| Monday, July 5,2004
The Battalion
SPORTS:
Katy Doyle
grabs gold at
championship
Page 5
V ohmic I 10 • Issue IM • 0 pages
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PACE DESIGN BY: RACHEL VALENCIA
B-CS celebrates Independence Day
By Shawn C. Millender
THE BATTALION
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The soggiest summer in recent memory gave
way July 4 to bright, sunny skies for The Lions
Club’s annual Fourth of July celebration at the
George Bush Presidential Library.
“We’ve been doing this for 44 years,” said
Lions Club past president David Jones.
Celebrations have been held at the library for
five years after many years at Olsen Field.
Entertainment this year included several
vocalists and Texas Country band, Texas
High Life.
Elvis impersonator Jason Adams preceded
the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, under
the direction of Maestro Marcelo Bussiki, which
accompanied the night’s fireworks display.
Jones said the celebrations get better
every year.
“It’s certainly drier than it was last year,”
Jones said. “It’s kind of ironic in that. But we
have a lot more experience doing it out here.”
The Lions Club does a lot of fund raising
throughout the year.
“This is the big one,” Jones said. “A lot of
people help make this go: businesses, the city of
College Station and of course the library. It’s
not just us out here.”
Jones said this year’s holiday has special sig
nificance. “It takes on a lot more meaning since
we’re at war,” Jones said. “The Fourth makes
people stop and reflect on what we’ve been
given. America has a lot to be thankful for, and
this is the time to celebrate that.”
Aggie broadcaster Dave South emceed the
event again this year. He said the holiday is one
of his favorites.
“I love my country. I think it was a blessing
to be born here,” South said. “Every July
Fourth, since I was a little boy, I’ve always been
to some sort of celebration.”
South said he enjoys interacting with people
at events like this one.
“I like to see the people - the kids, the par
ents, the veterans - come out and celebrate,”
See Celebration on page 2
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Alejandra Martinez • THE BATTALION
Alejandra Martinez • THE BATTALION
The College Station Noon Lions Club hosted its 44th Entertainment included an Elvis impersonator, a petting Elvis impersonator Jason Adams performs at the Fourth of July celebration at the George Bush Presidential
annual "I Love America" Fourth of July celebration at zoo, free watermelon, the Brazos Valley Symphony Library Sunday. Adams graduated from A&M Consolidated High School, served in the Marine Corps and
the George Bush Presidential Library Sunday. Orchestra and a fireworks display.
has performed in Las Vegas.
reck takes life of Aggie; baby in fair condition
By Brian D. Cain
THE BATTALION
lo the!
Kara Lyn Grothues, a senior economics major,
died Friday in an automobile accident in south
razos County.
Grothues was traveling to Houston on State
Highway 6 at about noon on Friday when she
lost control of her Dodge Stratus as she turned
to tend to her 18-month-old baby Cassandra
Boyd riding in the backseat, according to a
police report.
Sheila Swan, a communications supervisor
who works for the Texas Department of Public
Safety, said the vehicle hit a tree and burst
into flames.
“The woman and the baby were lifeflighted to
Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. The
woman died but the baby arrived in critical condi
tion with head injuries,” Swan said.
Amy Berryman, operations administrator for
Memorial Hermann Hospital, said Boyd had
improved over the weekend.
“She’s (the baby) still here, but now she’s in
fair condition. Her vitals have been stable and
she’s awake and alert,” Berryman said. “She rec
ognizes family members when they walk into the
room. She’s getting much better.”
Berryman said it is too early to tell if the
head trauma may have caused any permanent
damage.
“It’s hard to say at this point,” Berryman
said. “Hopefully the baby will be fine, but you
never know.”
Grothues donated her organs to Lifegift, an
organ and tissue donation service.
former regent dies of cancer at 71
By Shawn C. Millender
THE BATTALION
Former Texas A&M Board of Regents
ice Chairman Wayne Showers died of can-
r last Monday at the age of 71.
Showers graduated from A&M in 1953
ith a degree in horticulture before earning
5 master’s degree from A&M in entomol-
y. He served on the Board of Regents
>m 1987 to 1993.
Funeral services were held Thursday at
alvary Baptist Church in his hometown
of McAllen. Showers
was laid to rest at
Roselawn Cemetery.
Showers was instru
mental in shaping the
changing face of A&M.
He helped to develop the
horticulture department,
the newly accredited
School of Rural Public
Health and the Vegetable and Fruit
Improvement Center at A&M.
He worked closely with Dean and Vice
Chancellor for Agriculture and Life
SHOWERS
Sciences Ed Hiler.
"He was always a very optimistic person
who was extremely supportive of all of us;
certainly of me," Hiler said. "He was a
leader in the fruit and vegetable industry."
Showers also served as vice president of
the Association of Former Students and was
president of fruit and vegetable producer
Griffin & Brand for 32 years.
He was named a Distinguished Texan in
Agriculture in 2003 and was inducted into
Iraqi militants deny
beheading Marine
By Hussein Dakroub
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
See Showers on page 2
sai^
&M to house next Bush Library, Regents hope
By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
Depending on whether President
■flush gets re-elected this November,
I he could designate the location of his
^ presidential library this fall or in
ffi: four years.
wM Whatever the outcome of the
election, the Texas A&M Board of
I Regents is hoping that when his
term does end, he will pick Texas
■&M, said Erie Nye, vice chairman
1 of the board.
I Nye said the board made a pro-
flesal at the time of Bush’s inaugura-
;t|bn in January 2001.
IS* 1 ® “-\y e tr j ec j t0 g et j t positioned on
,, his desk when he arrived in the White
w House,” Nye said.
I I Nick Anthis, 2003-04 president of
the Texas Aggie Democrats and a
slnior biochemistry major, said
housing Bush’s library would be a
stigma for A&M.
“Bush the second is going to go
down in history as one of our worst
presidents,” Anthis said. “I don’t
think that’s anything A&M would
want to be associated with.”
John Jackson, chairman of the
A&M College Republicans and a
senior political science major, said
that another presidential library
would benefit students.
“(Former President Bush’s) library
has offered so many opportunities for
A&M students to have different
heads of state and important world
leaders come to campus,” Jackson
said. “I think another library at A&M
would really increase that.”
Nye said the 2001 proposal was to
let the president know that the regents
LIBRARY II?
Texas A&IVTs Board of Regents hopes that
George W. Bush will pick Texas A&M
University as the site for his presidential
library.
o A&M would be the only
university with two
presidential libraries
© The announcement will
depend on whether or
not Bush is re-elected
Q The board made a proposal in 2001 at the
time of Bush's inauguration
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A militant group denied on Sunday
that it killed U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, injecting
hope into his family’s tense wait for news. The fate of the
Lebanese-born Marine remains unknown, though Lebanon’s
Foreign Ministry says he is believed dead.
The denial from the Ansar al-Sunna Army came a day after
a statement in the group’s name announced that Hassoun had
been beheaded. The Ansar al-Sunna said Sunday they didn’t
issue the statement, leaving it unclear if the 24-year-old was
killed by another group or was still alive.
“The denial gave us a big relief,” Hassoun’s brother, Sami,
told The Associated Press by telephone from the northern city
of Tripoli, where some of Hassoun’s relatives live.
But with conflicting reports and no hard evidence, the fam
ily remained afraid for Wassef’s life and was still reeling from
the possibility he had been beheaded.
“We are hoping that good news will come later tonight that
Wassef is alive, God willing,” Sami Hassoun said. He renewed
his appeal to the kidnappers to release his brother.
The report that Wassef Hassoun had been killed came
Saturday in a message posted on Islamic radical Web sites,
signed by the Ansar al-Sunna Army in Qaim, a hotbed of guer
rilla activity on Iraq’s border with Syria. That name was dif
ferent from the one given in the statement that originally
announced Hassoun’s abduction a week ago.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that
it had independent information from Baghdad that he had
been killed.
But after strongly condemning the death Sunday,
Foreign Minister Jean Obeid later said news of the death
“was not official.”
Obeid said the Lebanese charge d’affaires in Baghdad was
“in contact with some forces that have indirect links to the
(kidnappers), and these forces say they lost hope in all
See Library on page 2
Will Lloyd • THE BATTALION
Source: ERLE NYE, VICE CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF REGENTS
See Marine on page 2
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