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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2001)
BATTAJL ION » ii#«i ■ i iu k' u*j ^ (^i 111 icobj. Qes on. The accuse a^ene Weston Ji al mental fecii 'HURSDAY July 26, 2001 Dlume 107 ~ Issue 178 8 pages ■fr— MJev ews in Brief State ■ they feel sale through a lot iuspect charged in [ felt fine, sacj -J.houi- stand off -endy u It’sb.:l )ALLAS (AP ) ~ A man ar - , . Bed after he barricaded ireunijK . ^ se | f j ns j c j e a h 0 t e | su jte ittcicnjdirtv yj t() a h os t a g e wa s charged Sui think Vednesday with robbing a ’lano toy store. 1 is justonelocta/vjllet Thomas Murdoff, 42, expensiveeffon/vls charged with aggravated ro better proBbery for the holdup of a Toys workers frotii Rlus in Plano last week. Murd- :struckOklal off was in the Collin County jaH tan’ barracksBieu of $100,000 bond, and U.S.emtBPolice arrested Murdoff af- ars ago. ■ an 11 -hour standoff at a DepartmentkBeI suite where Murdoff setter secure :B barricaded himself and 5 ' , >;Bused to leave. ■ Police were in negotiations > Bh the suspect throughout 1 »t|e night, who refused to _ M l! C( f me out pl ' s third floor ho- ™" Hi tel suite. The third floor of the itiitel had been evacuated, government Two other women were in VcontentAl'.ltfje suite with the suspect, but nts(48percer iBere released, Gilliam said. El Paso ISD votes to government lithdencear raise teacher's pay s during thefl )urs ri el pas °' Texas ^ Ap ) — ei 'an mrpnfir Paso Independent School Dis- \ . i . trict teachers will receive a 4.1 about what tea . . ^ , ^ c jl .{Percent pay raise as part of a . J , _ J10.3 million compensation jut ont3fr« ac | <a g e approved by the board. I The package, approved Tuesday, also will increase pay for first-year teachers to U0,000 from $28,600. JimDamm, a financial advis- I ertothe El Paso district, said the Ipackage could contribute to the Tf\1* Bleed for a district tax increase. JLUl 1 TEie Paso district's tax rate Is $1.56 per $100 in property laluation. The board is sched- )WS uled to adopt a new tax rate by met unwam ” said Victote resident and fe ilationsPror.' f Entertainnie- alth. pa tie [eptember. Nation sh idham Clinton ■ 64% 60 St (adyS Man sentenced for fa( rating infant's overdose as a higherappJ PHILADELPHIA (AP) A for- llary RodhamG'Hier Ivy League medical resi- monthsatftehflent who fed cocaine to a 4- nnonth-old boy to keep him quiet has been sentenced to five to 10 years in prison for the child's death. 1 Donald P. Ford, 43, was convicted of third-degree mur der and reckless endanger- ment in the 1 997 death of Sig mund Porter Jr. He was also sentenced Tuesday to one to two years in prison on drug distribution charges. Ford and the child's mother, Andrea Blue, 39, were on a two-day drug binge at Ford's apartment when the child died. The cocaine was found in a baby bottle. | Ford graduated from Brown ilniversity and was a former psychiatry resident at the Uni versity of Pennsylvania Medical iduits was taken- School. Blue, a former nurse >r of margin ofsupervisor, was convicted of age points. charges that included reckless ^^ encJangerrnenLShe was sen- tf need to 11 1/2 months to 23 1 2 months in prison. 166% 69 41 [54% 57 7i 7°/c [/ from Pty id Hunter player mid 05 rels, as Be very, very still .. JP BEATO/7h£ Battalion Moments after getting his left nipple pierced, Cameron Turner, a senior agriculture economics major, prepares to have a barbell inserted into his tongue. The piercer first damped his tongue and pierced it with a needle. This is the second time Turner has pierced his tongue. Program blends science, teaching Staff & Wire Michigan wins solar race Only 28 teams complete race, Texas A&M team finishes 27th CLAREMONT, Calif. (AP) — Using a $1 million car, a University of Michigan team completed a 2,247-mile sprint down America’s Main Street on Wednesday to win what was billed as the most arduous so lar car race in the world. The student-built M-Pulse took first place in the American Solar —— Challenge, traveling Route 66 from Chicago to this college town in 56 hours, 10 minutes and 46 seconds. The race started July 15 and was di vided into 14 stages. “We just won the longest solar car race in the world,” said Jason Kramb, 23, who recendy received his master’s in aerospace engineering. The win was a welcome.comeback for the team, which spent 20 frantic days repairing the car after it was se verely damaged in a June crash in a practice run before the race. The sleek winner beat out 27 chal lengers to clinch the title. Secgnd place finisher was the University of Missouri-Rolla team, which actually crossed the finish line, first but ended with a cumulative time 80 minutes slower than Michigan’s. The Missouri team led the race, but fell behind in New Mexico. “We got caught in the clouds,” said Eric Pieper, 19, one of the team’s four drivers. The entry from Canada’s University of Waterloo finished third, with a time of 62 Sol of a car In the most challenging event of its kind, 30 cars raced 2,247 miles over 10 days, powered only by the sun. Because efficiency is crucial, light weight materials and aerodynamic shapes are the key to a solar car’s design Chicago IL Claremont CA i^IL^ Cars captured the most energy during sunny midday hours. Teams managed their limited resource by storing it for cloudy conditions or accelerating immediately. When racing ended each day, cars were tilted toward the sun to gather and store energy. At its peak, the winning University of Michigan vehicle produced 1,600 watts, about the same amount of power used by a hair dryer. SOURCES: American Solar Challenge; ESRI Hassan Hodges/AP hours and 18 seconds. The cars were powered solely by the sun’s rays, which beat down on the arrays of photovoltaic cells diat covered the surfaces of the exotic, single-passenger machines. At peak, the arrays produced 1,600 watts of power. “The solar cars put out _ as much power as a hair dryer,” said Bob Mitchell, dean of engineering at Missouri. Each day, the cars raced from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. And each morning, the teams would pick up where they had left off the night before. The team with the best cumulative time won. “As long as there is sun, it is a great race,” said race director Dan Eberle. On sunny days, and on flat stretch es of highway, the cars, which resem ble airplane wings, hit speeds as high as 70 mph. “They’re electric race cars,” said Richard King of the Department of Energy. Thirty cars began the race; 28 were expected to finish. The cumulative time of the last place finisher was expected to See Solar on Page 2. At some point, every high school student is taught that Newton’s second law states force is equal to mass times accelera tion, but professors at A&M have taken the concept to a whole new level. A new joint effort between the Colleges of Science and Ed ucation called Math and Science Scholars (MASS) is designed to accelerate the best and brightest science students to become a driving force behind secondary science and math education. “The future of great scientific discoveries begins with an in spiring teacher,” said Jane Close Conoley, dean of the College of Education. “The Colleges of Science and Education are com mitted to developing those* in spiring teachers for the next gen eration of scientific discovery.” (i The future of great scientific discoveries begins with an inspiring teacher.” — Jane Close Conoley dean of College of Education The program will allow A&M science students to com bine their normal course sched ule with the opportunity to learn hands-on teaching strategies from some of the area’s most dis tinguished secondary teachers. Students seeking teaching certi fication under MASS will grad uate with the same number of hours as a regular science major and will receive a degree in one of four areas of specialization: bi ology, chemistry, mathematics or physics. “The need for secondary teachers currently is at an all- time high, particularly in the ar eas of mathematics and science,” said Timothy R Scott, associate dean for undergraduate pro grams in the College of Science. “As teachers ourselves, we feel strongly that there is no higher calling than this highly esteemed and noble profession.” See MASS on Page 2. Teenagers spreading no-smoking message THE WOODLANDS (AP) — Armed with results that show a year-old campaign financed by proceeds from the state’s tobacco settlement money has trimmed tobacco use by as much as 40 percent among some East Texas mid dle-school students, about 200 teen-agers headed home Wednesday from a three-day conference to spread their anti-smoking gospel. “It is time to go out and show big tobacco we’ve taken back our choices, our future and our very lives,” Trent Weaver said, a high school senior from DeKalb. “The tables are turned and we’re in control.” ' The centerpiece of the state’s youth anti-smoking campaign — the first to be paid for with some of the $17.3 billion to bacco settlement money — is an animated hip-talking sun glasses- and cap-wearing duck featured on a Website and in commercials and school pre sentations in East Texas, prima rily on the Houston-Galveston, Beaumont-Port Arthur, Tyler- Longview and Bryan-College Station markets. The target audience is young people between the ages of 11 and 18, with particular It's our own counter to Joe Camel and it's been really successful. The duck is working. ” — Dr. Philip Huang Texas Department of Health T emphasis on middle-school kids. Research shows sixth- graders are at the highest risk for starting to use tobacco. According to research from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medi cine, tobacco use plummeted 40 percent among sixth- and seventh-graders exposed to the campaign and other com munity programs. “It’s our own counter to Joe Camel and it’s been really suc cessful,” said Dr. Philip Huang, chief of the Texas Department of Health’s bureau of chronic disease and tobacco prevention. “The duck is working.” He said in Jefferson Coun ty, which includes Beaumont and Port Arthur, market re search data showed cigarette sales down 2 1 percent, com pared with 10.5 percent for the rest of the state. “It’s truly amazing,” he said. The idea for the duck was spawned a year ago at a confer ence similar to the one this week by the Texas Statewide Tobacco Education Program at The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center, just north of Houston. After 2,000 sug gestions, the group settled on See Teens on Page 2. ClubCorp blames Bryan for delays Staff & Wire A representative of Club Corp blamed the city of Bfyan for delays that he said are lulling the company’s market ing program for the Traditions Golf and Country Club. Ken Kasten, senior vice president of new business de velopment at die company re sponsible for developing the Traditions Golf and Country Club, said at Tuesday’s city council meeting that delays in the fulfillment of the city’s ob ligations in the deal with Club Corp have put the project be hind schedule. The city of Bryan has five obligations in its agreement with ClubCorp, chiefly to pro vide the land that the golf club will be built on. So far, the city has met only two of its five obligations, and not all of the land has been ac quired by the city. Bryan Mayor Jay Don Wat son said one reason for the con tinued debate on the golf course is that one of his primary con cerns with the project has not been satisfied by ClubCorp. Watson has requested a let ter from ClubCorp stating that it would honor all of its agree ment with the city. “I have not seen anything signed by ClubCorp,” Watson was quoted as saying by The Bryan-College Station Eagle. “All we have to look to is Tra dition [Golf Club, Inc.] (the ClubCorp subsidiary directly responsible for building the club). We do not have anything if the city meets its require ment, and for whatever reason, Tradition changes its mind. We do not have ClubCorp anywhere saying it will honor all obligations.” Kasten responded by saying Traditions Golf Club, Inc. is the company responsible for build ing the club, but ClubCorp is committed to the project. See Golf on Page 2.