State Press - Friday - 09/22/95
Stories for Friday, 09/22/95
(c)1995 ASU Student Publications
Expert: Government cover-up stifles UFO info
By Eddie Diaz
Special to the State Press
Like something out of TV's The X-Files,
a UFO expert
told ASU students that a government
conspiracy is keeping
news of flying saucers under wraps.
Robert Hastings, an electron
microscopist and
independent UFO researcher, touched down at
the Memorial
Union Cinema in a lecture sponsored by
Associated Students
of ASU. He was paid $1,400 for the lecture,
said Marc
Wendell, ASASU activities vice president.
Hastings told the crowd of more than 150
students
Wednesday that the information he revealed is
true and
should be taken seriously.
"The only ticket of admission tonight is
an open mind,"
he said at the opening of his speech.
"There's more than 10,
000 pages of classified information under U.S
security that
haven't been looked at. With the help of the
Freedom of
Information Act, we have retrieved 600 pages
of declassified
documents (about UFOs)."
The FOIA allows citizens to sue the
government,
forcing it to release information that is not
vital to national
security.
Hastings started the presentation with a
30-minute
slide show documenting a brief history of UFO
sightings. It
showed pictures of oval-shaped flying objects
and bright
lights dating from World War II until the
late 70s.
The slide show centered on one fact:
Every single
photograph was taken above a sensitive
nuclear site or U.S.
research installation.
Hastings said this may be because UFOs
use nuclear
power in their travels about the universe.
"There's a definite link between UFOs
and nuclear
weapons," he said.
After seeing a UFO when he was 17 years
old,
Hastings' interest in "flying saucers" was
launched.
After he graduated from college, he
interviewed scores
of people who claim to have seen or been
abducted by UFOs.
He said a lot of people, especially military
people, who have
sighted UFOs, don't talk because the
government forced them
into silence.
He has read copies of secret letters
from the FBI and
CIA to the National Security Council, which
he said were
recently declassified, that disclose what
high-ranking officials
saw and how they attempted to intercept UFOs
with F-14
fighter planes.
Hastings described a high-speed dog
fight in Iran
between U.S.-trained F-14 fighter pilots and
a UFO mother
ship.
He said the mother ship had "little
ships coming out
the mother's belly." As the fighters
approached the ship, their
power shut down until they turned away from
it. Hastings
said the ships then raced by the planes at
tremendous speeds,
almost colliding with the fighters.
"There's a wealth of evidence out there,
and no one has
all the answers, but I guarantee that what
you saw here
tonight is closer to the truth than any
government agency's
answers," Hastings said. "I leave it to you
to decide for yourself."
Complications from shooting claim life of ASU
gay activist
By Brian Anderson
State Press
Mark Sauer's mother remembers him as a
fantastic,
caring and giving person.
"He spent most of his life giving
service to others," said
Rebecca Sauer, Mark's mother and a graduate
student
studying counseling. "That was his main
function in life."
Mark, an openly gay freshman, died
Sunday of
HIV/AIDS complications resulting from a June
3 shooting
which the Phoenix Police Department
classified as a hate
crime. His assailant allegedly said, "We
don't want you (gay)
people around here."
Mark, a 25-year-old geology major, was
shot three
times in the leg when a juvenile attempted to
carjack him
while leaving a Phoenix bar.
Mark Colledge, who is on the board of
directors for the
Arizona Human Rights Fund, said Mark was HIV-
positive
and the shooting was an indirect cause of his
death.
"The shooting added to his demise and it
had
accelerated the disease," he said. "Due to
the shooting, he had
to stop a lot of his therapies."
Mark's death is a loss to both the
family and the public
he unselfishly served, Rebecca Sauer said.
"To us it signifies a great loss of
someone who was
very loved in the family and contributed
quite a bit to the
family," she said. "The community lost a
great leader and a
great activist. He was a very special guy."
Sauer added that Mark would lend a hand
to anyone
who needed it.
"He had no prejudices. He had no
biases," she said. "If
you needed his help, he'd give it to you and
he'd give it to
you completely.
"He used to hate having to go to sleep
because he felt
he was wasting time. There were so many
things that he
wanted to do."
Dawn Bates, an associate professor of
English and a
friend of Mark's, echoed his mom's words.
"Mark was a great young man," she said.
"He was very
caring and active in a great many
communities. He was
active in the lesbian and gay community."
Bates, who is also a faculty advisor for
the Rainbow
Alliance - a gay and lesbian student
organization - said she
assists the group because of the same hatred
of gays and
lesbians to which Mark fell victim.
"The reason that I serve lesbian and gay
students on
this campus is because they are in danger.
Mark's death
illustrates that," she said.
"He was killed because he was a gay
man," she said. "It
should signify the senseless waste of lives
caused by
ignorance and hate."
Supreme Court Justice O'Connor to speak at
College of Law dinner
By Tim Baxter
State Press
Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female
Supreme Court
justice, will speak tonight at the College of
Law's annual Law
Society Dinner.
The dinner - to be held at Camelback
Inn's Arizona
Ballroom - is a reservation-only affair
expected to draw about
600 people, including Gov. Fife Symington.
About 200 law students are expected to
attend, said
Linda Flamer, director of development and
alumni relations
for the college of law.
She added that O'Connor's remarks would
be
informal, and she wasn't sure what would be
discussed.
"We don't have a topic, which makes it
difficult to say
what she will talk about," Flamer said.
O'Connor was a Maricopa County Superior
Court
Judge from 1975 to 1979. After her term
ended, she served
two years on the Arizona Court of Appeals
until President
Ronald Reagan appointed her to the Supreme
Court in 1981.
Tomorrow marks the 14th anniversary of
O'Connor's
appointment to the nation's highest court.
O'Connor spoke at the 25th anniversary
of the law
school in 1992, was a commencement speaker in
1993 and
holds an honorary law degree from ASU, Flamer
said.
The dinner will also honor P. Robert
Fannin, a local
attorney receiving the 1995 Distinguished
Achievement
Award.
Flamer said reservations are no longer
being accepted.
Mill Ave. main cash flow from ASU
By Angela Mull
State Press
Downtown Tempe may welcome all visitors,
but the
ASU community contributes the largest chunk
of money to
the area's establishments, according to a
report distributed to
Tempe city council members Thursday.
According to a report by Donovan
Rypkema, an out-
of-state advising consultant, the ASU
community outspends
downtown Tempe workers and residents (not
including
students) by more than $260 million. The
report, presented to
the council during its issue review session,
said ASU
students, staff and faculty spend about $277
million per year
on retail, food and beverages, entertainment
and recreation in
the downtown area. Downtown Tempe workers and
residents spend about $13 million.
Because of this, Downtown Tempe
Community Inc.
must market to the ASU community, said Roger
Egan,
president of the DTC, a non-profit group that
manages
downtown businesses.
"That doesn't mean you exclude the rest
of the public,
but the primary focus is working with the
people already
here, and then you expand," he said.
* In other business, the council discussed
changing the
alignment of part of the Rio Salado Parkway.
Part of the
parkway, from Rural Road to College Street,
was realigned in
August. Another part, about a 3/4-mile
stretch from College
Street to Farmer Avenue, will be moved south
to intersect
Mill Avenue at First Street. It currently
runs underneath the
Mill Avenue bridges.
The realignment was suggested by a task
force of city
staff and interested community members, said
Rod Keeling,
executive director of DTC. He said the
realignment will
extend downtown Tempe's character into the
Parkway and
give it an urban feel.
"We feel like the alignment as it exists
now is a bypass
of downtown Tempe," he said. "We wanted to
move the
street downtown so the development would
follow."
The realignment will cost an additional
$4 million, but
there is no timeline for its completion, said
Judy Greenberg,
acting deputy public works director.
Construction of the
alignment will not begin until development
dictates it, she said.
ASASU president arrested for assault
Weber denies punching woman in fraternity
brawl
By Timothy Tait and Greg Zemeida
State Press
Chris Weber, ASU's student government
president,
was arrested for assault early Thursday
morning after
allegedly punching a woman during a brawl
with a rival
fraternity.
The fight between a few members of
Weber's
fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, and a few members
from Sigma
Phi Epsilon occurred about 12:30 a.m. at the
Dash Inn, 731 E.
Apache Blvd., a popular hang-out with
fraternity members.
Weber left the bar after the fight and was
arrested outside his
fraternity house about a half-hour later.
"I didn't hit the girl, but I'll be
hearing about it for
months," Weber said. He will be arraigned
Oct. 10 and
intends to plead not guilty.
The victim, an ASU student, said that
although she
could not positively identify Weber, other
witnesses can.
"However, he was the last one that I saw
and four of
my friends can positively identify the man
who assaulted me
- Chris Weber," she said in a telephone
interview, reading
from a prepared statement.
She requested that her name be withheld
pending the
release of the police report.
Weber said he was at the bar celebrating
his 25th
birthday. The fight began when his younger
brother, T.J.,
who is also a Pi Kappa Alpha member, was
"sucker punched"
in the nose, according to Chris Weber.
Prompted by bouncers
at the Dash, the combatants moved the
altercation outside
into the parking lot of Rothers Bookstore,
Weber said.
However, the victim said she was hit
when Chris
Weber attempted to start a fight with an
"undergrad" who
was with her.
Weber said he thought his brother had a
broken nose
and all he wanted to do was get him out of
the bar. When the
fighting resumed outside the bar, he said Pi
Kappa Alpha
members pushed him into a bush to avoid
trouble and
rushed him from the scene.
Weber said the woman was punched after
she
"jumped into the middle of a bunch of guys
fighting and
somebody hit her, and she doesn't know who it
was," adding
that he was at the other end of the parking
lot at the time of
the assault.
Drew Ronchetti, a fellow member of
Weber's fraternity
who was at the bar, backed up Weber's story.
"I heard somebody yelling, 'Oh my God,
somebody
just hit my girlfriend,' and they are trying
to blame this thing
on Chris, ... (but he) was down on the south
end of the
parking lot being put into a car," he said.
"He wasn't
anywhere near her when it happened."
Jeff Adams, president of Sigma Phi
Epsilon, said he
wouldn't comment on the incident except to
say that
members of his fraternity "did nothing
wrong."
He said he didn't know how many of his
fraternity
members were involved in the fight because he
was not at the
bar when the incident broke out. Adams said
he wanted to
wait until all the facts were in before
commenting further.
Weber admitted he had a couple of drinks
at the bar,
but said he was not impaired. Police did not
perform a
breathalyzer test on Weber after his arrest.
ASU Chief of Police Lanny Standridge
said Weber was
arrested outside of his fraternity house at
about 1 a.m. after
the woman and three other witnesses
identified him. He was
cited and later released.
According to the ASU police report on
the incident,
the woman said Weber spilled a drink on her
at the bar at
about 12:30 a.m., then became belligerent
when the woman's
two friends told him to be careful with his
drink.
Weber left and returned shortly with two
friends, she
alleged in the report. Weber and his friends
then attacked her
and her friends.
She said Weber struck her in the face
and she fell to the
floor. She suffered a cut under her right
eye, a bruise on her
right leg and a cut on her upper back.
The report said Weber had two scratches
on his
middle finger and blood on his pants. The
wounds appeared
to be fresh, according to the report.
Weber said he received the scratches
when he was
pushed into a bush. He could not be reached
for further
comment about the blood on his pants.
Standridge said police were called to
Alpha Drive
because of a report of a "large fight." When
officers arrived,
about 40 to 50 people were standing between
the two
fraternity houses, but no one was seen
fighting.
One of the officers then told the crowd
to go back to
their houses and they did. At that time, the
woman
approached the officer about the alleged
assault.
The woman, along with three other
witnesses,
identified Weber as her attacker. She told
police that she
would be willing to press charges against
him.
Weber said Sigma Phi Epsilon members
pinned the
assault on him to get back at his fraternity
and because he has
such a high profile as the Associated
Students of ASU
president.
"(The) easy way to get to us (Pi Kappa
Alpha) was
through me," he said. "I'm high profile and I
have the most to
lose.
"They set me up real nice."
Weber said his behavior was "perfectly
acceptable,"
but added that he had "a responsibility as a
student leader to
make sure that things (like this) don't
happen."
This is the second arrest of a
fraternity member for
assault in the past month. On Aug. 21, a
Sigma Chi member
was charged with aggravated assault after
allegedly beating a
black man outside his fraternity house. The
incident is being
investigated as a possible hate crime.
Both incidents do little to improve the
image of
fraternity members, Standridge said, but
people shouldn't
draw conclusions about all members based on
the alleged
actions of a few.
"I would still have to say that ... the
vast majority of the
Greek community abide by the rules of their
house and the
philosophy of the fraternity itself," he
said. "Naturally, I
would hope that whatever is judged in these
cases ... we don't
paint everyone with the same broad brush."
Standridge said he hopes the incident
involving Weber
does not lead to any escalation of tensions
among the two
fraternities involved.
"Revenge is not the right response to
this kind of
thing," he said.
Members of the two fraternities should
get together
and solve any problems that they may have
without resorting
to violence, he said.
"Let's end it now," he said.
Return to Contents List
Editorial: Boos & Bravos
BOO - To Gov. Fife Symington. Yes, we know
we've been
blasting Fife all week - but the guy is just
begging for it.
This is the man who ran for governor on
the premise
that he would run Arizona like a business,
and it turns out
that he can't even balance his checkbook. And
we thought
Evan Mecham was bad...
BRAVO - To Intercollegiate Athletics, for
sparing ASU
students from hikes in student basketball
season ticket prices.
Students can still catch an entire season of
basketball for
around $25 - a pretty low price to pay to
watch a team that
made the "Sweet 16" last season.
At least they didn't follow the lead of
Jerry Colangelo,
who seems to hike ticket prices
astronomically with each
Suns' playoff appearance.
BOO - To Philadelphia 76ers GM John Lucas,
for being bone-
headed enough to sign ex-Sun Richard Dumas to
a contract.
Dumas got bounced from the team after
violating the
NBA's substance abuse rules three times.
Lucas is a firm
believer in rehabilitating basketball
junkies, and he does a
good job. But signing up Dumas sends the
message that it
doesn't matter if you keep using - some team
will always be
desperate enough to forget about it and give
you a lucrative
contract.
BRAVO - To the signs from Los Angeles that
the O.J.
Simpson murder trial is finally nearing its
end. The judge
may send the jury to deliberations Sept. 26 -
the one-year
anniversary of the trial.
Something is seriously, seriously wrong
when a trial is
permitted to go on for an entire year. Do the
words "due
process" ring a bell?
BOO - To the endless hype surrounding the
soon-to-be-
released NC-17 rated movie, Showgirls. The
fact that it got hit
with the movie industry's most restrictive
rating will
probably blast ticket sales into the
stratosphere on a wave of
Hollywood hype.
And we're still shaking our heads at the
selection of
actress Elizabeth Berkeley in the lead role.
We still remember
her best as Jessie from Saved by the Bell.
What will Screech think?
BRAVO - To ASASU, for heeding our calls for
scandal on the
front page.
Ask, and thou shalt receive.
BOO - To The New York Times and the
Washington Post for
caving in to the Unabomber, and agreeing to
publish his
35,000-word manifesto.
This was, without a doubt, one of the
most difficult
decisions that these editors must have ever
faced. But the
Unabomber has shown no sense of honor in the
past, so we
can't see any reason to trust his "guarantee"
that he won't kill
anyone else if the manifesto ran.
The Unabomber still reserved the right
to bomb
property, and we have no doubt that he will
exercise that
right. We also have no doubt that someone is
bound to get
hurt or killed in one of these bombings.
By giving into this despicable
terrorist, the Times and
the Post are only encouraging future
terrorists to engage in
similar acts of journalistic arm-twisting.
Column: Fight over sacred land in Canada blacked out
Tina Holder
Columnist
The media always tries to keep the
citizens of this
country informed on what is happening here
and around the
world. They told us about Watergate, the
siege at Waco and
Ruby Ridge. They bring us information
everyday about the
situation in Bosnia.
While many people don't always agree
with what they
print or show on TV, most of us do believe
that they have the
right to do this. Some even consider them the
watchdogs of
our country.
So why hasn't this country been informed
about the
siege at Gustafsen Lake in British Columbia
or the one at
Ipperwash? Why is the media acting as though
nothing is
going on?
There is a rumor that the United States
and Canada
agreed to a news blackout. Could this be
true?
After all of the yelling and screaming
the media in this
country has done about freedom of the press
and the public's
right to know, are they accepting this? Maybe
it just isn't
important enough? Well, judge for yourself.
At Gustafsen Lake, there are about 30
people of the
Shuswap Nation who reclaimed a piece of
sacred land that
they have used for their Sundance Ceremony
for the last
seven years.
The land is said to belong to a rancher
named Lyle
James, although he could not produce a deed
or some proof
of ownership. The Royal Canadian Mounted
Police were
called in, along with SWAT teams, other
agencies and tanks.
It is reported by sources on the
Internet and scattered
news reports from Canada that the area is
also surrounded by
racist groups who are urging the police to
"go in and kill
them."
The Shuswap Nation has an attorney,
Bruce Clark,
who has not been allowed into the camp to
speak with his
clients. It seems that the only demand the
nation has is that a
Jan. 3, 1995 petition, asking that the issue
of jurisdiction be
addressed by a third party tribunal, be taken
to the Queen.
The Shuswap Nation said the Royal
Proclamation of
1763 recognizes the aboriginal peoples'
sovereignity over
unceded land, and want the Queen to back up
their right to
keep the sacred land. Reports claim that
shots have been fired
and there are injured on both sides. Many of
the Native
Americans inside the encampment are women and
children,
but no one seems to know the exact count.
In Ipperwash, located in the province of
Ontario, the
issue is again over land. The land that Camp
Ipperwash sits
on was taken by the military during World War
II. It was to
be used as a reserve base until this year and
then given back.
A group of Native Americans from Stoney Point
and Kettle
Point, believing this to be the case, moved
onto the base.
Reports differ as to when this took place:
some say last week,
some say a month ago. One report says that
police in riot gear
moved in and were met by the Native Americans
near the
entrance to the camp. The report says that
two Natives were
"swallowed up" by the police and beaten.
Others started
throwing rocks and sticks and the police
opened fire. A 16-
year-old boy was killed and two other Indians
were
wounded.
The police version says that they
responded to a call
that the Native Americans were attacking a
car with baseball
bats. When they got there, a car and a bus
came through the
gates and almost hit the officers. The police
say that someone
in the bus fired and so they returned fire.
Which account is true? I don't know. If
there was
media coverage it might be a little easier to
figure out what
was going on up there. I realize that this
isn't Bosnia, but it's
closer to home and seems to be something
worth mentioning
in the news. Not to mention that these
incidents are going on
at the same time.
Could the rumors of an agreement between
the United
States and Canada for a news blackout be
true? Would our
media, who value their freedom so much, agree
to this? Why
is there even a need for a blackout? What is
going on up there
that they don't want the public to know
about? I don't know
about the rest of America, but I plan to find
out.
Tina Holder is a senior justice studies major
Letters to the Editor
Letter: Liberal labeling not so simple
I enjoyed Gregg Pekau's guest column
Sept. 18,
decrying the "liberals" unfair attack on Newt
Gingrich, his
book, the accompanying publisher's advance
and the
contents therein.
I would challenge Pekau to define his
terms a bit more
carefully. He uses the term "liberal" as
though it is an
understood concept, namely, that class of
evil boogeymen (er,
persons of boogey) who spend their days
undoing all the
good that the GOP does for us. It is a gross
oversimplification, and his liberal (pun
intended) use of the
word leads me to believe that Pekau honestly
has no idea
what the term means. It seems that the spoon
feeding of
doctrine has succeeded.
This brings me to a larger point, on
which I will not
ruminate at much length. Say something often
enough,
regardless of truth, and it will be believed.
I'm afraid all
groups, political, religious and otherwise,
are guilty of this
act. The Republican credo "liberals are bad"
falls in with the
"this is a Christian nation, smoking doesn't
promote lung
cancer, etc." It just doesn't wash.
By the way, Newt Gingrich's $4 million
advance was
attacked because of the source - Rupert
Murdoch, the media
giant. Seems Murdoch, a non-citizen, would
like some
exceptions to the existing rules made in his
favor to help
expand his American operations. Gingrich was
facing a
conflict-of-interest dilemma, which he
rightly avoided by
foregoing the advance. It was not, as Pekau
stated, a pointless
"liberal attack on Gingrich."
The other comments, regarding his worth
and
comparing his advance amount to that of Gore
and others,
are too subjective to be considered. By
Pekau's reasoning,
then, Stephen King and his $10-million
advance means that a
King novel is 2.5 times as important to the
well-being of this
nation as is Gingrich's book. Perhaps this is
so.
Fear not, Pekau. Write and think like
you do, and you
have a long career waiting for you at the
Arizona Republic.
Scott Surgent
Faculty
Mathematics
Return to Contents List
Return to Contents List
ASU police reported the following incidents
Thursday:
* An unknown man exposed himself to a male
student at
Hayden Library.
* A man not affiliated with ASU was arrested
on an
outstanding warrant from the U.S. Marshal's
Office for theft
of government property. He was turned over to
the Marshal's
Office and booked.
* Someone damaged a window at Palo Verde
Main.
* A man not affiliated with ASU was arrested
on an
outstanding warrant from Mesa police for
shoplifting. He
was unable to post bond and was turned over
to Mesa police.
* Someone broke into a male student's car
parked in Lot 59.
* Someone stole a male student's wallet from
the Student
Recreation Complex.
* Two male students were contacted in Lot 59
while drag
racing. They were warned of reckless driving
and told to
leave the area.
* Four bicycles were reported stolen.
Tempe police reported the following incidents
Thursday:
* A man robbed Wendy's, 790 W. Broadway Road.
He forced
customers and employees into a cooler at
gunpoint. He stole
$300 from the cash registers and took two
customer's purses
then fled on foot. He is described as a black
male, 16 years
old, 5 feet 10 inches tall with black hair
and brown eyes.
* A 21-year-old woman was arrested for
driving under the
influence of alcohol after an officer saw her
hit a traffic sign in
the 1700 block of East Rio Salado Parkway.
She had a strong
odor of alcohol on her breath, bloodshot eyes
and slurred
speech. She also did poorly on a field
sobriety test.
* A 29-year-old woman was arrested for
shoplifting at J.C.
Penny, 1028 E. Baseline Road. She is an
Egyptian citizen on
vacation.
Compiled by State Press reporter Greg Zemeida
Return to Contents List
The Today Section is a daily calendar of
events printed
as a service to the ASU community. Requests
are accepted on
a first-come, first-served basis and are
printed as space
permits.
Campus clubs and organizations may
submit written
entries to the State Press in the basement of
Matthews Center.
Requests will not be taken over the phone or
via fax.
Entries must contain the full name of
the club or
organization, a description of the event,
date, time and the
full address of the location. All requests
are subject to editing
for content, space and clarity. Incomplete or
illegible entries
will be discarded.
Deadline for requests is noon the day
before
publication and entries will not be accepted
more than three
working days before publication. Only one
entry per
organization per day is permitted.
* AIESEC - General meeting. Introduction of
new officers.
Stay after for happy hour. 4 p.m.; MU Alumni
Lounge.
* Alcoholics Anonymous - Daily campus
meeting. Noon to
1:15 p.m.; Newman Center, Aquinas Hall in the
basement.
* Arizona Horizons Project - Weekly meeting
for the solar car
and electric car teams. New members welcome.
2:30 p.m.;
Engineering Research Center 593.
* ASU's CGI Visual Effects Organization -
Movie graphics
timeline and particle systems. 4 p.m.; MU
Yavapai Room
(209).
* Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity - Informational
meeting. Come
and check out the newest fraternity at ASU.
For more info,
contact Aaron at 852-6863. 4 p.m.; MU
Havasupai (208D).
* SPICMACAY - (Society for the Promotion of
Indian
Classical Music and Culture Among Youth).
"South Indian
Classical Music Concert" featuring vocalist
S. Sowmya. Free
admission. 7 p.m.; Neeb Hall.
* Student Life Learning Resource Center -
Free computer skill
workshop: Advanced Word Perfect, 10 a.m. Open
to all
students and staff. 10 a.m.; SSU 361A.
* Ultimate Frisbee Club - Open to co-ed
scrimmage and
practice. Beginners welcome. Call 777-8431
for more info. 6:30
p.m.; ASU band fields at Rural Road and Sixth
Street.
Return to Contents List
Return to State Press Home Page