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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 1997)
Page rch 7, >n$ arned on 'atestproi -'are is ut of “Serving Texas A&M Since 1893 ” The Battalion blume 103 • Issue 109 • 10 Pages The Batt Online: http:// bat-web.tamti.edu Monday, March 17, 1997 -“‘CIS™ ut ofti Students celebrate St. Patrick's Day Stop that lapiro, d the met s a betti d adoptit 5 has 1 adoptio onstitueni only but outc Some local restaurants md bars will serve ^een beer and Irish cream drinks. hIByJoey Jeaneti i Sci u.m i i.r The Battalion xpectedth Legislatffi te votes s. Zaffitiiii in the3i Shamrocks and shenanigans — day is green day. Saint Patrick’s Day commemo- tes the death of the saint fa- ous for converting Ireland to iristianity. St. Patrick died in 461 at the age of 76. James O’Reilly, Irish historian for the Ancient Order of the Hi bernians, said the holiday offers a little something for everyone. “This day everyone becomes Irish,” O’Reilly said. “And people have a chance to learn more about our history.” Some may wonder what shamrocks and pinching have to do with St. Patrick’s Day. O’Reilly said the explanations are simple. “The shamrock became linked to the holiday because St. Patrick used it to explain the Trinity to the kings,” O’Reilly said. “He used the three leaves of the sham rock to show the Fa ther, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Four-leaf clovers meant the finder of the plant would go to heaven and join God. Pinching started in Ireland, O’Reilly said. “Those who do not wear green were considered unlucky, and they were told they were being pinched by the deceased pagan spirits,” he said. “It was scary for them.” The history of St. Patrick begins in Scotland, when he was captured by an Irish band of raiders as a teen and put into slav ery. He was then tak en to Ireland to work. While in his twenties, Patrick, which means “no ble,” was freed, and he studied to become a bishop. He then set a goal to rid Ireland of druid and pagan worship. Patrick became famous for banning all snakes from the Emerald Isle. The snakes were considered evil. Although St. Patrick’s fame is celebrated, some think the holi day is not appreciated. Tonya Daughtery, an Irish de- scendent and a sophomore ac counting major at Blinn, said she feels the holiday has lost meaning. “People go and drink beer and laugh and wear green, but they don’t know why they are doing it,” Daughtery said. Ireland made the drinking of ale famous on the holiday by cre ating green beer. Some local bars are prepared for the holiday with green beer and Bailey’s Irish Cream drinks. Bennigan’s Irish American Pub will be putting on the emerald decor for the holiday. Brandy Talasek, a hostess at Bennigan’s and a freshman agribusiness major, said they will be serving green beer and giving away prizes. lay m resides >100 valua ?rty. Thee under it* n form# >pted. t — cot billion ii d be speu the M :s — si 're monet come if reach the ichedulec iucation. he House : at taxer :entialtat each yei ! s. II but dt medicine 1 welfare ; exempi • state tai sidered, mnedale mmitteej We need' den t K exenf- Tim Moog, The Battalion Dedicated Fan Lindy Holder, a freshman biomedical science major, watches the Aggie baseball team play Oklahoma State Sunday afternoon. For coverage of the game, see Page 7. U.S.-Russian summit delayed The meeting was postponed one day to give President Clinton more time to recover ; from surgery. WASHINGTON (AP) — At the request of hobbled President Clinton, Russia’s Boris eltsin agreed Sunday to delay their sum- lit meeting this week by one day to give linton an extra day of recuperation from is knee surgery. Just a few weeks ago it was Boris Yeltsin 'ho many doubted was healthy enough to leet with Clinton. Yeltsin was so weak- ned by pneumonia in January, after heart urgery last fall, that the summit was hanged from Washington to Helsinki to ccommodate him. Some thought the looting would have to be pushed back un- 1 April or later, but Yeltsin’s recovery has lince accelerated. Thus it must have given Yeltsin some uckish delight to tell Clinton in a get-well ilegram he was ready to meet Clinton “as ton as your health allows.” The meetings will be Thursday and Friday i Helsinki, Finland. Clinton is to leave Washington Wednesday night. Clinton’s state visit to Denmark, sched- led for Friday, is being delayed until July, linton told reporters he hopes to fit in the •enmark visit while in Europe to attend a IAT0 summit meeting. In Copenhagen, rime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is sued a statement expressing “great under standing” of the need to postpone. I White House officials said Clinton was going ahead with a planned presummit meeting at the White House on Monday with Russian Foreign MinisterYevgeny Primakov. Primakov met with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Saturday and was at the Pentagon Sunday to see Defense Secretary William Cohen. As he entered the Pentagon to meet with Cohen and the military service chiefs, Pri makov was overheard asking Cohen, “Do you remember me?” Cohen replied, “Of course I do,” and re called that they had traveled together to Bangor, Maine. Sun day’s meeting was their first since Cohen be came defense secretary. In Moscow, the Krem lin press service an nounced the summit was pushed back a day “by mutual agreement” and said the delay was made necessary by Clinton’s recovery from surgery to repair the tendon he tore Friday in Florida. Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary, said the decision to delay the summit’s start by 24 hours was made Sat urday night by Erskine Bowles, the presi dent’s chief of staff, and the National Se curity Council staff. “It gives the president an additional day to convalesce and an additional day to learn to be mobile,” McCurry said. Asked whether the summit’s schedule of meetings had been shortened, McCurry made a veiled reference to earlier U.S. wor ries over Yeltsin’s bout with pneumonia in January and his slow recovery from heart surgery last November. “Remember,” McCurry told reporters, “the schedule had been designed to accom modate everyone’s health needs.” Clinton will be on crutches for weeks as he recuperates from Friday’s knee surgery. In addition to the regular medical team that normally travels with the president, an or thopedist and a physical therapist will ac company him to Helsinki. Clinton returned to the White House from Bethesda Naval Medical Center on Sunday afternoon in a wheelchair. “I think I’ll be per fectly mobile and perfectly fine,” a grinning president told reporters as he arrived at the White House. Even before going into surgery, Clinton vowed not to let his injury stop him from at tending the Helsinki summit, where an un usual mix of tough and sensitive topics will be discussed, including NATO’s plans to ex pand eastward. Clinton considers NATO expansion his top foreign policy priority — linked to other festering security issues such as overcoming the Russian parliament’s reluctance to rati fy the START II nuclear weapons treaty. Yeltsin said in an interview published Sunday in Finland’s leading newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, that Finland should not think of joining NATO. The Russians already have made a fuss over NATO’s intention to invite some former Soviet-bloc nations — probably Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic — to join. “To us, bringing the alliance’s military in frastructure closer to Russian territory is ab solutely unacceptable,” Yeltsin said in the Finnish interview. Clinton Search continues for alleged rapist TV programs profile A&M graduate By Benjamin Cheng The Battalion Alleged rapist and Texas A&M grad uate Don Davis will be profiled on NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries April 25. Segments of the show were filmed in Bryan-College Station during spring break. Davis was indicted on charges of ag gravated sexual assault last March for two rapes on the A&M campus in 1995. Davis disappeared from his parents’ home in Houston five days before his Aug. 21, 1996 trial. John Delaney, 272nd district judge, had released Davis on a $500,000 bond. In September 1996, Davis’ parents were arrested and charged with help ing their son flee from authorities. They were released on a $50,000 bond. Davis’ case was profiled on FOX’s America’s Most Wanted Jan. 25. Bob Wiatt, director of the Universi ty Police Department, said UPD re ceived 39 leads from people calling in to America’s Most Wanted. The Federal Bureau of Investigation worked with UPD on following up the leads. Police in Arkansas found Davis’ abandoned car at a Little Rock hotel in September 1996. “We have no idea where he is now,” Wiatt said. Wiatt sedO America’s MostWanted has Tim Moog, The Battalion been effective in helping law enforce ment officers apprehend fugitives. “Even if you catch one of them, that’s successful,” Wiatt said. “They’ve caught a bunch.” Michael Pallazo, the producer of Davis’ segment in Unsolved Mysteries, said the television program has helped catch 40 percent of the fugitive cases it has profiled. “Thirty million people see our show every week,” Pallazo said. “We’re like a giant billboard.” Unsolved Mysteries interviewed a friend of Davis’ and the UPD detec tives working on the case, Sgt. David Villarreal and Sgt. Jim Lindholm. Pal lazo said an interview with Davis’ par ents could not be arranged. He also said some people think Davis is innocent of raping the two women. “It’s an interesting and fascinating sto ry,” Pallazo said. “Some people think one thing and others think another.” Report says McVeigh admitted to bombing NEWYORK (AP) —Timothy McVeigh admitted his involvement in the Okla homa City bombing during a lie detector test given by his lawyers, Newsweek re ports in this week’s edition. But McVeigh failed a question about whether all his co-conspirators are known to investigators, and that may suggest that others were involved in the bombing plot, the magazine said. The report of the test is attributed to anonymous sources close to the investigation. “McVeigh confirmed his role in blow ing up the Murrah building,” the maga zine said. “... There is even fresh confu sion about whether the FBI has tracked down all the members of the conspiracy.” It said some federal investigators think the lie detector story may be just a ploy by McVeigh’s lawyer, Stephen Jones, to sow confusion before the trial begins. The defense did not respond to the report of a lie detector test but said the Newsweek report offers insight into the prosecution’s case. “This detailed outline of the pros ecution’s theory offered to the press far surpasses anything we have re- 1 ceived from the prosecution through the legal process,” the defense said in # a statement. Newsweek reported on investigators’ ! probe into the blast, from how agents lo- i cated McVeigh, collected evidence like 8 the axle from the truck used in the bomb ing, and got witnesses to talk to them. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson in Wash- j ington declined to comment on the re port Sunday. Two other purported McVeigh con- | fessions have upset defense attorneys. I They contend the confessions reported j by The Dallas Morning News and Play- I boy magazine in the past two weeks | have jeopardized the juiy pool. Last week, they asked U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch to throw the j case out of court, delay McVeigh's March 31 trial for a year, or move it out of Colorado. There was no indica tion when the judge would rule. Jones said he was not optimistic the j judge would grant any of his requests. i The Battalion “-iiinriiir ■■ i i i INSIDETODAY CANGSTA S PARADISE: Even Bryan-College Station has “big city” youth gang problems. Aggielife, Page 3 Toons Page 5 Sports Page 7 Opinion Page 9 State lawmakers seek new ways to curb uninsured motorists ► One proposal calls for six days of jail time for any motorist caught more than once without coverage. DALLAS (AP) —You did not cause the ac cident, but the driver of the battered pickup that rammed into your new Lexus does not have insurance. Sorry. You pay. Ron Vines, an Allstate insurance agent in Plano, said an accident involving uninsured drivers is the biggest headache in his business. “You can almost feel your customers burn ing up on the other end of the line when you explain to them why we have to take money out of their pocket,” he said. Many legislators say the problem is get ting out of hand, and they are searching for ways to catch Texans who ignore the state law that requires all drivers to have auto in surance coverage. More than a dozen bills to curb uninsured motorists have been filed, including one that would automatically jail for six days any driver caught more than once without insurance. “We need to solve this problem one way or another,” said Rep. John Smithee, R-Amaril- lo, chairman of the House Insurance Com mittee. “When you have a law on the books that is being ignored on such a wide basis, that sets a bad precedent. Unfortunately, there is not any solution that has jumped out at us so far.” Industry spokesman Jerry Johns said drivers who comply with the law and carry coverage are paying higher premiums every year be cause of the large number of uninsured drivers. “The cost for uninsured motorist cover age has risen dramatically over the past five years, and that can be directly attributed to the number of people roaming around on Texas roads without insurance,” said Johns, president of Southwestern Insurance Infor mation Service. The situation is worst in Cameron County, where 34.2 percent of the drivers are unin sured, according to the Department of Public Safety. El Paso County is next with 32.4 per cent, then Dallas County, 22.6 percent. The statewide average is 17.5 percent. State law has required drivers to carry auto insurance since 1982. The compulsory insur ance law was beefed up in 1991 when the Leg islature voted to require that motorists show proof of insurance when obtaining a license tag, auto inspection or a new driver’s license. But in addition to those who never get in surance at all, there are those who obtain in surance but cancel it once they have gotten the license or permit they needed.