Taking it back ‘Slut walk’ protestors fight to reclaim pejorative word Page 2 Tuesday, April 26, 2011
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Volume 97 | Issue 45
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ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Wildfires dampened by weekend rain BY MEGAN R ADKE Intern
ARTS & LIFE: Exhibit showcases graduate students’ wooden art Page 3
SPORTS: Tennis team out matched by FIU Page 5
VIEWS: Obsession with Kate Middleton and Prince William wastes time Page 6
ONLINE: UNT men’s golf sit in second after first day of conference tourney
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Raging wildfires near Possum Kingdom Lake have torched nearly 130,000 acres, destroyed 167 homes and forced thousands of residents to evacuate as area rains helped contain what has become one of the largest Texas wildfires on record. The cause of the fire, which began April 13 west of Fort Worth, is still under investigation, but windy, dry conditions caused the fires to spread quickly, consuming 291 buildings as of Monday, according to the Brazos River Authority. Many residents returned to their homes Monday as a mandatory evacuation was lifted after close to 3 inches of rain helped to dampen the dry conditions fueling the fires. “The fires have been really bad,” said Jay Reinke, a Denton resident whose family owns a home on Possum Kingdom. “But luckily we’re still standing.” Reinke said his family has been lucky because the fires haven’t damaged their home, but he said he has worried about the state of the lake and other residents. Amy Sabbatini, a Possum Kingdom resident who was displaced to an area hotel by the fires, is working with Pondera Properties at Possum Kingdom on a blog that keeps residents updated on the fires, evacuations and current weather conditions. “We’re a group of locals who want to serve the residents as best as we can,” Sabbatini said. “The weather has cooled off and the humidity seems to be helping. We’re just sitting and getting information from various sources, then getting it to residents as soon as we can.” The blog set up by Pondera Properties allows residents to post questions, photos and information about the fire for others to respond.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MCT
Members of a damage assessment team survey the destruction of a home in Gaines Bend development on Possum Kingdom Lake in Palo Pinto County west of Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday. helped a lot as well.” In ter ms of a ir qua lit y, A nd rea Mor row, a med ia representative from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said that there is more particulate matter, such as ash, in the air because of the fires. Morrow advised that people who live close to the fire pay careful attention to local authorities and stay indoors if at all possible to avoid inhaling the smoke. “The emissions from the wildPHOTO COURTESY OF MCT fires are different than typical air Firefighters Ron Riise, left, and Zach Beatty, with the U.S. Forest Service in Cali- pollution,” Morrow said. “Most air fornia, ensure the last of the flames are out on a fire north of Ranger, Texas. pollution is produced by trucks, cars and industry. The wildfire smoke is coming from burning Haven Cook, the public infor- relief is in sight. “In our morning briefing on vegetation, but it can still cause mation officer for the team of firefighters and officials that are Monday, there was no spread,” problems for some people who working to contain the Possum Cook sa id. “T he ra in has have allergies or asthma.” Governor Rick Perry declared Kingdom fires, said about 126,734 dampened a lot of the fire, acres have been burned so far, but and the cooler weather has April 22 through April 24 a
UNT to relocate bees to local farm BY M ATTHEW CARDENAS Staff Writer
Thousands of honeybees will live to buzz another day — fa r away f rom t he UNT campus. Be eh ives i n t he Rad io, Te l e v i s i o n , F i l m a n d Performing Arts Building are scheduled to be relocated at the beginning of the summer, said Lynda Hutson of UNT’s facilities a nd constr uction department. Hutson sent out the paperwork Monday to spend over $ 5,0 0 0 to open t he RT FP Building’s wall and remove the honey and combs. “We are having a meeting next week to inform everyone about what we are going to do,” Hutson said. The date of the meeting has not been decided, but Hutson called it t he B e e Rou nd Ta ble Meeting. The relocat ion w i l l ta ke place after graduation and before the Summer I classes begin. “We were looking for the day when the least amount of people were on campus,” Hutson said. She said the police will have the area blocked off to protect the people on campus. Originally, UNT officials scheduled the removal of the
hives for March 14, but they decided to wait to find out about other options to extract the bees. “[The decision] was expedient,” said Charles Jackson a facilities and construction administrator. “We were not t h i n k i ng t he whole t h i ng through.” Jackson said both students a nd f ac u lt y c a me to t he administration to offer information and experts to refer to before making the decision. The two hives are located in a 3-inch void in the wall on the back of the building and are being removed because one has become aggressive. “One colony has been there for 18 years,” Hutson said. “The aggressive ones were there for only 2 years.” Hutson sa id t here is no way to know how many bees are in the wall, but she estimated between 10,000 and 2 million. “We won’t know until we go into the wall,” she said. Litt le Gia nt Beekeepers, a b e e r emov a l c ompa ny t hat operates a rou nd t he Dallas-Fort Worth area, will use vacuums to collect the bees.
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weekend of prayer for rain. Governor Perry asked Texas residents of all faiths and religions to pray for the land, for an end to the drought conditions faced by the entire state and for the rebuilding of the communities that have been destroyed in the wake of the fires. Prayers were answered, as rain and even some severe weather came through the area on Saturday and Sunday nights. Cook said the team expects to have the fire contained by Saturday, and that as of Monday, 69 percent of the fire was already contained. Since the first of the year, Texas wildfires have killed two firefighters, burned 1.8 million acres of land and consumed more than 900 structures, according to the Texas Forest Service.
Storms split North Texas’ skies
PHOTO BY DREW GAINES/SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Lightning struck near Lewisville Lake Sunday night at about 10:30 p.m. To read more about Sunday and Monday’s thunderstorms, see page 4.
Burggren named UNT Provost BY L AURA ZAMORA Assigning Editor
UNT President V. Lane Rawlins announced Warren Burggren as the university’s permanent provost and vice president for academic affairs on Monday. Burggren, who was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for 12 years, was named provost last June after the departure of Wendy Wilkins. His appointment by Rawlins, who was
interim president at the time, was to continue until a longterm president was appointed. Rawlins was named president in De c ember. “His title was never ‘acting’ or ‘interim’ provost, but many of you have expressed your hopes that he would be named to this position on a permanent basis,” Rawlins said in an email to faculty Monday afternoon. Before coming to UNT,
Burggren was the biological sciences department chair at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He also served as interim dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at UNLV. Burggren was also acting chair of the zoology department at the University of Massachusetts in 1991.
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