The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, July 17, 2000, Image 2

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    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.
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Beverly Mireles, Editor in Chief
Jeff Kempf, Managing Editor
Jason Bennyhoflf, Aggielife/Radio Ediioi
Beth Ahlquist, Copy Chief
Jennifer Bales, Night News Editor
April Young, City Editor
Jeanette Simpson, Asst. City Editor
Eric Dickens, Opinion Editor
Reece Flood, Sports Editor
Stuart Hutson, Sci/Tech Editor
JP Beato, Photo Editor
Ruben Deluna, Graphics Editor
Brandon Payton, Web Master
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