Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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CAROLINA Q BRIEF I USC professor quoted in AP hurricane report USC associate geography professor Cary Mock was featured on the New York Times Web site Thursday for his hurricane research. The Associated Press story is about Mock’s research to create a historical database of Atlantic and Gulf Coast hurricanes. His efforts could lead to a deeper understanding of the weather cycle that leads to hurricane activity. The AP Columbia bureau wrote the story Friday after USC’s Office of Media Relations promoted Mock on its University Daybook, which goes to media statewide daily. - Mock has been featured in numerous national media outlets, including The Washington Post in April 2004. To access the story, visit www.nytimes.com/aponline/sci ence/AP-Hurricane Research.html. O’Connor to perform, explain music for free Famed violinist Mark O’Connor and his jazz strings group Hot Swings will perform a Tree public concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The concert, which will take place in School of Music 206, will feature O’Connor along with two guitarists, a bassist and a jazz vocalist. Combining entertainment with teaching, O’Connor will discuss how he composed each musical selection. * O’Connor has performed at USC several times, most recently with the USC Symphony Orchestra in September. THIS WEEK © USC TODAY Campbell Law School informatiotial lunch: noon, Russel] House 322 Fall Festival of Authors featuring M.F.A. poetry and fiction readings: 3 p.m. Gervais and Vine, 620 Gervais St. Fall 2005 Seminar Series — The University of California at Santa Barbara’s Dr. Craig J. Hawker, “Facile Chemistry for the Synthesis and Fabrication of Nanostructures": 4 p.m. Jones Physical Science Center 006 Rachelle Whitcomb graduate violin recital: 5:30 p.m. School of Music 206 Fall Festival of Authors featuring novelist Francine Prose: 6 p.m. law school auditorium Stacey Holliday piano recital: 7:30 p.m. School of, Music 206 SUNDAY Walk for Juvenile Diabetes : t 1 p.m. Carolina Research Park, Farrow Road at Parklane USC Jazz Strings Ensemble — Craig Butterfield, director: 2 p.m. School of Music 206 Weather Forecast flNTHFWFR a today SBT m mon. tucs. U 1 Q ® WWW.DAILYGAMECOCK.COM ^ ^ .A^ A^ Read online five days a week. Sweet sassy molassey. £*** \j High 66 High 6H High 10 High 15 High 15 Loui HO Low 31 Low H2 Low HO Low 53 Hands on Katie Kirkland/THE GAMECOCK Kappa Kappa Gamma member Lailren Comer paints a boy’s hand at Trick or Treat with the Greeks. State Senate meets to mull family court system WEST COLUMBIA — A Senate subcommittee studying ways to improve South Carolina’s family court system held meetings across the state Wednesday to discuss issues such as efficiency, child support and guardians ad litem. The current system should be streamlined and more user friendly, according to Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, who hosted a public hearing in the Midlands. It was one of three held statewide. The others were held in North Charleston and the piedmont. The subcommittee has been asked to submit a bill to the legislature that would address various concerns. “It’s an outdated system," said Knotts. Only a handful of people showed up at the Midlands meeting. Ballentine resident Doug Johnson said the family court system was costly, inefficient and time consuming. The 65-year-old said he has tried to help his daughter recoup about $4,000 in overdue child support payments from her ex husband, but the system was not helping. ■RfiTlI Nation Suspected bomber appeals to high court WASHINGTON — Dirty bomb suspect Jose Padilla has asked the Supreme Court to limit the government’s power to hold him and other U.S. terror suspects indefinitely and without charges. The case of Padilla, who has been in custody more than three years, presents a major test of the Bush administration’s wartime authority. The former gang member is accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive device. Justices refused to resolve Padilla’s case last year by a 5-4 vote, ruling that he contested his detention in the wrong court. Donna Newman of New York, one of Padilla’s attorneys, said the new case, which was being processed at the court Thursday, asks when and for how long the government can jail people in military prisons. Critics contend the government went too far by putting hundreds of foreigners and two U.S. citizens in legal limbo following the September 11 attacks. The Bush administration argues that with national security at stake, terrorist suspects are not entitled to the constitutional protections given ordinary criminal suspects* The Supreme Court has disagreed, although the makeup of the court is changing. World Companies blamed for oil-food scandal UNITED NATIONS — About 2,200 companies in the U.N. oil-for-food program, including corporations in France, Germany and Russia, paid a total of $1.8 billion in kickbacks and illicit surcharges to Saddam Hussein’s government, a U.N.-backed investigation said in a report released Thursday. The report from the committee probing claims of wrongdoing in the $64 billion program said prominent politicians also made money from extensive manipulation of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq. Thp invpcricrarnrc rpnnrrpri that companies and individuals from 66 countries paid illegal kickbacks using a variety of ways. And those paying illegal oil surcharges came from, or were registered in, 40 countries. The committee said responsibility for the programs failure should start with the U.N. Security Council, which is dominated by its five permanent members: Great Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. The oil-for-food program was one of the worlds largest humanitarian aid operations, running from 1996-2003. Under the program, Iraq was allowed to sell limited and later unlimited quantities of oil, provided most of the money went to buy humanitarian goods. Nations oldest public university opens records about slavery ties (latalie Gott THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — In the early decades of the nation’s oldest public university, students at the University of North Carolina had servants that kindled fires in their rooms and cut wood to fuel their stoves. And at the school that’s so proud of its history, archivists have uncovered and are now displaying publicly evidence that those servants were slaves. “I think it’s important for us to know our own history and to be honest about it,” said Chancellor James Moeser. “This university was built by slaves and free blacks,” Moeser added. “We need to be candid about that, acknowledge their contributions.” The University of North Carolina, chartered in 1789, is among several institutions of higher learning, joining banks and other financial firms, that have taken recent steps to research and recognize their historic ties to the slave trade. North Carolina archivists were searching through records as part of a project on the university’s first 100 years when they found records that confirmed slaves helped construct campus’ buildings. Other records showed that both faculty and university board members owned slaves. The research is now on display as part of an on campus exhibit — “Slavery and the Making of the University: Celebrating Our Unsung Heroes, Bond and Free” — that includes photographs, letters, bills of sale for slaves, and other documents. In one letter, the wife of the school’s first law professor wrote her husband that university President David Lowry Swain wanted to hire “Harry” for work, pledging she would “hire Harry out whenever I can.” Last April, the faculty senate at the University of Alabama apologized to the descendants of slaves who were owned by faculty members or who worked on campus in the years before the Civil War. The school also erected a marker near the graves of two slaves on campus. And at Brown University in Rhode Island, a committee is examining the school’s historic ties to the slave trade and recommending whether and how the college should take responsibility. A report on the findings is due by the end of the fall semester. “We clearly do live in a society that has a persistent pattern of racial disparity and I think most people would agree that that has something to do with our history,” said James Campbell, a history professor at Brown and the chairman of the committee. “If you care about that pattern of disparity, then it seems to me one of the things that is incumbent on you is to try to find out how we got here.” Just how many schools have ties to the slave trade remains unknown, since so much information has been concealed, said Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree. But he believes those found to have had links to slavery should pay reparations. In the business world, some banks and financial services firms have conducted similar investigations, often to comply with local governments demanding such an accounting of past ties to the slave trade, and have followed in some cases with financial donations. Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. committed an undisclosed sum to support black history education a tew days after announcing that two of its predecessor banks owned slaves. New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. gave $5 million to support college scholarships for black students in Louisiana, where two of its predecessor banks received thousands of slaves as collateral. At North Carolina, the university has made several efforts to recognize the school’s links to slavery. A class is ofFered on the history of the blacks at the school. A monument, to be dedicated next month, was installed last May that honors slaves and free blacks who helped build the school. And when the new exhibit opened, the university sponsored a discussion led by university professors called “That the Truth May Set us Free: Examining Our Slaveholding Past.” Meanwhile, those doing research at North Carolina say they hope the exhibit is a beginning of new discovery about the school’s past. Archivists said the exhibit was not an attempt to expose unknown secrets, but rather share materials that add to the university’s history. “I think it is important that we do this since we are the oldest university,” said Susan Ballinger, assistant university archivist. “The chancellor has said over and over again that it’s critical for the university to be honest about its past. He wants our history told fully, warts and all.” -1 Suggestions for Page 2? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu. AMECOCK