Local police, investigators team up on fake ID arrests

Twelve people were arrested in the vicinity of UCSD for using counterfeit identification while attempting to buy alcoholic beverages on Feb. 27. The arrests were made during an operation that included investigators from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the San Diego Police Department and the UCSD Police Department.

ABC investigators and the local police were conducting a program called “Cops-In-Shops operation,” in which plain-clothes police officers observe patrons of ABC-licensed businesses and step in to make an arrest when underage individuals attempt to buy alcoholic beverages using false identification. The operation was funded as part of a $50,000 grant from ABC to the San Diego Police Department to address alcohol abuse and binge drinking by college students.

Funding for the program derives from the State Office of Traffic Safety and administered by ABC as part of the ABC/UC Partnership Project, which involves six campuses. Each campus receives up to $50,000 for on-campus programs educating students on the subject of binge drinking and alcohol abuse. Local law enforcement agencies in campus communities are also receiving grants to focus on off-campus issues involving alcohol, including targeting adults who furnish alcohol to minors and retail outlets that sell to underage or obviously intoxicated students.

‘Official-looking’ e-mails contain viruses, ACS warns

Academic Computing Services is warning of a new virus that is sending “official-looking” e-mails to UCSD e-mail users from addresses such as [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and other local departmental addresses. The message sent by the Bagle-J virus usually sounds official, asking users to follow attached instructions or claiming that the e-mail account has been suspended. To prevent infection, attachments should not be opened.

Another recent virus, which ACS claimed is under control, had allowed student access to a massive listserv that included all the e-mails of students who entered UCSD in 2002-03. The listserv resulted in hundreds of e-mails, most from students replying to the listserv to try to remove themselves, but others using it to sell books and concerts tickets and even tell anecdotes to hundreds of their peers. ACS sent an e-mail warning that use of the listserv would be punishable by the university and disabled the listserv on Feb. 29. To reach ACS with questions about the viruses, contact [email protected].

Leon Thal receives honor for Alzheimer research

Leon Thal, a professor at UCSD School of Medicine, has been chosen to receive one of the nation’s highest honors in neurosciences. Thal will share this year’s Potamkin Prize with Roger Nitsch of Zurich, Switzerland. Thal was selected for his “outstanding achievements in research of Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases,” according to the American Academy of Neurology. Thal, as chair of the department of neurosciences, directs UCSD’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and leads a national consortium of over 80 centers called the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, which tests drugs for the disease.

Thal is a leading investigator for new therapies for Alzheimer’s, and he pursued the study of aging and dementia in the 1970s when he

developed and tested his cholinergic theory. After years of many trials and some failures, he was rewarded in the late 1980s with the approval of the first drug, a cholinesterase inhibitor, for treatment of the disease. Thal serves as a permanent adviser on the Food and Drug Administration anti-dementia assessment team and serves on the National Advisory Council on Aging of the National Institute on Aging. Thal was recently invited to Beijing to help the Chinese government develop research and treatment programs for the new century.

Social Issues Parade will take place on March 5

The second annual Social Issues Parade will take place on Library Walk on March 5 at 10 a.m. as part of UCSD Cares Week. The event, sponsored by the Civic Engagement Campaign Committee, will provide blank signs for students to express social issues they think are important. Students are encouraged to bring their own signs. The parade will be preceded by a 20-minute open mic session in Price Center Plaza during which students will be encouraged to speak on social issues.