Wednesday, July 2(,
YI
Continued from Ptii;
nswer: A lot of people w
iow what you are talkingaj;
it as an avid walker 1 feel)
lin. Actually, I have heard
al theories on the mallei
nging from a sensor tripped;
idy heat, to a person's coni
dty interfering with the elec
1 circuits of the lamp.
But according to Marcusle
rt, an official from the Col
jtion department of Utility
iwer, it is nothing but chan
le light just has a bad filame
Leinhart said College Slat,
eetlight bulbs contain a si
sed gas that emits light wk
leafed up by an electric filaro
coiled wire that carries and'
c current). However, wl
ednesday. July 26, 2000
THE BATTALION
Ml's fair in love and Carnivore
Bis email-tapping system a necessary advance in law enforcement
r
he Federal Bu
reau of Investi
gation (FBI) re-
ntly unleashed
arnivore, an Internet
ivesdroppirig device,
arnivore is a combi-
ation of hardware and
ament starts breaking dowAftware, like a person
als up the gas too much | computer but specialized to sort through
I'' “fety'™*anismtosta| amoimts of |nlernet trafflc It connects
ht off. When the bulbco® ,, , T t ., ,
, , lirectly to an Internet service provider s
wn, it turns back on, ■ ,
So, it's not any deviousrf P)network and monitors a11 doming
blanket you in darknessI ld out g oin g email from that ISR The S Y S -
u pass by, allowing amplec:» m can also monitor online chat rooms, in-
rtunity for muggers and ,,sunt message systems and visits to Web-
en sidewalks to attack youates. The FBI says that Carnivore will sort
just coincidence. But fel rou gh the information, and only a sus-
ain, just because you are P^M ec t's account will be read by members of
id — it doesn't mean thatth« ri ,.
, tie FBI.
;n t out to get you... ■ tT . , .
It's that simple. I However ' man y 8 rou P s ' including the
Thanks to all of you Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
ote in with excellent queshtlave protested the system. According to
If you have a question foiMiese groups, privacy rights of all Internet
'.I. just email me at scifyikiisers are violated by this new technology.
iil.com and please include ye. J ven though there are many privacy issues
nd possibilities for abusing the system, the
: BIhas created a piece of technology that can
:ombat the ever-increasing number of illegal
ictivities conducted on the Internet. With
itrict regulation of Carnivore, the system will
me, classification and major
lRTICLE
Co 11 tinued from Pagt
It is like trying to make a ti
rding of a symphony rightnei‘:
lemolition of the symphony hci
rding of this violin concerto,
v^ebb said that this observalio
le tau neutrino shows that
ives as expected,
isistent with our understand
of the Standard Model."
he detection of twneutijiiQs)
also allow physicists to make
e accurate measurements
lation, a property commonto
of the three neutrinos.
ie a much-needed progress in law enforce-
nent capabilities for the technological age.
Many of Carnivore's critics have said
b'said'You bring the S ymph®i hat 11 is a P roblem because the FBI wiU be
down, and at the same tiimi 3ble t0 read not onl y the email addresses
someone playing a violin,a and messages of the person listed in the
want to make a very precis court order, but.also those of other law-
obeying citizens. While this is a frightening
possibility, legislation is already being pro
posed by the White House and Congress to
regulate Carnivore's use. Clinton's proposal
will put many of the same regulations on In
ternet wiretaps as on present-day telephone
wiretaps. Law-enforcement agencies will
have to show probable cause to obtain a
court-ordered Internet wiretap of a suspect's
account. Also, people with cable modem ac-
There are three types of neu
as: the electron neutrino, th
n neutrino, the tau neutrino,
b said. "The neutrinooscilli
means that you couldhaveai
ron neutrino turn into a
rino or a tau neutrino. It is 1
guise. A neutrino candisgii
[entity.
The reason that neutrinos cai
nis oscillation is a fundamit
roperty of neutrinos,
included in the StandardMoJ
leutrinos, in order to dotte
t have a mass, and if thisisl
it is an indication that I
dard Model has to have
aents made to it."
^ebb said that the DONUTei
nent will serve as a designi 1
a precise experiments bail
le detection of neutrinos, h
experiments, called to-
line experiments, are
lopment in the United Stall
Europe.
fhe issue of neutrino physie ;
if the hottest areas of physicsn
h going on these days,"
"Neutrinos are an important
ent in the overall universes)
now very little about them
aore we study them, and
we understand about thtf
lore progress we will make
rstanding the forces of nat-
he universe that we live in.
'ATON
cess to the Internet will have even more pro
tection against the wiretaps under the Cable
Act of 1984. This act requires law-enforce
ment agencies to notify fhe suspect under
the surveillance and gives him or her the
right to challenge the request.
In response to the administra
tion's proposal, the ACLU ar
gues that it is too
broad and gives
more freedoms to
the FBI than older tech
nology. The complaints of
the ACLU and other pri
vacy advocates are legiti
mate, but they fail to see the
necessity of improving
technology to track
criminals on the infor
mation superhighway.
Other critics, in
cluding ISP com
panies, claim that
all users will suf
fer when* the
FBI connects
Carnivore to
their networks.
EarthLink, an Inter
net provider, tried
to compromise
with the FBI and
use its own sys
tem. Earthlink
promised it would
then give the FBI
the requested infor
mation. When the
FBI decided that it
still wanted to use
Carnivore, and EarthLink
objected, a federal court ruled that
the ISP must allow the FBI to install Car
nivore on Earthlink's system.
The Carnivore system caused outalges for
EarthLink subscribers in March because it
was not compatible with older versions of
the ISP. Companies do not have any techni
cal details of the Carnivore system, so they
are unable to predict how Carnivore will af
fect their Internet networks. This complaint
should be addressed by the FBI. If the FBI
wants to protect its system's details from In
ternet hackers, it could offer these compa
nies a basic overview of the Carnivore sys
tem and how it will affect different ISPs,
i way the integrity of Carnivore will
be protected and the ISPs can pre
pare for possible problems.
By taking initiative and ad
dressing such problems, the
FBI will encounter more cooperation
from other companies. The FBI could re
search what effects Carnivore has on dif
ferent ISPs and pass the information along
to these companies. In this way, the FBI pro
tects the technical aspects of the system
while companies can continue to serve their
customers.
Though Carnivore is a dramatic advance
ment in law-enforcement technology, it is a
necessary one. Since criminals have access to
modern modes of communication, federal
agencies must be allowed access to the same
technology. Though privacy issues and tech
nical difficulties are a concern, the FBI's sys
tem needs to be recognized as essential for
fighting crime. This technology calls for co
operation with all sectors of society. Once the
complaints of the privacy groups and ISP
companies are addressed and resolved. Car
nivore will be able to help close cases that
the FBI could not solve before.
Brieanne Porter is a sophomore
chemical engineering major.
BRANDON HENDERSON/Thk Battalion
Court backlog cleared by more staff, fewer tickets
M any Aggies
have recently
found them
selves waiting up to six
months to go to court to
take care of a ticket they
received from the Col
lege Station Police De
partment (CSPD). This
wait is due to the backlog of pretrial confer
ences at the College Station Municipal Court.
In College Station, a person pleading not
guilty must have a pretrial conference to
meet with a prosecuting attorney and dis
cuss their case. Since most of the lawyers
can attend pretrial conferences only twice a
week, the system is extremely overloaded.
The court attributes this backup to lawyers
tight schedules and limited staff.
To combat the delay in processing tickets
the court needs to hire more personnel, and,
in the meantime, CSPD needs to reduce the
number of tickets it writes.
There are two main factors contributing
to the ticket backup. First, the court's lack of
staff, and second, as Julie Kuder, court ad
ministrator, pointed out, the court's lack of
space for holding pretrial conferences. To
fight this second problem, the court has pre
sented a plan to the College Station City
Council requesting the construction of a
32,000-square-foot structure.
If the courts are backed up
until January and there are
33 pretrial conferences a
week, then there are
roughly 800 cases current
ly awaiting court dates.
Without enough person
nel or court space to han
dle this workload, the
court is facing a huge
problem. The court needs
to hire more personnel to
deal witlT this backup and
the city council must ap
prove the court's proposal
for additional facilities.
While the court deals
with its backlog, CSPD
needs to understand
that the court cannot
handle such a large
number of tickets.
The pretrial confer
ences per week at the
Court deal with everything
from minor offenses to death
cases. Tliirty-three a week is a
remarkably high number considering that
Continued from Pa$
these conferences only represent the number
of people who have pleaded not guilty to
their violation.
"Many of the
people who
plead not guilty
and have a pre
trial conference
are unhappy
with part of their
ticket" Kuder
said. This state
ment raises the
question of why
so many Col
lege Station res
idents are un
happy with
their tickets.
Perhaps
people are up
set about their
tickets because
many of them
are undeserved.
Considering that
currently, citizens
of College Station
who get a ticket
now cannot get a court date until at least
Mail Call
Page 5
KELSEY ROBERTS/Thk Battalion
January, it is quite possible that too many
tickets are being given out by CSPD.
Another problem associated with the
court date delay is that it is inconvenient for
an Aggie who has already graduated and
might now be in a different city or state to
come back to College Station to take care of
a ticket or other legal matter that occurred
six months ago.
CSPD could help the court fight its ticket
backlog by decreasing the number of tickets
written. CSPD needs to be more flexible
with its citizens, who, after all, pay their
salaries. Most tickets given out are de
served, but to slow the tide of tickets clog
ging the system, CSPD ought to give more
warnings instead of tickets.
The court and police of College Station
must recognize the problem the court is fac
ing with the number of pretrial conferences
it is waiting to hear. It is obvious that the
court is backed up beyond its means. To deal
with this, the courts should hire more per
sonnel and the city council must approve the
court's expansion plans. In the meantime,
CSPD should reduce the number of tickets
written while the court deals with the cases
already waiting pretrial conferences.
Sunnye Owens is a junior journalism major.
Change requires
strong leaders
M ore than 25 years ago, Jake Ayers, the
father of a Jackson State University
student, filed a suit which still bog
gles the minds of state officials today. Ayers
said that the state's black universities were not
receiving state funding equal to that of their
white counterparts. Since 1975, the case has
been winding in and out of courts.
Whenever a problem arises that is somehow
associated with the Ayers case, someone often
says, "change takes time" or something similar
to that. In Sunday's Clarion-Ledger, it was Col
lege Board member Ricki Garrett.
On July 7, U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers
ruled that Alcorn State University and Missis
sippi Valley State University cannot receive $3.5
million in state funds because they have not fol
lowed orders to attract more white students to
the universities. Garrett said she was disap
pointed by the judge's decision and that recruit
ing white students to black universities "won't
happen overnight."
Garrett is right. Ole Miss did not get its 1999
black enrollment figure to 11.4 percent
overnight. It
If it became took ole Miss
16 years to in-
necessaiy to crease its
cut the funding
of Ole Miss. percent in
' 1980 to 11.2
could state percent, or by
leaders even “ percent, in
ILUUers even 1996. During
consider such those 16 y ears '
percentages
rose and fell,
dropping at one point to 5.6 percent. But by
1996, the numbers had begun to hold steady
around 11 percent.
Time is important, but initiative is vital, and
initiative in solving the Ayers case seems to be
lacking. If Gov. Ronnie Musgrove wants to end
the Ayers case by the end of this year, it will
take some powerful initiative and impressive
leadership. Someone i$ going to have to make
some hard decisions.
For example, as College Board member Roy
Klumb pointed out in Sunday's Clarion-Ledger,
"we have too damn many sclrools." Klumb said
the whole system needs re-working. Maybe
Klumb is right. WitlT a population of 2.8 mil
lion, Mississippi has eight state-supported
schools. Arkansas, with a population of 2.6 mil
lion, has only six, and Tennessee, with nearly
twice the population of Mississippi, has seven.
Some of Mississippi's schools may have to be
combined. Delta State University and Mississip
pi Valley State University are less than an hour
away from each other. Of course, combining the
two would likely upset quite a few DSU and
MVSU alums. If push came to shove, would
state leaders be able to tell these alums that the
combination is vital to solving tire Ayers case?
Or if it became necessary to cut the funding
of Ole Miss, could state leaders, many of whom
are part of "the Ole Miss family," even consider
such an option?
Decisions like these will not be made by
leaders who talk about the time change takes.
They can only be made by leaders who talk
about the changes they will make.
Before Ole Miss officials could talk about the
time involved in recruiting more black stu
dents, one black student had to enter the uni
versity. The 1962 integration of Ole Miss took
tear gas and U.Sj marshals.
Surely a full integration of Mississippi's
state universities will come and will not require
tire same physical force or the involvement of
the federal government. What it will require is
determined leadership.
Pamela Hamilton is a columnist for the
Daily Mississippian at the U. of Mississippi.
ays said that since more
i are applying electronic))
ivolvement of students ifl ?
■ssing aspect of the appl
arocess is minimal, therein
mts slrould not really J
ed by the relocation.
Ve are hoping to do C
doesn't involve students
us," Hays said. "FiftyT
nt of freshmen and 70 p
of transfer students apf
onically."
jit Carter, A&M reg#
tire Office of Admissi"
d for available space on^
j keep the office convent
?d, but no room could
Readers comment
on Al Khalifa case
In response to Cayla Carr’s July 25
column.
First of all, I believe that Pfc.
Johnson’s use and abuse of his
military privileges to bring Mari
am Al Khalifa to the United
States is not acceptable behav
ior. However, the couple should
not have ever been forced to con
sider this course of action as a
viable option.
Immigration laws represent
everything America is not. The
framers of the Declaration of Inde
pendence in fact specifically listed
immigration laws as an abuse of
power by King George III. They rec
ognized that all men were en
dowed with certain unalienable
rights, and that it was wrong for
any governing authority to limit the
scope of those rights.
The government should not be
allowed to regulate where anyone
can and cannot live. I has no right
to tell me, you, Al Khalifa or any
one else where or how we ought to
live. Unfortunately, the government
believes that our private business
is inherently their business.
Brad Gray
Class of ’03
I have to disagree with Carr’s
suggestion to discharge Pfc. John
son. Granted, he did forge military
documents to get his soon-to-be
wife into the country, but his ac
tions are not worthy of a Bad Con
duct Discharge.
After serving four years of ac
tive duty in the military, I have
seen actions worse than Pfc.
Johnson’s were punished the
same as Johnson’s, but never was
a Bad Conduct Discharge issued.
Pfc. Johnson has to endure hard
physical labor, he has to check in
with a non-commissioned officer
or officer every hour, and possibly
is restricted to the barracks where
he cannot spend his evenings
with this wife.
I have known military person
nel who have three DUI’s to their
name, but they were never dis
charged.
What is worse: Bringing some
one to this country whom you love
under false credentials, or driving
under the influence of alcohol
where you risk hundreds of peo
ples’ lives each time you get be
hind the wheel?
Pfc. Johnson will go through
enough punishment, and Carr
needs to realize that the military
is not going to discharge people
every time they do something
wrong. The military takes care of
its own.
Patrick Glazener
Class of ’02
JFK is dead,
both of them
In response to Mark Passwaters’
July 25 column.
totally agree with Passwaters
in regards to the misplaced hon
ors and emotion bestowed on the
late JFK Jr. Another illustration of
the excessive response was his
burial at sea as directed by the
president, a privilege usually re
served for members of the uni
formed services and "other U.S.
citizens who are determined eligi
ble by notable service or out
standing contributions to the Unit-.
ed States.”
• Not only was Kennedy buried at
sea, but he jumped to the head of
the line in front of a backlog of well
deserving deceased veterans who
honorably served and fought wars
for their country. Indeed, this was
the real tragedy.
Mike Thornton
Graduate Student
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thor’s name, class and phone num
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ters may also be mailed to:
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