The Battalion
TfiTE
Wednesday • July 8,
Strike relief
United Auto Workers offers financial assistance
to laid off General Motors employees in Texas
FORT WORTH (AP) — Work
ers laid off by General Motors be
cause of strikes at two key plants
in Michigan are getting some fi
nancial help from the United
Auto Workers.
The international union has
agreed to issue strike loans to
workers from Local 276, since the
state is not likely to pay them un
employment benefits.
The workers were laid off
two weeks ago when strikes at
two GM parts supply plants in
Flint, Mich., shut down the au
tomaker's Arlington assembly
plant as well as 25 other GIVI
production facilities.
Texas workers only will have
to repay the $150-a-week loans if
the state denies them assistance.
"It makes you feel good about
the union," David Barnes, a sec
ond-shift repair worker at GM-
Arlington, told the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram in story for yester
day's edition. "We pulled
enough savings to pay our bills
through the month. I hope to go
back to work by Aug. 1. After
that. I'll probably be looking for
some (work)."
Union officials helping dole
out the checks at the union hall in
Arlington said about half of the
nearly 1,400 eligible union mem
bers collected their loan checks
by Monday afternoon.
Since GM is in its traditional
summer shutdown, many union
workers were out of town on va
cation and may pick up their
checks next week, David Liggins,
a union member who volun
teered to help write checks, said.
The checks may have relieved
union leaders of some pressure
from members.
C.E. Williams, shop chair of Lo
cal 276, said some members were
critical because he and other lead
ers of the local went to Las Vegas
two weeks ago for the UAW's tri
ennial constitutional convention.
But it was at that convention
that UAW President Stephen Yo-
kich approved the strike loans
for Arlington workers.
"There was a percentage that
felt it was our duty to stay in
town," Williams said. "We had
the opportunity to speak to Yo-
kich face to face and got him to
provide us with strike loans."
That the loans are even con
sidered necessary is a sore spot
for union members.
Two years ago, during a 1996
strike at a GM brake plant in Day-
ton, Ohio, Arlington workers
were laid off when the local plant
ran out of brakes.
The Texas Workforce Commis
sion subsequently refused to pay
unemployment benefits to the
laid-off workers.
The union appealed the ruling
and still is in court over the dispute.
University of Texas receives
first woman provost in October
AUSTIN (AP) — Edie Goldenberg, an influential dean at
the University of Michigan, has been named the No. 2 of
ficial at the University of Texas.
Goldenberg, 53, who has served as dean of the College
of Literature, Science and the Arts at Michigan, will be UT's
first woman provost or chief academic officer when she
takes office in October. UT had a woman president, Lorene
Rogers, from 1974-79.
"Edie Goldenberg has a long record of distinguished ser
vice in one of the most complex academic jobs in the Unit
ed States," UT President Larry Faulkner said.
"She ... has shown the kind of leadership that can help
us move the University of Texas forward."
Goldenberg also will have the title of executive vice pres
ident at Texas and will be responsible for much of the day-
to-day operations on the campus, as well as managing the
budget, recruiting faculty and overseeing academics.
Goldenberg will be paid $230,000 a year. Her salary at
Michigan is $219,000.
Goldenberg is a political scientist and an expert on fed
eral bureaucracy and the role of mass media in politics. She
has served as director of Michigan's School of Public Poli
cy, was a consultant to ABC News and served more than
two years at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
Goldenberg, who earned a political science degree from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 and a
master's in political science from Stanford University in
1968, announced in April that she was stepping down at
Michigan, saying it was time for a change.
"I think the University of Texas has tremendous
strengths, some of which are not as recognized as they
should be," Goldenberg said. "It's an important priority of
mine to help make the institution stronger and stay strong
in the areas where it already is."
Babysitter claims infant
death was accidental
AUSTIN (AP) — The baby-sitter of a 19-month-
old girl fatally burned last weekend says he acci
dentally spilled hot soup on the child.
Sabrina Ashley Garcia was found dead in a card
board box outside an eastern Travis County mobile
home Sunday morning. Travis County sheriff's
deputies are investigating and have filed no charges.
State child welfare workers, who had previously
investigated the welfare of three children living in
the home, have removed Sabrina's 5-year-old broth
er and 6-year-old sister.
A 16-year-old boy, who said he was taking care
of Sabrina the day she was burned, on Monday de
scribed the death as an accident. The boy said he
was caring for the children while their mother was
in jail on traffic violation warrants.
The boy told law enforcement officers that he was
preparing chicken noodle soup for the children about 11
a.m. Friday when several sheriff's deputies knocked on the
door and asked him questions about a neighbor, the Austin
American-Statesman reported Tuesday. He said when he
returned to the kitchen the soup was exceptionally hot.
"I called (Sabrina) out, and she came, and I ac
cidentally tripped and spilled the hot noodles," the
boy said, adding that he did not call immediately
for medical attention. "I got scared, panicked."
Deputies said Sabrina's mother sought medical help
for the girl after she returned home from jail Sunday.
But at that point, the child was already dead, sheriff's
department spokesperson Curtis Weeks said Tuesday.
Weeks said investigators hadn't yet determined
why the child was placed in a cardboard box.
An official ruling on the cause of death was not im
mediately available, but Sabrina died of complications
from the scalding, including dehydration, Weeks said.
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Leading the way
Launching a probe to Mars over the weekem
Japan proves formidable force in space exploration
. a \ nni_ _ ' . i... i i;L , Jwwki ArGnrHim* hns vvnrkcH harrl n,.
TOKYO (AP) — There's a
new star rising in space explo
ration: Japan.
Over the past 40 years,
Japan has built up one of the
world's leading space pro
grams, and it has done it with
low budgets, no manned
flights of its own and very lit
tle fanfare.
Little fanfare, that is, un
til two milestone missions
this week.
Over the weekend, Japan
launched a probe on its way
to Mars. If successful, the
probe will make Japan only
the third country — after the
United States and Russia — to
reach another planet.
And on Tuesday, two
Japanese satellites docked by
remote control in outer space
— the first such operation by
two unmanned spacecraft.
Russia's space program
has often docked cargo ships
with the manned Mir space
station by remote control in a
similar procedure.
The rendezvous had a de
liberately Japanese twist: It
was timed to coincide with
Japan's "Tanabata," or star
festival, which celebrates a
mythical meeting between the
princess Orihime and her
lover, Hikoboshi. According
to legend, the two - associat
ed with the stars Altair and
Vega — are only allowed to
meet once a year, on the night
of July 7.
it Space explo
ration started as
competition between
America and the
Soviet Union. But
that era is over.”
— Mitsunori Miyasato
spokesperson for Japan’s NS0A
For Japan's space planners,
the link-up had a different
symbolism.
"Space exploration started
as competition between
America and the Soviet
Union," said Mitsunori
Miyasato, a spokesperson for
Japan's National Space Devel
opment Agency. "But that era
is over."
Japan's space bureaucracy
ias worked hard to wear,
self from reliance on forti;
technology, and engine;
now take pride in Japan',
velopment of its own rod
and satellites. . ; T
"Without the technology
do it yourself, you'reak
going to rely on othes
Miyasato said.
I a pan's space program
gan humbly as a handful
uni versity professors laur:
mg rockets the size of
m
J a pan's efforts in spacetT
have suffered fror ’
cratic haggling. Its;
gram is split be
agencies, each bt
own rockets.
And Japanese
have had to make d
shoestring budgets;*
mg on civilian space]
this year totaled
one-tenth of NASA's
billion budget.
Still, the efforts are]
off. Japan now leads)
in several space-rel
including research
tarv magnetic fields.
Japan's next inter
mission will probably be]
probe to Mercury i
next millennium.
Capital murder trial jury selection beginst
murder of Houston merchant, jewelry tin
HOUSTON (AP) — Jury selection has begun in the
capital murder trial of a once-prominent Houston jeweler
accused of conspiring with his brother to murder a dia
mond merchant and steal $3.6 million in jewels.
Attorneys on Monday started interviewing potential
jurors for the trial of Jose Alberto Dennes, 44. Prosecutors
are seeking the death penalty.
Dennes' brother, Reinaldo, was sentenced to death in
September for his partin the Jan. 24,1996, murder of Janos
Szucs, 44, a world-renowned diamond merchant.
Prosecutors and police said the brothers arranged to
get into Szucs' office building after hours. He and his
brother worked in the high-security building and had
done business with Szucs for many years.
A cleaning woman testified that after she let Dennes and
his brother in, the men went upstairs. The woman, who ac
cepted $5,000 to let them in, has received probation for an
aggravated robbery charge in exchange for her testimony.
According to testimony, Reinaldo Dennes returned to
the lobby less than an hour later, shot an unarmec i
ty guard twice at close range, grabbed a security^
videotape and left.
Guard David Copeland feigned death andtite'
tified Dennes as the man who shot him.
Police later found Szucs' body with multiple!'
wounds, his nearby safe open and empty.
Police said Szucs was shot with a weapon fitted
silencer. A toolmaker hired by Reinaldo Dennes to c
and build a silencer for his gun testified in the firsttrJ
Dennes instructed him to make it w'ith steel wool,
he tested it twice.
The brothers became suspects when police c
Szucs' computer files and found that Reinaldo!
owed him a large sum of money.
The diamonds and an unspecified amountot
were never recovered.
Testimony should start late this month orinean
gust in state District Judge Jim Wallace's court.
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