ibertarian Party chairman
ositions on issues
Noel Freeman
Wje Battalion
I About 1,450 Libertarian can
didates will be running for vari-
JlBEf p otis offices across the nation in the
Nov. 7 elections, including 250
candidates for Congress. That is
smore than twice the number of
^wididates from all of the other
jitlird parties combined.
I Even with the increasing num-
. tber of candidates. Dr. Jim Lark,
• chairman of the national Libertar
ian Party, said the Libertarian Par-
; jt) is ignored, shown by the exclu
sion of Harry Browne, the party's
Residential candidate, from the
Residential debates.
Lark, director of the Financial
Engineering Research Group at the
University of Virginia, spoke at the
Memorial Student Center (MSC)
Monday night to discuss the doc
trine of the Libertarian Party as well
as challenges that have plagued the
party since its inception in 1971.
Lark was the guest speaker at a
forum hosted by the MSC Current
Issues Awareness Committee and
aimed at educating the student body
on issues not widely covered by the
media. This forum was the second in
a series that hosted the American So
cialist Party in mid-September and
will host the Green Party Nov. 1.
The discussion focused on the
doctrine of the Libertarian Party,
which says that the rights of Amer
icans should be based on individual
liberty and personal responsibility.
“You should have the right to
live your life as you see fit, pro
vided you don’t violate the like
rights of others,” Lark said, sum
ming up the doctrine.
He continued by applying the
doctrine to some of the major is
sues of this year’s election, includ
ing Social Security, foreign affairs
and campaign finance reform.
Lark said that Libertarians tend
not to like politics and prefer vol
untary means to political means.
“I don’t believe I have the right
to force [someone] to provide for
the retirement of others,” he said.
“The bonds of the community
are being broken down by state-
provided welfare.”
Exploring the realm of foreign
policy, a much more conservative
approach was taken, chastising
the current administration for
what Lark characterized as selec
tive intervention in world affairs.
“The only purpose of govern
ment is the protection of life, lib
erty and property of Americans in
America — not to serve as the
world’s policeman.” he said.
See Lark on Page 10.
ANDY HANCOCK/The Battalion
Jim Lark, chairman of the national Liber
tarian Party, speaks to a crowd concern
ing political issues in his presidential race.
D
linton signs
runken
riving bill
WASHINGTON (AP) —
resident Clinton signed a
Monday setting a tough
■National standard for drunk-
»en driving, saying the new
legal limit of 0.08 percent
| will save 500 lives a year and
g| force Americans to take
more care when they drink.
States that refuse to im-
m pose the standard by 2004
gjv tyill lose millions of dollars
in federal highway construc-
> jtion money. Nineteen states
Rignd the District of Columbia
have a 0.08 percent limit.
Thirty-one states define
Jdrunken driving as 0.10 lim-
fit blood alcohol content or do
{pot set a specific standard.
I “This is a very good day
for the United States,” Clin-
i “This law will
arrest people
who are not
part of the
drunk driving
problem”
— John Doyle
The American Beverage
Institute spokesman
ton said. He called the new
Jtandard “the biggest step to
toughen drunk driving laws
and reduce alcohol-related
trashes since a national min
imum drinking age was es
tablished a generation ago.”
Clinton was joined in a
|^ose Garden ceremony by
s lillie Webb, national pres
ident of Mothers Against
Trunk Driving (MADD),
and MADD members who
[have lost relatives in alco-
[hol-related crashes. Webb
flost her 4 1/2-year-old
daughter and 19-month-old
|nephew and suffered a bro
ken neck and burns over 75
percent of her body 28 years
ago in an accident caused
by a drunken driver.
The bill signing climaxed
a fierce three-year battle in
Congress.
The American Beverage
Institute, an association of
restaurant operators, called
the new law “an attack on
social drinkers.” It said a
' 120-pound woman who
drinks two 6-ounce glasses
of wine over a two-hour pe
riod could face arrest and
mandatory jail or loss ot her
license.
“This law will arrest
people who are not part of
the drunk driving problem,”
said spokesman John
Doyle. “But more, this law
in a lot of ways is leaving
many Americans to believe
that the drunk driving prob
lem has been addressed and
nothing could be further
from the truth.”
Arguing for the law,
MADD said a 170-pound
man would have to have
four drinks in an hour on an
empty stomach, and a 137-
pound woman three drinks
in an hour, to reach 0.08.
Both MADD and the Amer
ican Beverage Institute cit
ed National Highway Traf
fic Safety Administration
studies (NHTSA).
MADD also said that al
cohol is just as intoxicating
in beer, wine or hard liquor.
It said a 12-ounce can of
beer, a five-ounce glass of
wine and a 12-ounce wine
cooler all contain the same
amount of alcohol and have
the same intoxicating po
tential as 1 1/2 ounces of
hard liquor.
NHTSA cautioned that
factors such as sleep and
food consumption could af
fect blood alcohol levels.
Clinton called efforts to
pass national drunken-driving
standards an uphill battle. It
was approved 344-50 by the
House and 78-10 by the Sen
ate. The provision was part of
a $58 billion transportation
spending bill loaded with pre
election highway, mass tran
sit and aviation projects for
every state.
New rule of the road
Under a bill signed Monday by President Clinton, states failing to implement
a tougher standard for drunken driving by 2004 will lose millions of dollars
each year in federal highway funds. Nineteen states and the District of
Columbia already enforce a 0.08 blood alcohol content standard.
Defining a drink
1 oz. shot
of liquor
8 oz. glass
of wine
12 oz. beer
To reach the 0.08 limit
... 1701b. man could
drink four drinks in
one hour on an
empty stomach.
...a 137 lb. woman
could have three
drinks in an hour on
an empty stomach.
Age-old wining
STUART VILLANUEVA/Thk Battalion
Manuel Martinez pumps red wine out of 59 barrels at the Messina Hof Winery in Bryan on Monday.
The wine has been aging in these barrels for the last two years. After it is drained, it will be filtered and
bottled to be sold across the state.
Storms dump foot of rain on
Southwest Texas, spawn twisters
DALLAS (AP) — Thunderstorms
swelled rivers and flooded roads in the
Hill Country west of San Antonio as a
complex of severe weather lumbered
its way across Texas on Monday.
The storms brought pingpong ball
sized hail and at least two tornadoes to
the Panhandle, while five counties
northwest of San Antonio were flood
ed with as much as 6 1/2 inches of rain
Sunday and Monday.
In Edwards County, torrentidl rains
prompted officials to close roads coun
tywide, said Traci Meeks, a dispatcher
with the Edwards County Sheriff’s Of
fice in Rocksprings.
“All roads are closed, we are stuck
in,” Meeks said.
Meeks said most residents had hun
kered down to wait out the storms,
which were expected to continue until
Wednesday.
Roads in Real County also were
closed Monday afternoon.
“It has quit raining. It moves fast
and leaves lots of destruction,” said
Real County Sheriff’s dispatcher Jan
Tolleson.
.Flood watches also were issued for
Bandera, Edwards, Kerr, Real and Val
Verde counties.
The rain also swelled the Guadalupe
River in Kerr County to 20 feet, 8 feet
above flood stage, prompting the weath
er service to issue a major flood warn
ing for Hunt and Kerrville.
In San Antonio, two children and
the driver of a day care van had to be
rescued when the van they were in was
swept into Leon Creek on Monday
afternoon.
The unidentified driver, a 5-year-old
girl and an 8-year-old boy were treat
ed for minor injuries at the scene and
released.
Schools in Boerne and Comfort in
Kendall County canceled classes after
thunderstorms flooded out low-lying
county roads and water crossings.
Flood waters in some locations in
Boerne were seven feet deep, trapping
some residents, said Boerne police Lt.
Jim Kohler.
One person had driven around a po
lice barricade and got caught in a
swollen creek running across central
Boerne.
Drugs
affect
federal
loans
About 7,000 students
denied financial aid
(AP) — Nearly 7,000 college stu
dents who applied for financial aid this
fall are finding past drug convictions
returning to haunt them.
The students are being told they are
ineligible for some or all federal finan
cial aid because of a new law. Under
the law, which took effect with the
2000-01 academic year, students with
drug-related convictions can be ruled
ineligible for federal grants or loans.
Of the 8.6 million applications
processed through Oct. 15, 1,311 ap
plicants have been ruled ineligible, and
an additional 5,617 must complete a
waiting period before they become el
igible, Karen Freeman, a spokes
woman for the Education Department,
said Monday.
The total of the two groups is less
than 1 percent of those who applied.
Students can lose one year of feder
al aid eligibility for a first conviction
on a drug-possession charge, and two
years for a second conviction. They can
be suspended indefinitely for a third
conviction.
About 790,000 applicants initially
failed to answer the question of
“it denies access to
education to those
who need it most.
It is not a sound
anti-drug policy”
— Kristi Ringor
U.S. Students Association
spokeswoman
whether they had been convicted of us
ing drugs when they filled out their
student aid applications. But the Edu
cation Department contacted many of
those students, and the number of
those who have not yet answered is
now down to 275,000.
Department officials allowed col
lege and university administrators to
award aid this year to those who left the
question blank, but warned those stu
dents to alert the department of any
drug convictions or risk penalties for
lying on their forms.
Students told officials that they did
not understand the question, did not
think it pertained to them or forgot to
answer it, Freeman said.
“Everyone will agree it could have
been done better,” she said. She said
the question will be simpler and more
direct on next year’s form.
Kristi Ringor, a spokeswoman for
the U.S. Students Association in Wash
ington, said her organization fought the
policy and remains opposed to it.
“It denies access to education to
those who need it most,” she said. “It
is not a sound anti-drug policy.”
Bomb threat evacuates Bryan Wal-Mart SuperCenter
I Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
By Andy Hancock
The Battalion
At about 5:37 p.m. Monday, the Wal-Mart Su
perCenter in Bryan received a bomb threat, result
ing in the immediate evacuation of the store.
With customers and employees waiting in the
parking lot, Bryan police officers searched the
store for anything suspicious.
Officer Albert Neveu of the Bryan Police De
partment said a Wal-Mart employee was warned
by a woman that a bomb was set to explode some
where in the building.
“The suspect called the store and reached a
clerk, informing the clerk of a bomb in the
building that was set to explode in 20 minutes,
and to take this very seriously,” Neveu said.
“The suspect is a female, suspected to be in her
mid-20s.”
At 6:37 p.m. employees were allowed to re
enter and prepare to re-open the store. Wal-Mart
co-manager Charlie May had no comment on the
matter due to the ongoing investigation.
The bomb squad was not called in for assis
tance, nor was Bryan Utilities.
Neveu said the next step in the investigation
will be for the security division of GTE to work
with detectives to trace the call.
“If the threat had been more specific in nature,
then the bomb squad would have been called in,”
he said.
The crime is classified, as a “false alarm” and is
a Class A misdemeanor. If the bomb squad or
Bryan Utilities had been called in, the charge
would have been raised to a felony.
After the incident, shopping and business re
sumed as usual.
STUART VILLANUEVA/Thk Battalion
Wal-Mart SuperCenter employees stand outside after be
ing evacuated because of a bomb threat on Monday.