Ms may be down
because of flooding
■HOUSTON (AP) — An esti-
Rted 76,000 ATMs in 22
itates may be affected by
■ekend flooding in the
Joi.theast Texas, a banking
Dflncial said.
■Access to ATMs in the PULSE
leiwork was disrupted when
hf primary and secondary
llwer supplies were flooded in
■■uston. said Julian Read, a
;arza rw&w Bjkesman for PULSE, a non-
mg down tt4r<pfit electronic funds transfer
was part of:||twork. It has more than
class of tftoO financial institution
.lumbers.
Iso, an estimated 300,000
nt-of-sale transactions — us-
, ■ an ATM at a cashier — also
fay be affected. Read said.
| I |®Officials are trying to switch
^ Ope rations to a processing cen-
. '■ in Dallas. PULSE anticipates
^ j majority of the system to be
1 I IMerational sometime Sunday,
i jt should be fully opera-
Maal early in the week, he said.
the chest. Sh
Second trial ends
•at tragedy,’ ^/vith guilty verdict
brds just failitljB
:er has been?.»WICHITA FALLS (AP) —
native leave.I ^ree years after Zacchauus
nd a halfve : ’ e ^ was 9 un ned down on a
. . .u , .. itreet simply because he was
. . .black, relatives say they can
a letters ot coir:*. ' . , J J
. , itai: to heal,
a so two ^ t jK3 nce . avowec j w hjte su-
Dremacist John Matthew Turn-
r sIk was, 30W/ 28, of Iowa Park was con-
ar, Kowalski - /jcted Friday of murder in 78th
and neighbo District Court. The judge will
cepticalalwut determine sentencing,
ng of the site .The jury deliberated less than
; officer wasi? twe hours in Turnbow's second
itinij and polii Tial. His first, in fvlarch 2000,
vestigating it 2n ded in a mistrial after jurors —
ICopefiilkdJ 1 of them white .— remained
deadlocked for two days.
^ : Turnbow and co-defendant
lodger Bridges allegedly at-
the police are acked F j e | d jn October 1998
css t" some int yhj| e 1 00 Lj ng for another black
jeling t ' le nan who had dated Bridges'
an the incider ix-wife. Bridges remains jailed
11 the details, i nd is awaiting trial in connec-
know if theddon with the murder,
t fault. H^rurnbow's sentencing has
ieen set for July 3.
Nation
INSIDE
• Four Aggies
selected in 2001
baseball draft
ittalion News Radio
57 p.m. KAMU 90.9
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Nlorth Dakota hit by
looding, hail storm
' BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) —Vio-
^ storrns swe Pt through parts
I ^ j jfNorth Dakota, dunhping hail
L M. ^at piled up like snow and
; :alled vehicles in the streets,
iracattered power outages
^ere reported with Saturday
ight's storms, but there were
o immediate reports of in-
iries. More than an inch of hail
'as reported in some areas.
BThe National Weather Ser-
ice said 2 inches of rain fell in
iss than an hour, causing
ooding that cut off a number
f Bismarck streets. A small
ream flash flood advisory was
sued for the area.
|1|& number of funnel clouds
'ere also reported, but there
'ere no reports of tornado
iuchdowns.
Floods blamed for 15 deaths
Houston declared disaster area y some highways remain under water
HOUSTON (AP) — Floods from
Tropical Storm Allison were blamed
Sunday for at least 15 deaths as damage
estimates climbed into the hundreds of
millions of dollars in the Houston anea.
With waters in most areas receding, it
was feared the death toll could grow as
the raging waters that inundated areas of
Southeast Texas were slipping back with
in bayou banks.
Some residents, primarily on Hous
ton’s east side, continued to be rescued
from their homes Sunday by National
Guard troops in 5-ton trucks who ar
rived after Gov. Rick Perry declared a
28-county area disaster area. President
Bush also followed Saturday with a Fed
eral disaster declaration.
Skies wete cloudy Sunday and fore
casts were for little or no additional rain.
Most of the heavier rain had moved to
the east into Louisiana, where at least
one fatality was reported.
Some of the rainfall amounts were
staggering. Double-digit figures in inch
es were common on rain gauges around
Southeast Texas, with one station on the
east side of Houston registering just un
der 3 feet since Allison, the first named
storm of the Atlantic hurricane season,
came ashore last week.
Much of the nation’s fourth-largest
city dried out and returned to normal
Sunday although some highways, par
ticularly on the east side or near down
town, remained blocked by high water
or scores of cars and trucks that were
abandoned Friday night when flash
flooding from the storm caught mo
torists by surprise.
“This is overwhelming,” said Hous
ton Police Sgt. CJ. Klausner as he
watched crews removing dozens of cars
and tractor-trailer rigs from Interstate
610, which was closed on the east side of
the city for a third day.
“It’s probably totaled,” Charles Steele
said of hi§ big rig, which he swam from
when the high water hit. His empty
tanker trailer floated in the rising water
and jackknifed, landing on a small Jeep
that was stuck behind him.
A Houston fire truck and a bus were
among the vehicles that had been
trapped.
“I’ve got to get this thing going,”
said Steve Gonzales, who returned
Sunday to where his girlfriend’s car was
among about 35 vehicles engulfed at
one intersection. Water had topped the
dashboard.
The Harris County Office of Emer
gency Management estimated 20,000
homes suffered $500 million worth of
damage from floodwaters. Damage to
public facilities and businesses, not to
mention the toll outside of Harris Coun
ty, were expected to send the cost much
higher.
“If I were to give a guess ... it would
top $1 billion,” Brown said. “That would
he a guess, but it would suggest we have
had a serious problem.”
The mayor urged downtown employ
ers to give their workers the day off
Monday.
“Because of buildings being closed j
power out and water in some of the
buildings, I’m asking employers to con
sider tomorrow a day of recovery to let
downtown get back on track, back on its
feet, to take the day off to take care of
See Floods on Page 2.
Summer days
Regan Chesher holds the flag as Chuck Glenwinkel
takes a shot at the A&M golf course on Sunday after-
BERNARDO GARZA/Th£ Battalion
noon. With the showers gone, many students and
area residents took advantage of sunny summer skies.
Man surrenders peacefully
after standoff with police
Stuart Hutson
The Battalion
The 500 block of Kyle Av
enue was blocked off and resi
dents were evacuated from
their homes early Saturda) r
morning as a 14-hour standoff
began between police and a
26-year-old College Station
man who allegedly attacked
his mother and barricaded
himself in her house.
College Station police re
sponded to a report of an assault
at 505 Kyle Street at 1 a.m. to
find the mother of Robert Alex
Garza with a broken finger and
nose, a bruised arm and a black
eye. She said that Garza, who
was wanted by the police for pa
role violation, had attacked her
and was armed with a knife.
Garza’s mother was sent to
the College Station Medical
Center for treatment while his
20-year-old sister looked on
tearfully as College Station
Police Department (CSPD)
SWAT and hostage negotia
tion teams set up a perimeter
around the house Garza re
fused to exit.
“We aren’t sure if there are
any guns in the house, but at
this point we are acting cau
tiously to make sure no one gets
hurt,” said Sgt. Leeth of the
CSPD, two hours into the stand
off. “Our basic plan is to just
wait him out.”
And wait they did. Periodi
cally attempting to contact
Qarza with the aid of his sister,
who was waiting nearby in her
car, CSPD officers rotated
with Bryan Police until Garza
finally surrendered peacefully
at approximately 3:20 p.m.
“This is just crazy, I didn’t ex
pect something to happen like
this in dais neighborhood,” said
A&M sophomore business ma
jor Aaron Murski, who was with
friends when he was asked by
police to leave his house around
2:30 a.m. “All I wanted to do
was to sleep in my own bed
tonight, but they won’t even let
me near my house.”
The police were unaware of
the conditions of Garza’s parole
violation, but he is currently be
ing held for the violation at the
Brazos Countyjail. The assault
on his mother is still being in
vestigated and additional
charges could be filed.
Heroin overdoses rise in Austin
AUS T IN (AP) — Ten peojile have died
in Travis County this year from heroin-
related overdoses, almost half the 22 over
dose deaths from all drugs this year, offi
cials say. Four of the deaths occurred
during one week in April.
Although it’s too soon to tell whether the
county will set a record this year, the jump
in the number of heroin users seeking
treatment has alarmed officials.
A few years ago, about five peo ple a week
would seek help at Austin Recovery, a non
profit rehabilitation clinic. Now the clinic
is seeing about five new addicts a day.
It’s just a tremendous increase that I
haven t seen ever, and I’ve been doing this
for 1 3 years, said Bud Hibbs, the direc
tor of admissions at Austin Recovery.
I lei oin just seerps to be at th is point very *
cheap and very readily available, whereas
many years ago it was more of an under
ground drug.”
The number of heroin abusers seeking
treatment at the clinic has jumped 17 percent
«
Heroin just seems
to be at this point
very cheap and very
readily available”
— Bud Hibbs
director of admissions at Austin Recovery
since 1997, Hibbs told the Austin American-
Statesman.
Other drug-abuse professionals say
they’ve noticed the same thing.
Three years ago, teen-agers at Phoenix
Academy, which provides substance abuse
treatment in Austin for adolescents, rarely
mentioned using heroin.
“Now they are reporting trying it one or
two times, and most typically they are
smoking it,” said Laurie DeLong, the cen
ter’s director.
Officials have noticed that traffickers are
starting to stockpile the drug at the Texas-
Mexico border, said Nicholas Nargi, resi
dent agent in charge at the U.S. Drug En
forcement Administration office in Austin.
“Some are smuggling larger kilogram
quantities in tar and powder form from the
interior of Mexico,” Nargi said.
The amount of heroin seized by the
DEA nationwide has increased in the past
few years.
See Heroin on Page 2.
TEAM
Blinn
debuts
Elizabeth Raines
The Battalion
Last week, 500 hopefuls on
A&M’s fall waiting list were giv
en the word that they were ac
cepted —well, partially accepted.
Texas A&M University Pres
ident Dr. Ray M. Bowen met
with Blinn College President
Donald E. Voelter on June 7 at
the Bush Presidential Confer
ence Center to formally initiate
the Transfer Enrollment at
A&M (TEAM) Blinn program.
TEAM Blinn has been
formed through the combined
Most students
that go to Blinn go
to Texas A&tM, and
TEAM Blinn will
make the transition
easier for them.”
— Ronald Douglas
A&M executive vice president
and provost
efforts of Texas A&M and Blinn
to allow students who qualify for
acceptance into Texas A&M, but
could not get in because of lim
ited space, to be admitted as
part-time students.
“There are many more stu
dents that apply to A&M and
[meet all the requirements] than
we can take due to space,” said
Ronald Douglas, A&M execu
tive vice president and provost.
“Most students that go to Blinn
go to Texas A&M, and TEAM
Blinn will make the transition
easier for them.”
The top 500 students on the
A&M waiting list were sent in
vitations in the beginning of
June to participate in the TEAM
Blinn pilot program.
“We are very excited about
the program,” said Vivian Jeffer
son, director of admissions and
records for Blinn. “ We sent out
500 invitations and so far ap
proximately 175 students have
responded.”
Students in the program will
be considered part-time students
at A&M and will pay for and re
ceive the benefits of being a part-
time student. These benefits in
clude access to A&M’s library
resources, the Student Comput
ing Center (SCC), the Student
Recreation Center, A.P. Beutel
Health Center and Food Ser
vices, along with tickets to stu
dent athletic and performing arts
events. They may also join the
Corps of Cadets, fraternities and
See Blinn on Page 2.