Beyond the Burg
Compiled by Camille Thompson

Students rally for affirmative action
(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON - A contingent of New York University students joined thousands of affirmative action supporters who marched from the U.S. Supreme Court building to the Lincoln Memorial as opening arguments were heard in what is expected to be a landmark case.

"We know separate can never be equal," Shanta Driver, the national director of the rally's organizer, By Any Means Necessary, said on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. "We want change ... and we don't mean tokenism, 100 white people and two of us."

According to organizer estimates, Driver's words were heard by more than 50,000 marchers who gathered in Washington, D.C., to show their support for affirmative action. ... Protesters gathered at 10 a.m. outside of the Supreme Court building, where hearings were held for Gratz vs. Bollinger and Grutter vs. Bollinger.

In a case that has swept the nation with debate, two plaintiffs, Jennifer Gratz and Barbara Grutter, are challenging the admissions policies of the University of Michigan's Law School and College of Literature, Science and the Arts, which they say violate the 14th Amendment. The plaintiffs say they were unfairly rejected from Michigan because its admissions policy adds points to applications from historically under-represented minority groups.

Many of the nation's top institutions and politicians have weighed in on the case, including the Bush administration, which is supporting the plaintiffs. ...

From the Supreme Court, the march continued down Constitution Avenue to the Lincoln Memorial. At the memorial, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, addressed the crowd.

"Affirmative action is not a minority issue," Lee said. "It is an American issue. This is the most integrated youth gathering in several decades."

Speakers took turns once the demonstration reached the memorial, including Lee and Driver. The Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke at the rally earlier in the day.

By Stephen Hewitt, Washington Square News (New York U.)

California LSD producers convicted
(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES - A former co-director of the University of California at Los Angeles Drug Policy Analysis Program was convicted Monday of running one of the largest LSD laboratories in history -- out of an old missile silo.

William Leonard Pickard, who was employed at UCLA for nearly two years, and Clyde Apperson, his assistant, were convicted Monday of two counts each of conspiring to distribute and manufacture large amounts of LSD.

The Drug Enforcement Agency discovered an old missile silo Oct. 31, 2000 in Kansas that had been used as an LSD lab. The lab had been taken apart and was packed up in storage boxes.

In the silo, agents found 90.86 pounds of LSD and 14 canisters of a chemical needed to produce LSD. The canisters were valued at more than $1 million.

Pickard and Apperson were arrested Nov. 6, 2000, outside Wamego, Kan., while trying to move their drug lab using a rental truck.

According to court testimony, Pickard and Apperson formerly produced LSD in Sante Fe, N.M. Every five weeks, they produced 2.2 pounds of LSD -- about 10 million doses.

The LSD, which could be sold for about $10 per dose, was being shipped to California and Europe for distribution, according to court testimony.

Pickard, who was employed at UCLA from 1999 until about two months before his arrest in 2000, was the co-director of the Drug Policy Analysis Program. ...

Pickard's employment did not end because of anything related to his later arrest, Kleiman said.

The conviction was not Pickard's first. ...

According to trial evidence, three of the four complete LSD lab seizures in the history of the DEA have involved Pickard and Apperson, including a lab in Oregon in 1996, a lab in Mountain View in 1998, and the lab in Kansas in 2000.

Kleiman would not comment on why Pickard was hired despite his history of drug convictions and arrests.

UCLA does not have a definitive policy against convicted drug traffickers, said Lynne Thompson, manager of employee and labor relations.

Pickard and Apperson each face a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in federal prison. Their sentencing is set for Aug. 8.

By Brad Greenberg, Daily Bruin (U. California-Los Angeles)