Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305020236
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY PARHAM and GERRIE FERRIS COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: Although beer and wine ads are common, hard liquor has never been advertised on American TV - or on radio. Unlike tobacco ads, which were banned by Congress in 1971 in response to consumer groups' pressure, liquor ads are one of the last voluntarily forbidden areas of American broadcast advertising, going back to Prohibition. European and Canadian TV have no restraints on liquor ads.
Q: Was the guy who slipped into the Waco compound killed in the fire or did he escape?
A: One man, Louis Anthony Alaniz of Houston, described by his mother as a "religious fanatic," ran into the compound under the watchful eye of the FBI, but the cult booted him out. A second man, unseen by the FBI, tried to crash the compound a week before the fatal fire. He also was thrown out.
Q: Is it true that there are no watches manufactured in the United States anymore?
A: It is, according to the American Watchmaker Institute.
Q: How is Leona Helmsley doing?
A: The Danbury Correctional Facility, where Helmsley is serving time for income tax evasion and fraud, would give no information other than to say that she is still there. Her official release date is December 1994, but she becomes eligible for parole in August.
Q: As the father of two little leaguers, I'd like to find out how the people who take care of major league players' uniforms keep them looking so clean?
A: The secret, said Casey Stevenson, the Atlanta Braves' clubhouse manager, is to treat the stain and wash immediately. They use no bleach, but put prewash spray on the stain, scrub it well and wash the uniforms in the warmest water possible. Grass stains are easier to remove than red clay stains.
Q: I've heard that every space shuttle launching releases more ozone- depleting chlorofluorocarbons than a year's worth leaked from all the air conditioners in this country. Is this true?
A: NASA satellite studies have found no measurable ozone depletion from the shuttle launchings. A spokesman said that eight shuttle launches a year release 5.8 kilotons of CFCs into the air. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 250 kilotons of CFCs are emitted from air conditioners and refrigerators every year.
Q: How long were the people in the compound being gassed before the fires started?
A: The gassing started around 6:45 a.m. EDT and was kept up until the fires started around noon.
Q: What was the FBI's excuse as to why there were no firefighters in the area?
A: Water to the compound had been cut off. Waco Fire Department trucks would have to hook up to a hydrant, but there was no hydrant. Trucks from other fire departments arrived too late to use a nearby pond. Authorities did not want firefighters endangered by gunfire.
Q: Is that the end of the Branch Davidians?
A: The Branch Davidians have an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 adherents worldwide.
Q: What was the Waco compound before it was used by the Branch Davidians?
A: The property belonged to a Texas rancher before 1935, when it was purchased by a defrocked Seventh-day Adventist preacher, Victor Houteff, for his new sect, which he named The Shepherd's Rod. That sect eventually became the Branch Davidians.
by CNB