Campus to close for holiday; residence halls to remain open

Campus will close tomorrow through Monday for the Easter holiday.

Residence halls will remain open during the Easter break to enable students to stay on campus.

The cafeteria will close during the Easter holiday beginning at 4 p.m. today.

It will re-open at 4 p.m. Monday.

Classes will resume Monday at 5 p.m. See professors or instructors for further details.

For more information about staying on campus during the holiday break or any housing issues, contact Melanie Peel, the coordinator of assignments in the Housing office, at 257-4917.

Applications for SGA officer elections now available online

Student Government Association elections will be held April 6-7 on the SGA Web site at http://www.latechsga.com.

Run-off elections will be held April 13-14.

Some of the open positions include SGA president, vice president, treasurer and secretary.

Also, students will vote on senior class president and two senators, junior class president and two senators, sophomore class president and two senators, and senators that will represent the five colleges.

For more information, contact Cekedrick Batton, the commissioner of elections and a sophomore health and exercise science major, at 257-4565.

Housing, Union Board to host celebrity-themed semi-formal

Midnight Magic, a semi-formal event sponsored by the housing department and the Union Board, will be held March 31 at 8 p.m. in the Student Center, Main Floor.

The affair is only open to students who attend Tech. The cost of tickets to the event is $10 per person.

Tickets may be purchased from resident assistants. The purchase of a ticket to this dressy affair will include fine food, games and karaoke.

Those wishing to purchase pictures must do so that night and all orders will be available for pick-up from the housing office.

Students will be notified when their pictures have arrived and can pick them up.

Students who purchase tickets with Tech Express before the day of the event will receive a free T-shirt.

For more information, contact David Smith, area coordinator of residential life, at 257-4917.

Sign up for Big Event in Tolliver; outreach to be held April 16

Packets for organization registry for "The Big Event" are available in the SGA office, and are due today.

If a student is not in an organization and would like to join in with "The Big Event," there are also individual sign-up forms that are due at the SGA office in Tolliver Hall, Room 212, by April 11 at 4 p.m.

The Student Government Association's "The Big Event" is April 16.

"The Big Event" is a number of community service projects that students and organizations around Tech perform.

For more information on "The Big Event," contact Kimberly Ludwig, SGA president and a senior business management and entrepreneurship major, in the SGA office at 257-4565, or e-mail at sga@latech.edu.

Union Board seeks new recruits; forms due by noon Tuesday

Union Board is now accepting new member applications for the spring quarter.

Applications can be picked up at the Union Board desk in Tolliver Hall, Rooms 214 and 215, or can be submitted on the Internet by going to the Union Board Web site, http://www.unionboard.com, and filling out an application.

All applications must be submitted by noon Tuesday or it will not be considered.

Some students will receive interviews based on their applications.

The names of those receiving interviews will be posted at the end of the day March 29 on the Union Board office door.

Applicants are encouraged to submit a current photo, but it is not required.

For more information, contact Stephen Bell, Union Board president and a senior biology major, at 257-4237.

Register for spring graduation in Keeny Hall by this afternoon

The deadline to register for spring graduation is 4:30 p.m. today in the Office of the Registrar located in Keeny Hall, Room 207.

Application for graduation initiates a degree audit process to verify eligibility for receiving a degree.

Applications and commencement ceremony information packets are available in the Registrar's office.

Students should place cap and gown orders in the bookstore soon after registering for graduation.

Once the deadline has passed, students still wanting to register must see their academic dean for written approval to be added to the graduation list.

For more information, contact Bob Vento, University Registrar, at 257-2176.

Financial Aid offers FAFSA forms in office, via Internet

Applications for the 2005-2006 year award for financial aid are available in the Division of Student Financial Aid.

The financial aid packages for next year are being processed now for the impending school year.

The financial aid process can be completed by the end of the 2005 school year so there will be no need for communication during the summer.

Financial aid for tuition and other expenditures must be filled out annually by filling out Free Application for Federal Student Aid or a renewal of FAFSA.

Students can reach the Financial Aid office online at http://www.latech.edu/finaid or via e-mail at Techaid@ltfa.latech.edu.

Students can also visit Financial Aid in Keeny Hall room 217.

For more information, contact Kathy Williams, front desk supervisor, at 257-2641.

This item originally appeared in the March 24, 2005 issue of The Tech Talk.

Iraqi and U.S. forces capture insurgent base, kill 85 rebels

After a two-hour firefight, Iraqi forces and U.S. helicopters captured an insurgent base north of Baghdad, killing 85 rebels, U.S. and Iraqi military officials said Wednesday.

Although the Iraqi military said it killed 85 insurgents during the firefight, the U.S. military said the number of rebel dead was “undetermined.” Seven Iraqi police commandos with Ministry of Interior died during the battle, the U.S. military said.

The U.S. military said it had lost no American troops in the battle.

After entering the camp, Iraqi commandos found non-Iraqi passports, training publications, propaganda documents, weapons and ammunition.

11th Circuit Court denies appeal to reinsert Shiavo's feeding tube

By a 2-1 vote, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declined early Wednesday to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.

This was after a federal judge on Tuesday denied an emergency request to reinsert the feeding tube.

The tube, which was removed last week, had been providing the 41-year-old woman with water and nutrients since 1990. She is being cared for at a Florida hospice.

Attorneys for Schiavo's parents are appealing the Circuit Court's ruling to the Supreme Court.

Minnesota high school student goes on shooting rampage

A Minnesota Indian reservation is trying to overcome "shock and disbelief" as it looks for reasons that a high school student went on a shooting rampage Monday, killing nine people and wounding as many as 13 others before killing himself.

Police said the student, Jeffrey Weise, killed two of his grandparents, went to his high school and killed seven people there.

The dead include five students, a female teacher and a male security officer. About 5,000 members of the Ojibwa tribe live on the reservation.

Floyd Jourdain, the chairman of the Red Lake Ojibwa Nation, said, "It still hasn't sunk."

Officials send request to begin trial of suspected 9/11 bomber

United States government officials requested a Virginia judge to begin the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui on Oct. 31.

Moussaoui is an Al-Qaeda loyalist, and is the only man facing U.S. charges for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The Justice Department asked Judge Leonie Brinkema of Alexandria, Va., to open jury selection by October 3 and commence the trial before the end of the month.

The Supreme Court rejected Moussaoui's request Monday to have access to other member of Al-Qaeda being held in custody, citing national security concerns.

Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota shortly before the attacks on charges of immigration violations. He claims to not have been involved in the planning of the attacks and that he should not be eligible for the death penalty.

Steroid hearing sheds little light on juicing in the Major Leagues

A congressional hearing held March 17 to shed light on the steroids controversy in Major League Baseball led only to denials and a refusal.

The hearing boasted marquee names such as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco, but did little to solve the problem.

Denise and Raymond Garibaldi and Donald Hooton also testified at the hearing that steroids were the reason for their teenage sons' deaths. Both teens committed suicide.

Canseco's best-selling book, Juiced, accused several players of dabbling in performance-enhancing drugs, and he claims to have witnessed both Palmeiro and McGwire using.

He also claims to have injected McGwire in the buttocks with the steroids. Palmeiro flatly denied any such 'juicing' and McGwire claimed he was not present at the hearing "to talk about the past."

Sosa seemed to use an interpreter to duck allegations.

McGwire and Sosa are widely-regarded to be responsible for the spike in baseball's popularity following the 1998 season when both men surpassed Roger Maris' then-record 61 home runs in a season.

Details of sign language town under discussion this week

The details are being debated this week for the creation of a new town right outside of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in which sign language will be the preferred communication.

The town would be named Laurent, after the French sign language pioneer, Laurent Clerc, and would welcome residents, both deaf and not deaf, as early as next year.

CNN.com reports the town's innovator, Marvin Miller, who was born deaf, said each home would be in walking distance of each other and each building will have sirens and strobe lights to warn residents of disasters. Also, all buildings will have many windows to let as much light in as possible.

Cell phone users can now read novels, write books on phones

Japanese cell phone users can now read their novels and get calls on the same device.

Several mobile Web sites on Japanese wireless services are now offering hundreds of novels from many different genres. The cell phone novels are run on handsets as Java-based applications and appear a few sentences at a time because of the small cell phone screens, according to CNN.com.

Young writers, called cell phone novelists, are now downloading their original works on these sites, as well.

The U.S. publisher Random House is now looking into developing such sites for U.S mobile phone service providers and their users.

Alleged Atlanta child abducter releases kids of ex-girlfriend

A 27-year-old Atlanta, Ga., man who allegedly kidnapped the two children of his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend released the children safely Tuesday afternoon.

The man is accused of breaking in his ex-girlfriend's home early Tuesday morning and raping her. Then the man allegedly shot her father in the head and chest and fled the scene in her car with the children.

The woman's father is in critical condition and the woman, who said she tried to file charges on the suspect for battery before the incident occurred, was treated and released from the hospital, according to CNN.com.

Atlanta police officials said the suspect is still at large.