Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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> »i i* PAT CONROY SPEAKS TO PACKED ROOM AT RUSSELL HOUSE BY KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK More than 750 people filled the Russell House Ballroom on Monday night in a standing-room only crowd that turned out to hear best-selling author Pat Conroy speak. Conroy was also honored with a special award from USC for his lifetime achieve ments in education, literature and film. “I’m here tonight because USC bestowed upon me one of the greatest honors I’ve ever received,” Conroy said. “I was stunned when the students chose me for this honor. It would have been an insult to the univer sity for me not to come tonight." In his 20-minute speech, Conroy covered a variety of topics, including his perspective of the Sept. 11 at tacks, saying it was the “worst incident in American history” in his lifetime. He also spoke about his ex periences as a student at The Citadel and his nostalgia for author Thomas Wolfe, who was Conroy’s early literary inspiration. He repeated one statement throughout the speech: “There is a relationship be tween life and art.” The speech received such a positive reaction that Conroy stayed for 47 minutes afterward to speak with anyone who wanted to meet him and to auto graph copies of some of his famous novels, such as ♦ CONROY, SEE PAGE 2. FOR MORE SEARCH FOR SIX COVERAGE, ALSO SEE PAGE 2 U.S. jets set fire to Taliban oil supplies p Officials report attacks near key nothern city Mazar-e-Sharif BY STEVEN GUTKIN ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGRAM,AFGHANISTAN - U.S. jets struck Taliban front lines and an Osama bin Laden stronghold north of Kabul on Tuesday — attacks the opposi tion hopes will open the way for an advance on Kabul. But Taliban troops held their ground, |) launching rockets and mortars toward positions held by the northern alliance. Opposition and Taliban offi cials also reported U.S. attacks around the key northern city Mazar-e-Sharif, where an of fensive last week by the oppo sition northern alliance fal tered. The Taliban claimed they repulsed opposition at tacks that followed the American bombardment. American warplanes set fire to critical Taliban oil supplies in the Taliban headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar - said to be all but abandoned by its half million inhabitants after weeks ^ of attacks. ♦ AFGHANISTAN, SEE PAGE 3 USC denies allegations in discrimination suit BY BRANDON LARABEE THE OAMECOCK As the next deadline in the university’s ongoing battle against a racial discrimination lawsuit approaches, USC’s an swer to the filing by 26 mainte nance workers gives the clearest picture yet of the administra tion’s views of the employees’ claims. Monday is the deadline for mo tions to join other parties and amend court pleadings. “Defendants deny that they or any of them have violated plain tiffs’ rights under federal and/or state law as alleged and deny that plaintiffs are entitled to any re lief whatsoever from defendants or any of them,” the filing says. The maintenance workers said the university had a pattern of passing over black workers for pay raises and promotions while singling out black em ployees for punishment. They also claim the university con ducted “interviews” with em ployees as rumors of a lawsuit spread and that these sessions were meant to intimidate poten tial plaintiffs. There are 137 maintenance workers at the university, 34 of which are black. None of the black workers holds a manage ment position, though some are given supervisory duties. In its response, the universi ty claims immunity for President John Palms and Gerald Goings, ♦ BIAS, SEE PAGE 4 THE MAKING OF A MANDALA Monks create an intricate sand painting on the second floor of the Russell House on Tuesday afternoon. For more on the monks’ visit, see page 2. photo by annie lee. Gov. Hodges and Steve Siegfried, chairman of the Governors Security Council. Hodges said anthrax testing labs might avoid cuts, photo by michelle williams Testing labs could be spared BY GREG HAMBRICK THE GAMECOCK The state’s anthrax testing fa cilities could be spared as South Carolina prepares for massive budget cuts. “If there are any budget cuts that take place, our public health facilities that are involved in an alyzing anthrax and our law en forcement personnel that are working in this area should be spared from those cuts,” Gov. Jim Hodges said. Across-the-board cuts are expected after the state Budget and Control Board meets next week. The support for the laborato ry came after the governor’s tour Monday of the Department of Health and Environmental Control’s facility in Columbia. The governor said state resi dents should be comforted by the work state agencies have al ready done to prevent bioter rorism in the state. “Law enforcement and public health agencies are not only pre pared to respond, they have re sponded,” Hodges said about po tential threats. “They have an enormous capacity to respond quickly and accurately.” He also said the lab is the only one in the tri-state area certified to test samples for anthrax. North Carolina and Georgia must send suspected anthrax samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, a process that can de lay test results by days. Dr. Harold Dowda, state lab oratories director, said reli able findings from DHEC’s lab can come in 24 hours. “The staff has been working 16- to 18-hour days, seven days a week, for about two weeks," he said. The lab has made some changes to expedite findings, Dowda said, including double shifting, training two addition al staff members and streamlin ing the procedures. ♦ S.C. ANTHRAX, SEE PAGE 2 Anthrax spores give White House scare BY DAVID ESPO ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - The nation’s anthrax scare hit the White House on Tuesday with the dis covery of a small concentration of spores at an offsite mail pro cessing center. “We’re working hard at finding out who’s doing this,” President Bush said as bioterrorism claimed fresh vic tims along the East Coast. Bush said the executive man sion was safe — and twice said “I don’t have anthrax”—despite the discovery of spores on a machine at the mail site a few miles from the White House. Spokesman Ari Fleischer said all employees at the site, as well as mailroom workers in the White House itself, were being “swabbed and tested” for the disease. The startling disclosure capped a rapidly unfolding se ries of events in which officials announced additional confirmed and suspected cases of inhala tion anthrax, Congress returned to work and the administration pledged a more aggressive test ing and treatment program if ad ditional tainted letters are dis covered. Before the current outbreak, “We had no cases of inhalation anthrax in a mail sorting facili ty,” said Jeffrey Koplan, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For his part, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson pushed Bayer Corp. to lower its price for Cipro, a front-line anti-anthrax drug. Outside the White House, House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt said “weapons-grade material” was responsible for spreading infections. ♦ ANTHRAX, SEE PAGE 5 USG’S PAST Oct. 27,1865 Provisional Governor Benjamin F. Perry asked the General Assembly to consider reopening South Carolina College. f WEATHER Today Tomorrow Sunny, Partly cloudy, 88/62 ■ 81/45 INSIDE TODAY’S ISSUE Tease soccer girl here Promo text explains right here. ♦ PAGE 11 < NY charity concert draws celebrities *NSYNC, Usher among perfrormers. ♦ PAGE 8 * ONLINE POLL SEC Championship Do you think the Gamecocks have a chance at the SEC championship? Vote at www.dailygamecock.com. Results are published on Fridays.