The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 265, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 5, 1990 Page: 4 of 16
sixteen pages : ill. ; page 17 x 10 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
THE BAYTOWN SUN
Wednesday, September 5, 1990
Opinion
Sun editorial
How to allocate
school funding
Y | Texas public schools opened with the usual fan-
fare but the entire system remains under a
JL legal cloud that may take years to dispel.
Earlier this year, the Legislature did the best it
could to stave off legal sanctions in a lawsuit
challenging the state’s method of allocating school
funding.
That suit is far from being settled. A judge is
trying to decide whether the state’s new funding plan
is fair to students in poor school districts, whose pat-
rons have challenged the new funding plan, claiming
it is no different from the old system ruled unconsti-
tutional by the State Supreme Court.
Therein lies the crux of the problem, posing the
thorny question of how best to allocate funds so that
every child in Texas, regardless of residence, cki be
assured of an adequate basic education in the public
school system.
After several special sessions, legislators approved
an additional expenditure of $528 million to finance
public schools for 1990-91 and made other changes
the program’s supporters contend will eventually im-
prove education. ,
Backers of a more equal and adequate funding ._____
system appear to be gaining strength through a per-
ceptible though gradual shift in public opinion, espe-
cially after the State Supreme Court’s unanimous de-
cision that some Texas children are being deprived
of an adequate education because the districts they —
live in are poor and therefore unable to obtain a fair
share of state funds.
State District Judge Scott McCown, who is study-
ing the case, said he may decide by October of this
year whether the new law passed in recent legislative
sessions is constitutional.
From Sun files
Stallworth Stadium
dedicated in 1970
Variable Texas weather
“I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain.
I’ve seen sunny days I thought would
never end.”
When James Taylor sang these words in a
song, he may have been thinking about
Texas weather. . .
No one can accuse Texas weather of being
unvaried — at least not for long.
I’ve lived in three different locations in
Texas and I’ve alternately been scorched,
frozen, desiccated and inundated in all three
spots.
But until this recent dry spell, I had never
had to endure a drought in Baytown.
A few years ago, I endured a dry spell that
was just about as severe in North Texas.
For nearly two months, North Texas had
virtually no rain. The formerly lush green
landscape turned a sickening brown and
temperatures topped the 100 degree mark al-
most daily.
The mighty Red River turned into a ri-
vulet and Lake Texoma looked like an over-
grown stock pond.
Bruce
Guynn
Since water was at a premium, the City
Council in Sherman introduced rationing.
One city councilman raised a few eye-
brows when he filled his new swimming
pool to the brim in the midst of this crisis.
He hid an explanation for his action, but
still some people weren’t amused — particu-
larly those whose lawns were dying from a
lack of water.
With conditions so dry, grass fires were
nearly a daily occurrence.
While listening to the police scanner, I
heard there was a large grass fire up in
Denison.
Armed with a camera, I hopped into my
car and went to the scene.
I started to snap photos and soon was en-
grossed in my work.
Finally, a firefighter shouted at me, “Hey’
is that your car?” ;
I turned around and saw that my car was
about to be engulfed in a burning ring <5f
fire. S
Quickly, I ran to my car. Doing my besl
James Bond imitation, I was able to man;
euver my car out of danger just before the
ring of flames surrounded it.
In succeeding months 'and years, trie
drought and hot weather was followed Ky
tornadoes and floods in North Texas. Nb
telling what we might have here in Baytowil
after our dry spell is finally over.
Bruce Guynn is associate managing editor
of The Baytown Sun.
Steroids forgotten enemy
From The Baytown Sun files, USS Lake Champlain, recovery
this is the way it was:
45 YEARS AGO
Two principals receive mas-
ter’s degrees at Sam Houston
State Teachers College this
summer. They are Bonnie Hop-
per of Highlands Elementary
School and Luther M. Loy of
Burnet Elementary School at
Wooster.
Off to the school for the first
time is Enid Marie Alleman, 6-
year-old daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. A.P. Alleman of Baytown.
The, new first-grader at San
Jacinto Elementary School is
pictured on the front page, car-
rying her books to school.
35 YEARS AGO
R.W. Akridge and J.J. Ober-
priller are division leaders in the
United Fund drive in Harris
County.
Lakewood Civic Association
will sponsor a games party at
the Lakewood Clubhouse. E.A.
Rose is president
Gander football stars Bill
Laughlin and Earl Odom return
to practice after recovering from
injuries.
25 YEARS AGO
James B. Clopton of Baytown
served aboard the aircraft carrier
, VJkJU X_/UXVt/ WUUllL/lUliq IVWTVIJ
ship for Project Gemini 5 astro-
nauts Gordon Cooper and Char-
les Conrad.
Promoted to area supervisors
at Humble’s Baytown Refinery
are E.H. Adlong, machinist;
R.B. Battarbee, pipefitter; P.M.
Lounsberry, rigger; Conrad
Giles, boilermaker. Instrument
man R.Z. Mills becomes a
training supervisor.
20 YEARS AGO
More than 1,000 Baytonians,
in addition to the school bands,
Brigadiers and Stars, turned out
last night to honor Dan Stall-
worth, former., athletic director
and Robert E. Lee High School
head coach, at the dedication of
the new Stallworth Stadium.
Participating on the program
were Fred Hartman, editor and
publisher of The Sun, who
traced Stallworth’s career, and
George Gentry, retired superin-
tendent Stallworth thanked the
people of Baytown for making
his career here possible. Joining
Mr. and Mrs. Stallworth at the
dedication were their daughter
and son-in-law, Lucy and Jack
Kubiszyn; their grandchildren,
Mary Kathryn, Jackie and Dana,
all of Tuscaloosa, Ala.
WASHINGTON — “Dan” was hooked on
a drug that doesn’t get much press. He bor:
rowed $1,500 from the bank to Support his
habit. Deluded by the drug into thinking he
was immortal, Dan had a friend videotape
him while he drove his car into a tree at 40
miles.,an hour. _______________' __________
He survived the crash and was lucky
enough to kick the drug — steroids. But
there are millions more steroid users who ig-
nore the dangers or fool themselves into
thinking that muscle-building drugs can’t be
bad for their health.
But while the soldiers in the drug war fo-
cus on cocaine, they are ignoring the grow-
ing popularity of steroids among young peo-
ple. The illegal trade in steroids has grown to
a $400 million-a-year industry.
A congressional committee, headed by
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., is about to release
the findings of an investigation into how the
federal government treats the steroid prob-
lem. The investigators’ report, obtained by
our associate Scott Sleek, puts the Food and
Drug Administration behind the eight ball
where it has been on too many issues in re-
cent years.
The FDA, not police or drug enforcement
experts, has the primary responsibility for
regulating the steroids trade. But the agency
has no one with the expertise or authority to
investigate; and crackdown on the increas-
ingly sophisticated steroids business. FDA
investigators aren’t allowed to carry guns,
work /undercover or execute search warrants.
That’s why Biden wants the Drug Enforce-
ment Administration to get involved in the,
war, on steroids.
The FDA has limi|ed powers and isn’t do-
Jack
Anderson
ing much with those. The agency doesn’t re-
quire legitimate steroids manufacturers to
submit reports on the volume' of btfslnessr 'weights.
It doesn’t seem to matter to the kids that
steroids have been linked to sterility, liver
cancer and heart disease. Steroids can cause
depression, hostility and distortion of judg-
ment, They can also be addictive. Many
teens say they know about the risks and use
steroids anyway. _____„ ;
One 17-year-old weight lifter kept inject-
ing himself with steroids despite his family’s
pleas to stop. His grades slipped. He threw
temper tantrums and experienced wild mood
swings. In 1988 he committed suicide. The
boy’s father found him lying dead beside his
Glenn Woolstrum, a former deputy sheriff
in Oregon, took three kinds of steroids to
help him in his weight lifting. He had ai repu-
tation as a pleasant man until steroids
changed his personality. Woolstrum became
aggressive and violent. When a woman who
owned a shop in his town said something he
didn’t like, Woolstrum ordered her into his
car at gunpoint and shot her. She lived, but
was paralyzed for life.
TIME OUT — Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait
will strain apy budget agreement that Demo-
crats and Republicans might reach. The
budget talks took a back seat to the Middle
East crisis. Once America committed its
troops to the region, it was unlikely that any-
one in Congress would complain about the
has been widely reported in the United cost or spare any expense to ensure the safe
States. Rut the congressional investigators return of the troops. Regardless of what hap-
found an astounding market for kte|pids pens, Iraq will have the last laugh watching
among teen-agers who are obsessed with' big Bush and Congress scramble to recover from
muscles. Steroid use by male high school se- the costly military operation,
niors is nearly as widespread as the; abuse of '
crack cocaine. T i United Feature Syndicate '•
they do. It doesn’t collect information on the
amount of steroids prescribed by doctors for
legitimate use. And it doesn’t have anything
but a guess about the amount of legally pro-
duced steroids that slip into the black
market. ' 1 I l ■ j \.
Some of the steroids in the United States
are smuggled in from foreign countries. But
a few of the foreign suppliers dort’t even
"bother to smuggle. They wait fpr the cus-
tomers to come to them. One Mexican firm
sent ads to potential customers inciting them
to a hotel just south of the border where they
could buy steroids. ‘Tell your friends that
here in Mexico there is no prescription
necessary to obtain steroids,” the solicitation
said.
Steroid abuse among professional athletes
Congress back in session
BIBLE VERSE
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
—Matthew 5:6
©je pSajitolun &ttn
Leon Brown . ........................................................Editor and publisher
Fred Hartman................................................Editor and publisher, 1950-1974
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Wanda Orton............................................................................Managing editor
Bruee Gwm...............................................Associate managing Editor
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
Russell Maroney..,.............................. .7.............................Advertising manager
Debbie Kimmey...................... Classified manager
CIRCULATION
Gary Dobbs........................... General manager
Circulation manager
PRODUCTION
Gary Guinn............. Production manager
Lynne Morris...........................................................Composing room foreman
The Baytown Sun (USPS 046-180) is entered as second class matter at the Baytown, Texas Post
Office 77522 under the Act of Congress of March 3,1879. PtA>j»h«i afternoons, Monday through Friday
and Sundays at 1301 Memorial Drive in Baytown, Texas 77520. Suggested Subscription Rates: By
carrier, $5.50 per month, $66.00 per year; single copy price, 25 cents Daily, 50 oents Sunday. Mail rates
on request Represented nationally by Coastal Publications. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
THE BAYTOWN SUN, P.O. Box 90, Baytown, Tx. 77522.
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the qse for replication to any news dispatches credited to
it or not otherwise in this paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Rights of
republication of all other matter herein are also reserved. The Baytown Sun retains nationally known
syndicates whose writers' bylined stories are used throughout the newspaper. There are times when these
articles do not reflect The Sun's viewpoint.
LETTER POLICY
Only signed letters will be considered for publication. The Sun reserves the right to condense tetters.
By Mike Feinsilber
of the Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — For George
Bush, ,the easy part is over. So far, he has
only had to cope with Saddam Hussein.
Congress is back in town next week.
The president gpt a glimpse of the shape
of things to come if he checked on what was
said afterward by the 170 members of Con-,
gress who interrupted their vacations for a
presidential update on the Persian Gulf
showdown.
Bush appealed for, bipartisan support, and
he got it, effusively. But there was an uneasy
undertone after the session that suggested
criticism is lurking — especially if the de-
ployment turns into a stalemate.
Stalemate is the best Bush can hope for—
it beats war — while he waits for die inter-
national quarantine of Iraq to work.
But American public opinion is not so
good at waiting.
“ Not if the price of gasoline keeps rising
and the economy keeps sinking.
Not if television carries pictures of Ku-
waitis on the French Riviera driving to rall-
ies in their Mercedes Benz automobiles to
cheer on the American boys.
Not if American women soldiers/— on
full television display in soldierly roles for
Today in history
the first time — run afoul of cultural diffe
ences in a Saudi society that gives womei
scant status and no equality.
Bush can stand the heat from Congress,
but if the American people turn against this,
enterprise they can ultimately end it. That
was Vietnam’s lesson for policymakers.
Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, 1
guesses gush has a fairly short period. J When politicians want to be critical of-a
“If we just keep 200,000 troops in the8; policy that appears popular, they attack lit
Saudi desert without them having any clear from the fringes rather than frontally. That’s
goals other than deterrence, I think his sup- what happened.
t At the end in Vietnam, the public could np
longer stomach the war and Congress re-
sponded by refusing to appropriate money
for1; any purpose there other than to bring
home the troops.
After hearing ifrom Bush last week, law-
makers did not directly challenge his deci-
sion to confront Saddam Hussein.
port will dissipate fairly quickly,” Mellman
says. “It may be 60 days, it may be 90 days,
it may be six months, but we don’t have
something happen by Christmas, I’d guess
support will dissipate.”
“Americans are impatient by and large
and goal-oriented and success-oriented,” he
added. ‘ ‘This represents a tremendous finan-
cial commitment and an emotional commit-
ment and for many people a real hardship.
■They complained that while Bush has
allied the world’s support for isolating Sad-
lam, the venture is still largely an American
indertaking. 1;
“If We don’t watch it, we’ll have a 90 Dr
5 percent share of the on-the-grouqd
ps,” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis. “I
don’t think that’s politically! sustainable at
home.” f.
ep. David Bonior, D-Mich., said his cori-
Polftical scientist Dick Barody of Stanford i stituents already are complaining that the J<t-
University, a student of public opinion, says pahese, the Australians and others are not
f “People who want to do other things with 4—44
the money will begin to portray this as a EDITOR’S NOTE: Mike Feinsilber has
war-that-isn’t and a foreign policy that isn’t been covering the news in Washington since
getting us anywhere,” Barody says. 190
CL J
11 Israeli athletes killed at Olympics
On Sept. 5 1972, eleven Israeli athletes and five Arab guerrillas
who had taken them hostage were killed in a shootout with West
German police during the summer Olympics in Munich.
In 1698, Russia’s Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards.
In 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.
In 1836, Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of
Texas.
In 1882, the nation’s first Labor Day parade was held in New
York, __■ .4 '
In 1905, the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War
was signed in New Hampshire, President Theodore Roosevelt hav-
ing mediated the settlement.
In 1914, the First Battle of the Marne began during World War I.
^ In 1939, the United States proclaimed its neutrality in World War
In 1945, Iva Toguri D’Aquino — a Japanese-American suspected
of being radio broadcaster “Tokyo Rose” — was arrested in Yoko-
hama. (She served six years for treason, but was pardoned in 1977
by President Ford.) , „ —T~
In 1957, “On the Road,” a novel by leading Beat author Jack
Kerouac, was first publishpdj.
In 1958, “Doctor Zhivago,” a novel by Russian author Boris
Pasternak, was published in the United States for the first time.
In 1975, President Ford escaped an attempt on his life when
Lynette “Squeaky” FrommeJ a disciple of Charles Manson, at-
tempted to shoot the chief eWutrve in Sacramento, Calif.
In 1977, West German industrialist Hamis-Martin Sclileyer was
kidnapped in Cologne by members of the Baader-Meinhof gang.
(Schleyer was later murdered by his captors.) ^ >
Today’s birthdays: Composer John Cage is 78. The president of
the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti, is 69 For-
mer Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker is 63. Comedian-
aetpr Bob Newhart is 61. U S. Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo„ is 54.
Actor William Devane is 51. Actress Raquel Welch is 50. “Cathy”
cartoonist Cathy Guisewite is 40.
?■
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 265, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 5, 1990, newspaper, September 5, 1990; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1044328/m1/4/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.