K1
MH
YEAR • ISSUE 69 •
Inert
lacoi
man resources
| artment to move
edto as A&M Human Resources
(HRD) will move in two
n g, s fiom the YMCA Building to
Research Parkway.
)up I offices of benefits, com-
ations, training/professional
)pi”hent and retirement ser-
wili move beginning Dec. 8.
}up II offices of administra-
imployee relations and in-
1 :ional services will move be-
s , saii ig Jan. 5.
Ices that are not moving are
neft ifi|ation and compensation,
reerWient, employee assistance
1!i ccupational health.
s .ephone numbers have not
n>i >eci for any of the HRD offices.
|»pe ran police to offer
ti-crime services
I e Bryan Police Department’s
K t Crime Apprehension Team will
prig a crime prevention effort
■on to 6 p.m. Dec. 9-13.
ie police will be engraving per-
property, assisting to record
>ers for identification, passing
|me prevention information
inswering questions about bur-
and auto theft.
jring each day, the officers will
jt awards for different door
Jand coupons.
|ie team will be set up in a trail
's different location each day.
ft. 9 — Winn Dixie at 4001 E.
Ktreet.
ft. 10 — Bryan Police Depart-
, tat 301 S. Texas Ave.
ft. 11 — D.K. Food Store at
•9 W. Villa Maria.
[•ft. 12 — Appletree at 2001
21 E.
■tee 13 — Wal-Mart Super-
ter at 2200 Briarcrest.
inton defines U.S.
iclear-strike policy
,A J n A/ASHINGTON (AP) — Turning U.S.
l '.. lear policy toward an emerging
j ’ fat, President Clinton has decided
^ United States will consider using
|. Dus i lear weapons against attackers
) hit American forces with chemi-
^ or biological weapons.
The policy, made explicit in a clas-
sipresidential directive, marks
i administration’s first instruction
e Pentagon shaping a nuclear
itegy against the increasingly wor-
)me possibility that nations such
Iraq might turn chemical or biologi-
arsenals against U.S. troops.
A senior Clinton administration ad-
gsaid Sunday the policy con-
ms with two decades of White
ise statements on the possible
t use" of nuclear weapons. But it
d3 presidential weight to the
ing concern about “rogue
ites” that has replaced the nuclear
rror of the Cold War.
Approved last month by Clinton,
. incipal elements of the “Presi-
ntial Decision Directive,” or
PCI were reported Sunday by The
ashington Post.
JNSI!
lifestyles
All Things Aggie:
Texas A&M prof
pens books
about Ag humor
and other
anecdotes.
See Page 3
he Texas A&M Volleyball
3am advances to the
f ICAA Tourney’s third round.
tPl See Page 7
i!3
in ton
uhnston: Misinformation,
ackward knowledge displayed
ta || today’s society.
See Page 11
m
line
look up with state and na-
ional news through The
Vire, AP’s 24-hour online
' ews service.
e x a s A&M University
12 PAGES COLLEGE STATION • TX
, 4 65
53
TODAY
TOMORROW
See extended forecast. Page 2.
MONDAY • DECEMBER 8 • 1997
PITS seeks solution for aging bus fleet
Proposal would add 10 new buses each of the next five years
By Amanda Smith
Staffwriter
As the Texas A&M Parking, Traf
fic and Transportation Services
(PTTS) tries to keep enough buses
running to accommodate students,
it faces the reality of an aging fleet
that demands an increasing num
ber of repairs.
Gary lackson, manager for Bus
Operations, said PTTS is examining
options to address the problems of
a large fleet that is growing older.
“We have one of the
largest university bus
systems in the
country,” he
said. “We
would like to buy 70 new buses total,
but that would cost some $98 million.
We are looking at other options now.”
The current fleet includes 59
buses that transport students and
faculty on and off campus. Students
pay about $20 in service fees to pay
for on-campus transportation. This
money accounted for the $800,000
that PTTS received to help fund the
bus fleet for the Fall ’97 semester.
The off-campus revenue comes
from bus pass sales and one-ride
coupon sales and money allotted by
PTTS at the fiscal year’s end,
Jackson said. A bus pass
for two semesters cost
$110.
“The idea is dial bus
operations break down
each year,” lackson said.
“We have had nine major
engine problems this se
mester. The engines in the
buses are like antiques. It
takes money and time to
replace them.”
lackson said the aver
age life expectancy of a bus is about
150,000 to 200,000 miles. He said 33
of the 59 buses are 1982 models, and
many have as much as 300,000 miles,
nearly twice their life expectancies.
“We have gone beyond the life
expectancy,” Jackson said. “I think
that we will have to phase in buses
slowly. The buses cost between
$140,000 to $150,000 each.”
In order to accommodate the
needs of the students, PTTS is re
viewing a proposal to phase in new
buses over a five-year period by re
placing 10 buses each year.
A second option involves a lease-
option agreement with a company
outside the Texas A&M system. Jack-
son said the lease-option may also in
volve gradually replacing the buses.
Jackson said a third and less likely
option would be receiving permis
sion for a bond package that would
include financing the replacement of
the entire Texas A&M bus fleet.
Jackson said PTTS has consid
ered increasing the student trans
portation fee to help fund replace
ment of the aging bus fleet. He said
the fee could be as low as $35.
“Even if students were to pay $35
a semester, they would still have to
purchase bus passes,” he said. “For
$50 a semester, the student would
n’t have to purchase a bus pass. The
other bonus is that the $800,000 of
student allocation fees would be
kept for other uses.”
Tom Williams, the director of
PTTS, said that increasing student
transportation fees would make the
system more convenient.
“Our proposal to the administra
tion will be that each student pay their
fair share of the system,” he said. “It
would make buses more available to
dorm students who want to travel off-
campus. It would be safer at night.”
Please see Bus on Page 12.
Branching out
BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion
| Tree vendor Daniel Hernandez drills Christmas trees Saturday in Bryan in
I preparation of their sale.
UT center ranks first
among U.S. chaos labs
AUSTIN (AP) —A University of
Texas professor is proving that
crayons are not just for children.
Eric Weeks, a researcher at the Uni
versity of Texas Center for Nonlinear
Dynamics, recently used tiny beads of
melted fluorescent crayons to simu
late the jet stream’s movement
around two aluminum mountain
ridges bolted into a spinning tank of
water with a video camera above it.
Weeks, author of a report on the re
search in a recent edition of the week
ly journal Science, simulated what
happens when the eastward-blowing
jet stream is blocked by mountains.
For most of the century, meteo
rologists have suspected that high-
pressure areas in winter occur when
the jet stream moves into position to
be blocked by mountains, or when
there’s a combination of the blocking
and a temperature influence.
Weeks’ new finding indicates
that the mountains are enough.
“Our experiment shows they are
a pretty good candidate by them
selves,” said Weeks, a new Ph.D. at
the nation’s premier graduate
physics laboratory for the study of
chaotic conditions.
The blocking bends the jet
stream toward the North Pole, cre
ating the high-pressure area. That
further blocks the jet stream, allow
ing its winds to draw arctic air to
ward Texas, he said.
“They show it on the weather map
as a big dip in the jet stream bringing
the cold air south,” Weeks said.
The spinning tank that Weeks
used is a lab tool called a “rotating
annulus.” It’s the pride of the dy
namics center’s director, UT
physics professor Harry Swinney.
Swinney is an international leader
in nonlinear dynamics, or chaos, a 30-
year-old mathematical discipline that
uses computers to search for univer
sal patterns in seemingly random be
havior in solids, fluids and gases.
The field's focus ranges from help
ing meteorologists get a better grip on
weather predictions to aiding doctors
in understanding the apparently er
ratic beating of a diseased heart.
Last year, the UT center was
ranked first among the nation’s
chaos labs by U.S. News & World
Report magazine.
Houston’s new mayor set
to build on recent progress
HOUSTON (AP) — The first person Lee Brown
singled out for thanks in his victory speech was the
man he replaces.
When incumbent Mayor Bob Lanier vacates City
Hall in January, he turns over America’s fourth-largest
city to its first black mayor with the economy humming,
crime down and a reasonably content citizenry.
“When I raise my right hand to take the oath of office,
I’ll have the good fortune to take the reins of a Houston
on the move,” Brown, 60, said.
Brown, who served as Houston’s police chief in
the 1980s, edged 46-year-old businessman Rob Mos-
bacher with 53 percent of the vote in Saturday’s
runoff election.
Mosbacher, who handles his family’s oil and gas busi
ness, also had unsuccessful runs for U.S. Senate in 1984
and lieutenant governor in 1990.
“Victory is not with us tonight, but we can be ex- '
tremely proud of our efforts and our accomplish
ment and we can hold our heads high because we
ran a great campaign and helped define the issues,”
Mosbacher said Saturday night.
Brown’s victory was not without considerable help
from Lanier, whose political muscle shifted to Brown
more than a year ago. Lanier was barred by term limits
from seeking fourth term.
Lanier’s supporters quickly went to work to raise
cash, encourage a strong minority voter turnout and
more important, dissuade other potential black candi
dates from entering the contest. About 25 percent of
Houston’s 1.8 million residents are black.
About 31 percent of Houston’s registered voters cast
ballots. Voter turnout patterns found that blacks com
prised a third or more of the electorate while whites made
up about 55 percent, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Although early returns from Harris County, where most
of Houston is located, showed Brown and Mosbacher split
ting the votes, Brown was partially aided by capturing about
6,336 votes, or 94 percent, in outlying Fort Bend County.
On Nov. 4, Brown broke
out of an eight-candidate
pack with 41 percent of the
vote. Mosbacher followed
with a distant 29 percent.
Despite being consistently
outfinanced by Mosbach
er, the Lanier-Brown ma
chine’s hard work resulted
in a victory for Brown Sat
urday night.
The mayoral race be
came the most expensive in
the history of Houston, with
campaign spending by the
pair topping $5.6 million as
of two weeks ago, the latest
figures available show.
Like Lanier, Brown focused his campaign on
neighborhoods. While Lanier’s approach was more
brick and mortar, embarking on a multimillion-dol-
lar street resurfacing program and putting more po
lice officers on the streets, Brown appealed to Hous
tonians’ prized belief that they live in the most
race-tranquil city in the nation.
“Houston’s greatness lies not only in the bustling sky
scrapers that reflect greatness, lies not only in the bustling
skyscrapers that reflect this city’s economic might, but in
the sprawling neighborhoods that represent the heart of
the city,” Brown said. “Houston works best when Houston
works together.”
mmmMGmmmMsrnmmm.,
“When I raise my
right hand to take
the oath of office,
PI} have the good
fortune to take
the reins of a
Houston on the
move.”
LEE BROWN
HOUSTON MAYOR-ELECT
Russian officials seek cause
of cargo-jet crash Saturday
IRKUTSK, Russia (AP) — It was
a quiet, bitterly cold afternoon on
Grazhdanskaya Street, where a
group of men chatted and
smoked while tinkering with their
battered cars. Many of their wives
were out shopping.
A teen-age girl sat by her living
room window, puzzling over her
chemistry homework. Suddenly, a
roar shook her apartment building
— and set her neighborhood on fire.
“When I looked out the window I
saw a burning car and a woman run
ning out of another apartment build
ing with her fur coat on fire. A man
was lying on the ground,” Lena Meis-
takhova, 15, said. “Then, a wave of
heat came through the house.”
A huge military cargo jet that
seconds earlier had lifted off from
an airfield a mile away slammed
into No. 45 Grazhdanskaya on Sat
urday, clipping an orphanage with
its wing and demolishing one end of
the five-story apartment building.
Those who saw the crash talked
of huge sheets of flames that en
gulfed surrounding buildings. A
day later, steam and smoke from
burning fuel that had soaked into
the ground was rising into the
overcast sky.
The An-124 Russian air force
transport plane that crashed Satur
day was carrying two jet fighters
built at a local factory for export to
Vietnam. The export was a rare bit
of good news for the battered air-
RUSSIA
O Moscow
Irkutsk,
Detail area
Vladivostok
CHINA
Pacific
Ocean
-Vietnam
Indian
Ocean
2,000 miles
2.000 km
RUSSIA
Irkutsk
KAZAKSTAN
500 miles
Site of plane crash
^ Lake
• fiaykal
MONGOLIA
500 km
CHINA
An-124
Length: 226 ft., 8 1/2 in.
Wing span: 240 ft, 5 3/4 in.
Speed: 537 mph
Capacity: crew of 6, 88 passengers
Type: Long-range heavy-lift
four-turbofan freight transport
craft industry in this Siberian city of
700,000.
Ten seconds after taking off, the
plane was in trouble. A woman
who heard the shrill, ragged roar of
the jet’s engines said it was leaning
to one side, a wing tilting toward
the ground.
Then came a shattering explo
sion. The plane, the size of a Boeing
747 jumbo jet, was carrying 100 tons
of fuel in its tanks. There were 23
crew and factory staff aboard, es
corting the fighters to Vietnam.
Officially, the death toll stood at
62. It still may rise.
Russian safety officials are baf
fled by the disaster, and were inves
tigating at least eight possible sce
narios including contaminated fuel
or a shift in the cargo. But Shoigu,
the emergency situations minister,
said there were few leads.
Russia and other nations of the
former Soviet Union have been
plagued by deadly air crashes in
recent years. Experts have blamed
poor maintenance, safety viola
tions and cost-cutting for persis
tent problems.