D The Battalion
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Wednesday • January 22,15*
Dave House, The Battalion
S WG0 pi FI 0 Upl Erin Walker ’ an A&M em P |o y ee for six years, sweeps away the leftover
sand between Ireland and University Drive from the ice storm last week.
► This day in history
Today is Wednesday, Jan. 22, the 22nd day of
1997. There are 343 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Jan. 22,1917, President Wilson pleaded for an
end to war in Europe, calling for “peace without vic
tory.” By April, however, the United States also was at
war.
In 1901, Britain’s Queen Victoria died at age 82.
In 1922, Pope Benedict XV died. He was succeed
ed by Pius XI.
In 1938, Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” was
performed publicly for the first time, in Princeton, N.J.
In 1953, the Arthur Miller drama “The Crucible”
opened on Broadway.
In 1957, suspected “Mad Bomber” George R
Metesky, accused of planting more than 30 explosive
devices in the New York City area, was arrested in Wa-
terbury, Conn.
In 1970, the first regularly scheduled commercial
flight of the Boeing 747 began in New York and end
ed in London some 6 1/2 hours later.
In 1973, in its Roe vs. Wade decision, the Supreme
Court legalized abortions, using a trimester approach.
In 1973, former President Johnson died at age 64.
In 1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the fam
ily compound in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 104.
Ten years ago: Pennsylvania treasurer R. Budd
Dwyer, convicted of defrauding the state, proclaimed
Today's birthdays
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KANM 99.9 FM Cable
The Alternative
\Vf/
DJ Information
Meeting
S®l^«
DJ Positions Available
Creativity Welcomed
No Experience Necessary
Everyone Invited to Apply
Thursday, January 23, 1997
7:00 p.m. MSC room 206
Campus
Memorial to be held
for A&M fire victim
Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a case
involving a former admissions policy at
the University of Texas Law School.
A memorial service will be held
Thursday night at 7 o’clock at the All
Faiths Chapel for a Texas A&M stu
dent who died last weekend in an
apartment fire.
Paul Meloeny, a sophomore elec
trical engineering major from
Seabrook, Texas, died of smoke in
halation early Saturday morning in his
apartment.
Information on funeral and burial
services is pending.
Legislature changes
license requirements
Aggi
lie appears on
talk show as 'hero'
Eagle Scout and Texas A&M Uni
versity student Rudy Gonzalez was
featured on The Gordon Elliott Show
Tuesday.
The program, titled “Heroes of the
Hood," aired on UPN/WB cable chan
nel 17 (KAKW). Gonzalez, a sopho
more business major and a former
gang member, discussed how his life
changed with the help of the Boy
Scouts of America. Gonzalez's story
was featured in the Nov. 13, 1996,
issue of U.S. News and World Report.
► State
Morales may give
opinion on issue
his innocence at a news conference before shooting
himself to death in front of horrified spectators.
Five years ago: President Bush named Andrew H.
Card Jr. to be transportation secretary. The space
shuttle Discovery blasted off with seven astronauts.
One year ago: The White House announced that
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had been subpoe
naed by the Whitewater special prosecutor to testify
before a grand jury investigating the mysterious dis
covery of her law firm billing records in the White
House residence. OJ. Simpson testified for the first
time since the killings of his ex-wife Nicole and her
friend, Ronald Goldman, as he gave a videotaped de
position for a wrongful death lawsuit.
AUSTIN (AP) — Pressed by higher
education officials for a legal opinion
on affirmative action, Attorney General
Dan Morales says he may give one but
suggested some administrators want
“political cover” on the issue.
A legal opinion would carry the
force of law, unlike guidelines
Morales issued last year after an
anti-affirmative action court ruling.
Morales has been hesitant to issue
a formal opinion, but said Tuesday he
is seriously considering doing so.
The Texas Higher Education Coor
dinating Board and the University of
Houston have asked for an opinion
regarding race-related financial aid,
which is provided for in state law.
The attorney general said such an
opinion would be general and re
semble his guidelines.
“A lot of time and a lot of thought
and a lot of research went into the
preparation of that document, and I
would suspect that a formal opinion
would not vary much at all from what
we have already spelled out,”
Morales told The Associated Press.
The guidelines came after the U.S.
Supreme Court let stand a 5th U.S.
PLANO, Texas (AP) — Texas dri
vers soon will be helping the state
track down deadbeat parents.
Beginning Feb. 3, anyone applying
for a Texas driver’s license or a renew
al must show proof of a Social Securi
ty number. Only drivers renewing their
licenses by mail will be exempt.
The requirement, approved by the
legislature in 1995, is part of Texas
Attorney General Dan Morales’ effort
to enforce court-ordered child sup
port payments. By cross-referencing
Social Security numbers in driver
records with the Social Security num
bers of delinquent parents, Morales’
office hopes to find valid addresses
for people and make them pay.
“I think it will help immeasurably,”
said Alicia Terry, a spokesperson for
Morales' office. “Nine times out of
ten, people will put their right infor
mation down on their driver’s license
because they’re literally dealing with
someone that can arrest them. A lot
of people that owe child support have
a Texas driver’s license."
Recent figures show that fewer
than 180,000 people paid child sup
port in November out of some
400,000 who owed it, Terry said.
Adding to the state's collection prob
lems is that some parents evade the
law by moving from town to town and
work without paying taxes so their
wages aren’t garnished.
But not everyone is comfortable
supplying the nine-digit federal re
tirement-system number to the state
Department of Public Safety.
“I don’t like the idea because it’s
more government intrusion,” said
Channing Corn, 26, a software engi
neer waiting in line at the Plano office
Tuesday to renew his license. “I think
it’s another excuse to get more num
bers assigned to me.
Texas driver’s licenses will not dis
play the Social Security number at all.
It will appear only in computerized
records and given only to the Child
Support Division of the attorney gen
eral’s office, Chernow said.
inmates will be released eart
must be stopped this session.'
“It takes a bizarre formula|
releases violent offenders," ai
Sen. Jerry Patterson, R-Pasader
The two have authored a billto
the socalled “mandatory release'
gram the state started when pr,$
were bulging at the seams an:
more cells were available.
According to the Texas De;
ment of Criminal Justice, the
quires that when an inmate's -
served, added to his “goodti
credit earned equals his total
tence, the prisoner is mandator
leased to supervision by a part:
ficer. Such supervision is to cent
until the full sentence is served
Whitmire said the law was pas: Vlale GU
in 1977 and once helped man ame the
prison space during the overcrow 9, it bee
crisis in the 1980s. It name,
By
Th
began
\&M Co
► Nation
House punishes
Gingrich in vote
The Sing
oding tra
yperfon
WASHINGTON (AP) —lnada>
dishonor for Newt Gingrich,C
House voted for the first time
| game tl
llteam it
[ship. Thi
ry still-1
:h legenc
11, the K<
rick’s C
history to discipline its speakers y.Theyh
ethical misconduct. After montl
of partisan strife, the vote was ipe Chi
lopsided 395-28 to reprimandG
grich and impose a $300,00
penalty.
“The penalty is tough and unprec; jdetsarec
holding
dented," ethics committee Cte
woman Nancy Johnson, R-Conn.,$cJ)ns. The v
at the start of a 90-minute debated : t group,
publicans and Democrats agreedr
Gingrich had done wrong and admte
it, but they clashed over the gravity
his misbehavior.
The partisanship that permeate:
the two-year investigation wasui» (
minished Tuesday despite theo«- 10Se w h (
Legislators target
release program
whelming vote. At one point,
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., questionee
whether Gingrich was “ethicallyfit'to
continue as speaker.
After two years of denials
grich confessed to committee find
ings that he failed to “seek arid fol
low” legal advice that wouldtoe
warned him not to use tax-exew)
projects to further partisan goals. re ej]t<
He also agreed mat he sfro. ;
have known statements submitter „ We
ion on T
lecial ar
Sullivan
The
ictuates b
and 60
rs, is lool
lale stude
ily with e:
nging volt
ositively
;nt the m
ent body
Iniversity.
David K
actor o
inging
las condi
year and
under his name — denying his poll
ical organization's connection to tbj
tax-exempt activities — were “inaj
curate, incomplete and unreliable.
AUSTIN (AP) — Prison inmates no
longer would be released automati
cally before their full sentences are
served under a bill introduced Tues
day in the Texas Senate.
“That’s nuts,” Sen. John Whitmire,
D-Houston, said of a mathematical
formula that determines when some
ictively im
fnment or
11 the gu
ms and r
tienwetn
1 Kipp sai
Correction
A mistake was made in a Page) 100 mal
10 story in yesterday's Battalion jpe of the ]
The colonization period for the net
sorority, Delta Gamma, will be a
mini-rush for pledges and officer ie chair of
• kenior m
Weather
Today
Tonight
Tomorrow
Highs & Lows
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Ann Sothern is 88. For
mer Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., is 69. Actress Piper Lau
rie is 65. Former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. du Pont IV
is 62. Author Joseph Wambaugh is 60. Actor John
Hurt is 57. Country singer-musician Teddy Gentry (Al
abama) is 45. Rock singer Steve Perry is 44. Hockey
Hall-of-Famer Mike Bossy is 40. Actress Linda Blair is
38. Rock singer Michael Hutchence (INXS) is 37. Ac
tress Diane Lane is 34. Actor-rap DJ Jazzy Jeff is 32.
Actress Olivia d’Abo is 28. Rhythm-and-blues singer
Marc Gay (Shai) is 28. Actor Balthazar Getty is 22.
e first tw
bras a Sir
e title of”
mesters,
Id man.”
I “The bu
J being
Wets,”
Tonight’s Expected Id ^ en ‘whip
47°F
Today’s Expected Higt
72°F
Clear skies and pleasant.
Light North winds.
Increasing high clouds.
Light and variable
winds.
Partly cloudy. Southeast
winds around lOmph.
Tomorrow’s Expected
High
70°F
Tomorrow Night’s
Expected Low
54°F
One of t
the Sin
pee ofwc
Information courtesy of TAMS0!
ALPHA PHI
a social sorority
INVITES YOU
to our Spring rush Jan 21-23
Tues. Jan. 21 join The Ladies of A(J) for Open
House with slide show & refreshments at the Col-
lege Station Conf. Center Rm. 127 at 7pm
Wed. Jan. 22 join us for bowling and billiards at
7 pm in the MSC ^
Thurs, Jan. 23 By invitation only ^4
$
For More Information, Please Contact: ^
Melissa 846-7188
The Bat
Rachel Barry, Editor in Chief
Michael Landauer, Executive Editor Wesley Posten, City Editor
Tiffany Moore, Managing Editor Kristina Buffin, Sports Editor
Stew Milne, Visual Arts Editor Alex Walters, Opinion Editor
John LeBas, Aggielife Editor Chris Stevens, Web Editor
Jody Holley, Night News Editor Tim Moog, Photo Editor
Helen Clancy, Night News Editor Brad Graeber, Cartoon Editor
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