The Behrend beacon. (Erie, Pa.) 1998-current, September 03, 1998, Image 5

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    CAL STATE EMPLOYEES ARRESTED FOR STEALING IDS
By Ralph Montano
Scripps-McClatchy Service
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -
Sacramento police have arrested a
California State University at
Sacramento employee who used the
names and Social Security numbers of
college applicants to steal more that
$70,000 in goods and services,
investigators said. George Beatty, 51,
was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of
grand theft and false impersonation.
Investigators said that over the past
Christopher Newport turns dry
By Kimberly Miller
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The
Red Dogs and Bad Frogs have been
kicked off Christopher Newport
University's campus - along with all
the other bottled beer and wine that
has traditionally been sold at the
student center's Terrace grill.
CNU Dean of Students Maury
O'Connell decided this month to dis
continue the sale of beer and wine at
the Terrace, which also serves food
such as hamburgers and french fries.
Alcohol has been banned at Santoro
Residence Hall since it opened in
1994.
"We are going to be growing in
terms of the future, and are trans
forming the size and caliber of our
student body," O'Connell said.
"With that, we will be keeping
students on campus and the
university will be central to the life
Texas to clone canine
By Christopher Lee and Pete Slover
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
AUSTIN, Texas Is this a
joke? That's the question that re
searchers who want to clone a dog
say they get more than any other.
They even pose and answer it on
their Internet Website.
"We are quite serious and
fully intend to see this project
through," write organizers of the
Missyplicity Project, which was
announced this week.
"Cloning a dog is simply a
matter of the right talent - which
we've assembled - combined with
sufficient time and money, both of
which we have."
The right talent is at Texas A&M
University, three other schools and
And at least in the
beginning, we had a hard
time getting anyone to
take us seriously. It looks
like a pretty crackpot
idea, that's obvious.
Lou Hawthorne, president of Rio Arts
and Research Corp
a nonprofit scientific organization,
organizers said. It has been as
sembled by San Francisco-based
Bio Arts and Research Corp., a
start-up biotechnology company.
The time is two years; the price,
52.3 million.
The goal is to clone Missy, an 11-
year-old spayed border collie mix,
for whom the project is named. The
dog's wealthy owner, who has
chosen to remain anonymous, is
footing the bill.
"We're dead serious," said Lou
Hawthorne, president of the
California company that is coordi
nating the research. "And at least
in the beginning, we had a hard
time getting anyone to take us
seriously. It looks like a pretty
crackpot idea, that's obvious."
Missy already has been flown to
College Station, Texas, to have
tissue samples taken.
Dr. Mark Westhusin, an associ
ate professor of veterinary medicine
at A&M and the project's lead
scientist, said Tuesday that he has
no doubt the effort is real. "Well, I
have the check in the bank and I'm
spending the money," Westhusin
six years Beatty has used the identities
of at least 24 people to buy stereo
equipment, furniture, put gas in his car
and even pay the electric bill. He
worked for the university for about 20
years, most recently in the admissions
department where he was privy to all
the information needed in the scam.
Police were alerted to a possible
problem last month when one victim
called police claiming that his name
had been stolen from a college appli
cation and was used to get a credit
card. Sacramento Police Detective
Bill Teachout took the case to
of our students. We don't want
alcohol to be the binding social
ingredient on campus."
The ban is part of a growing
concern about alcohol abuse on
Virginia's campuses. Across the
state, colleges and universities are
doing what they can to educate
students and prevent tragedies. Last
autumn, five students died in
alcohol-related incidents.
University of Virginia students
will have their dates of birth printed
on ID cards to help enforce the legal
drinking age of 21. A student at Old
Dominion University who has an
alcohol offense will be required to
take a five-hour class on the dangers
of alcohol.
O'Connell, who represented
CNU on Attorney General Mark
Earley's Task force on Drinking by
College Students, said CNU is one
of the last state schools to discon
tinue alcohol sales on campus.
said. "So I don't know how muc
more confident I could be tha
that." Another cloning scientis
who considered competing for th
money expressed doubts that th
project would produce carbon-cop
collies.
"I suspect $2.3 million will no
be enough to clone a dog," sai.
George E. Seidel Jr., physiolog
professor at Colorado Stat.
University in Fort Collins, Colo. "I
is quite conceivable - no pun in
tended - that they will get a lot o
information that could be useful
for instance, in contraception i
dogs."
The project, approved by th •
research arm of Texas A&M, offe •
a light-hearted Web page, with tail
wagging doggies and Missy photos
The company behind the project' •
acronym is BARC. Such whims
shouldn't obscure the scienc •
involved, said Dewey Liccioni
assistant vice chancellor fo
agriculture for the A&M system
who reviewed the project proposal
"It's actually a very seriou
research project," said Liccioni
who dismissed the notion that A&
was engaging in vanity research fo
the benefit of a rich, eccentric d
lover. Missy "happens to be the
animal it will be tried on, but ...(th •
owner) knows it may not work,'
Liccioni said. "He's just interes
in the science."
Interest in the dog-cloning effo
reaches far beyond the ivory tower
If all goes well, the study could ope
the door to commercial pet do
and new contraceptive methods fo
canines, organizers said. Westhus
said the research may lead to th
cloning of special canines such
Seeing Eye dogs and police dogs,
well as reproducing endangere
animals.
And the study may contribute .
the creation of new methods o
canine contraception and steriliza
lion, which would help decrease th
number of stray and unwante
dogs. British scientists mad
history two years ago when the •
cloned a sheep named Dolly, th
first mammal ever cloned. Sinc
then, scientists also have clone.
cows and mice.
National Campus News
Thursday, September 3, 1998 The Behrend College Beacon -
university police and found that they
We take this kind of crime
very seriously,
Ann Reed, spokeswoman for CSUS
were investigating two similar cases.
Beatty was first arrested July 17
on suspicion of false impersonation.
But Teachout kept digging through
credit records and soon found a
pattern in the people being victimized.
All of the victims lived outside of the
The task force, which was formed
in November 1997, has issued
several recommendations, including
creating a campus Alcohol Task
Force, increasing the number of
alcohol-free events and having more
Friday classes so students have fewer
three-day weekends.
While larger state schools with
fraternities and sororities on campus
The more roadblocks
thrown in the way of
drinking, the more kids
will use their own
ingenuity to figure out
how to get it."
Andrew Berrigan., CNU student
have had problems with alcohol
abuse, CNU has stayed clear of
major problems. Even so, some
administrators say alcohol on
campus sends the wrong message
Steve Pappas, director of auxiliary
services who oversees the Terrace,
said he was in favor of the ban.
Pappas said he has not allowed the
Terrace to sell beer on tap because
he thought it would promote the "$1
pitcher nights"
popular at some college pubs.
"When you are dealing with a
campus population that commutes,
why would we allow them to have a
beer and then drive," Pappas said. "I
think that sends the wrong message."
But some students view the ban
differently. When Jeremy Kulm
moved into the CNU dorms, he was
over 21 and could legally drink. The
Terrace was a convenient meeting
place he and his friends could walk
to.
"We didn't have to drive
anywhere," said Kulm, who is now
25 and lives off campus. "I thought
the decision was stupid because I've
never seen any abuse here. It's
symbolism over substance. "The
ban was discussed at the university's
student government meeting
Tuesday morning.
Other students likened the ban to
the Prohibition Era of the 19205,
which turned people to illegal
endeavors to obtain alcohol. "The
more roadblocks thrown in the way
of drinking, the more kids will use
their own ingenuity to figure out how
to get it," said 20-year-old Andrew
Berrigan.
lowa State Professor invents AIDS treatment
By Ellyn Peterson
lowa State University
An lowa State professor's
discovery of a treatment to help
AIDS patients gain muscle mass was
unveiled recently to 12,000 scientists
and activists at the World AIDS
Conference in Geneva.
Steven Nissen, professor of animal
science and founder of MTlBioTech
Inc., located in lowa State
University's Research Park, invented
Juven, a dietary supplement designed
to slow muscle deterioration.
Muscle loss occurs when disease
or trauma places additional
nutritional demands on the body.
These stresses can diminish appetite,
causing the body to use protein stored
within muscles. Over time, muscles
become smaller, weaker and less
flexible.
"We breathe through muscles, and
if you can't cough you get
Sacramento area and all were appli
cants to a state college, but, for one
reason or another, did not attend,
Teachout said.
On many applications for credit
cards, Beatty was listed as a refer
ence, Teachout said. On others
Beatty listed his business number as
the business number of the applicant,
he added. Chris Adams, an
administrative assistant in San Diego,
was one of the victims identified by
police. Adams said Wednesday that he
applied to several state colleges in
1995, but not to Sacramento.
Sexual harrassment suit brought
against Chapel Hill soccer coach
By Christine Tatum
College Press Exchange
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (CPX) -
Two former soccer players at the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill on Tuesday filed a $l2
million lawsuit, alleging sexual
harassment and other misconduct
against Anson Dorrance, the
school's head women's soccer
coach.
Dorrance, who has led the team
to 15 national championship titles
in 17 years, vowed in a prepared
statement to "vigorously defend"
himself against the accusations. He
has coached at the university since
1979.
"I am shocked and saddened by
these allegations," Dorrance said. "I
have never and would never abuse
my position in any way."
The lawsuit, filed in federal
district court in Chicago by Debbie
Keller, who played for the Tar Heels
from 1993 to 1996, and Melissa
Jennings, who is still a student at
UNC, also faults several school
administrators for failing to do
Protestors urge student to withdraw
College Press Exchange
BERKELEY, Calif. (CPX) - About
50 protesters convened on the Univer
sity of California at Berkeley's cam
pus on Wednesday, demanding that
the university expel a student who po
lice say watched his best friend attack
a 7-year-old girl and walked away
before she was molested and killed.
Two radio talk show hosts,
outraged by newspaper reports in
which David Cash Jr., a nuclear
engineering major at Berkeley,
showed little remorse for the child's
death, organized the demonstration.
The victim's mother and some
members of UC-Berkeley's student
senate joined them.
Cash has not been charged in
connection with the May, 1997,
slaying in a Nevada casino because
that state does not have a law that
requires people to report the crimes
they witness.
pneumonia."
The results of the two-year study
involving the nonprescription
amino acid formula show dramatic
results for AIDS patients that could
have a far-reaching impact over the
next few years.
The clinical study involved AIDS
patients who had lost at least 5
percent of their body weight during
the preceding two months and
compared patients taking Juven to
those taking a placebo in a double
blind test.
During the eight-week study,
patients taking Juven gained an
average of 6 1/2 pounds, 5 1/2
pounds of it muscle, while the
placebo group continued to lose an
average of 1 1/2 pounds of muscle
over the eight-week period.
"We designed the product to
protect these patients from further
loss, so we assumed that as our body
of data grew, the results would level
out. Instead they just got stronger,"
In March, credit card companies
began calling him about outstanding
debt. Eight credit cards were issued
in his name without his knowledge.
He estimated that $1,900 was spent
on gas and stereo equipment under
his name. Adams said he spent hours
on the phone with creditors
straightening out the mess, but there
has been no lasting damage to his
credit rating. "I just bought a
motorcycle last week. My credit is
fine," he said.
Officials said there is very little a
person can do to protect themselves
learned of them. Jennings claims
Dorrance cut her from the team in
May after she complained to
administrators about his behavior.
The suit claims Dorrance
ensured alcohol was made available
to high school recruits visiting
campus and that he probed players
about their sex lives and those of
their teammates. Keller also alleges
that Dorrance often made
"offensive physical contact" with
her by putting "his arms and hands
on her body on multiple occasions."
But perhaps the most serious
allegation in the suit is that in
October, 1996, Dorrance lured
Keller, then his team's star player,
to a secluded spot where he "made
an uninvited sexual advance"
toward her.
The university said it acted
quickly on the women's complaints
and that an internal investigation
found "absolutely no evidence" that
Dorrance had "used his position to
make uninvited, sexually explicit
comments" to the women. The
university also said it found no
evidence of inappropriate physical
In a statement released after the
protest, Berkeley's chancellor, Robert
M. Berdahl, called Sherrice Iverson's
death a "brutal and senseless act of
violence that our entire university
community condemns in the strongest
possible terms.
"I'm not going to lose
sleep over someone
else's problems."
"However, as a public institution,
the university has due-process
procedures it must follow in cases of
dismissal. This student has not been
charged with any violation of
criminal law or the campus student
code that would provide
a basis for any such review. We
cannot set aside due process based
upon our outrage over a particular
Nissen said
"There are a hundred cancers and
only one AIDS," he said. "[AIDS]
is more homogenous than the
specific types of cancer.
"Over the next two years we plan
to take this further to cancer victims
and others suffering from terminal
diseases," Nissen said.
The key ingredient in Juven is
HMB (beta-hydroxy-beta
methylbutyrate), which Nissen
discovered after years of research at
ISU. HMB quickly became one of
the best selling sports supplements
on the market because it helps
prevent
muscle breakdown, Nissen said.
"We knew that all three
ingredients in Juven, HMB, L
glutamine and L-argine, were safe
and independently supply key
building blocks for the muscle cell,"
Nissen said.
"We spent a lot of time designing
it so people would like it. A study
from such a scam. One defense,
Teachout said, is for consumers to (ile
a statement with credit reporting
agencies requiring that they be
notified before a credit card is issued
in their name. Ann Reed,
spokeswoman for CSUS, said the
college is very concerned about the
security of applicants names and
Social Security numbers. Each
employee who handles such
information is screened and trained in
protecting the information. "We take
this kind of crime very seriously," she
said.
too, bell we the accusations are false
But as for the allegations that
Dorrance provided alcohol to
recruits and inquired about players'
personal lives, the university said it
found that the coach's conduct "fell
short of the standards of good
judgment that we expect from
university officials."
Louis A. Varchetto, an attorney
representing Keller and Jennings,
said talks aimed at settling the
dispute broke down when his clients
insisted that the university ask
Dorrance to step down from his post
as a part of any deal. "The 'univer
sity is unwilling to do that," he said.
The lawsuit and the prominence
of the people on both sides of it are
sure to rock the world of women's
soccer. Dorrance is credited with
building the sport for women in the
United States and with leading the
U.S. women's national team to
victory during the first World Cup
for women in 1991.
Keller, now a starting forward on
the women's national team, received
UNC's top honor for student athletes
during her senior season in 1997. The
instance."
Despite the university's official
stance, members of the student senate
are considering a resolution that would
call for Cash's voluntary withdrawal
from the university and for a "good
Samaritan" clause in the school's code
of conduct.
Cash, who could not be reached for
comment Thursday, was quoted in the
Los Angeles Times in July as saying:
"I'm not going to get upset over
someone else's life. I just worry about
myself first. I'm not going to lose sleep
over somebody else's problems." He
also told the Times that his newly
found
David Cash, Jr
notoriety has made it easier for him to
"score with women."
Cash's friend, Jeremy Strohmeyer,
is scheduled to be tried on charges of
murder, kidnapping and sexual assault.
He has pleaded not guilty to all of the
charges.
showed that 70 percent of the people
prefer orange, so we started with
that."
"This stuff works as good, if not
better, than the drugs prescribed
today," he said.
Perhaps more amazing than the
results is the cost that separates Juven
from other muscle-loss therapies,
Nissen said. Juven costs $B9 for a 15-
day supply while growth hormones
are distributed wholesale for $1,750
a week.
However, Nissen said because
Medicare and Medicaid do not yet
cover the cost of Juven, it will be an
uphill battle to make the formula as
widely used as the prescription
formulas.
Nissen said he feels the use of Juven
will be widespread in six months. The
product is expected to hit shelves in
health food stores soon.
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