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Show Wall 6 THE SUN Sheet Private Eyes Bid to Track Students students, already scrutiny on campus the FBI, could soon under the eyes of private companies Background-chec- and bounty hunters are among the businesses vying for contracts from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to help track foreign students who come to the U.S. on student visas. Such surveillance is a top priority in Washington since the discovery that some of the Sept. It hijackers came here on student visas and didnt pursue their study plans. Central to the INS's plans is a new database that would monitor all 547,000 foreign students in the U.S. So far, a data base covering 32 schools in five states tracks when foreign slu- pilot-proje- dents arrive in the U.S. and enroll at their schools, but it doesnt check class attendance. (The rest of the nation's colleges and universities submit enrollment records to the INS on paper.) One company competing for data base contract, ChoicePoint Inc., a big collector of information about credit-carholders, also proposes establishing phone banks that would call schools to verify that students have enrolled and are attending classes. If the student is not regularly attending class, were going to locate the student at his last, best known address, a company spokesman says. A big issuer of Capital Bonding Corp., plans to suggest that students entering the U.S. be required to purchase a $10,000 immigration bond and to check in periodically. If the students fail to d show up in its system, the company would send one of its 700 bail agents or 500 bounty hunters to find them. The group already monitors Continued from Previous Page stork offerings has receded, big companies have been generating a of attention-grabbinlarger proportion ideas. But entrepreneurs say they are finding ways to do g more with less money. "There are lots of ways for innovation to see the light of day, says Carver Mead, the chip pioneer who is Foveon's chairman. His company is a kind of joint spinoff from National Semiconductor Corp. and Synaptics Inc., another company founded by Dr. Mead, with additional money from a venture capital firm. Foveon started by selling high-en- d digital cameras, but attracted more attention for using standard chip manufacturing to make the 2002-20- 02 20, 200: 13 sensors that capture images in digital cameras. But Foveon hid some bigger news. Up to now, image sensors have been composed of tiny pixels, or picture elements-th- at each contain a single light detector. To capture color, red, green or blue filters must be laid across each pixel in the grid, meaning each pixel could detect just one primary color. That requires extra processing by the camera to excolor combinatrapolate tions. Consequently, prints from digital cameras often are slightly blurry or marred by color oddities. Foveons engineers, exploiting the fact that silicon chips absorb different colors at different depths, cells-cal- real-worl- d mass-mark- ASDSC online at: rebelinfo.comvote led In Business and Finance o 5 Continued from Previous Page seasons and will keep Friends, produced by Warner Bros. Television, the most expensive show in television history. Next season is expected to be the finale. By Wall Street Journal staff reporters Ann Davis and Chris Oster. year ended Jan. designed image sensors that manage to capture all three basic colors at each pixel. Besides bringing greater clarity, its sensors can eliminate the need for extra processing chips that boost the cost. The first to use Foveons chips is Sigma Corp. of Japan. Its initial camera is expected to cost more than $3,000, but Foveon believes models for under $1,000 will appear by years end. That will require Foveon to sell its technology to big camera makers such as Eastman Kodak Co. Madahv Mehra, director of digital capture systems in Kodaks professional products group, said it is in the early stages of evaluating the technology. But if it works as advertised, he said it could have broad industry impact. News- - Whats more than 10,000 foreign nationals who were required to buy immigration bonds because of visa violations. Plans to increase surveillance of students are drawing critics. Some international education groups argue that tracking not tourists and other intrusive and inefficient. Having a bunch of gumshoes running around making sure they get up at seven and go to class is silly, says a spokesman for the Association of International Tech Ideas Thrive at Demo Show Vote for FEBRUARY (JAM MiM. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Foreign WEDNESDAY, Oil Spill: VVal Mart Overtakes Exxon Bentonville, Ark., has become home of the worlds largest company: Wal Mart Stores Inc. has overtaken Exxon Mobil Corp. as the biggest company, based on sales. The discount retailer posted sales of $218 billion for the fiscal compared with the oil giant. Wal Marts coronation is partly the result of its own growth, partly the result of lower oil prices last year 31, $212.9 billion for for Exxon Mobil. Vaccine Shortages Are at Crisis Level Severe shortages of vaccines for eight of the 11 diseases have led to the worst crisis in the history of the government's National Immunization Program. Children across the country are being turned away by pediatricians who have run out of shots largely because of manufacturing snafus at Merck & Co., American Home Products Corp. and Aventis SA. And some shortages are worsening. A rising tide of whooping cough has made the scarcity of pertussis vaccine particularly problematic. Twenty years ago, there vaccine-preventab- ASDSC Student Government 6 were just 2,000 cases a year in the U.S. In 2000, there were 8,000 cases, according to the Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention. The CDC has limited supplies of tetanus and diphtheria vaccines to hospitals, emergency rooms and public health departments, with hospitals limited to just 300 doses a month. Booster shots, once common when kids cut themselves with rusty nails, have been eliminated. Odds Ends &c Target Corp. was sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which alleges the rediscriminated tailer against when hiring for entry-leve- l management positions in parts of Wisconsin ... After a manhunt, Frank the former head of Lehman Brothers Holdings Cleveland office, surrendered at the federal office building in Cleveland. He is suspected in the theft of $125 million or more from clients at a number of large Wall Street firms during a period. By Jay Hershey African-America- four-wee- k How to contact us: Campus Editionwsj.com AT COLLEGEJOURNAL.COM Six tips to help students and recent graduates stand out at job fairs Accounting as a profession faces a credibility crisis How this years tech graduates are taking a fresh approach to their job searches Primary Elections: Feb. 21 and 22 Presidential debate Feb. Gardner Center Final Elections: Feb. 26 and 27 n, ati'WjWtwd uirriiOTifimriinii miiwumm mmm mm |
