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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2000)
The Memorial Student Center Black Awareness Committee Presents... THE MEETING A powerful drama about the lives, philosophies and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, iand Malcom X RESCHEDULED Friday February 25, 2000 8:30 p.m. Texas A&M University Rudder Theater <k ^lUtssk Tickets Available MSC Box Office 845-1234 Lurl’s Beauty Salon 778-2073 Hall’s Mini Mall 775-0771 $3.00 Student Please phone 3 working days in advance to 845~t 515 for special assistance needs. $5.00 Non-student THE 2000 OFF CAMPUS HOUSING FAIR Showcasing over 50 apartment complexes, / a r— X I property management companies and locator services. \ \ Stop by to gather information on prices, / floorplans, and FREE STUFF! ^ o j WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23RD 9:30AM - 2:30PM MSC FIRST FLOOR For more information call 845-1741 or stop by Adult, Graduate & Off Campus Student Services in Koldus 112 ENT L^lLLnI. Stop by the Coca-Cola Spring Break Booth, grab a free coke and pick up your Coca-Cola Club Card*for South Padre Island! With the Coca-Cola Club Card you could: ^\3S\C - Win cool prizes. Games' Enter special Coca-Cola PRIZES beach contests. _ - Receive special discounts “IRTs anc j giveaways all over KOOZAES the j S | anc |! Wed., February 23,2000 Fish Pond -11 am to 2 pm While supplies last Coke, and OutBound FRISBEE MEAL - Choice of Fresh Grilled Hamburger OR Sandwich OR Salad OR Fried Chicken FREE! Coke Classic^ 8 oz. Bottle Sponsored by Coca Colaa and Texas A&M University Department of Food Services NATION Page 8 THE BATTALION Wednesday, February 23,!(( k'JnCMlus. I Truckers protest rising prices WASHINGTON (AP) — Independent truck ers drove their big rigs Tuesday through city streets to Capitol Hill to protest diesel fuel prices and de mand tax breaks to offset greatly increased oper ating costs. “We’re dying,” said Douglas Sorantino, a ral ly organizer and New Jersey truck driver. “We need help now. If they don’t do it tomorrow, we won’t be around 60 or 90 days from now.” More than 200 truckers joined a convoy that began in New Jersey and traveled through Delaware and Maryland before snaking its way through the nation’s capital to a rally on the Capi tol steps. Police escorted the truckers, horns blaring, along the protest route and finally through city streets near the Capitol cordoned off to allow park ing for the huge rigs. The truckers walked to the Capitol, some carrying signs that read “Enough is Enough’” and “Will Work for Fuel.” Truckers are angry that gasoline prices have been rising steadily since last March, when the Or ganization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut crude oil production by 7.5 percent, or more than 2 million barrels a day, to boost prices that had fall en to 12-year lows. Increases in diesel fuel prices are costing truck ers as much as $100 a day, some haulers contend ed. They said the cost eventually will throw them out of business and wreak havoc on an economy that depends on trucks to transport 90 percent of goods, including food, clothing, cars and appliances. Convoy to the Capitol More than 200 independent truckers participated in a protest yesterday against rising fuel costs. The convoy set out from New Jersey on their way to a rally on the mall in the nation’s capital. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., who attended the rally, told truckers, “When your industry comes to a standstill, this nation does, too.” Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., sent, President Clinton a letter Tuesday saying rising prices of fuel and home heating oil should be considered “a national emergency.” In New York and the District of Columbia prices have climbed as high as $2.04 and $ 1.92 a gallon respectively, AAA said. Meanwhile, motorists are paying about $1.37 a gallon for unleaded fuel. Last year, the nationwide average for diesel was $1.07 a gallon. With some large trucks averaging just 5.5 miles per gallon and fuel tanks that hold as much as 150 gallons, truckers said their costs are astronomical. “They’re gouging us with the prices,” said Harry Greco, a driver from Skippack, Pa. “It’s out of control. Something has to be done.” Protesters want Congress and President Clinton to repeal or suspend a 24 cents federal excise tax paid at the pump on diesel and investigate OPEC. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Tuesday that re pealing the tax is not a “viable option” since most of the money goes towards building highw ays that truckers use. “We have been doing things to make sure that more uct gets [to the Northeast],” Lockhart said. “We have someev idence now that prices are coming down, and we’ll continued watch the situation.” Truckers also are asking the White House to releaseoil from a government reserve of almost 600 million barrels. Lit week, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan cautiod against tapping the reserv e, which he said should be used only to counter a crisis such as a total shutdown of Middle East oil supplies. In addition to diesel fuel and gasoline, the cnmch also is be ing felt by home heating oil consumers, whose costs have dou bled in some parts of the country. Analysts believe OPEC will come under increasing pres sure— especially from industrialized nations such as the Unit ed States — to raise production at its meeting in late March Some caution, however, that such a move won’t bringapre- cipitous drop in prices. “It will cool them off, and it will shave the peak in summer,'’ said Roger Diwan, managing director for global oil marketsal The Petroleum Finance Co. in Washington. But he cautioned “1 don’t think they are going to cool off'dramatically:'' TheTexa: leam will trv in a row age State Univei p.m. A&M is the Oklahor road. But the turn of tw< against Bayl versity ofM Senior fo the home cot Aggies an ee “It gives fidenceinwl na,” Sharpe Study: Women taking estrogen less likely to develop Alzheimer’s coming in h CHICAGO (AP) — Research has suggested that women who take estrogen are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s. But a new study found that once the mind-robbing disease sets in, the female hormone offers no benefit. A year of estrogen did nothing to slow the progression of the disease or im prove mental functioning in 120 older women with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s, according to the study in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. “Overall, the results of this study do not support the role of estrogen in the treatment” of Alzheimer’s, wrote the re searchers, led by neuroscientist Ruth A. Mulnard of the University of California at Irvine. Alzheimer’s affects more than 4 mil lion Americans, stealing their memories and ability to care for themselves. About twice as many women as men have the incurable disease, in part because they tend to live longer. Its causes are unknown, but sugges tions that the decline in estrogen levels in women at menopause might somehow make them more vulnerable to the dis ease have prompted interest in the hor mone as a possible treatment. In the latest study, the women, age 60 and older, were given either a low estro gen dose, a high dose or a placebo every day for a year. No significant differences were found among the groups in tests of mental function, mood, memory, atten tion, language skills or motor function. Women taking the low-dose estrogen showed improvement in one measure of mental function after two months, buttbt gains disappeared. In fact, those taking estrogen fared worse than the placebo group in a ratine of dementia. In an accompanying editorial, Drs Bennett A. Shaywitz and Sally E. Shay- witz of Yale University called the find ings “clear and unequivocal” but said more study is warranted. “Still unanswered are questions con cerning, for example, whether estrogtn given in the early postmenopausal pen- od can prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease or diminish in severity,” they wrote. ATMentors Texas A&Mfaculty, staff and administrators helping students. College of Engineering Academic Programs Office Ms. Mary Ann Raatz Ms. Jan Rinehart Dr. Karan Watson Dean's Office Dr. Glen Williams Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution Dr. Terry Kohutek Ms. Kaye Matejka Ms. Heather McNeil Mr. Larry Muehe Mr. Richard Skowronek Dr. Robert Vokurka College of Liberal Arts Anthropology Dr. Vaughn Bryant Dr. Wayne Smith Dr. Shelley Wachsmann Philosophy and Humanities Dr. Richard Stadelmann Political Science Dr. Vesna Danilovic Economics Dr. Thomas Jeitschko Aerospace Engineering Dr. Leland Carlson Biomedical Engineering Ms. Deborah Lockledge Industrial Engineering Dr. Joe Foster Dr. Wilbert Wilhelm Chemical Engineering Dr. Daniel Hanson Civil Engineering Dr. Roy Haim Dr. Ray James Dr. Roger Smith Mechanical Engineering Dr. Richard Griffin Dr. Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi Ms. Cathy Sperry Dr. Steve Suh Dr. John Vance English Dr. Claude Gibson Dr. Lisa Ann Lane Ms. Denise Nichols Dr. Victoria Rosner Performance Studies Dr. Michael Greenwald Dr. Susan Kelly Dr. Mary Maggio Sociology Dr. James Copp Speech Communication Ms. Susan Gilbertz History Dr. John Lenihan Dr. Anthony Stranges Computer Science Mr. Walter Daugherity Dr. John Leggett Dr. Mac Lively Nuclear Engineering Dr. John Ford Dr. Yassin Hassan Dr. John Poston Journalism Dr. Susanna Priest Ms. Jill Raupe Dr. Douglas Starr International Studies Program Dr. Victor Arizpe Undergraduate Advising Office Ms. Terri Burger Electrical Engineering Dr. Michael Grimaila Dr. Robert Nevels Texas Engineering Extension Service Mr. Bruce Brenton Mr.Gene Charleton Ms. Betty Popp Texas Transportation Institute Mr. Joe Button Modern and Classical Languages Ms. Norma Arizpe Mr. Antonio Caraballo Dr. Olga Cooke Dr. Richard Curry Dr. Nancy Joe Dyer Ms. Cristina Gonzalez-Boles Ms. Nina Morris The ATMentors Program consists of approximately 400 Texas A&M faculty, staff, and administrators who volunteer extra office hours to make themselves available to students. Mentors names will be appearing in the Battalion throughout the week. For more information on these and other Mentors check out the ATMentors website at; http://mentors.tamu.ejj \ aei 92 me evi we tiir Rei