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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 1997)
Texas A & M University *v , ygp : , ‘ yf S rnmHtm ^ Dr Tomorrow Today See extended forecast, Page 2. be 103 • Issue 144 • 6 Pages College Station, TX Thursday, June 5, 1997 EWS Briefs ad student dies heart attack (iGordon Czeschin, Jr., a 30- Magronomy graduate student, jfa heart attack June 1 in Col- Station. eschin will be honored at the 9Silver Taps, ws of the funeral services have ten announced. (cation student ned state finalist ImaBairrington, a doctoral stu- Ineducational human resource jopment at Texas A&M Univer- ijsnamed a state finalist for Issidential Award for Excellence Teaching of — pngton, a grade 1 at Rock Is Elementary Kge Station, Ire of three ■finalists se- | Apnyanation- Ininittee of ■tors, scien- Ijidformer award winners. I?recipient of the award, who (reref announced this fall, will re- Ian all-expenses-paid trip to Itnafilton, D.C., where he or she ftoIgivena presidential citation, a pn- Wgrant to the awardee’s school tisfrom private donors. Indjpngton was selected for her Red|*ith students in the fields of [anland science, including her f recent project, a study in wet- asf conservation. Maria repairs lin this week Bairrington Hxas vily pro Department of us'fportation will begin pave- ofjMr on a section of FM av-f U79(Villa Maria Road and ■crest Drive) from Texas Av- re-flo29th Street, aul pmixpavement surface will be after damaged parts of the Whave been removed. [itWilliams, the Texas De- entofTransportation Bryan engineer, said the work will t feacomplete reconstruction Ipavement but will make the smoother. project, which begins this week, be completed by June 20. \M Med School Ids graduation mmencement observances le Texas A&M University liScience Center College of cine's graduating Clasp of 'will be held June 7 in Col- Station. cobservances will begin at 2 iiRudder Theatre. Lonnie R. Bristow, immediate Resident of the American Medical ion, will speak at the ceremony. OPINION league baseball enforces ^guidelines to guarantee (standards for players. See Page 5. SPORTS k: Columnist analyzes Of if Ken Griffey Jr. can ^Roger Marls’ record. See Page 5. W/bat-web.tanm.edti for ^es of issues lfi Batt. Texas Avenue repairs proceed as scheduled By Matt Wfjber The Battalion As efforts to improve a mile-long stretch of Texas Avenue between University Drive and Dominik Street continue, some residents feel the construction work has taken too long. ‘Tve seen other jobs around here done in six months or less,” Jacob Quisenberry, a sophomore physics major, said. “It should be done by now.” However, College Station and state officials said the construction is proceeding on schedule and that the im provements made through the project will make up for any inconvenience the roadwork may cause commuters. Denise Fischer, public relations officer for the Texas Department of Transportation, said work on Texas Av enue was necessary because of the amount of traffic the street supports. “Routine traffic [on Texas Avenue] for an average day, not counting special events, is about 45,000 cars,” Fisch er said. “It is easily the most heavily traveled road in Bryan-College Station.” The street is being expanded from four to six lanes, including wider curb lanes to accommodate more bi cycle traffic. Bicyclists using the street have complained that the lack of bicycle lanes going both directions make it diffi cult for drivers to see bicycles. People using the outside lanes as “buffer” lanes while entering or exiting Univer sity parking lots also have been a hazard to drivers and cyclists on Texas Avenue, Fischer said. “The real motive for the changes is safety,” Fischer said. “It was becoming dangerous.” As part of College Station’s Streetscape program, a me dian also will be added to the road. Ed Hard, head of planning and zoning for College Station, said the goal of Streetscape is to make such city improve ments as the Texas Avenue expansion more attractive. "The biggest part of Streetscape [in this project] involves dressing up or doing things within the median,” he said. " WeTl have trees and all other kinds of landscape vegetation growing there, as opposed to just asphalt medians.” The city also will be adding new street lights and im proved sidewalks, Hard said. Fischer said many drivers do not understand the com plications involved in the construction work. “The problem is the entire project has to be done while the road is in use,” Fischer said. “That makes it very prob lematic getting as much done as quickly [as possible].” Please see Construction on Page 6. Photograph: Tim Moog When the Texas Avenue construction is completed, the new medians will be landscaped with trees and other vegetation. Search for fugitive continues By JenaraKocks The Battalion The television program “America’s Most Wanted” will feature a story about Don Davis Jr. and his parents’ plea for his return to Brazos County. Don Davis Jr. disappeared in Sep tember 1996, days before he was to go to trial for two counts of aggravated sexual assault. Don Davis Sr. and Linda Davis, Davis Jr.’s parents, were charged with helping Davis Jr. disappear. On May 27, Davis Sr. pleaded guilty in a Brazos County courthouse to a charge of hindering apprehension or pros ecution of a felon. The same charge against his wife was dropped. Brazos County Assistant District Attor ney Margaret Talk said Davis Sr. said he gave his son $6,000 dollars and an automo bile to leave Houston where the Davises live. Davis Sr. said his son did not tell him where he was going. Davis Sr. was sentenced to five years probation and up to 6 months in jail be ginning June 20. Talk said Davis Jr.’s parents were ordered by District Judge John Delaney to cooper ate with the media in finding their son as part of Davis Sr.’s probation sentence. This is the second time the case has been featured on “America’s Most Wanted.” The case was also featured on “Unsolved Mysteries” earlier this year. Bob Wiatt, director of the University Po lice Department, said UPD received 130 to 140 leads following the shows, but none of the calls led police to Davis Jr. J. Price Blalock of Houston, defense at torney for Don Davis Sr., said his client felt relieved after the taping of the show. “He (Davis Sr.) felt it was a positive de velopment in hopes that everyone in volved can start a healthy healing process,” he said, “and there can be clo sure to this incident.” The television show will appear on Fox Channel 28 TV and TCA cable channel 7 on Saturday at 8 p.m. University implements password access system By Robert Smith The Battalion Texas A&M students and faculty now must have a CLAIM identification name and pass word to access the Internet and e-mail ac counts on University computer systems. Until this summer, people could log on to the University system on campus without an I.D. name or password. The Texas Depart ment of Information and Resources now re quires all state agencies, including universi ties, to restrict access of their computer systems to authorized users. Tom Putnam, Director of Computing and Information Services, said the new logon sys tem allows better service to users. “We can now offer expanded services that we could not offer without identification of the person,” Putnam said. Students will be able to set up a home di rectory that will automatically set up e-mail and allow them to save e-mail on the system. Putnam said students will have a system debit account they can use to pay for special ized services in campus computer labs. “Students can use this for allocation of ser vices like color printing and transparencies,” he said. “If they use all of that, students will be able to add their own money to the system.” Putnam said the CLAIM password sys tem will prevent users other than students and faculty from logging on to the Universi ty system. “With all of these machines, you don’t know who is using the computer,” he said. “This invites people to send threatening mes sages to others. Now, we will know who is us ing each computer.” Students have voiced mixed reactions to the new logon process; many do not under stand why it was changed. Ben Nathan, a senior chemical engi neering major, said the password system is annoying. “It’s easy to set up,” Nathan said, “but it’s a pain to have to log on each time you want to use the computer.” Students and faculty can pick up a form at the computer labs on cam pus explaining how to set up a new password. BlaireTully, a sophomore commu nity health major, said setting up a new password was difficult. “I had to get help with it,” Tully said. “I just got back into town and I don’t know why they changed it.” Glenda Simmons, a senior internation al studies major, said setting up the pass word was a lengthy process. “I had to go up to the front and get a sheet and it took a while,” Sim mons said. However, Eric Watson, a fresh man engineering major, saw the change as a step toward better computer service on campus. “I don’t see any problems with it,” Watson said. “I think it’s a good idea.” Photograph: Brad Graeber Prosecutors use emotional testimony in seeking death penalty for McVeigh DENVER (AP) —With story after story of dead babies and loved ones violently taken away, prosecutors urged a tearful jury Wednesday to make Timothy McVeigh pay wi th his life for the Oklahoma City bombing. Jurors started crying even before the first witness took the stand, when prosecutor Patrick Ryan sim ply and poignantly described the lives of some of the 168 victims — and the devastation to the families who were left to carry on. “It would be easy for you as a jury to think of this as one mass murder. Don’t. There are 168 people, all unique, all individual. ... All had families, all had friends, and they’re different,” Ryan said. “We will ask you to return a verdict of death,” he said, “the only verdict that justly fits this crime.” McVeigh sat slumped in his chair with the same stony expression he wore Monday when his murder and con spiracy conviction in the April 19, 1995, blast made him the worst terrorist killer in the nation’s history. Though his face never changed, at least five jurors who will decide his fate, including the foreman, wiped away tears as a stream of witnesses described how they will be haunted by the painful memories forever. McVeigh Policeman Alan Prokop, one of the first to respond to the bombing, described how he held a woman’s hand rising from the rubble, only to feel the pulse stop. “Her hand got very still and started to get cold,” said Prokop, who said he tried to comfort the woman pinned under a 12-foot slab of concrete. “I checked her wrist for a pulse and found none.” He also described pulling babies’ bodies out of what had been the second-floor day-care center. One of the few survivors was a baby boy. “I cradled him in my arms and he ... appeared to have a brick sticking out of his forehead,” Prokop said. He added the baby was “holding a little green block.” Even though the judge scaled back some of the most wrenching aspects of the prosecution’s presentation — banning wedding photos, a poem and testimony about funeral arrangements — the case remained powerful. David Klaus choked back tears as he testified that since his 29-year-old daughter’s death, he has lost weight, suffered several physical ailments and dipped into a depression for which he is still being treated. “I feel like I’ve aged 10 years in two years,” he said. “I just physically look old and feel older.” Diane Leonard, who lost her husband, a veteran Se cret Service agent, said: “I feel like I died, too, on April 19.1 feel like my heart looks like the building. It has a big hole that can never be mended.” Scientists find icy miniplanet NEW YORK (AP) — As tronomers have found an icy mini planet that orbits the sun well be yond Pluto, providing evidence that the solar system extends much far ther than was once thought. The little planet is about 300 miles across, which gives it a sur face area comparable to Texas. It is the brightest solar system object to be found beyond Neptune since the discovery of Pluto’s moon Charon in 1978. At its most distant, it wanders three times farther from the sun than Pluto, tracing a looping, ob long path into an astronomical terra incognita. “It’s the first object in a sort of no man’s land, an area we never thought we could get a glimpse of with our current technology,” said Jane Luu, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. And it’s probably not alone. Theoretical calculations suggest that there are millions of small, icy solar system objects well beyond the outermost planets. Astronomers consider their new discovery an extension of the Kuiper belt, a collection of small, icy bodies that circle the sun be yond the orbit of Neptune. About 40 Kuiper belt objects have been discovered since 1992. Before then, the only known Kuiper belt objects were the planet Pluto, discovered in 1930, and Charon. Luu discovered the new object, known as 1996TL66, with col leagues from Harvard, the Univer sity of Hawaii and the University of Arizona, as well as an amateur astronomer based in Cloudcroft, N.M. They describe the find in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. “I wouldn't call this a major planet,” said Brian Marsden, a Harvard astronomer and con tributor to the Nature paper. “But then I tend not to call Pluto a major planet.”