Local
THE BATTALION Page 3
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1980
Brazos merchants fight bad checks
Bouncing checks land on this list
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By JANA L. SIMS
Battalion Reporter
A Brazos County woman says she has given local
merchants a weapon to combat the hot check writer.
J. Hilton Herrod operates Checkwriter Control, for
merly called Check Rite. She took over the business in
January and now has more than 100 participants.
For a monthly $15 fee businesses receive a list of hot
check offenders. They also get a label for their store or
office identifying them as Checkwriter Control partici
pants.
Businesses not actually participating can also send the
name of a bad check writer to be put on the list to warn
others. When a business participating in the program
receives a bad check, Herrod is notified. The checkwri
ter is contacted and has five days to pick up the check, or
his name goes on the list.
“If someone writes one bad check in my circle,” Her
rod said, “with one of my stores, they won’t write any
more.”
Herrod said she also acts as an adviser and works with
individual employees of her businesses teaching such
things as what to watch for, “how to catch a con artist,”
and what checks can be filed with the county attorney.
She also makes sure that a person is not listed as an
offender due to a bank or store error.
Herrod is an “acting agent” for the businesses and can
file collectively on bad checks, which she does about
once a week.
“But,” Herrod stressed, “I am not a collection
agency. ”
She said the merchant can do whatever he wants with
a bad check. Her main purpose is simply to see the
check get filed with the district attorney.
“Honor the good check writer, catch the bad ones” is
her policy. She said the hot check business is “taking ofi”
and the good check writer is getting hurt. In a way, she
said, her business is helping to fight inflation because
businesses must raise prices to absorb hot check losses.
In the world of crime, Herrod said there are two types
of thieves — the honest and the dishonest. She de
scribed the honest thief as someone who charges into a
store wearing a mask, points a gun, tells you what he
wants and runs.
The dishonest thief— the hot check writer — strolls
into a store wearing a big smile, talks friendly, drops a
few names and hands the cashier a worthless piece of
paper for merchandise or cash.
Herrod said by Jan. 1 she hopes to have Checkwriter
Control established in a 100 mile radius. She said she
also hopes to make available a check credit card which,
for the price of printing, will allow its owner (who has
been cleared by her) to write checks in her participating
businesses with no trouble.
Herrod advises people to list information on their
checks other than an address, such as a driver’s license
number. Students, she said, should list their Texas
A&M University I.D. number and make available an
address other than a post office box.
shellenberger’s
“Not just apparel
but a way of life.’ ’
A&M epidemic
still mystery
UTMedical Branch
to discuss med school
By CINDY GEE
Battalion Staff
John felt weak, nauseated and like
lie never wanted to eat again. Then,
24 hours later, he rejoined the hu
man race and his friends in the chow
line.
John and at least 175 other Aggies
who were affected by a 24-hour virus
last Oct. 29 may never find out exact
ly what caused the sudden epidemic
of nausea, diarrhea and fever. The
possibility of food poisoning was
quickly dismissed, and doctors de
cided not to send specimens to the
National Center for Disease Control
in Atlanta because the epidemic
came and went so quickly.
The virus mostly affected cadets,
which led many to believe that the
students had food poisoning.
However, doctors ruled out that pos
sibility after examining the students
and seeing students with the same
symptoms who had not eaten at
Duncan Dining Hall.
Just to make sure that food had not
caused the virus, samples of sausage
and milk were tested at a University
laboratory. Lloyd Smith, assistant
director of Food Services, said, “Re
sults show the food was cooked and
properly handled after cooking. ”
Cultures from the students were
also tested at the University for any
disease-causing bacteria. Dr. C.B.
Goswick, director of the A. P. Beutel
Health Center at Texas A&M, said
the results were negative; no
pathogenic organisms were found.
He said unless cultures were sent
to the C.D.C., he could not know
exactly what type of virus it was, or
how it was transmitted so quickly.
“The best I can say is it was prob
ably an airborne virus,” he said. An
airborne virus is one in which the
microorganisms are spread through
the air by talking, coughing, sneez
ing or simply breathing.
A spokesman for the C.D.C. said
it’s a pattern for flu to spread that
quickly at universities, in nursing
homes or in the military.
“Anywhere you have groups of
people living in such close quarters it
can spread really quick, ” she said in a
telephone interview from Atlanta.
Goswick said cultures were not
sent to the C.D.C. to find out what
specific virus the students con
tracted.
“The C.D.C. gets things from
everywhere in the country,” he said.
“If we jumped the gun and sent them
cultures every time something like
this came up, we’d have problems.
Representatives from the Univer
sity of Texas Medical Branch at Gal
veston will be on campus Tuesday to
talk about attending medical school.
Staff from UTMB’s Office of Spe
cial Programs will be in Room 200 of
the Harrington Classroom Building
at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to answer stu
dents’ questions. They will also pre
sent a slide presentation on a fami
liarization program for minority and
disadvantaged pre-med students.
This summer the school will con
duct its 12th Annual Medical School
Familiarization Program from May
31 through June 26.
The deadline for application is
Feb. 20.
The four-week summer program is
designed to identify qualified minor
ity and disadvantaged pre-med stu
dents and to expose them to the de
mands of medical school.
For more information and applica
tion to the program, write to the
Office of Special Programs, Office of
the Dean of Medicine, University of
Texas Medical Branch, Suite 165
Gail Borden Building, Galveston,
Texas, 77550.
Any minority or disadvantaged
undergraduate with a serious in
terest in medicine, as well anyone
who would like to explore medicine
as a career, is invited to attend.
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