At the time, it was the grandest luxury ship in the world. Its port of call: New York City. There was only one thing in its way: an iceberg.

The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, in the Atlantic Ocean. Nearly 100 years later, the Houston Museum of Natural Science will be hosting a special exhibit dedicated to Titanic.

“There are eight different rooms that tell the story of Titanic from its conception, accommodations, personal stories, to the wreckage,” director of youth education, Amanda Norris said.

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition opened on March 16. Even though the museum had the exhibit in 2002, Norris said this year’s exhibit is completely different.

“There is only one object that is a repeat from the ’02 exhibit out of over 200 artifacts on display.” Norris said. “Several of the artifacts have been brought up from the wreck site after 2002.”

In addition to the artifacts, the exhibit will take visitors through the voyage of Titanic. The exhibit will showcase the life of Titanic in chronological order.

“I feel that seeing actual artifacts recovered from the sunken vessel would be very cool and provide a lot of insight of the ambiance inside the biggest, most luxurious ship in the world at that time,” Houston sophomore Alex Habib said.

Upon entering the exhibit, patrons will receive boarding passes similar to the ones from 1912. In addition, the boarding passes will be of actual passengers that were aboard Titanic.

“As they learn the story of Titanic, they will experience what it may have been like for their assigned person,” Norris said. “At the end of the exhibit they will learn the fate of their passenger.”

In the exhibit, visitors will be able to see recreations of a first class stateroom and third class cabin. They will also be able to press their hands against an iceberg while hearing stories about passengers aboard the Titanic.

Furthermore, the museum’s planetarium will be showing “Night of the Titanic,” a tragedy that embraces the last day of the Titanic, and will showcase the nature and human elements that contributed to the sinking.

The museum will also host a VIP Night for the special exhibition. The event will take place on the centennial anniversary of Titanic’s sinking, April 12. Starting at 8 p.m., guests will have access to two designated areas in the museum: first class and third class.

For $40, guests will be able to listen to a live string quartet and enjoy food inspired from the actual first class menu. In third class, however, there will be a Celtic rock band and food from the third class menu. Guests will also have access to the exhibit and interact with actors portraying Captain Smith and “The Unsinkable” Molly Brown.

Finally, the museum will also have a gift shop dedicated to Titanic. Visitors will be able to purchase actual coal from the wreck site.

“Coal is the only artifact that the company is able to sell individual with the proceeds going to help conservation efforts of other Titanic artifacts,” Norris said.

Tickets for the exhibit can be purchased at the museum or on their website. The price for adults is $27, while children and senior citizens are $20. A discount is available for college students. Visitors will have until Sept. 13 to partake in the voyage of Titanic.

“This year is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ‘Ship of Dreams,’” Norris said. “So those that wish to commemorate one of the first global disasters might wish to pay their respects.”

HOUSTON — Two survivors of the World War II sinking of the USS Houston will gather in Texas Saturday along with relatives of their shipmates for a memorial service in downtown Houston’s Sam Houston Park at a monument dedicated to the warship.

Seventy years ago Thursday, a Japanese fleet sank the ship off the coast of Java. The ship carried 1,068 crewmen, but only 291 sailors and Marines survived both the attack and being prisoners of war.

Fifteen of the original crew members are still alive, but Howard Brooks of New Jersey and David Flynn of Florida, both 92, are the only ones expected to attend the reunion of the USS Houston CA-30 Survivors Association. ‘

The Japanese sank the USS Houston on March 1, 1942, during the Battle of Sunda Strait.

“We had no planes in the air at all, but the Japanese had planes and they were dropping what we called star shells,” Brooks said.

The warship was listing and ablaze when the order came to abandon ship.

“At that announcement, you sort of froze for a second,” Flynn, who was a radioman on the warship, told the Houston Chronicle.

Both men spent the next 3½ years as prisoners of war. Brooks was among those forced to build the Burma Railway, made famous in the 1957 film “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”

HOUSTON — Organizers of a Texas state basketball tournament relented Thursday and agreed to reschedule a semifinal game involving an Orthodox Jewish school after parents filed a lawsuit over the original game time, which conflicted with the Sabbath.

The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, or TAPPS, had rejected Beren Academy’s requests to reschedule a semifinals game that was to be played at 9 p.m. today. Beren players observe the Sabbath between Friday night and Saturday night and won’t play basketball during those hours.

A group of parents with boys on the team subsequently sued TAPPS and sought a temporary restraining order requiring the agency to reschedule the game.

After being notified the lawsuit had been filed, TAPPS director Edd Burleson said the association would reverse course and allow Beren (23-5) to play Dallas Covenant at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon. Should the Stars win, they’ll start their championship game no earlier than 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Headmaster Harry Sinoff and coach Chris Cole only learned of the legal action on Thursday morning, they said, and regretted that the situation reached the level of legal action.

“It’s a mixed emotion,” Cole said. “We feel like we’ve earned the right to play. Our focus all week has been trying to get TAPPS to reschedule the game times to accommodate us.

“At the same time, this was not the course of action that we wanted.”

Burleson said earlier this week that association bylaws prevented TAPPS from moving Beren’s game time.

The complaint says that the basketball team is “being denied, solely on account of their religious observance, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in their athletic conference’s state basketball championship tournament.

“That is an irreplaceable opportunity,” the complaint said, “and its deprivation constitutes irreparable harm attributable to disqualification of Beren and its team because of their Jewish religious beliefs and observances.”

Cole made the awkward call to TAPPS on Thursday morning, stressing that the school itself did not file the legal action.

Beren, with an enrollment of 247 students, immediately held an assembly in its gym, where rabbi Avi Pollak informed all the students that the game was back on.

“You could see some excitement in the hallway,” Cole said. “My phone started going crazy.”

When he went to bed on Wednesday night, Cole was resigned to the fact that the team’s season was over.

TAPPS twice denied appeals by Beren to have the start time of its semifinal game moved, and Cole called off Wednesday’s practice and presided over a team meeting instead.

“We felt like we had exhausted all opportunities,” Cole said. “We kind of sat around, like a family, and just talked and reminisced about things that happened during the season. It was a nice, quiet time. Today’s events were pretty shocking.”

Beren, a TAPPS member since 2011, advanced to the semifinals by beating Kerrville Our Lady of the Hills last week.

Sinoff said the school never planned legal action, even though the final resolution was what the school wanted from the beginning.

“We deserve this opportunity, we’ve made that case all along,” Sinoff said. “This is good for basketball, it’s good for the tournament. These are the teams that should play.”

By Ramit Plushnick-Masti
Associated Press

HOUSTON — A federal judge’s ruling against a Houston mother who says she was fired after asking for a place to pump breast milk has highlighted a question left unanswered by higher courts: Is firing a woman because she wants to pump at work sexual discrimination?

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes said it wouldn’t be illegal even if Donnicia Venters and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were correct in assuming that Houston Funding, a debt collection agency, fired her because she’d asked to pump breast milk at work. The judge reasoned that lactation was not pregnancy-related and, as a result, “firing someone because of lactation or breast-pumping is not sex discrimination.”

Several other district courts have issued similar statements, but no higher-level appeals court has ruled on the issue, leaving many new mothers in legal limbo, said Carrie Hoffman, a labor lawyer in Dallas. She said President Barack Obama’s health care law addresses breast feeding and requires employers to give new mothers a break to nurse, but it doesn’t specifically protect women from being fired if they ask to do so.

“The intent was to get nursing mothers back to work but allow them to continue to nurse because of the health benefits associated with nursing,” Hoffman said.

“But even so, that law doesn’t have anything to do with terminating the employee … it just requires break time. There appears to be a hole.”

Either way, the rule — which went into effect in the past year — would not apply to Venters.

The Big Apple. The city that never sleeps. Gotham City. The Melting Pot. New York, New York. This legendary city serves as a backdrop for writers, musicians and artists and their works, both recent and classics. They describe its glimmer, its expansiveness, its overcrowding, its remarkable skyscrapers, its diverse population, all of this and more. For many years growing up, these descriptions entranced me. It is the city where dreams come true. I was fixated on this metropolis, and it was my goal to make it there one day.

That day came and not a day too soon. It was mid-March of my sophomore year in high school and New York was set to be my destination for spring break. I was overcome with expectations, like how amazingly bright the city would be, and all the sights I wanted to conquer. There were so many things I felt I already knew about the city from books, movies and television shows. Still I can’t even begin to describe the feeling that overcame me when the plane began its descent into LaGuardia Airport, and I could finally see the outline of all that made up the city.

I was immediately excited, even giddy for the fast approaching time I would get to spend exploring the island. And explore I did. In my first trip to the city, I made my way uptown, downtown and all around town.

I saw the exquisite sites all first-time visitors trek to, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Empire State Building, the site of the World Trade Center, Central Park and Rockefeller Center.

Then it was time to shop until I dropped. I spent an entire day of my visit in my favorite part of Manhattan known for its impeccable shopping, SoHo.

I explored Houston (pronounced by New Yorkers as House-ton), Prince, Broome, Spring and Broadway streets, making my way into adorable boutiques and flagship stores. Walking through SoHo, I was convinced New York City was indeed the fashion capital of the United States, at the very least. From the impeccable street style of its ultra hip and cultured inhabitants, to the thousands of trendy and unique shops, I felt as if I was living a dream.

I have been back to New York numerous times since my first captivating visit. I spent part of the summer before my senior year in high school taking classes at a prestigious fashion school in Midtown.

That summer felt as if I was living someone else’s life. From living in Greenwich Village to taking the subway all around the island with friends and attending classed that pushed me both academically and personally, I could not have imagined a better experience.

In all of my trips to the city, no matter how long or short, I have continued to be amazed at all the city has to offer.

My first trip to New York resulted in a love affair that has continued to grow to this day. I decided during that first eventful trip that my future would undoubtedly include living an exhilarating life in Manhattan. I am still faithfully waiting that day and truly believe one day it will come.

Jade Mardirosian is a junior journalism major from Houston and a staff writer for the Lariat.

There won’t be classrooms or homework, but for seven Baylor students, education won’t end during spring break.

Members of International Justice Mission, along with other students, will travel to Houston to learn how to combat human trafficking. Participants will work with legal experts and community agencies to learn more about this growing social injustice.

“Before studying the issue, we may have a narrow view of human trafficking, so I hope students leave with an informed perspective of the complexity of modern-day slavery after this trip,” said Paige Panter, VISTA for service-learning in the student activities department. “Modern day slavery is abhorrent, but it is not a black and white issue of few, clear-cut parts. Its causes and implications are many and multifarious. We will look at the issue from various perspectives, including poverty demographics, social constructs and women’s issues.”

Because Houston is one of the nation’s largest hotspots for human trafficking, several local organizations are battling the epidemic.

“We are meeting with one faith-based organization in Houston that helps to educate churches and connect churches to fighting trafficking,” Panter said. “We’ll also be working at the YMCA in Houston one day. The YMCA there has an International Services division that includes refugee resettlement and support for trafficked people.”

As a native of the Houston area and participant in the International Justice Mission spring break trip, Sugar Land junior Alex Scheibner hopes to find solutions to the trafficking problem.

“I was really surprised when I found out Houston is a hotbed for human trafficking,” Scheibner said. “I thought it wasn’t true because I never saw it. But that’s the only way trafficking will work, if no one sees it. A lot of businesses are fronts. So we all need to learn the signs of covered trafficking businesses.”

Education is the first step to combating sex trafficking. While most of the organization’s members attending the trip are knowledgeable in trafficking, they will learn even more during spring break, Panter said.

“Students will also watch documentaries, reflect on what they learn and blog each day about their experience,” Panter said. “The blogs will be aggregated on a central kind of mother blog site, which we’re really excited about.”

As International Justice Mission is predominantly composed of social work or international studies majors, members hope the blog will reach students unaware of the trafficking epidemic.

“People think trafficking is something that happens in different countries, in poor parts of the world,” Katy sophomore Kristina Miller, member of International Justice Mission and participant in the spring break trip, said. “But this happens in our backyard, especially in Texas. We just want to educate people because once everyone knows what is going on, they want to help.”

After working with different organizations in Houston, International Justice Mission members hope to return to Baylor with new ideas for battling human trafficking.

“We’ll see all kinds of different programs,” Scheibner said. “We can see what makes a good program and how to bring it back to Baylor.”

International Justice Mission will host Justice Week March 21-24 to raise awareness of other social injustices.

“Our big event is called the tunnel of oppression,” Scheibner said. “In the tunnel, there will be dramas on different issues such as domestic abuse.”

Students interested in participating in the spring break trip to Houston should email Paige_Panter@baylor.edu. There are two spots open for students with any major, and students don’t have to be members of International Justice Mission. The cost is $150.

“A lot of times, people think IJM is just for females or social work majors,” Scheibner said. “But we’re thrilled to get different majors and genders. We need the diversity to fight this huge problem.”

Associated Press
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is expected to be moved today to Houston’s TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital to begin the next phase of her recovery from a gunshot wound.

By Marilynn Marchione and Susan Montoya Bryan
Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. — Doctors prepared Gabrielle Giffords and her family on Thursday to leave behind the Arizona hospital where she dazzled them with her rapid recovery so she can get on with an even more arduous task: getting life back to normal.

Her husband said he’s hoping she’ll make a full recovery, calling her “a fighter like nobody else that I know.”

The doctors who will help her at a Houston rehab center offered a more sober outlook.

“Not everyone always gets 100 percent restoration, but we help them to get to a new normal,” said Carl Josehart, chief executive of the rehab hospital that will be the Arizona congresswoman’s home for the next month or two.

Giffords is recovering from a bullet wound to the brain. In her last medical update at University Medical Center in Tucson, doctors said she has scrolled through an iPad, has picked out different colored objects and has moved her lips.

They are unsure whether she is mouthing words, nor do they know how much she is able to see. Her husband, Houston-based astronaut Mark Kelly, believes she has made attempts to speak and can recognize those around her.

“I can just look in her eyes and tell,” Kelly said at a final briefing at the Tucson hospital. “She is very aware of the situation.”

Giffords is expected to be moved today, traveling by ambulance to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base with an escort from a group of motorcycle riders from a Veterans of Foreign Wars post who know her.

Kelly; her mother, Gloria Giffords; trauma surgeon Dr. Peter Rhee, an intensive care unit nurse and Giffords’ chief of staff will be among those on the medical flight to William P. Hobby Airport in Houston.

Associated Press
Giffords

From there, she will be moved by helicopter to TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital. U.S. Capitol police arrived Thursday afternoon to set up extra security measures at the 119-bed facility that is part of the massive Texas Medical Center complex.

Josehart declined to say if Giffords’ family had made any special requests, saying, “she’s not our patient yet.”

The first three days of her stay will involve comprehensive medical and psychological evaluations so a detailed treatment plan can be developed, Josehart said.

Giffords will stay at Memorial Hermann until she no longer needs 24-hour medical care — the average is one to two months. Then she can continue getting up to five hours a day of physical and other rehab therapies on an outpatient basis, he said.

“It’s hard to speculate on the trajectory or course that any one patient will have,” he said.

Despite the steady progress, Giffords has a long road to recovery. Doctors are not sure what, if any, disability she will have.

Sometimes, areas of the brain that seem damaged can recover, said Mark Sherer, a neuropsychologist at the rehab center.

“Some of the tissue is temporarily dysfunctional, so the patient appears very impaired very early on after the injury,” but may not be permanently damaged, he said.

Giffords’ progress was evident Wednesday as she stood on her feet with assistance from medical staff.

During rehabilitation she will have to relearn how to think and plan. It’s unclear if she is able to speak. And while she is moving both arms and legs, it’s uncertain how much strength she has on her right side; the bullet passed through the left side of her brain, which controls the right side of the body.

The congresswoman’s husband said he sees new hope for her recovery every day. “Every time we interact with her, there’s something quite inspiring,” he said.

Kelly predicted his wife of three years will walk back into the Arizona hospital soon, and thank everyone who took care of her.

“In two months, you’ll see her walking through the front door of this building,” he said.

A gunman shot Giffords and 18 other people Jan. 8 as she met with constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson. Six people died and the others wounded. All survivors, except Giffords, have been released from hospitals.

The suspect in the attack, Jared Loughner, 22, of Tucson, is being held in federal custody.

“The last 12 days have been extraordinarily difficult for myself, my family, but not only us,” Kelly said. “I think it’s been very difficult for the city of Tucson, southern Arizona and our country.

“I don’t think we’re going to ever fully understand the why and the how and the reason for what happened,” he said.

Kelly added that Giffords would be proud of the way Tucson has responded.

Memorials continued to grow Thursday outside the hospital, in front of her office and at the scene of the shooting.

“I know one of the first things Gabby is going to want to do as soon as she’s able to is start writing thank you notes,” he said.