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Page 3
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TUESDAY
August 1,2000
Volume 106 ~ Issue 177
6 pages
i iij ; imtwi i-
Lawmakers to change tax-free holiday ExCEL
to aid
students
___ Kim Trifilio
The Battalion
Texas lawmakers are changing Texas' sec-
Ind tax holiday for clothing and footwear
hat will give Bryan-College Station con-
tumers a break from state and most local sales
|l999: Consumers saved
$32 million from tax cat
1900: Consumers expected to
save $3? million from
til cut
taxes August 4-6. Sheila Clancy, spokesperson
for Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylan-
der, said that this year the state has opportu
nities to do more to relieve the tax burden, for
example, including layaway items.
"This year is the first time you can put some
thing on layaway tax
free and when you
get the item out, it
will still be tax free,"
Clancy said.
Beginning Friday
at 12:01 am and end
ing Sunday at mid
night, Texas Legisla
ture will exempt
most clothing and
footwear priced less
than $100 from sales
taxes. Shoppers will
save about $8 for
Apartments take
fire-safety measures
LLANUE VA/The BfijflJOtt
rom 10,000 feet
3 to 120 mph be-
ncerts
Chris Cunico
The Battalion
Early last Saturday morn
ing, the University Commons
fire safety system was put to
the test when a fire started in
the dryer of a third-story
apartment. ' Lisa Michael,
manager of University Com
mons Apartments, said the
fire is believed to have origi
nated in the motor area of the
dryer because a lint buildup
or a butane lighter possibly
came into direct contact with
the motor.
lies from coast to coast,r The fir e was contained to
es Center in Los Angele the laundr y room - The entire
inter in Philadelphia. buildin g was evacuated in an
es, but I haven't heard(i 3rder, y fashion after a P ul1 -
s of the First United& down alarm was activated,
md no one was injured. Be
sides the actual fire damage,
he rooms on the first and sec-
)nd floor directly below the
ire suffered water damage
Tom the sprinkler system.
arena policing isgenerf
1 their road crews;
ran Brothers to the D®
encouraged their fansti
formances.
istry Association of Anifi
ved once the illegal mat
id distributed, accord
iation says thathundre;
ire lost annually throif
ootlegging, and this ns
:o that total.
)n Geri Adams
her forecast for ft
hotter and drier co'
ained with afternoc
ms, Adams salt
it wind won’t helper
a Nevada blaze wJ
ut 50 fires burnirl
38,000 acres acres
>unday, the Nation
;ion Center reporte:
/vildfires continued'-
ntana, Nevada,
i, Idaho,
Arizona and
150 firefighters, w-
line helicoptersar :
ers, were fightingft ;
has cost more
dams said. Eight#
been injured since
2.
to roads and
ong the park's wir :
jrned, and
ut erosion on
“We've had
reports of res
idents acci
dentally
starting a fire
when they
were cooking,
but nothing
became out
of control."
— Carol Cienega
manager of
Briarwood Apartments
Heather Knox, University
Commons resident and junior
peech communication major,
aid the living room of her
ipartment was drenched. The
an and ceiling lights filled
vith water, and the carpet had
o be restretched and sham-
ooed. Knox said her books
md other personal belongings
is contained Sund? 1 ^ ere severely damaged.
"Our place was soaked/
pected to keep L (nox said. "After the carpet
at least two mo| leaning crews left, we waited
:or someone else to come and
was SO hot, the j inish the cleaning, but no one
jpporting the S# wercame. There is still visible
damage to the ceiling, and my
oommate and I were forced
lo move all of the furniture
out assistance. The girls
whose dryer caught on fire
were very upset because they
weren't given any help find
ing a hotel or somewhere to
stay when they were waiting
for the repairs to be made."
Apartments in the Univer
sity Commons have a water-
sprinkler system in the living
room, each bedroom and the
laundry room — a safety fea
ture not found in many apart-
ments. Each building con
tains six pull-down alarms,
two per floor, that produce a
sound loud enough to warn
all the building's residents.
Emergency buttons that auto
matically notify the fire de
partment, police department,
and the security company of
an emergency are located in
each room. In each hallway,
smoke detectors monitor the
air to alert residents so they
can quickly evacuate the
premises in the event of a fire.
"We've had one other fire,"
Michael said. "In February, a
female resident lit candles be
fore taking a bath. She eventu
ally fell asleep and the candle
in turn ignited the polyethyl
ene sink and faucet. Our com
plex was not deemed respon
sible for either of the fires."
Carol Cienega, manager
of Briarwood Apartments,
said most of the apartments
have one smoke detector, and
some of the larger ones have
two. Briarwood does not
provide emergency or pull
down alarms to warn resi
dents of possibly hazardous
situations. Cienega said that
in the 10 years she has been
employed by Briarwood,
there has not been a substan
tial damage as a result of fire.
"We've had reports of resi
dents accidentally starting a
fire when they were cooking,
but nothing became out of
control," Cienega said. "Last
spring, an apparent grease fire
started and was easily con
trolled without the assistance
of the fire department. All of
the dryers are housed in areas
away from occupied build
ings, so they do not pose a
threat to dangerous fires."
Tim Griffith, asset manag
er for Melrose Apartments,
said his complex goes to great
lengths to ensure the safety of
its residents. In addition to six
pull down alarms in each
building stairwell, Griffith
said his complex provides a
every $100 that they spend. Customers will re
ceive the break on individual items regardless
of the amount they buy. The exemption ap
plies to most clothing and shoes, but not jew
elry, sporting goods or school supplies.
Clancy said Ryander favors legislation that
would prolong the sales-tax holiday to a week
or more in order to avoid one hectic weekend.
"Comptroller Rylander would really like
to extend the three-day tax holiday to a week
to give families more opportunities to take
advantage of it," Clancy said. "Rylander does
not have a definite proposal yet, but she will
have a firm proposal in January."
Clancy said the comptroller also would like
to add to the list of exempted items.
"Rylander also wants to include backpacks
in the list because most schools require
them," Clancy said. "Also, she thinks sewing
items should be included like fabric, buttons
and zippers."
Texas consumers will not be able to pur
chase tax-exempt school supplies this year.
However, that soon may change. Fred Brown,
state representative for District 14, said there
has been discussion about including school
supplies in next year's tax holiday.
"We have talked about including school
supplies in the tax-free weekend," Brown
said."I know someone will be introducing a
bill in this next session, but I don't know if it
will get passed because we don't know about
the moneys available."
Clancy said the Legislature is not consid
ering including school supplies to the list of
tax-free items at this time.
"Some people would like to see school sup
plies, but the Legislature looked at it last year
and decided against it," Clancy said.
Local businesses are preparing for many
consumers to advantage of the tax break.
See Tax on Page 2.
Fly away home
Dennis Bridges, a Texas A&M Physical Plant worker, fires blanks into the air in front of the Doherty Building Fri
day evening. Plant workers do this each night to stop birds from roosting in the trees and buildings on campus.
Disasters cover East and West Coasts
1/2 million acres bum in 10 states
RIDGECREST, Calif. (AP)
— Wildfires raged in 10
Western states Monday,
crackling through a half-mil
lion acres of timber, bush and
brush. One of the biggest
fires burned untamed after
incinerating seven homes in
a Sierra Nevada hamlet.
Nearly 50 blazes have
blackened 537,791 acres in
Arizona, California, Col
orado, Idaho, Montana,
Nevada, New Mexico, Utah,
Washington and Wyoming
in the past two weeks.
It's the worst fire season
since 1988, when 5 million
acres burned in the West, said
Michelle Barret, spokesperson
for the National Interagency
Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
"There were 2.2 million
acres burned year-to-date in
1988. We're already at 3.5
million and we're just com
ing into fire season in most
of the West," Barret said.
"The West is just in a terri
ble time," Barret said. "Dry
lightning doesn't bode well for
us. You couldn't write a more
dangerous situation than the
one we have right now. In this
game, weather is everything."
With at least 10,714 fire
fighters deployed and re
sources stretched thin, the
Pentagon ordered -up sol
diers from Texas and Calif.
Flooding evacuates Pa. homes
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Whitaker said. An evacua-
Dozens of people were rescued
from about 100 flooded homes
and vehicles after heavy rains
turned streets into rivers and
washed out bridges.
Some 25 to 30 people were
evacuated from homes Sun
day in southeast Bucks Coun
ty. Red Cross spokesperson Ed
Meyers said about 100 homes
were affected by the flooding.
Station 6 Fire Chief David
Whitaker, in Lower Southamp
ton called the flooding "hor
rendous" and said it was
worse than the problems
caused by Hurricane Floyd in
September.
"It's the most I've seen
come down at one time,"
tion center had been set up
at the station but no one had
come yet, he said.
At the height of the storm,
about 12,000 customers were
without power in Delware,
Montgomery and Bucks
Counties, said PECO
spokesperson Michael Wood.
About 3,700 remained with
out power at 11 p.m. and
were expected to regain pow
er by early morning, he said.
The storm system parked
itself over Pennsylvania after
picking up moisture from
the southern Great Lakes,
said Rich Kane, a National
Weather Service forecaster in
suburban Pittsburgh.
when the first Iw back to its original place with- See Safety on Page 2.
Court rules abortion
law unconstitutional
CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal
appeals court agreed Monday that
a Kentucky law banning certain
late-term abortion procedures is
unconstitutional.
News in Brief
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals upheld a 1998 decision by a
federal judge who ruled that the Ken
tucky law went too far, was too vague
and effectively would outlaw some
abortion procedures that are legal.
The decision comes in the wake
of a Supreme Court ruling in June
that a Nebraska law very similar to
those in Kentucky and 30 other
states was unconstitutional.
The laws are aimed at what op
ponents call partial-birth abortions,
a rarely used procedure. Kentucky’s
law made it a crime for doctors to
perform such procedures, but the
1998 ruling had prohibited state au
thorities from enforcing it.
Adrienne Ballare
The Battalion
The ExCEL Conference, to be held
Aug. 25-26, aims to help incoming stu
dents and parents of various ethnic
backgrounds make a smooth transition
to Texas A&M. The conference has in
creased diversity among conference par
ticipants entering the University this fall.
Roderick Moore, adviser for the Ex
CEL Conference, said the conference
also helps students develop leadership
skills.
"We seek to enhance the students'
academic and leadership skills in pro
moting preservation in students' cul
tural identities," Moore said.
Herbert Sims, executive director for
the ExCEL Conference, said that, un
like past years, the representation of
ethnic groups is more balanced.
"This year it may be 50 percent
African-American and 50 percent His
panic," Sims said. "The ExCEL Con
ference is not just for Afiicai> Ameri
can students; it's for all students."
Chris Cason, co-director of student
programs, said this year's staff is aiming
to embrace various ethnic groups and
make ExCEL a multicultural experience.
“We seek to en
hance the stu
dents' academic
and leadership
skills in promoting
preservation in
students' cultural
identities."
— Roderick Moore
adviser for the ExCEL Conference
"At the end of every conference, the
participants fill out an evaluation form
and last year many of the students felt
the program catered more to the
African-American community," Car-
son said. "The non-African-American
students felt underrepresented."
But, Cason said, this year's confer
ence will aim to include students of all
ethnicities.
"ExCEL is putting forth the effort to
be truly diverse and inclusive, and we
will also have Caucasians in atten
dance this year," Cason said.
Cason said the conference will have
programs that will benefit every at
tendee, such as workshops where stu
dents will get information on how to
make personal decisions and career
goals.
The conference will also have a pro
fessor panel so students will be able to
ask questions of professors in different
colleges.
Ronald McDonald, A&M's first
black yell leader, will be at the confer
ence to discuss the importance of get
ting involved in the University and ex
plain how students can participate in
Aggie traditions.
The conference will end with a lun
cheon at which Dr. Frank Ashley, asso
ciate dean for undergraduate students
in the College of Education, will speak.
President Dr. Ray M. Bowen will
welcome the students and their par
ents to the conference.