10-22-09

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CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITYMUSTANG DAILY

Thursday, October 22, 2009 www.mustangdaily.netVolume LXXIV, Number 30

TOMORROW: Sunny High 87˚/Low 53˚

IN ARTS, 8 IN SPORTS, 16

Three university choral groups to take Harmon Hall stage.

Mustangs look to record back-to-

back wins for the first time this season.

No more Happy Meals: McDonald’s near campus closes after more than 40 years of burgersWill Taylormustang daily

Ronald McDonald will no longer gaze out the window overlooking Foothill Boulevard as a result of the decades old drive-thru ban in San Luis Obispo. The McDonald’s closed last Thursday after four decades of serv-ing the San Luis Obispo community and is scheduled to be demolished at an unsettled date.

“Fast food means you don’t want to get out of your car,” Chris Ujano an area supervisor for McDonald’s, said. “You’re on the go, you want to get something to eat and get on your way.”

The director of operations at four McDonald’s restaurants in San Luis Obispo County, Bob Bedard said that he went to the city council last year to lobby end to the ban. Despite Bedard’s efforts, the ordinance was upheld in a 3-2 vote.

The lease for the property that Be-dard directed across from Albertsons was up for renewal and the building, which was built in 1968, was in need

of a remodel. Part of the McDonald’s’ remodel plan was to open a drive-thru. However, since the mid 1980’s San Luis Obispo has had an ordinance that bans them in the city.

Without a drive-thru window it just wasn’t economically feasible to do the remodel, Bedard said. “If the city council would have let us put in a drive-thru, or at least entertained the thought, we would have remodeled,” he said. “We would have stayed open for another forty years. We can’t build a million dollar McDonald’s and not have a drive thru. We just can’t do it.”

Bedard said that other McDon-ald’s drive-thru locations in San Luis Obispo County sales from the win-dow account for at least 50 and up to 70 percent of sales at those locations.

Larry Smyth, a realtor for Farrell Smyth, who manages the property said he didn’t even stay on location to eat, even without the window. “I don’t stay there. I might just take it to my car and eat.”

Part of the argument for drive-thrus in San Luis Obispo given by Bedard, is that there is a certain expec-

tation with fast food; that it is mostly to go and people will avoid it or go somewhere else if they have to get out of their cars.

The city refuted that people in San Luis Obispo expect drive-thrus and said that if a general consensus from the San Luis Obispo commu-nity came along, they would entertain changing the ordinance. So far there has been no such public push for a overturn of the ordinance, Doug Da-vidson, deputy director of community development said.

“People in the community don’t expect drive-thus here,” Davidson said. “That’s because we’ve had the ban for 25 years.”

Davidson gave several reasons for the ban including: pedestrian walking flow, traffic congestion, the “nice” Cal Poly community and less emissions from cars idling while waiting in line.

Both Bedard and franchisee own-er of Burger King, Mike Humerian stressed that other drive-thrus do exist in San Luis Obispo however; they just don’t happen to be restaurants. Ra-

see McDonalds, page 2 kevin black mustang daily

“Off Into The Sunset”

Men to be released after 12-year wrongful imprisonmentDiane Jenningsthe dallas morning news

DALLAS — Two men are expected to be released Friday after spending 12 years in pris-on for a murder they did not commit, the latest in a string of exonerations in Dallas County. Like most of the other wrong-ful convictions, these cases also hinged on faulty eyewitness identification.

Unlike most of the previous 20 Dallas County exonerations, however, these two were cleared without DNA evidence.

The most recent cases also are unusual because two stu-dent groups, the University of Texas-Arlington Innocence Network and the Actual Inno-cence Clinic at the University of Texas-Austin, championed the case for years before law en-forcement officials re-examined the case.

“It feels wonderful,” said Nata-lie Ellis, a criminal justice major at the University of Texas-Arlington who has worked on the case daily for more than a year. “I’d have to say out of all the days I’ve had in my life so far — this is tops.”

Two other men in custody, who were also originally investigated, are now suspects in the killing. Authorities say one of them gave a detailed confession to the crime after the case was reopened.

Claude Alvin Simmons Jr., 54, and Christopher Shun Scott, 39, were each sentenced to life in pris-on for the April 7, 1997, shooting death of Alfonso Aguilar during a home-invasion robbery. Their con-victions were based primarily on the eyewitness testimony of Agui-lar’s wife, Celia Escobedo, who was present in their home when the killing occurred.

That identification was mis-taken, said Mike Ware, head of the Dallas County District Attorney’s

Conviction Integrity Unit.“Procedures were used that we

would now consider faulty,” he said, noting that when Escobedo went to the police department, “because of a series of mishaps she was taken past one of the individu-als who ultimately was convicted in this case, who had been taken down for questioning.”

When Escobedo saw the man sitting in a room in handcuffs, she identified him as one of her hus-band’s assailants.

“That perhaps certainly got the investigation off on the wrong foot,” Ware said.

Escobedo declined comment Wednesday.

According to public records, Simmons and Scott had no previ-ous history of violent crimes — only drug possession. Both men took the stand in their trials, which were held back-to-back in 1997,

Schwarzenegger signs law protecting

celebrities against violent

paparazzi.IN NEWS, 4

see Release, page 3

News

News editor: Tim Miller

www.mustangdaily.net

Thursday, October 22, 20092 Mustang Daily

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[email protected]

Jeff Longchicago tribune

CHICAGO — After spending three years investigating the convic-tion of a Harvey, Ill., man accused of killing a security guard with a shotgun blast in 1978, journalism students at Northwestern Univer-sity say they have uncovered new evidence that proves his innocence.

Their efforts helped win a new day in court for Anthony McK-inney, who has spent 31 years in prison for the slaying. But as they prepare for that crucial hear-ing, prosecutors seem to have fo-cused on the students and teacher who led the investigation for the school’s internationally acclaimed Innocence Project.

The Cook County state’s at-torney subpoenaed the students’ grades, notes and recordings of wit-ness interviews, the class syllabus and even e-mails they sent to each other and to professor David Prot-ess of the university’s Medill School of Journalism.

Northwestern has turned over documents related to on-the-re-cord interviews with witnesses that students conducted, as well as cop-ies of audio and videotapes, Protess said.

But the school is fighting the effort to get grades and grading criteria, evaluations of student per-formance, expenses incurred dur-ing the inquiry, the syllabus, e-mails and unpublished student memos, as well as interviews not conducted on the record, or where witnesses weren’t willing to be recorded.

“I don’t think it’s any of the state’s business to know the state of mind of my students,” Protess said. “Prosecutors should be more con-cerned with the wrongful convic-tion of Anthony McKinney than with my students’ grades.”

Prosecutors declined to discuss their request for grade reports, but a spokeswoman said the subpoena is about seeking truth in the case.

“They have material that’s rel-evant to the ongoing investigation, and we should be entitled to that

information,” said spokeswoman Sally Daly.

Don Craven, acting executive director of the Illinois Press Associ-ation, said the request seems harass-ing at best, and at worst looks like an attempt to discredit the work done by the Innocence Project to ferret out wrongful convictions.

“They’re either trying to under-mine the investigation, or they’re trying to undermine the entire project,” Craven said.

Turning over such a wide range of information, he said, would crip-ple the Innocence Project’s ability to get witnesses to cooperate in the future. Richard O’Brien, the lawyer representing the university, said it’s an unwarranted fishing expedition that focuses on the messenger — rather than on the possibility that an innocent man has spent more than three decades behind bars. Prosecu-tors, he said, “seem to be peeved” at the Innocence Project for uncover-ing a wrongful conviction.

Former student Sarah Forte said a prosecutor implied to her that students might have been pressured to find evidence that McKinney was innocent or else they would get poor grades in the class.

“I think it’s frustrating and sad,” said Forte, who graduated from Northwestern in 2006. Her jour-nalism work at the school inspired her to join the Southern Center for Human Rights, which conducts similar investigations.

Since the Innocence Project was founded in 1999, Protess and his students have uncovered evidence that helped free 11 innocent men, according to a class Web site.

The cases included the Ford Heights Four, exonerated of the 1978 murders of a suburban cou-ple. Another case centered on An-thony Porter, who came within 50 hours of execution in 1998 before he won a reprieve. Examination of the Porter case by an investigative reporting class taught by Protess helped trigger the Innocence Proj-ect’s creation.

Those investigations and others spurred headlines and policy chang-

es. Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, now serving time in federal prison on corruption charges, had credited the project’s investigations with helping him decide to halt executions in January 2000. Before leaving office in 2003, he granted clemency to all death row inmates.

The project’s most recent ef-fort focuses on McKinney and on a crime that happened Sept. 15, 1978.

Donald Lundahl, a security guard in south suburban Harvey, was sitting in his car about 9:30 p.m. when someone with a shotgun killed him.

Later that evening, police saw McKinney, 18, running down the street near the crime scene. He told them he was fleeing gang mem-bers. Initially held for questioning and released, McKinney remained a prime suspect.

Another Harvey teenager told police he saw McKinney kill Lun-dahl. After a lengthy interrogation, McKinney signed a confession and was charged with first-degree mur-der.

The Innocence Project began

University’s justice project finds itself targeted

mcclatchy-tribune

Professor David Protess, leads a group of students in an Innocence Project meeting at Northwestern University.

see Innocence, page 3

bobank on Broad St. has a three lane drive thru. Bedard and Humerian both found this hypocritical.

“We can push cars through faster than they can,” Humerian said, stat-ing that it takes them two to three minutes to serve a vehicle while the

bank can take five to seven.Humerian says he would love to

have a drive-thru. “There’s no ques-tion about the business difference with a drive-thru,” he said. “On av-erage those stores do 20-30 percent more in yearly sales.”

Humerian said the ban is “hog-wash” and that it is just an excuse for the city to portray itself as a mellow,

slow-paced town.Keith Handley, owner/operator

of the McDonald’s location, could not be reached for comment.

McDonaldscontinued from page 1

There’s no question about the business dif-ference with a drive-thru. On average those

stores do 20-30 percent more in

yearly sales.—Mike Humerian

Burger King Owner

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Thursday, October 22, 2009 3Mustang Daily

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to examine the case in October 2003 at the request of McKinney’s younger brother. The effort contin-ued over three academic years, until June 2006.

In November 2008, Protess laid out on the Project’s Web site what his students reportedly uncovered.

They tracked down the witness who originally fingered McKinney for police. He recanted his story in a videotaped interview, saying po-lice beat him until he made up the details about McKinney’s involve-ment, according to the Web site.

The students also interviewed two admitted gang members said to have chased McKinney on the night of the murder; they corrobo-rated his story.

“Angry that Anthony had re-cently damaged their car, they ad-mitted pursuing him after a chance encounter,” Protess wrote on the Project’s Web site.

Seven others who were identi-fied as witnesses told the students about a man who they said admit-ted years ago to the killing. The students eventually tracked him down.

In a videotaped interview, the man said he was present during the murder and that McKinney was not there. The reputed witness identi-fied two people he claimed were the real killers, according to the In-nocence Project investigation.

Protess said his students talked to one, now living in Racine, Wis., who denied involvement. The oth-er, jailed on an unrelated crime, de-clined to talk to them.

In 2006, the students took their findings to the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern law school’s Bluhm Legal Clinic. A year ago, it filed a petition on McKinney’s behalf for a hearing in Cook County Circuit Court.

The state’s attorney did not seek to have the petition dismissed and agreed that a hearing should be held. So far, a date has not been set. A judge will decide whether the evidence warrants a new trial for McKinney.

Prosecutors argue in court doc-uments that they need the school information to make “an accurate assessment of witnesses’ credibil-ity and other essential issues,” also saying that their own investigation uncovered credibility problems with the people interviewed by the students.

Because government investiga-tions are regulated by strict ethi-cal and disclosure guidelines, a full explanation of the school’s proce-dures is necessary to ensure justice, prosecutors said in court papers.

“Without full disclosure, the potential for great abuse will in-crease as private entities conduct their own investigations,” the court documents said.

Prosecutors also have asserted that the Medill students and their professor are not journalists and, therefore, not protected from re-vealing sources and turning over notes under the Illinois Reporter’s Privilege Act.

It’s a contention that John Lavine, dean of the journalism school, called false — and irrel-evant.

Said Lavine, “They took report-ing to the Nth degree.”

Innocencecontinued from page 2

and have always maintained their innocence.

When told their names were in the process of being cleared of murder charges Wednesday, the two men “were extreme-ly joyous,” said John Stickels, founder of the Innocence Net-work at UT-Arlington. Stickels, who visited them in the Dallas County jail, said both men “have families waiting for them.”

The two men who are now suspects in the crime are Don Michael Anderson, 40, who has been charged with capital mur-der, and Alonzo Hardy, 49, who has been identified as a “co-actor.”

Hardy is currently in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice serving 30 years for an aggravated robbery conviction. He also has a history of drug charges. Anderson, who was picked up in the Houston area Tuesday night, has several drug charges on his record.

During the re-investigation of the case, Hardy gave an “ex-tensive confession,” according to the district attorney’s office, detailing his and Anderson’s roles in the offense. The confes-sion also cleared Simmons and Scott from any role in the slay-ing.

Both men were investigated at the time of the crime, au-thorities said, and Anderson was even included in a photo lineup. But Escobedo did not pick him out. Anderson also reportedly confessed to a girlfriend, and Adam Seidel, Simmons’ attor-ney, tried to introduce that in-formation and other witnesses implicating Anderson at trial.

But the judge, Janice Warder, did not allow the testimony to be introduced. The jury came back with a guilty verdict in six minutes.

“Considering that all of the jury got to hear in this case was the eyewitness identifying Mr. Simmons during the trial, then the length of deliberation wasn’t a shock,” Seidel said. “But I will

also say it was extremely frustrat-ing to try the case when the three witnesses that my private investi-gator located were not allowed to testify.”

Warder, who served on the bench for 14 years and is now the Cooke County district attorney, said she doesn’t remember the case. Her decision to not allow the testi-mony was upheld on appeal.

In 1986, when Warder was a Dallas County assistant district at-torney, she prosecuted a case in which she was later ruled to have withheld beneficial evidence to the defense in a rape-murder trial. A judge last year ruled that the defendant in that case — Clay Chabot — should get a new trial.

Speaking about the Sim-mons and Scott case, Warder said Wednesday that she was “extreme-ly saddened” to hear that two men had been wrongfully convicted, but glad that the system worked to “exonerate the innocent and iden-tify the guilty parties so that they’ll be brought to justice.”

The road to clearing Simmons and Scott began more than three years ago when Simmons’ family wrote letters to the student groups. Both organizations began investi-gating the cases, said Bill Allison, co-director of the Austin center. Working together, the two groups investigated the cases, and then contacted the district attorney’s office, which asked Dallas police to reopen the investigation.

“There are lots of cases that have been brought to our atten-tion as possible innocence claims,”

Ware said. “For many reasons, this one seemed to have more red flags and credibility.”

Student investigator Ellis said she “was supposed to be looking for DNA but as I started read-ing this case, there was no DNA in it. But there was clearly some-thing there. I just knew this case had something in it. There were too many things that make you go ‘hmm.’”

Ellis is thrilled with the out-come. She has visited the two wrongfully convicted men daily since they were brought back to Dallas County prior to their ex-pected release Friday.

Dallas County District Attor-ney Craig Watkins labeled Wednes-day “a day of celebration for law enforcement and public safety.”Of the 20 DNA exonerations in Dal-las County, all but one was the re-sult of faulty eyewitness testimony. A Dallas Morning News investi-gation last year found discredited eyewitness identification proce-dures led to most of the wrongful convictions.

The Dallas Police Department

has since changed the way it han-dles eyewitness identifications, im-plementing safeguards employed by few other cities, Chief David Kunkel said.

For instance, DPD no longer conducts “show up” identifications where witnesses are shown sus-pects in the field; and in January the department adopted a policy using the “sequential blind” meth-od where someone who does not know which photo is the suspect’s shows them to the witness one at a time.

“What we’re doing in Dallas County should be a wake-up call to everybody in the criminal jus-tice system,” Kunkel said. “You’re going to see county after county

Releasecontinued from page 1

WHAT’S YOUR

RANTYOU WRITE IN.mustangdai lywire@gmai l .comWE INVESTIGATE.

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Afghan opium the most lethal drug worldwide, U.N. says

Tom Lassetermcclatchy newspapers

MOSCOW — Afghan opium kills more people every year than any other drug on the planet, claiming up to 100,000 lives annu-ally, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday.

Although U.S. officials have pointed to the last two years of lower production in Afghanistan, the country still produces 90 per-cent of the world’s opium, which the report says now threatens to sow havoc in much of Central Asia.

“The catalog of casualties caused

by Afghan narcotics is gruesome,” Antonio Maria Costa, the execu-tive director of the U.N. office on drugs and crime, says in a note in the report’s summary. “We need to go back to the dramatic opium ad-diction in China a century ago to find comparable statistics.”

In addition to drug-related deaths, Afghan opium and heroin pay for weapons that anti-U.S. insurgents use to kill American troops.

From 2005 to 2008, Taliban in-surgents in Afghanistan earned an average annual income of some $125 million from the opium trade, not including money gained from drug-processing facilities or other related business in neigh-boring Pakistan, according to the report.

The Afghan opium crop, used to produce heroin, dropped from 7,700 metric tons in 2008 to 6,900 this year, but because of massive overproduction there are now more than 12,000 metric tons of

see Opium, page 6

Schwarzenegger signs law punishes paparazzi’s illegal misconductJim Sandersmcclatchy newspapers

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than a dozen years after Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mercedes-Benz was ambushed in Santa Monica by two rowdy paparazzi, sparking their arrest, the actor-turned-governor is having his say.

Schwarzenegger signed a new law this month to discourage paparazzi misconduct by allowing tabloid or other publishers to be sued for us-ing images or sound recordings that they knew were obtained violently or illegally.

Targeting paparazzi money source is a new tack that supporters tout as a boon to public safety and opponents criticize as a blow to the free-speech right to publish truthful information, regardless how it’s col-lected.

“I’m positive this will wind up in court, some way or other,” said Car-lton Larson, a law professor at the University of California-Davis.

The new paparazzi law comes in an era of electronic advancements that allow photos or sound bites to be transmitted instantly and available forever.

Paparazzi are driven by prospects of big bucks — up to six-figure pay-offs — for jaw-dropping images of tabloid stars from Angelina Jolie to Tom Cruise, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner.

“Out-of-control paparazzi are an increasing threat — not only to the celebrities they stalk but to the pub-lic at large if they happen to get in their way,” said California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, who proposed the new law.

Aaron McLear, a Schwarzenegger spokesman, characterized the law as valuable privacy protection for all Californians and suggested its sign-ing was not due to the 1997 alterca-tion in Santa Monica, Calif.

“He makes his decisions based on what’s best for all California,” McLear said.

In May 1997, Schwarzenegger was with his wife, Maria Shriver, who was driving their young son to school when photographers in two vehicles wedged the couple’s Mer-cedes-Benz and forced it to stop, news services reported.

Two paparazzi later were con-victed of misdemeanor false impris-onment in connection with the in-cident, news reports said.

California’s paparazzi law, effec-tive Jan. 1, cracks down on misbe-havior by trying to eliminate the financial incentive to break laws, if necessary, to get an exclusive photo.

The measure, Assembly Bill 524, will supplement existing prohibi-tions against trespassing, assault and invasions of privacy by swarms of paparazzi that stake out, chase or an-tagonize Hollywood stars.

“The real aggressive ones will do anything to get a picture that they think will make them a lot of money,” said Ron Williams of Talon Companies, a celebrity bodyguard service.

Actress Jennifer Aniston is a sponsor of the new law. She received $550,000 in a 2003 settlement of a lawsuit against a photographer who scaled a private 8-foot-wall to take shots of her sunbathing topless in her Malibu, Calif., backyard, pub-lished reports said.

Numerous Hollywood stars, in-

cluding Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Halle Berry, have been involved in traffic collisions in recent years that allegedly involved paparazzi or their chases.

“Sometimes there are strings of eight or nine cars going through red lights,” said Sean Burke, a former bodyguard now pushing to restrain paparazzi. “It’s pretty crazy.”

But Frank Griffin, co-founder of Bauer-Griffin, one of Hollywood’s leading star-gazing photo agencies, said that both paparazzi pay and the extent of misconduct tends to be exaggerated.

Shooting through stars’ bedroom windows for an exclusive photo died 15 years ago, he said, adding that “nobody will buy it now because you’d get sued.”

Griffin scoffed at the notion that paparazzi purposely incite celebri-ties to anger.

“I’ll give you $100 for every pic-ture that’s published that’s caused by a reaction created by a paparazzi who said or did something insult-ing,” he said.

The new law is not necessary, he added, because California already bars reckless driving and abusive be-havior.

“If they punch somebody, if they shout at somebody, if they spit at somebody, it’s all protected by a law,” Griffin said.

Other opponents of AB 524 say it infringes upon free-speech rights by penalizing publishers who were not present when photos were taken, provided no supervision, and pur-chased the material legally. Violators could be fined up to $50,000.

Tom Newton, attorney for the California Newspaper Publishers

Association, said the new law could have a chilling effect by discourag-ing publishers from buying contro-versial photos.

“We don’t want to be seen as

apologists for the paparazzi, for their extreme and dangerous conduct, but we nonetheless have concerns about the impact of the bill on mainstream newspapers,” he said.

mcclatchy-newspapers

Chart shows Afghan opium production from 1994-2009.


California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs the state’s budget on Friday, Feb. 20.

News

News



News

compiled and photographed by jennifer titcomb

Word on the Street

“Have you seen any good movies recently?”

“I saw ‘Couples Retreat’; it was pretty funny.”

-Jannette Finck, city and region-al planning freshman

“I haven’t seen any movies lately. I don’t have any time.”

-Dan Marioni, mechanical engi-neering senior

“I saw ‘The Proposal’ at the drive-in. My boyfriend and I saw it and enjoyed it. It was funny and not too much of a chick flick.”

-Erika Schwall, forestry and natural resources junior

“The last one I saw was over the summer; ‘The Hangover’. It was pretty good if you like raunchy humor and aren’t of-fended by it.”

-Emily Hartley, business junior

“No, but I’m trying to see ‘City of God’. It’s about Brazil and it’s all in Portguese.”

-Matt Schumacher, civil engi-neering senior

“‘Zombieland’ was great; I really enjoyed it. I also saw ‘Toy Story 3D’; that was pretty sweet.”

-John Romley, recreation parks and tourism administration se-nior

www.mustangdaily.netAlways in color

opium in stockpiles, enough to meet world demand for more than two years. Criminal and insurgent groups probably are holding most of those reserves, the U.N. said.

The U.N.’s findings sounded a strong warning about the Cen-tral Asian opium-trafficking route, which has become a virtual con-veyor belt for heroin between Afghanistan and Russia, referring to it as the “most sinister develop-ment yet.”

“The perfect storm of drugs, crime and insurgency that has swirled around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border for years is head-ing for Central Asia,” Costa said. “If quick preventive measures are

not put into place, a big chunk of Eurasia could be lost.”

McClatchy Newspapers pub-lished a series of articles earlier this year that traced the flow of opium from Afghanistan through Tajikistan — a main Central Asian conduit — to Russia.

The articles found that West-ern inaction during the years af-ter the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan opened the way for Afghan opium to fuel corruption throughout Afghanistan, turn Ta-jikistan into a borderline narco-state and create thousands of new addicts in Russia.

Russia is now the world’s larg-est consumer of heroin, according to the U.N. report. At least 70 tons of Afghan heroin were consumed

Opiumcontinued from page 5

see Opium, page 7

News


Wire Editor: Jennifer TitcombThursday, October 22, 2009 7Mustang Daily

News

BAGHDAD (MCT) — Af-ter three days of long sessions and continuous delays, the Iraqi parliament failed Wednesday to reach agreement on a new elec-tion law, asked a little-used na-tional political council to resolve the impasse and adjourned until Sunday.

The speaker of the parliament, Dr. Ayad al-Samarrai, said at a news conference that the parlia-ment had resolved 90 percent of what he called obstacles — in-cluding allowing Iraqis to vote directly for individual candidates, not just party lists — but that lawmakers remained deadlocked over how January’s scheduled parliamentary elections should be conducted in oil-rich north-ern Kirkuk province.

• • •BEIRUT, Lebanon (MCT)

— Just two days after Israeli spy devices were blown up in South Lebanon, the Israeli media has claimed Hizbullah is planning attacks against Israel and Ameri-can interests in Turkey and that the group could get its hands on Russian missiles being delivered to Syria. According to a report published by the Ynet news web-site, Hizbullah is planning attacks on Israeli tourists, synagogues, airplanes and vessels in Turkey.

InternationalWASHINGTON (MCT) —

Health and Human Services Secre-tary Kathleen Sebelius told Congress Wednesday that delays in the release of H1N1 vaccines have shown that the United States is far too depen-dent on other countries for the man-ufacture of vaccines, and that vaccine technology must be improved.

Four of the five manufacturers of H1N1 vaccines are foreign compa-nies, a fact that alarmed lawmakers, who expressed concern about the ability of the federal government to secure enough vaccine to prevent the spread of the “swine flu” virus as it peaks in the coming days and weeks.

• • •WASHINGTON (MCT)

— President Barack Obama said Wednesday he will shift spending of the government’s multibillion-dollar financial bailout away from large financial institutions and to-ward smaller banks, in an effort to bolster the small businesses he says form “the backbone of the Ameri-can economy.”

Speaking at a records storage business in suburban Washington, Obama said smaller financial insti-tutions are in greater need of capital to grow and expand — and that the country’s large banks have moved past their need for what’s left of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

NationalSACRAMENTO (MCT) —

A former UC Davis employee has turned herself in after authorities is-sued an arrest warrant charging her with stealing or embezzling more than $38,000 from the university.

Sueanna Gaines, 41, also known as Susie Cauchi, of Yuba City, sur-rendered Sunday at the Yolo County jail in Woodland, UC Davis officials reported Monday. She posted bail and was released.

The allegations mark the third time this month that a University of California, Davis, employee has been accused of misusing public funds.

• • •SAN JOSE, Calif. (MCT) —

Technicians at seven smog check shops in Santa Clara County have been convicted as part of an un-dercover operation that discovered workers were “clean piping” cars, passing them on clean air tests by using fake results.

The announcement came Wednesday as part of a joint effort by the state Department of Con-sumer Affairs’ Bureau of Automotive Repair and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

A total of 12 technicians and seven shops were involved: All tech-nicians were convicted on felony charges of falsifying a certificate and two who cooperated with the dis-trict attorney’s office may be eligible for a reduced charge.

State

Briefsin Russia last year, the report says, more than three times the amount in the United States and Canada combined and higher than previ-ous estimates.

The number of addicts in Rus-sia has multiplied tenfold during the past decade, and there are now 30,000 to 40,000 Russian drug-related deaths each year, accord-ing to Russian government figures cited by the report. Official Rus-sian news services have said that up to 30,000 of those deaths are

due to Afghan heroin.Russian leaders repeatedly have

voiced their anger about the lack of a Western crackdown on Af-ghan opium, and the issue was brought up during President Ba-rack Obama’s and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visits to Moscow this year.

In May, the head of Russia’s federal drug-control service, Vik-tor Ivanov, said that about 180 Af-ghan drug cartels were trafficking heroin to Russia.

“The majority of these 180 drug cartels are based in the U.S. and NATO areas of responsibility,” Ivanov said.

Opiumcontinued from page 6


Drug users, mostly heroin addicts, are locked in a cell labeled “Quaran-tine” at a drug treatment center in the Russian town of Yekaterinburg.

Arts

thursday, october 22, 2009 arts & entertainment editor: cassandra keyse

Autumn takes center stage at Cal Poly Choirs fall debutKatie Koschalkmustang daily

Titled the “Sounds of Fall,” Cal Poly Choirs will take to the Harman Hall stage in the Performing Arts Center to perform various selections that represent the spirit of fall for their annual concert on Oct. 24.

Thomas Davies, who has been the director of choral activities for 27 years, will conduct each of the three

ensembles, including PolyPhon-ics, The University Singers and The Early Music Ensemble, who will each perform three to four pieces.

“We call this our debut concert as it introduces this year’s choirs to our audience,” Davies said. “I like the student performers to work on their performance skills early in the year.”

The concert will feature new students who were selected during auditions held the first week of fall

quarter. This quarter about 35 news students were welcomed into the choirs, Davies said.

Emily Allyn, a music junior and member of PolyPhonics, The Ear-ly Music Ensemble and Cal Poly’s women’s barbershop quartet, feels that despite adding a number of new students, the new and returning choir members are blending well.

“It’s a good transition into the new quarter to be able to sing next to new

people every year,” Allyn said.Members of the Cal Poly Choirs

come from all over the university. More than 80 percent are not music majors. There are students from en-gineering, architecture, agriculture, math and science and liberal arts. All of the choirs are also a mix of men and women, Davies said.

This year there will be about 125 Cal Poly students performing at the concert.

The students are divided into three choirs, each offering a different style.

PolyPhonics is a highly select, mixed chamber ensemble and has 42 members.

PolyPhonics will be singing a piece titled “Nächtens” which means “At night.” It tells the story of a per-son who has some frightening dreams at night and wakes up in tears. The pi-ano accompaniment is very “spooky” sounding, making it appropriate for a concert around Halloween, Davies said.

The University Singers are known for singing sacred, worldly works that are both recent and old. There are 60 to 80 members, depending on the quarter.

The University Singers will sing a piece titled “Im Herbst” which means “In Fall.” It was written by a com-poser from the first half of the 19th century, Fanny Hensel. She is the sister of the famous composer, Felix Mendelssohn.

The Early Music Ensemble per-forms vocal music, which is written before 1750 and includes works from the Renaissance, Baroque and early Classic periods.

The three choirs wasted no time preparing for the fall concert, each rehearsing four days a week for 50

minutes each time beginning the sec-ond week of the quarter.

Even before the choirs started re-hearsing, Davies was working early in the summer to put together the mu-sic selections to be performed.

Despite the short, four-week prep-aration time, the selections seem to be coming together well, Allyn said.

“I feel like we’re getting really pre-pared in a short amount of time. The best part is when you hear everything come together. I have a different joy about singing during the perfor-mance than in practice,” Allyn said. “It’s kind of like in sports. The actual performance is nothing like the ac-tual game.”

Lisa Figel, a music junior and member of PolyPhonics, agreed that the most gratifying part of the process is the actual performance.

“When we’re finished and every-body is clapping and encoring it’s the

When we’re fin-ished and every-body is clapping and encoring it’s the best feeling.

— Lisa FigelMusic junior

see Choir, page 9


BLOGM D

Arts

Arts editor: Cassandra Keyse



[email protected]

Some foods cannot be enjoyed by all

food column

Do you ever wonder why Jews cannot eat pork or why Mormons cannot drink coffee? The obvious reason is because it is against their religion, but do you know why it is against it? I plan on breaking down some of the top forbidden foods for three different religions: Judaism, Hin-duism and Mormonism, to help you better understand why your Hindu friend cannot eat beef or why I am not supposed to eat shrimp.

Being a Jew has allowed me to eat some pretty interesting foods but has also forbidden me to eat some re-ally tasty foods. The most common foods Jews are supposed to refrain from eating are pork, shellfish, and milk and meat (together in the same meal). These all break the kosher rules which are part of kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws. This may come as a sur-prise, but a food that is kosher is not one that has been blessed by a Rabbi. A food that is kosher is one that has been prepared under the specific ko-sher regulations.

A food is deemed un-kosher if it includes ingredients from non-kosher animals, kosher animals not properly slaughtered, milk and meat combined, wine or grape juice made without supervision, the use of produce from Israel that has not been tithed or the use of cooking utensils or machinery that has been used for other non-kosher foods. Kosher rules become more strict according to different Jewish holidays. For example during Passover, Jews are not supposed to eat any foods with leavening products. As I have mentioned before that I do not keep kosher myself, so I try to avoid pork and limit my milk shakes with my hamburgers.

Moving on to the fascinating reli-gion of Hinduism, where they are for-bidden to eat beef and exotic wild an-imals. Since the cow is the most sacred animal in the Hindu religion, beef is exempt from their diet. According to

an article on Hinduism.ygoy.com, the philosophy “you are what you eat is a concept behind a man and his food habits as it decides our mental growth as well as physical growth and well be-ing.”

Hinduism emphasizes vegetarian-ism because eating animal products blocks mental and spiritual growth. They also feel killing innocent and helpless animals for food is bad karma. This brings harmful consequences to the person eating the food and to the entire planet.

Lastly I want to talk about Mor-monism, the religion that may one day put Starbucks out of business. The top forbidden drinks and substances include coffee, tea, alcohol (caffeine), drugs and tobacco (alhough they can drink herbal teas — just not the black, grey, green actual tea leaf varieties).

Mormons base there are rules on “The World of Wisdom,” which is a spiritual and physical health code they believe in. It involves them to seek out a healthy diet thus refraining them from consuming the above drinks and substances mentioned. Mormons’ pri-mary reason for not consuming these popular items is for spiritual reasons. According to yahoo.com, “our bodies and spirits are very connected, and a lot of it has to do with keeping our spirits sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.”

I hope this cleared up some of the more frequently asked questions on these religions and their dietary rules. By understanding why they cannot eat certain foods or drink certain beverag-es, it helps us in not being so surprised when they cannot do something. So the next time you invite your Jewish friends over for dinner, cook them up a kosher meal and surprise them with your knowledge of knowing a Rabbi does not need to be present.

Bethany Abelson is a food science se-nior and Mustang Daily food columnist.

best feeling. Just knowing that people are enjoying it is great,” Figel said.

This concert has been in produc-tion for about 10 years and still every year draws in a large crowd between 400 and 600 audience members, Da-vies said.

With such a large audience, mem-bers of the choirs try their best not to let their nerves get the best of them.

“The PAC is huge and I only per-form there like three or four times a year. In high school I performed on the same, small stage all time so the PAC. Looking out at all the lights and

all the people can be really nerve-racking,” Allyn said. “After like two minutes of performing though I settle in and it’s fine.”

In addition to the many vocalists, the performance is completed by two accompanists including Paul Woo-dring, who is also the Campus Or-ganist, and Susan Azaret Davies, who teaches piano skills and piano accom-panying classes at Cal Poly.

With talented vocalists and ac-companists, Figel thinks that this con-cert will be one not to miss.

“There will be a lot of beautiful poetry, outstanding soloists, and Take is SLO (an a cappella ensemble) will be performing as well and they are really fun to watch,” Figel said.

Choircontinued from page 8

Arts

Erin Hurleymustang daily

The “Film for Thought” Film Festival next week offers an oppor-tunity for the people of San Luis Obispo to learn about some of the social and economic issues related to food and health. Presented by HopeDance Films and New Fron-tiers Natural Marketplace, the festi-val will screen one film a night at 7 p.m. from Oct. 24-30, leading up to the HANDs on Health Symposium Oct. 30-31 at the Recreation Cen-ter on campus.

The documentaries cover a vari-ety of topics related to food, many of which are currently under fierce debate. “Killer at Large” examines the threat posed to America by the spread of obesity, and “Fresh” ex-plores the idea of stopping to think about where, how, and by whom our food is produced. Many of the films feature well-known experts on food and health, including Mi-chael Pollan and Joel Salatin.

The films were chosen by lo-cal movie lover Bob Banner, who runs Novel Experience Bookstore on Higuera Street and owns the HopeDance film collection which includes documentaries on many subjects.

“These films focus on topics like obesity, sustainable food sys-tems, overfishing, grass-fed beef, raw food, and successful farm to school programs. Some of the films may be unconventional or even a little shocking, but I want to show what’s really going on as well as what is possible,” said Banner.

Banner is the editor and pub-lisher of “HopeDance,” an online publication that focuses on issues and activities related to creating a sustainable future. He also runs “Edible SLO,” a local magazine that is dedicated to all things related to healthy food and its importance.

“Most people believe that ev-erything is fine, and they don’t see the reality of the decisions that are being made daily about how we access our food. If these films get

people to start talking about these issues let alone making healthier choices, that’s a big giant leap,” Banner commented.

Tanushree Bose was also in-volved in the selection of the films for the festival. A professor in the Cal Poly department of nutrition and a believer in being aware of the issues surrounding our food, Bose spent many years studying genetics and the physical and habitual causes of obesity. She will also be giving a speech after the screening of “Killer at Large.”

“These films are documenting reality,” she said. “They focus on a very captivating medium, and they really get people thinking. The top-ics include relevant issues like why school lunches in America are so abysmal or how prevalent corn is in our diets, and I hope that students see their importance.”

Professor Bose is also a strong supporter of Cal Poly’s recently es-tablished Slow Foods on Campus chapter. Slow Foods on Campus (a division of Slow Foods USA) is a network of student groups at uni-versities across America that work to improve the university’s food system.

The film festival addresses issues that are also important to Cal Poly students. Sophomore biology stu-dent Alyssa Semerdjian said that “I think this festival is a really good idea. You can’t ever be too educated about health and healthy eating.”

Another group closely con-nected with the festival is a re-search project created by the Cal Poly kinesiology department called Science through Translational Re-search in Diet and Exercise, or STRIDE. This group is committed to spreading awareness about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, and promoting activities and events that foster healthy living.

STRIDE is hosting the first HANDs on Health Symposium at the end of this month. Stephanie Teaford is the community liaison between STRIDE and the city of San Luis Obispo, and was directly

involved in organizing the festival.“When I saw these films, I was

inspired to make this festival hap-pen. Many of the films relate di-rectly to the message we try to send and the work we’re doing with is-sues like obesity and sustainability,” she said.

Donations of $5-7 are encour-aged and refreshments may be pro-vided by local sustainable caterers.

All films from the festival are to be shown at the SLO County Public Library, except for the film shown on Oct. 27 which will be shown at the Templeton Community Center, and Oct. 29 which will be shown at the Tullius Chiropractic & Pilates Center in Grover Beach.

Arts



Arts

“Film for Thought” festival emphasizes food controversies

courtesy photo

“King Corn” will be shown Monday, Oct. 26. The film documents the many different uses of corn in Ameri-can food production and consumption.

Op Ed

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“Dodgers forever.”

12

Opinion/editorialThursday, October 22, 2009

Editor in chief: Emilie EggerManaging Editor: Alex Kacik

[email protected]


FOX News is not a legitimate news source

On last Sunday’s news shows, members of the Obama admin-istration defended White House communications director Anita Dunn’s statement that FOX News operates “almost as either the research arm or the commu-nications arm of the Republican Party.”

Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and senior Obama adviser David Axelrod both came out in sup-port of Dunn. On ABC’s “This Week”, Axelrod explained, “The only argument Anita was making is that they’re not really a news station.”

“It’s not just their commenta-tors, but a lot of their news pro-gramming. It’s really not news. It’s pushing a point of view,” he continued. Rahm Emanuel echoed that statement on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

It’s a unique battle brewing between the Obama administra-tion and the station that claims to be “fair and balanced,” and it is also much more complicated than either side is willing to ad-mit. This issue is really about journalism ethics and the gov-ernment attempting to interfere with our free press.

I don’t wonder why the Obama administration denigrates the journalistic practices of FOX News. Media watchdogs such as Media Matters frequently flag FOX programs for lying or mis-construing quotes.

According to Media Matters,

Glenn Beck “falsely claimed Anita Dunn ‘worships’ ‘her hero’ Mao Zedong” on his Oct. 15 show. Ac-tually, Media Matters points out, Dunn says that Mao Zedong and Mother Teresa were two of her “favorite philosophers.” She does not refer to either as her hero. In the respectable field of journalism, Beck’s behavior would be consid-ered highly unethical.

It is not FOX’s conservative bias as a news organization that I find offensive. MSNBC has a fairly clear liberal bias, and as a person who strives for consistency, I would def-initely hold MSNBC to the same standard as I do FOX News.

Rather, it is FOX’s clear disre-gard for the truth that is harmful to society. In the segment of the Beck show that I referenced, it’s clear that he’s doing the story sim-ply because he has found an angle to criticize Dunn. He has no regard for the value of his occupation, nor for the weighty responsibility that

comes along with being a member of the press.

The freedom of the press may be the most important freedom grant-ed by our Bill of Rights. The press is the guardian of our freedoms and the educator of society. Without it, our country could not maintain an informed electorate, and our rep-resentative democracy would decay into a totalitarian state.

The freedom of press is so im-portant that Thomas Jefferson wrote, “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a gov-ernment without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Obviously, Jefferson understood the gravity of maintaining a free press, with the purpose of keep-ing Americans informed about the United States, and he saw the im-portance of free information. But I think inherent in his cherishing of the press is his love for the truth.

And sometimes, the truth stands in opposition to the government’s actions. We saw this demonstrated in the lead up to the Iraq War. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were keen on the connection be-tween al-Qaeda and Saddam Hus-sein. It turned out that the truth stood in direct opposition to their statements.

However, this is not the case today. And I think this is the most important argument for the legiti-mization of the Obama adminis-tration’s criticisms of a news orga-nization. The reporting that FOX conducts, as a journalistic organi-zation, is too often based on sensa-tionalism and half-truths.

The real news story — the truth within this issue — is that the gov-ernment is, out of necessity, step-ping into the role of the guardian of truths and the education of so-ciety. That’s definitely not what Jef-ferson intended.

While FOX News is just one irresponsible news organization of many responsible news organiza-tions, I think the amount of misin-formation they release hurts Amer-ica; and while normally I would advocate against the government commenting on the actions and reporting of our press, I think that this is one occasion when the ad-ministration is right to do so for the greater good of society.

Stephanie England is an English

senior and Mustang Daily political col-umnist.

Shortening WOW is a step in the wrong direction. Aside from introducing WOWies to Cal Poly and the SLO community, WOW puts the students through four great awareness workshops on topics including personal respon-sibilities and SLO life/respect. By shortening the program, more of the week’s focus would be on these presentations and less on the group bonding aspect. This would pro-mote a more negative experience for the WOWies during the week, discourage them from participating with their groups, and then they would probably turn elsewhere for before-school activities. Downsiz-ing one of the greatest orientation programs in the nation is not the path we need to travel. Instead, a more focused attack on poisonous groups who have tainted this week should be tried, eliminating the

problem at the source.— Andrew Tofflemire

Response to “Freshmen will get shorter WOW next year”

It doesn’t matter how many alco-hol awareness programs are initiated, whether online or in person. Teen drinking is always going to happen. Shortening WOW Week not only fails to solve this problem, but pun-ishes the hundreds of students who don’t make alcohol consumption a part of their daily life.

— EmilyResponse to “Freshmen will get

shorter WOW next year”

Thanks for the insight, however, I disagree in some of the facts being made. Whether American people are charitable or not, there aren’t enough programs to support the millions of people who are under the welfare and social security program. These programs are meant to help the poor, no, more like low income families begin their lives in such a vast coun-try. I am not disagreeing to the fact that the red cross and FEMA aren’t doing their jobs to help but are there

enough charitable programs for the the wealthy to help supply food and shelter for the poor and hungry? Do the rich get to choose who they can help? Do the poor continue to be poor because they do not have wel-fare or social security? Having been a person under this position, welfare has helped my family tremendously. Our pursuit to happiness needs a jump start.

— LyResponse to “Welfare harms free

enterprise economy”

This further proves how our cur-rent government, agribusiness and school system is run by money and not by what makes sense or what is better for the environment. This is exactly what Pollan is trying to show to people/fight against. I think this article is very well written and I hope it causes people to stop and think about exactly how politics and are education are being run money

— Esteban ZapatoResponse to: “Pollan saga highlights

shortcomings in Poly’s commitment to free speech”

For one thing the school wanted the event with Mr. Pollan to be a panel discussion when they first sent him the invitation. I wonder why Pollan wouldn’t want a panel dis-cussion. It couldnt be the fact that in that situation his views would be challenged by people who actually work in the agriculture industry… I personnaly dont understand why people flaunt after Pollan’s ideas yet his background is in Journalism and he has no real experience working in the agricultural industry. I see nothin wrong if people want to follow his ideologies yet it should not be pre-sented in a college setting without having a balanced view of all sides; not simply those that the popular media spew

— Josh Response to: “Pollan saga highlights

shortcomings in Poly’s commitment to free speech”

NOTE: The Mustang Daily features se-lect comments that are written in response to articles posted online. Though not all the responses are printed, the Mustang Daily prints comments that are coherent and fos-ter intelligent discussion on a given subject.

Op Ed

www.mustangdaily.net13Mustang Daily

Op/edThursday, October 22, 2009

Michael Smerconishthe philadelphia inquirer

The NFL’s rejecting Rush Lim-baugh was a bit like the members of the Merion Cricket Club blackballing Thurston Howell III. The owners’ ob-jection to Limbaugh wasn’t based on his politics — they overwhelmingly share his views. They refused to allow him to join their club in the name of good business.

Consider that over the last 20 years, 78 percent of the approximately $7 million that NFL owners, coach-es, players, and their associates have donated to political candidates and committees has gone to Republicans. That’s according to figures recently compiled and studied by the Center for Responsive Politics in Washing-ton.

The San Diego Chargers ($2,455,200), Houston Tex-ans ($623,456), Arizona Cardinals ($337,096), Washington Redskins ($323,000), and New York Jets ($261,403) organizations were the NFL’s top five political contributors since 1990, the center reported. Four of those teams donated 90 percent or more of their contributions to GOP interests. For the one that didn’t, the Redskins, the figure was 75 percent.

Among the owners, the pattern is even more pronounced. Nearly every dime of the $2 million that Chargers owner Alex Spanos — the league’s most deep-pocketed contributor — has donated over two decades has gone to the GOP. Texans owner Rob-ert McNair, who has given more than

$500,000 since 1990, has contributed almost exclusively to Republicans.

Daniel Snyder (Washington Red-skins) and Tom Benson (New Orleans Saints) also are big-time GOP donors. And Robert Johnson, owner of the Jets, raised thousands of dollars for George W. Bush’s presidential cam-paigns.

Interestingly, while the NFL own-ers have overwhelmingly supported the GOP, there has been a consistent outlier — the same St. Louis Rams that Limbaugh sought to own. No team has donated more to Democrat-ic candidates and causes over the last two decades than the Rams.

Officials associated with the team gave $230,050 to D’s — 98 percent of team-associated political giving. (The Los Angeles Rams contributed an additional $47,250 — 90 percent of their total donations — to Demo-crats before leaving the City of Angels in 1995.)

Current Rams majority owner Chip Rosenbloom has given $13,100 to Democratic candidates over the last decade. His mother, Georgia Fron-tiere, who owned the team after her husband’s death in 1979, donated more than $134,000 to Democratic interests between 1997 and her death in 2008.

There have been a few exceptions. Rosenbloom and his mother each logged a contribution to one Repub-lican presidential candidate during the 2008 cycle — the most moderate in the field. Rosenbloom donated $1,000 to Rudy Giuliani in June 2007. Three months earlier, his mother had given

$2,300 to John McCain. Neither can-didate was high on Limbaugh’s presi-dential wish list.

One wonders if NFL Commis-sioner Roger Goodell’s negative assess-ment of Limbaugh’s bid (“I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL — absolutely not”) were predicated on knowledge that his role would ultimately not sit well with Rosenbloom. The NFL it-self has had to hedge the bets of its GOP-dominated owners.

“The National Football League — we’re talking people who work for the league, who are league leaders, all the way up to the commissioner — the National Football League itself has actually donated more to Democrats than to Republicans,” CRP’s Dave Levinthal, who wrote the analysis, told me. “It’s about a 70-30 split.”

Only one owner was prepared to say he would not support the in-clusion of Limbaugh. But given that Goodell is their hire, common sense dictates he would not have voiced negativity unless more than one held that view. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said he wouldn’t vote for Limbaugh because of the host’s “inap-propriate, incendiary, and insensitive” commentary.

But it was the owner of a basket-ball franchise who came closest to explaining why the Limbaugh role failed. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, whom the NBA has fined almost $2 million for his own verbal and behavioral incidents, blogged that the NFL should be “terrified” not of

things Limbaugh has already said, but of “what he might say AFTER he was an approved investor in the St. Louis Rams.”

“Given that we will never know what the ‘next big issue’ in this world that Rush will be discussing on his show is, it’s impossible for the NFL to even try to predict or gauge the impact on the NFL’s busi-ness if something controver-sial, or even worse yet, something nationally po-larizing happens. There is an unquantifiable risk that comes with the size of Rush’s audience,” Cu-ban wrote on his blog.

He’s right. The sub-stance of the most widely cited Rush-isms — the infamous Donovan McNabb quote and his comparison of the NFL to “a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons” — fails to demonstrate any overt racism. And it’s doubtful that any of his political lean-ings would alienate this crowd, given how they themselves have donated.

Instead, the owners determined that it was just bad business to add to their ranks someone who would have kept them in headlines going forward while most choose to fly beneath the radar.

“This is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we’re going to have,” Limbaugh said last week, casting the debate as some kind of a referendum on capitalism. But he was wrong.

To the contrary, Limbaugh was

compromised by the very principles he espouses — the free market. A group of like-minded private busi-nessmen, unfettered by government, made a decision as to what was best for their enterprise.

Business, not politics, behind NFL’s rejection of Limbaugh

guesst commentary

Following are three proposals to help the California State University System (CSU) survive and flourish. The first two are suggestions for deal-ing with the current crisis: closing the budget gap. The third would establish a mechanism to facilitate the discovery and refinement of similar ideas. The proposals are: (1) Replace furloughs with deferred compensation; (2) cre-ate a student loan escalator; (3) facili-tate problem-solving for the CSU.

1. Replace furloughs with deferred compensation

Deferred compensation would work like this: CSU employees loan their labor to the State. We defer com-pensation on 10 percent of our labor, to be repaid, with interest, in two years (for example). The effect is the same as the furlough, except that we are mak-ing an investment, rather than taking a pay cut; and, there is no need to iden-tify furlough days, or curtail services to students in any way. A fair interest rate on our investment might be 5 percent, for example. This mandatory invest-ment program can be progressive, like income tax, to minimize possible negative impacts on the lowest-paid employees. For example, those earn-ing less than $35,000 per year would be excused from participation. Those earning $35-55,000 per year would participate at 5% percent $55-75,000 at 10 percent; $75-95,000 at 15 per-cent and so on (the numbers are just

examples, not to be made too much of). The existing furlough program can easily be replaced by this progres-sive loan program in time for the next budget year (2010-2011).

2. Create a student loan escalator

A student loan escalator is a fi-nancial mechanism by which former students (alumni) support current and future students. The basic idea is this: Students lack income, and can’t pay fees. Therefore, defer those fees until they have graduated, and are reaping the benefit of their CSU education with well-paying jobs. Now that they have income, they pay their fees. Note this can also be called a deferred fee program. The deferred fees, once paid, are re-cycled to new students coming in; who in turn will later send money back down the escalator, to carry the next group of students up. It takes money to prime this pump; but once it gets going, it is self-supporting. It is not fundamentally different from ex-isting federal student loan programs, except in one important way: It is based on an “endowment” owned by the CSU, not subject to economic and political changes in either Sacramento or Washington. This stable program will enable the CSU to increase fees, while offsetting the increase with loans to those students who need them. Of course, not all students lack income (or alternative financial means). Stu-dents who do not need the loans, will not take them, as they will prefer to

graduate debt-free. This automatic sifting mechanism will separate those students who can afford to pay higher fees from those who cannot, without denying anyone the education they need.

We can prime the pump in several ways:

Increase fees immediately by $500 per student per quarter. Those stu-dents who choose to may defer pay-ing this fee, and it becomes a loan they must pay back after graduation. Those students who can afford to, and pre-fer to graduate debt-free, will pay the fee, creating an immediately available new revenue source for the CSU. No one should be forced to quit school as a result of this kind of fee increase. Further, if enough students opt to pay the fee increase up front, perhaps the currently mandated 10 percent enroll-ment reduction can be avoided. No-tice that even if all students chose to defer the fee, the short-term situation of the CSU would be no worse than it is now; and, we would be building the foundation for a future endowment.

Use additional state tax funds to create the endowment. This will be difficult, since raising taxes is difficult. However, if a measure such as AB 656 can be passed, funds from it can be used to create a CSU endowment. Creation of such a fund with state tax revenues can be connected with Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed rainy-day fund, and could thus attract bi-partisan support (expect Democrats

to support funds for education, and Republicans to support the rainy-day fund).

Use ARRA (federal economic recovery) funds to create the endow-ment. This is the approach that could potentially become operational most quickly; but it has only a slim chance. Still, it should be attempted, and with urgency, since the opportunity is rap-idly passing. It would require very rapid action on the part of Chancellor Reed and Governor Schwarzenegger to persuade the California Congres-sional delegation to pursue this op-tion.

The above are not mutually exclu-sive; we can do all of them, and others as well (for example, a traditional cam-paign to raise money from our existing alumni, as well as potential corporate and foundation sponsors). Still more, and better, ideas will emerge if we do this:

3. Facilitate problem-solv-ing for the CSU

The establishment of a permanent, funded, CSU system-level Outreach Office is needed. The purpose of this office is to facilitate the discovery, gath-ering, display, and refinement of ideas from the CSU community and stake-holders—faculty, staff, students, parents, administrators, taxpayers, legislators—anyone with an interest in the welfare and success of the CSU system. It will do so by establishing and maintaining a Web site. The “office” need not be very large, and will require only very

small (but crucial!) funding. Probably, it would consist of two staff members, each about half-time. The first is a se-nior faculty member; perhaps one of the 23 Academic Senate Presidents, on a rotating basis; or a person with simi-lar stature. This person acts on behalf of the system-wide Academic Senate to facilitate the gathering, display, and discussion of information. Let us call this person the facilitator. The second is an IT expert to support the mechan-ics of the Web site. The exact nature of the Web site is TBD. Consider some-thing like Wikipedia, in which con-tributions are screened and edited by the facilitator, but an un-edited record of contributions is maintained, and a procedure is available for contributors to challenge the Facilitator if they be-lieve their contributions have not been given fair treatment. Like Wikipedia, additional part-time Facilitators (edi-tors) can be added, perhaps specialized to particular issues, if needed. The for-mat of the Web site must be attractive and easy-to-use, and it must be well-advertised and easy to find, to invite the widest possible participation.

The CSU faces problems; but it has 500,000 members (and many more stakeholders and well-wishers) to call on for ideas and solutions. This is an extraordinary intellectual resource, which if opened will reveal undreamed of treasures. Why not do so?

— William Ahlgren

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Mark Whickerthe orange county register

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Forget the money. John Lackey already is a lot richer than most people you know.

Before next spring, he'll be a lot richer than even more people you know.

That is not the issue on Thurs-day night.

The issue Thursday night is the definition of an Ace, or a One, or whatever you call a dominant start-ing pitcher in the playoffs.

This is the year CC Sabathia, of the Yankees, has become that guy. And this was the spring in which Lackey, frustrated that the Angels seemed oblivious to his upcoming free-agent eligibility, declared him-self comparable to Sabathia.

"Except for his time in the Na-tional League, look at the num-bers," Lackey said of Sabathia, who had just signed a contract that will pay him at least $60 million over three years ($23 million in 2010, $23 million more in 2011) and, if he doesn't opt out, a total of $161 million over seven years.

Usually you have to ruin a major bank to get paid like that.

Lackey was right, at the time. But numbers change.

Sabathia, who had a 7.92 post-season ERA when in Cleveland, is the Josh Beckett of this October/November. Yankees opponents have to somehow plan on winning around him. He's 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA, with 20 strikeouts and 222/3 innings, one home run and three walks.

If Lackey wants to be Sabathia, he has a pretty clear, and ample, sil-houette to fill.

He is the alpha personage on this pitching staff, a generous teammate behind the scenes, an expressive face (good and bad) when working.

The suspicion is that the Angels' rotation is a very competent proces-sion of Twos, but Lackey has looked like a One when the Angels have needed him to. When he blanked Boston for 71/3 innings in Game 1 of the Division Series and let no-body get to third base, he triggered a cathartic sweep of the Red Sox that will be remembered far beyond whatever happens in this series.

How many teams even play a Game 7 of a World Series, let alone win one?

Lackey won the only one he pitched, in 2002, and he was a rook-

ie then.He was just as resolute against

the Yankees here July 12, going sev-en innings and giving up two runs and fanning Mark Teixeira with a curveball in a tight spot. The Angels won that, 5-4. (Whatever happened to that Angels-have-the-Yankees-number angle, anyway?)

And he's a certified winner, 31 games over .500.

The only thing that will keep him from becoming one of base-ball's richest players is the market itself, but Lackey made every start from 2003-2007 and managed 1761/3 innings this year, although he didn't start until May 18. Clubs tend to find money for such play-ers.

Considering how few compe-tent innings one has to throw to become the Dodgers' top starter these days, Lackey would look very much like a One to them.

The Rangers also seem logi-cal, since Texas is home, but owner Tom Hicks has needed MLB bail-outs lately and is negotiating to sell the club to Houston businessman Jim Crane, who made his money in cargo shipping.

How legitimate were Lackey's parallels with Sabathia? Well, Sa-bathia is 46 games over .500 in American League games. He has won 17 games once and 19 two other times, including this year, and Lackey has won more than 14

only once. But Sabathia's American League ERA is just .04 lower than Lackey's, and Lackey has four 200-inning seasons to Sabathia's three.

No, it's not about the money Thursday night. It's not even about a free agent's resume. It's almost an Olympic Games moment. Discard the past performances.

Perform on the day they tell you to.

Can John Lackey pitch a game to match his aspirations, when a whole season comes down to one?

Sports

Tuesday, October 22, 2009 Mustang Daily

Sports15


mcclatchy-tribuneTrailing the Yankees 3-1 in the ALCS the Angels turn to John Lackey to stop the bleeding. Lackey is 1-1 with a 1.38 ERA this postseason.

Fate in John Lackey’s hands

mustang daily staff report

The Cal Poly football team (3-3) will look to record consecu-tive wins for the first time this sea-son when it hosts Dixie State (4-4) in a non-conference game at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday in Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

With the first half of the season in the books, the No. 19 Mustangs are looking to raise their record above .500 for the first time since a 38-19 win over Sacramento State on opening day moved them to 1-0.

In order to make a run at the post season, the Mustangs probably have to run the table to finish 8-3, including a season-ending victory on the road at Weber State, the team that knocked Cal Poly out of the playoffs a year ago.

Head coach Tim Walsh was named Cal Poly’s 16th head football coach in January. Prior to coach-ing the Mustangs, Walsh held head coaching jobs at Sonoma State and Portland State, where he combined for a 117-82 record over 18 years.

With a tough early season sched-ule Cal Poly has not gotten off to the best start, but its opponents should ease up as the schedule progresses. Of the Mustangs’ three losses, two have come to Football Bowl Sub-division teams while the third came against the fourth-ranked Montana Grizzlies of the Football Champi-onship Subdivision.

Finishing the regular season last

year at 8-2 under Rich Ellerson, Cal Poly was a topic among FCS championship contenders. Last year, the Mustangs clinched a play-off berth and averaged 44.4 points and 487.5 yards per game.

In the first round playoff loss to Weber State, the Mustangs put to-gether 548 yards of total offense, but fell 49-35.

This season, Cal Poly is strug-gling to find love in the polls with a .500 record, despite the level of

competition.“If we win this week then

people will start talking about us again, if not then we don’t deserve to be talked about,” Walsh said. “It’s not in our hands … what you can control is making sure when (the playoff selection committee) has to select the teams, we’re one of teams that they talk about.”

If Cal Poly is to remain in the playoff discussion it will almost assuredly have to get past a Di-

xie State program that plays at the Division II level. The Red Storm were elevated to Division II just three years ago after playing at the community college level.

The Red Storm offense is led by senior quarterback Judd Thomp-son. He has completed 57 percent of his passes for 2,093 yards with 14 touchdowns and 14 intercep-tions.

Running back Tauni Vakapuna rushed for more than 100 yards

last week against Azusa Pacific and has rushed for 395 yards and five touchdowns, in eight games.

Overall, the Red Storm averag-es 322.3 total yards per game with 21.8 points per game; however, their attack could be considered one dimensional, Dixie State aver-ages 58 yards on the ground.

If the Red Storm are to take any positive into this game, it could be that they are going against a tired Cal Poly defense. The Mustang de-fense was on display for 90 plays in last Saturday’s 24-23 win over Southern Utah.

“The 90 plays we played, was because how we played on de-fense.” Tim Walsh said.

After playing considerably well through the first half of the season, the Mustang defense gave up 385 total yards and couldn’t find ways to get off the field.

Southern Utah was able to convert 8-of-15 third downs and 2-of-4 fourth downs, including a 4th and 10 in the fourth quarter.

“They’re going to run the exact offense we just saw and that was an issue this past weekend.” Walsh said. “We have to find ways to get off the field… when its third and [long], or fourth and [long] we have to get off the field.”

The Mustangs and Dixie State have Southern Utah as a common opponent. While Cal Poly escaped with a narrow win, the Red Storm dropped a 36-7 decision against their in-state rivals on Sept. 3.

Sports

MUSTANG DAILYSPORTSmustangdaily.net

Tuesday, October 22, 2009

sports editor: Brian De Los [email protected]

Sean Hanrahanmustang daily

Poly athletics will take on its most threatening challenger this season: budget cuts.

Athletics, like many university de-partments, is feeling the pressure to

maintain program standards, while performing with less.

Minimized budgets have forced the department to cut personnel and keep competitive programs local. To save where it can, delaying pricey pur-chases and cutting back on advertising has alleviated much expense for the

department.Three department positions a

fundraising position and two intern positions have been cut.

“We have tried to make cuts that don’t directly impact the student ath-lete or the athletic experience, but I do think we will have to continue to

make more changes,” Athletics Direc-tor Alison Cone said.

Cone said this is a result of “the most dramatic economic hardship” during her 15-year career with the California State University (CSU) and six-year post at Cal Poly.

“We can save a lot by getting an extra year or two out of what uni-forms and training equipment we currently have,” Cone said.

Scholarships will likely take a hit come recruitment season, despite the department’s efforts to cut away from the athlete.

But cutting expenditures still has its costs.

Athletics cut media guides this season, a savings of nearly $25,000 annually, and will distribute a similar product online. The effect this will have on athletes attracting recruiting coaches is an apparent concern.

Because a fundraising position

was cut, coaches will have to be more aggressive when asking for gifts and awards independently. Without me-dia guides, students may have to self-promote more widely. With less staff, administrators will be busier.

In addition to media guides going digital, Poly athletics has a larger Web presence this year, but fewer print ad-vertisements.

Cal Poly fans may have already felt the impact of the budget cuts.

One of the sports information in-terns, Andrew Tomsky, called many of Cal Poly’s big sporting events live on the school’s official athletic site in the past. But with the position’s departure, only a few soccer matches have been broadcast on the Web site during the fall athletic season.

The marketing team is tapping into online social media to take advantage of no-cost promotion while funds are low. “It’s something we had started in the past, but are now developing further,” assistant athletic director of marketing Shaun Russel said.

With printed materials “we are still getting good exposure, just not able to purchase as many ads,” he said. “Frequency, and duration remains key.”

Although advertisements play a large role in attracting crowds to games, it’s still too early to see any detrimental results this year.

“Things are taking longer to get done because we are operating with fewer people…but so far we are do-ing a great job, like we’ve always done,” Cone said.

Mustang athletics vs. budget cuts: Who’s winning?

nick camacho mustang daily file photoSlot back Jono Grayson has rushed for 223 yards off 23 carries with one score. He averages six yards per carry.

No. 19 Mustangs square off against Dixie State

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