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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2001)
hey are certa- rder su$p__ ?d after tgun at July 18, 2001 jme 107 ~ Issue 173 6 pages • HEVILLE, N.Q vas shot todeat ter he fired a shi r s trying to; ? shootings of 1 f essaid" 0 ' 6a |Bws in Brief •riff's deputies State opher James r , . _i in Leicesterman charged id found hisfa vvomen's death vounded. H • • . le 20 fled ir LUFKIN ( Ap ) — A19-year-<pld brief standc :kir man was char 9 ed Mon - <inqlot hep / w i th capital murder in the in at one of at ^ of a 79-year-old woman, t others De: P|' ice said Marco Raine Dbinson said. W 5 was charged in the June si.lying of Lorraine Webb, fries was already being held l»iqelina County Jail on 60.000 bond for the July 4 1 Bd robbery of a conven- I B store and theft of the i ■ owner's car. ■hile investigating Webb's i Hi, officers noticed that the ■H woman lived only a few 'I H down from Ramos. iHveral interviews with 1 Hos, who had done some ^ I work for Webb in the past, if Hol'ce to focus on him as H Head suspect in the case, v Hos later signed a written I Hession, police said. ■ convicted, a capital mur- Hcharge carries a sentence of » Her life in prison or death. r Nation ’ain relievers do not pmage kidneys ■IHICAGO (AP) — Moder- use of over-the-counter llin relievers like aspirin, Tylenol and ibuprofen does not Hear to cause kidney failure in healthy men, as some feared, according to one of the biggest studies yet to examine the issue. ■ The study of 11,032 men ^aspaid for by the National In- ■tutes of Health and the mak- ■ of the Tylenol. ■The patients used up to 500 Is a year — a little over one a H— for an average of 14 Irs, and no link was found In among those who used .1 most. ■Three categories of pain re- lers were studied: aspirin; lenol and other forms of Jtaminophen; and nons- idal anti-inflammatories, h as naprosyn, which is sold l\leve, and ibuprofen, which i in Motrin and Advil. tensive driving with a ich (Line 25 with CtyP aining Co lr*uM s ance reduce nshausen'90 )&Go Tutoring i 778-47461 ION P) jne pniversity suspends ts research studies ■BALTIMORE (AP) — Johns lopkins University has sus- Bided all human research ond drink for 1/2effldies by the doctor whose e d. Exp.O8/31/01 Rtma experiment went awry pune, causing the death of a raalthy, 24-year-old participant. .The university also said fenday it is imposing addi- . — .-ional supervision on the hun- ireds of studies it conducts !at h year, and said an exter- lal investigation of the fatal ^Search will begin later this Hnth. ■The actions were contained report to the federal Office Balance ^Research and Protection on ^ ... .ht' case of Ellen Roche, who ROtatlOffed June 2. el atlgnmeot not the ervice. 5-8575 INSIDE r-B-Q pe Card Battalion News Radio: 1:57 p.m. KAMU 90.9 www.thebatt.com m I ^ i*j c I va 1 Senate committee approves request for funding research Stuart Hutson The Battalion It is not known if U.S. Sen. Kay Bai ley Hutchison enjoys the taste of a ma roon carrot, but if she has her way, they will be on dinner plates across the country. The Senate Appro priation Committee approved Hutchison’s request for funding Tuesday that includes $862,000 for a Texas A&M research program committed to engineering foods with increased levels of com pounds known to prevent dietary dis eases. “Both farmers and comsumers will benefit from this valuable research, which seeks to improve diets to prevent diseases such as cancer, heart disease and stroke,” Hutchison said. The program, titled “Designing Foods for Health,” has already pro duced more than six items found in grocery stores. These include golden rice, the 10-15 onion and the maroon carrot which, contains ultra high amounts of beta carotene, an anti-oxi dant that helps prevent the leading cause of death in America — cardio vascular disease. “I can’t say how much Sen. Hutchi son has done for this program,” said Ed Hiler, vice chancellor for the Depart ment of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “We are very appreciative of her sup port of programs that are benefiting the health of people across the country.” Hiler said the food program works with medical professionals that help identify specific beneficial compounds. Researchers at A&M isolate those com pounds in foods already being commer cially produced, and then engineer the foods to contain higher levels of those compounds. “This is somewhat of a fledgling field, but one that will become increas ingly important to improving the pub lic’s health,” he said. “Americans are now becoming more aware that the foods that they eat play a crucial role in preventing diseases that kill millions of people every year. This program is an other step to help people get every thing they need in their diet.” Also included in Hutchison’s request was $1.85 million for joint research be tween Texas A&M and New Mexico State University to improve irrigation efficiency in the Rio Grande Basin. “Water is important in this state be cause it is the key economic component See Research on Page 2. HUTCHINSON Ouch STUART VILLANUEVA/THf Battalion Quancy Franklin, a 15-month-old from College Station, is held by his mother, Constance, while he is given a shot at a free immunization clinic at the Lincoln Centeer Tuesday. The Brazos County Health Department operates clinics across the area for chil dren to be immunized against childhood diseases. Faculty pay cut by state Stuart Hutson The Battalion A cut in funding for university faculty pay raises will mean a tightening of aca demic and administrative budgets for Texas A&M and other public universities. During its last session, the Texas Leg islature only allocated money for half of the annual university staff raises, leaving a gap that the University must fill in or der to keep its professors’ salaries nation ally competitive, said Texas A&M Provost Dr. Ronald Douglas. ' “We have to offer these raises,” he said. “But we haven’t decided how to ap proach coming up widi the funding,” Dou glas said. The legislature normally allocates funds for the full amount of minimum pay raises, which University departments may then supplement. Douglas said the funds for the 3 to 6 per cent raises is likely to come from budget cuts, but added that administrators will at tempt to minimize the effects of the cuts on students and student programs. An increase in student fees, however, is still a possibility. , “We are not ruling out any options at this point in time,” Douglas said. “We will be meeting in August. ... But we are not sure when any action will be taken on this.” Other Texas public universities are at tempting to supplement the smaller funds as well. According to the Associated Press, the University of Texas-Austin administration has already asked departments to cut budg ets by 2 percent. ' The Texas Tech administration has proposed a cut of up to 1 percent of its to tal operating budget to produce the $2.3 to $2.7 million dollars required for facul ty raises. Connecticut passes law in effort to deter Ritalin use HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — When Sheila Matthews’ son was in first grade, a school psy chologist diagnosed him with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and gave his parents information on Ritalin. Matthews refused to put him on the drug. She believed the boy was energetic and out going ,but not disruptive, and she suspected the school sys tem was trying to medicate him just to make it easier for teachers. Now Connecticut has weighed in on the side of par ents like Matthews with a first- in-the-nation law that reflects a growing backlash against what some see as overuse of Ritalin and other behavioral drugs. The law — approved unani mously by the Legislature and signed by Gov. John G. Row land last month — prohibits teachers, counselors and other school officials from recom mending psychiatric drugs for any child. The measure does not pre vent school officials from rec ommending that a child be evaluated by a medical doctor. But the law is intended to make sure the first mention of drugs fior a behavior or learning prob lem comes from a doctor. The chief sponsor, state Rep. Lenny Winkler, is an emer gency room nurse. “I cannot believe how many young kids are on Prozac, Thorazine, Hal dol — you name it,” Winkler said. “It blows my mind.” While she has no problem with the use of Ritalin under a doctor’s care, Winkler said a teacher’s recommendation is often enough to persuade par ents to seek drug treatment for their child’s behavior problems. See Ritalin on Page 2. On the rise Ritalin sales have declined slightly, though overall sales of analeptic drugs — used to treat attention deficit disorder — have increased. Analeptic prescriptions In the United States 20 million 1996 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 Who uses Ritalin Breakdown of those who used Ritalin in the United States by age and gender for 2000. Male 5 or younger } 2.6% 6-12 13-18 mm 23. s% 19 or older aK 14.4% Female 6-12 IHHSigg 45.2% 13-18 16.2% 19 or older %mm 36% NOTE: Numbers do not total TOO percent due to rounding. Credit cards burden students WASHINGTON (AP) — Many college students are crushed under a burden of credit card debt, which can cause serious financial trouble particularly in repaying student loans, congressional investiga tors conclude in a study re leased Tuesday. Three lawmakers said Con gress must take action and col leges should collect data on the role played by credit card debt in students’ decision to drop out. An official of a university group said that would be ex tremely difficult. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D- N.Y., one of the three House members who requested the General Accounting Office study, accused banks and credit card companies of putting prof its first at the expense of young customers’ interests. “Consistent misuse of credit cards by college students, partic ularly combined with student loan debt, could lead to substan tial debt burdens,” the GAO re port said. “This problem could become particularly severe after graduation, when many students must begin making payments on education loans.” Roughly half of college grad uates leave school with an aver age $19,400 in student loans, ac cording to the report. It cited previous studies showing that 63 to 64 percent of college students have at least one credit card in their name, of whom 58 to 59 percent pay their balances in full each month. Among those who do not pay in full, the average balance owed is $577, according to the studies. Between 14 percent and 16 percent of students re ported balances exceeding $1,000 while 5 percent had bal ances of more than $3,000. Some lawmakers and con sumer groups have assailed the widespread marketing of credit cards to young people, especial ly college students, who often have no income or credit record. In the worst cases, critics say, students who run up big debts are forced to drop out and work full time to pay them off. In some instances, suicides by college students have been at tributed, to their despondency over credit card debt. The GAO report said that officials at seven of the 12 uni versities visited by investigators cited financial problems, in cluding credit card debt, as possible reasons why students decided to leave. See Credit on Page 2. SOURCE: IMS Health ■ AP