nmeowner’s m
tic law when tli:
ission to grow
reasons. Thatis
itates with stati
narijuana—G
aa, C Colorado, H
•<1 Washington
jse laws are inn
ring use or
• insurance com
: a tlozen stick
Jing to a sene' ,
ociated Press. Funeral
August 1, 2001
olume 107 - Issue 181
6 pages
ews in Brief
State
m
escort shot
fpDALLAS (AP) — A security
■cer on a motorcycle was
anc * Wednesday af-
rir~l :er he attempted to stop a
oljbery in progress.
TThe' two suspects were be-
ng sought by Dallas police.
jAuthorities said the security
officer was off-duty. After he
* • iafi escorted a funeral proces-
| llljjHi, he came upon the appar-
^ t-X viont robbery of a store.
- ^ BPolice believe the man was
I -g f \ rjitgling to follow the suspects
f '''ylen he was shot several times.
JHl he security officer was
VGTONiAP-found dead at the scene, with
i chaired bvi c y cle on ground nearby.
arterandFor ^|j ss QFW replaces
al holidayanJ®9 ,e as MlSS Texas
;nged ^PO^milBBOCK (AP) — Kasi Kelly,
:allowedtoca> y)j ss DFW USA, was crowned
alidity to bei Monday night as Miss Texas
USA 2001.
I expressedcoa'^jKelly, a 19-year-old sopho-
1 away with pc more at Weatherford College,
, the voting ' is from Bridgeport.
I much of thee; | First runner-up was
st fairs Fiona;: ^Phanie Guerrero, Miss Bay
t, according e ^ rea - Second runner-up was An-
dria Mullins, Miss San Marcos.
Bird runner-up was Christie
Woods, Miss Central Texas.
Fourth runner-up was Candace
Campfield, Miss Dallas.
■ Last year's winner and the
reigning Miss USA, Kandace
Krueger, was introduced to the
audience as the Texas A&M
Singing Cadets sang "Every
thing You Are."
1 Krueger became the eighth
Tfexan to win the national title,
making the Lone Star State the
vwnningest in the competition.
She represented the United
States in the Miss Universe pag
eant earlier this year, where she
was second runner-up.
rained Mon;;
:d Press,
onal Commis
lection Refont
ould establish
for voter tegs
ite commissi;
: University^.
■ Center o:.;. - ;
n its won-is
ter disputes-
its delayed d
wing the wimt
.si den rial da
s 100-page n
;d Tuesday.
to the suit; Harris County K-9
:hcard
drive
policy changed
| HOUSTON (AP) — The Har
ris County sheriff's department
ill punch- has changed its K-9 units poli-
StemS arc c y as a result of the death two
it,, jlp 6 ^ 5 ago of a drug-sniffing
DQU. M|)g who was left in an air-con
ditioned vehicle.
! Commissiono' i Lt. Ricky Williams of the Har-
I Election Refow County Organized Crime
summaBd Narcotics Task Force said
=Monday dogs can no longer
p left alone in a vehicle for
ervotingsy^nriore than 10 minutes,
in machinestiffl A black Labrador retriever
ovethesituan narn ed Drake died on July 16
lachines are While deputy John Palermo ab
ates for the M: tended a required street-sur-
^al training session at a
, church near Katy.
punchcar 'S)J| was p l0t anc j
I, thesunr anc j p a | errno did not want to
l?ve Drake in a kennel all day at
former Ho-hip home, Williams said. Instead,
Job Michel he brought the dog, which the
•esent thecoTOunty paid $5,000 for, to the
t at the W# sion and hii m ' n an Or
ient Geom cond ' tioned Chevrolet Tahoe,
j aU At the time of Drake's
11,1111 death, department policy al-
ii against | owec j deputies to keep their
ire over th dpg S j n a j r _ C onditioned vehi-
sults. dbs while they attended court
ges Congresand other functions where the
iction Admit dog was not needed,
sion that wotj .•
voting
testing *
s should 1
t errors^ 1 1
1 voters
ecret. |
• itnpro'i:
ild bepf
icet cert*
icluding^
ark for'* 1
mance.
INSIDE
*tj£ASports
• Cl e""
begins NFL
Opinion
• Open market
needed
* Globalization,
trade helps
poorer countries
Battalion News Radio:
1:57 p.m. KAMU 90.9
www.thebatt.com
v*M 4 ** m i i\ iu JI Vi =< :Wi i.
Professor solves mystery
Engineer’s analytical model, ultrasound
may allow doctors to detect cancer early
Elizabeth Raines
The Battalion
To some, Lihong Wang’s an
alytical model that solves a
long-standing mystery in the
field of acousto-optics can be
seen as just another accom
plishment for the Texas A&M
College of Engineering.
When the results of this
model hold the potential for
earlier cancer detection, howev
er, one should consider it more
than just an accomplishment.
Wang, director of the Opti
cal Imaging Laboratory at
A&M and an associate profes
sor for the A&M biomedical
engineering department, spent
several years working on die an
alytical model before solving
the problem.
“We’ve known for over half a
century about the mechanism
of acousto-optics in clear me
dia,” Wang said. “Its counter
part in scattering media, how
ever, was a mystery.”
Wang said an example of
clear media is water and an ex
ample of scattered media is bio
logical tissue.
“Thinking about the solution
kept me up many nights as I
struggled to understand how ul
trasound altered scattered laser
light,” Wang said. “Before now,
it [has not been] understood.”
Wang’s solution was to allow
the light to go through a scat
tered media, such as biological
tissue and use ultrasound tag
ging to follow the light.
“Ultrasound is unaffected
by scattering media,” Wang
said. “In our technique, we add
focused ultrasound at right an
gles to a low-power laser beam
where it hits the medium. The
ultrasound tags the light, so we
can pinpoint where the pho
tons have traversed by decod
ing the light coming out.”
Wang said cancerous tissue
deflects and absorbs light dif
ferently from normal tissue and
that with the use of ultrasound
tagging, it will be possible to de
tect cancer earlier.
Wang’s explanation of the age-
old acousto-optics question re
cently was published in the
42,000-member American Phys
ical Society publication, Physical
Review Letters.
He said he also has been in
vited to give seminars in more
than 50 countries around the
world, and that he will be giving
seminars in both England and
Australia this fall.
Since at Texas A&M, Wang’s
research focus has been on op
tical spectroscopy and imaging
for biomedical diagnostics. He
and his research group are us
ing optics and ultrasound to
create a non-invasive, early-de-
tection procedure for cancer
ous tissue.
One experimental tech
nique they developed, ultra-
sound-modulated laser to
mography, was issued a patent
in March 2000.
ANDY HANCOCK/The Battalion
The Dallas Cowboys face off against each other at Stepnoski waits for quarterback Tony Banks' sig-
a practice in Witchita Falls. Center Mark nal to hike the ball.
Cowboys begin
Matthew Thigpen
The Battalion
As the Dallas Cowboys begin
training camp in Wichita Ealls, only
one thing is certain: Troy Aikman
will not be running the offense dur
ing the 2001 season.
Stars such as Jay Novacek,
Michael Irvin and Darryl Johnston
are also gone, leaving Emmitt Smith
as the lone holdover from one of the
most dominant offenses of the ’90s.
The Cowboys have given the
quarterback reigns to none other
‘than Baltimore castoff Tony Banks,
hoping that he can bring an offense
that has struggled for the last two
years back to life. The past few years
have not been kind to Banks, who
lost his starting job in St. Louis to
Trent Green — who in turn was re
placed by Kurt Warner.
He became the starting quarter
back of the Baltimore Ravens late in
the 1999 season but watched from
the bench last year as Trent Dilfer
replaced him midseason and took
the Ravens to the Super Bowl.
If Banks is injured or plays poorly,
the Cowboys’ options at quarterback
are limited. Anthony Wright — a
castoff from Pittsburgh’s, practice
squad with two career starts on his
resume — and second-round draft
pick Quincy Carter, the University
of Georgia’s career passing leader.
Carter has had some good mo
ments in camp but has had his share
of struggles as well. His largest prob
lems have been his tendency to have
balls flutter, or not fly in a tight spi-
training
ral, and an inability to read the de
fensive scheme, which causes him to
run instead of throw.
One bright spot for Dallas is the
return of wide receivers Raghib
“Rocket” Ismail and Joey Galloway,
both of whom were lost last season
See Cowboys on Page 3.
ANDY HANCOCK/The Battalion
Dallas Cowboys running back Michael Wiley attempts to run past
linebacker Dat Nguyen during a training-camp scrimmage.
Conseco
deceives
customers
Jason Bennyhoff
The Battalion
The Texas attorney general’s office filed suit
Tuesday against Conseco Senior Health Insur
ance Co. for allegedly deceiving its customers
about their premium rates.
The lawsuit alleges that the company misled
its policyholders about the stability of their pre
mium rates, telling them their premiums would
remain constant and then increasing them after
die victims bought policies.
T he premium increases, which the attorney
general’s office described as “substantial,” ranged
from 14 to 16 percent increases in 1997 to as high
as 25 percent in 1999.
Tom Kelley, spokesperson for the attorney gen
eral’s office, said Conseco’s rate increases became
so steep that many policyholders were forced to
let the policy lapse,
The company
tricked its
customers into
believing these
rates would
remain stable
throughout
their lives.”
— John Cornyn
Texas attorney general
thereby leaving the
company to keep
the paid-in premi
ums because the
policyholder would
no longer be able
to make a claim.
He said the at
torney general’s of
fice is outraged and
will work for as
long as it has to to
find a positive res-
. olution to the
case.
“The company tricked its customers into be
lieving these rates would remain stable through
out their lives, regardless of their physical condi
tion or age,” Kelley said. “[This] lawsuit is the
result of an extensive investigation by the attor
ney general’s office, and we expect to be litigat
ing it for some time.”
The attorney general’s office said from 1992 to
1999, Conseco collected nearly $60 million in
premiums from Texas consumers.
Attorney General John Cornyn said these un
ethical rate practices victimized more than 10,000
Texas policyholders.
“Thousands of Texans spent their hard-earned
money with Conseco and its predecessor, ATL
Life Insurance Co.,” Cornyn said. “They paid
their premiums in good faith, hoping to establish
improved security for themselves in anticipation
of a serious need later on in life. We contend
these companies betrayed their trust and put
them in financial jeopardy.”
The attorney general says these practices were
already imbedded in the policies of ATL Life In
surance Co., which Conseco acquired and
through which it sold many of these policies.
Neither Conseco officials nor their legal rep
resentatives could be reached for comment.
Study: One in five teens victimized by date
CHICAGO (AP) — One in five high
school girls has been physically or sexu
ally abused by a dating partner, signifi
cantly increasing their risk of drug abuse,
suicide and other harmful behavior, a
study suggests.
The research published in Wednes
day’s Journal of the American Medical
Association stems from surveys of4,163
public school students in Massachusetts,
but the authors say the results likely ap
ply to teens nationwide.
According to recent estimates from
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 22 percent of high
school students are victims of nonsexual
dating violence, with girls slightly more
likely to be victims.
The results also mirror domestic vio
lence rates among adult women, al
though some statistics indicate young
women and teens are especially prone,
perhaps in part because they generally
have more dating partners.
The study also suggests that a dis
turbing number of adolescent boys “have
adopted attitudes that men are entitled
to control their girlfriends through vio
lence,” said lead author Jay G. Silverman
of Harvard University’s School of Pub
lic Health.
The study was based on results of
statewide surveys given to students in
grades nine through 12 in 1997 and
1999. More than 70 percent of the girls
who participated were white, about 10
percent were Hispanic and about 6 per
cent each were black or Asian.
Participants were asked if they would
ever been shoved, slapped, hit or forced
into any sexual activity, including rape,
by a date. They also were asked about re
cent risky behavior. Victimized girls
were:
• About eight to nine times more like
ly to have attempted suicide in the pre
vious year.
• Lour to six times more likely to have
ever been pregnant.
• Three to five times more likely to
have ever used cocaine.
• Three to four times more likely to
have used unhealthy dieting methods
such as laxatives or vomiting.
See Violence on Page 2.