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Saturday, February 19
check-in 8:30 am
Texas A&M University
Heldenfelds Hall
MCAT room 105 • LSAT room 107
Call 1-800-KAP-TEST to register!
Or take it online from February 15-29 at kaptestdrive.com!
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Camp Day 2000
Tuesday, February 15, 2000
9:30 AM to 3:30 PM
MSC Hallway & Flag Room
Interview for summer positions as camp
counselors and staff.
Wanted: People with an interest in kids and skills in
archery
arts
baseball
basketball
boating
camping
canoeing
crafts
dance
drama
equestrian
activities
fishing
football
hiking
lifeguarding
music
nature/outdoor
education
riflery
tennis
soccer,
swimming
theater
Sponsored by the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences,
the RPTS Majors Club, and the TAMU Career Center
STATE
Page 8
THE BATTALION
I uesday, Febnu-
Two firefighters killed
Houston McDonald’s roof falls in blaze, cause unkm
HOUSTON (AP) — Lewis Mayo and Kimberly Smith
stonned into a burning McDonald’s early Monday morning to
try and save the restaurant and, more importantly, anyone who
might have been inside.
A signal to evacuate blared when the tire Hared unexpect
edly, racing toward the veteran firelighters. In an instant, the
roof cratered, killing the two in the department’s lirst on-scene
fatalities since 1996.
Smith, 30, was the first woman
among 56 Houston firefighters
who have died on duty, Chief
Lester Tyra said.
“I was blessed by knowing
these individuals and having them
pass through my life,” Tyra said.
Mayo, 44, and Smith took a
hose into the southwest I louston
restaurant before dawn to light the
blaze from indoors and search for
any victims. When the flames
“I call upon all Houstonians to join me in prayeia
firefighters and their families,” Brown said.
The last full-time firefighter to die at a scene wasCjj
ie Ludwick, 43, who died in a house lire in 1977.H;
fighters died during the early ’80s in separate trafficaj
en route to calls, and volunteer Houston lirefigkj
Lopez, 39, was killed
“I was blessed by know
ing these individuals
and having them pass
through my life.”
- Lester Tyra
Police Chief
rent
I loh
u as
ong plao
|lc wrong t
lit he neve
11 ■mild have
hou f hre - riJ blessed it.
Meven Mayfield,47,■ llcuas
last Houston firelighter l herehew
duty w lien he suileredj j sl |pp 0SCt | ( (
tack during a 1998 t«M av j n g glul
near I )allas. ■ a game a
"We’ve been lucky. M e was dd,
I look at it. So many clox| 0 ff act , hav
Parry said. "I can thinkc
went on where 1 thoi
should have been linalitH
Parry said.
pk ' B'i
,U R :: K n
spread, boms and radio calls alerted firefighters to get out.
The captain in charge traced the his hose outside to safe
ty, but the others never emerged. Mayo was found after the
roof collapse but died en route to the hospital.
Smith’s body, pinned in nibble, was recovered about four
hours later. There were no other injuries reported from the
restaurant, which was destroyed.
Firelighters from Mayo and Smith’s station congregated at
another nearby station to receive grief counseling and debrief
ing. About 100 firefighters formed a "wall of honor,” lining the
street with hats off as an ambulance carry ing Lewis passed.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Monday
afternoon. Mayor Lee Brown, who visited firefighters at the
scene, ordered city flags to be flown at half-staff'.
Mayo, who joined the department in 1981. issu
wife and three children. Parry, whiuserved alongsid
the late 1980s, called him a "regular, stand-up guy/
“I le was very passionate about his job, and liken
guys, he had a great sense of humor about it,” saidl
like other firefighters w ore a black strip across his la
Smith, who was engaged to be married, wassrcpi
resentative of the department in the "combat chalte
fighter skills contest.
“I talked to her just three weeks ago to see it she*
to be on the combat challenge team this y ear." said!
described Lew is as intensely athletic and religious
she couldn’t because she was going to have reconstm.'
sunjerv.”
Austin homeless fear
Census Bureau’s tally
AUSTIN (AP) As the Census Bu
reau begins its tally of the U.S. population
next month, officials are renewing efforts
to get an accurate count of the homeless.
But it will not be easy. Just try ques
tioning Marjie, a 60-year-old homeless
woman living behind a tool shed in Austin.
“Tell them that I am one,” said Maijie,
a small-boned wrinkled woman who was
visibly agitated by questions in an inter
view with the A us tin A mericon-Statesman.
She refused to give her full name, her
exact age or the year she moved to
Austin. "Why do they have to know all
that?” she asked.
Outdoor homeless encampments in
Austin are so concealed and transient that
the federal government is struggling to
map them. The camps violate a city “no
camping” ban enacted in 1996, and they
harbor people who have a profound mis
trust of outsiders.
Confronted with such barriers, the
Census Bureau counted only 76 home
less people in Austin in 1990, a figure
that both city officials and homeless ac
tivists say was significantly off-target.
City officials estimate the homeless pop
ulation now is closer to 3,800.
Part of tiie problem with the 1990 count
was that census takers were not dispatched
to remote areas in parks and under bridges
where many homeless people live. Hi is
time, the plan is to do exactly that.
"We did the best we could, but we just
didn’t do it all that great in 1990,” said
Dorothy Douglas, regional Census Bu
reau official in charge of counting those
who don’t live in conventional housing.
This year, the bureau has sent letters
to city and social service agencies re
questing lists of outdoor places where the
homeless live. The agency also has asked
community activists and outreach work
ers to seek jobs as census takers.
Douglas recently met with advocates
for the homeless to try to allay fears that
police would accompany census takers
who visit illegal encampments.
Advocates for the homeless expressed
interest in recruiting the homeless to
count themselves. Even if that happens,
opinion is divided over the results.
“There’s a lot of mistrust,” said Cindy
Bretschneider, who produced a docu
mentary about a homeless camp that was
disbanded by police a few years ago.
“They won't let just anybody in.
Some of them are not wanting their fam
ily to find them. Some of them have done
something wrong. They'd be afraid to be
found because of the way police treat
them. Some of them have mental health
issues,” she said.
Europeai
colony
unearthel
News in Brief
Defendant enters surprise guilty plea
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A man about to go on trial for capital murder
in a triple slaying pleaded guilty Monday, even though he still could get
the death penalty.
Clifford Kimmel, 24, entered the plea as opening statements were
to begin in his trial. Jury selection had taken more than three weeks.
Kimmel and another man were charged in connection with the
deaths last April of Rachel White and Susan Halverstadt, both 22, and
Brett Roe, 29. All three victims suffered multiple stab wounds. Their
bodies were found in an apartment in northwest San Antonio.
Pagans object to signs on campus
NACOGDOCHES (AP) — Religious differences spurred by a roadside ban
ner have pitted pagans against Christians at one East Texas university.
The sign — strung across a road at Stephen F. Austin State Univer
sity — came down Tuesday but is scheduled to go back up in two weeks.
It read “This campus belongs to God” and had hung across the main
entrance leading to the school’s administration building.
According to university rules, the sign can go up for 14 days, must
come down for two weeks and then can return for another 14 days.
CORPUS CHR1STI
Work is advancing on the moa
sive excavation of Fort St.
earthing conclusive evidence
historic Spanish outpost was
the same soil where French '
Sieur de La Salle established'
first European colon):
A paper trail
dating back to the lateUMshavl
ways stated the fort dubbcdPres
La Bahia in Goliad - wentupi
the state’s 300-year-old French
ment site.
Scholars said the discovery
shed the state's first European
ment, as well as the Spanishcolflj
lion of the region.
“This is where Texas started,]
James I . Bruscth, the state’s Hist)
Commission director of archat
“La Salle’s building of Fort St. L<f
why we have our Spanish herit
are so proud of.”
The 1996 discovery of eight!
iron cannons belonging to La
the Keeran Ranch near Victoria!
pave the way. The historical ct
sion’s team of archaeologists
full-scale investigation ofthesiteirj
uary, only recently narrowing
cus to a 4 1 /2-acre site on the
Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur 1
Salic, setting sail from Francein
with four ships and a crew of400
tie the Mississippi River basin,
around the tip of Cuba hut
river — wandering instead
Matagorda Bay.
Today, a state archaeologist]
claim to locating La Belle in
brackish waters about 25 miles
the fort site. La Salle led thee'
tion that found the fort deserted 1
all the settlers had died from hit
lacks and disease.
A break came last spring
chaeologists, using a sum
metal detector called a magnt
finally ferreted out the elusive 1
Nuestra Senora de Loreto debit
del Espiritu Santo, the fort
Domingo Ramon established in'
on the ruins ofFort St. Louis.
two qu
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SCHOLARSHIP OF»F»ORTUIMITIES
For Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors
<]
a
><
r i
>
Office of Honors. Programs and Academic Scholarships
If you are going to t»e a sophomore or junior next year
and you are interested in the Barry Go Id water Scholarship
competition, or if you will be a senior and are interested in the
National Science Foundation Scholarship for graduate
school funding, there will be an informational meeting on
February *1 6 at 4:00 p.m. in room 402 Rudder. Both
scholarships are for students interested in research as
a career, especially in relation to mathematics, the
natural sciences, the history or philosophy of science,
or engineering. Research experience is helpful
for both competitions.
*’«*»•
On Sat. February 5, over 150 Aggies and supporters gather
the Brazos Animal Shelter’s new property to begin land clearir
the shelter’s Expansion Plan. Shelter staff would like to
following for their participation in this special day:
Aggie Fish Club
Alpha Phi Omega
Silver Wings
Conservation Class at Blinn
Texas Commercial Waste
Readfield Meats
Slovacek Sausage Co.
William’s Family
, Bra^
Animal Sh#
■ HUKAXl
2207 Pinfeather Roac
Bryan, Texas 77801
775-5755
■ ......