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
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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