Texas A & M University
Today Tomorrow
See extended forecast page 2.
)lume 103 • Issue 173 • 6 Pages
College Station, TX
Wednesday, July 30, 1997
cien
fEWS
Briefs
ms*
allege Station pool
named for Aggie
Allege Station Mayor Lynn Mcll-
eyand Steve Beachy, director of
ks and recreation for College
tion, will dedicate and rename
Southwood swimming pool in
orof former Texas A&M student
athlete Cindy Hallaran Thursday
p.m.
The pool is adjacent to the
ithwood Athletic Park on Rock
irie Road.
tallaran, Class of ’79, died on
17,1995.
‘j tallaran was known throughout
state and nation for her contribu-
is to the swimming field. She
' ei %nfor A&M, coached at A&M Con-
dated High School and worked for
College Station Parks and Recre-
l^n Department for 20 years.
(V
ramm aide to visit,
(plain Workplace Act
Ed Hodges, state director for U.S.
| s j 01 n.Phil Gramm, will visit Texas A&M
lay to brief employees - of the
[yod ean Drilling Program at A&M Re
arch Park about an act proposed
Gramm this month.
The Family Friendly Workplace Act
I give employees working over-
le the choice of receiving overtime
yorsaving overtime hours and tak-
>paid time off.
The Act would also give workers
ixible scheduling options; work
|)urs missed in one week could be
ade up by working hours in an-
herweek.
ludget deal includes
Texas welfare reform
AUSTIN (AP)
— Gov. George
W. Bush has re
jected a con
gressional deal
that would allow
Texas to hire pri
vate companies
to determine
and distribute
|Gov. Bush welfare benefits
for at least half
lits applicants.
I House Majority Leader Dick Armey,
jiving, said today that the governor
J him by telephone Monday night to
lithe measure out of the federal bud-
|and tax deal pending in Congress.
I Armey said the governor ex-
pssed concern that the deal would
jom the state’s welfare improve-
fntplan because the state could
(proceed unfettered.
|Formore than a year, Bush has
ished a plan to set up one-stop lo-
Jtions for welfare applicants to seek
ancial help, get job training and
jier aid. He wants to hire private
[fnpanies to determine applicants’
[gibillty for assistance and to ad-
lnisterthe aid.
TODAY
Ilptr
HfT
hell: The WNBA Is proving
be a hot investment and
like it will stick around.
See Page 3.
fllaway: Students must
joid high-risk investments
[their future financial plans.
See Page 5.
ONLINE
>://bat-web.tamii.fedu
3k for
evious
gallon
tides in
archives.
‘I scream, you scream
New dairy center on West Campus to reintroduce Aggie ice cream
By Jenara Kocks
The Battalion
The foundation of a building that will house
one of Texas A&M’s oldest and sweetest yet for
gotten traditions, Aggie ice cream, will be poured
near Discovery Drive on West Campus Friday.
Since the early 20th century until 1995 when
the Creamery building next to the Pavilion was
torn down, Aggies made milk, ice cream and
cheese at the Creamery. The new building on
West Campus will be called the Dairy Products
Teaching and Research Lab and will house the
Creamery’s ice cream-making equipment.
The Rosenthal Meat Science and Technology
Center dairy and meat sales area will sell the ice
cream.
The Creamery, which was completed in 1956,
was destroyed May 31,1995, to make room for the
Evans Library addition and parking garage.
Ray Riley, manager of Rosenthal Center, said
A&M-made ice cream was the most popular item
sold at the Rosenthal Center. The center has been
selling Blue Bell ice cream as a substitute for A&M
ice cream since the Creamery closed. Riley said
that now ice cream sales are half of what they
used to be.
“A&M ice cream is unique,” Riley said.
“People think, T can get Blue Bell anywhere,’
and they don’t make a special trip to Rosen
thal anymore.”
Please see Ice Cream on Page 2.
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Photograph: Tim Moog
Man to die
for murder
of neighbor
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — A twice-
convicted thief was set for execu
tion Tuesday evening for killing a
woman 15 years ago.
Robert West, 35, was condemned
for the beating and stabbing death
of Deanna Klaus, 22, who lived one
floor below him at a hotel in Hous
ton’s Montrose area.
The lethal injection would be the
25th this year in Texas, extending a
record for the nation’s most active
capital punishment state.
West’s attorneys requested an
11th hour review of the case by the
U.S. Supreme Court.
West had been in and out of jail
since he was 15, when he was sent
to reform school in Chicago. He
also had served prison time in Illi
nois and Florida for theft and bur
glary along with a number of oth
er arrests by the time he arrived in
Houston at age 20 “to mellow
out,” he said.
The Klaus murder on August
24, 1982 capped a series of events
that began with West and his com
panion, Gonzalo Tagle, a trans
vestite known on the streets as
Roxanne, picking up an ex-securi-
ty guard, William Longfellow, who
wanted to buy sex.
Instead, Longfellow was robbed
and stabbed and left for dead by
West. Roxanne eventually got bust
ed by police for prostitution and
told police her companion was
West’s friend, Brett Barstow.
After recovering, Longfellow put
out word on the street that he was
looking for Roxanne’s lover. Barstow
turned up dead, shot in the back of
the head, in what police termed a
drug killing.
Please see Death on Page 2.
Budget agreement reached
Clinton, Republicans both give ground on tax cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) —President Clin
ton and Republicans united today in
hailing a landmark deal to remake the
face of government by cutting taxes and
balancing the budget. Clinton called it
“an historic agreement that will benefit
generations of Americans.
“It is very, very good for our country,”
the president said in a celebratory state
ment on the White House south lawn, to
applause from Democratic members of
Congress. He said the agreement would
balance the budget in a way that “honors
our values, invests in our people, and cuts
taxes for middle class families.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete
Domenici, R-N.M., said the deal was “not
everything Republicans wanted ... it’s not
everything the president or Democrats want.
“But it does a lot of good things for the
American people,” Domenici said in an
early morning appearance on NBC’s “To
day” show. Referring to Clinton, he said,
“Both of us thought this was better than
having seven years of war. You give some,
we give some. We did it.”
The tax breaks would principally ben
efit families with children, students and
investors — although there would be sig
nificant new opportunities for Individual
Retirement Accounts.
Tax and spending cuts aside, the agree
ment also establishes a new program of
coverage for children currently without
health care. Tobacco taxes would rise to
help finance the program.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom
Daschle swung behind the plan, as well.
“An overwhelming majority of Democrats
will support this agreement,” he said.
Officials predicted substantial Demo
cratic support in the House, as well.
All sides described the agreement as ten
tative, subject to the drafting of official leg
islation. At the same time, Republicans ex
pressed confidence the package — 1 broken
up into two huge bills — would be on the
floor of the House and Senate and passed
by the GOP-controlled Congress by Friday
at the latest.
Please see Budget on Page 2.
Four die in Colorado flood
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A sudden
rainstorm sent a muddy wall of water up to 20
feet high crashing through neighborhoods in
the middle of the night, washing away cars,
trailers and anything else in its path. At least
four people were dead, 35 injured and 20 oth
ers missing.
“There was no time for warning,” said po
lice Lt. Brad Hurst.
More than 8 inches of rain fell in the Fort
Collins area Monday night and collected be
hind a 15-foot-high railroad bed until the wa
ter finally broke loose in a huge wave.
The flood turned the normally quiet Spring
Creek into a raging river of caramel-colored wa
ter. Televisions, refrigerators, furniture and
even a toilet bowl floated through town.
“It came and came and came, and I
thought, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to get out with
what I have with me and help my neighbors,’”
said Suzetta Thompson, who was at home
with her husband, Rob. Their trailer was de
stroyed. “I grabbed my bathrobe, and now
that’s all I have.”
Two trailer parks were especially hard hit,
but the flooding caused hardship all over this
city of 108,000 an hour north of Denver. Side
streets were swamped with dirty, brownish
water, forcing some shops to close.
City Manager John Fishbach estimated
damage in the millions. Gov. Roy Romer, who
had once lived in the neighborhood, flew over
the flood area in a National Guard helicopter.
“I know that creek well,” Romer said. “It
just catches your breath when you see that
amount of damage.”
As a steady drizzle fell, rescuers searched
for the missing. They went through 90 trailers
one by one, prying them open and spray
painting on them what was found. Many said
“Clear.” But one was marked: “Live Cat.” Fires
burned at daybreak from broken gas mains.
The Colorado State University campus was
heavily damaged. More than 4 feet of water
poured through the student center, and water
was still rushing from the building hours later.
Textbooks, pins from the bowling alley and bi
cycles were scattered in the muck outside.
In a music building, floodwaters ruined
band uniforms, sheet music, pianos and oth
er instruments in a basement. Damage on
campus was estimated at $20 million.
Please see Flooding on Page 2.
France, Texas dispute ownership of historic shipwreck
Staff and Wire Report
SAN ANTONIO — France is claiming it owns
the ship of explorer La Salle, a wrecked vessel the
state of Texas salvaged from Matagorda Bay, the
San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday in a
copyright story.
French officials have notified the United States
they will dispute any claim that the sailing ship La
Belle, which sank off the Texas coast more than
300 years ago, now belongs to Texas.
The state of Texas spent $5.5 million salvaging
La Belle. Its hull was disassembled during the ex
cavation, which was finished a few months ago.
La Belle’s wooden hull and a trove of artifacts,
including highly decorated bronze cannons, are
now at Texas A&M’s conservation laboratory at the
A&M Riverside campus. The Texas Historical
Commission contracted A&M’s Nautical Archae
ology program to conserve the ship’s artifacts.
Donny Hamilton, head of the Nautical Ar
chaeology program, said France’s claim will not
affect the conservation plans.
“The Texas Historical Commission is footing
the bill right now and if France wants the ship they
will have to pay for it,” Hamilton said. “Either way,
we are just in the middle of this.”
Laurent Mellier, press attache of the Frencn
Consulate in Houston, said Texas can keep the
ship, but France wants to retain ownership.
“It was the property of the king when La Salle
was inTexas.’That was the position of France, that
the ship belonged to the French king,” Mellier was
quoted as saying in the Express-News.
French researchers determined from archival
records in La Rochelle, France, that La Belle was
on loan to famed explorer Rene Robert Cavelier
sieur de La Salle, Mellier said.
France’s claim to the ship is “just to clear things
out and to be the ground for... scientific, technolog
ical and cultural cooperation,” according to Mellier.
Texas’ position is that King Louis XIV gave La
Belle to La Salle for discovering the mouth of the
Mississippi River and thus was the explorer’s per
sonal property. The state claims La Belle is a Texas
shipwreck since La Salle has no descendants who
can claim ownership.
Curtis Tunnell, executive director of the Texas
Historical Commission, said state archaeologists
worked closely with French scientists and re
searchers visiting the shipwreck site, and a travel
ing exhibit showcasing many of the ship’s histor
ical treasures could tour France.
“We have tried to cooperate all along with the
scientists and others in France that are interested
in this discovery,” Tunnell said.
The French government provided archival re
search to the U.S. State Department supporting
its view that it owns the Belle, which sank in 1686,
Tunnell said.
“I know the French government has contacted
the State Department and the State Department
has contacted the governor’s office and the Na
tional Park Service, and it’s kind of trickling down
to us,” Tunnell said.
Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for Gov. George W.
Bush, confirmed the governor’s office has re
ceived information regarding France’s claim but
has delegated the matter to the Texas Historical
Commission.
■ *
Photograph: Pat James
Bronze cannons from La Salle’s ship (.a Belle will remain at Texas A&M’s
conservation laboratory at the Riverside campus despite France’s ownership claim.