered spacewalk
in a decade.
ftlwo days of storminess at Cape
Canaveral forced NASA to bring the
ftttle to California.
i NASA prefers Florida’s Kennedy
ffiace Center to Edwards because the
detour costs $1 million and takes one
week to ferry a shuttle cross-country
atop a jumbo jet.
P The astronauts’ families had to settle
for watching Discovery’s 2:13 p.m.
arrival on television.
■ ’This is from your families: They
said you landed on the wrong coast,”
Mission Control told shuttle commander
Richard Richards.
You never know what
you’ll find at the beach
p; AUSTIN (AP) — Volunteers who
cleaned up Texas beaches this past
weekend found everything from the
everyday plastic trash to an entire
Pontiac.
I- The 11,208 volunteers collected
167.1 tons during the three-hour
Saturday cleanup, the General Land
1 Office reported Monday,
k jp-. That included a Pontiac Fiero hauled
||n on North Padre Island near Corpus
Bhristi. Officials said the car likely was a
stolen car that had been ditched.
I Also found in Saturday’s cleanup was
a plastic bag full of small bones, a
television set, discarded appliances, file
cabinets and more.
7 A set of bed springs was found on
the Bolivar Peninsula, while bed frames
Were found on Mustang Island, along
with a 6-foot grocery store shelf and 500
founds of roofing shingles,
jl The semiannual cleanups have been
removing trash from Texas beaches
tjince 1987. During that time, 139,508
Volunteers have picked up 2,849.1 tons
6f debris.
Land Commissioner Garry Mauro
iid that the national Center for Marine
onservation reported last week that
Icean dumping is down worldwide.
Garrett Higley/SpEciAL to The Battalion
So much for these cards
Bennett Goodman and his friends try to sell their baseball cards along
Walton Drive in College Station.
Breast cancer gene discovery
has local physicians hopeful
By Lisa Messer
The Battalion
The recent discovery of the gene that
causes hereditary breast cancer promises
major advancements in detecting and
treating the disease, local physicians say.
Dr. Nali Rengala, medical director of
the Brazos Valley Cancer Center, said the
gene isolation discovery may lead to more
advancements in cancer research.
“Every new step in research is excit
ing,” Rengala said, “because it opens new
windows for
other research
works ah that t* 16 g ene l means a whole lot
way. You of good for the future. When we
breakthrough^ know what causes a disease, we are in
and that leads
to the discov
ery of other
break-
throughs.
“It means a
whole lot of
history of developing breast cancer.
“The major impact will be finding
women at high risk,” Bohne said. “Cer
tain families know their risk is high, but
right now it’s hard to predict who will get
the breast cancer. Surgery is often done
needlessly.”
Dr. John Tomlinson, a pathologist with
the Brazos Valley Medical Center, said
the gene isolation will impact breast can
cer prevention much more than treat
ment.
“If someone had a family history of
cancer and
™ ' ' ' ' there was a
concern of in
creased risk of
developing
cancer, a high
ly specialized
lab could run a
a better position to cure it."
test to see if
— Dr. Nali Rengala, medical director of the you carried
Brazos Valley Cancer Center ™ he , . genej
1 omlinson
said.
good for the future. When we know what
causes a disease, we are in a better posi
tion to cure it.”
Dr. Henry Bohne, a College Station
surgeon, said that any advancements re
sulting from gene isolation may be two to
three years in the future.
“The first thing one has to realize is
that with most cases the practical appli
cation is several years down the road,”
Bohne said. “However, it’s opening a
door. Find one aspect and you can find
another.”
Bohne said the results of this discovery
will mainly affect women with a family
“Knowing someone carried the gene
would change things somewhat. You’d be
induced to follow them more closely with
mammography. You’d want biopsies
more frequently.”
Tomlinson said if a strong correlation
appears between carrying the gene and
developing breast cancer, the person
could choose to have a mastectomy before
cancer develops.
Hillary Jessup, who started a breast
cancer support group in Bryan-College
Station, said she is not that excited about
the gene isolation.
See Breast Cancer, Page 2
Transfer students create
varied A&M student body
By Kari Whitley
The Battalion
Over 1,900 transfer students
from across the state and nation
are enrolled at Texas A&M this
fall and are adding to the diversi
ty of the school’s student body,
A&M officials said.
“Students often choose to
transfer to A&M from other two
year and four year schools be
cause of the academic reputation
and student life this university
has to offer,” Dr. Malon Souther
land, vice president for student
affairs, said.
Ann Goodman, assistant direc
tor of student life, said there are
three categories of incoming
transfer students.
The typical transfer student
stays at their local two year col
lege while getting their basics out
of the way, she said.
Other transfer students go to
different four year universities
while making decisions about
their majors and future career
plans, Goodman said. These stu
dents take the first one or two
years to experience college on a
smaller level in a one-on-one envi
ronment.
Goodman said another group
of transfers at A&M are students
who “stopped out” of school to
work or start a family. These stu
dents also include those who have
had military obligations and are
returning to finish their degree.
“These students offer a wealth
of knowledge and life experiences
to the university campus,” Good
man said.
Southerland said students who
transfer to A&M are more focused
See Transfers, Page 2
Graduate Student Council, Student
Government resolve differences
By Stephanie Dube
The Battalion
The Graduate Student
Council is anticipating an
eventful year after resolving
its differences with the Stu
dent Government.
the council voted to call them
selves the Graduate Student
Government. However, when
they submitted their new consti
tution to Student Activities, the
change was stalled because A&M
already had a student govem-
Graduate Student Counci
she is pleased the count
Student Government can work
together now after disagreeing
on several issues in the past.
“We are looking forward to a
positive year, and going places
and doing good things,” Kardell
said. “This has given us more
visibility and opened a lot of
“This incident brought at
tention to the problem,”
Kardell said.
As a result, a task force was
formed to deal with the misun-
Govemment and the Graduate
Merritt said the task force
consisted of three graduate
and three undergraduate stu
dents, and two ex-officio facul
ty members.
“The task force was formed
because of a misunderstanding
as to how funds would be allo
cated to the Graduate Student
Council,” Merritt said. “This,
however, was a small underly
ing feature of the bigger prob
lem of how the graduate stu
dents felt they were viewed at
dent of the Black Graduate Stu- cems stemmed from the different
na- experiences
dents’ concerns.” _|JJJP{JJ)|
She said that over a year ago,
: : ' "v liS .
ftonal affairs chair of the Gradu
ate Student Council, was a grad
uate student representative on
See Graduates, Page 4