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News in Brief
Wednesday August 27,1997
NEWS FROM AROUND THE NATION AND WORLD
LSU student dies after apparent drinking binge
BATON ROUGE, La. — One Louisiana State University student died and three others were hospitalized yesterday after an apparent drinking binge to celebrate fraternity pledge week, the LSU chancellor said.
Whether alcohol was the cause of the student's death won't be known until autopsy results are available later this week. Chancellor William Jenkins said. He said there was no evidence that anyone had been forced to drink as part of any hazing ritual.
Campus police received an emergency call from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house early yesterday, just after midnight, and found about a dozen people passed out on the floor, said Randy Watts, LSU police chief.
LSU has long had a reputation as a party school where many students drink heavily. The death comes a week after the Princeton Review, not affiliated with Princeton University, published a guide for high school seniors that listed LSU as tenth on a list of the nation's top party schools.
They had been drinking off campus, Jenkins said. Alcohol is illegal on campus and none had been found during a routine check of all fraternity houses on Monday, he said.
Watts said he could not yet say if the students did their drinking in a bar.
A bar could lose its license for selling liquor to anyone under the age of 21. The dead student, Benjamin Wynne, of Covington, was 20, officials said.
Ages of the other students were not available. Two were released after treatment and one remained hospitalized in stable condition.
This is the first full week of class on the campus of 28,000 students and a number of the 20 fraternity houses had parties Monday, including SAE with its 130 members and pledges.
Disciplinary action could be taken against the fraternity but nothing can be done until the investigation is complete, Jenkins said.
Predicted strong economy raises inflation concerns
NEW YORK — New readings on consumer confidence and manufacturing
omy is headed for more strength in the second half of the year, raising concerns about inflation.
Yesterday's reports come at a time of uncertainty in the marketplace as economists scour new
data for any signs showing the economy is moving too fast.
While the Federal Reserve hasn't raised interest rates to slow the economy since March, investors fear another rate increase will come in the final months of this year if the economy continues to grow.
"The economy is doing well and we don't have inflation," said Gary Thayer, a senior economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis. "But there are concerns that the strong economy will create some economic pressures."
Stocks initially fell following the economic news, which helped push long-term interest rates higher in the bond market. As the day wore on, bonds returned to Monday's levels, but stocks continued slipping. By late afternoon the Dow Jones industrial average was off 62.48 at 7,797.09.
The Conference Board, a private business group, reported yesterday that its index of consumer confidence showed an unexpected rise in August.
Separately, the Commerce Department reported that orders for big-ticket durable goods fell 0.6 percent in July. But excluding aircraft and defense purchases, which can skew month-to-month numbers, the figures showed the economy is continuing to expand.
The National Association of Realtors also reported that sales of existing homes rose 2.2 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.24 million units. Sales rose in the West and Northeast but fell in the Midwest and were unchanged in the South.
SAT scores rise to levels not seen for 25 years
WASHINGTON — High school seniors boosted their math scores on the SAT college entrance test close to levels of 25 years ago, according to results released yesterday. Scores on reading and vocabulary didn't budge.
However, high school students are getting better report cards. "We need to take a second look at what seems to be a rising pattern of grade inflation," said Richard W. Riley, education secretary.
the nonprofit College Board, which gives the test, said high school students who graduated this year scored an average of 511 on the math portion and 505 on the verbal.
The math score, up for the sixth straight year, rose from 508 last year. Scores had fallen below 500 in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The math score was 513 in 1971, and scores were higher before that.
The verbal score was also 505 last year and has risen above that only four times in the last 20 years. Scores were 540 and higher in the late 1960s.
This is the second year of scoring based on a new scale intended to raise the average score back to 500 and make the results
Comparison scores also were converted to the new scale, although those for 1967 to 1971 were based on estimates.
more statistically sound.
The exam, the most widely used part of the board's Scholastic Assessment Tests, was taken by 1.1 million high school graduates. They account for 95 percent of college freshmen this year.
Analysts said math scores are rising because students are taking more rigorous math and science courses. The same trend was noted in results released earlier this month for the ACT, another entrance examination.
PEORIA, III. — Researchers at the University of Illinois and elsewhere are trying to take the stink out of hog manure.
Scientists thumb noses at mega-scale hog farms
Scientists at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, located in Peoria, soon might join other researchers in trying to solve the problem. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-III., said last week he would ask Congress for $1 million to pay for the research.
Mega-scale hog farms usually store the abundant waste the animals produce in large lagoons. And the resulting unpleasant odor is one of the main problems associated with the livestock operations. The farms also are controversial because environmentalists and others say the large collections of manure pollute the air and threaten ground water.
Peter B. Johnsen, director of the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, a division of the Department of Agriculture, said removing the smell from hog waste was not easy.
But, he added, "It's not a bizarrely difficult, intractable problem."
Yuanhui Zhang, a professor in the department of agricultural engineering at the University of Illinois, is researching thermochemical conversion of livestock waste. That means trying to convert manure into other products, such as fuel oil and plant fertilizer, that do not smell like hog manure.
Scientists studying manure odor also have been looking into the role of dust.
"Dust particles are the major player, acting as an odor-carrier," Zhang said. "If we reduce dust concentrations, we get a good chunk of the odors."
Potential solutions range from the relatively simple, such as sprinkling edible vegetable oil on the floors of buildings housing hogs, to the high-tech — using air scrubbers to cut down on dust and odor.
MOSCOW — The Mir's oxygen generating systems were working normally
Mir oxygen systems fixed, crew OK, officials say
yesterday and the crew was in no danger following a brief scare that the space station's air supply had failed, Russian space officials said.
Mission Control Representative
Valery Lyndin said the main and backup oxygen generating systems were down simultaneously for several hours Monday due to electrical and mechanical problems.
Both systems were restored late Monday night, he said.
The problem was first reported Monday by NASA which said the problem was potentially very serious.
But Russian officials said the problem was fixed Monday night before the three-man crew went to sleep.
When Russian officials spoke with the crew yesterday morning, they confirmed that the oxygen systems were working properly.
There was a great deal of confusion Monday night because Russian Mission Control was closed and did not provide an explanation of the situation.
The primary Elektron generator, which had been turned off since last week to conserve power, shut itself down Monday after it began overheating. NASA Representative Ed Campion said from the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday.
Even when both oxygen systems go down, Mir has enough oxygen to last several days, Campion and Russian officials said. But if the systems could not be fixed, the crew would have to abandon ship in the attached Soyuz capsule.
There have been repeated problems with the new Elektron generator, carried up by space shuttle Atlantis in May. But it was the first time since February that a crew had had serious trouble with the backup system, in which solid-fuel canisters are ignited to produce oxygen.
One of these canisters burst into flames in February, filling the station with smoke and almost forcing the crew to evacuate.
The cosmonauts were trying to ignite a canister, or candle, Monday when the system failed, according to NASA. They replaced the igniter mechanism but the canister still would not burn.
Authorities blame farmers for deaths of wild rabbits
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A rabbit-killing virus has been illegally introduced into farmland on New Zealand's
South Island, apparently by farmers desperate to save their grazing lands.
The Ministry of Agriculture confirmed yesterday that rabbit calicivirus disease has been found on at least four farms in Central Otago and suspected outbreaks at three other South Island locations. All these areas have huge wild rabbit populations.
"It appears this disease has been deliberately and illegally introduced," Chief Veterinary Officer Barry O'Neil said. It was likely the disease was released sometime last week.
Police immediately quarantined the farms where the dead rabbits were found, set up roadblocks to monitor traffic, banned the movement of any stock animals and began an investigation to track down those responsible.
Biosecurity Minister Simon Upton said his "gravest concern" was that someone had deliberately breached border security and brought the virus in from Australia.
Australian scientists were experimenting with the calicivirus to stem plagues of quick-breeding rabbits, which ravage farmland and contribute to the extinction of native species.
In 1995, the disease was accidentally released into Australia's mainland rabbit populations from an offshore quarantine site on Wardang Island. That site is suspected as the source of New Zealand's current infection.
Angry farmers threatened to release the virus illegally last month when scientists rejected an application for the virus to be introduced legally into New Zealand. The scientists argued that further research was needed.
Briefs contributed by the Associated Press
On the Record
A KU student's 1998 sticker for a car license tag was stolen at 9:40 p.m. Friday from the 1100 block of Tennessee Street, Lawrence police said. The sticker was valued at $5.
A KU student's 1996 Ford Mustang driver's door was damaged between 1:30 and 9 a.m. Sunday in the 600 block of Gateway, Lawrence police said. The damage was estimated at $1,000.
A KU student's windshield and driver's-side mirror were damaged around 10:35 p.m. Saturday in the 400 block of Forest Avenue, Lawrence police said. The damage was estimated at $500.
Three dollars and 86 cents was stolen between 5 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Monday from room 415 in Snow Hall, KU police said.
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