Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2017
@thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
CRIME
Volume 118, Issue 47
CAMPUS
UTPD DWI arrest leads to capture of robber
Speedway construction delayed By London Gibson Senior News Reporter
After laying faulty bricks, Speedway to be renovated once more.
By Ashley Liu Senior News Reporter
Almost all of the bricks laid for the Speedway Mall project thus far will be ripped up and replaced because they do not meet strength requirements, bringing additional construction to the area until March 2018.
The UT Police Department made a Driving While Intoxicated arrest on Oct. 2 that led to the capture of suspected serial robber Sean O’Brien on Oct. 7. O’Brien is currently in the Travis County Jail and is charged with four counts of aggravated robbery. During these robberies, a masked man holding an ignited roman candle and hammer demanded money from gas stations, according to KXAN. The first robbery took place at a Shell Gas Station at 7510 N. Mopac Expressway on Sept. 27. The second incident occurred two days later at the 7-Eleven at 3848 Airport Blvd. On Oct. 1, two 7-Eleven stores were robbed, one at 9200 Burnet Road and the other at the 7-Eleven on 6100 block of Bee Caves Road, KXAN reported. The Austin Police Department received an anonymous tip on Oct. 5 that named O’Brien as the robber. After looking up his name, APD found that O’Brien had been arrested by UTPD three days earlier for DWI. UTPD then provided video footage of the arrest that showed a mask and
All of the bricks installed from the southern end of the project near Jester Circle to the most recent installations near 24th Street will need to be removed and re-paved due to cracking, said Jim Shackelford, director for UT’s Capital Planning and Construction. As the replacement process takes place, portions of the street will be blocked to student traffic
at a time, beginning with the area south of 21st Street, Shackelford said. “There will be some disruption to the traffic on Speedway,” Shackelford said. “There will be an impact because the street will be narrowed by 50 percent while this replacement is going on.” About half of the currently laid bricks were not up to the strength standards promised by
the manufacturer, but all of them will be replaced because removing bricks selectively would be labor-intensive and inefficient, Shackelford said. The project team first noticed cracks in some of the bricks earlier this summer, but it was not until Tuesday that the manufacturer agreed to provide the new bricks and labor for
BRICKS page 2
carlos garcia| daily texan staff
The new bricks on Speedway are being replaced due to their lack of strength and failure to meet the requirements set by UT’s Capital Planning and Construction. The finished project is expected to be pushed back to March 2018.
ROBBER page 2 CAMPUS
RESEARCH
UT councils compete in canned UT-led team finds samples of possible energy source food drive for Harvey victims By Anna Lassmann
By Raga Justin News Reporter
The annual Halloween canned food drive benefiting the Central Texas Food Bank is working overtime this year due to Hurricane Harvey’s impact. The Student Engineering Council, or SEC, coordinates the annual canned food drive, which began earlier this month and will end on Oct. 31. In 2016, the collection drive raised 4,553 cans, which equates to 3,638 lbs of food — enough for around 3,000 individual meals. SEC President Mike Peng said this year’s target is 5,000 cans in an effort to replenish Central Texas Food Bank’s depleted resources. “This year is especially important since Hurricane Harvey happened in Houston, and a lot of food donations are going to the Houston area food bank,” chemical engineering senior Peng said. “Central Food Bank is actually kind of short this year, so we’re trying to make an even bigger push to collect as many cans as possible going into the holiday season for these families that depend on this food bank.” Extensive damage caused by the hurricane prompted food banks
the U.S. Department of Energy selected the Jackson School to lead. The research team consists of 24 Jackson School of Geosciences members and includes professors researchers are one step closer to and students from UT, Ohio State understanding the properties of fro- University and Columbia Unizen methane hydrate, which is a po- versity’s Lamont-Doherty Earth tential future energy resource, with Observatory, along with scientists from the Department the help of recently of Energy, the U.S. obtained samples. Geological Survey Frozen methane hyand Geotek. drate consists of water “UT is the primary molecules that trap methane and can hold The hydrate reser- lead on this project, 100 times more energy voir is sandwiched but to accomplish an expedition of this than methane found at Earth’s surface. In May, in between the two scale we needed a wider group of scithe research team set things we don’t entists,” said Steve out on a Q4000, an oilcare about.” Phillips, a post-docfield construction and toral fellow for UT’s intervention vessel, in Institute of Geophysics. the Gulf of Mexico and Researchers from returned with 21 pres—Peter Polito, surized core samples Jackson School lab director the Jackson School and UT’s petroleum of methane hydrate. “We invested a lot of time and engineering and geosystems enenergy into putting this expedition gineering programs are continutogether … and after that first hole ing their research to understand we drilled, we were doing terrible,” hydrate reservoir properties. “Imagine it like a sandwich,” said said Joshua O’Connell, lab manager of the UT Pressure Core Center. Peter Polito, the methane hydrate “We managed to turn it around and laboratory director for the Jackson now we have a lab full of core that School. “Above and below we have the bread, and we want to get the we can get some science out of.” The project is part of an $80 milENERGY page 2 lion, multi-year national effort that News Reporter
ashley ephraim| daily texan staff
Central Texas Food Bank boxes in various areas of Cockrell Engineering buildings give students the opportunity to donate canned food items.
across Texas to send resources into affected regions, said Felicia Pena, Central Texas Food Bank community engagement director. “We did do a lot of disaster relief when working with Houston food banks to make sure they got the food they needed,” Pena said. “We saw an increase in who we served because of Hurricane Harvey and had some very targeted efforts. The hurricane utilized a lot of our resources, and it was
so unexpected.” This year, nine total college councils are working to promote collection, including Moody’s Communication Council. “It is more important now than ever, with the impact Harvey has had on Texas residents,” Communication Council President Casey Brennan said. Competition is an important
FOOD DRIVE page 2
NEWS
OPINION
LIFE&ARTS
SPORTS
SCI&TECH
Students gather at second Comic Con Go! on campus. PAGE 2
Students weight in on Speedway’s construction woes. PAGE 4
Cedars Crepes brings a taste of Lebanon to West Campus. PAGE 8
An early look at the new face of Texas basketball. PAGE 6
Scientists find possible link between cancer and lactate. PAGE 3
6348/UT Athletics; Process color
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