thebattalion
news for you texas Sarah Palin visits Tyler Sarah Palin fired up a crowd of 5,000 in Tyler Saturday by criticizing President Barack Obama’s handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Palin said Obama and the federal government have been too slow in helping victims of the oil spill and that there were too many regulations allowing residents to being cleaning up the shoreline.
● monday,
june 28, 2010
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environment
The somewhat
secret garden
Officials discover smuggling tunnel U.S. officials discovered a smuggling tunnel Friday running under the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas, the first such tunnel in the region. The tunnel was discovered after agents found and arrested a teenager from Mexico with about 200 pounds of marijuana and noticed a hole in the cement drainage pipe at the border.
lowest gas price
$2.49 Exxon at 1721 Texas Ave South and Harvey Road. www.texasgasprices.com
nation &world Blood test predicts loss of fertility In research to be presented on Monday at a European fertility conference in Rome, Iranian experts say their preliminary study could be a first step toward developing a tool to help women decide when they want to have children. The blood test does not predict when women will lose their fertility, but if doctors know when women will go into menopause, they can calculate roughly when they will run out of eggs.
Prince Harry visits New York Britain’s Prince Harry is capping off his New York visit with a polo match to benefit AIDS orphans in Lesotho, an impoverished African nation. The match Sunday afternoon on Governor’s Island off Manhattan and is a part of the prince’s pledge to continue his mother’s fight against HIV.
Staff and wire reports
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Tyler Hosea — THE BATTALION
A graphic displayed in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Garden illustrates the building’s irrigation system, which collects rainwater for the plants.
The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Garden features an environmentally sustainable design.
T
ucked away on the third floor of the Mitchell Physics Building, students find tranquility away from the daily grind of university life in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Garden. The hidden retreat promotes environmentalism through its unique irrigation system, which collects rainwater to nurture the variety of native plants that flourish in the green space. The garden is yet another instance of the Mitchells’ contributions to the education of students.
Patrique Ludan | The Battalion
see story on page 2
world
service
Police arrest more than 560 in Toronto
Student grows produce for elderly
TORONTO — Police raided a university building and rounded up more protesters Sunday in an effort to quell further violence at the global economic summit after black-clad youths rampaged through the city, smashing windows and torching police cruisers. Police said they have arrested more than 560 demonstrators, many of whom were hauled away in plastic handcuffs and taken to a temporary holding center constructed for the summit. Despite the violence, no serious injuries were reported among police, protesters and bystanders, Toronto Police Constable Tony Vella said Sunday. Thousands of police in riot gear formed cordons to prevent radical anti-globalization demonstrations from breaching the steel and concrete security fence surrounding the Group of 20 summit site. Security was being provided by an estimated 19,000 law enforcement officers drawn from across Canada, and security costs were estimated at more than US$900 million. Prime Minister Stephen Harper deplored the actions of a “few thugs” and suggested the violence justifies the cost. Harper has been criticized for the security price tag. “I think it goes a long way to explaining why we have the kind of security costs around these summits that we do,” Harper said. Toronto Police Sgt. Tim Burrows said police made at least 70 arrests in a Sunday morning raid
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Activists attack a police car in Toronto’s financial district during the G20 Summit Saturday. on a building on the campus of the University of Toronto, where they seized a cache of “streettype weaponry” such as bricks, sticks and rocks. “We think we put a dent in their numbers with this and with the arrests that happened overnight,” Burrows said. The disorder and vandalism occurred just blocks from where U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders were meeting and staying. “What we saw yesterday is a bunch of thugs that pretend to have a difference of opinion with policies and instead choose violence to express those so-called differences of opinion,” Harper’s chief spokesman Dimitri Soudas said Sunday. Burrows said many of those involved in the violent protests were Canadian. Associated Press
John Borden, junior horticulture major, is the leader of Community Fresh Brazos Valley, a project designed to feed hungry people in Bryan-College Station with nutritious foods. Borden said he founded a small delivery program called ElderAid for homebound seniors, which has 13 regular delivery homes, after he realized what a problem it is for many people to afford fresh produce at grocery stores. Bryan’s Neal Park Garden is flourishing even in the summer heat and despite a few areas where food cannot grow in poor soil. Borden said a weekly potluck event, which also occurs at the park, is what sparked interest among community members in building a garden. “They have taken to regularly gardening in it, and oftentimes when something is Photo illustration ready to be harvested, it will by Tyler Hosea — THE BATTALION be picked up as soon as it is ready,” he said. A unique aspect of the gardens is that they are run by volunteers, Borden said. He anticipates getting more residents on board in the future. The gardening student said he encouraged volunteers to assist him on Saturday mornings with the Elder-Aid garden for threehour shifts. In order to continue providing people with fruits and vegetables, he said this helps with delivery and garden maintenance as necessary. Borden said he hopes to break down the barriers of income, ethnicity and location in order to offer residents more wholesome diet items. “We can empower individuals and communities with healthy food and healthy places,” he said. “We can do it.” Angela Washeck, staff writer
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