Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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NAACP’s Image Awards honor Carolina’s lesser-known heroes BY MICHAEL POSA THE GAMECOCK USC’s chapter of the NAACP held its first Image Awards Ceremony Thursday night in the Gambrell Auditorium. The ceremony, just shy of two hours, presented a variety of awards to faculty members, staff members and students. However, all awards given were of the same ilk. Shaundra Cunningham, third year marketing student and vice president of the USC National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the cere mony’s purpose was to “highlight the contributions of underappre ciated and unsung members of the USC community.” The official subtitle of the Images Awards Ceremony was “A salute to unsung heroes and hero ines.” These unsung heroes were members of the following cate gories: The Sodexho Award, Staff Award, Faculty Award, Student Award and President’s Award. The Minority Assistance Peer Program and Savvy student orga nizations presented their respec tive awards to their organization’s members. This ceremony was not your typical school-sponsored awards ceremony. The NAACP brought a multitude of guest entertainers, including mimes, Carl R. Wells, president of the Multicultural Student Council, and the Chosen Gospel Choir. Wells jump-started the ceremony by reciting a poem in celebration of black culture. In addition?- a mime couple per formed a powerful dance to a reli giously-themed song, which left the crowd roaring. These performances typified the tenor of the awards ceremony. While semi-formal, the ceremony was festive. Audience members took their seats to dance members and the presenters were cheerful. The Chose Gospel Choir got the au dience’s feet stomping and their hands clapping. The choir left the crowd cheering. While all songs performed were religious, the cer emony retained its original intent without much digression—the cel ebration of USC’s unsung heroes. One of the unsung heroes was Carolina ID Station staffer Jamie McCulloch. She was informed a few weeks ago that she would re ceive an award. She said she was “shocked.” “I have never received an award before,” she said. She has worked at the ID station for two years; however, she has worked with USC for the past 25 years. Her award was chosen, as well as the other nine awards given by the NAACP, by an “open ballot in which people’s names kept recur ring,” Cunningham said. Awards were given to Mildred Scott and Qader McNeil of Sodexho, Jamie McCulloch and Lindsay Carter of the USC staff, Bobby Donaldson and Qiana Whitted of the USC faculty and Yvonne Miller and Justin Williams of the Student Government. The President’s Award, given by USC NAACP president Tameka Sumter, a fourth-year English and Education student, was given to Reggie Whittaker. The Greek award was awarded to the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Microsoft faces EU monopoly charges BY PAUL GEITNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - The European Union announced its in tention Thursday to sanction Microsoft Corp. after the software giant balked at demands that tould have prevented it from adding new features to future ver sions of Windows — a restriction it avoided in the landmark U.S. an titrust case. Frenzied settlement talks that accelerated this week with the ar rival of Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer in Brussels col lapsed over the EU’s insistence on a broad deal in exchange for al lowing Microsoft to avoid being found guilty of monopolistic be havior. EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said he would now proceed with a precedent-setting ruling against the world’s largest software company on Wednesday. The EU also plans to hit Microsoft with a fine expected to reach hun dreds of millions of dollars. “We made substantial progress toward resolving the problems that had arisen in the past, but we were unable to agree on commit ments for future conduct,” Monti said. “It was impossible to achieve a satisfactory result in terms of setting a precedent.” Hours later, Ballmer said he be lieved the issues in the current case — involving digital media players and the server software market — had been resolved. “But we were unable to agree on principles for new issues that could arise in the future,” he said in a statement. Microsoft lawyers said the com pany would appeal any negative decision to European courts. An EU order could force Microsoft to make costly changes in its software — potentially on a global scale — in a matter of months unless it wins a suspen sion from the court pending ap peal, which can take years. In afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Microsoft shares were down 44 cents, 1.75 percent, at $24.69. Monti will present the proposed fine Monday to an advisory com mittee of national regulators be fore going to the full European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, on Wednesday for a final decision. After winning unanimous back ing from the 15 EU governments last week, the ruling is expected to pass easily. Microsoft is accused of unfair ly grabbing market share from ri val companies by bundling its own Media Player with Windows — the operating system in nearly every personal computer worldwide. Microsoft contends that it ben efits consumers, but rivals claim it is unfair competition that stifles innovation and aims to drive them out of business. Sources familiar with the case say the EU’s draft ruling finds Microsoft guilty of monopolistic behavior—setting a precedent in Europe — and goes beyond the U.S. remedies. The EU is demanding that Microsoft offer computer makers in Europe a discounted version of Windows without Media Player so that rivals like RealNetworks Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. have a better shot at reaching consumers. In addition, the draft is expect ed to require the company to re lease more underlying Windows code so rival server software com panies including Sun Microsystems Inc. can operate bet ter with computers running Windows. ' ... / ' li ! PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Gas prices are expected to rise this summer as crude inventory dwindles. Gas prices showing 1 no sign of decline BY H. JOSEF HEBERT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - As oil prices jump to a 14-year high, gasoline could reach a national average of $2 per gallon this summer, and even higher in some regions. - Dwindling stockpiles and in creasing demand have put new pressure on both crude oil prices and the tab at the gas pump, an alysts said. Crude oil closed Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange at $38.18 a barrel, the highest since October 1990. It peaked during Wednesday’s trad ing at $38.35, a level not reached since it briefly neared $40 a bar rel a few weeks before the start of the Iraq war a year ago. The high cost of crude is caus ing refiners to shy away from buying oil, analysts say. It also is leaving inventories of crude as well as petroleum products, including gasoline, at levels well below normal. That, in turn, is putting pressure on prices. Overall, motorists used an av erage of 8.9 million barrels of gasoline a day over the past month, 4.5 percent more than the same time a year ago, the agency said in its weekly report. Gasoline stocks fell to 199.6 million barrels last week, declining for the first ^ time since Nov. 28 to below 200 million barrels, the report said. Analysts expect gasoline prices to rise as the summer approach es, probably eclipsing $2 a gallon on a national average. mm-1 _>is this youp n flPSb dime? | we*U pay you $50 to travel abroad!* _ .travel through Europe for as nTRAVEL CUTS "^^^saday See the world your way .receive $50 cash back when you book by March 31! 800-592-CUTS (2887) www.travelcuts.com f 1