Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Arena caught up in USC-city rift IMAGE COURTESY USC PUBLIC AFFAIRS BY GREG HAMBRICK THE GAMECOCK With unresolved issues possi bly delaying construction of USC’s new arena, only one thing is cer tain: Hockey will be in the house. Still under discussion are whether area high schools may use the arena, when Columbia will provide its part of the financ ing and whether construction will be halted altogether. “Hockey is an integral part of the arena,” USC spokesman Russ McKinney said about the Columbia Inferno playing in the new arena, set for completion in November 2002. The city’s faith in that state ment has faltered, and Columbia officials have said they won’t pro vide the agreed $2.5 million to fi nance the arena until the lease be tween the Inferno and the univer sity is signed. “It’s a matter of negotiating an agreement beneficial to everyone involved,” Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said. “It’s just one hurdle that needs to be jumped.” Richland and Lexington coun ties presented $5 million during a pre-game ceremony at Saturday’s football game. The university found out early last week the city was withholding its contribution and wouldn’t attend the presenta tion. Had all three governments delayed funds, McKinney said are na construction would have halt ed. With the county’s donations in the bank, the school must have Columbia’s check by December, when bonds will be issued for con tinued construction, but the school must show that all finances are in order or risk delays. McKinney said the lease agree ment discussions, reported in The * % State as a “crisis,” are normal. USC sent the latest draft of the agreement to the hockey team Thursday and expects it to be signed next week. McKinney said the main dis pute is “the number of differences on how the revenues flow from hockey matches.” Drafts of the agreement show money from the games going to the team and money from parking and concession going to USC. That rev enue has been included the uni versity’s construction expenses. ♦ ARENA, SEE PAGE 2 Provost worried about funding Scholarships could be victims of budget crunch BY KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK At a recent SDIC tneeting Provost Jerry Odom expressed concern about scholarships of fered at USC, saying we are “sim ply not competitive enough.” Odom made it clear to the com mittee that scholarship money is the highest priority in attracting quality students to the university. Because of the currently strug gnng economy m ouum caiuuim “ ... [the SDIC] is going to have to make some hard, painful deci sions about what we are going to do as a university,” Odom said. He said the committee’s agen da includes gathering informa tion on how scholarship funds can be increased in a time of eco nomic uncertainty. “Over the next several years, we are not going to get more mon ey from the state,” Odom said. He said the university must rely solely on private funds for future improvement of scholarships. Odom said a key aspect for scholarship improvement on campus is the success of the Russell House Bookstore. The bookstore, which is operated by Barnes and Noble, is under con tract to allocate a certain amount of profits annually toward schol arship endowments. “We need to make it clear to our faculty and students that business done at the Russell House Bookstore does contribute to our scholarship funds,” Odom said. He said com petition with commercial book stores in the area causes de creased success with the im nrmramant nf QCholarshiOS. The scholarships offered by the university are solely based on academic requirements. The ap plicant’s economic status is not taken into consideration, like with federal grants or financial aid. “Scholarships, in the parlance of the university, mean academic, and it is what you might call a fel lowship,” said Don Greiner, dean of Undergraduate Affairs. Two prominent scholarships are the Carolina and McNair scholar ships. The Carolina Scholarship is ♦ SCHOLARSHIPS, SEE PAGE 2 Mail handler in Virginia has anthrax Diagnosis of state department employee marks 13th case in U.S. BY PAUL RECER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — An employee at the State Department’s remote mail facility in suburban Virginia is hospitalized with anthrax, a spokesman announced Thursday, the latest jolting evidence of a spreading campaign of bioterror ism against the United States. Spokesman Richard Boucher said the unidentified mail handler works at a facility in Sterling, Va., and went to the hospital Wednesday with flu-like symptoms. The diagnosis marked the 13th known case of anthrax nationwide in the last few weeks—most of them with known connections to the mail Boucher made his statement as Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge told reporters the anthrax contained in a letter mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was highly concentrated and pure and made “to be more easily absorbed” by its victims. Speaking at the White House, Ridge also announced the Postal Service had begun environmental testing at 200 facilities along the Eastern Seaboard, supplemented by precautionary spot checks else where around the country. Ridge spoke as officials said the number of Americans taking an tibiotics at the government’s urg ing in the bioterrorism scare had reached 10,000, and as Daschle an nounced that one wing of a Senate office building would be sealed off “for the foreseeable future” be cause of anthrax contamination. Health officials awaited the re sults of lab tests on an unidentified woman in a suburban Washington hospital, disclosed Wednesday night to be suffering from possible inhalation anthrax. The woman was present in the office building that houses Daschle’s office on the day the tainted mail was opened. Ridge said additional testing had confirmed that the anthrax bacteria found in letters to Daschle, New York and Florida were from the same strain, and had not been altered genetically. That’s good news, he said, “be cause it means the samples all re spond to antibiotics and therefore people who are exposed can be treated. At the same time, he said the material that fell from the Daschle letter has different characteris tics than the other samples. “It is highly concentrated. It is pure and the spores are smaller,” he said. “Therefore, they’re more dangerous because they can be more easily absorbed in a per son’s respiratory system. Ridge also made his disclo sures about postal service in spections as authorities prepared to issue masks and gloves for its 800,000 employees and was testing ways to sterilize the nation’s mail. Federal health officials an nounced Wednesday that a deal had been struck with the Bayer Corp. to buy 100 million tablets of Cipro, the antibiotic that more and more Americans are taking to ward off the anthrax disease. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said the government would purchase Cipro for 95 cents a pill, or about half the price it usually pays. ♦ ANTHRAX, SEE PAGE 2 Hazardous materials crew washes off following anthrax Investigations in the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, photo by chuck kennedy/krt campus U.S. warplanes continue bombarding Taliban front lines BY DON PATHAN ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGRAM, AFGHANISTAN - U.S. jets dive-bombed Taliban po sitions on the front line north of the Afghan capital on Thursday, eluding at least one missile and sending thick columns of black smoke climbing into a cloudless sky. Warplanes later pounded Kabul in the strongest attack on the city in days. The warplanes repeatedly struck targets near Kabul’s air port, the center, and to the north and west. The assault lasted past midnight and involved at least 10 waves of warplanes. Gunners for the ruling Taliban responded with heavy salvos of anti-aircraft fire. Bombing to the north of the capital was for control of the strategic Bagram airport - held by the opposition northern alliance but of no use because of Taliban fighters in the hills around it. Driving the Taliban away from positions around the air port would enable the alliance to fly in troops, ammunition and supplies for an attack on Kabul, about 30 miles away. U.S. jets were also in action Thursday in the skies near Taliban-held Mazar-e-Sharif, striking Taliban positions to the south and east of the strategic city, whose capture by the north ern alliance would open up cru cial supply routes to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Opposition officials in Uzbekistan said a Taliban com mander, Mullah Yusuf, and 10 other Taliban fighters were killed in the bombing near Mazar-e Sharif. The opposition also claimed its troops captured the village of Shurchi on the south ern outskirts of Mazar-e-Sharif and took 180 Taliban prisoners. The reports could not be indepen dently confirmed. In other developments: ♦ Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the U.S. mili tary campaign in Afghanistan was hurting the Taliban as well as No. 1 terror suspect Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist net ♦ AFGHANISTAN, SEE PAGE 3 Commander Saydol of the United Front, also known as the northern alliance, walks down the trenches leading to his POSt. PHOTO BY DAVID P. GILKEY/KRT CAMPUS USC’S PAST Oct. 30,1902 The South Carolina football team, playing for the first time with the nickname “Gamecocks,” defeated Clemson 12-6. WEATHER Today Tomorrow Partly cloudy, Sunny, 67/39 60/34 INSIDE TODAY’S ISSUE ■ I # I-_ A luuiv lur more news online Briefs about USC and beyond. ♦ WWW.DAILYGAMECOCK.COM ^ dtu snowuuwn this weekend USC-Tennessee game crucial in championship race. ♦ PAGE 8 ONLINE POLL SEC Championship Do you think the Gamecocks have a chance at the SEC championship? YES, WE'RE AWESOME 62% WHO KNOWS? 15% NO, ONLY IN SUB-REALITY 24% wammmmaaaBmmmmm