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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 1998)
Weather INSIDE' Sports see Pag ® 3 Today [ a i ■ Opinion ... see Page S 103 76 Tomorrow HIGH WW 102' 77 YEAR • ISSUE 178 • 6 PAGES TEXAS ASM UNIVERSITY - COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS Tomorrow Aggielife: Students hit the road when they need a break from the real world. WEDNESDAY • JULY 29 • 1998 Vm.J, wight Eis hn I. Persfc nit r, but mort^ said. Renee! |r., when ; and drad i jasper! vithcar'.l ime. eched f it such ad t current 1 America:-1 'verusage iuses water hortage BRYAN (AP) — Early morning urgeries were postponed, the razos County Courthouse and lany residents of Bryan were left nthout water. Unprecedented use of water on unday combined with a mechan ical failure and another unidenti fied problem to trigger a water hortage, officials said Monday. Officials at St. Joseph Regional iealth Center had to delay early- norning surgeries for up to an nour as Bryan city utility crews crambled to make repairs. Late Monday, city officials sked residents to postpone wa- ering their lawn for a few days nd to conserve whenever possi ble, but they said the problem has 'hopefully been fixed." Bryan public works director |Rick Conner said the predicament developed overnight; people Istarted noticing extremely low Water pressure as the business day began on Monday, he said. "I wish I had some brilliant ex planation from my 25 years of ex perience in this field," Conner said. "Truth is, we're at a loss for a clear-cut, logical reason right now as to what happened." Some residents in the northern area of the city could barely draw a glass of water from their spouts, and toilet-flushing was impossi ble until late Monday afternoon. "We can produce 27 million gallons of water a day, so even on f our worst day, which was Sunday where 25 million gallons were used, we'd have enough," Conner said. About 3 million gallons of water is usually kept in two dif ferent storage towers for immedi ate use, he said. But officials discovered by about 6 a.m. Monday that the wa ter in the storage towers was gone. see Water on Page 2. Forum mistakenly cancelled GALVESTON (AP) — Texas A&M University-Galveston Vice President W. Michael Kemp says he canceled a forum planned by the environmental group Green peace because did not know it had been scheduled. Kemp said he canceled the fo rum only hours before it was scheduled to start because uni versity officials and Greenpeace members had not met in advance to discuss scheduling the forum. No other administrator knew about the event, Kemp said Monday. "It turned out one of my low er-level staffers just assumed it would be all right," Kemp said. "We have policies that if we're going to have a group on campus, whether it's Greenpeace or the Boy Scouts or whoever, we sit down with them and find out what they want, how they want to do it, and we set out some sort of written agreement that protects them and protects us," he said. No one pressured him to can cel the meeting, he said. "There was no political agenda here,” Kemp said. The forum was held at a Uni tarian Universalist church facility Monday night. Greenpeace representatives and members of the local chapter of the Sierra Club were miffed at the sudden change in plans, but Sierra Club spokesman Calvin Wehrle said he accepted Kemp's explanation. "It sounded to me like a com munications problem is why they couldn't do it," said Wehrle, 43, a restoration carpenter. "I'm very disappointed." see Greenpeace on Page 2. Central Garage opens to the public Rod Machen City Editor Photo Hy Jake Schrickling/The Battalion A new parking garage has opened to serve the Texas A&M campus. The central parking garage opened last week to faculty and staff contract parking and began ac cepting visitor parking on Monday. The new 600-space garage was built in conjunction with the soon- to-open library annex next to Ster ling C. Evans library. Because of the way the garage had to be arranged, there is no room for a pay station at the garage. In stead, cars must obtain entry at a station located at the corner of Lub bock and Bizzel streets. Sherry 1 Wine, Associate Director of Parking Traffic and Transit Ser vices, said the garage will stay avail able only to staff and visitors. "There are no plans to have res ident contract parking," she said. Due to the loss of the resident lot next to the new football practice fields near the corner of Wellborn Road and George Bush Drive, Wine said PTTS will change an other lot to accommodate. "The lots along Wellborn will change to blue and red," Wine said. This mean these former commuter- only lots will now be for both com muters and residents. The new parking garage shows a sign of things to come. Instead of 75 cents an hour for visitor parking, it charges $1, with a daily maxi mum of $8. Beginning in the fall, the other three garages will switch to this pay structure. In an earlier statement, Tom Williams, Director of PTTS, said the fee increase was necessary. 'The cost of parking permits will not go up to pay for the garage," he said. "The revenue from visitor parking in the garage will go to cov er the cost." Slurtliiti C-. tCv*»iiK Ubrury Krm’&ci Hall Toll — Entrance Yun Hee Jung, who is currently seeking a doctorate in medical biochemistry and genetics, spins clay at the University Plus pottery area in the basement of the Memorial Student Center Tuesday. News Briefs- from staff and wire reports Financial Aid postings available on Internet The Financial Aid office has changed the location of job postings from their former location on the second floor of the Pavilion. Since April, all job postings are available on the In ternet through a program called Millennium. The system allows students to supply potential em ployers with personal information and employee skills. The Student Financial Aid Web page at faid.tamu.edu. Millennium is available 24 hours a day and changes are updated immediately. Only part-time student jobs are posted on the system. Summer School at Sea program nearing its end Texas A&M University at Galveston's "Summer School at Sea" program is drawing to a close. For the past two months, 141 students have worked and lived on the Texas Clipper II, a 394-foot training ship operated by the Texas Maritime Academy. Activities include four hours of classes, fire and boat drills, standing watch and ship maintenance. Since its departure on June 2, the Texas Clipper II has visited Balboa, Chile, Valparaiso, the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Panama. After a stop in Key West, Fla., the ship will end its trip at Port Arthur, Texas. Starr grants Lewinsky high form of immunity for her court testimony WASHINGTON (AP) — Moni ca Lewinsky has been given blanket immunity in exchange for testimo ny in Kenneth Starr's six-month in vestigation of her relationship with President Clinton, Ms. Lewinsky's attorneys said today. "We, as counsel for Monica Lewinsky, have reached an agree ment today that for her full and truthful testimony she will receive transactional immunity in this case," said Plato Cacheris, one of her attorneys. Ms. Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis, was granted the same level of protection from prosecution, said her attorney, Billy Martin. The mother had frequent telephone con versations with her daughter about Ms. Lewinsky's rela tionship with Clinton, accord ing to 20 hours of tape recordings between Ms. Lewinsky and former friend Linda Tripp. After talking to prosecutors for five hours in New York on Monday, Ms. Lewinsky has agreed to testi fy that she had a sexual relation ship with the president, legal sources said. Ms. Lewinsky's account also includes information relevant to Starr's probe of possible obstruc tion of justice by Clinton and his associates in Paula Jones' sexual harassment case against the presi dent, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. But she did not say Clinton asked her to lie, the sources said. "Her lawyer said that she's go ing to give complete and truthful testimony, and if she does, that should present no problem to the president, obviously," White House spokesman Mike McCurry said. "I think he's pleased that things will work out for her." Clinton talked with his lawyer, David Kendall, earlier today, McCurry said. The former White House intern arrived by taxi at her lawyers' office about an hour before the statement was read to scores of reporters. She did not appear with Cacheris and her two other attorneys, Jacob Stein and Nathaniel Speights. Transactional immunity means that Ms. Lewinsky will not be pros ecuted for any testimony that she gives to Starr's office regarding mat ters under investigation. It is the most protective type of immunity that can be granted to a witness. Ms. Lewinsky's account closely tracked her lawyers' proffer of evi dence to prosecutors early in the probe, according to a key source. In that proffer, Ms. Lewinsky was said to have told of having a sexual rela tionship with the president. The source said the earlier proffer contained "a fair amount of information" dealing with Ms. Lewinsky's con versations with the president and his confidants about how they would deal with Mrs. Jones' sexual harassment law suit against Clin ton. The president denied under oath in the Jones case that he'd had sexual relations with Ms. Lewin sky and she filed an affidavit in the suit saying "I have never had a sex ual relationship with the president." Ms. Lewinsky's former friend, Mrs. Tripp, whose secret tape recordings triggered the criminal investigation of the president, testi fied for a seventh day before the grand jury. She was carrying a large, square briefcase. "It's going to be an interesting week, we think," said Mrs. Tripp's spokesman, Philip Coughter, who accompanied her to the federal courthouse today. There is a "possibility but by no means a certainty" that Mrs. Tripp will finish her testimony Wednes day, Coughter added. A number of Secret Service per sonnel also entered the courthouse to testify before the grand jury in the perjury and obstruction probe. see Lewinsky on Page 2. ft Her lawyer said that she’s going to give complete and truthful testimony ... that should present no problem to the president, obviously.” — Mike McCurry White House spokesperson