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