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AUGUST 31, 2006
THURSDAY
VOLUME 96, ISSUE 4
Identity thefts on the rise, college-aged group most at-risk By Jacqueline Davis The University Star The holidays were approaching and Brooke Keller was tight on money. Keller, mass communications senior, figured her best bet would be to get a small loan so she could purchase presents for her family. A little extra cash would eliminate the stress of saving up for gifts and the loan would be a good start for building some credit of her own,
Keller thought. She was in for a big surprise. Keller was declined for the loan and when she dug deeper to find out why, a credit bureau told her she had rented a house in California that she had quit making payments for, had cable service at that location; the list went on. “I had a few strikes against my credit before I even had a chance to establish credit,” Keller said. Keller became a victim of one of the fastest growing consumer
crimes in the country — identity theft. Identity theft occurs when a person uses another person’s information — such as a name, address or social security number — without permission. Identity theft costs victims more than $5 billion annually, according to the U.S. Department of Education Web site. The U.S. Postal service reported 10 million identity theft incidents in 2004. Out of all complaints of identity theft, the largest por-
tion arose from the 18 to 29 age bracket, according to online statistics posted by the Federal Trade Commission in 2005. Otto Glenewinkel, Texas State University Police Department community awareness and resource team officer, addressed the rising threat to college students. “It’s probably the biggest crime that’s growing in the United States,” Glenewinkel said. “I think one in four is the statistic right now and I’d say
that statistic is about the same here at Texas State.” Glenewinkel discussed the range of effects identity theft could have on a college student, with results ranging from mere inconvenience to detrimental financial loss. “The least is you are forced to close an old account and open a new one,” Glenewinkel said. “The worst is you could lose tens of thousands of dollars — you could lose your house, car or even your job.”
Invading ‘army’ floats like a butterfly
See IDENTITY, page 3
Man arrested at local hotel on kidnapping, assault charges
By Emily Messer The University Star In the current drought conditions, plants and animals start to diminish, but one Lilliputian army is flourishing — the snout butterflies. The 8-inch-long butterflies, named for the large projections from their head, make a mass appearance in Central Texas about once every 10 years. “It’s a June to October phenomenon when those widespread rains are preceded by extended droughts,” said Mike Quinn, invertebrate biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife Services. Quinn doesn’t have figures, but one estimate reveals that millions of snouts are currently in San Marcos. The female snout butterfly lays an average of 200 eggs, giving the offspring a greater chance of reaching maturity during the droughts because predators are minimal, but its host plant, the hackberry, flourishes. Parasitic wasps that lay eggs inside the caterpillars and eat them from the inside out are usually the biggest threat to snouts. “Basically what happens is that if you get severe drought in the desert homelands for those guys followed by a little bit of rain, predators, in particular the parasatoids, control those populations go away on that severe drought,” said Chris Nice, assistant professor of biology. “That frees the butterflies from their normal population control.” As a result, the butterflies have been seen all over the region. “As far as up in the San Antonio area, the best I can tell it seems to be about an every 10 year event on the scale we’re seeing this summer,” said Quinn, who lives in Austin. “Just walking from the building to my car, I’ll see three or four. That’s a lot in one perspective, but nothing compared to the millions that are being seen much further south and also much farther west of us.” Between late June and midOctober, snouts, which are the only butterflies that belong to their own family, have a semimigration pattern. They follow
Many victims of identity theft find the most frustrating part of the situation is the burden of proving they did not engage in reckless financial behavior. “Why do I have to prove who I am?” Keller said. “I know who I am. They’re the ones who stole it.” Glenewinkel said the biggest threat to college students is “phishing,” a method that entails stealing credit or
By David Saleh Rauf The University Star A taskforce of federal, county and local law enforcement officers arrested a New Braunfels man wanted on a first-degree felony warrant for aggravated kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon Monday night at the Best Budget Inn on Interstate 35. Police said David Saldana Jr., 36, was wanted in connection with an incident on April 10 in Comal County and was considered armed and dangerous. The U.S. MarSaldana shals Service and the Comal County police department requested the assistance of the Hays County SWAT team to help apprehend the subject around 5:45 p.m. “Our Hays County SWAT on Monday was asked by the U.S. Marshall Service to assist them in apprehending a subject that they had a warrant for,” said Sgt. Leroy Opiela of the Hays County Sheriff’s Department. “We met them at a motel here in San Marcos over on I-35 where the subject was. Our SWAT team and negotiations team made contact with the room that he was in, asked him to come out and surrender. He did and we released him to the marshal’s office and they put him in jail in Comal County.” Saldana’s charges originally stem from an incident in which law enforcement officials said he kidnapped a New Braunfels woman and her son at gunpoint. He was released from custody after striking a plea agreement on Aug. 4, one day before his indictment. Saldana then failed to appear in court and 207th Judicial District Court Judge Jack Robison issued a warrant for his arrest. San Marcos Police Cmdr. Terry Nichols said Crime Stoppers ultimately led U.S. Marshals to Saldana’s doorstep. “It was Crime Stoppers that led them to San Marcos and then it was just investigative work that led to the hotel,” he said. Nichols, assistant commander of the Hays County SWAT team, said a woman and a 10-year-old child were in the hotel room with Saldana. He said the violent nature of the warrants made the assistance of the SWAT team a necessary component for the arrest. “That’s why we just kind of pulled up in front with the SWAT team and armored car,” Nichols said. “We got on the loudspeaker and requested him to exit and surrender. He did.” The entire incident lasted only a few minutes, he said. “There was nothing very dynamic about it. We called the telephone and he hung up on us and they took the phone off the hook,” Nichols said. “Then they just got a loud speaker and started issuing commands right over the loud speaker right at the door of the hotel. After just a couple of minutes he opened the door and surrendered peacefully.” Saldana is being held in Comal County jail on $200,000 bond. If found guilty, Saldana could face between five and 99 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Lt. Mark Reynolds of the Comal County Sheriff’s office said Saldana now awaits his court date and does not know when he will be tried. “He’s already been charged,” Reynolds said. “This was a sealed indictment from the grand jury.”
Jennifer Williams/Star photo
BUTTERFLY INVASION: This resting female snout butterfly is a member of a species that ranges from Argentina to Canada. Libytheana carinenta is known for feeding on the various species of hackberry, which grow prolifically in the Central and South Texas regions.
the food source and the mating scene. “None of them fit the more formal biological definition of the migration as in moving from Point ‘A’ to Point ‘B’ and back,” Quinn said. “They’re kind of dispersing and flying. Basically, they’re going on mass movement and they’re varying directions.” As a result, hundreds of butterflies end up as highway road-kill. “Windshields are definitely predators, especially in these outbreaks,” said Christopher Nice, assistant professor of biology. Leslie Rogers, who drives to her boyfriend’s house outside of San Marcos, said the front of her white Ford Ranger is covered with the winged bugs. “I noticed all the orange splats on my windshield. They’re everywhere,” said Rodgers, elementary education senior. The butterflies are attracted to hackberry trees and shrubs. Three species of the hackberry are common to the San Marcos area.
“They’re adapted to this region of the state,” said David Lemke, professor of biology. “They’re pretty common. Most people consider them trash trees.” The caterpillars strip the trees of their food and move on when their food sources are depleted. Adult snouts are also attracted to Crepe myrtles, such as the ones Nice has observed outside the Supple Science Building, because they are a source of nectar. Nice said the nectar source is especially attractive to the butterflies during the drought. “They love the Crepe myrtle,” Nice said. “There must be three or four thousand of them sitting around on those two trees down there at the end of the building all day long. It’s spectacular.” Because the insects’ snouts don’t have any smelling ability, the butterflies rely on their antennae. The snout helps them hide from predators. They lay their snouts on stems and use their wings as camouflage. “The butterflies themselves are
referred to as dead-leaf mimics,” Quinn said. This isn’t the first time the insects have been spotted in such abundance. In 1923, Canadian entomologists noted that an estimated 25 million snout butterflies per minute passed over a 250-mile stretch from San Marcos to the Rio Grande during an 18-day flight in late September 1921. The southeasterly-bound migration may have involved more than six billion butterflies thanks to the most severe rainstorm recorded in the continental United States. A total of 36.4 inches of rain soaked much of Central Texas during an 18-hour period. Larry Gilbert, integrative biology professor at the University of Texas, was the first person to study snout migrations at their points of origin. He noted record numbers of outbreaks. “If you read Larry Gilbert’s papers on these guys, apparently See BUTTERFLIES, page 3
Textbook costs continue to stagger students By A.N. Hernández The University Star By now, Texas State students are settling into class routines. They received their syllabi with the lists of required and recommended books. And, whether they shopped at local bookstores or online, many approached the cash register with fingers crossed hoping the textbook bill didn’t come out too high. “I bought one book here and it came out to $106 dollars and
I got the rest of my books at the Colloquium,” said Justin Parsons, outside the University Bookstore in the LBJ Student Center. “So far I’ve spent about $300.” Parsons, exercise sports science junior, said the prices were “ridiculous” but he needed the books for class. Julianne Doyen, psychology senior, said students would not mind spending so much money on books if they received better buyback rates. “It would seem reasonable
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to spend $150 on a chemistry book, if when I returned it I got three-fourths of the price back rather than one-fourth,” she said. “To sell it back and get $50 is a big rip-off. I am not saying the prices are reasonable but it would be less of an ordeal.” Because Doyen cannot afford to buy all her books at once, she has chosen to purchase only the books she deems most important. Her University Bookstore receipt for Aug. 24 totaled $244.47. In 2005, the U.S. Government
Two-day Forecast Friday Sunny Temp: 100°/ 73° Precipitation: 10%
Saturday Partly Cloudy Temp: 98°/ 72° Precipitation: 20%
Accountability Office conducted a study that concluded the average college student at a two-year or four-year university spends about $900 each year on textbooks and supplies. It also found that since 1986 textbook prices have almost tripled, increasing 186 percent. The increase in textbook prices has come as a result of new features being included, such as Web site access and “other instructional supplements.”
Danny Rodriguez/Star photo EXPENSIVE EDUCATION: University Bookstore cashier Pricilla Cortez helps fashion merchandising sophomore Regina Garcia purchase textbooks and supplies for her classes Friday in the LBJ Student Center.
See TEXTBOOKS, page 3
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