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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 1994)
rontiers Weekend's rains set a record for rainfall in a 24-hour period with 53 inches. Page 2 THE Opinion ELIZABETH PRESTON: Political correctness is not insane, trite or annoying. It is an important movement that brings forward many voices that have been hiding in shame for years. Page 7 Sports The Lady Aggie basketball team tips off the season w ith their first practice Saturday. Page 5 MONDAY October 24, 1994 Vol. 101, No. 41 (8 pages) "Serving Texas A&Msince 1893" wmmmmm NEWS RIEFS >. translator meets fidental death BRT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - jmi man working as a translator Sie international police force in ailiwas electrocuted Sunday, the st accidental death in the oltinational effort to restore Haiti’s |ted government. I the National Palace, meanwhile, ■dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide was King a new prime minister. pis top candidate, interim Foreign inister Claudette Werleigh, was II out because of her leftist bent, id Aristide was leaning toward a Diriment businessman to replace iijitaker Prime Minister Robert lalval, a source close to the ivisrnment said. [fie only previous deaths since S.-led forces arrived in Haiti on ept 19 have been three American jyicemen who took their own lives. lildren with elevated id levels overlooked DALLAS (AP) — The number of ren in two south Dallas iborhoods with elevated levels lad in their blood is almost twice fll of other parts of the city where pals are focusing their help, The atlas Morning News reported jday. [City officials have no plans to Ip the south Dallas fghborhoods, and that decision keep the areas from a share of feral grants to be announced this Ik, the newspaper said. iDallas is seeking a $6 million rant to pay for lead poisoning rograms. The money would go oward a few selected leiohborhoods of east, south a,nd rest Dallas, city officials'say. jmwever, state tests of thousands lallas children suggest the two oath Dallas neighborhoods left out jthe anti-lead effort may have inch worse lead problems. 6man befriends new other, kidnaps baby |0RT WORTH (AP) — Police fe searching Sunday for a baby girl liorities suspect was abducted by tjloman who had befriended the lint's mother. Four-month-old Ysenia Romero Is taken from her crib late Friday lile her 2-year-old brother slept |irby, police said. [he suspect was known to the niily only as "Alicia,” despite having sited the family repeatedly for pis, said police Lt. Greg Bradley. They know nothing else about " Bradley said. "It sounds hard to ■eve, but stranger things occur. Ills is a person who is very elating.’’ "he suspect introduced herself to Jriella Sanchez, 21, at Fort th’s John Peter Smith Hospital utthe time Ysenia was born and ed her frequently, Bradley said. She said she was looking for her ir, who was having a baby. That 35 pretense, I believe,” Bradley ientists advise FDA approve eye laser 3AITHERSBURG, Md. (AP) — A el of outside scientists advised Food and Drug Administration week to approve the nation’s first ■ laser to correct nearsightedness, hded the maker can meet strict sty criteria. Summit Technology Inc, must wthe FDA that at least 75 percent etients treated with this laser will e good enough vision to abandon r glasses or contact lenses and only a tiny number could have r vision worsened because of the :edure. The 13-1 vote by the panel came sr 12 1/2 hours of often-testy ate. At one point, the panel came iln a single vote of completely cting the OmniMed laser. Several el members expressed concern the laser was already outmoded he 40 countries that now permit type of surgery. fhe FDA is not obliged to accept recommendations of its outside isers, but it customarily does. xlny s Batt assified 6 ontiers 2 )orts 5 ions 4 /eat her 4 [hat's Up 8 Israel to hunt Hamas, embraces peace Peace treaty with Jordan approved; Rabin gives green light to hunt Tel Aviv bombers JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is approaching peace with a palm branch in one hand and a gun in the other. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gave security forces the green light to hunt down and kill mili tary leaders of the Muslim move ment waging a war of terror against Israelis, officials said Sunday. But the policy, a response to public anger at the bombing of a Tel Aviv bus, is matched by offi cial approval of a peace treaty with Jordan and renewal of talks with Palestinians on self-rule. Security officials reported to the Cabinet on Sunday that they had rounded up dozens of ac tivists from the fundamentalist Muslim group Hamas since the bus attack last Wednesday. Hamas took responsibility for the bombing, which claimed its 22nd victim on Sunday when a 61-year- old woman died of her wounds. Fearing reprisals for the bomb ing, about 30 Hamas activists in the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank are spending nights in hid ing, a Palestinian source said. Cabinet ministers spoke of new steps against Hamas, although they would not confirm Rabin’s decision to order the killing of Hamas military leaders, which received banner newspaper head lines. Economics Minister Shimon Shetreet said security forces had identified “dozens” of activists in volved in the kidnap-murder of an Israeli soldier by Hamas last week. “We will find them and no one will go unpunished,” he told reporters. Police sources told The Associ ated Press on Sunday that the solider, Sgt. Nachshon Waxman, a duel American-Israeli citizen, was severely beaten by his cap- tors but not otherwise tortured before his death. Housing Minister Benyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel was in “a long war” and had decided on “special treatment in dealing with the Hamas that in the end will stop them.” The military has long had a list of most-wanted activists it is authorized to kill on sight, See Israel/Page 3 Election officials use convenient polling to boost voter turnout UNDATED (AP) - If you’re an old-fashioned type who thinks voting is something you do on Election Day, think again. By the time polls open Nov. 8, up to one-third of all Texas voters will have cast their ballots — at flea markets, stores and in church parking lots. In California, an estimated one in five voters will vote before Election Day, without ever setting foot in a polling place. And in two Washington counties, nobody will go to the polls on Election Day. Island and Ferry coun ties are running their elections entirely by mail. Hoping to boost America’s chronically low voter turnout, election officials and legislators are getting creative, trying to make voting more convenient with programs such as early voting, no-excuse ab sentee voting, retail voting and mail-in voting. “Convenience sells, no matter what business you’re in,” said Art Hyland, auditor in Island Coun ty, which mailed ballots Friday to every registered voter. With the innovations, however, come concerns that tinkering with democracy’s most sacred rite may have unwelcome results, including higher costs, increased risk of fraud, and a loss of commu nity spirit. Gary King of Olympia, Wash., got a ballot in the mail two weeks before the state’s Sept. 20 primary. See Voting/Page 4 Carrie Thompson/THE Battalion Fish taking a yell leader to water Junior Yell Leader David Kemp is escorted off of Kyle Field by freshmen members of the Corps for his and the other yell leaders traditional dunking in the Fish Pond. Chronicling A&M Athletics Cartoon dp gives constant support to Aggie sports Blake Griggs/FHE Battalion dp’s creator Donald Powell, A&M’s di rector of business services. By Lisa Messer The Battalion Twice a week for seventeen years dp has appeared in the sports pages of The Battalion. dp, a cartoon character who always looks on Aggie athletics in an unfailingly positive light in the comic strip “dp,” is usually accompanied by other stock char acters, such as a yell leader, a band mem ber and a Corps freshman. Donald Powell, director of business ser vices, president of the Texas Aggie Band Association and Class of ’56, created dp in 1977 to help support A&M’s athletic teams. “The cartoon is designed to be support ive,” Powell said. “It will always be posi tive.” Col. Ray Toler, director of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, said he thinks Powell is the epitome of an Aggie’s Aggie. “He loves A&M on a professional plane and on an emotional plane,” Toler said. “I have the utmost regard and respect for him. He loves everything near and dear to Aggie traditions.” Powell attends every football game, home and away, and every home basket ball game. He said that traveling to the away foot ball games sometimes makes it difficult to meet his self-imposed 6 p.m. Sunday deadline. “Fve never missed a deadline - ever,” Powell said. “I try 7 to make each cartoon special, but if I’m rushed, the characters will have no feet. That’s because if they have feet, the characters must be in proportion.” Powell said he used to draw some car toons, without expressions, before he left College Station for a game. His daughter would then give the characters smiles or frowms, depending on the outcome of the game, and turn the strip in for him. “I try to draw the strip as close to the game as I can, either on Saturday or Sun day, so I can reflect on it,” Powell said. “That gets hard during basketball season. I’ve been known to sit in the stands at G. Rollie White and draw car toons.” Powell said most of the responses he gets to his cartoon are positive. David Winder, sports editor of The Bat talion, said “dp” is a cartoon readers ex pect to see in the paper. “‘dp’ is a tradition here,” Winder said. “People are used to it. If it weren’t in the paper, people would notice and be upset.” Powell said he has only faced one seri ous controversy in the 17 years the car toon has run. He said that in 1978 many A&M sup porters were upset with football coach Emory Bellard because of A&M’s poor standing in the Southwest Conference. See dp/Page 3 Coast Guard works to clean Houston oil slick HOUSTON (AP) — The Coast Guard worked against a strong current Sunday to clean up more than a million gallons of oil and gasoline that gushed from pipelines ruptured by floodwa- ters. One of the nation’s busiest ports could remain closed through the week to nearly all traffic while crews work on the gooey mess. Flooding that began Oct. 16 has killed at least 19 people. Rushing water from the swollen San Jacinto River is believed re sponsible for at least four pipeline breaks that sent at least 1.2 mil lion gallons of gasoline and crude oil into the river Thursday, ignit ing fires. A blotchy ribbon of black crude, some patches still burning, floated from the river’s mouth through the channel and into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil-recovery' ships worked to suck the oil into stor age tanks and barges wdth booms and skimmers. “I think a week is a good work ing figure for resolution of the oil spillage. We may be longer in re solving some of the other issues,” Coast Guard Capt. Richard Ford said. “It’s too early to predict ex actly what type of problems we are dealing with and how long it’s going to take.” The Houston Ship Channel is open to some barges during day light. Ford estimated that busi nesses along the Port of Houston will lose Si million each day oceangoing vessels Eire kept out. Oil-collecting ships bobbed Sunday in 6 mph currents that Flood victims seek Sunday solace HOUSTON (AP) — Mary Lopez beamed in her beaded- satin wedding dress Sunday, a new gold ring on her left hand as she stood outside the New Day Revival Center. “I almost didn’t get my dress,” she said, posing for family photos under a brilliant blue sky. “Be cause of the flooding, I almost didn’t make it to the store to pick it up.” At other churches across 33 Texas counties, those hit hardest by the torrential rain and floods sought solace as they were joined in pews by volunteers and neigh bors, many who gave thanks they were spared the heartache of los ing a loved one or a home. Nine teen were killed in the floods. Mrs. Lopez says she’s one of the more lucky residents in this southeast Houston neighborhood, where floodwater rose to more than 8 feet in some places. Her front yard flooded, but her home did not. Asked if the rains that pelted Southeast Texas and her neigh borhood for three days had any thing to do with her decision just four days ago to marry her boyfriend of two years, she just shrugged. “We were ready,” she SEiid. A few streets over, at South Wesley African Methodist Episco pal, church directories dried on the lawn. Inside, peeling paint about a foot high from the ground marked the flooding’s final level. Worshipers returned to their pews with wet knees after kneel ing on the soaked front altar. slowed their progress. “They’re not particularly effec tive, nor are they designed to be, in that type of ciJirent,” Ford said. A private salvage boat worked to raise a large object — possibly an unmanned tugboat reported See Clean Up/Page 3