Thursday, June 24, 2004
he Battalion
)lume 110 • Issue 158 • 8 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
AGGIELIFE:
An alternative
Northgate?
Page 3
wwav. thebatt.com
port clubs add Tae Kwon Do
i
By Erin Price
THE BATTALION
Members of the Texas A&M Tae Kwon
D|) club were jumping for joy when they
rd the news that they had been added to
Texas A&M Sport Club Association last
ing. The Tae Kwon Do club had finally
en its wish.
“Everyone was really surprised,” said
ve Ostrander, president of the Tae Kwon
club and senior agricultural development
jor. “All of our hard work finally paid off.”
Ostrander said the club had been making
he. i!
sp
goit
St
Do
ifti
presentations to SCA for the past three years
and that he was glad that this was finally its
time to be accepted. Angela Shimek, the
club’s secretary, jump-started the process by
contacting the SCA, Ostrander said.
“Being a recognized sport club is going
to provide us with a bit more funding and
exposure,” Ostrander said. “No one really
knows how well we do at competitions.”
The Tae Kwon Do club has been nation
ally ranked in the top three every year since
1998, Ostrander said. The team was also the
national champion in 2001 and most recent
ly placed third at nationals last year in
Seattle, Wash.
Jason Boyle, assistant director of SCA,
said that for a club to be admitted into SCA,
it must be recognized by A&M as an organ
ization for at least one year and also have a
governing body.
“The Tae Kwon Do club showed good
team work,” Boyle said. “They were also
about teaching the sport to others, and that
was one of the things we liked about them.”
Boyle said the benefits of being in SCA
were that a club has scheduling priorities for
See Sports on page 2
PACE DESIGN BY: RACHEL VALENCIA
ASlKA TA€ KWOKJ DO Cl\JB
'he A&M Tae Kwon Do Club has been added to the Texas
|A&M Sports Club Association.
| O The club had applied to the
Sports Club Association for the
last three years
0 The club has been admitted
on a probationary basis, after
one year they will be eligible
for financial benefits.
<3 The club has been nationally
ranked in the top three since
1998
& In 2001 .theclub was named
national champions
Will Lloyd • THE BATTALION
Photo Courtesy of: TAE KWON DO CLUB
Source: STEVE OSTRANDER, PRESIDENT, TAE KWON DO CLUB
Through the grapevine
EVAN O'CONNELL • THE BATTALION
lior management major Kyle Miller examines the grapes in The Horticulture Gardens are located on Hensel Street in
Texas A&M Horticulture Gardens Wednesday afternoon. College Station and are open to the public.
griculture leadership program
announces 25 new members
By Shawn C. Millender
THE BATTALION
I The Texas Agricultural Lifetime
adership program, a two-year
lurse in leadership developed by
the Texas Cooperative Extension
ncy, recently announced the 25
mbers of its ninth class.
“Given the critical issues facing
jr|(]agriculture today, there is a need to
•^vide intensive leadership develop-
nt experiences for a promising new
i&heration of leaders,” said TALL
rector Jim Mazurkiewitz. “The
LL program increases knowledge
understanding of agriculture and
■Related industries in the context of
-pr Bay’s complex economic, political
societal systems.”
sh^| industry leaders from every facet
78
j
of agriculture compete for one of 25
slots, which are available only every
other year.
“We hope that we mirror the ag
industry from the farm gate to the
plate,” Mazurkiewitz said.
Since the beginning of TALL in
1988, 210 graduates have completed
the program. This year’s class will
hear more than 300 speakers and
meet more than 3,000 industry lead
ers, Mazurkiewitz said. They will
travel to Mexico, Washington, D.C.,
New York and Brazil.
Mazurkiewitz said one of the
main benefits of the course is the
network that will become available
to participants.
“Relationships are key to furthering
See Program on page 2
STANDING
The Texas Agricultural Lifetime
Leadership Program is a two-year
course in leadership developed by
the Texas Cooperative Extension
Agency.
^ Agricultural industry leaders
vie for admission to only one of
25 slots
Applicants are admitted to the
program once every other year
^ The program focuses on
leadership development and
networking within the
agricultural community
Andrew Burleson • THE BATTALION
Source: 1IM MAZURKIEWITZ, TALL DIRECTOR
‘Landmark settlement’
Store that sold gun will pay shot officers
By Jennifer Bundy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A judge
approved a landmark $1 million settle
ment Wednesday between two New
Jersey police officers and the store that
sold the gun used to shoot them.
Police officers David Lemongello and
Kenneth McGuire of Orange, N.J., were
shot with a Sturm, Ruger 9mm handgun
in January 2001. Both were
disabled and have retired.
Their attacker, Shuntez
Everett, was killed in a
gunbattle with them.
The settlement between
the officers and the Will
Co., which operated Will’s
Jewelry and Loan in South
Charleston, was approved
by Kanawha County
Circuit Judge Irene Berger.
The shop sold the gun
and 11 others in July 2000
in a “straw sale,” in which
someone without a crimi
nal record buys guns and
turns them over to some-
else. The store later
U -n,
The message is,
if you didn't follow
the standards...
you are going to
wind up having to
pay money for
your conduct
— Scott Segal
co-counsel for the officers
one
contacted federal agents and cooperated
in an undercover sting.
“This is the first case in which a gun
dealer will pay damages, has paid dam
ages for facilitating the gun trafficking in
this way,” said Dennis Hanigan, an attor
ney for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun
Violence. The center and Charleston
attorney Scott Segal are co-counsel for
the police officers.
Segal said the settlement “shows gun
retailers they have to be careful about
who they sell their guns to and under
what circumstances.”
Lawrence Keane, an attorney for the
National Shooting Sports Foundation,
the trade association for the firearms
industry, said there have been other set
tlements of cases against gun stores by
people who were shot, but he did not
know if any of those cases involved a
“straw sale.”
The gun used to shoot the officers was
bought by Tammi Lea
Songer of South
Charleston, who turned the
guns over to James Gray, a
convicted felon who could
not buy guns. Gray sold
them to convicted felons,
including Everett. Songer
and Gray spent time in
prison for their roles.
An attorney for the
store, Michael Folio, said
the shop is not admitting
liability or that it did not
follow industry standards,
hut settled because “it was
a decision we found to be
in the best interest of all
parties.
“It was a tragedy what hap
pened to the officers. It was a tragedy
these people bought the guns by lying
and deceiving and deceiving Will
Company to begin with.”
The gun retail industry has voluntary
standards about gun sales, including how
to be wary of straw sales, Segal said.
“The message is, if you didn’t follow
the standards as a retailer or a wholesaler,
you are going to wind up having to pay
money for your conduct,” Segal said.
U.S. offers N. Korea security
for giving up nuclear program
By Audra Ang
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — U.S. negotiators presented
the first detailed American proposal
Wednesday on resolving the standoff with
North Korea, offering the North energy aid
and a security guarantee in exchange for
dismantling its nuclear program.
The proposal is meant to break an
impasse in talks that began their third
round after earlier negotiations brought no
progress on Washington’s demand for the
North to scrap its nuclear program.
The step-by-step plan would begin with
Pyongyang freezing its nuclear program
for a three-month period to prepare for dis
mantling, during which it would list all
nuclear activities and allow monitoring of
its facilities, U.S. officials said.
North Korea made its own six-point
proposal under which it would freeze the
operations of facilities at Yongbyong, its
main nuclear complex, Japan’s Kyodo
news agency reported, citing officials at
the conference.
The freeze would allow for inspections,
but the Kyodo report did not say if the
North’s plans included a commitment to
dismantle the nuclear facilities as the
American plan seeks.
Earlier, the North’s envoy at the talks,
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan,
said earlier that Pyongyang was willing
to renounce nuclear weapons in exchange
for aid and an end to Washington’s “hos
tile policy.”
The two proposals were put forward
during the opening session of the talks at a
Chinese government guesthouse, grouping
delegates from the United States, North
Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the
host, China.
The U.S. plan involves “a practical
series of steps to achieve the complete,
verifiable and irreversible dismantlement
of North Korea’s nuclear program,” White
House press secretary Scott McClellan
See Korea on page 2
&M medical students receive Scott & White Scholarships
By James Twine
THE BATTALION
Two Texas A&M graduates currently attend-
g the College of Medicine of the Texas A&M
niversity System Health Science Center have
Received Scott & White Medicine Scholarships to
id in their studies.
“The scholarship is awarded to those who
emonstrate high academic achievement, com
mitment to community service and the need for
financial assistance,” said Scott Clark, manager
of marketing communications for Scott &
White.
Kit Lim and Chris Kneip, fourth-year medical
students, and Monty Shah and Jedidiah Gisel,
third-year medical students, were awarded the
$2,000 scholarships by Dr. John Starr, professor of
medicine at the A&M System Health Science
Center College of Medicine in Temple, on June 16.
Kneip received his bachelor’s degree in exer
cise physiology from A&M and said he intends to
pursue a career in orthopedic surgery.
Kneip worked in cardiac rehabilitation at
Scott & White for a year and a half before attend
ing medical school.
Gisel earned a bachelor’s degree in biomed
ical engineering at A&M and participated in a
mentorship program at A&M’s Lowry Mays
College of Business where he studied health care
improvement research.
Clark said Scott & White awards the scholar
ships in medicine to four students each year, and
has been doing so for the past five years to rec
ognize outstanding achievements made by med
ical students.
Scott and White is a multi-specialty group prac
tice in the United States, and was established to
provide personalized comprehensive health care
enhanced by medical education and research.