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
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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