The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 12

12-A MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1996 GALVESTON COUNTY, TEXAS Continued from 1-A Chairwoman Cynthia Tauss wrote a letter to Yarbrough questioning the use of a mobile poll. Jonnson accused Tauss of trying to create an issue. "I think she fears a higher election, turnout would hurt Bob Dole and Steve Stockman," Johnson said. mobile poll is not a car or van in which people will vote. It is a polling place that will moVe periodically during the two "weeks of early voting, instead of staying open in a single place for two weeks.

Yarbrough said a traveling voting location could help increase early voter turnout and voters in isolated parts of county, such as the Bolivar peninsula, which has no early voting location. But county Republicans argue that citizens already have enough opportunities to get to the polls and a roving poll directed by a mostly Democratic county government would increase Democratic voter turnout. The proposed moving poll would be used on a trial basis only. Representatives from the County Clerk's office carrying the necessary ballots and supplies would bring the poll to different locations throughout the two-week early voting period. The traveling poll would stay a minimum of four hours at each location, moving, at the most, twice in one day.

It will join 13 fixed locations that will be open for two weeks before the Nov. 5 general election. Kurdish rebels lose towns to rival faction The Associated Press 1RBIL, Iraq A Kurdish faction allied with President Sad- dam Hussein captured two towns from a rival Kurdish group in fierce fighting Sunday. The groups gave conflicting accounts of whether Saddam's forces took part in the assaults, Iraq, meanwhile, said it fired anti-aircraft weapons at U.S. and allied aircraft patrolling no-fly zones over its territory Sunday.

The Iraqi fire missed and the planes fled, the official Iraqi News Agency said. Iraq made the same claim on Friday and Saturday, also claiming no hits. In northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party pressed TURKEY Itfcll Kuysarjaq Kunfch rebel group driven out I unctef fierce attack IRAQ BaghdadO ttted no-fly zona al-lskan'diariyah IRAN Nasiriyaho oTallilAirfleW SAUDI KUWA AP ahead with its week-old offensive, marching east and taking the towns of Degala arid Kuysan- jaq from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Both groups agreed that the towns, 20 and 30 miles east of Irbil, changed hands amid heavy fighting. But the KDP said in a statement from London that it launched the assaults on its own, while PUK spokesman Latif Rashid, speaking to The Associated Press from London, said the faction was overwhelmed by the combined forces of the Iraqi army and the KDR The conflicting accounts could not be reconciled, and Iraq did not comment on the latest battle.

No details of the fighting were available, and there was no word on casualties. Iraqi forces teamed up with the KDP on Aug. 31 to capture Irbil, the de facto capital of the Kurdish safe haven established in northern Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The United States responded with missile attacks on southern Iraq on Tuesday and Wednesday, hammering air defense sites in southern Iraq. Since then, the Iraqi forces appear to have refrained from playing a major role in the battles between the rival Kurdish groups.

But Iraq placed its heavy weaponry only a few miles behind the front-line positions of its KDP allies. Almost 100 Iraqi tanks could be seen in the region on Friday, and Defense Secretary William Perry said Sunday that some Iraqi troops "are still nearby and still dangerous." Schools Hortense's strength expected to fluctuate Continued from 1-A dents, including a large percentage in Harris County has lowest cost, at $426 per student. The state average is $559 per student. Hitchcock ISD, the county's second smallest district with 1,352 students, paid the second most with administration expenses running $761 per stu- However, Galveston ISD the second-largest district in the county with 9,910 students spends more per student on administration than both the smaller Dickinson, Friendswood, Santa Fe and Ifexas City districts. Galveston ISD taxpayers paid its administrators $670 for each pupil in the district.

Hitchcock ISD leads the county in spending on instructional services, paying our $3,266 per pupil for teacher salaries, books, media services and other instructional materials. The state average was $2,870 per student. GISD comes in second, paying $3,160 per student. CCISD has the county's bargain in instructional services, keeping its costs down to just $2,505 per student. Four of the county's districts pay more than the state average of $2,870 per student for instructional costs, while five pay more.

The county's districts vary Recovery effort back on track The Associated Press I SHINNECOCK, N.Y. Divers and a giant underwater robot retrieved pieces of fallen TWA Flight 800 on Sunday, the first full day of salvage work after a weeklong delay caused jby back-to-back hurricanes. Bough seas whipped up first Edouard, then just J.days later by Hurricane Fran, earlier than officials had 'expected. "We've got a good day today," said Lt. Nicholas Balice, a Navy spokesman.

"We're back in full They're bringing up wreckage." Scuba divers wearing oxygen itanks and Navy divers who receive oxygen from the surface viwere able to work in a 400' square-yard area of wreckage iJwhere most of the Boeing 747 landed after exploding in the sky July 17. The massive underwater sal- vage robot also was working. All 230 aboard people aboard after when the Paris-bound jet blew apart over the Atlantic I off the southern coast of Long Island. The cause has not been determined. Possibilities under include a bomb, a missile or an unprecedented malfunction.

The Navy predicted last Thursday it couldnt return tofuQ oper- until Tuesday or Wednes- Iday, so Sunday's resumption was wBtmne news for inv TASB copies Copies of TASB Bench Marks 1995-96 may be ordered directly from TASB for $15 each. More detailed information is also available on diskettes. Write: Research and Development, Texas Association of School Boards, P.O. Box 400, Austin, TX 78767-0400. widely in expenditures for co- curricular activities, such as sports, band, choir, theater and student government.

High Island again led the spending pack with co-curricular costs of $379 per student more than three times the state average of $115. La Marque ISD, with its football team traveling to state competition last year, spent $200 per student. Also spending more than the state average were Friendswood ISD, $184, and Santa Fe ISD, $121. Texas City ISD spent the least on co-curricular activities with just $82 per student. TASB is a voluntary, nonprofit organization established almost 50 years ago to serve The Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Kico Despite signs that Tropical Storm Hortense was losing its punch, authorities in Puerto Rico and the U.S.

Virgin Islands braced for the worst Sunday, stocking shelters and canceling flights. Tropical storm warnings were lifted for eastern Caribbean islands by Sunday afternoon as Hortense moved northwestward toward St. Croix, the southernmost U.S. Virgin Island. After weakening slightly during the day, the storm regained its 60-mph winds of the day before.

Tropical storm warnings remained in effect from the British Virgin Islands westward through Puerto Rico, but the National Hurricane Center in Miami backed off from earlier predictions that the storm might reach hurricane strength by Monday. "People are still worried and they are taking precautions, boarding up and all," said Wilda Davis, a Red Cross worker on St. Croix. "They don't want to take any chances." Hortense was about 100 miles southeast of St. Croix on Sunday afternoon, moving west at 10 mph, according to the hurricane center.

Tropical storm-force winds were expected to hit St. Croix just after midnight and move into eastern Puerto Rico early Monday morning, as the eye of the storm crosses south of the islands. Up to 10 inches of rain was expected for islands near the storm's path, with the possibility of dangerous flooding in Caribbean mountains. Flood threat from Fran continues The Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. Their neighborhoods in tatters but their resolve largely intact, residents of hurricane-battered areas turned Sunday to cleaning up formidable messes, watching swollen waterways and adjusting to life without electricity.

At least six people were still reported missing. Five electric utilities reported a total of 488,000 customers still without power. Water, and especially ice, remained crucial commodities and lines formed at stores offering supplies many for free. With many areas flooded with sewage- tainted water and thousands of trees on the ground, life was hardly returning to normal But, on a muggy, torrid day, people ventured out with rakes and chain saws, and utility and municipal crews and private tree-clearing contractors plied the streets and back roads. "We're so sophisticated in this age of technology and science, but Mother Nature comes through and we're back to 400 B.C.," said Linda Daigle, clearing foliage from her lawn Sunday.

Hurricane Fran slammed into coastal North Carolina late Thursday and turned north, cutting a capricious swath of destruction as far inland as Raleigh and Winston-Salem before flooding Virginia and West Virginia with heavy rain. The storm and its aftereffects killed at least 22 people 17 of them in North Carolina mostly by falling' trees, flooding and traffic accidents. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had declared 34 North Carolina counties disaster areas as of Sunday afternoon. A 60-member team on Topsail Island, in the hardest-hit coastal region, searched for five people reported missing, emergency officials said. In Raleigh, rescuers searched for 17- year-old Jackson Edward Griffin, who disappeared Saturday while swimming with a friend in swollen Crabtree Creek.

The storm will probably fluctuate in strength over the next day, but upper-level winds in the Caribbean will keep it from growing markedly, hurricane center forecaster Bill Frederick said. "We're not expecting much intensification," Frederick said. Hortense battered the French Caribbean island of Martinique with heavy rains Saturday, knocking down power lines and flood- ing roads before sweeping westward early Sunday. To prepare for the storm, Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossello suspended a law that forces stores to close at 5 p.m.

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