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Texas
attorney general fundraising for Senate race
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Texas Attorney General John Cornyn has raised $1.81
million for his campaign to be the Republican nominee to replace
outgoing Sen. Phil Gramm, his campaign said Thursday.
Candidates
for federal office had a deadline of midnight to report how much
money they have raised between July 1 and Dec. 31 last year.
The
race to replace Gramm is expected to be one of the more expensive
this election year.
Texas’
primary election, in which voters choose party nominees, is March
12.
Cornyn
spokesman Dave Beckwith said Cornyn has $1.37 million cash on hand
and received 3,200 contributions from 2,298 individual contributors
and political action committees.
Beckwith
said nearly 97 percent of the money and 92 percent of the contributors
are from Texas. He said the contributions reflect widespread support
from across the state.
Other
reports were expected to come in Thursday.
Earlier
this month, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk said he raised more than
$900,000 in two months last year in his campaign to replace Gramm.
Enron
relief funds gain significant numbers
HOUSTON
(AP) — One of the funds to help laid-off Enron Corp. workers
has taken in more than $396,000 in the past week, primarily from
politicians and political groups donating campaign contributions
they received from the energy giant before it filed for bankruptcy.
The
Enron Employee Transition Fund, one of several funds helping ex-Enron
employees, was established a week ago by the Greater Houston Community
Foundation, which provided the initial $50,000.
Major
donors include Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, the National
Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee. More than 20 elected officials from across the
nation have sent checks ranging from $500 to Hutchison’s $100,000,
the transition fund said Thursday.
The
money will be sent to United Way agencies, which will provide direct
services to some of the 4,500 Enron workers laid off in December.
At
first, the fund will focus on helping employees transition to new
jobs by offering counseling and assistance dealing with bill collectors,
including mortgage companies, landlords and utilities.
A
smaller portion will be used to provide workers with direct assistance
to pay for bills and other expenses.
UT
forum to present new fee proposal for students
AUSTIN
(U-WIRE) — University of Texas President Larry Faulkner will
present a new fee proposal in a public forum Thursday, following
weeks of mixed reaction over his original plan.
The
proposed infrastructure fee, originally $230, will be decreased
to $180 for students enrolling in more than seven hours beginning
in fall 2002, if approved by the UT System Board of Regents next
month. The fee will be increased by $50 each year until fall 2007.
Additionally,
students enrolled in fewer than seven hours in both summer sessions
combined will be charged $58, but they will have to pay $115 if
they are taking seven or more hours during the summer. The original
fee proposal did not include a fee for the summer sessions.
Faulkner
said the new proposal should please current students because they
will have to pay less than in the old model.
Missing
A&M sophomore found unharmed
COLLEGE
STATION (U-WIRE) — Catherine Page Price, a Texas A&M University
sophomore who was reported missing Sunday, was found in Livingston,
Texas, at approximately 4 p.m. Wednesday.
According
to University Police Department Director Bob Wiatt, Price called
her mother in Midland, Texas, and told her she was unharmed. A friend
of Price’s said she called her family from a pay phone at a
Livingston gas station.
“The
family then contacted UPD, and we called the Livingston Police Department
and received confirmation that she was there,” Wiatt said.
Wiatt
said it is unclear why Price was missing, but said that foul play
was not suspected.
After answering questions from UPD investigators, Price returned
with her parents to Midland on Wednesday night, said her brother
Ryan Price, a junior petroleum engineering major. Ryan Price declined
to say why his sister went missing or when she may return to school.
Price
was last seen Jan. 27 leaving Mosher Hall. A search effort was immediately
launched, and volunteers from both the Bryan-College Station and
the Midland-Odessa area began combing the Brazos valley, Page’s
brother said Tuesday.
Livingston
is approximately 110 miles east of College Station. The search effort
was concentrated on areas Price could have driven in her 1998 blue
Ford Explorer on one tank of gas.
Price
left her room in Mosher Hall with only her keys and some credit
cards.
Security
breaches found at NYU residence hall
NEW
YORK (U-WIRE) — A computer glitch in a hand-scanning security
device at a freshman dormitory allowed New York University students
who moved out of the building in May 2001 to breach security and
reenter at will, a Washington Square News investigation has revealed.
On
two separate occasions this week, WSN reporters who moved out of
the Hayden residence hall after the 2000-2001 academic year entered
the building using a security hand scanner in the lobby, located
on Washington Square West.
Although
one of the two hand scanners in the lobby didn't allow the former
Hayden residents to pass, the other let them in and gave them access
to the entire building.
NYU
Protection Services Systems Manager Charles Surendranath, who supervises
the security scanners at dormitories, said the two scanners in the
Hayden lobby are connected. While the annual bulk purge of the primary
scanner successfully kept former residents out, he said, the purge
didn’t register with the secondary scanner.
The
security hand scanners, which have been in place in many NYU dorms
for a little over a year, were designed to restrict access in dormitories
to residents only, while eliminating the need for residents to show
their NYU IDs every time they enter the building.
Security
at Hayden and other dormitories has concerned many students since
October when a homeless man sexually assaulted and attempted to
rape a freshman Hayden resident in the first-floor bathroom of the
building. Although the accused attacker, Jerome Ferguson, was allowed
to enter the secure area at Hayden by a Protection officer on duty
at the time, the attack raised fears among students about who was
given access to restricted areas in dormitories.
The
victim, a student in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study,
has since filed a $20 million lawsuit against the University charging
that negligent security practices at Hayden contributed to the attack.
Nuclear
labs under fire for security against terrorists
LOS
ANGELES (U-WIRE) — The University of California-operated Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory is one of several U.S. nuclear energy
laboratories under fire from government officials and watchdog groups
for inadequate security against a possible terrorist attack.
Security
officers at the laboratories are poorly trained and ill-equipped
against a coordinated attack on the facilities, said Congressman
Ed Markey, D-Mass., citing classified documents.
But
no such security deficiencies exist, university officials said.
In
addition to the Bay Area-based LLNL, the university is contracted
with the federal government to run energy laboratories in Berkeley
and in Los Alamos, N.M.
The
concern about Livermore stems from the fact that it houses weapons-grade
plutonium and uranium, which could be used to fashion a crude nuclear
bomb, Markey said.
Issues
raised include officers' inability to prevent an attack on the facilities.
Markey referred to mock terrorist exercises in which Navy SEALs
penetrated lab defenses to obtain nuclear materials and even assembled
a nuclear device.
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