Serving PCC and the Pasadena community since 1915
Dec. 9, 2004
pcc-courieronline.com
Vol. 90, Issue 13
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JPL Shuttle Van Careens Off Highway
■ An early morning
commute turns deadly;
its cause is still under
investigation.
Dean Lee
Staff Writer
Three people were killed yester¬
day when a van carrying commuters
on Highway 2 from the Antelope
Valley to NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory plunged down a 200-foot
cliff. The seven other victims were
airlifted to hospitals, according to the
Associated Press.
Several lab employees reported
that they heard there was a substitute
driver operating the van, because the
regular driver called in sick.
Fog may have been a contributing
factor, according to the CHP. One
passenger from the van who suffered
a broken foot was able to climb to the
top of the cliff and wave down help.
“That’s always been a dangerous
road with twists and turns,” said Dr.
Bruce Carter, dean of the natural sci¬
ences division. “My sympathy goes
out to those involved.”
A second commuter van was trav¬
eling behind the one that drove over
the cliff. The driver of that vehicle
went on down the mountain to sum¬
mon help because no cell phone
service was available near the acci¬
dent site.
“I worked with one of the victims
killed in the crash,” said Annie
Carone, a PCC student who works at
JPL. “I talked to her yesterday, and it
seems so strange that she is gone
today.” Carone said that people who
work in the different sections at JPL
are all like family, so it’s really sad
when something like this happens.
PCC astronomy instructor John
Stantzos said, “I don’t know the
details, but it’s a sad day for the JPL
community.”
Students at the California
Institute of Technology were
shocked at the news. Caltech has a
close working relationship with JPL.
“I’m very concerned about the
people involved," said Caltech stu¬
dent Lisa Cowan. “I have several
friends who work at JPL.”
Leona Kershaw, secretary for the
physics lab at Caltech, said, “My
hope is that the people survived.
I’ve been on Highway 2 and it’s
dangerous.”
“My first concern was who was in
the van,” said Sue Perry, who works
at the United States Geological
Survey earthquake center. "I know
and care about many people at JPL."
£ 'nurtcsy of Associated Press
Medevac helicopters transport survivors from the crash site in Angeles National Forest to area hospitals.
Egg Donors at Risk
EGG
DONORS
NEEDED
Earn $5000?
Ml
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..
№«ch
№ 4
$ge you may qualify
&$CeQ0> 732-189'
Illustration by William
Hallstrom
/
Courier
Ads like this don’t
alert potential egg
donors to the dangers
of the procedure.
Jessica Pirkl
Managing Editor
Looking at the glamorous
airbrushed pictures it would
be easy to confuse these sites
with dating services. You can
pick a blonde, brunette, red¬
head, whatever age, eye
color, and ethnicity suits
your desire. But the
attached medical profiles,
family genealogies and the
females’ educational back¬
ground are a far cry from a
dating site.
Egg donors are a fast growing population
among young women searching for a quick
buck while continuing their education.
Consequently, one of the criteria for most, if
not all, of these egg factories is that the egg
donor be currently enrolled in and attending
school. EggDonor.com calls for the donor to
have an SAT score of at least 1275 while hold¬
ing a 3.5 GPA or higher.
The criteria also call for the donor to be
practically impervious to illness or ,in one com¬
pany’s terms, to “not have any family history of
birth defects or hereditary diseases.” A poten¬
tial donor must also answer questionnaires that
can run more than 50 pages in length. It seems
as if the questions about their hobbies, likes
and dislikes are thrown in for good measure
between the in-depth medical and educational
history questions. Age qualifications are also in
place with the common age requirements
being that the female be between the ages of 20
and 30, which is the standard cut-off age.
Luring young women to donate their eggs
is an easy task, especially when the starting
standard price for a “cycle” of
follicles (the common medical
term used for a batch of harvest¬
ed eggs) is around $3,500. Many
egg-donor ads are run in college
publications, where there are
many women in need of an
opportunity to make a little extra
money.
But what is not so widely
publicized is the effects and the
numerous tolls that the manda¬
tory drugs may possibly take on
the donor’s body. Tolls that can
include severe swelling, hor¬
mone imbalance, depression
and the possibility of infertility. The risks of
each of these side effects increase with each
“cycle” a donor makes, which is often coun¬
teracted with the lure of more money. With
each successful “cycle,” a donor can increase
her price or market value after she has proven
to be fruitful for harvesting.
CreatingFamilies.com even states that they
“will not provide information or advice on the
legal, medical, genetic or psychological risks of
egg donation.” What is also not stated during
an initial call to one such organization is the
use of needles for daily injections of the vari¬
ous hormones that are needed to stimulate the
ovaries, so that they will produce an abun¬
dance of eggs. The process calls for ingesting
tablets, taking nasal sprays, daily injections
with various size needles, blood tests, ulta-
sounds, psychological testing and in the end
invasive surgery.
If an invasive procedure that has such seri¬
ous possible side effects is occurring daily, it
leaves the lingering question of exactly how
these companies are being regulated.
Seven-car Crash Update
Annie Carone
Staff Writer
After the seven-car pile-up that occurred
Tuesday, Nov. 30 in the parking structure,
many students were left wondering how
one car could possibly do so much damage
to six others.
According to Sgt. Steven Lester, the
incident occurred when Samuel Juwono,
while talking on his cell phone, was turn¬
ing left into the first row of the second level
and he failed to clear the vehicle that was
stopped at the stop sign waiting to make a
right hand turn. Juwono clipped the left
side of the front bumper and then proceed¬
ed to step on the gas rather than the brake,
Lester said.
Juwono’s Hyundai Elantra then rico¬
cheted into the parked car, a Honda
Accord, on his left-hand side with such
force, the parked vehicle shifted a full 90
degrees. This impact caused the Accord to
swing over and barrel into its neighboring
car, a Toyota Tercel.
Lester said from that point, Juwono’s
Elantra plowed into the blue Honda Civic,
which was two cars away from the Tercel
(an empty space was between them). The
Civic smashed into the Volkswagen Bug on
it’s left. The Bug did the same to the vehi¬
cle on its other side, a silver Honda Civic.
The last three cars where sandwiched
together so closely a tow truck had to pull
them apart. The blue Civic sustained so
much damage, it had to sit in the structure
until authorities could find a way for it to
be towed out.
Ramon Rodriguez, owner of the 1955
Bug that was in between the two Civics,
confirmed that his car was a restored
model and the accident caused over $2,000
in damage.
“I thought someone had broken , into
my car,” Rodriquez said. “I was shocked.”
He now has to find rides to school.
Rodriguez also said that Juwono’s insur¬
ance company had yet to contact him.
While Lester said that Juwono has been
very cooperative, the police let the separate
parties work out the insurance procedures
themselves. “We just handled this as a nor¬
mal traffic accident,” Lester said.
The sergeant added that Juwono was
very calm after the incident and was aware
of what happened. The investigation indi¬
cates that the suspect was not speeding, but
rather appears to have failed to make a
wide-enough turn.
Juwono was cited for reckless driving.
Millions in Paid Internships Available
Micah Flores
Staff Writer
The National Institutes of Health has set
aside a staggering $60 million for American
students, ages 16 and up, to receive paid sci¬
ence-related internships.
As the largest funder of bio-medical
research in the world and with an annual
budget of $27.4 billion, the NIH is serious
about getting students paid internships.
Prospective paid internships include
jobs in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics at places such as medical
agencies, colleges, companies, faith-based
organizations, hospitals, laboratories or
universities.
While these jobs are science-related, they
are not limited to science majors. These
internships are available for anyone who is
willing to show up on time and work.
Dr. Joe Conner, associate professor of
natural science, made an appearance at the
Dec. 6 Academic Senate meeting where he
told the senate about a plan to get students
interested in the available paid internships.
“I created a program called “Project
257” and the goal is to help get 257 stu¬
dents bio-medical jobs in all 50 states,”
said Conner. “We want to make PCC the
premier institution across the country
where people will know about paid
internships^’
Besides the money, Conner also said
that the students would benefit through
experience, contacts and clarification of
what their personal goals would be.
Students can learn more at
www.crisp.cit.nih.gov. By logging on to
this user-friendly website, prospective stu¬
dents wanting to find paid internships will
be on their way to tapping into a valuable
job resource.
Conner can be contacted at
jwconrier@pasadena.edu to answer ques¬
tions or direct prospective workers in the
right direction.
Find Some Stress Relief During Finals Week
Stephen Folan
News Editor
Free breakfast at the Shatford Library,
courtesy of the PCC Associated Students,
will help ease the stress of finals this week
and next week.
Students who arrive before the library
opens will find a free breakfast. Associated
Students representatives will be handing out
muffins, coffee, and hot chocolate, paid for out
of the AS budget. The service will be available
for an hour every morning as part of the
library’s finals week services.
“In the morning, you always see a lot of
students waiting for the library to actually
open,” explained AS president David Kong,
who pushed the new services as part of his
campaign promises. “That’s why we decided
to open the rotunda to offer students some¬
thing to eat while they wait.”
In addition, Kong worked with Mary Ann
Laun, assistant dean of the library, to develop
a new schedule that extends the library’s hours
until 11 p.m for finals week. The schedule is
already in effect and will last until Dec. 15.
The library will be open from 7:30 a.m to 11
p.m from Dec. 6 through Dec. 9, as well as
Dec. 13 through Dec. 15.
“This is something I promised in my cam¬
paign,” Kong said. “You always hear about
university libraries being open
24/7,
and I
wanted to do something to improve that here.
The library is a great asset for research, and we
should have it open as long as we can.”
The problem is that extending the hours is
expensive. According to Kong, the library is
paying for its own extended hours. If student
demand is high enough, they may continue to
offer this extension in future semesters. On
Monday, 25 students stayed until the extend¬
ed closing time on the first night in the serv¬
ice was offered.
The AS is also paying to provide an escort
service for students worried about going back
to their cars alone after the library closes. The
campus police cadets normally leave at 10
p.m, but arrangements have been made for
them to stay on campus an hour longer and
escort students to their cars if requested.
Concerned students can reach the service at
(626) 585-7484.
For those who want a break from study¬
ing, the AS will also be paying for profession¬
al massage therapists in the library and the
CC lounge from Dec. 14 to Dec. 16 as part of
relaxation week.
I*
Photo illustration by William Hallstrom /Courier
Finals got you down? The Associated Students will provide free
breakfast every morning starting at 7 a.m. during finals week.