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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2000)
Page 2 NEWS Monday, July \l] THE BATTALION Roving dentists’ legitimacy, work questioned GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — City officials are raising questions about the legitimacy of an operation in which at least a dozen children liv ing in federal housing had their teeth worked on in a bus outfitted as a dental clinic. • "These were full-fledged rolling offices," Galveston Police Sgt. D.J. Alvarez is quoted as saying in Sunday editions of The Galveston County Daily News. Alvarez and fellow juvenile division offi cer Harold Beasley investigated the roving dentists after receiving complaints from offi cials at the Galveston Housing Authority, which oversees the federal housing. During one incident, they found about eight children sitting with their mothers on a sidewalk near a Galveston apartment com plex. More kids were in the bus getting their teeth worked on. The kids and their parents were told they would get dental work for free if they had Medicaid, he said. "They had this computer where they could find out if the kids had Medicaid ben efits and how much there was left on their cards," Beasley said. "They could charge it up to the maximum in one whack." The bus was registered to a Miami compa ny and was being used by two Dallas dentists. according to copies of vehicle registration pa pers and dental licenses collected by Beasley. Telephone messages left by The Galveston i(.r They could charge [Medicaid] up to the maximum in one whack/ 7 —Harold Beasley Galveston police officer County Daily News for the dentists at a Dallas dental center during seven working days be tween July 5 and July 15 were not answered. Both dentists are fully licensed to practice dentistry in Texas and have no disciplinary ac tions on their records, according to the State Board of Dental Examiners. Galveston police contacted the state Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees Medicaid providers operating in Texas and investigates claims of Medicaid fraud, Beasley said. He said the commission sent an investiga tor who told Beasley the bus had been report ed in Dickinson after leaving Galveston,but! investigator was unable to catch up with Dentist Bill Posnick, who taught deni at the University of Texas Health Srifj Center in Houston, has been seeingsomt the children who had work done by thee bile office. He has seen only three children treated the mobile dentists in June, but all of them derwent procedures he found baffling, "Their teeth were covered with somesor plastic resin," he said. "Maybe they weretr ing to seal them, I'm not sure. I haveneverset anything quite like it before." Monday, July 17, 2( Leaders agree on vote Confederate Air Force faces possible name change MIDLAND, Texas (AP) — Not everyone thinks the Confederate Air Force needs to change its name, but this weekend the organization's top leadership agreed to let the general membership vote on the idea during its annual meeting in October. The move comes after some peo ple have suggested the word Con federate's offensive, and some mem bers found it was becoming a public relations- problem trying to get booked at air shows. A number of the group's mem bers oppose changing the name be cause they see it as bowing down to political correctness. But many of its leaders, scattered nationwide, have expressed concern that the name does not reflect what the organization actually does. The 8,500 members of the Confed erate Air Force maintain about 140 air planes that flew during World War II, including the B-24 Liberator, the P-38 Lightning and the only B-29 Super fortress still flying. The organization, which flies these planes at air shows across the country, tries to preserve the shrinking number of such warbirds and educate the public about them. 66 I'm very pleased by the way we voted." — V. Neils Agather Confederate Air Force Board The Midland-based organization, formed in South Texas, got the name in the 1950s when somebody painted it on the tail of a P-51 Mustang fight er. At the time, the handful of origi nal members thought it was funny, so the name stuck. "I'm very pleased by the way we voted," V. Neils Agather, a board member and Dallas businessman is quoted as saying in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram following Saturday's vote. "I feel it's the right move." The group's board of directors ap proved sending the name-change amendment to the general member ship this fall. Forty-one of the 44 advi sory members agreed, said Tina Cor bett, the organization's spokesperson. If the amendment is approved by at least 75 percent of the voting members in October, the directors will appoint a committee to recommend four new names. Those names would be voted on by the membership in October 2001. Some members have suggested calling themselves Ghost Squadron, which appears at the bottom of the group's present insignia. Other sug gestions include the Commemorative Air Force or the Freedom Air Force. Robert Collier, a member who lives in Grand Prairie, said he isn't crazy about changing the name. But the 14-year member of the organiza tion said he understands the reasons behind the move. Remaining captives released Six people were held in botched jewelry store heist ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. (AP) — Gunmen who held six people hostage in a botched jewelry store heist released their three remaining captives unharmed Sunday after releasing three others earlier, authorities said. The three hostages and the two gunmen exited the shop about 11 a:m., Plett said. "The situation appears to be over," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Norine Plett said. The nearly 17-hour ordeal began about 5:20 p.m. Saturday when the gunmen robbed Morgan's Jewelers in side the Peninsula Center strip mall. Law enforcement officials trapped the men inside after a shop employee alerted authorities by activating a silent alarm. The gunmen then held the six people inside as hostages. Nearly 75 deputies surrounded the store as negotiators communicated via telephone with the gunmen. Sheriff's officers said they saw two men with briefcases and weapons ex iting the store, but the men returned in side when they saw the officers. Shopper Bob Dunbar said depute initially told people in the i duck for cover inside shops andt told them to evacuate. "They yelled 'Get down! G away!' It was scary," Dunbar said. The first hostage, a woman, wasif leased sometime after 3 a.m., nearly hours after the ordeal at Morgan’sJe» elers began. A second hostage,amr was released after 6 a.m. Another woman was release: about three hours'later, exiting thesto; with her hands raised over her head News in Brief Oil heater catches fire at plant PASADENA (AP) — No one was injured Sunday in a chemical plant fire that sent thick clouds of black smoke 50 feet into the air. Around 3 p.m., a material used in a hot oil heater at the Amoco chemical plant caught fire. In : house firefighters responded to the blaze and extinguished it about two hours later, said Brian Dinsmoor, the plant manager. Workers given polygraph exams WASHINGTON (AP) — All 800 nuclear scientists and security workers at the Energy Depar! ment subjected to polygraph ex ams this year passed the lie de tector exams, the agency's director of counterintelligence says. “We have nobody who hasn’t gotten through the test, whicliis a pretty ... good record," Edward J.Curran, a former FBI official told the Washington Post. XzIU.e Cca)C‘\<i i/Adrian pL+\5 8 A.M. 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