1997_02 The Daily Collegian February 1997

              THE DAILY I
COLLEGIAN
Wednesday, February 19, 1997
News
News Editor: Matthew Hart
Telephone: (209) 278-2556
OF THF WFTOP
Justice... Italian style
• In November, a judge in Rome, ruled that
a 24-year-old man was entitled to live with
his mother even though she doesn't want him
to. Said the woman. "If he comes home then
I'm (leaving)." In a 1996 cast reported by
the Associated Press in December. Italy's Su¬
preme Court refused to convict several of a
6-year-old girl's relatives who had sex with
her. citing the strangeness and
"particular(ity)" of the family environment.
The court said the family's ordinary relation¬
ships were wild, "dominated uniquely or al¬
most always by instinct."
Who said New Yorkers are
jaded?
• In January. Jack Petelui. 43. claiming to
hear God. stripped down to his underwear,
climbed the ornate facade of the Ansonia
Hotel in New York City, resisted police ef¬
forts for more than an hour to talk him down,
and finally jumped. Cynical New Yorkers
were said to be astonished at the dozens of
bystanders who were actually yelling. "Don't
jump!" (Petelui was spared serious injury
when he landed on a police department res¬
cue airbag.)
Life imitates crime movies
• In January, six inmates, including two
convicted murderers, tunneled out of the
maximum security state prison in Pittsburgh.
15 feet below ground, using tools from the
prison machine shop. And in January, the
Banco Credito Argentino in Buenos Aires
was robbed of about $25 million by a gang
lhat had made a 165-foot-long tunnel under
a street over the previous several months. It .
was Buenos Aires' 55th tunnel-related bank
robbery s,ince 1990.
Those silly people
• Police in Allentown, Pa., discovered in
September that a man who was recently ar¬
rested at the bus station with 280 small bags
of heroin in his luggage had chewed off the
skin of seven fingertips after being jailed.
Said a police sergeant, "It certainly is a strong
indication that somebody somewhere is look¬
ing for him."
• A man robbed a variety store in Guelph,
Ontario, in December wielding only a 3-foot-
long tree branch. And in Columbia. Mo., in
December, Eric O. Criss. 31. fortified with
only a socket wrench, failed in his alleged
attempt to rob a grocery store. And in Calgary,
Alberta, in December, a man brandishing
only a bottle of household cleaner robbed a
Bank of Nova Scotia.
• A 21 -year-old. allegedly intoxicated man
was spotted by police on an Austin, Minn.,
street in January urinating on a car but was
let go with a warning when he persuaded
police it was his own car. A few minutes later
police returned and arrested the man for DUI,
having figured out that he was urinating on
the car's door lock to melt the ice so that he
could get in and drive away.
• Roger AgustoSosa. 23. wa:,charged with
burglary early Christmas morning in Chevy
Chase. Md. Scott Kane and his wife had heard
a prowler in the house and called 911. De¬
spite the clamor of several squad cars arriv¬
ing and seven officers rushing into the living
room with guns drawn, Sosa by the time re¬
portedly was seated under the tree, blissfully
opening the Kanes' presents.
• In October in Great Falls. Mont., Tina
Rae Beavers, 19. was arrested on the lawn
separating the jail and the courthouse and
charged with indecent exposure. According
to a sheriff's deputy, she was energetically
complying with her jailed husband's request
to remove her clothes, lie down in the grass,
and make suggestive movements so that he
could see her from his cell window.
Always a slave to love
• In December in Hong Kong. Yuen Saiwa.
33.. pleaded guilty to bank robbery but said
the only reason he did it was that he felt chal¬
lenged to keep his girlfriend, who was about
to leave him. And in San Diego in January.
Michael William Smith. 26. and Danny
Mayes. 20. were charged with arson for fires
they set at the behest of Tammy Jo Garcia.
27. whp. they said, became sexually aroused
by the fires, to their benefit. (She was also
charged).
Government in action
• The New York Daily News reported in
January lhat a fire hydrant had recently been.
installed at the busy intersection of Tremont
Avenue and Boston Road in the Bronx but
that it was installed in the street, five feet from
the curb, requiring all traffic to go around it.
A city spokesman said the hydrant was in¬
stalled properly and lhat eventually a side¬
walk would be built in what is now the curb
lane, but because of engineering delays and
bad weather, construction has noi yet been
scheduled.
• Helen Stanwell. a 23-year-veteran park
ranger in Seattle, was suspended for six days
in November because she worked after hours
without pay to help a historical society mem¬
ber look for a local site. (It is illegal in Wash¬
ington to work more than 40 hours without
claiming overtime.) And in January,
Wallingford. Conn., city employee Millie
Wood. 72. was suspended for one day be¬
cause she voluntarily trimmed the town's
Christmas tree during Thanksgiving holiday.
(It is illegal to be in the building after hours.h
• In March Amy Howe. 25. was the vic¬
tim of a hit-and-run driver in Washington.
D.C.. and suffered a broken leg. Three wit¬
nesses immediately supplied police with the
car's tag number, and shortly afterward
Howe's husband used public records to iden¬
tify for police the car that was assigned that
tag. In September 1996. upon inquiry of the
Washington Post, a police spokesperson said
that despite having the pertinent information
virtually handed to it, the department was
only then almost ready to begin it's investi¬
gation.
• In October, the Associated Press uncov¬
ered several military construction projects
that continued to be fully funded by the Pen¬
tagon long after the facilities on which they
are housed had been designated for perma¬
nent closing. Included were a $5 million
Navy Chapel in San Diego, a $3 million
Army classroom building near Chicago, a
$13 million Navy dining hall in Orlando, and
a $5 million Air Force fire station and train¬
ing facility in Indianapolis. Said a Navy
spokesman in San Diego. "(The taxpayers)
are going to have to pay for it anyway, so
why not complete (it)?'
They are dying to get in...
•The town of Colma. Calif., just south ot
San Francisco, has a population of 1.000 in
'an area of about 2.2 square miles, but three-
fourths of the land consists of cemeteries in
which a million people are buried. In Octo¬
ber, citizen Robert Simcox announced he
would gather signatures to secure a ballot
referendum for 1997 that would impose a
municipal tax on the dead, in the form of a
levy on cemetery owners of $5 per grave per
year. —
Updates of the Weird	
In August 1996. News of the Weird re
ported in a group of New York City police
officers who had availed themselves of ex¬
pensive and hokey tax-resistance kits that
would allow them to be regarded as nontax
able aliens while still being law enforcement
officers. Six subsequently pleaded guilty, but
in January 1997. the first case.to go to trial.
Officer Adalberto Miranda testified lhat he-
owed no tax because New York was merely
a geographic area, not a government entity,
and a short ways into his testimony. Miranda
took it upon himself to disqualify Federal
Judge Denny Chin because Chin seemed "up
set." and then to "arrest" Chin from the wit¬
ness stand and to give Chin his "Miranda (no
relation) warning."
ASI: Budget cuts reduce funding of programs
Continued from.page 1.
pool, weight room, tennis courts,
etc.. free of charge.
They were forced to begin
charging for use of the facilities and
have tripled their initial rate of 25
cents per visit to the current 75 cent
per visit.
Another aspect of CRS services
that has been affected by the de¬
creased budget is the number of
hours it remains open each week.
Current hours are 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Monday through Friday and noon
to 4 p.m. Sundays.
"If we got more money we could
be open all day Friday and Satur¬
day and earlier everyday for more
hours," Luna said. "I'm not trying
to say anything bad about (the ASI).
because if they didn't give us
money, we wouldn't exist."
Another major concern of CRS
is declining popularity.
Luna said since the fee increases
the popularity of intramural and
recretational services have de¬
clined.
He said the rising trend among
students is to join outside, privately-
owned fitness clubs like George
Brown's, rather than utilizing cam¬
pus facilities.
"Students obviously want [good
facilities]. Why can't they get that
here?" Luna said.
Valene Valverde. another CRS
organizer, said that CRS offers
more than just recreation for stu¬
dents.
"I want to emphasize that we're
not only providing programs for
students to participate in. but also
part-time jobs for students to earn
money." Valverde said.
A petition has been circulated,
which CRS supports, that would
reinstate the $16 ASI fee.
Last year students voted to cut
the Student Body Fee to $8.
The petition emphasizes the fact
that with each student at Fresno
State paying only $8 worth of stu¬
dent fees per semester, "there will
be insufficient money to fund The
Daily Collegian. Intramurals. Uni¬
versity Lecture Series. Security Es¬
cort Service and the 150 clubs and
organizations at their current lev¬
els of funding."
The $8 cut is the source of all of
CRS' woes. Luna said. He urges
everyone interested in the continu¬
ation of ASI-sponsored programs to
sign the petition.
The petition can be found at the
CR§office in the North Gym room
109 and various other locations
around campus.
Donation
Continued from page 1.
to go into a field of engineering
About $4,000 will go#to a pro¬
gram called Power Auction Engi¬
neer, which will prepare students
for the job market. The Computer
and Electrical Engineer Preparation
Program will receive about $2,000.
And $1,500 will go to future
Geomatic Engineers. This enables
students to grasp skills about map¬
ping, definition of points and trans¬
fer data into computers, as well as
Other necessary skills that will give
them an edge in such a competitive
field.
Of this money. 40-50 percent
will be awarded to engineering stu¬
dents as scholarships and grants.
Engineering majors make up about
five percent of the annual graduat¬
ing class.
"We really appreciate all the
help we receive from any members
of the community like PG&E, who
help improve the quality of our pro¬
grams. Any assistance to students
is welcomed and will help better
education," Longley said.
■
Party
Continued from page 2.
smiling, walk off the dance-floor
and out the fyont door, without
any notice to the people he came
with.
He leaves and grabs a taxi (if
he is lucky enough*K> find one)
or starts to walk home, even if it
takes hours. The fact that the rest
of us are leaving in a car 10 min¬
utes later does not impress him
"When you want to leave,
you want to leave." is his silent
motto. He conducts the'journey
home in a fashion that would
make a zombie proud.
There is no talking or think¬
ing. In fact, he is already asleep
when he starts the journey,
which explains why he never re¬
members how he got home.
The moral of this column is
that if you have a tendency to
lose control of your actions
when you party, make sure I'm
not around, because I will re¬
mind you of it until the end of
time.
'