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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 2000)
Page 8A NATION Thursday, November 30, 2000 ST. JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHl’RCH • CISCl THE BATTALION Corruption saga continues Rookie quit police force after witnessing abuse Congratulations Graduating Seniors! Bring this ad in for a free gift when you order announcements or purchase a cap & gown. ROTHERS BOOKSTORES BRAZOS 1/2 PRICE OPTION THURSDAY DOOBOffl 6C OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Offi cer Keith Batt was a 23-year-old rookie just three weeks out of the academy. He went straight to the night shift, where most officers start their careers. There, on patrol in west Oakland, one of the city’s most dan gerous neighborhoods, Batt met The Riders. For three weeks in June and July, prosecutors say, the rookie watched his fellow of ficers beat, harass and falsely arrest at least 10 people. Then, on July 3, he allegedly saw a man arrested on trumped-up charges that he was seen discarding 17 rocks of cocaine. The rookie reported what Word’s insistence that the alleged abuse was limited to the four officers. “It’s burying one’s head in the sand to assume these cases are con fined to a short period of time in volving these four officers,” said lawyer John Burris, who has talked ' It's burying one's head in the sand to assume these cases are confined to a short period of time involv ing these four officers” lohn Burris Lawyer false reports. Three are expected to enter pleas on Dec. 6; Vazquez is a fugitive, believed to be hiding in Mexico. Lawyers for the three officers, who are on paid leave, said they have seen no evidence backing up the charges. Mabanag’s lawyer, Michael Rains, said the offi cers are “both sad and anx ious to have their stories heard.” Vazquez’s lawyer has not returned repeated calls. While the charges are lim ited to what Batt witnessed, the department is re-examin ing the officers’ records and looking at whether other members of the force were involved. he saw and quit the force, setting in motion a police corruption scandal that has led to the arrest of four offi cers and the dismissal of scores of cases. Exactly how far and wide The Riders scandal will reach remains to be seen, despite Police Chief Richard to at least 15 people arrested by The Riders about suing. The four officers — Frank Vazquez, 44, Clarence “Chuck” Ma- banag, 35, Jude Siapno, 32, and Matthew Hornung, 29 — were charged Nov. 2 with offenses includ ing assault, kidnapping and filing Prosecutor David Hollister said 49 mostly drug-related cases — con victions and pending cases alike — have been dismissed and more could fall apart as his office sorts through all cases involving the four officers dating back 18 months before they were taken off the streets. Mammography centers face crisis CHICAGO (AP) — Mammography centers are scal ing back or even closing because of inadequate reim bursement rates and malpractice fears at a time when more and more aging baby boomers need annual breast exams. It all adds up to a crisis taking shape in mammogra phy, experts warned Wednesday. With access shrinking, women often have to wait months to schedule an annual breast cancer screening and may decide to skip the exams altogether. Even women with suspicious lumps may have to wait several weeks to get a mammogram. That can delay the diagnosis of breast cancer and re sult in tumors being detected at later, less treatable stages, a panel of doctors said at the Radiology Society of North America’s annual meeting. Studies have shown that routine mammograms can de crease the risk of dying from breast cancer by as much as 40 percent. About 1 million women a year are turning 40, the age when many doctors say annual screening should begin, the panel said. Screening mammograms typically cost between $75 and $150, while diagnostic mammograms, performed when a problem is suspected, may cost well more than $200. Recommended Medicare reimbursement rates, set by Congress, are well below that — $67 for a screening mammogram and $81 for a diagnostic exam, said Dr. Stephen Feig, director of breast imaging at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. That cuts into the budgets at many mammography centers, which are being subsidized by their other radiol ogy services, said Dr. Ellen Mendelson, director of a breast imaging center at Western Pennsylvania Hospital. The most prominent closure occurred last year when New York University Medical Center shut one of its two mammography services for financial reasons. A few smaller centers elsewhere have closed, and many others have reduced services, the panel said. Lagging reim bursement rates and concerns over malpractice — the ex ams miss between 10 percent and 20 percent of cancers — are leading many would-be mammographers to choose other specialties, the panel added. Tickets at Reed Arena Box Office, Tickets also at tickotmaster outlets Charge-By-Phone: 979-268-0414 or online at ticketmaster.com brought to you by Jam and Glenn Smith Presents in association with MSC Town Hall For those |d the Jas State lalioma S' ay in the tme. a rer tme that he the top spc Tltis time Bough. / id a possib e national t FORTY-NINE MORE REASONS WHY WE'LL CHANGE THE WORLD 0 W H H 1 0 We wish to congratulate the following forty-nine students and welcome them into Fellows Croup XIX. Roxanne Bartek Kyle Bebee Katie Boesdorfer Janet Bothe Melissa Boyle Catherine Brock Doug Brown Lisa Callahan Matt Coffman Abbie Con lee Chance Dailey Kristen Emanuelson Carrie Fisher Stephanie Flesher Nicholas Fluellen William Galbreath Sarah Gillespie Jeanette Glenn Aaron Hall Melissa Hammit Kimberly Hartley Lynsey Harvey RCeane Hayes Jacalyn Helm Yen Hoang Erin Hudak Adam Hutzell Amy Lorentzen Rachel Louviere Tricia Lowe Anita Mayur Athena McGuinness Maren Moore Amy Ott Joshua Pierce Meredith Rambousek Scott Ramsower Cherisse Robison , Darien Schaefer Lauren Smith-Winslow Martha Stiver Matt Taylor Lindsey Terry Angela Torn John Troy Andrew Uher Natalie Wall Erin Walters Jonathan White We look forward to getting to know each of you. Together, we'll change to world. PricewaterhouseCoopers is proud to be an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Empolyer. www.pwcglobal.com/abascareers PrjcewaTerhouseQopers @ Join us. Together we can change the world. SM © 2000 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the U.S. firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and other members of the worldwide PricewaterhouseCoopers organization. w