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INSIDE Rap star Eminem continues 3 nto opinion: spark controversy
Titans host the 10-team Worth Invitational this weekend
Kia Baseball Bash features 5 ntopsports: teams this weekend at Goodwin Field
—see Sports page 5
weekend
Vo l u m e 7 2 , I s s u e 1 0
Credit Rules l Credit cards are just like a loan — you have to pay what you owe.
l Keep track of how much you spend. Remember that incidental and impulse purchases add up fast.
l Save your receipts. Compare them with your monthly bill.
Promptly report problems to the company that issued the card.
l
Never lend your card to anyone. Owing more than you can repay can damage your credit rating.
l That can make it hard to finance a car; rent an apartment, get insurance — even a job.
Pay your bill on time and in full when possible. If you don’t you’ll
l have to pay finance charges on the unpaid balance — and it takes forever to get caught up if you just pay the minimum. *Source: Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov)
M a r c h 2, 2001
Crack-down on solicitors nTITAN SHOPS: The lure of free candy and T-shirts spells possible credit problems for student applicants
By Melanie Bysouth
Daily Titan Staff Writer You see them every semester. They offer you a free T-shirt or a bag of candy in exchange for your most personal information, and possibly your good credit. Applying for a credit card may
Students cash in on
seem harmless but there are hidden dangers involved that many students may not be aware of. Yet Cal State Fullerton, more specifically Titan Shops, say they are enacting specific guidelines in order to better provide for the students. “We’ve tried to protect students by bringing people here [CSUF] that are reputable,” said Jerry Olsen, Director of Titan Shops. “We want to make sure that their information will not be sold on the streets.” But the students must also take responsibility for themselves. “There is a number of students that will fill out the information without looking at what they are
giving,” Olsen said. “They are giving it [personal data] to complete strangers.” Compounding the problem is number of companies throughout the campus. “Prior to fall 2000 they could set up anywhere,” said Chuck Kissel, Titan Shops Senior Manager in charge of Operations and Customer Service. But things have changed. “Any commercial activity must come through the book store and they are limited to the five blue canopies on campus,” Kissel said. “We want to create a better environment for the students.” Although CSUF says it has made
efforts in restricting the number of companies soliciting all who walk by, some students are still frustrated by these unwelcome visitors to the campus. “I think they’re annoying,” sophomore Jeni Koss said. What students say is most annoying is the methods of attack used by the organizations. “They harass you,” said Lindsay Nickerson,a musical theatre major. “I got stopped by a guy who wouldn’t leave me alone.” Sophomore Vicki Wong shares this frustration.
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nMONEY: Redemption Week returns $5 for every $100 spent between Dec. 6 and Feb. 16 By Kelly Mead
Daily Titan Staff Writer This week, Titan Shops is giving students a reason to dig through their junk drawers and find old receipts. Through March 4, students can get money back from the Titan Shops for the blood and tears they shelled out at the beginning of the semester. Redemption Week gives students $5 for every $100 they spent between Dec. 26 and Feb. 16. A student only needs to bring in their stamped receipt from that time period to the second floor of the Titan Shops. “Since book prices have gone up, you might as well get something out of it,” said Gerardo Noria, a senior international business and science major. Noria has been redeeming his receipts since his freshman year at Cal State Fullerton. Since the program began in the fall of 1997, students have received $103,358 in gift certificates from Redemption Week. Chuck Kissel, the customer service manager for the Titan Shops, expects to give out $15,000 by the end of this week. Last semester the Titan Shops gave out $16,386. “It’s a nice way of getting a free meal or two,” Kissel said. The average gift certificate is $5 to $10. Gift certificates from the shop can be used on anything from candy, to clothing, to next semester’s books. The certificates expire in late November of this year. Danielle Duldulao, a sophomore in sociology who has been working
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at the shops for over a year, said the cold weather prompts many students to spend their gift certificates on clothing. She stated that students spend the certificates on miscellaneous items, because the high cost of book buying is a month in the past. “Everyone is buying sweatshirts, because they paid off their credit card bills for their books,” she said. Marlene Munguina, who redeemed her receipt Wednesday night, said she didn’t know about the program until this semester. When she bought her books, she noticed a blue flyer for Redemption Week attached to her receipt. “I spent almost $300,” said the junior human services major. “I paid a lot of attention to my receipt because I couldn’t believe it was that much. I guess the ones that spend a lot of money will.” This semester there has been a steady flow of students climbing the Titan Shops escalator to receive their certificates from the designated register. “It has gone up,” said Kissel when referring to the number of students who take advantage of Redemption Week. “But not as much as I would think.” Titan Shops was planning to post flyers around campus all this week, but rainy weather prohibited it. Titan Shops biggest challenge with the event is getting awareness out to the students, Kissel said. During the beginning of the semester rush, cashiers are required to notify every customer about Redemption Week. “[Students] probably forget because it’s a whole month after they buy their books,” Duldulao said. “I think it’s all
Kira Horvath/Daily Titan
Kadiatou Diallo, keynote speaker for asymposium on racial profilling, cries upon hearing a recording the “I Have a Dream” speech.
Brutality an issue 10 years after King nPOLICE: LAPD is still grappling with concerns surrounding excessive force and in-house corruption By Michael Del Muro Daily Titan Staff Writer
Ten years ago, George Herbert Walker Bush was president of the United States, Sadaam Hussein was American enemy number one and nightly videos of strategic bomb hits in Iraq shown on CNN made the cable news network a major player in national news. Los Angeles news was filled with another videotape that shocked the world and shook up the base of the Los Angeles Police Department — the police beating of Rodney King. George Holiday stood across the street peering down from his apartment window with his video camera pointed at police officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno and recorded the three offi-
cers beating motorist Rodney King nearly to death, after he refused to halt during a routine traffic stop. The officers landed 56 blows to King’s body with nightsticks, pelted him with numerous kicks, and zapped him with a Taser gun, leaving him with fractures to his skull and serious facial nerve damage. The subsequent trial and acquittal of the three officers and Sgt. Stacey Koon, who was the commanding officer during the beating, left many in the black community outraged. Criminal justice Professor Brenda Vogel said the incident shed light on abuses that are often all too familiar to those living in poorer areas. “The Rodney King incident showed the entire country and illustrated the abuses that occur in poor communities,” Vogel said. “When the officers were acquitted, it said to the poor, your suffering is not legitimate,” she added. The aftermath of the acquittal in April 1992 was reminiscent of the anger that enthralled South Central L.A. during the 1960 race riots, as many took to the streets in protest and this eventually led to a full-
throttle riot. While many in the community were outraged by the King verdict, Tom Hall, a retired LAPD officer, said the verdict was just an excuse for many to cause trouble and get free goods Regardless of the motivation behind the riots, its resulting fires darkened the skies for three days and the looters who raided the local stores stole millions of dollars in property. Police Chief Daryl Gates stepped down as the “Top cop” in L.A. and the Christopher Commission took a serious look at police brutality, making several suggestions to curb the violence plaguing the department. Two of the offending officers were eventually punished in the beating of King as violators of King’s civil rights. Powell and Koon were each convicted and sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison. The other two officers were acquitted of all charges. Now, 10 years after King’s beating, a different George Bush is president and Hussein is still America’s number one foreign enemy.
http://dailytitan.fullerton.edu
Meanwhile, the LAPD is on its third chief of police in 10 years, after two chiefs in the previous 30 years, and is struggling to maintain its dignity as a department. Hall said the morale of those working in the department is as low as he can ever remember in his 31 years of service. He added that the loss of Gates as commissioner has hurt the department because those who have followed have not had much success. As one of the Christopher Commission’s recommendations, the police chief must now be reevaluated every five years. Hall said Gates’ first successor, Chief Willie Williams, lasted only one term because of his inactive policy making. However, Hall said the inaction of Williams did not hurt the department as much as poor policy-making of current Police Chief Bernard Parks. A compressed schedule, which would have allowed officers to work as little as three 12-hour days per week, was being experimented with by the LAPD, but Parks eliminated
Rodney King
the program. Hall also credits a lot of the poor decisions to weak management resulting from the King incident. “Parks is [Mayor Richard] Riordan’s man,” Hall said. “The rest of the upper management of the LAPD are all puppets.”
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