8 I WEDNESDAY, AUG. 25, 2010 Border fights plague El Paso Bullets from shootouts in Mexico's drug war are flying across the Rio Grande into the city. By Alicia A. Caldwell ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER EL PASO, Texas The first bullets struck El Paso's city hall at the end of a work day. The next ones hit a university building and closed a major highway. Shootouts in the drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border are sending bullets whizzing across the Rio Grande into one of the nation's safest cities, where authorities worry it's only a mat ter of time before someone gets hurt or killed. At least eight bullets have been fired into El Paso in the last few weeks from the rising violence in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, one of the world's most dangerous places. And all American police can do is shrug because they cannot legally intervene in a war in another country. The best they can do is warn people to stay inside. "There's really not a lot you can do right now," El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles said. "Those gun battles are break ing out everywhere, and some Oil-eating microbe found in Gulf By Randolph E. Schmid ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER WASHINGTON A newly dis covered type of oil-eating microbe is suddenly flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists discovered the new microbe while studying the underwater dispersion of mil lions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf following the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. And the microbe works with out significantly depleting oxy gen in the water, researchers led by Terry Hazen at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., reported Tuesday in the online journal Sciencexpress. "Our findings, which provide the first data ever on microbial activity from a deepwater dis persed oil plume, suggest" a great potential for bacteria to help dispose of oil plumes in the SEM Na 1111 E !he Paper Pla El Paso police officers patrol after a gun battle Aug. 21. are breaking out right along the border." Police say the rounds were not intentionally fired into the U.S. But wildly aimed gunfire has become common in Juarez, a sprawling city of shanty neigh borhoods that once boomed with manufacturing plants. It's ground zero in Mexico's relent less drug war. More than 6,000 people have been killed there since 2008, when the Sinaloa and Juarez car tels started battling each other and Mexican authorities for con trol of the city and smuggling routes into the U.S. Nationwide, more than 28,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched his deep-sea, Hazen said in a state ment. Environmentalists have raised concerns about the giant oil spill and the underwater plume of dis persed oil, particularly its poten tial effects on sea life. A report just last week described a 22-mile long underwater mist of tiny oil droplets. "Our findings show that the influx of oil profoundly altered the microbial community by sig nificantly stimulating deep-sea" cold temperature bacteria that are closely related to known petroleum-degrading microbes, Hazen reported. Their findings are based on more than 200 samples collected from 17 deepwater sites between May 25 and June 2. They found that the dominant microbe in the oil plume is a new species, close ly related to members of Oceanospirillales. This microbe thrives in cold water, with temperatures in the lIS MEI NATION offensive against the cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006. Until now, communities on the U.S. side of the border have been largely shielded from the vio lence raging just across the river. But the recent incidents are the first time that live ammunition has landed in American territory. On Saturday, as gunmen and Mexican authorities exchanged gunfire in Juarez, police in El Paso shut down several miles of border highway. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said his agency asked for the closure, a first since the drug war erupted "in the interest of public safety" No one was injured on the U.S. side, but one bullet came across the Rio Grande, crashed through a window and lodged in an office door frame at the University of Texas at El Paso. Police are also investigating reports that anoth er errant round shattered a win dow in a passing car. Witnesses at a nearby charity said at least one bullet hit their building, too. El Paso police spokesman Darrel Petry said authorities have only confirmed the single bullet found at the university. But it's possible that several other shots flew across the bor der. "As a local municipality, we are doing everything we can," Petry said. deep recorded at 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit). - . - Hazen suggested that the bac teria may have adapted over time due to periodic leaks and natural seeps of oil in the Gulf. Scientists also had been con cerned that oil-eating activity by microbes would consume large amounts of oxygen in the water, creating a "dead zone" danger ous to other life. But the new study found that oxygen satura tion outside the oil plume was 67 percent while within the plume it was 59 percent. The research was supported by an existing grant with the Energy Biosciences Institute, a partnership led by the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Illinois that is fund ed by a $5OO million, 10-year grant from BP Other support came from the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Oklahoma Research Foundation. SPA L. PR NA SOD SATURDAY AUGUST An alligator catcher takes an alligator out of the Chicago River Aug. 24 Gators spotted northern states By Tammy Webber ASS GI 'TED WRITER CHICAGO - Two gators in the Chicago Ri‘,cr. One strolling down a Massaelii;setts street. Another in bustling New York City And that's just the past few weeks. From :tortli Dakota to Indiana, alligators are showing up far from their traditional southern habi tats. including a :t-footer captured Tuesday in the Chicago River. But experts -ay its not the lat est sign of giahal warming. Instead the almost cer tainly were unit . escaped or were dumpcti t Itel: owners. as pets and I , )i , and at some !-..We they just can't - Kent Vliet, an I.i from the "People then thcv point th(i:. deal with i ; alligator Univei•-•1 i(a who tracks media rep, : !Ile reptiles. In the • he said, there n:•, e «. •: at least 100 instance , , > " , showing up in more ire Mates where they're not North Carolina that alligators litq said. is the fart are found A 3-foot gator , ckton, Mass down a not-long gator On Monri was spotter . ? r .1 car in New York ( since spring, gators al , . found in c..rta Missouri, Fargo, :v. upstate rural Indiana, Ohio and a DiAroit suburb. After twin; ri;:lt'd by boaters on Sunda rogue gator drew seers to the banks of the river - Its not se?t: ,- ' ,;-year-old Caleb THE DAILY COLLEGIAN Berry said Monday. "It was a baby and it wasn't eating anything." The alligator eluded capture and apparently ignored traps bait ed with raw chicken until Tuesday, when a volunteer from the Chicago Herpetological Society was able to snare it with a net. Three weeks ago, the volunteer captured a 2 1/2-foot gator in the same area. Vliet said such small alligators don't pose much of a threat to humans, preferring to dine on fish, snails, crayfish, frogs and small snakes, though they probably would bite if handled. The greater risk is to the rep tiles, which probably wouldn't sur vive long in northern climates, experts said. - The animal is going to die a slow death," said Franklin Percival, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Florida. "Ecologically, it's not responsible and maybe ethically it is not a good idea, either," Percival said. Alligators can be kept as pets in some states as long as the owner gets the proper permits, though some municipalities like New York City ban them outright. Illinois stopped issuing such permits three years ago because of prob lems with illegal ownership and people releasing unwanted pets, said Joe Kath, endangered species manager for the state Department of Natural Resources. ,vearing alli :av strolling Cherie 'Mavis, executive three tor of Chicago Animal Care and Control, said owning an alligator is a bad idea. "No one in Illinois needs to own an alligator. Period," Travis said. T 1....... „ NI ALUMNI HALL
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