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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
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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 • <hiliel@startel.net>
What to bring: yourself, your swimsuit, and a towel!
auto
decals
murals • maroon dominoes • muggin' bears
framed art • aggie caps and visors • towels