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Dallas
mother pleads guilty in Atkinson case
DALLAS (AP)
— A mother accused of locking her 8-year-old daughter in a
dark, filthy closet for months at a time and starving the girl pleaded
guilty Thursday to causing serious bodily injury to a child.
The charges
against Barbara Atkinson, 30, carried five years to life in prison.
The sentencing phase began in the afternoon.
The surprise
plea came on the third day of her trial, shortly after arguments
about whether some of the girl’s five siblings would testify.
Prosecutors
said the girl weighed 25 pounds — the size of a 2-year-old
— and was nearly dead when she was found last summer. They
showed the jury photos of the girl with a bloated stomach, bony
limbs and sunken eyes.
The girl suffered
brain atrophy, her muscles were wasting away and she was so malnourished
her body could no longer metabolize food, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors
said the girl was kept in a lice-infested mobile home closet littered
with human waste.
Atkinson and
her former husband, 34-year-old Kenneth Atkinson, were arrested
in June after neighbors alerted authorities. The ex-husband is awaiting
trial on charges of serious bodily injury to a child and aggravated
sexual assault of a child. He could get up to life in prison.
Morales
launches gubernatorial ad campaign
AUSTIN (AP)
— Democrat Dan Morales launched television ads in some cities
Thursday, a week after primary opponent Tony Sanchez began blanketing
the state with his commercials.
Morales’
30-second ads, in both English and Spanish, tout his record as the
state’s attorney general and the $17 billion tobacco settlement
Texas secured during his term.
There are no
spoken words, only printed ones, in the ads, developed by his brothers,
Grammy-winning record producers Michael and Ron Morales of San Antonio.
The silence
of the ads is intended to grab viewers’ attention, his brothers’
said.
Unlike Sanchez,
a multimillionaire who bought ad time in cities statewide, Morales
is targeting his ads.
The first ones
were appearing beginning Thursday in Beaumont-Port Arthur, Corpus
Christi, Laredo, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley — areas
with big populations of union workers and Hispanics.
The Texas AFL-CIO
endorsed Sanchez, but Morales believes he still can win many labor
votes, said his spokesman, Jim Moore.
In Sanchez’s
ads, now showing in prime spots in all Texas markets, the Laredo
businessman talks about his background in oil and banking as he
introduces himself to viewers.
Student
files $20 million lawsuit for sexual assault
NEW YORK (U-WIRE)—
The victim of an attempted sexual assault last October in the Hayden
residence hall filed a $20 million lawsuit against New York University
in early January, charging negligent security practices at the dormitory,
according to court records.
The initial
complaint, filed in New York State Supreme Court, stated that NYU’s
lax dorm security procedures allowed a “homeless crack cocaine
user with a prior felony record” to use a bathroom normally
restricted to Hayden residents and attack a female student there
on Oct. 25.
As a result,
the student is asking for $10 million in compensatory damages and
$10 million in punitive damages, plus court costs, according to
the complaint.
University Spokesman
John Beckman had little comment on the suit other than to say the
University regrets the attack even occurred.
An unidentified
NYU Protection Services officer on duty at Hayden that day let the
attacker, 32-year-old Jerome Ferguson, use a unisex bathroom on
the building’s first floor that is normally restricted to residents.
Consistent with
Hayden security procedures at the time, Ferguson even left identification
with the guard at the front desk — a New York City welfare
benefits card.
Once beyond
the security barrier, Ferguson followed the victim, a freshman in
the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, into the bathroom and
began to assault her, according to the complaint.
A member of
the NYU housing staff and the Protection officer on duty forced
their way into the bathroom and interrupted the attack after hearing
the woman’s cries. Ferguson was detained and eventually arrested
and charged with attempted rape in the first degree, three counts
of sexual abuse in the first degree and assault in the second degree.
Ferguson is
currently behind bars in lieu of posting $25,000 bail, according
to the complaint, and he is being prosecuted in New York City Criminal
Court.
The complaint
also claims that NYU brass were aware of “systemic security
problems” at residence halls, including a 1999 incident in
which a man unaffiliated with the University was apprehended inside
a female student’s dorm room.
University
of Utah enrollment rises 2 percent
SALT LAKE CITY
(U-WIRE) — The Olympics might be the largest academic disruption
University of Utah ever has had, but it wasn’t enough to keep
students out of the classroom.
Despite predictions
of a Games-influenced enrollment drop-off, student numbers are up
— way up.
U administrators
acknowledged guessing enrollment figures for a typical semester
is difficult, but for “the most unusual semester ever,”
it was nearly impossible, said Paul Brinkman, associate vice president
of budget and planning.
Final enrollment
numbers will not be available until later this week, but early statistics
show a 2 percent increase over spring semester 2001 -- amounting
to more than 700 additional students. The enrollment jump makes
this semester the largest spring semester ever.
Administrators
have wondered for years how the Games would affect enrollment. Some
feared Olympic-spawned parking woes would discourage students from
taking classes. Others feared the long
semester break
would discourage students and give them an easy excuse to skip a
semester.
Columbia
journalism school dean to step down
NEW YORK (AP)
— Tom Goldstein, dean of Columbia University’s Graduate
School of Journalism for five years, announced plans Thursday to
step down in June.
Goldstein, 56,
who was dean of the graduate school of journalism at the University
of California at Berkeley from 1988 to 1996, cited his desire to
return to California.
When Goldstein
took the job at Columbia in July 1997, he said he intended to stay
four years.
Provost and
Dean of Faculties Jonathan R. Cole, in a letter to colleagues, said
he was grateful Goldstein stayed an extra year.
Cole will appoint
a search committee for a successor.
Goldstein, who
is married and has a 5-year-old son, declined to discuss his plans,
except to say he would live in the San Francisco Bay area.
Goldstein began
his career at the Buffalo Evening News, and later worked at The
Associated Press as a reporter in the New York bureau, New York
Newsday as a media writer, The Wall Street Journal as a real estate
reporter and The New York Times as a legal reporter and business
columnist.
He was Mayor
Edward Koch’s press secretary from 1980 to 1982.
After Michael
Bloomberg was sworn in as mayor, the Bloomberg News service hired
Goldstein as a consultant to advise on potential conflicts of interest.
He is the author
of “The News at Any Cost,” “A Two-Faced Press”
and “The Lawyer’s Guide to Writing Well,” which he
wrote with Jethro K. Lieberman. He also is the editor of “Killing
the Messenger: 100 Years of Press Criticism.”
Goldstein graduated
from Yale in 1967 and earned a master’s degree in journalism
and a law degree at Columbia.
The Columbia
School of Journalism was founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer. It
administers the Pulitzer Prizes, the duPont-Columbia Awards in broadcast
journalism and the National Magazine Awards.
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