thebattalion
news for you texas State math standards disappoint Texas standards for what students are expected to learn in math are “clearly inferior” to a new set of national standards that Texas leaders have rejected. The analysis released Wednesday by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute said Texas’ math standards lack specificity and coherence.
City council upsets Hispanics A Dallas suburb that has made national headlines over efforts to ban illegal immigrants from renting housing is having its city electoral system challenged in court again. Farmers Branch is the target of a federal civil rights lawsuit that 10 Hispanic residents filed Tuesday in Dallas. The lawsuit alleges that the system for electing the five-member city council in Farmers Branch denies Hispanic residents representation.
● thursday,
After working up an appetite from a day spent swimming at the lake, vendors offer fresh seasonal produce.
nation &world Storms threaten oil cap progress
Graphic by Evan Andrews, photos by Megan Ryan — THE BATTALION
ecluded by tree-lined streets, the sleepy lakeside town of Livingston offers the possibility of adventures reminiscent of childhood days at summer camp. Explore the tranquility of the state park or enjoy the waters of the lake. Don’t think nature is all peace and quiet; the occasional discovery of a peculiar-looking alligator gar can stir up quite a bit of excitement.
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192 miles Tank of gas
Megan Ryan | The Battalion
see story on page 2
◗ This story is part of the series “There and back on a tank of gas.” A staff member will travel to a different city each week and document the trip.
health
arts
Aggies help develop vaccines Cody Green, class of 2002, took this photo on campus during the Worldwide Photo Walk in 2009.
Global photo walk comes to campus The Worldwide Photo Walk, a global social photography event, is coming to the Texas A&M campus. “It’s geared to photographers in the community to get together, meet each other, walk around campus and take photos,” said Cody Green, class of 2002. “It brings people with similar hobbies together, and at the end you can get together and compare photos.” Green said last year more than 30,000 people participated in the walk worldwide, and there were 9,000 walks total. Pre-registration is required, and there is no fee. A camera is required to participate. “You walk around and pay attention to things you would usually just walk past and try to go slower and find art and beauty in a particular place,” Green said. Megan Ryan, staff writer
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Florida’s Kitchen is popular among town residents because it boasts delicious food, friendly employees and homey atmosphere.
A trip to Lake Livingston offers simple summertime pleasures
www.texasgasprices.com
Staff and wire reports
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2010 student media
Lake Livingston, the second largest man-made lake in Texas, offers a cool retreat from the scorching summer sun.
Camp ChoYeh, located in Livingston, is named after the AlabamaCoushatta word for “land of the tall pines.”
Exxon at 1721 Texas Ave South and Harvey Road.
Hundreds of flights in France were canceled and smaller airports shut down Wednesday because of a strike by air traffic controllers worried about a plan to unify control of European air space. The strike affected domestic routes, but Air France said its long-haul international flights were not delayed.
texas a&m since 1893
Down by the lake
$2.69
French air traffic faces strikes
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livingston
lowest gas price
Tropical rainstorms moving toward the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday threatened to shut down undersea efforts to seal BP’s ruptured well, interrupting work as engineers get close to plugging the leak. A weather system brewing in the Caribbean could force crews to abandon their watch over the experimental cap for nearly a week.
july 22, 2010
More info ◗ The walk begins at 6:30 a.m. Saturday at the Administration Building.
◗ Participants can upload up to five photos to the official Flickr group for the Worldwide Photo Walk. ◗ Each participant can enter a phto in a competition for a $1,000 Adorama gift certificate.
The U.S. Military’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency awarded a grant to the Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine to define vaccines and drug treatments for certain toxins, viruses and bacterial pathogens. Breakthroughs in this work will help neutralize dangerous bio-threats. “This project is broken down into three periods,” said program director Deeann Wallis. “The first period is 20 months and covers the screening phase. After that, options may be exercised such that all together it becomes a 53-month project.” The institute is trying to define host-based targets to pathogens and toxins; the findings will be used for drug and vaccine development. The team will be utilizing the institute’s library of mouse embryonic stem cell clones where each clone represents a single gene knockout. “This allows us to assess gene function,” Wallis
said. “We will grow and differentiate these pluripotent cells into different cell and tissue types and then challenge them with agents. Clones that show a different response will indicate which genes and proteins are involved in the body’s response to that agent. We will screen 3,500 different genes and then validate these targets in vitro and in whole animal models by making knockout mice.” The institute will work with toxins, bacteria and viruses to identify genes that show resistance to the threats. The team will work to develop a platform which could quickly test any toxin, virus or bacteria for bioterrorism applications. “This is the first time something like this has been attempted,” she said. “If we can develop this unique platform to test any agent this will have a significant impact.” Gayle Gabriel, staff writer
political science
Professor receives award for book Political science professor Dan Wood will receive the Richard Neustadt Award for his latest publication, The Myth of Presidential Representation at the 2010 American Political Science Association Conference in Washington, D.C. Wood has been recognized for his excellence in publishing related to the presidencies of the U.S., past and present. Wood ’s book addresses the topic of presiden-
tial political affiliations and centrism and asks if any president represents Americans as the Founding Fathers intended. “Presidents are not reflections of public opinion but instead are ideological partisans more concerned with advancing their own agendas,” said George C. Edwards III, distinguished professor of See Wood on page 2
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