McDonald’s to use toll tags to pay in drive-throughs

DALLAS (AP) — Don’t be surprised the next time you order a Big Mac with fries and an attendant asks, “Would you like to use your toll tag with that?”

t’s the latest attempt to bring high technology to fast food.

McDonald’s is beginning an experiment at two Dallas and three Plano locations. After a motorist registers, windshield-mounted tags used mostly to pay tolls in North Texas can be used to purchase that behind-the-wheel breakfast, lunch or dinner.

TransCore, a Dallas company that developed the electronic toll-collection systems used by the North Texas Tollway Authority, will make the tags and readers used in the fast-food drive-through lanes.

Equipment installed above a drive-through lane will scan a motorist’s tag. An attendant will then ask the customer whether he wants to use the cashless system.

McDonald’s owners hope to shorten drive-through waits by 15 to 20 seconds per transaction. They also hope to lure more customers who don’t want to get out of their cars or who don’t carry enough cash to buy a Happy Meal.

Toll tags, which can be obtained at no cost, have limited use beyond basic toll collection. PassKey technology, which costs $1.50 a month, offers more uses. Toll tag users can activate a PassKey account for $2.

Psychiatrist admits Yates knew killing was wrong

HOUSTON (AP) — A defense psychiatric expert acknowledged Tuesday that Andrea Yates knew killing her five children was legally wrong, but said under cross-examination the Houston woman saw it as her only solution.

Yates believed she was sacrificing her life in this world and eternity by sparing her children from hell fire after determining that she was not raising them “righteously,” Phillip Resnick testified.

Much of her delusional thought process did not emerge until after the children were drowned in their bathtub on June 20, he said.

“She did not reveal much of her psychotic thinking. She was afraid Satan would hear it and make it happen,” Resnick said during cross-examination by prosecutor Joe Owmby.

Resnick had testified Friday that Yates, charged with capital murder, suffers from schizophrenia and major depression that impairs her behavior. He was unavailable for court Monday.

Midland woman charged with killing her newborn baby

MIDLAND (AP) — A woman charged with killing her newborn baby and storing the body in her garage remained in the Midland jail Tuesday.

Stephanie Jo Durham, 20, has been charged with capital murder. She was arrested late Thursday after police said she confessed. She had concealed her pregnancy from her live-in boyfriend, police said.

Initially, Durham was not a suspect, and police said she seemed surprised to learn a dead baby was in her garage. But investigators said they found evidence on the property that resulted in Durham’s questioning.

Durham, in the Midland County Jail on bail of $100,000, was a stay-at-home mother.

The couple was in the process of moving when the boyfriend found the corpse near some trash. The baby was inside a duffel bag that was wrapped in a plastic grocery sack. Investigators said the baby was at or near full term.

Galveston teacher indicted for carrying handgun

GALVESTON (AP) — A Galveston-area schoolteacher has been indicted for allegedly carrying a .357-caliber Magnum handgun into her junior high classroom in November.
Authorities say Kemah resident Norvella Susette Gibson fired a shot into her own classroom at Friendswood Junior High School before school started Nov. 30.

A few hours later, Gibson reported someone had fired three shots into her classroom. Nobody was injured, but the report led to a four-hour lockdown of the campus.

A Galveston County grand jury indicted the 54-year-old reading and language arts teacher on one count of carrying a weapon where possession is prohibited, a third-degree felony.

Gibson, who is on administrative leave with pay, is innocent, say her husband, Paul Gibson, and her attorney, Anthony Griffin.

Georgetown and South Texas merge for nursing plan

McALLEN (AP) — Georgetown University and South Texas Community College may collaborate to train nursing students in migrant health care.

Officials from both schools are working on a training program that may include teleconference technology and online coursework.

A 2003 start is anticipated once funding is secured and both schools agree on a format.
Nursing students from Georgetown, located in Washington, D.C., would work with migrant workers and their families in the Rio Grande Valley as part of their internships, said Mary Lou de Leon Siantz of the Georgetown University School of Nursing. Many graduates would continue working with families, Siantz said.

Siantz said she has been working with U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, to get federal moneys for the program.

Guiliani to present commencement address

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (U-WIRE) — Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, will present this year’s commencement address May 12 for graduating students of Syracuse University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Others considered included television personalities Conan O’Brien and Bob Costas, comedian Bill Cosby and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat representing South Dakota.

Giuliani was chosen to speak by a student committee. He previously has received an honorary knighthood and was named Time's Person of the Year for the leadership he showed after the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

“A lot of it had to do with people viewing him as a very powerful and symbolic figure in New York,” said Jordan Brophy-Hilton, a member of the selection committee. “A lot of it stemmed from Sept. 11 and people thinking he’d have something positive to say.”

University of Michigan students face crime and cold

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (U-WIRE) — University of Michigan students were welcomed back to classes Monday with freezing temperatures and the increasing crime wave plaguing campus this year. Another peeping tom incident, the 12th since October 2001, happened in South Quad residence hall Monday morning.

An LSA freshman was showering when she heard someone come in the bathroom and saw her towel move.

“There was a shadow in the stall next to me,” she said. “I looked down and there was someone’s face.”

Although she was not wearing her glasses, the victim described the victim as a young black male.

Last month University Housing in collaboration with the Department of Public Safety introduced new safety precautions in the residence halls after noticing a growing pattern of peeping tom incidents and home invasions. The precautions included locking all entrances 24 hours a day and increasing the presence of DPS officers. Still, there have been three incidents in the three weeks since the precautions were introduced.

Stanford graduate student receives three year sentence

STANFORD, Calif. (U-WIRE) —Alexander Simon, a 26-year-old Stanford University graduate student in cancer biology, received a three-year sentence last week for attempting to commit lewd and lascivious acts with a child. Simon lured a 10-year-old girl into an e-mail correspondence and set up a meeting with her at a hotel.

As reported in The Daily last spring, Simon was arrested May 17 on the charge of attempted lewd and lascivious acts with a child.

Simon met the girl while volunteering as a safety instructor at a Menlo Park, Calif., elementary school. He first e-mailed her a cartoon of rabbits mating, and the e-mails became more explicit as the relationship progressed, Stanford Magazine reported.

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