Page 2 NEWS Monday,].! — THE BATTALION PlPTM FIPP5 PM K\D£LUrifl Prohor So tell /me about This T1oa;{cev 7ou Like rv There's moch To Tell. SHE'5 OF /My L-BA&UB.. ■ She oaily 6o£5 out UllTH S/6, Don g Toe*. APES THAT 6oV! You w out Da)T VAJDEZSTAAJD. IjZ- Continued from Page / BuT X Do 0 MDE^S THA)D/ You See ? UE IOajDRED ShK connection to Scotland. The Royal Medal will not be the first award that Scott has re ceived. He has also been given the Davy Medal and Bakerian Lectureship by the Royal Soci ety of London, the Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in organic chemistry and the Robert A. Welch Award in chemistry. He has also been granted honorary degrees from the The Fantastko Chronicles BY J. GOLDFLUTE Guns Continued from Page 1 3 HOURS LATER tA£beJjC>? A£C... OH 5W^r ' HI 17 My FKmTID OU£KbQS6D OJ OIL Of otAX CfteArt H£5 Pfi&seb COT IIP THf F<£TAL VOStTfO/L). (25.8 percent) and California (24.8 percent). Almost 58 percent of appli cants rejected by state and lo cal authorities had felony con victions or indictments, compared with 73 percent in 1999. The second most common reason for rejection was a do mestic violence misdemeanor HECTOR Y PEDRO Enrollment in summer school rises with increasing standards u BALTIMORE (AP) — As fourth-graders citywide splashed in municipal swimming pools last week, Tifphany Cantey sat in a rock-hard chair, her slender -legs crossed under the desk as she flipped dirough a paperback book, trying to remember what she had just learned about rivers. People fish in them. Animals drink from them. Sometimes they change course. Cheerful nonetheless as she filled in the columns on a work sheet, the 10-year-old said that if she did not have to sit here — her mother teaching die class! — she would be at home, relaxing. “I would either be home in my room, reading a book or watching TV,” she said, a smile creeping in as she thought about her favorite books, “The Baby- Sitters Club” series. t Tifphany is one of 32,000 Baltimore school children — about one-third of all students — required to be in school on Some kids need more than 7 0 months to get to the place where they need to be. ” — Maureen Harris director of Boston's summer school program the first week of summer be cause they failed to meet the city’s new, tougher academic requirements. For many students these days, both in Baltimore and na tionwide, such rules have ush ered in what amounts to year- round school. “Some kids need more than 10 months to get to the place where they need to be,” said Maureen Harris, who runs Boston’s summer school pro gram. Officials there expect about 8,000 students. About 7,000 attended last year, com pared with 4,000 in 1999, the program’s first year. Led by big cities, districts across the country are spending millions of dollars on summer programs, offering smaller class es and more individual attention even as they get tough on those whose math and reading skills lag behind. “T he programs are growing, and they’re spreading from one urban community to the next,” said Harris Cooper, chairman of the University of Missouri’s de partment of psychological sci ences and author of a book about the effectiveness of sum mer school programs. Researchers last year found that 80 of the largest 100 school districts held back students who did not successfully complete summer school. An informal sur vey by the Associated Press of 10 big-city districts found that high er state and local standards have prompted all to offer or require summer school for increasing numbers of students. In Chicago, 70,000 of the city’s 435,000 public school stu dents must attend summer school. In New Orleans, more than 10,000 of the city’s 75,000 students are taking required classes after doing poorly on the state’s skills test. Similar programs are under way in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, Denver, Cleveland and Miami. conviction or a restraining or der. 'Those accounted for about 11,000 applications, or 12 per cent of rejections. Background checks to see if prospective gun buyers have criminal records have been re quired since February 1994 un der the Brady Handgun Vio lence Prevention Act. Through 2000, the FBI or state and local police had re jected 689,000 of nearly 30 million applications, or 2.3 percent, compared with the 2 percent rate of rejection last year, the report said. The checks are done electronically. The report showed that in 2000, the FBI processed 4.3 million applications and state and local agencies processed 3.5 million. State and local agencies did not approve 86,000, or 2.5 per cent of applicants; the P'BI re jected 67,000, or 1.6 percent of those who applied in 2000. Greenfeld attributed the dif ference to state agencies’ access to more detailed criminal his tory records than the FBI’s. “They may have other data bases they check that the FBI couldn’t check,” Greenfeld said. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the report shows that the Brady law is working, but more needs to be done to prosecute people who try to purchase guns illegally. “While the Brady law has helped us stop convicted felons and other dangerous individu als from buying guns easily, vi olations of the law are not be ing prosecuted adequately,” Ashcroft said. Ashcroft recently an nounced several initiatives to HOLLYWOOD USA For showtimos call 764-7592 Hwy. 30 @ E. Bypass 6 fandango.com or log on to HASSLE FREE VARSITY FORD www. varsityflm. com HIGH REBATES LOW INTEREST RATES COLLEGE GRAD PROGRAMS MUSTANGS, FOCUS & TRUCK SPECIALS! (Questions? - e-mail us at ross@varsityflm.com) PROFITABLE NUMBER! 845-0569 The Battalion Classified Advertising Q drinks It vou are a minor, pregnant, intending to drive, or an alcoholic 1 drink per hour 3 or iewer drinks in one sitting 3 OUT OF 5 TEXAS A&M STUDENTS NEVER DRIVE AFTER DRINKING* *Based on the spring 1998 Core Survey of 861 Texas A&M students. DENT E sito le roaXe respons Alcohol and Drug Education Programs Ph: 845-0280 http://studentlife.tamu.edu/adep Texas /V&IVI University .a part of the Division of Student Affairs University of Pierre Curie, located in Paris,I anti from the Uni vers:. Coimbra in Portugal. Along with Scott, people will be honoreL Black, a Nobel laureate icine and Tint Devine,; Scottish historian, also receiving the Royal Me; The awards will be them by Prince Ph; yp 28 N Duke of Edinburgh,0 jJ ew York C at the Palace ofHolyrojC 2001 dra in Edinburgh. teams stayec city' that nev u nt • „ a whole lot c improve the Nationally | j 1c j [ OL1 Background Check li| ro the dr called NICS, andincre Isgth and 23 prosecutions. Bund, whic 1 le cited FBI statistic zona forwa ing that 217,000 atteir SOl Y Stank legal gun purchases n 9 <) ^' 1 ? s ferred for investigate only 294 people werec.| ed. Ashcroft said more prosecutors would be hi pursue people who gii vorite Fddi information when tnBall. purchase guns or apply:■ Griffin, a ' Sc Brandon / ey stunne eater of arden by e New Jt venth pic chase a gun that they ini give to someone else, He also moved toe time the government onto background re people who try' to bit The records are kept porarily so that lawei ment agencies cangok look for fraudulent tions or mistaken appro;- Ashcroft said the ard, averaj u While the Brd law has helpedt stop convicted felons andothei dangerous indivit uals from buj guns easilp'h tions of thelw not being pw. ed adequat SAN FR/ er taking ruised righ cunk his har outside Pac where his 5 run spkshec feay. -lohnV )5 ay J ide U.S. AltomejOf: p 1 “ Sun 1 Bonds, the 1 who became If baseball’s should destroy onApr ii 17 The broi ment records one business dayf they are generated instf the 180 days now allow federal regulation. Democrats and gun groups criticized the prop] change, saying it playsi® hands of the National Ril sociation, which oppose holding time, andwi virtually impossible to gun-purchase transact^ fraud and abuse. Ashcroft said auditing done in “real time”using nology, but did not spec:' the quicker checks woi done alkway just ovey Cove onds adde andprints. “I feel like (( Thin when ) drean major i don't t cess THF •Jt* - Bonds, w leagues with ne>t wearing ^ on his right Jeff Kempf, Editor in Chief K edw he" | Jen Bales, Managing Editor ^ bcl } 1 u J o1 Jason Bennyhoff, Radio Prodw- night. Jessica Crutcher, Opinion ErM Bonds jui Ruben DeLuna, GraphicsEdi' 1 - ball as it wa Bernie Garza, Photo Editor the left-fiel Stuart Hutson, News Editor right wrist O Mark Passwaters, Sports Edi® w .j S coming Brandon Payton, Webmaster He missee %«» ,L ril Karen Weinberg, Design * L • J & * showdown THE BATTALION (ISSN #1055-4726) £ home run r daily, Monday through Friday duringtir: McGwire semesters and Monday through Itiursd? : . .. summer session (except University ft ing lint periods) at Texas A&M University, tetc: even knock Paid at College Station, TK 77840. P0S1W-' (2ovey Cove address changes to rheSartafa.TexasJi 1 - ' 1111TAMU, College Station,IX 77843-lll l ffi llent Cluril News: The Battalion news department4' Jim Leyla students at Texas A&M University in tilt' ager with th Student Media, a unit of the W i j-y, c Journalism. News offices are in 014 Rff 1 ] ‘ Building. 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