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