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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1997)
m Texas A&M University X jp r- 1 £0 W mm % # 1 . . j i 1 Today Tomorrow See extended forecast, Page 2. olume 103 • Issue 168 • 6 Pages rby\; [laiiini llerim College Station, TX Tuesday, July 22, 1997 Jews ameiij lyersn Briefs oday marks 10-week drop deadline Today is the last day for Texas A&M dents enrolled in the 10-week sum- rsession to Q-drop classes. ,, To Q-drop a course, contact the de- l "": tment adviser. The last day to Q-drop for second timer session classes is July 28. In hr ISlillt r asaf:: Ifthei ld.“ljii Vaco )rmer student to inounce candidacy State Rep. Steve Holzheauser (R- toria) will announce his candidacy Texas Railroad Commissioner at LetM pWood Airport at 3 p.m. today. Holzheauser is chair of the House En- P nta %Resources Committee and is on House Ways and Means Committee. Holzheauser is a graduate of the torate program in veterinary med- ied\d ieat Texas A&M. O'V 2 Commissioner Barry Williamson is ongthe seat to seek another office. 1 a tripi ptoft later tests barred gom Chevron trial llosta® 26-v.; tsto tame® ineti [rdsaii hene! HOUSTON (AP) — Tests indicating langerous crude oil contaminants luted a Houston neighborhood *ebeen barred as evidence in an going trial against Chevron USA. The test results, obtained from the , of Houston’s legal department, lowfew samples that contain pol- iantsand no results indicating con- iiants at dangerous levels, say o independent drinking experts mtacted by the Houston Chronicle. Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge Ker> ith Hoyt has barred the tests from evi- rceatthe request of plaintiffs attorney ihnO’Quinn, who claims the city may 3^ teen biased in its testing approach. Residents in Kennedy Heights in wtfeast Houston claim contami- Ms/wn three abandoned crude on'Mpits below their neighborhood ‘° mi ' re infiltrated the water supply ,f ^dare to blame for cases of lu- tou ^ s,cancer, birth defects and oth- imniune system diseases in the gtiborhood. 63,431 nittini uh ialveston causeway fts. Ht , , J nmoniay be replaced |nSal1 GALVESTON (AP) — After nearly [ll 'years of use and 37 years after jijd last renovation, the Galveston ^^liseway could be headed for re- by# fhedf nai' LIFESTYLES |o 4 1 4 eta haircut and get a real •4 b: Students begin preparing lemselves for the ‘real world.’ 2 4 iter: National Endowment rthe Arts prevents lack of ‘figinality in society. See Page 5. iW'C 1 See Page 3. OPINION ONLINE %//bat-web.tamu.edu 1 cW YoW[ Hook for The -0} f ire, AP’s ' 4-hour A ins ni| ne news ource. Students remain divided over tobacco regulation ohcl Photo illustration: Tim Moog By Robert Smith The Battalion Texas A&M students have mixed opin ions about the possibility that the tobacco industry will pay billions of dollars to pay for the costs of treating smoking-related diseases and will be forced to stop adver tising aimed at children. Rajesh Vijayagopal, a smoker and an aerospace engineering graduate student, said tobacco companies should not be held responsible for smoking-related illnesses. “There’s a Surgeon General’s warning on every pack, and people know what these things do,” Vijayagopal said. Kimberly Kinnebrew, a nonsmoker and a senior education major, said the tobac co industry should pay for damages caused by tobacco. “I think it’s a smart thing to do,” she said. “If anyone should pay for it, the ciga rette companies should.” Last month, state attorneys general and the tobacco industry announced an agreement that would require cigarette companies to pay $368.5 billion over the next 25 years to compensate states for the costs of treating smoking-related illness es, to finance nationwide anti-smoking programs and to underwrite health care for uninsured children. The U.S. Congress must approve the settlement for it to go into effect. Congres sional debate is expected to conclude no earlier than the fall. All cigarette advertising and marketing aimed at underage smokers would cease, including Phillip Morris’ Marlboro Man campaign. R.J. Reynolds voluntarily dropped its Joe Camel campaign for Camel cigarettes, which the government says was designed to attract younger smokers, earlier this month. Kinnebrew said this will help decrease the number of underage smokers. Please see Tobacco on Page 6. Buyoff claims arise in court MIAMI (AP) — Philip Morris, the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, paid a small competitor’s legal bills for months in an at tempt to buy its silence about the dangers of smoking, an at torney charged Monday. Stanley Rosenblatt, an attor ney for flight attendants suing the tobacco industry for $5 billion be cause of illnesses they blame on smoky cabin air, made the charge with the jmy out of the room dur ing testimony by Liggett Group owner Bennett LeBow. Please see Court on Page 6. icement. The Texas Department of importation is about to begin a million study to determine y ( iether Galveston County needs lew link between the island and umaimand. f \ The study could recommend 1 T,| nstruction of a new causeway — u .j ibably at a cost of $40 million. other $30 million of improve- j sntsto Interstate 45 also could required. hnd Ironsides sets sail for anniversary (AP) — Its masts and six billowing white sails towering above the New Eng land waters it once protected, the oak warship nicknamed Old Ironsides set out Monday under its own power for the first time in 116 years. / An estimated 100,000 people on land and sea watched as the USS Con stitution left its temporary anchorage at Marblehead, Mass., on a one-hour voyage marking its 200th anniversary. The ship is normally docked at Boston’s Charlestown Navy Yard, where it has been a floating museum for generations. The oldest commissioned warship in the world was saluted by modern naval escorts: the Blue Angels flying team, which zoomed past 300 feet above the deck, and the guided missile destroyer USS Ramage and guided missile frigate USS Halyburton. The 44-gun frigate sailed the At lantic at a modest speed of four knots in light winds. “I’m kind of speechless, you know,” said boatswain’s mate Joe Wilson, cap tain of the deck. “I wanted to cry. They were tears of joy.” Please see Ironsides on Page 6. I llfflll EB'?'. twwr -'"fx >/ v rinnnnpfii mmtztmmi g: ■ WM las Kk -4 ■s apSI S? ;■ mm ILJ1 mm Photograph: Stew Milne Construction workers attach the fourth floor skywalk between Sterling C. Evans library and the student study and computing center Monday morning. Walking on Air Computers may replace Scantrons for testing at A&M -we ^1 1 fl Graphic: Ed Goodwin By Jenara Kocks The Battalion Texas A&M students may have to trade in their No. 2 pencils for a key board and their Scantrons for a computer in the future. Scantrons are a common way to test students, but some depart ments at Texas A&M and the Scant ron Corporation are developing programs that may be used to test students at a computer terminal. Willis Marty, a senior lecturer for the Department of Computer Sci ence, said computers will be used more for testing in the future. However, he said one problem must be solved before computer testing can be used as frequently as Scantrons. “The replacement of Scantrons will occur when you can ensure the person taking the test is the one do ing the work,” he said. Charles Hughes, an outbound sales representative for Scantron Corp. in Tustin, Calif., said the company is concerned that taking tests on computers will be as pop ular as using Scantrons and is de veloping technology to keep up with the times. Hughes said that with Scantron Corporation’s ParTEST Online teachers can create tests that their students can take on computers. But Hughes said teachers will not use this technology for some time. “Lots of schools don’t have the re sources to buy personal computers for all their students,” Hughes said. Hughes also said some teachers will not feel comfortable using com puters and will stick with letting their students fill in the bubbles. Marty said A&M students can use computers to take tutorials or quizzes to help them study for pa per exams. Dr. Martin Gunn, a professor of biochemistry, said that Tim Chester of Computer and Information Systems wrote a computer tutorial program for Gunn’s section of Biochemistry 410 that will available to students this fall through Gunn’s Web site. Gunn said the tutorial’s multi ple choice questions will be simi lar to questions on his exams. The program will grade the students’ answers, and students will see which questions they missed and the correct answers. Please see Tests on Page 6. Some Northern Ireland Protestants out of negotiation talks BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Irish Republican Army supporters took their place at the site of Northern Ireland peace talks Monday, prompting some Protestant politicians to bolt for the door. The largest pro-British Protestant par ty is still talking with the government, however, despite the party’s suspicions about the IRA’s new cease-fire. “They’re not walking, we’re still trying, so the talks process still holds,” Northern Ire land Secretary Mo Mowlam said. Locked out of the talks for 13 months, se nior figures of the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party entered their offices thanks to the open-end ed truce the IRA launched Sunday. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has in dicated Sinn Fein can join other parties in negotiations on Northern Ireland’s future if the IRA holds its fire until Sept. 15. For now Sinn Fein can use an office at Stor mont, the center of British administration in east Belfast, and start talking informally with anyone who’s willing. On Monday, that meant potential allies including Irish Foreign Minister Ray Burke, leading the Irish government team, and leaders of Sinn Fein’s moderate rival for Catholic votes, the Social Democratic and Labor Party. Sinn Fein’s enemies made clear their dis taste. The Rev. Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists avoided Stormont entirely, while the small United Kingdom Unionist Party walked out right after Sinn Fein came in. “We are talking here about people with a Stalinist or Fascist ideologue mentality,” said U.K. Unionist leader Bob McCartney, who represents Northern Ireland’s most affluent legislative district and is one of the province’s top lawyers. “There is no question of you meeting them on a ratio nal basis, having your arguments or their arguments subjected to logic and reason. These people are programmed.” Sinn Fein Chairman Mitchel McLaughlin dismissed McCartney’s protest. “Unionist leaders in the past have walked away from the process, only to come back,” he said. Critically, the leader of the largest Protestant party, David Trimble, led an Ul ster Unionist delegation to meet Blair in London. Trimble said he’d won no con cessions but spoke of “some possibilities of progress.” “We will not shirk our responsibilities. We are not in the mode of walking out, we’re there to try and achieve things,” Trimble said. His party received 32.7 percent of the Northern Ireland vote in May’s national elec tions, the largest share of any party. The British and Irish governments, which cosponsor the talks, have drawn up rules for when the IRA must start disarm ing during negotiations, the longtime Protestant demand that the IRA insists will never happen. The rules are supposed to be put to a vote Wednesday, but Trimble says he will torpedo them because they call only for “due progress” toward IRA disarmament — but no guarantees that the British gov ernment will expel Sinn Fein if the IRA doesn’t cough up guns or explosives at a specific point.