Friday, February 19, 2010
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Volume 95 | Issue 20
Sunny 56° / 38°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Pilot: ‘I have had all I can stand’
PHOTO BY MELISSA BOUGHTON/ASSIGNING EDITOR
Firefighters work to put out flames at the Echelon building in Austin, Texas. Joe Stack crashed a small plane in a suicide attack directed at the I.R.S. The crash left one person dead,13 injured and one missing. BY SHEA YARBOROUGH Senior Staff Writer
AUSTIN — Ten hours after a man flew his plane into an Austin city building, the smoke was still rising. The pilot, Joseph Stack, 53, created an impact which left one person dead, 13 injured, and one person missing. The crash was felt more than a block away in the Oak Point building where Paul Patterson, a sales manager, said he felt the a wave of energy hit his building. “We thought a bomb went off in the FBI building,” Patterson said.
Patterson and his co-workers rushed for the street, only to see the Echelon building engulfed in flames. People began to flee from the parking lots and garages of the building, some leaving immediately, while FBI personnel suited up and went toward the scene. Patterson said his initial reaction brought the idea of terrorism to his mind. The cause of the explosion was still unknown until they looked down to see plane pieces lying on the ground at their feet, Patterson said. “I never want to see anything like that again,” he said.
Thursday morning, Stack set his house on fire before leaving for the Georgetown Municipal Airport. At 9:44 a.m., he took off in a Piper Cherokee single engine plane. At 9:56 a.m., Stack crashed the plane into the Echelon building off of Interstate Highway 35 in North Austin, officials said. In a seven-page suicide letter left on his Web site, The Smoking Gun, Stack raged against the IRS, stating “I have had all I can stand.” Through the course of the letter Stack lists money woes with the IRS, quoting IRS section 1706 on how to treat workers for
Denton mayor seeks re-election, second term Burroughs talks economic hardships
money to do it,” Burroughs said. Clifton is involved with the Fr y Street housing project and has been distributing buttons reading “Buy t he BY MORGAN WALKER Block,” encouraging the city Senior Staff Writer of Denton to avoid selling a D e n t o n M a y o r M a r k plot of land on Fry Street to Burroughs looks to earn his commercial developers. Mea nwh i le, t he Ray zor second term in office through Ranch project continues to the May 8 city elections. He will run against Bob develop with the construction of Sam’s Club Clifton, 69, who filed a n d Wa l -M a r t . Monday to joi n t he Bu r r oug h s s a id race. T he t wo have t he t wo projects cha llenged each a lone wou ld be other in the past when t he la rgest sa les bot h ra n for mayor ta x generators in 2008. During that within the city. time, Clifton sent out He a l s o s a id thousands of mailers MARK the City Council calling Burroughs “a BURROUGHS is in the middle of crook” and depicting him as “a joker,” Burroughs rewriting the gas well ordinance for the drill site on said. Economic issues have kept the Rayzor Ranch developBurroughs and the city from ment. When the project was origpursuing the goals he set. The sales tax revenue is down inally passed, the Council 5 percent and the sales tax added one dozen restrictions occupies about 30 percent of and conditions on how the gas companies were to drill the city’s budget, he said. “W hen you’re dow n 5 the well. “The reason we did that percent, that’s a lot of money and that is forcing a lot of was because all of us were things to shift,” Burroughs u ncom for table w it h how it was going to be done,” said. The city may have to begin Burroughs said. He said he felt the current adjusting facilities’ hours of operation to try to cut down ordinance was inadequate to the cost. There has also been protect the neighbors within close range of the well. a hiring freeze. Burroughs became mayor “It’s unfortunate because I have ideas for new programs, of Denton 18 mont hs ago but when you’re in a non- after defeating former mayor, hiring mode that’s not going Perry McNeill. Joh n Cabra les, Denton to happen because there’s no
public information officer, ha s worked w it h fou r dif ferent mayors since he started working for the city 10 years ago. Cabrales said Burroughs has been an effective mayor and he’s concerned about Denton, particularly because of the down economy. “While he still has his own profession, he does spend a considerable amount of time ca r r y ing out his mayora l duties and spends quite a bit of time meeting with people here in City Hall,” Cabrales said. The incumbent is also the co-founder of the law firm Sawko & Burroughs, and is professiona lly licensed to practice in all Texas courts, the United States Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Cou r t of Appea ls for t he Federal Circuit. He served six years on the Council before becoming mayor. “He’s ver y wel l-ver sed with municipal operations, the budget he’s put together and the impact that it has,” Cabrales said. Bu r roug hs is a n honor g raduate f rom Stephen F. Austin State University and majored in business administration, history and political science. During his three years at Stephen F. Austin, he served as student government president before graduating from the University of Texas School of Law in 1982
See POLICE on Page 2
tax purposes highlighting the passage in red and leaving in links for readers. “For you who are unfamiliar, here is the IRS section 1706,” Stack wrote. In his letter, Stack said he was a contract software engineer who worked 100-hour weeks and suffered a divorce, and the “.COM bust and the 9/11 nightmare.” Throughout his letter he repeated his disdain for “rich incompetent cronies” the government continued to bail out with “HIS MONEY.” Near the end of his letter, he wrote, “Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different;
take my pound of flesh and sleep trucks and news crews surrounded well.” He signed it “Joe Stack (1956- Stack’s still standing burnt house. On-lookers paced the sidewalks 2010).” In the aftermath of the explo- trying to catch a glimpse of the sion, Nick McMillen, a busi- torched house. Tama Barrows and her mother nessman who works in the string of buildings on I-35’s frontage drove from their Cedar Park home rode, said he and his co-workers after hearing the story. Clinging to wanted to help. He said that in a each other, both of them stated time such as this you want to help their disbelief. “It’s sad that the whole situyour fellow man. “I was flabbergasted there ation had to come to this,” weren’t more people hurt,” he Barrows said. said. I n t he 1800 block of To see multimedia for this story, visit Dapplegray ntdaily.com. Road, fire
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CRISTY ANGULO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
First lady Michelle Obama kicked off her new initiative called “Let’s Move” on Feb. 9. The program is meant to encourage parents and children to exercise more.
U.S. child obesity rises BY K RYSTLE CANTU Staff Writer
First lady Michelle Obama is determined to confront obesity by proposing a bill that all children receive coverage through their health insurance to see a dietitian, both for preventative health education and for health needs in general. Obesity is a major health concern for children and adolescents in U.S. Children are exhibiting symptoms of high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and other risk factors at young ages, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Lora Williams, a dietician at the Student Health and Wellness Center, thinks the plan is a good idea. “[It’s] fabulous, I don’t know that the legislation has passed it, but from what I hear it’s in the works, and that would be monu-
mental,” Williams said. “Families will be able to take their children to see a dietitian for a preventative health check up. This way we can make sure that the kids are learning how to eat right, and that the parents are getting basic healthy preventative education so our kids don’t continue to get weight increases and develop into diabetes at a younger age.” Data from surveys taken from 1976 to 1980 and 2003 to 2006 showed the obesity rate in children aged 2 to 5 years has gone from 5 percent to 12.4 percent, according to the CDC Web site. In children aged 6 to 11, the amount has risen from 6.5 percent to 17 percent. In teenagers aged 12 to 19, a slightly higher increase has gone from 5 percent to 17.6 percent. These increases are expected to rise. About 80 percent of children who were overweight by age 10 became obese adults by
the age of 25. If obesity begins before the age of 8, the child is most likely to have a severe case in adulthood, according to another study on the CDC Web site. “On the food side of things, we’re just consuming more calories, and part of it is accessibility to food and serving sizes,” said Christy Greenleaf of the kinesiology faculty. “The nutritional makeup of some of the food we are eating, and having less and less activity in our life.” Risk factors that come with obesity are a big concern for doctors, scientists and parents. “A lot of health problems that we’re seeing in adults we are now seeing in kids,” Greenleaf said. “We’re really putting kids at risk for long term health problems.” To read the full story, visit ntdaily.com.