IN BRIEF
Senate allocates funds;
seat vacancies remain
The Student Senate released nearly
$3,000 in student fees to the Univer
sity radio station KWVA , Asian Pacif
ic American Student Union and the
Community Internship Program at
its fourth meeting of the year
Wednesday night.
Senators also discussed taking
action against Senator Rahmat
Rahmat, who has not yet attended
a meeting.
“We might be starting the process
of removing him since he has not yet
removed himself,” Senate President
Stephanie Erickson said at the begin
ning of the meeting.
According to the Green Tape Note
book, the guide to the rules of student
government, Senators are allowed to
miss only two meetings per term.
More than two absences constitutes
non-fulfillment of duties, punishable
by removal from Senate. Rahmat has
missed all four meetings to date.
The Senate currently has three
empty seats after Senator Rob Craig,
the law and graduate student repre
sentative, submitted a letter of resig
nation to ASUO President Adam
Walsh on Sept. 28. He resigned be
cause of a time conflict.
Also because of a time conflict, for
mer Senator Khanh Le resigned effec
tive Oct. 12.
Walsh must appoint a student
body member to any unfilled posi
tion in student government “within a
period of thirty calendar days of the
vacancy,” according to the Green
Tape Notebook.
Walsh said he has not picked any
one for the position yet. He has re
ceived one application and is await
ing more law student applicants.
Interviews begin early next week and
an appointee will be voted on by the
Senate Wednesday night.
The ASUO is accepting applications
for a graduate student representative
and applications for a student to fill the
Programs Finance Committee seat.
Submit applications to EMU Suite 4.
— Nicholas Wilbur
Gas leak forces closure
on East 13th Avenue
A natural gas leak in a restaurant
near campus forced emergency offi
cials to close sections of East 13th Av
enue on Thursday.
Northwest Natural inspected
Hodgepodge around 10 a.m. after
employees of the neighboring U.S.
Bank smelled gas. Both businesses
were not yet open at the time.
Inspectors discovered a worn stove
connection was the source of the leak
and ordered the restaurant to fix the
leak before operating the equipment
again, said Ron Marr, customer serv
ice supervisor for Northwest Natural.
Gas was carried from the restaurant
into the bank via a ventilation system
the two businesses share. The gas
was also blown outside onto East
13 th Avenue and people walking by
may have smelled it, Marr said.
During the inspection, all appli
ances were checked. Inspectors did
not find an underground leak.
— Katy Gagnon
ASUO sponsors concert
to aid with Katrina relief
The ASUO Executive is sponsoring
a live Katrina relief benefit concert
tonight from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the
EMU Ballroom.
More than 100 people are expected
to see live performances from
Michael Kay and the Phormula, Lafa
Taylor, Undermind, Serious, The
Oneironauts, The Essentials as well
as breakdancers, drum circles and
disk jockeys. All profits will be donat
ed to Oregon Food Bank, which will
give to the Katrina relief effort.
Tickets will remain on sale at the
EMU Ticket Office until 11 p.m.
tonight. The cost is $6 for students
and $7.50 for others.
— Nicholas Wilbur
Cancun, Cuba evacuate
luxury hotels before storm
CANCUN, Mexico — Tourists
packed Cancun’s airport desperately
seeking flights out and guests at luxu
ry hotels shuttled to emergency shel
ters, trying to escape Hurricane
Wilma as its outer bands battered the
resort’s white-sand beaches. Cuba
evacuated more than 200,000 people
ahead of the Category 4 storm.
Wilma, with maximum sustained
winds of 145 mph, churned toward
the Yucatan peninsula and south
Florida after hitting Haiti and Ja
maica, where it killed at least 13 peo
ple. The storm was expected to strike
Cancun and its surrounding resorts
and sideswipe Cuba early Friday.
Forecasters said Wilma then
would make a beeline for Florida,
where Gov. Jeb Bush declared a
state of emergency, and make land
fall Sunday.
“At least for the next couple of days
here, we think we’re going to have a
very powerful hurricane here in the
Caribbean,” said Max Mayfield, di
rector of the National Hurricane Cen
ter in Miami.
FEMA official excoriates
his agency on Katrina
WASHINGTON — In the midst of
the chaos that followed Hurricane
Katrina, a Federal Emergency Man
agement Agency official in New Or
leans sent a direct e-mail to Director
Michael Brown saying victims had no
food and were dying.
No response came from Brown.
Instead, less than three hours lat
er, an aide to Brown sent an e-mail
saying her boss wanted to go on a
television program that night — af
ter needing at least an hour to eat
dinner at a Baton Rouge, La.,
restaurant.
The e-mails were made public
Thursday at a Senate Homeland Se
curity Committee hearing featuring
Marty Bahamonde, the first agency
official to arrive in New Orleans in
advance of the Aug. 29 storm. The
hurricane killed more than 1,200 peo
ple and forced hundreds of thou
sands to evacuate.
Bahamonde, who sent the e-mail
to Brown two days after the storm
struck, said the correspondence illus
trates the government’s failure to
grasp what was happening.
Congress votes to shield
gunmakers from lawsuits
WASHINGTON — Congress voted
Thursday to sweep away the ability of
gun crime victims to sue firearms man
ufacturers and dealers for damages,
answering complaints by President
Bush and the gun industry that big
jury awards could lead to bankruptcy.
Opponents called the 283-144 vote
in the House proof of the gun lobby’s
power over the Republican-controlled
Congress, but Bush said he looked
forward to signing the bill. “Our laws
should punish criminals who use
guns to commit crimes, not law-abid
ing manufacturers of lawful prod
ucts,” the president said.
The Senate passed the bill, 65-31,
in July.
The bill’s passage was the National
Rifle Association’s top legislative pri
ority and gave Bush and his Republi
can allies on Capitol Hill a rare victo
ry at a politically troubled time when
several top White House officials and
GOP congressional leaders are under
investigation.
Report: U.S. soldiers
desecrated bodies
KABUL, Afghanistan — Islamic cler
ics expressed outrage Thursday at tele
vision footage that purportedly shows
U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two
dead Taliban fighters to taunt other
militants and warned of a possible vio
lent anti-American backlash.
President Hamid Karzai con
demned the alleged desecration and
ordered an inquiry. The operational
commander of the U.S. military in
Afghanistan, which launched its own
criminal probe, said the alleged act, if
true, was “repugnant.”
Worried about the potential for
anti-American feelings over the inci
dent, the State Department said it in
structed U.S. embassies around the
globe to tell local governments that
the reported abuse did not reflect
American values.
Cremating bodies is banned under
Islam, and one Muslim leader in
Afghanistan compared the video to
photographs of U.S. troops abusing
prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
—The Associated Press
Got a story idea?——
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