COAST TO COAST
A national briefing of people, issues and events around the country

Sunday, January 8, 2006

Vultures Flock to College, Decline Invitations to Leave

Do birds know something people don't? Students and staff at Texas State University at San Marcos hope not.

More than a hundred vultures have invaded the campus, roosting on the administration building and the coliseum, and occasionally unnerving school officials.

The carrion-eating birds, larger than chickens and far more sinister, sit by the dozens on window ledges and roofs. They feast on roadkill from the nearby interstate and stare down office workers lucky enough to have a window, said Jayme Blaschke, a school spokesman.

University officials tried frightening them with rubber chickens painted black and hung upside down, but the vultures merely moved to another building. No more drastic measures have been taken because no one has been injured.

University spokesman Mark Hendricks told the Austin American-Statesman he saw one hovering outside his window when he was having a bad day. "Had that glass not been there, I'm sure I would have smelled his breath," he said. "I looked out there and said, 'You know something? I wish it was time to go home.' "

-- Sonya Geis

Medical Marijuana Approved, Supply Issue Left to Patients

Rhode Island joined the medical marijuana bandwagon last week with the passage of a law allowing patients who suffer from chronic illness, or cancer or AIDS to possess the herb.

But where to score the supply?

The new law does not answer the question. Pharmacies do not carry marijuana, leaving doctors, patients and caregivers to assume they can knock on the door of their neighborhood dealer.

"It's a weird concept, isn't it?" family physician Margaret A. Sun told the Providence Journal. "I'll give them a letter that it's okay for them to use . . . then they're going to some alleyway."

Few states have solved the conundrum of supply, and for now, said Helen Drew, legislative liaison for the Rhode Island Department of Health, "The folks who are getting it are going to sort it out."

-- Michelle Garcia

The National Anthem Is Music to Educators' Ears

They shouted. They warbled. They shrieked.

"Oh, say, can you see . . ."

Under a tent in the tailgating area before the FedEx Orange Bowl last week, a couple of hundred contestants individually took the stage, grabbed a mike and took a stab at the national anthem.

Some of them even knew all of the words.

It was a kickoff event for the National Anthem Project, an effort by the National Association for Music Education to get Americans up to speed on their anthem and to push for music education. They cite a Harris poll showing that 61 percent of Americans do not know all of the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- and that of those who claim to know all the words, only 39 percent know what follows "whose broad stripes and bright stars." (Answer: "through the perilous fight." )

A spokeswoman for the project accentuated the positive.

"About a quarter of the contestants didn't look at the lyric sheet," Vanessa Mason said. "They were able to hold their heads up high and belt it out."

-- Peter Whoriskey

Plug Is Pulled on Airport's Space-Age Light Display

Flying into Los Angeles at night became a colorful experience when the airport installed towering pylons that light up in changing hues. Some of the 30 round plastic shafts, which went in just before the 2000 Democratic National Convention, are as tall as 100 feet. The effect is Stonehenge-meets-spaceship.

But last week, after two years of malfunctions and almost $1 million in annual maintenance costs, the city temporarily pulled the plug.

For the past two years, some travelers have noticed splotchy colors that sometimes did not change or did not light up. The problem is a complex lighting system that is unreliable and requires a repairman to hang upside down in a harness to fix each of the 18-inch stage lights inside the towers, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Now the city is spending $1.8 million for a simpler system that offers more control over color combinations. City officials have already begun pondering the politics of displaying college and other symbolic colors at the city's gateway.

"If we do it for USC, do we have to do it for UCLA?" Charlie Sipple, construction and maintenance manager for the airport agency, wondered in the Times. Airport officials are drafting a policy.

-- Sonya Geis