2
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
THE
mi i
Gas
Continued from page 1
“sweetheart deals ” said Arianna Huffington, a Detriot Project
representative.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, in an election
year. Republicans fear this issue could play into voter decision
making. Democrats hope to sway rising gas prices in their favor
while Republicans are battling to keep blame at bay.
“If it makes you feel any better, you’re not really spending that much
more,” Platou said. “It’s only about four dollars a week, but it seems
like 50. That’s still cheaper than the price of a drink at Northgate.”
Veterans
Continued from page 1
standoff that killed 22 people,White House spokes
woman Pamela Stevens said.
Bush also called Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to
urge support of a strong United Nations resolution for a
new Iraqi government. Bush urged that the two nations
work together to back the new government.
In his speech. Bush singled some of the dead from
Iraq for special commendation:
—Capt. Joshua Byers, a West Point man and South
Carolina native. “When this son of missionaries was
given command of a 120-man combat unit, he wrote to
his parents, ‘I will give the mep everything I have to
give,”’ Bush said.
—Pfc. Jesse Givens of Springfield, Mo., had written
to his wife, Melissa: “Do me a favor after you tuck the
children in — give them hugs and kisses from me,” the
president noted.
—Master Sgt. Kelly Hornbeck of Fort Worth, Texas,
wrote his parents saying, “I am not afraid and neither
When we return to our home sta
tions, we must ensure that we never
forget those fallen comrades that de
ployed with us that will not return to
their loved ones.
— Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez
senior military officcer at Baghdad's Camp Victory
should either of you be,” Bush said.
“Because of their fierce courage, America is safer,
two terror regimes are gone forever and more than 50
million souls now live in freedom,” Bush said to a
warm applause.
Bush’s appearance, by dint of tradition and prac
tice, was a generic tribute to people who have fallen
in all U.S. wars past and present, although he partic
ularly cited Iraq. For Kerry, a decorated veteran, it
was a day to focus on that conflict of the 1960s and
early 70s — one he would ultimately march and
speak against.
Bush gave a speech; Kerry said little as he walked
somberly along the shiny black granite wall where the
names of the more than 58,000 who fell in Vietnam
are etched in time and remembrance. He rubbed his
thumb over one of the newest names to be added to the
memorial.
“So young,” the Massachusetts Democrat mused, as
he looked at a photograph of William Bronson, who
died in 1976 from a seizure caused by a head wound he
had received in 1968. Kerry had worked with the Navy
to have Bronson’s name added to the wall, and he was
joined there by Bronson’s mother, Barbara, and other
family members.
Kerry waited until he got outside the Capital Beltway
to resume normal politics, telling an audience in
Portsmouth, Va., that Bush “didn’t learn the lessons of
our generation in Vietnam.”
Race
Continued from
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Businesses hope
Texans seek
refuge in river
NEW BRAUNFELS (AP)
— Folks in this Central
Texas community are hop
ing for a hot summer that
drives Texans to seek
refuge in their river recre
ation businesses, two years
after a July Fourth storm 4
and flooding destroyed the
summer season.
City and business leaders
hope an additional 2 million
people will flock to the river
banks, where river tubing, a
water park and lake are popu
lar summer destinations.
A cool, wet spring has
filled Canyon Lake and
Edwards Aquifer, offering
good conditions for tubing,
kayaking and other river
activities, the Houston
Chronicle reported Monday.
“The water flows are
good,” said Zero Rivers,
owner of Rockin’ R River
Rides. “It looks like we’re
going to have a great one.”
Texas insurance
regulators weigh
credit scoring
DALLAS (AP) —Texans with
mediocre or worse credit histo
ries are paying more for car
and home insurance, even if
they have good claims records.
The number of auto insurers
relying on “credit scoring” in
setting rates has risen to near
ly 80 percent of the Texas mar
ket, according to a recent sur
vey. A solid majority of home
insurers also use the scores
when pricing their policies.
Insurance companies say
credit scoring is a valuable tool
in deciding whom to sell auto
and homeowners policies and
how much to charge. Consumer
groups say it’s an unfair practice
that disproportionately burdens
minorities and the poor.
State insurance regulators
are caught in the middle, trying
to decide just how much to limit
credit scoring as they imple
ment a massive insurance
reform law passed last year,
The Dallas Morning News
reported Monday.
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Yale cooperates with Catholic schoi
By Justin Pope
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thirty-five miles and several degrees of
prestige separate Yale University and St.
Joseph College, a small, Roman Catholic,
predominantly women’s school in
Hartford, Conn.
But they share at least one thing: thirst.
Both campuses consume spring water by the
truckload, and when Yale scored a good deal
on a delivery contract, St. Joseph piggy
backed on to it.
The arrangement cut St. Joseph’s water-
cooler bill in half, saving $2,000.
For years, sometimes decades, colleges
have pooled their buying power in areas like
insurance and computers. But now, under
particular pressure to rein in tuition increases
and tighten budgets without cutting from the
classroom, many are trying to think creative
ly about new ways to save on overhead costs.
Experts say that private institutions are
mostly leading the way, though schools
within a state system often have a lot more
in common — computer systems, missions,
even trustees — than do the St. Josephs and
Yales of the world.
St. Joseph’s is looking beyond water bot
tles, aiming to trim the $10,000 it spends
annually on trash bags, for instance. It’s part
of a consortium of independent Connecticut
schools exploring buying pools for every
thing from organic groceries to lawyers.
Similar efforts are under way in other
states, where some buying compacts claim to
have saved tens of millions of dollars for
their members. There’s even a soft drink con
tract shared by several Christian colleges.
“The big schools need my volume to fur
ther their savings, and I need the big
schools’ buying power to get down my
costs,” said Mike Jednak, St. Joseph’s asso
ciate vice president for facilities.
“Everyone’s reading about how the cost of
education is just skyrocketing. This is a fan
tastic way to get our arms around it and save
dollars for students.”
Connecticut’s state university system par
ticipates in a number of group buying pro
grams. But public colleges still face hurdles
private schools can often ignore — like
requirements to solicit bids from minority-
and locally owned business — that can make
it harder to work with colleges in other
states. Each of the Connecticut system’s four
campuses still buys its own bottled water.
Nationwide, public four-year schools
spend an estimated $40 billion annually on
administrative costs — everything from
heating oil to office supplies. That comes to
about $7,500 per student, or about a quarter
of the cost of educating each pupil. 1
States understandably want to mirlj
those costs, so they often require ur l
ties buy off state contracts in order ■
volume discounts. But experts say thai:l
n't always produce the best deal.
In Wisconsin, many of the state'sB
pendent colleges buy property and
insurance through their own consonimB
the public University of Wisconsin s;B
with 160,000 students on 26 campuses. B
on a state policy, which also covers pn g
Prisons, however, are considered
than schools and are more expensive to r j
Grouping them together, while in
increase volume for the policy, amounl
hidden tax on students to subsidize pr{
says David Olien, the Wisconsin sys
senior vice president for administratio:
wants Wisconsin to follow Michiga]
Iowa in allowing its public colleges l
laborate on their own.
“I believe we could save millions oil
he said, more than enough toe
tars.
potential extra costs to the prison systrf
Wolf Wegenke is president of I
Wisconsin Association of Indeperl
Colleges and Universities — the indep[
ents’ consortium — and has also]
positions under five governors. He said i
pendents envy the publics’ taxpayersu|
but not the red tape that comes with i
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The BATTALiOf
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