. . • • ■•• ■19 prsii\'n( ume 103 • Issue 150 • 6 Pages lhasfo [aduati Jiary Ivrl IEWS in (lira 1 made jits. |t‘ling of our isethe |sandj L* lemrvi il scieii Itescie | in arc (id Col liad an I |[ mv: Texas A&M University College Station, TX Today Tomorrow See extended forecast, Page 2. Wednesday, June 18, 1997 Briefs partment head discuss conflict Linda Putnam, head of the De nt of Speech Communications isA&M University, will discuss , .otsand negotiations in organi- 0 Tnsatthe next International As- ition of Business Communica- meeting. le meeting will be held at noon ne 19 at the College Station erence Center. tan has published more than iclesin management and corn- cation journals and was the re- ntofthe 1993 Charles H. Wool- Research Award, given by the iciiCommunication Association. luston left without ver after storm USTON (AP) — High winds blow- i Houston Tuesday knocked jipower lines, snapped trees and iwindows. No serious injuries or irdamage were reported. people who suffered cuts ying glass were taken to St. i Hospital. Four were treated Released and the other was ex- Ito be sent home after treat- t,nurse Mary Brant said, i were caulking windows out- 10th floor of a downtown png when winds pummeled their i. They were cut by broken nd one almost fell when a plat- Icable popped and shattered a ishe said. ie lunchtime storm knocked jowerto 192,000 customers, plate afternoon, 184,000 re- fedwithout electricity, said Leti- [owe,a spokeswoman for Hous- ; and Power. tfeBar investigates assistance legal [Ol SPORTS swomen’s version of the fAwill begin its inaugural pson this Saturday. See Page 3. ! S| fiembrance of the Six-Day | 3r prepares United States Negotiations with Israel. See Page 5. OPINION ^tp;//bat~web.ta«ut.edu link to , , )0e y magazine’s! * M ^Plete rankings. Magazine’s ranking of B-CS slips By Joey Jeanette Schlueter The Battalion Money magazine has ranked Bryan-College Station the 72nd best place to live nationwide for 1997 in its July issue, which comes out Thursday. Last year, the area iinished 45th among the top 300 cities chosen. Nashua, New Hampshire, was named the No. 1 city in the nation in which to live. Patti Straus of Money magazine public relations said the criteria for ranking the cities come from nine broad categories. “We rank the cities on a scale of one (being worst) to 10 (being best) within each category,†Straus said. “The magazine then chooses from the metro cities that meet these criteria.†Straus said the major category concerns the econ omy, including cost of living, average home value, un employment rate, job growth and crime statistics. Weather, crime, arts, education, health, housing, leisure and transportation are other categories in cluded with the economy. Although Bryan-College Station was ranked in the top 300, some believe the magazine should have not dropped the area’s rank. Ronnie Morrison, president of the Chamber of Commerce, said the Chamber never has been con tacted by Money regarding information for the mag azine’s survey ranking. “We’ve never been contacted by Money magazine since they have done this ranking,†Morrison said. “They must rely on government statistics and other sources rather than those who know the area.†With the magazine using the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association as a source, Bryan- College Station ranked highly in the economic category. Housing highlighted the rankings, with a four-bed room home costing an average of $150,700, com pared to the national average of $169,428. The un employment rate in the area is 2.5 percent, compared to the national average 5.3 percent. Job growth was 4.2 percent in Bryan-College Station, 2.6 percent higher than the national average. Crime was lower than the national rate, and the commute time to work was an average of 15.0 minutes, compared to the na tional average of 19.5 minutes. Other characteristics that contributed to the rank of Bryan-College Station were easily accessible and affordable health care, good schools, closeness to a college and inexpensive living. Please see Ranking on Page 2. Graphic: Tim Moog TEXACAL project explores ignored weather (AP) — The State Bar lexas said it hasn’t received Iplaints concerning attorneys pare giving legal assistance to fivors of the deadly Central tornadoes through a toll- ot line. testate Bar said Tuesday it will, iver, have an investigator in Jar- aensure the integrity of the pro- ,which was designed to provide help to victims of the May rnadoes. lie investigator will examine ■hand whether there is any atisfaction with legal services |provided, whether as a re- ofthe legal assistance hot- orotherwise, according to the leBar. or Dusek, a spokesman for At- General Dan Morales, has Ihis office was aware of com fits that some lawyers were Irg people for legal advice that ^supposed to be free through iline. Photograph: Derek Demere Josh Santarpia, a graduate student in meteorology, and Svetla Veleva, a doctoral student in meteorology, check weather data recorded by the Doppler radar on top of the 15-story Eller Oceanography and Meteorology building. Meteorology department, NASA team up for Doppler radar research By Michelle Newman The Battalion From as far as almost twenty miles away, one landmark on the Texas A&M skyline can be seen — the Doppler radar dish on top of the 15-story Eller Oceanography and Meteorology Building. The dish is part of an experiment called TEXACAL, a dual- Doppler radar project being conducted by A&M’s Department of Meteorology and NASA. Dr. Mike Biggerstaff, head of the TEXACAL project and an as sociate professor of meteorology at Texas A&M, said often-ig nored areas of weather will be researched. Damaging short-term winds will be studied because of the large amount of destruction they cause, Biggerstaff said. These winds are often ignored by researchers, but such gusts cause extensive damage in the United States each year. “We hope that [TEXACAL] will lead to better detection of short-term weather,†he said. During the experiment, the radar dish will be in constant movement, scanning the atmosphere for storms and other weather systems in conjunction with a second dish on loan from NASA positioned at Lake Somerville. The two dishes will work together to provide an in-depth analysis of storm systems in the area. Long-term goals of TEXACAL include calculating the amount of heat produced by convection of storms in the tropics. The heat produced by these storms can be used to determine future decades’ climate changes. Please see Research on Page 2. Irish Protestants prepare to march despite killings Event commemorates victories over Irish Catholics PORTADOWN, Northern Ire land (AP) — A road through the main Roman Catholic neighbor hood of this staunchly Protestant town is shaping up as a battle ground, following this week’s IRA killing of two policemen. Members of the Orange Order, Northern Ireland’s dominant Protestant fraternal group, say they are more determined than ever to march down Garvaghy Road, as they have done every July 6 to commemorate 17th-cen tury victories over Irish Catholics. But the leader of the town’s Catholic protesters, Breandan MacCionnaith, vowed “no Or ange foot†would march through the neighborhood. Last year’s at tempt to block the march trig gered deadly riots across North ern Ireland. The Garvaghy Road march is one of more than 2,000 staged each summer by the Orange Or der and two smaller Protestant fraternal groups to celebrate their community’s solidarity and past victories over Irish Catholics. Many Catholics resent the one-sided celebrations, with their booming drums, anti-Catholic songs and drunken thugs who of ten tag along with the bands. Alistair Graham, the British government appointee assigned to defuse the crisis, said Monday’s IRA slayings of two Protestant po lice officers made it impossible “to see how we’re going to get face-to-face dialogue, never mind any possibility of a formal under standing†between the two sides. Please see IRA on Page 2. Texas Senators push welfare legislation through committees WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas and other states would gain permission to use private-sector work ers to determine whether welfare applicants are el igible for benefits under the Senate Finance Com mittee’s budget package. The measure, inserted into the budget bill by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, is designed to get around White House objections to a far-reaching Texas welfare pri vatization plan. Irked by the Clinton administration’s refusal last month to sign off on major sections of the Texas plan, congressional Republicans have vowed to make whatever changes are necessary to existing law to permit the proposal to go ahead. The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday began consideration of the budget bill, which puts in place the spending cuts and other measures necessary to balance the budget by 2002. Gramm press secretary Larry Neal said he was “cautiously optimistic†that the welfare eligibility measure would remain in the final package passed out of committee. Last week, the House Commerce Committee and House Agriculture Committee approved measures in their portions of the budget pack age that would allow for private-sector workers to determine eligibility for the Medicaid and food stamp programs. The question of who determines eligibility has been the major stumbling block to administration approval of the Texas plan. White House officials con tend existing law mandates that only government employees make such determinations. In seeking federal approval, Texas officials said their plan —- the most ambitious to date in turning over welfare operations to for-profit companies — could save $120 million of the $550 million the state spends annually delivering welfare benefits. They also promised better service to recipients. Worried that thousands of Texans would lose their good-paying government jobs under the privatiza tion plan — and that the trend could spread else where — labor unions lobbied the White House in tensively against the proposal. Hong Kong governor’s ruling days draw to a close Gov. Patten will leave office when Britain turns city over to China rule in two weeks HONG KONG (AP) —With just two weeks left before Britain turns Hong Kong over to China, Gov. Chris Patten easily could be dismissed as yester day’s man. The adoring crowds that greeted him Tuesday on one of his last public outings—including a schoolgirl choir that sang “For He’s a Jolly Good Fel low†— suggest that Patten is still one of the most popular of the 28 British governors Hong Kong has had. Unlike the career diplomats and China scholars who preceded him, Patten is a politician and master of the common touch. That much was clear from the day he arrived in July 1992, wearing a business suit instead of the traditional sword, tunic and ostrich- plumed hat. He institutionalized the practice of “walkabouts,†as politicians’ outings are known in Britain. He encouraged the legislature to thrust and parry, and took it in good spirits when the barbs hit home. The common touch was still in ev idence when he toured a school in TsuenWan, where grimy factories and apartment blocks are slowly yielding ground to glitzy shopping malls and overhead expressways. His silvery hair waving in the breeze, the 53-year-old governor in spected rows of Chinese nursery school kids, giving kindly pats on the back and beaming as he ac cepted a huge bouquet of flowers. He signed a visitor’s book under a banner welcoming “The Right Hon orable Christopher Patten, Gover nor of Hong Kong.†Behind a barricade, hoping to pho tograph his 12-year-old son with Pat ten, engineer K.K. Cheung said he would be sad to see Patten leave. “He doesn’t consider only what’s good for Britain, but what’s good for Hong Kong,†Cheung said. “But China will only consider what’s good for China.†“I think he’s a good man,†said an other parent, Ngai Yeung Luk. China detests Patten for having en gineered democratic reforms without its consent, and is disbanding the leg islature elected during his tenure. A substitute, unelected legislature is al ready in place. And on Monday, the last of Patten’s work unraveled when the incoming, China-approved government appoint ed extra members to local councils, ef fectively weakening the power of coun cilors elected under Patten’s rules.