Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Wellness CONTINUED FROM PAGE A2 as far as hiring the same architec tural firm that built Georgia’s Ramsey Center. The architecture is modeled after some of the.his toric buildings found on USC’s Horseshoe. The center is planned to open spring sfemester, and Camp tenta tively said it would be sometime midsemester before students would be able>to use the facilities. The Blatt P.E. Center will not go unused once the new center opens. Hours of operation will re main the same, and the programs there will complement those at the Wellness Center. It remains td be seen whether students and faculty will actually use both fa cilities at the same time, or whether they will favor the new er, more modern facilities being built. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Bush asks Congress to ease logging rules BY DOUGLAS JEHL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - President Bush will ask Congress to relax environmental laws so the tim ber industry can accelerate cut ting efforts across millions of acres of national forest land in creasingly prone to devastating wildfires, senior administration officials said today. The plan is to be made public on Thursday, when Bush trav els to southern Oregon to view recent fire damage there. But word of its basic thrust has al ready ignited a new political fight, with environmentalists condemning what they called a White House effort to promote rejuvenated logging under the guise of fire prevention. After two summers in three in which the West has suffered devastating wildfires, Congress has already thrown its support, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars, behind a national plan to remove more brush and under growth from public lands to make them less susceptible to blazes. But with the support of many Western governors and senators, Bush now appears to support a plan to go further. As described to day by administration and Congressional officials, it would give loggers greater leeway to cut commercially valuable trees, which environmentalists and many scientists say do not fuel fires the way the dense but com mercially worthless underbrush and tinder-dry saplings do. In particular, the officials said, Mr. Bush is likely to ask Congress to waive provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, which dates from 1970, in or der to streamline approval of what proponents call a necessary forest thinning. The change would cur tail the environmentalists’ abili ty to appeal the logging plains, a le gal tool that groups have used to stop such sales to timber compa nies in the past. Already this summer, the fires in the West have burned an area larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. “Without active management, we will be asking ourselves in a few short years where our forests have gone,” said 15 Western sena tors, including Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, and Larry Craig, the Idaho Republican, in a statement earli er this month. But the idea that Mr. Bush might try to set aside existing en vironmental laws in the name of fire protection has prompted an angry outcry from several Democrats and environmental leaders. A spokesman for the Sierra Club, Allen Mattison, said today that his group and others were concerned that Mr. Bush’s plan might open the door to “run away logging” in areas that are now protected. BRIEFLY Work on Sumter Street nears end After beginning last spring, the beautification project on Sumter Street is nearing com pletion, university landscape ar chitect Ben Coonrod said Monday. Most of the sidewalks are now available for students to use, but with the Moore, Snowden, LaBorde and Douglas residence halls opening up, ille gally parked cars are hindering construction efforts. On Monday, cars parked on the median and in a new bus pull-off prevented irrigation lines from being installed and concrete walkways from being poured. Coonrod said cars parked illegally within the con struction area are subject to tick eting and towing. Smoking-cessation program offered Health and Wellness Programs is offering a free smok ing-cessation program for uni versity faculty, staff and students and their family members. The program includes free medications, if needed. The pro gram’s overall quit rate is 90 per cent, and in the last group to go through, there was a 100 percent quit rate. “This is a highly effective and worthwhile program that will improve the health of USC staff members, as well as their pro ductivity,” said Marcous Gardner of Health and Wellness Programs. For more informa tion, call 777-7618. ? ■ • ' ' & ' _t /' i : . • \ "" -® _' ' 1_* . '’ - I Ronald E. McNair Program Advantages: •Summer and Academic Semester Stipends •Doctorat Study Preparation •Pre-Graduate Research/Scholastic Opportunities •Faculty Nentoring/Academlc & Graduate School Counseling •Workshops/Speakers •Cultural Enrichment and Graduate School Enrichment Programs Qualifications: •US Permanent Citizen •First-Generation College/University Student (Parents have not received a college degree or Primary care giver has not received a college degree.) •Must be a low-income student and underrepresented student in a graduate field of interest •Must have 60 credit hours by the start of Summer 1 session 2003 •Must have 3.0 g.p.a. BUY • SELL * TRADE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: www.softwareseconds.com WELCOME BACK USC STUDENTS AND FACULTY Come Visit Us 4508 St. Andrews Rd. • (803) 798-4014 (LOCATED ACROSS FROM HONEYWELL) I . ... . —I, ■■ 20% Off : | Any used video game j I T t ' I Excludes systems • Expires Sept, 30, 2002