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University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Tuesday, Feb. 25, 1986
News Briefs
Gerber files lawsuit against Maryland
BALTIMORE — Gerber Products Co. filed a $150 million federal suit yesterday charging Maryland officials with creating a scare by banning the sale of Gerber strained peaches after reports of glass contamination being in the jars.
Maryland is the only one of 13 states that has banned the sale of Gerber products after consumers complained of glass particles in Gerber food.
Maryland health officials issued the formal recall and sales ban after Gerber officials refused to withdraw the products.
SEOUL, South Korea — President Chun Doo Hwan promised Monday to halt a police crackdown on the opposition and said the constitution could be revised in 1899 to allow for direct presidential elections.
Leader vows reforms
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that General Foods Corp. is recalling all of its 1- and 2-kilogram wheels of plain, unflavored Brie cheese because the cheese may be tainted with a potentially fatal bacteria.
Chun's remarks appeared to reflect a desire to iron out differences with the opposition before the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, which Chun hopes will increase global respect for South Korea.
Brie cheese recalled
FDA spokesman said the cheese, which went to more than 24 states, may be contaminated by a disease-causing bacteria that can be life-threatening to children and others with a weakened immune system.
Women egg queen
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Queen Elizabeth II was hit sunday by an egg thrown by women protesting Britain's 146-year-old treaty with New Zealand's Maori tribes, police said.
The queen was riding in an open car past 40,000 children when two women posing as crowd control wardens hit her coat and car with eggs. The queen is on a nine-day tour of New Zealand.
From Kansan wires
Texans lose grade appeal
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court opened the way yesterday for school systems across the country to follow Texas' lead in adopting "no-pass, no-play" rules that bar students with failing grades from extracurricular activities.
The justices, citing the lack of a substantial federal question, dismissed an appeal by parents and students who argued the Texas rule, which has sidelined some of the state's best high school athletes, is unconstitutional.
The court's action, while not a full ruling on the merits, holds the weight of legal precedent and should remove doubts about the legality of no-pass, no play proposals.
"I hope we will now be able to get this issue out of the courthouse and get the emphasis on academic achievement back into the classroom where it rightly belongs," said Texas Education Commissioner William Kirby.
The Supreme Court of Texas uphold the law in July and dissolved a temporary injunction that had prevented the state from enforcing it. The law says a public school student who earns a grade of below 70 out of 100 cannot participate in extracurricular activities for six weeks. The significance of the rule has been the sharpest in football, which is viewed with near-religious reverence in the state, where a D is considered a failing grade.
Nonetheless, the state court said the rule was an incentive for the state's 3 million public students to get good grades and was rationally related to the legitimate state interest in providing a quality education.
On appeal to the high court, the lawyer for the students and their families said the Texas court did not take into account the First Amendment rights of students nor the arbitrary and capricious application of the law.
athletes, but to students in student government or on the debate team or school newspaper, all which are protected activities under the Constitution.
"A student with all 'As' and one 'F' in basket weaving can take part in no such endeavors whatsoever." the appeal said.
The appeal noted the law applies not only to
Eddie Joseph, assistant vice president of the Texas High School Coaches Association, which opposes the rule, said he was not surprised by the court's action.
"I really did not think they would rule otherwise." Joseph said. "I don't think we ever questioned whether it was constitutional. What we really believe is if a youngster is passing he should be able to play."
Since Texas lawmakers enacted the no-pass, no-play law in 1984, many school districts around the country have followed suit. But the Texas rule is among the harshest, the appeal argued.
Court to hear appeal on budget act
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court stepped into the debate over the federal deficit yesterday, taking up an emergency review of the landmark Gramm-Rudman balanced-budget act cutted by a lower court.
The justices announced they will hear arguments April 23 on an appeal from Congress, which is challenging a lower court ruling that the law's automatic budget-cutting procedure violated the Constitution's doctrine of separation of power.
The law, passed in December, requires across-the-board cuts if Congress and the president are unable to reach annual deficit targets through the traditional budgetmaking process. Congress is required to meet gradually decreasing deficit targets each year until the deficit is reduced to zero by 1991.
take place this week since the law remains in effect while under appeal.
Ordinarily the court does not schedule cases for argument this late in its term, but the importance of the dispute prompted the justices' action. A ruling is expected by July, although the first round of Gramm-Rudman cuts will
A three-judge district court ruled earlier this month that the law's key provision was unconstitutional because it required the comproller general to begin budget cuts.
If the justices agree with the lower court that the budget-cutting trigger in Gramm-Rudman is invalid, the law will still stand, but any cuts will have to be approved by the House and Senate in a joint resolution rather than automatically.
Supreme Court makes decision on pornography
United Press International
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court brought to an end the latest battle in the war on pornography yesterday, ruling it is unconstitutional to define sexually explicit material as sex discrimination.
The court's decision was a big defeat for an odd coalition of feminists and conservatives who joined forces to fight pornography by defining it as sex discrimination and allowing those aggrieved to bring civil charges against those selling or producing the material.
The court affirmed a ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found an ordinance passed by the city of Indianapolis and supported by that coalition was unconstitutional. Three justices wanted to rehear the case, one justice short of the traditionally required four.
"By upholding the decisions below, the court has removed any doubt that this type of statutory scheme is unconstitutional," said Michael Bamberger, a lawyer representing a group of publishers and booksellers fighting the Indianapolis measure."
Feminist author Andrea Dworkin called the court's action outrageous.
Houston man buys airline
"It shows that the legal system protects the pornography industry and anything that the pornography system does to women is all right." she said.
"We are obviously disappointed that we didn't get a second hearing," said Indianapolis Mayor William H. Hudnut. "We don't feel it is a wasted effort, because we have focused attention on a way to deal with pornography."
The Associated Press
MIAMI — Racing against strike deadlines from unions and default threats from creditors, Eastern Airlines announced yesterday that it would be taken over by businessman Frank Lorenzo and his Houston-based Texas Air Corp.
No details were disclosed, but union officials said they understood that Lorenzo, whose company also operates Continental Airlines and New York Air, would continue Eastern. the country's third-largest carrier, as a separate airline.
Charles Bryan, president of the International Association of Machinists local that represents 12,000 Eastern workers, sent Lorenzo a telegram offering cooperation.
Bryan, who also is a member of Eastern's board of directors, said Chairman Frank Borman told other board members he would resign
from the company following their 1-45 a.m. vote on Lorenzo's offer. Borman, a former astronaut, has headed the Miami-based airline since 1975.
The Texas Air agreement must be
Big creditors had given Eastern management a Feb. 28 deadline to present a long-term plan to turn around the airline, which was $2.5 billion in debt.
Eastern spokesman Glenn Parsons said Borman and other company officials were quite unlikely to hold a news conference before today. Lorenzo did not return repeated telephone messages.
Late Sunday, Eastern reached agreement with its 4,200 pilots to avert a strike threatened for tomorrow, but there was confusion about a tentative verbal agreement with flight attendants, who could strike March 1.
Bryan said he expected Lorenzo to run Eastern the way he ran his other airlines. Bryan urged him to avoid laying off any of the current 41,000 employees.
approved by Eastern's creditors, shareholders and federal authorities. A union source and a New York-based airline analyst, said Lorenzo's effort to buy 51 percent of Eastern stock in an agreement reported to be for between $600 million and $700 million in cash and securities, could trigger a bidding war from other sources. The sources spoke on the condition that they not be identified.
Some union officials and Eastern employees said they were chagrined at the takeover, citing what one called Lorenzo's anti-union reputation. Bryan, accused by Borman of being a major obstacle in resolving Eastern's crisis, said his union was studying legal options.
Soviet Union rejects U.S. arms proposal
United Press International
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union yesterday dismissed President Reagan's new arms proposal on eliminating medium-range nuclear weapons as a tough and non-constructive repetition of previous U.S. positions.
The response, carried by the official Tass news agency, came on the eve of the Soviets' 27th Communist Party Congress. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will open the meeting with a speech covering domestic and foreign issues.
Reagan's new arms control proposal was presented at the U.S.-Soviet arms control talks in Geneva yesterday. The president
sent a letter to Gorbachev over the weekend reply to the Kremlin's call on Jan. 15 for elimination of all nuclear weapons by the end of the century.
U. S. officials in Geneva said Reagan's letter touched on all aspects of nuclear arms control but concentrated on eliminating all medium-range missiles from Europe and Asia over the next three years.
"The reply does not go farther than repeating the well-known U.S. non-constructive stand in this matter which is of major importance to the destiny of the world." Tass said.
Tass accused Washington of issuing the new proposal to divert world attention.