North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 105, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 20, 2006 Page: 4 of 10
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Page 4 Thursday, April 20, 2006
News
nfdaily.com
NORTH TEXAS DAILY
Safer, cleaner fuel
now sold locally
Biodiesel is now on market in D enton area
By Crystal Barbour
Staff Writer
In an attempt to cut down
on air pollution and foreign
fuel supplies, Denton built
a biodiesel plant in 2004,
which has now made it
possible to sell biodiesel
fuel to the local public.
Biodiesel became available
for sale in Denton on Monday
at Rudy's Country Store on
Interstate Highway 35E. The
fuel goes for about $2.69 per
gallon.
Jay Verver, manager of
Rudy's Country Store, said
the store has had several
people call about biodeisel
and quite a few have come to
buy it since it became avail-
able on Monday.
Verver said the store owner,
Robert Wolf, uses biodiesel
in his own truck and is a big
supporter of keeping the envi-
ronment cleaner; he was deter-
mined to be the first person to
make it available in this area.
"[The sale of biodiesel] is
important because oil prices
will keep rising, but biodiesel
won't rise," Verver said. "All
the money will stay in the
states. It won't go overseas to
support oil over there."
"Biodiesel is the first of
many steps to curing our
addiction to foreign oil," said
Blake Morgan, a spokesman
for Biodiesel Industries.
Morgan said the company
began a program, Fry Oil To
Fuel, a year ago that collects
"crude" oil from local restau-
rants and farmers and
processes it into biodiesel.
"We provide containers for
the restaurants and vacuum
them out once a month, free
of charge," Morgan said. He
said many of the businesses
the company gets oil from
are "mom and pop places,"
because the city charges
them money to get rid of
the grease, which usually
is dumped into landfills.
"We tell them they can save
$20 or $30, and we will provide
the service for them without
machine
Domestic
petrod\eseU
oenev*'a^'e
B20 U0°/otolod'eS
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Brittany Dawson / NT Daily
A sign leaning on the gas pumps at Rudy's in Denton advertises for Willie Nelson's campaign for
biodiesel.
any cost," Morgan said.
Local businesses such as
Riprock's, Giuseppe's Italian
Restaurant and Yummy's Greek
Restaurant participate in the
program.
Morgan said biodiesel
has already led to less pollu-
tion in the Denton air.
"Last year, we kept more than
12 tons of pollution out of NT
skies," he said.
Biodiesel is a combination of 80
percent diesel made from petro-
leum and 20 percent of biodiesel
made from the cooking oil they
receive from local restaurant,
according to Morgan.
Morgan said biodiesel is a
great product that will be both
good for the environment as well
as the economy.
"It's helping us work toward
those cleaner standards," Morgan
said. "It's keeping our fuel dollars
here at home instead of over-
seas."
Percentage of pollutants reduced by
using biodiesel compared to petroleum
100 r
00%
<1J flj
utants
Sources: staff reports and Biodiesel Industries.
SGA holds inal meeting of semester
Liliana Castillo / NT Daily
David Hall, Richardson senior, spoke to the SGA for the last time
as its president Wednesday evening in the University Union.
By Mackenzie Rollins
Intern
At the Student Government
Association meeting Wednesday
night, SGA President David Hall
delivered a presidential thanks
to the Senate body for a year well
done. This meeting marked the
last of the SGA Senate for the
spring semester.
"You've been such a great
Senate, and it's been a pleasure
serving with you all," Hall said.
"Thanks for your relentless hard
work this year."
In addition to ubiquitous
congratulations among members,
the Senate discussed two bills.
Speaker of the Senate Chris Brown,
Fort Worth junior, led the meeting.
The first bill discussed was S2006-
5, which allows any legislation
discussed in Senate meetings to
be posted by the webmaster on the
SGA's Web site the Friday before
voting occurs. The purpose of this
is to allow students the opportu-
nity to voice opinions on proposed
legislation.
SGA members discussed the
proposed legislation and consid-
ered possible advantages and
drawbacks.
"I think this is great for us as a
whole because if we're watched
more closely, it willkeep us on our
toes," Comfort Olugbuyi, Senate
member for the College of Arts and
Sciences said. "We need to work
to meet our constituents needs,
and this is a great way to accom-
plish this goal and hear from them
directly."
The bill passed with a simple
majority.
Next on the agenda was bill
S2006-6, which dealt with T-shirt
allocation. The bill requests to
allocate $4,784 for summer T-
shirts, which will be handed out
at freshman orientation and other
university events. The current
amount allocated is $1,500, which
is not enough to buy the desired
amounts of shirts, according to
Brown. The purpose of the shirts
is to present SGA to the students,
so that there is increased aware-
ness of SGA's desire to accurately
listen and represent the student
body as a whole.
With very little discussion, the
bill passed by an overwhelming
majority.
Brown then discussed summer
appointments and meeting times,
as well as an honorary banquet to
be held next week. The banquet
is to honor students in positions
of leadership and will include
members of SGA and numerous
other student organizations. It
will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in
the Silver Eagle Suite, third floor
of the University Union.
"We look forward to a great
summer and fall under a new
president," Hall said. "I hope we
can all celebrate our accomplish-
ments together next week."
Man arrested in Aruba in Holloway case
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -The
family of a 19-year-old arrested
in the case of a young Alabama
woman who went missing last
year while visiting Aruba said
Wednesday that he had nothing
to do with her disappearance.
The family of Geoffrey van
Cromvoirt also said in a state-
ment released by his lawyers that
he is not friends with any of the
people previously detained in
the Natalee Holloway investiga-
tion, which has gathered force in
recent days with new searches
and witness interviews.
"The family van Cromvoirt
distances itself completely from all
expressions or statements which
bring Geoffrey van Cromvoirt in
connection with the disappear-
ance of Natalee Holloway and
any statements in which any role
is attributed to him in this case,"
the family said in a statement that
released in Dutch by his lawyer,
Eline Lotter Homan.
Aruban prosecutors, iden-
tifying Cromvoirt only by his
initials, said he was suspected
of "criminal offenses that may
be related to the disappear-
ance" of Holloway but have not
provided details about why he
was arrested.
"Her friends have not given me
any indication that Natalee had a
meeting with this young man or
... (had) a relationship with him,"
Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty,
told CNN's "Larry King Live" on
Wednesday.
Holloway, who was 18 when
she disappeared, was last seen
leaving a bar with a Dutch teen
and two Surinamese brothers
on May 30 - the final night of her
high school graduation trip to the
Caribbean island.
The Dutch teen, Joran Van der
Sloot, and the brothers, Deepak
and Satish Kalpoe, were jailed and
later released after a judge ruled
there was not enough evidence
to hold them.
The public prosecutor's office
said Wednesday that the coast
guard was using sonar and other
equipment to check an unspeci-
fied area off the Caribbean island.
The search, the latest of many for
Holloway, of Mountain Brook,
Ala., was in its fourth day but had
not previously been disclosed.
ohl says no
new money
Budget office projecting zero
percent growth next year
By Kim Cox
Intern
Bad luck for NT: no new
money will be present in
the budget, according to NT
President Norval Pohl.
"This will be the smallest
budget in eight years," Pohl
said.
The reason for the "no
new money" news is that the
university budgeting office is
currently forecasting that there
will be 0 percent growth next
year.
"There are two different fore-
casts," Pohl said. "Zero percent
growth, or flat enrollment, or
2 percent growth. Last year's
growth was 3 percent. We're
hesitant to build a budget on
an optimistic forecast."
Another reason for the lack
of money is that, compared
with other universities, such
as Texas A&M's nine percent
increase, NT's will only go
up 5.2 percent, according to
Pohl.
"We really tried to hold down
tuition increases just by five
percent," Pohl said.
This will give some new
money to NT, but not really,
according to lean Bush, director
of the NT budget office.
According to the NT Web site,
last year's expense budget was
$475 million from the tuition
increase; only 2.9 million more
will come in to the school's
coffers.
"There is some new money,
we did go up on tuition, but a
big part of that went to take
care of utilities and mainte-
nance contracts," Bush said.
According to Bush, the chan-
cellor's contingency plans are
being developed in case growth
is greater than the current
projections. Bush expects the
budget to go to the board with
the contingency plans in its
May 7 meeting.
If new money appears on the
horizon, Pohl said he would
like to take care of some things,
such as the university library
and the faculty.
"We're going to try to do
something for them [the
library]," Pohl said. "I'd like
to add more faculty."
As it is, he will have to cut
some of the new faculty he was
planning on hiring.
"We're still working on it,"
he said. "We might be able to
reallocate some money."
From where is still up in
the air, though. According to
Bush, the final decisions for
the budget have not been made
yet.
"We expect next week to
receive the final decisions,"
Bush said.
If the decisions are delayed
in any way, the budget will
have to wait until August to
be approved by the Board of
Regents.
"We can have it ready for
them in May or August," Bush
said. "We will have it ready for
them when they need it."
Six D avidians
to be freed
from custody
WACO, Texas (AP) -
Thirteen years after the
Branch Davidians' armed
standoff with federal agents
ended in an inferno that
killed nearly 80 people, six
sect members who were sent
to prison are about to be
released from custody.
Most of those who will
be freed over the next two
months escaped from the
compound near Waco as it
burned to the ground on
April 19, 1993 - 51 days after
a shootout that erupted when
federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms agents
tried to arrest religious leader
David Koresh for stockpiling
guns and explosives.
The six m en went to federal
prison for manslaughter,
weapons offenses or both
in connection with the
Feb. 28 shootout, which left
four federal agents and six
Davidians dead.
Once the men are out, they
will be under supervised
release for three to five years.
Among other things, they will
be barred from associating
with one another.
A seventh Davidian is also
still behind bars but is not
scheduled for release until
next year.
Paul Gordon Fatta, who is
to be released next month in
San Diego, said he remains
angry about the government's
actions. He was at a gun show
in Austin during the ATF raid
and was not at the compound
during the standoff.
"They needed their pound
of flesh, so they took the
survivors and put them on
trial. Somebody had to pay,"
Fatta, 48, told The Associated
Press by telephone. "They
just want it to go away, and
they hope people will forget
as time passes. But it's going
to be with me the rest of my
life."
Koresh and nearly 80
followers, including two
dozen children, died in
a blaze that survivors say
was ignited by tear gas
sprayed into the compound
buildings from military
tanks. Authorities claim
the Davidians committed
suicide by setting the fire
and shooting themselves.
Jaime Castillo, who is to be
released next month from a
Los Angeles halfway house,
said he plans to remain there
and try to rebuild his life
by forming another band -
which is how he met Koresh
in 1988 - or by working as
a personal trainer. He said
he might someday visit the
compound site, where a few
survivors still meet for Bible
study each weekend.
"For me, I don't think it
could ever be re-created,"
said Castillo, 37. "They study
and reflect on teachings. I
could do that by myself; I
don't need somebody to tell
me that. I've always been an
individual."
In 1994 in San Antonio,
11 Davidians went on trial;
all were acquitted of murder
and conspiracy to commit
murder charges. However,
five were convicted of
voluntary manslaughter and
weapons charges and three
were convicted on weapons
charges. A 12th Davidian who
was indicted pleaded guilty
to a lesser charge in exchange
for testifying against the
others; she was sentenced
to three years in prison and
was released in 1996.
The federal judge sentenced
most to 40 years but in
2000 reduced most terms
to 15 years after the U.S.
Supreme Court overturned
his decision. One of the eight
was sentenced to five years
on a weapons charge and got
out in 1997.
Jane McKeehan of Johnson
City, Tenn., whose 28-year-
old son Todd McKeehan was
one of the ATF agents killed,
said she and her family have
tried to focus on their son
and not think too much about
the Davidians.
"It is in our minds every
day; it completely changes
your life," McKeehan said.
"We're Christians, and we
know we're going to see Todd
again, so we try to focus on
the good. He was doing what
he wanted to do and was
adamant about making it a
better world."
While in prison, Castillo,
who maintains that he didn't
shoot any agents during the
raid, said he has thought a
lot about the events on the
Central Texas prairie 13 years
ago. He wishes Koresh had
surrendered with the entire
group - 21 children and 14
adults did leave during the
standoff - although Castillo
believes that Koresh felt he
was following God's will.
"Certain things change.
You have to re-evaluate,
and now you think, 'Dave
probably shouldn't have done
this,"' Castillo said. "But
if I start questioning this,
what's the point now? It's the
past. It's not going to benefit
anyone now."
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 105, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 20, 2006, newspaper, April 20, 2006; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145339/m1/4/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.