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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 1999)
Page 6 • Thursday, July 15, 1999 News * Radio battle sparks protest BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Pub lic radio station KPFA, a longtime outlet for radical politics in fa mously liberal Berkeley, has been rocked by arrests, firings and demonstrations in what staff members see as a battle against corporate conformity. Staffers say the station’s parent company, the nonprofit Pacifica Foundation, is trying to make KPFA more mainstream. “These people have come in and have stolen the station," said Lavarn Williams, one of 30 people holding a day-long protest outside the station yesterday morning. “In stead of free speech, they want government-controlled speech.” Williams is a consultant brought in to help the station — one of the nation’s oldest listen er-supported stations — cele brate its 50th anniversary. In stead, she found herself caught up in an escalating series of clashes over KPFA’s soul. The unrest has escalated so much that yesterday, the doors were locked and managers were playing tapes of old shows. “Everyone at KPFA has been placed on administrative leave until we’re able to cool things off,” Pacifi ca spokesperson Elan Fabbri said. Longtime staffers say Pacifica’s board wants to give KPFA a more conventional image so that it can attract corporate donations. They also suspect that Pacifica, which owns five radio stations, is inter ested in selling KPFA. *3.95 1 pager airtime Free Activation 'Accessories 'Calling Cards PrimeCo phones sold here 1. Corp. Rates 2. Weekly Single Rate^ 3. Monthly Single Rate HBO & Cable TV Coffee & Local Calls CaxnyhyiM. Bhi: \ki \si Microwaves & Kkfrigf.rators Discount Paging System WELCOME FOOTBALL FANS CALDWELL MOTEL Kitchenettes 567-4000 Ll819Hwy.21 W. Caldwell, IX Put Something Squishy Between Your Toes and You'll Put A Smile on Your Face! Come Celebrate Messina Hof s Four Harvest Weekends July 23 to August 15. 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With the 1998 Wye River accord on hold, along with its promised handover of a further 13.1 percent of the West Bank to Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, Clinton is hoping for a BARAK breakthrough in his talks with Barak, which begin today at the White House. “I hope that we can begin to en ergize the peace process in the Mid dle East on terms that are just and fair and will guarantee genuine se curity for Israel and a way of living for the Palestinians,” Clinton said. Also, Clinton intends to discuss prospects for land-for-peace talks with Syria. In principle, at least, Barak and Syrian President Hafez Assad seem to be interested. According to a report by Israel Ra dio, a senior Israeli official said dur ing the flight here that if Syria wants to resume talks with Israel, it would not be difficult to find a formula. The official, who was not iden tified, also cred;ted the Palestinian Authority with arresting 2,000 ac tivists in the Hamas radical move ment over the past several months. This is more cooperation than ex pected but. could be even better, the official was quoted as saying. Study: Heart valve could offer warning of future problems AP — The hardening or thick ening of a tiny heart valve — a common condition among the el derly that doctors usually dismiss as inconsequential — may be a powerful predictor of heart at tacks and strokes. Previous studies have shown that a severe narrowing or blockage in the left aortic valve is a predictor of heart disease. A new study, pub lished in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, has shown for the first time that a precursor con dition called sclerosis can also be a warning sign. Sclerosis is a hardening or thick ening in the aortic valve, often due to a buildup of calcium deposits. The condition is found in roughly 25 percent of all adults over 65. The study offers hope that a simple screening procedure can accurately forecast the risk of heart disease in people with no other symptoms. The procedure, called echocardiography, uses ul trasound to produce a two-di mensional picture of the heart and costs roughly $350 to $600. “Sclerosis itself has been thought to be just a benign, inci dental finding of aging because it’s so common,” said Dr. Catherine M. Otto of the University of Washing ton in Seattle, who led the study. “Having it is not benign.” Otto said she does not recom mend routine echocardiograms for everyone. Echocardiograms are usually done after a doctor detects a heart murmur using a stethoscope. Otto said that in light of her findings, the image should be closely examined for sclerosis of the aortic valve. The researchers studied the echocardiograms of 5,621 men and women 65 and older. The valve was normal in 70 percent. In 29 percent, the valve was harden ing or thickening, but there was no obstruction. The valve was narrowing, meaning there was some degree of obstruction, in 2 percent. Following up five years later, the doctors found that hardening of the valve is associated with a 50 per cent higher risk of death from heart disease compared with those whose valves are normal. The researchers do not believe that sclerosis is a direct cause of death but rather a “marker” for heart disease. In an accompanying editorial. Dr. Blase A. Carabello of the Hous ton Veterans Affairs Medical Center said aortic valve sclerosis should be viewed “as a harbinger of future events.” “What makes these data re markable is the fact that this condition has been well known for decades and yet has general ly been considered benign,” Carabello wrote. “Textbooks that mention the condition usually do so in passing.” Officials concerned I ^ rising ethnic violem PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) — Ethnic attacks on Serbs and Gypsies must stop before justice can return to war-ravaged Kosovo, a top U.N. official said yes terday. The month-old peace in Kosovo has been clouded by ethnic violence blamed largely on ethnic Albanians seeking vengeance for Serb forces’ brutal campaign of killings and expulsions during NATO’s 78-day bomb ing of Yugoslavia. “Killings, kidnappings, forced expulsions, house burnings and looting are daily occurrences,” Sergio Vieira de Mello, interim U.N. administrator for the province, said. “These are criminal acts. They cannot be excused by the suffering that has been inflicted in the past. “Kosovo’s future must be built on justice, not vengeance,” he said in a statement. Despite the continuing ethnic strife, NATO’s supreme commander for Europe, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, said the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)was largely in com pliance with demilitarization requirements. In other news yesterday: • In the northern Serbian town of Subotica, 5,000 people gathered yesterday to demand that the gov ernment of President Slobodan Milosevic step down. Government supporters hurled eggs at opposition leaders but police restored order, separating the two groups. • The town council in Becej, 30 miles south of Sub otica, also urged Milosevic to step down, the private Beta news agency reported, becoming the fifth Serbian city or town to pass such a resolution. • Top U.N. war crimes prosecutor Louise Arbour visited the site of a mass killing in the southwestern Kosovo village of Celine. Walking amid the shoes and clothing of children buried there. Arbour said she was “profoundly moved.” War crimes investigators said they have exhumed 57 bodies so far from nine separate gravesites in the village, 9 miles northwest of Prizren. All the victims — including 11 children — were believed to have been shot by Serb forces in March. Since the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR ar rived Monday, there have been scores of ethnic Al banian attacks on minority Serbs as well as Gypsies, YUGOSLAVIA Serbia Kosovs! 3K&_ Mitrovica / Kosovo Celine Pristina Gnjilane^ ►Prizrea OSkop r : ALBANIA lACEDOfi or Roma, whom the Albanians say supper 1 Serbs. Many people have been forced iro| homes, which often have been burned in the KFOR troops found bodies of Serbs and Ros had allegedly been detained by the KLAato and released three Serbs and four Romaatano: cording to Manoel de Almeida e Silva, spokesperson. He did not specify thenurabet ies found or give other details. The U.N. refugee agency said both KFOR a KLA "expressed concern” about reported chi tivity in the southwestern Djakovica area! armed Albanian gangs in KLA uniforms.’’Itsafction t troops have found nine bodies in the regionoifcat tyj last 10 days. I “w e 1 Yesterday, KFOR sources said Serbs wereM n t s k r ently to blame for an attack TUesday in sotiEB Kosovo in which four ethnic Albanians wereliB at least one wounded. Resendez linked to 9th dea Officials say accused killer appears willing to cooperoj HOUSTON (AP) — The man ac cused of being the railroad killer appeared eager to cooperate with authorities in Texas’ death penalty capital yesterday, twice admitting he committed burglary in one of the slayings. “Can all this be done very quick ly so I can say I’m guilty?” Angel Maturino Resendez, wearing an or ange jail jumpsuit and handcuffs, calmly asked state District Judge William Harmon. Shortly after the packed hearing, the 39-year-old rail-hopping drifter was linked by a palm print to a ninth slaying — the death in Octo ber of 87-year-old Leffie Mason in the east Texas town of Hughes Springs. Mason, who lived most of her life within 50 yards of a rail line that cuts through the town of 2,000, was beaten to death with her antique iron by someone who entered her home through a win dow. Her body was covered by a blanket, as were several other vic tims believed to have been killed by Maturino Resendez. Hughes Springs Police Chief Randy Kennedy said he will seek a capital murder charge, which could bring the death penalty. Maturino Resendez, who turned himself in Tuesday after a six-Week manhunt that made him one of the most wanted fugitives in America, is charged with two slayings in Illi nois and one in Kentucky and is be lieved responsible for five other killings in Texas. During the man hunt, the FBI referred to him by one of his aliases, Rafael Resendez- Ramirez. The only charge against him so far in Texas is burglary, at the scene where Dr. Claudia Benton, 39, was killed Dec. 17 in the Houston en clave of West University Place. She was beaten in the head, stabbed three times in the back and covered with a blanket. Maturino Resendez’s finger prints were found on parts from the woman’s stolen car, and prosecu tors said DNA evidence might also link him to the slaying. “I don’t care if he gets the death penalty seven times. I want him in Kentucky.’ — Sgt. Mark Barnard Lexington (Ken.) Police Department In Texas, a charge of capital murder can usually be filed only when there is evidence that a mur der occurred during the commis sion of certain felonies, such as burglary. The decision of whether to charge Maturino Resendez with capital murder rests with Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes, whose county has the most death-penalty convictions in Texas — which is easily the most active state for executions in the nation. Of the 469 people on death row in Texas, 146 — about one-third — were sent there by Harris County. If Harris County were a state, it would rank third in then people executed in thenatio; 56. Virginia has executed6‘| There have been ISOexec in Texas since the U.S.Siii Court allowed capital pun to resume in 1976. Maturino Resendez a; plead guilty after a proseciii scribed the bloody sceneo! ton’s killing. But hisadmi guilt was not an official pi cause his court appearance terday were only to set I sign him a lawyer. He without bail. After hiding out in Meric turino Resendez surrender Texas Ranger at an El Paso: station Tuesday in a dealt® by his sister. It is still unclear why he himself in. Mexico doesno the death penalty and does: turn suspects to countries | they may face the death pi But Mike Cox, a Texas’ merit of Public Safety spoil son, said Maturino Resende| have feared bounty $125,000 reward had beemf for his capture. Texas’ hold on Maturil sendez may also mean tte tucky and Illinois officials" er get to prosecute him. Leri Ky., police Sgt. Mark Banu' he hopes that is not the cast “I don’t care if he gets the penalty seven times,” Barna: “I want him in Kentucky.” Maturino Resendez is tho- have traveled by hopping: trains. All of the victims weif near the tracks. Investigate! said they have no idea whai vated the killings. Han “Th( 1 R havr Part-Time Marketing Asst. Rentsys Inc., rents personal computers, workstations and peripheral products to Fortune 2000 nationwide. Hardware installation and software loads on desktops and laptops from Dell, Compaq and IBM are the focus of the business. Once completed, the equipment is delivered, set-up and supported in a variety of corporate settings, from trade shows and user conferences nationwide, to local installs. Opportunities exist for an individual with experience in Quark, Publisher or Photoshop to work with the marketing team to design and produce graphics for all promotional materials. Duties also include marketing research, data entry, copy writing and project management. 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Finn Jr., president of the Thomas Fordham Foun dation, a privately run school- reform research organization. The foundation on yesterday clinton released a collection of reports criticizing a slate of teacher hiring, training, and evaluation trends. Researchers say students whose teachers have any kind of certification (standard, emer gency or alternative) outperform students whose teachers have no certification or are cer tified in a different subject. Students whose teachers possess a bache lor’s or master’s degree in math outperform oth er students in math, they said, regardless of the teacher’s certification. “This result should cast doubt on assertions that standard certification should be required of all teachers,” the reports said. Currently, 44 states require teachers to pass a test to earn a license. But the tests, which vary, grant teachers credentials based on a range of measures from basic skills to knowledge of a specific subject to teaching performance. States often fill classroom shortages by al lowing teachers to use emergency certificates or alternatives. The Education Department is spending $1 million to study how states license teachers. Finn said teacher hiring should be left to lo cal school leaders, which he said contrad Clinton proposal outlined in this year’sSi the Union Address, to make states and districts phase out emergency-certifiedtf :; The reports say teachers have weaf and math skills and not nearly enouglF college major or minor in the subject teach. But even some standard statecred fall short of putting better teachers in room, they said. In California, Ohio, New York and nesota approved preparation programs! have very low entry requirements, nof : quirements and low subject content.: searchers said. “Licensure isn’t a regulatory intrusion standard to protect children,” said Bob 1 president of the National Education Assoc the nation’s largest teachers union. Ttisl for teachers to know the subject matter#1 tent of what they are teaching.” varii wee and Socii way T were that 1995 have as A T1 atric cal c bers sum has prep Past Je
