nat, I UK BATTaiI endinj *eviva! truction ding 3 look at monthly :tion spending o> Corrm '■ rose by a solid ~ July to a set annual rate of: ; the highest lev He Inukiers savi £ lal projects asi n icat ions and >. Those gains wrI y eakness els' tors of America ding by the goverv public works pr * hie. dropped byO : - July to a rale of$i The govemmer g on schools, hip eels. That outwe rd spending on including public- ^ and hospitals and 1 are buildings. ersfal not offer a bread ic latest decline!i. * > secretary for cl *' icy should have a^ / reasonable” to cot * off welfare gotjotf ed on past studies , citing high uner ■ nployment rate 'ear high. August ’ tot good news, ire rising," said : rcher at the Chi ;ton-based nonproi to renew the 1991 approved a hilltop imposed by the ' 1 senate has not fblr law to be temp’ to keep the pi iposal would requitt. lirements on welfau' y the president's F ey for child care. -shirts NEWS 7 A THE BATTALION • Thursday, September 4,2003 Junior mechanical engineering major Vince Shepherd changes a front tire on the Texas A&M 2003 Formula Society of Automotive Engineers car at Thompson Hall before taking it for a test drive on Riverside Campus. The Formula SAE car will be competing in the Sport Car Club of America Solo-li Nationals competition next week in Topeka, Kan. Shepherd said the car corners with 1.5 lateral G's. Senators: NASA mistakes same in Columbia as in Challenger NEWS IN BRIEF IRS help centers gave incorrect information WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS centers established to help people prepare their tax returns gave incorrect answers — or no answer at all — to 43 percent of the questions asked by Treasury Department investigators posing as taxpayers. The investigators concluded that half a million taxpayers may have been given wrong information between July and December 2002. Internal Revenue Service employ ees gave wrong answers to 28 percent of the questions. Twelve percertt went unanswered, as taxpayers were told to do their own research in IRS publica tions. In 3 percent of the attempts to get questions answered, the auditor could not get any service at the center. “We recognize that an accuracy rate of 67 percent for tax law service is inadequate,” Henry O. Lamar, the IRS commissioner overseeing individual tax returns, wrote to the investigators. The auditors said they had a better chance of getting a correct answer when IRS employees walked them through relevant material and asked probing questions. The questions most commonly answered incorrectly dealt with the earned income tax credit, education credit and dependents. “The IRS’failing grade here is unac ceptable,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-lowa. ” The Treasury Department’s inspec tor general started investigating the error rate at the nation’s 400 taxpayer assistance centers when a 2001 study showed that auditors making anony mous visits got incorrect or insufficient answers to 73 percent of their tax law questions. The IRS hopes to improve its track record and answer 80 percent of the questions correctly this year, and 85 percent correctly next year. By Paul Recer THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Senators criticized NASA on Wednesday for not naming people personally responsible for the Columbia disaster and for giving an important new job to an official linked to decisions made in the space shuttle tragedy. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe defended his stance on naming names, say ing later that there was no reason “there has to be a public execution” of engineers involved in the accident. At a hearing before the Senate committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., said the space agency and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) did not go far enough in assigning blame for the space shuttle accident that killed seven astronauts. Hollings challenged O’Keefe to explain why Ralph Roe, an engineer the CAIB report said was involved in decisions linked to the accident, had been named the number two person in the new NASA Engineering and Safety Office. Hollings said Roe and Linda Ham, man ager of program integration for the shuttle, canceled efforts to take spy satellite photos of the shuttle that could have established if the spacecraft’s wing had been damaged during launch by a chunk foam insulation peeled from a fuel tank. The senator said flawed decisions made in the Columbia accident reminded him of issues raised following the 1986 space shut tle Challenger accident that also killed seven astronauts. The CAIB chairman. Ret. Navy Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., said the board “does support accountability” in the Columbia accident, but that members felt they should not attempt to identify those personally responsible and would “let the proper authorities deal with accountability.‘At a news conference following the hearing, O'Keefe said naming individuals bearing responsibility for the Columbia accident would be pointless. He said that would be done only if someone was found to have acted maliciously. “We are not going to make those judg ments,” he said. “It’s all in the report.” “Nothing at this point shows that any folks fell into that category,” O’Keefe said. Ham has since left her job in the space shuttle program, but remains employed by NASA. Roe has been named to the number two job in NASA’s new Engineering and Safety Center now being established at the Langley Research Center in Virginia. At the hearing, Gehman said decisions that led to the Columbia accident were “set in motion between five to 15 years ago,” and that all the leaders — including NASA, Congress and the White House — “are responsible for the conditions” that led to the accident. Gehman said NASA was starved for funds over the years and that space shuttle program managers were forced to wring money out of the shuttle program “in order to do other things.” “Over a decade the spending power of the NASA budget was reduced by over 40 percent,” Gehman said. Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., chal lenged O’Keefe to explain how the space agency intended to change its culture, which the CAIB report blamed heavily for the cause of the accident. O’Keefe said it would involve more than changing personnel. Some basic cultural changes will occur. ‘Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said she was shocked by the CAIB report. Congress needs to make sure processes are put in place to prevent future shuttle accidents, Snowe said. “We can’t allow our outrage or concern to atrophy,” she said. “When the spotlight is off, we need to be assured that what is rec ommended in the report goes forward.” Affordable Health Insurance for College Students FREE QUOTE 979-693-1683 Bruce Boyd Texas A&M Club Baseball Team Team Tryouts Sept. 9-lT l3,@'T30 pm Soufhwood Athletic Complex Informational Meeting Sept. 8 « 7 p.m. % MSC228 dubbaseballtripodcom Get Grilling with Party Time I Party Time Rentals 1816 Ponderosa, College Station 696-5555 « 1710 S. Texas Ave, Bryan 822-6555 YouVe invited to Texas A&M Hillers Join us for some swimming, ice cream eating and fun! When: Sunday, September 7,2003 from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Where: Meet at Hillel at 6:15 pm 800 George Bush, CS • 693-73I3 • What to bring: yourself, your swimsuit, and a towel! auto decals murals • maroon dominoes • muggin' bears framed art • aggie caps and visors • towels