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Postal Service unveils
stamps featuring state history
AUSTIN (AP) — The Alamo and a longhorn
steer grace the front of a new postal stamp representing Texas in
the U.S. Postal Service’s new stamp series called “Greetings
from America.”
The
Postal Service on Thursday began releasing the commemorative issue
stamps, available on a pane of self-adhesive stamps highlighting
each state’s history and point of interest.
Texas’
stamp reads “Greetings from Texas” and depicts a yellow
rose in a scene that includes the Alamo with a river running in
front of it and a longhorn standing to the side.
The
backing of the stamp will list each state’s bird, tree, capital
city and date of statehood. The Texas stamp lists the mockingbird,
the bluebonnet, the pecan tree, Austin and Dec. 19, 1845.
ACU
students remember deceased classmates
ABILENE (AP) — About 3,000 Abilene
Christian University students gathered Thursday to mourn five classmates
killed in a car wreck, while returning to campus from Easter break.
“We
are here in memory of these five whose lives have been snuffed out
before the completion of two decades,” Wendell Broom, assistant
professor emeritus of missions said during a memorial service. “How
can it
all be lost. It is not lost.”
The
students died Sunday morning when their sports utility vehicle veered
off Interstate 20 near Weatherford and crashed upside down about
30 feet below on a concrete embankment.
The
victims were Kolawole “Kola” Sami, 18; Olutomi “Tomi”
Aruwajoye, 17; Iyadunni “Dunni” Bakare, 18; Abimbola “Bola”
Orija, 19; and Toluwalope “Tolu” Olorunsola, 18. All were
from Lagos, Nigeria.
About
50 relatives of the victims, who are living in the United States,
attended the service in ACU’s Moody Coliseum, where the lights
were dimmed and flowers arrangements adorned the stage.
Friends
remembered the victims as bright, caring students, some of whom
planned to return to Nigeria after graduating.
CDC
reports laboratory worker may have anthrax
ATLANTA (AP) — A Texas laboratory
worker probably contracted skin anthrax last month because he was
not wearing gloves when he handled vials of spores collected from
last fall’s mail attacks, the government said Thursday.
The
worker apparently was infected by handling the spores a day after
he had cut his jaw while shaving, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported. The man was placed on antibiotics and is
recovering.
The Texas infection was the first anthrax case in the United States
since the anthrax-by-mail attacks last fall, which killed five people
and sickened 13 more.
The
CDC has declined to release the name of the worker or the location
of the lab. The agency said none of the 40 workers at the Texas
lab had been vaccinated against anthrax.
The
infection apparently happened March 1 as the worker was moving vials
of anthrax spores from a cabinet into a freezer in an adjacent room,
the CDC said.
The
lab also sprayed its storage vials with a solution of mostly alcohol,
rather than the 10 percent bleach solution recommended by the government,
the CDC found. Using bleach had caused some labels on the vials
to fall off.
The
worker was not wearing gloves, the CDC’s investigation found.
Federal
health officials recommend gloves for anyone handling material that
might contain anthrax spores.
Appeals
court may hear cross-state decathlon dispute
LUBBOCK (AP) — A dispute about which
court has jurisdiction in the cross-state decathlon dispute may
reach an Amarillo appeals court next week.
At
issue is whether a Lubbock judge had jurisdiction when he ruled
Wednesday that the Texas Academic Decathlon Association could not
undo its decision to name Lubbock High School as state champions.
He also decided that the school’s team did not have to participate
in a rematch against Pasadena’s J. Frank Dobie.
Meanwhile,
Dobie was preparing to begin retaking a different version of the
test in San Antonio late Thursday morning. Lubbock’s team stayed
home
to prepare for the national competition next week in Phoenix.
U.S.
Academic Decathlon executive director Les Martisko said the national
organization takes no position on who should represent Texas at
the national meet, whether the decision is made by the state organization
or the courts.
The
Texas Academic Decathlon Association declared Lubbock the winners
of the early March competition. Dobie argued that it had been cheated
because one of its score sheets was not counted and took its case
last week to Harris County Judge Tracy Christopher, who ordered
the rematch after finding scoring discrepancies.
The
Lubbock district then appealed to state District Judge J. Blair
Cherry of Lubbock, who ruled Wednesday in the local district’s
favor and also declared his the court with jurisdiction.
Attorneys
for Pasadena immediately faxed an appeal to the 7th Court of Appeals
in Amarillo.
“They
seek to undo his ruling by undoing his right to hear the case,”
Pasadena
school district spokesman Kirk Lewis said Thursday.
Mexican
national shot while trying to cross border
HIDALGO (AP) — A Mexican national
was shot by a member of the Mexican military Thursday morning while
crossing an international bridge to
the United States, prompting officials to temporarily close the
bridge.
George
Ramon, director of the McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge,
said the bridge was closed for at least 30 minutes because of the
“heightened alert” placed on all international border
crossings since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Officials
said there were no fatalities.
Local
police, U.S. Customs and Immigration and Naturalization Service
agents were investigating.
INS
spokesman Art Moreno said the man, a legal U.S. resident, was shot
in the left hand. He said he had no further information about his
condition.
“All
reports are that it was done by the Mexican military,” Moreno
said.
Neither
Moreno or Ramon could recall the last time the bridge was closed
due to violence.
Student
reverses plea in Dartmouth murders
HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) — An 18-year-old
reversed himself Thursday and pleaded guilty to murdering two Dartmouth
College professors who were knifed to death early last year.
Judge
Peter Smith gave Robert Tulloch the mandatory sentence for first-degree
murder: Life in prison without parole.
Tulloch
had previously pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.
His
best friend, 17-year-old James Parker, pleaded guilty earlier to
a reduced charge, accomplice to second-degree murder, and had been
prepared to testify against Tulloch. Under a plea bargain, he was
sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Thursday.
Tulloch
told friends he decided to plead guilty for reasons including the
strength of the state’s case and his desire to spare his family
the pain of a trial.
Half
Zantop, 62, and his 55-year-old wife, Suzanne, were slain in their
home a few miles from the Dartmouth campus. Susanne Zantop was head
of Dartmouth’s German studies department. Her husband taught
earth sciences.
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