The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 23, 2000, Image 8

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    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