INSIDE: Take a River Walk and see the sites of Texas, Page 6 Friday, June 5, 2009
Southwest Journalist The University of Texas at Austin
Fungus putting bats at risk
The Newspaper Fund Center for Editing Excellence
LIVING IN LEAN TIMES
Economy hits singles, stores
DINA CAPPIELLO Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A mysterious fungus attacking America’s bats could spread nationwide within years and represents the most serious threat to wildlife in a century, experts warned Congress on Thursday. Displaying pictures of bats speckled with the white fungus that gave the disease its name — White-Nose Syndrome — experts described to two House subcommittees the horror of discovering caves whose bat populations had been decimated by the disease. As a state wildlife biologist from Vermont put it, one cave there turned into a morgue, with so many carcasses littering the cave’s floor. The stench was too strong for researchers to enter. They also warned that if nothing more is done to stop its spread, the fungus could infect caves with some of the largest and most endangered populations of hibernating bats in the United States. At stake is the loss of an insect-eating machine. The six species of bats that have so far been stricken by the fungus can eat up to their body weight in insects each night, reducing insects that destroy crops and forests and carry diseases such as the West Nile Virus. “We are witnessing one of the most precipitous declines of wildlife in North America,” said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University. Kunz said between $10 million and $17 million is needed to launch a national research program into the fungus. Merlin Tuttle, a world-renowned bat expert and president of Bat Conservation International in Austin, said that White-Nose Syndrome is probably the most serious threat to wildlife in the past century. “Never in my wildest imagination had I dreamed of anything that could pose this serious a threat to Amer-
Paul Sakuma / Associated Press
A shopper peruses refrigerated items last week at Costco Wholesale in cutting back on other expenditures, such as dates. Men held nearly 80 Mountain View, Calif. Many U.S. retailers are reporting sales declines in percent of the jobs lost since December 2007, and some say they are May as shoppers continue to buy cautiously. Some people also report dating less while they are unemployed.
Without jobs, some cut back on courting MEGAN K. SCOTT Associated Press
NEW YORK — Sean Hamilton considered stopping his search for that special someone when he lost his job in January. With 90 percent less income and no unemployment checks coming in, the 34-year-old IT professional couldn’t really pay for a dinner date. “To speak plainly, chicks don’t dig a broke guy,” said the Dallas resident, now a part-time consultant. So he came up with a strategy: “I don’t bring it up.” Men have been hit much harder than women by this recession. Close to 80 percent of the job losses since December 2007 were jobs held by men, according to economics expert Mark J. Perry, who analyzed Bureau of Labor Statistics data. For some guys, unemployment is the last thing they want to reveal to a potential date. Even if men aren’t expected to pay for a date, they feel pressure from women who are looking for someone who is financially stable. Hamilton said he proposes cheap dates, like cooking
ECONOMY BY THE NUMBERS • $41.9 billion: Average daily borrowing from the Federal Reserve by commercial banks over the week that ended Wednesday • Close to 80: Percent of the job losses since December 2007 that were held by men • 4.6: Percent decrease of overall same-store sales as reported by a Goldman/Sachs tally — Associated Press
Please see DATELESS, Page 2
Confidence growing, but sales still drop MAE ANDERSON Associated Press
NEW YORK — Although consumer confidence might be increasing, it’s not showing up at the cash register yet. Many retailers posted disappointing May sales on Thursday, and food and necessities remained high on shoppers’ lists. According a Goldman Sachs/ICSC tally, overall same-store sales fell 4.6 percent, worse than the 3 percent drop predicted. The lower-than-expected results did not include WalMart stores, which in recent months have boosted totals. The company has stopped reporting monthly figures. April’s same-store sales had edged up with Wal-Mart, but excluding the world’s largest retailer, May was the 10th straight month of same-store sales declines, according to a tally by Goldman Sachs and the International Council of Shopping Centers. The results come amid faint signs that the gloom of recession is lifting. On Thursday, the Labor Department said the number of Americans on the unemployment rolls fell
Please see SALES, Page 2
Please see BATS, Page 2
OVERSEAS DIPLOMACY
Obama continues tour of Mideast
Gerald Herbert / Associated Press
President Barack Obama tours the Sphinx and pyramids outside Cairo on Thursday. Obama visited Egyptian ruins and gave a speech at Cairo University, addressing relations with the Muslim world. For analysis of the day’s events, see page 5.
N. Korea arraigns US journalists JEAN H. LEE
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — Two American journalists headed to trial Thursday before North Korea’s highest court on charges they crossed into the country illegally and engaged in “hostile acts” — allegations that could draw a 10-year sentence in a labor camp. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s Californiabased Current TV, were arrested March 17 near the North Korean border while on a reporting trip to China. Their trial began at a time of mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula following the regime’s provocative May 25 nuclear test. Choi Eun-suk, a professor of North Korean law at Kyungnam University, said the court could convict the women, and then the government could use them to bargain with the United States. “The North is likely to release and deport them to the U.S. — if negotiations with
the U.S. go indicate the well,” Choi regime has said. softened The two treatment of nations do imprisoned not have foreigners. diplomatic Still, the exrelations, perience Ling Lee and experts has left scars called Pyongyang’s belliger- on almost all who have enence a bid to grab President dured it. Barack Obama’s attention. State-run media have not North Korea’s official news defined the exact charges agency said the trial would against the women from Curbegin by midafternoon, but rent TV, but South Korean lehours later, there was no word gal experts said conviction for on the status of the proceed- “hostility” or espionage could ings. mean five to 10 years in a labor A State Department spokes- camp. man said American officials The State Department has had seen no independent not divulged details about neconfirmation that the case gotiations for the journalists’ was under way. freedom. Few details are known Ling’s sister, TV journalist about how Ling and Lee have Lisa Ling, said on CNN’s “Larbeen treated since they were ry King Live” that the women arrested nearly three months “are essentially in the midst ago. So far, family members of this nuclear standoff,” urghave not reported mistreat- ing the governments to “try to ment. communicate, to try and bring North Korea’s government our situation to a resolution is notorious for its brutality, on humanitarian grounds — but the most recent accounts to separate the issues.”