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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2000)
Thursday, August 3,!® ecret out anything that coil "feet their bottom line, e scads of these laws where somebody f information publisl oany, even if the infom,- said Paul Levy anafe sumer advocacy grot ?n. "They want revay nt to unmask the pew lopefully, the courtsui ost of these lawsuitsu tout intimidation." anies argue they needli dividuals to serve tliec ints so a judge can dete r they did break the lat ies also note employee uired to sign nondisd- lother ke the rest of the kidst iilla said. the victim's adopfc daughter is mentally! vulnerable adult abus vas not well while k , but in short phone cal woman was doingwel. here and knock on (lie trini) told me, 'Youha! me have a chance.'"Sk :ened to have her arrest- perty. srrillas fifty lAR, India (AP)-Sus- nic guerrillas ambushed :amp and attacked a vil- nearly 50 people in In- ed Kashmir state, offi- ednesday. rate attacks came as the eral government pre- k to the main guerrilla ishmir, which hasbeen an Islamic insurgency itest violence, the ai led a village latelues- nantnag area of central ling up and shootingto n, the Press Trust of In- i. lied were workers at a y who had mig Indian states for work, aid. a iketmaster Wee. •iListen to KAMI! 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m. fdr details on the Blinn nursing program. • Check out The Battalion online at battalion.tamu.edu. V • King takes court A&M basketball player Bernard King travels overseas to play with Big 12 All-Star team Page 3 Weather: Partly cloudy with a hiqh of 98 and a low of 75. MONDAY August 7, 2000 Volume 106-Issue ikO 6 pages i a i i<i :i w 4rwi Sun and sand Southerland denies threats for partidpation Nathan Handberry, a junior information and operations management major, bumps the volleyball back to his opponent Sunday afternoon at the Student Recreation Center. President discourages UT sickout AUSTIN (AP) — University of Texas President Larry Faulkner has warned staff members that partici pating in a sickout later this year could cost them their jobs. Employees in June threatened a "burnt orange flu" that could keep 6,000 university employees home Sept. 6 through Sept. 8 — the uni versity's busiest time — if officials did not meet a list of demands re garding wages, benefits and work ing conditions. In an email sent Friday to UT- Austin employees on the advice of UT System lawyers, Faulkner cited a state law that prohibits public em ployees from participating in an or ganized work stoppage. He warned employees of the consequences of joining the walkout planned by the University Staff Association. The group, which represents about 200 of about 12,000 non teaching employees, says the planned protest is not a strike. Peg Kramer, association president, said the email warning was intended "to threaten, intimidate, control and disempower workers" and is al ready having an impact. "It's making some people more angry ... and some people have al lowed the message to intimidate and scare them," she said. The group is protesting higher health insurance premiums, the elimination of paid dental insur ance and other issues. Labor lawyer Rick Levy, who represents the Texas AFL-CIO, said the planned demonstration reflects the dilemma for universi ty employees who continue to lag behind the private sector in pay and benefits. In May, about 300 workers tem porarily walked off their jobs to protest changes that will take ef fect Sept. 1. Average out-of-pock et employee premiums are ex pected to increase to $66 a month, according to the University Staff Association. Employees with de pendents could pay as much as $80 a month for coverage. A&M prof gives two factors for high temps Chris Cunico The Battalion With summer in full swing, Texas A&M students are exposed to danger ously high temperatures with no sign of relief in the near future. The cruel sum mer heat appears to be taking its toll. The scorching heat of a South Texas summer makes the simple task of going to class a painful ordeal. With tempera tures consistently breaking the 100-degree mark, Colin Blanken ship, a junior civil engi neering major, said that August and early Sep tember weather does little to motivate stu dents to attend class. "I've had days when I was forced to haul all of my calcu lus and physics books from Zachry all of the way out to West Cam pus where I had parked my car," Blankenship said. "I dread having to walk to class in unbearable heat. November weather is more suited for my likings." The lack of rain has caused drought in much of the western United States, and it is responsible for the Texas heat, said John Nielson-Gammon, Texas state cli matologist and professor of meteorology at A&M. Nielson-Gammon also said the two most important causes of the recent heat are the lack of rain and subsidence. Subsidence, the downward movement of 1 dread having to walk to class in unbearable beat, November weather is more suitable for my likings” — Colin Blankenship junior civil engineering major air that results in warming of the air, causes clouds to evaporate. By removing the clouds from the atmosphere, subsi dence allows more sunlight to come into contact with the Earth's surface. "We have warm days in Texas every year at this time/ Nielson-Gammon said, "but it takes two ingredients to make it re ally hot: subsidence and lack of rain." Nielson-Gammon said subsidence, which increases temperatures, also plays a role in making the at mosphere unfavorable for rain. Warming the atmosphere increases its stability, reducing the chances for thun derstorms to form. "Sunlight passes through the atmosphere to heat up the Earth and other solid objects on its surface," said Nielson- Gammon. "So, the ground gets hot and heats up the air — our environment gets hot from tire bottom up." Having air condi tioners on full blast while sprinkling the lawn costs Bryan-College Station resi dents extra money in the summer. Jason Dannatt, a junior business ma jor, said the cost of cooling his house has definitely emptied his wallet. "My cooling bill has almost literally doubled since March," Dannatt said. "I'm so glad that we're almost through with this summer. I don't think I would be able to stand the heat for another three months." Stuart Hutson The Battalion "I never issued any threats during the meeting," Dr. J. Mal- on Southerland said in response to a press letter written by Keep the Fire Burning, a student group attempting to organize an off- campus bonfire for Fall 2000, al leging that Southerland issued threats to prevent the off-campus bonfire during a July 31 meeting. "As a matter of fact, I thought the entire meeting went well, and I thought it ended very am icably," Southerland said. "You know, 1 didn't even know what they were going to want to talk about when I met with them. We began with topics such as how the progress of the bonfire memorial was doing and we just drifted off to the subject of the off-campus bonfire." Southerland said he told the student group that the Universi ty will not in any way condone or support any representation of the University in an official ca pacity at the event. "This won't be the real Aggie Bonfire," he said. "But should anything go wrong during this process, that may be a fact that the nationwide media and pub lic may have difficulty under standing — and that may have negative effects on our efforts to produce a safe bonfire." Southerland also said the University would press charges against any licensing violations, such as using the image of bon fire or any licensed A&M logo to advertise the event. Joe Dyson, a board member of Keep the Fire Burning and a sophomore general studies ma jor, said that while his group is not attempting to represent the student body, the group feels as if Southerland's warnings may still cause problems. "I can't speak for the student body," Dyson said. "I can only speak for the 12,000 who compose our group. But that number is growing every day. Southerland , used the expression that 'if it looks like a skunk, and it smells like a skunk, it might just be a skunk.' He meant that if a couple hundred people from the same dorm show up, then that dorm might be con sidered as being there in official school capacity. But, if those peo ple are all card-carrying members of Keep the Fire Burning, 1 don't see how there would technically be a problem." Southerland said that the unauthorized bonfire may hin der the reconstructive efforts currently underway to pro duce a safe Aggie Bonfire in 2002. "It is technically possible that this could very much halt the de velopment of all the attributes that need to be addressed before bonfire can continue in a safe and beneficial way," he said. "I think that with this loss of life, it is right to stand back and give two years moratorium out of respect." Student organization examining designs for off-campus bonfire Keep the Fire Burning, an organization of students and former students who are currently examining the possibilities of having an off-campus bonfire, says that no final decision has been reached for the bonfire design or concerning whether a 2000 bonfire is possible. ( "We are still working hard to come up with a design that can be proven to be safe both to burn and to be built by students," said Joe Dyson. "Right now, it would be ignorant to say that we will definitely have a bonfire for Fall 2000 when we haven't even de termined what design to use. But, if all else fails, and there isn't a bonfire, at least we can say that we have been putting in 150 per cent to make it a possibility." Dyson said that the non-A&M-affiliated organization has re ceived a multitude of design plans and offers of help from former students who are now engineers and lawyers. "We have gotten quite a few designs, some of which are more realistic than others," Dyson said. "But everything we get we ex amine and pass by several engineers. Everybody deserves to be heard. And we right now have something like eight lawyers ... and more than one engineer on retainer." Among the designs submitted to the organization was a pro posed bonfire memorial structure that would serve as a frame work for the actual bonfire stack. Keep the Fire Burning for warded the design by former student Gary von Rosenberg to A&M student government and administration for consideration. "It's a pretty good idea that at least deserves to be looked at," Dyson said. "It is one of the more realistic proposals we have got ten, but it and all the other realistic proposals would still need a lot of work before they would ever have a chance to become reality." Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. J. Malon Southerland and Student Body President Forrest Lane could not be immediately contacted to comment on the design. This structure is proposed to fulfill the dual purpose and function of be ing a monument to the 12 who died in the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse, and it would serve as the base for which the structure would be built. Clinton vetoes Republican-sponsored, married-couple tax cut EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) — President Clinton vetoed a Republican-sponsored tax cut for married couples Saturday, describing it as "the first installment of a fiscally reckless tax strate gy" that would erase pro jected budget surpluses. He said the tax break pack age amounted to little more than a gift to the wealthy. The legislation passed both the House and the Sen ate by less than the two-thirds majorities need ed to override Clinton's veto, but a House leader said an override attempt will be a top priority after Congress' current summer recess. CLINTON GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush, on a campaign train tour through the Midwest with running mate Dick Cheney, criticized the veto. The legislation. Bush said at a rally in Pontiac, Mich., "was the right thing to do. What kind of tax code is it that pe nalizes marriage? It's a bad tax code." Vice President A1 Gore, the presumptive De mocratic presidential nominee, said he agreed with the veto but would sign a different tax cut for married couples. "I'm for repealing the marriage tax, but not going beyond working families and not giving tax relief to people who are in the up per brackets and people who are not even married who are benefited by the version that was passed," said Gore, speaking from West- hampton, N.Y. "So I do support the veto. I also support the right kind of repeal of the marriage tax." Clinton vetoed the $292 billion, 10-year tax cut before his morning round of golf on the Massachusetts resort island of Martha's Vine yard, where the first family is vacationing this weekend. He returned the legislation to Congress with a letter in which he said the tax plan was regressive. "It provides little relief to families that need it most, while devoting a large fraction of its benefits to families with higher in comes," Clinton's letter said. The veto, which Clinton announced on his weekly radio address, is the opening salvo of a complicated political skirmish as the November presidential election looms. Clinton and the De mocrats are trying to offer their own tax-cut pack age while arguing that Republicans are giving away the store. Many Republicans believe Clinton's veto gives them a wiirning political issue by demon strating that with a GOP-controlled Congress, a Democratic president is the only obstacle to sweeping tax reductions. "I support tax cuts, but tax cuts we can af ford. We can't afford a $2 trillion U-turn on the path of fiscal discipline and economic progress," Clinton said in the radio address.