The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 19

GALVESTON COUNTY, TEXAS TUESDAY, DEC. 21, 1993 HHIUHmWIRgH 5-B In age of sexual is history The Associated Press uu VYeDD, WhOSe Seattle ronRllltincr rT erttw wMibuiung com- Companies are becoming more cir- Billboard's 0 JNh-W the season to be an Pacific Resource Development cumspect about Chrisfcm 'rti aweekina azine s- merry, just not too merry Grout) advises ana in a letter to Billboard President Jer- The focus this vear. Davis and others The Associated Press NEW YORK- Tis the season to be merry, just not too merry. Growing awareness about sexual harassment by booze-loosened col- Group advises companies about sexual harassment issues. The most common ways colleagues UUJ." vww rrcij' WJAlCdt leagues has contributed to what the overstep the threshold of appropriate recession started a few years ago: cut- behavior, Webb said, are "flirting that ting the size and duration of the annu- becomes too graphic or a pat on the al rite of holiday revelry and the con- shoulder that becomes an extended sumption of alcohol.

"It has to do with the whole era of uncertainty about what's right and whatfs wrong," said Ronnie Davis, owner of Washington Street Caterers in the abuso alcoho Braverman of the Crisis some all sausan at eet the sion making it easier to prosecute sex- harassment cases has heightened as egene York. Its one thing to have your nervousness about inappropriate economic values turned on their head, behavior in the corporate world rfs qmte another to have quite another to have one's social values completely turned around." Susan L. Webb, an authority on sexual harassment issues, said she has seen literally hundreds" of cases of inappropriate behavior at work-related functions. "Where liquor comes into the picture the boundaries become fuzzy," said KilgoreCol. Rangerettes founder dies The Associated Press KILGORE The founder of the Kilgore College Rangerettes, the nation's first dance-drill team to perform at halftime of a college football game, died in her sleep early Monday.

Gussie Nell Davis was 87. Davis, who retired in 1979 after leading the 65-member dance team for 40 years, had been hospitalized in Kilgore since last Tuesday and died around 12:30 a.m. from respiratory complications, the school said. "She was living legend," said Deana Bolton Covin, who was an assistant to Davis for seven years before succeeding her in 1979 until retiring in January. "We like to say that when she created the Kilgore College Ran- gerettes, she gave America a new art form the dancing drill team.

All the others you see around have spawned from the Kilgore College Rangerettes and it's because of her innovation," Covin said. Davis rewrote halftime entertainment when her Rangerettes first took the field in 1940. She was hired the previous year by Kilgore College and asked to organize a group of female students to perform at halftime. In the 53 years since, the troupe has become world famous. "There's nobody in the world, anywhere on a stage, in television or on a football field or on a street that does routines as precise and as perfect as we do," Davis said in a 1979 interview.

Tm positive of that. They don't make mistakes." The group's success led them to Hong Kong, Korea, Romania, France, Canada and Japan to represent the United States. Companies also are concerned about their own liability in alcohol binges, an element in the overall decrease in hard liquor consumption in recent years. Many employers simply want some what they said were rations and pornographic video dis- T7 to avoid situations' where th'ey'migh't offensive to women and sued if an intoxicated employee dri- moting the most degrading attitudes vmg home smashes into a school bus, toward sex were everywhere on dis- example. i said Buck, publisher of focus this year, Davis and others Buck called the choice "taste- say, is on "comfort food," the traditions, inappropriate and thoroughly out al holiday fare of turkey and ham, of keeping with the values and char- served mostly with wine and beer.

0 -ir employees." Hobbs apolo- Events are scheduled to last only a few made amends by shorten- hours. Companies hope the new attitude toward revelry will be reflected in their employees' behavior. Many are choosing not to have parties at all. The issue is partly economic, Braverman said, but "at the same time, it makes it easy to choose that path when they see the potential risk in creating who caters for large corporate an environment where harassment can occur." Ellen Bravo, executive director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, had this advice for companies executives say the change in attitudes toward parties accelerated Mowing Anita Hill's accu- party givers who says this year's events, if scheduled at all, are far more modest. Gone are the bonanza companywide, all-night parties of the 1980s with giving Christmas parties: "It would be smart for them to let employees know caviar, oysters and smoked salmon, the that their sexual harassment policies latest nouvelle cuisine and open apply." Gussie Nell Davis, shown with her Kilgore College Rangerettes in this 1975 photo, died in her sleep Monday in Kilgore.

Davis, 87, founded the 65-member dance-drill team, directing it for decades. Media watchdog group chides ABC producer The Associated Press NEW YORK ABC News adamantly denied suggestions the executive producer of "2020" has rejected or discouraged stories on nuclear energy and the environment because of his wife's ties to the nuclear industry. Current and former "20-20" staffers contend that Victor Neufeld, their executive producer, has squelched such stories since he took over the show in February 1987, reported FAIR, the New York-based watchdog group. Neufeld's wife, Lois, runs Media Access a public relations firm whose clients include the U.S. Council for Energy Awareness, which is financed by the nuclear industry, FAIR reported in its newslet- ter.

New York City-based FAIR, or Fairness Accuracy in Reporting, said Neufeld turned down a story about safety problems at Colorado's federal Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant before the story blew up as a national scandal, and canceled a segment on "jumpers," technicians who absorb high amounts of radiation. FAIR said Neufeld, in response to a request for an interview, said he and his wife "have separate and independent careers and have always maintained a strict code of conduct that reflects only the highest ethical standards of my profession." ABC News spokeswoman Liz Noyer denied the FAIR allegations in the strongest terms. "The allegations of collusion between Victor and Lois Neufeld are not only totally baseless, they're very irresponsible," Noyer said. BREAKFAST SPECIALS! Day! Sam 11am All Breakfast's Are Made With X-Lg Grade A Egy.s 2 Eggs (Any Style) So Poached Eggs And Yonr Choice of 3 of The Following: Hashbrowns Toast Hotcakes Sausage Ham Bacon Grits Biscuits Gravy Biscuits Roll WAYNE'S WORLD (PO13) "BINGO NIGHT" SONS OF HERMANN 5316 BROADWAY EVERY TUESDAY 7P.M. DOORS OPEN AT 5:00 P.M.

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7:30 P.M. WED. 7:30 P.M. THUR. FRIDAY 730, MIDNIGHT If you're not composting, you're dumping on Texas.

LEAVES ID GfiASS DON'T BtlONG IN LANDFILLS. Toys are rolling in for Midwest flood victims' children The Associated Press DES MOINES Bruce Coleman saw television pictures of food and emergency supplies going to victims of the summer's floods, and didn't see anything for the kids. So Coleman, of Hamilton, organized his state's American Legion "Miracle Toys for Christmas" campaign for flood families, and the toys rolled in. Coleman wasn't alone. Hundreds of thousands of puzzles, stuffed animals, electronic games, balls and playthings have been sent to the Midwest.

"The magnitude is absolutely awesome," said Sgt. Kyle Stangeland of the Marine Corps Reserve Unit in Des Moines. The unit's Toys for Tots campaign distributed a record 32,000 toys last year, but this year was overwhelmed with 600,000 toys. Stangeland said about 100,000 were distributed to Des Moines children, a third went to needy, children in nearby states, and half went to other flood cities in Iowa. One of the flood's most widely known victims, 4-year-old Heidi Lynn Ackelson of Des Moines, received more than 2,000 toys from well-wishers around the country.

The outpouring began in August after an Associated Press photographer caught her leaning against her mother, Tonika Shuts, as they surveyed the flood wreckage of her home. The little girl was crying over a muddy piece of fake fur that used to be a favorite toy. Boxes of stuffed toys arrived, especially skunks, Heidi's favorites. Shirts said most have been given away to social service agencies. "She thinks ifs neat, and she also likes to know that other kids got some of the animals," the mother said.

She said she couldn't afford to thank everyone who sent gifts and money. "I figured out with all the letters, if I had sent everybody something back, even just a postcard, it would cost $900," she said. In Fort Madison, 120 children in the flood zone received gifts after 7 and their parents were "adopted" by an anti-drug abuse program in Fort Mitchell and Covington, Ky. Kentucky volunteers recently made their sixth visit to the Fort Madison area, ending with a Christmas party for children. A Marine toy drive in Rock Island, was just as productive as the one in Des Moines.

"They've got three warehouses, like minimart size, just packed," said Sgt. Leslie Coakley. Ifs overwhelming. It's really nice to know that there are so many people who care." FRESH MADE TAMALES 948-2456 Bruvos Mexican Grill 2525 Palmer Hwy. CINEMARK THEATRES MOVIES 12 MALL OF THE MAINIAND i-45 1 Emmetl F.

L(wiy Expy 986-71 66 I THE PELICAN BRIEF THX BEETO YEN'S MRS. DOUBTFIRE iO IN THE HABIT IPG-UI best mend THE THREE MUSKETEERS 11:05.1 as GERONIMO ggTT) (PERFECT WORLD Moments in Texas Every 7 minutes an infant is born into poverty. Every 3 hours an infant dies. Every 25 minutes an infant is bora too small to be healthy. Every 15 minutes an infant is born to a mother who received late or no prenatal care.

Every 9 minutes an infant is born to an unmarried mother Every 11 minutes an infant is born to a teenaged mother. Every 32 hours another child is murdered. Children's Defense Fund OC 2 2(0).