Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2000)
THE ORIGINAL TACO C4&/M4 MEXICAN PATIO CAFE - OPEN 24 HOURS - Homemade Mexican Food We Cater ALL Occassions Be sure to visit our newly remodeled Bryan location. ^'2 if 701 TX Ave. South 2410 Briarcrest College Station Bryan ”*7 693-1904 776-0555 Now Accepting Aggie Bucks! Sts? CJ a l J for IN’ oi 11 i 11 a t i oi i s 2000 A l Mentor of the Year Award Dear Student: The ATMentors program will be giving a Mentor of the Year Award at the Division of Student Affairs meeting on May 3th. The purpose of the award is to provide support for mentoring activities and recognition for excellence in mentoring. The winner of the award must be a member of ATMentors who has demonstrated outstanding dedication and commitment to making a difference in students’ lives. If you would like to nominate a member of ATMentors, send a letter to the ATMentors program office at Mail Stop 1263. In your letter please indicate how the mentor you are nominating has “made a difference” in your life. Only currently enrolled students may nominate a Mentor for this award. Letters must include the student ID number of the nominating student and be no longer than one page with 12 point font. If you have any questions, call 845-6900 or email atmentors@tamu.edu. A complete list of Mentors is available on the ATMentors webpage at http://mentors.tamu.edu. All letters are due by April 7th at 5:00p.m. Help recognize that special Mentor in your life! ATMentors Texas A&Mfaculty, staff and administrators helping students. MSC Hospitality presents... AGGIES EMBRACING DIVERSITY MarcR 25, 2000 9:30-2:30 FREE CONFERENCE! INCLUDING A CULTURAL VIDEO, SPECIAL GUEST DR. AKANDE, FREE ENTERTAINMENT AND LUNCH. Tickets may Be picked up a the MSC Box Office at no charge. QUESTIONS CALL 845-1515 »MSC Cephcid Variable presents AddieCon 31 \A^ r ^u o'} o/c onnn March 23-26, 2000 MSC & Rudder Tower Harlan Ellison Author: Edgeworks Series, "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockraan Terry Pratchett Author: Discworld Series, Johnny Maxwell Serk Tim Brdcjstreet Author: Discworld Series, Johnny Maxwell Series, co-author of Good Omens Artist: Vampire: the Masquerade, The Crow: City of Angels ~C ”” / ...and dozens of others! Tickets $22/non-students, $ 18/students at the MSC Box Office in Rudder Tower. For a complete listing of guests and events, visit us on the web at http://cepheid.tamu.edu/aggiecon. Persons with disabilities please contact us at (409) 845-1515 to inform us of your special needs. NATION PageS THE BATTALION Wednesday. March21) Wednesday. Ma Ex-Black Panther Brown arresteFE m MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — H. Rap Brown, the 1960s black militant, was cornered in a shed and ar rested after a gun battle with U.S. marshals searching for him for the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy in At lanta, authorities said. Brown, now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, was arrested Monday night on a rural road west of Montgomery after he fled the shed and was pursued through woods by federal and local law officers. Al-Amin was wearing a bullet-proof vest when Williams spotted him and ordered him to the ground, Lowndes County Deputy John Williams said today. “He didn’t say anything. I said, 'Get on the ground. Spread ’em and keep your hands where I can see them,’ ” Williams said. “I guess he didn't want to die. He knew what would happen if he came out of the woods with a gun.” A rifle was found about 50 yards from where Al- Amin was arrested. Sheriff Willie Vaughner said. Two ammunition clips also were found, he said. Shell cas ings were found by the shed. Al-Amin’s capture came three days after he al legedly killed a Georgia deputy and wounded another while they tried to serve him with an arrest warrant in Atlanta, 160 miles northeast of Montgomery. Al-Amin immediately began firing shots when dis covered at the shed, then ran into nearby woods, said FBI agent Theodore Jackson. Agents encircled him, then released dogs. A short time later Williams spotted him. “He was walking away from me, and I knew it had to be him,” Williams said. Al-Amin apparently changed clothes at some point after initially being reported to have on tan clothing. “When they caught him he was wearing overalls. He was walking just like he was part of the community with overalls on," Vaughner said. Several other people were being detained for possi bly harboring a fugitive, though no charges have been filed, Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard said. It was not immediately clear what led to the con frontation at the shed about 30 miles west of Mont- killing a Georgia deputy and wounding ano associated with the Black Panther party. gomery. Officials with the FBI’s Mobile office re fused to comment. Al-Amin, 56, is accused of fatally shooting Deputy Ricky Kinchen and wounding Deputy Aldranon Eng lish last Thursday. The deputies were trying to serve Al- Amin an arrest warrant at his store. After Al-Amin’s arrest, Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett spoke with English. She said he told her: “Tonight I can sleep.” The warrant was issued after Al-Amin failed to appear in court in January on charges of theft by receiving stolen property and im personating an officer. Those charges stemmed from an incident last May, in which Al-Amin was al legedly stopped in a stolen car and flashed a badge. On Thursday, as the deputies approached a black Mercedes- Benz, the driver got out and start ed shooting an assault rifle. English identified the shooter as Al-Amin. In 1968, Al-Amin was briefly the justice minister of the Black Panther Party when the organiza tion entered a short-lived merger with his Student Non-Violent Co ordinating Committee. Al-Amin once exhorted blacks to arm themselves, saying, “Vio lence is as American as cherry pie.” The Black Panthers collapsed in the late 1970s, brought down by deaths, defections and infighting. WASHINC il Reserve rai: y a quarter-] whites. Al-Amin was wounded by a shotgunpelkti a white police officer was wounded. The nextm® a school and two city blocks burned. Al-Amin went to Atlanta in 1976 after con: Jince June — to Islam while serving five years in prison for lit Speeding eco in a robbery that ended in a shootout withNewiomescalatir police. In recent years, he has been the spiriB The anno losed-door n What’s become of the Black Panthers? erve’s Federa H. Rap Brown, the 1960s militant now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. was arrested Monday, accusedi Here is a look at Al-Amin and some other notable peo^e H. Rap Brown Justice minister of the Black Panther Party and a leader of the Student Non- Violent Coord inating Committee. Brown once said. "Violence is as American as cherry pie " He took the Muslim name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin after converting to Islam while serving five years m prison In recent years, he has been the spiritual leader of a mosque and has operated a small grocery in Atlanta. He popularized the rallying cry "Black Power" during the 1960s He was head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and prime minister of the Black Panther Party but later cut his ties with the groups. In Guinea, he organized a revolutionary gr oup and took the name Kwame lure He died Nov 15. 1998. at age 57. of prostate cancer. Huey Newton A co-founder of th Black Panther Party, he was charged with the r of * Oaklan man the convict* set aside ar was freed ir In 1974. Ne ket. he officials w The Fed sa ;et for the fed rom 5.75 pen It also raisi :ount rate, t :harges to inal iquarter-poin lercent. The long-e mediate imj er hour after tl he Dow .lone ras virtually i lex had droppt 0-year Treasi In a statem . he de- book ■ta*;, he Fed said il xjneed his past , >d joined the ©publican Party, e worked as a with Bobby S« shot to death ir west Oakland ii 1989. at the University of La Verne near Los Angeles and died in May 1998 at 62. Source Compiled fi In 1967, Al-Amin was charged with inciting a riot in Cambridge, Md., where he had told about 400 blacks: “It’s time for Cambridge to explode, baby. Black folks built America, and if America don’t come around, we're going to burn America down.” After the rally, shots were fired between blacks and leader of a mosque and operated a small groca; Atlanta’s West End. In 1995. Al-Amin was accused of aggravated^ after a man claimed he was shot by Al-Amin. Thei later recanted and said he was pressured by auta and the Cl to identify Al-Amin as the shooter. MicroStrategy stock plunges Victim attempts to remove hand SPRINGFIELD, Va. (AP) — MicroStrategy Inc.’s billion aire chief executive, who announced plans last week to donate $ 100 million to help create an online university, saw the value of his holdings in the software company sink more than $6 bil lion in a single day. Shares of MicroStrategy plunged nearly 62 percent Mon day after the Vienna-based com pany said it would have to low er its revenue totals for the past two years to comply with recent Securities and Exchange Com mission guidelines. The sellotf continued today, with the stock down $10.75, or 12 percent, to $76 in early afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. That decline knocked the value of chief executive “Our contracts have be come so much more complicated. We're do ing megadeals, SO times larger than we did a few months ago.” — Michael Saylor Chief Executive of MicroStrategy Inc. Michael Saylor’s holdings to $3.8 billion from about $9.9 bil lion. With today’s losses, Saylor’s holdings were down an ad ditional $470 million at midafternoon. But a spokesperson has said the plans for a donation to create an “Ivy League”-caliber online school would remain unchanged. MicroStrategy, which makes software that analyzes corpo rate data on marketing and customer relationships, said it had recorded too large a portion of revenue for multiyear contracts in the first year rather than spreading those revenues over the length of contracts. Some revenue initially booked for 1998 and 1999 now will be spread over several years, it said. For 1999, revenue was revised to $150 million to $155 million, down from $205 million. That would be a loss of be tween 43 cents and 51 cents a share, compared with previ ously reported earnings of 15 cents per share. For 1998, the company re-, duced its reported revenues to be tween $96 million and $101 million, from $106 million. Earnings per share will drop to between 1 cent and 4 cents, from 8 cents. In an interview, Saylor declined to blame anyone within his company, at the SEC or at PricewaterhouseCoop- ers LLP. the auditing firm that ap proved MicroStrategy’s revenue fig ures. MicroStrategy was the victim of evolving accounting practices, he said. “Our contracts have become so much more complicated,” Saylor said. “We’re doing megadeals, 50 DOWNEY, Calif. (AP) - Trapped for days in a crashed® as traffic whizzed by onlyafet feet away, Lee Risler got so de; perate he tried to cut off pinned hand with a pocketkri Risler’s van veered off In state 605 and overturned ii ditch around 3 a.m. Saturde The 54-year-old sandal male spent the next 2 1/2 days stut 29 citie emed that the could foster ii Clock sign gi SMYRN/ not sign a v ment simik week betwe company s: The dea of an outsic made up of ficials, who manufactur Last wee tion’s larg agreed to childproof and develo] gy. Smith & same ove Clock oppo Smith & strictions i tection age there, his arm trapped under# van, his feet,hanging out the ty dow and his head covered vJ| boxes of sandals. Risler was freed around noo: sued the j to drop Sn lawsuits. Any char not be mad Monday when a California Df jpg lawsuits "Nobody these laws times larger than we did a few months ago.” Pricewaterhouse Coopers also cited the complicated nature of software industry contracts as a reason for the earnings re statement. Steve Abrahamson, an analyst with Prudential Volpe Tech nology, said MicroStrategy’s long-term prospects remain strong. “This is an accounting-only issue,” Abrahamson said. “Their products haven’t deteriorated.” He added that the news from MicroStrategy may force oth er companies to revise results. A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment on whether other companies might be forced to revise earnings. Jot Instead agreement, sible and w Jannuzzo si Such ele ing an elec requiring er exam. Thos federal law. News in Brief Teen drivers at risk with passengers CHICAGO (AP) — The more young people you pack into a car with a teen-ager behind the wheel, the more likely the driver will die in a crash, a study found. The study, conducted by re searchers at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, con firms what many parents have long suspected. The study, published in Wednes day’s Journal of the American Med ical Association, was based on fed eral data from 1992 through 1997. Researcher Li-Hui Chen and her colleagues found that 16-year-olds carrying one passenger were 39 percent more likely to get killed than those driving alone. That increased to 86 percent with two passengers and 182 percent with three or more. The rate for 17-year-olds was even higher: 48 percent, 158 percent and 207 percent respectively. Mother abandons toddler on bus NEW YORK (AP) — A 2-year-old rode a Greyhound bus to New Jer sey by herself after the child’s moth er got off in New York to get a snack and the bus left without her. Yanitza Castro, 21, and her daughter, Yanitza Rivera, had board ed the bus Monday morning in Massachusetts to travel to their home in York, Pa. When the bus pulled into New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal at midday, little Yanitza was hungry. Castro got out to get a snack, and returned to find the bus had left. New Jersey State Police pulled over the bus about a half-hour later near New Brunswick and drove the girl back to her mother. During the bus ride, Yanitza en tertained other passengers with her Winnie the Pooh pillow. They assumed her mother was in a seat nearby. “I think the people on the bus took good care of her,” her moth er said, “because she came back happy.” partment of Transportation wort er spotted his 1991 Ford by trees a few yards off the frel th e CO mmis way, about 15 miles southeast! we w j|| neve downtown Los Angeles. Risler complained of a tremen dous thirst and was bleediii from the hand, but he was i ent, rescue workers said. Maintenance worker Ochoa, the second on scene, said Risler told hin tried to amputate my arm cause I’m trapped.” “He did more damage toliis arm than the accident,’’ Downey Fire Department! ion Chief Chuck Seely. “Thisgi! was definitely in desperation, Rescue workers rust Risler to the St. Francis Medi Center in Lynwood, wherelie was in fair condition late day, said hospital spokespef son Lisa Ciccanti. Risler was driving from Ii high desert home in Lucerne# ley to sell sandals at a craftfai' in Hermosa Beach whentheafr cident occurred. Investigators# not immediately determineMofr day why his van left the higt Risler’s wife, Bryn Risler, family members went totheHef mosa Beach show and wonder HienextSOyea where Risler was. They called the Highway Patrol. “I knew he was hurt,” Risler said. Graduating Seniors Texas A&M Graduation Announcements We accept orders until November 30th • Aggieland Printing can get you ready to mail announcements in one week We have our own unique design Licensed by A&M Don't miss it - see them on the web www.aggielandprinting.com We sell • Graduation Announcements • Thank You Notes Graduation Remembrance Displays Personalized Graduate Notepads Order & pay online: www.aggielandprinting.com Aggieland Printing • 1801 Holleman • College Station 693-8621 M-F 8:30-5:30 VOTE YES FOR 0^ In the Student Body Elections there will be a Referendum to raise the International Education Fee to $4.00. With this fee, $2.50 will be given immediately to students in study abroad scholar' ships and the other $ 1 .50 will go to establish an endowment, allowing the fee to be self-sufficient by the year 2020. Finally a fee that will evenin' ally end, instead of continually increasing! Students Helping Students. OLe YES for I EPS Mau WASHING 3gan, a daii] it,saidTues< to help combat y has ravaged her moreAmericar "He’s doinj. is just awful,” Associated Pre: Worse every da Reagan is Alzheimer’s As released an an; the nurr Alzheimer’s wi ‘‘Alzheimei special arranger ladies, oranyor told the Senate mittee on healtl «<