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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 1996)
The Battalion l. 102, No. 178 (6 pages) Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893 THE BATT ON-LINE: http://bat-web.tamu.edu Wednesday • August 7, 1996 Judges redraw 13 congressional districts OUSTON (AP) — Federal judges Mesday drew new boundaries for l3 of the state’s 30 congressional dis- ; vMHcts and ordered new elections to be .C*f hald in them this fall. Scrapping the results of primary and Hnoff elections in those districts, the three-judge panel issued redrawn maps to conform with a U.S. Supreme Court jHlling outlawing racial gerrymandering. ■ Their action means nearly half the State’s House races will have special elections in November that will operate He open primaries. Runoffs, if needed, I Hll be held in December, er hand, Diana was JlThe judges said their only choices absent from a recer were to redraw the boundaries or allow or the Queen Moth' illegal elections to take place, les and the couple; hi “This court had to determine whether to order an interim districting plan, or to B Hrmit the 1996 congressional elections flG longS lOf tosproceed under the current, albeit un life BHistitutional districting scheme for yet Bother cycle,” the judges wrote. (AP) — Alicia Silver 1| “The court’s plan endeavored to af- he good life, nottlie feet as few as possible of the state’s d of bling voters, and outside the boundaries of Districts 18, 29, 30 and immediately adjacent districts, relatively few voters have been moved into new or unfamil iar districts,” they wrote. The Supreme Court in June said the 18th District seat in Houston held by Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, the 29th in Houston held by Democrat Gene Green and the 30th in Dallas held by Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson were unconstitutional. The judges redrew those districts and 10 others for a total of seven in the Houston area and six in the Dallas area, affecting one third of Texas’ 9.7 million registered voters. “(The redrawn districts) hurt Democ rats and help Republicans,” said Green, who planned to appeal the judges’ order. “Those decisions ought to be made by elected officials, not a three-judge panel.” Pending any appeal or stay of the judges’ order, the special election will co incide with the Nov. 5 presidential elec tion. Candidates must file by Aug. 30. The Texas Secretary of State must certi fy the names on the ballot by Sept. 5, ac cording to the judges’ order. A runoff election will be held Dec. 10 in districts where no candidate wins a majority of the November vote. The incumbents in the 13 districts in clude House Majority Leader Dick Armey, his deputy Tom DeLay and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer, three powerful Republicans in districts that probably will continue to be GOP-dominated. With the new elections, some incum bents who had faced no primary or ma jor-party general election opposition now could find themselves drawing rivals. That includes Ms. Lee, Archer and Re publican Sam Johnson in the Dallas area, analysts said. And challengers in some affected districts could find themselves running in communities where they haven’t campaigned before, rushing to build See Redistricting, Page 6 Redistricting changes electoral fortunes WASHINGTON (AP) — Congres sional candidates and other politicos pored over Texas’ revised redistrict ing map Tuesday, seeking to deci pher how electoral fortunes will change now that new elections have been ordered in nearly half the state’s 30 House races. The decision by a three-judge feder al panel in Houston to redraw lines in 13 districts — cancelling election re sults from the March primaries and April runoffs in those districts — sig nificantly alters the election landscape. The immediate effect of the judges’ order, stemming from their 1994 rul ing that three majority-minority dis tricts were unconstitutionally drawn, is to throw into turmoil races in the 13 districts clustered in the Houston and Dallas areas. Republicans hailed the judges’ decision. “No longer will the citizens of our state be forced to endure a system that is racially unjust and immoral,” said Edward Blum, one of the Repub lican plaintiffs who challenged the constitutionality of the three majori ty-minority districts. Democrats weren’t pleased. See Fortunes, Page 6 i what I'm doing on at the same time, I’d d and have beautiful ions of animals and id and get as fat as I know?" she said in .tie of Vanity Fair, old C/ue/ess star is vie tentatively titled but she's not a big is. sllywood "very cold I very dark. But the ays have a smile on h I always wonder, smile is the knife!" lywood is not the >re people reach out you can do it,' For ever hang out with rstry." [ force of Park Bomb ) (AP) — Members the Heart Attack al- >n the Atlanta bomb to knocking me of ohn Paruolo, key- band playing at a I Park at the time, t away from us, but ;tage was 30 feet ■tood up and real- ' it was a bomb,’ nday's Los Angela iber band was into 27 when the pipe cilling one person ban 100. PERMANENT MARKER Pat Beck, a tattoo artist at The Arsenal in Bryan and an A&M graduate, inks a design on a customer Tuesday evening. Classes to start on Labor Day By Tauma Wiggins The Battalion Labor Day for most Bryan-College Station residents means rest and re laxation, but for Texas A&M stu dents, it’s time to hit the books again. On Sept. 2, all Bryan-College Station area schools, post offices and libraries will close for Labor Day, but A&M will hold its first day of classes for the fall semester. Cliff Lancaster, the A&M chan cellor’s chief of staff, said if classes were canceled for Labor Day, the only other option would be to short en a different student holiday. “We could swap and get Labor Day off, and then only have four in stead of five days for spring break,” Lancaster said. “But I don’t think students would want that.” Some A&M students would pre fer to have the day off, but not if it means sacrificing their Christmas or spring break holidays. Holly Frey, a senior psychology major, said the idea of going to school on Labor Day is unappealing, but it is better than having a short er Christmas break. “I thought it (Labor Day) was a na tional holiday,” Frey said. “I don’t like the idea, but if I can go to school on Labor Day and get off one day earlier to go home for Christmas and see my parents, I don’t mind.” Registrar Donald Carter said A&M students have no classes on July Fourth, Thanksgiving or Spring Break. Lancaster said A&M is required to observe certain holidays and, as of three years ago, Martin Luther King Day. These days are the only official holidays during the academic year, but students also get other days off, such as reading days. Sallie Sheppard, associate provost for Undergraduate Pro grams and Academic Services, said the issue of whether to observe the Easter holiday is raised every year. “The government declares Easter a holiday, but no one wants to use it as a holiday,” Sheppard said. “Now Good Friday is always a reading day, but it’s not a holiday. It’s a catch-up day for students to read and study.” Sheppard said the most recent change in the student calendar is the “redefined day,” which is not a holiday. She said Dec. 9 and 10, which are dead days, will be redefined days to make up for the missed classes from the previous week’s Thanksgiving holiday. The Academic Operations Com mittee will meet today to decide on the 1997-98 academic calendar. \ iis HOME t e Mi IS uramm returns to B-CS to discuss welfare By Ann Marie Hauser The Battalion r\ n. Phil Gramm spent yesterday in College Station visiting Texas A&M and discussing his welfare re- Jform ideas. The Gramm Amendment will deny cash assistance and food tamps to convicted drug felons at the state and federal levels. Gramm said welfare reform will serve as a deterrent in ghting the war against illegal drugs and violence in America. “It’s not right to be giving welfare to people that are sell- jftg drugs in public housing or taking the babies’ food tamps and trading them for drugs,” Gramm said. “If we’re tying to help someone help themselves, they can’t do it 'bile using drugs.” Al Jones, Brazos County judge, said violators should not eceive welfare. “I certainly support the initiatives that he is taking,” ones said. “People not willing to obey the law should not be be benefactors of our generosity.” Gramm presented the progress of the welfare program fom 1970 to the present using various charts and graphs. Gramm said $5.2 trillion has been spent on welfare pro grams since the mid-1930s. “Since the mid-1930s we have invested the equivalent of he entire value of all the buildings, all the plants, all the ! tyiipment, all the production capacity of America in trying o help people escape poverty,” Gramm said. “There are tiore poor people today than when we started.” Besides denying welfare to drug felons, four additional dements were outlined for welfare reform. Welfare recipi- ints who are physically and mentally stable must work, •'hether in on-the-job training or community service. Under the new program, welfare recipients can receive benefits for a maximum of five years as they work toward financial independence. States will have complete flexibility See Gramm, Page 6 Dave Winder, The Battalion Phil Gramm visits with A&M football coach R. C. Slocum dur ing evening practice Tuesday. University prepared to handle bomb threats By Melissa Nunnery The Battalion The University Police Department re ceives approximately two to three bomb threats a year on campus. The College Station Police and Fire departments are prepared to deal with those threats. Bob Wiatt, director of University Se curity and Police, said no bombs have been found, despite the threats over the last 13 or 14 years he has been working at UPD. “We do have them (bomb threats) on occasion — usually two or three a year — around final exam time in areas where exams are being given,” Wiatt said. “That’s just trying to get people out of taking their tests.” According to UPD bomb-threat pro cedure, threats do not always lead to immediate evacuation. When a bomb threat is called in to a building, the person in charge of the building is notified and employees check places such as trash cans and re strooms for anything suspicious. The building is not evacuated unless a de vice is found or it is deemed necessary to evacuate for safety reasons. The policy states that routine evacu ation would only lead to more threats because most threats are hoaxes. Lt. Scott McCollum of the College See Bomb, Page 6 TWA investigators focus on debris closest to airport EAST MORICHES, N.Y. (AP) — Suitcases found Tuesday in an under water cluster of debris from TWA Flight 800, may bolster the theory that a bomb in the front cargo hold brought the plane down. Divers used handheld sonar to look at the sunken bits and pieces, a Navy source said, describing the wreckage as “less concentrated and smaller” than the chunks of fuselage retrieved from other underwater wreckage areas fur ther along the plane’s flight path. Because the wreckage nearest Kennedy Airport probably fell first from the plane July 17, it could tell in vestigators where the explosion origi nated on the aircraft. A prime theory is that a bomb was placed in the front cargo hold, where luggage was stored, a source close to the investigation has told The Associ ated Press. Determining that suitcases were the first items blown from the plane could support that theory. Navy Adm. Edward Kristensen con firmed that suitcases were found amid the small pieces of debris. But National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Francis noted that luggage had also been retrieved from other wreckage fields where larger pieces of the plane were found. Togeth er, the wreckage fields are spread over 5 miles, he said. Francis also said Tuesday that in vestigators untangling the cockpit wreckage found intact instrument dials See TWA, Page 6