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'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
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57
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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.