Today in wildlife
BOO! TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF TUCSON’S SCARIEST HAUNTED HOUSES
ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
wednesday, october ,
tucson, arizona
dailywildcat.com
Torture rampant despite ban United Nations’ panel finds many countries continue abuses MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE Lisa Beth Earle/Arizona Daily Wildcat
The copper-like panels gracing the facade of the new residence hall on Tyndall Avenue and Sixth Street are examples of the details being added to the dorm as construction continues. Solar panels have already been installed on the roof of the sustainable hall.
New dorms solar powered Students will have energy efficient options in Sixth Street residence halls By Bethany Barnes ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Construction on the new dorms is both on schedule and sustainable , officials say. The new halls will be located on Highland and Sixth Street, and Tyndall Avenue and Sixth Street. Both halls are built to be sustainable with the hope of winning a silver LEED certification. Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design is a designation given to buildings designed to be sustainable. Solar panels already installed on the roof will provide 60 percent of the hot water needs. “They’re doing this because it will use less energy and it’s the responsible approach to take and we will be using less steam which is the university’s method for providing hot water,” said Melissa Dryden, senior
program coordinator for planning, design and construction. In addition to the panels, the rooms will also have smart thermostats that will recognize when the room is unoccupied. “After the room has been unoccupied for a period, then the heating or cooling would be lowered to a more energy efficient setting,” Dryden said. Each room will also have two different types of outlets, one of which will be a more
energy efficient outlet that will shut off when the room is unoccupied. The halls will also be equipped for water harvesting and storm water mitigation. “When we have storms, the water will be harvested and then be able to be used for the landscaping,” Dryden said. Students will also be able to open their windows for air cirDORMS, page 3
Obama signs Hispanic education order MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE WASHINGTON — Two weeks before elections in which Democrats in several states are nervous that depressed turnout by Latino voters could cost them their jobs, President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed an executive order to improve Hispanic children’s educational opportunities. Obama’s order appeared to be, at least in part, a bid to rally Latinos behind Democrats and him this election season. If Latino voters sit out the elections, that’ll hurt Democrats the most, because most Latinos traditionally back Democrats. This could be of particular consequence in close contests this year in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas and Washington state. A survey that the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center released this month found that education, jobs and health care rank as the top issues for registered Latino voters. Immigration came in fifth, behind federal budget deficits. Nearly two years after Obama was elected, legislation that would give millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship is going nowhere in Congress. The
narrower DREAM Act, which would allow young illegal immigrants who serve in the military or attend college to seek citizenship, also is stalled. Latinos make up roughly 15 percent of the U.S. population and 9 percent of eligible voters. However, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the elections had nothing to do with the executive order, noting Latino dropout rates. “It’s the right thing to do, not because of the political calendar,” Gibbs said. A mariachi band played in the White House Grand Foyer as Obama entered the East Room before an audience of HispanicAmerican advocates. There he signed the order renewing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. The program, an effort to determine the causes of the achievement gap between Hispanic students and their peers and to work to address them, began under President George H.W. Bush, and continued and expanded under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Despite two decades of focused efforts, only 50 percent of Hispanic chil-
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dren graduate from high school within four years, compared with three-fourths of all incoming freshmen. Obama said that Latinos accounted for more than one in five U.S. students and were more likely to attend low-performing schools, be in larger classes, drop out or arrive at college underprepared. “This is not just a Latino problem, this is an American problem … we will all fall behind together,” he said, adding that there isn’t just a moral aspect but also “an economic imperative” to improve Latino students’ performances. The president didn’t mention voter turnout. He called on Congress to pass the DREAM Act and told the Hispanic advocates that his approach is about “giving you more say in the policies that affect your lives.” “Immigration reform is high on our list,” said Rudy Lopez, the national field director and political director of the advocacy group Center for Community Change, “but we also want good schools for our kids and jobs.” Lopez said the executive order was “a gesture,” and “a good thing.” Nevertheless, he doesn’t expect Latino turnout this year to approach 2008 or 2006 levels.
The Daily Wildcat gives you a heads up on what to expect this Homecoming weekend.
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Gaelic Storm performs live Celtic fusion music at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. at 8 p.m.
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UNITED NATIONS — Torture is still practiced in countries that signed the Convention Against Torture 26 years ago, the United Nations said Tuesday. Claudio Grossman, chairman of a U.N. committee monitoring implementation of the convention, said the world has yet to achieve the goal of eradicating torture and inhuman treatment — as called for in the agreement signed in 1984. “The absolute prohibition of torture … is not yet a reality in many states that have ratified the convention,” Grossman said on the fringes of meetings with heads of human-rights organizations at U.N. headquarters in New York. The convention bans torture under any circumstances, including during wartime or internal political conflicts. The document bans deportation to countries where deportees would face the risk of torture and prohibits use of torture to extract information in legal proceedings. The committee against torture studied reports each year from countries that are parties to the convention, on their implementation of the convention. Grossman said some 32 countries of the 147 signatories have yet to submit their reports for 2010. The committee has expressed “regrets” that 64 of the 147 parties have rejected its competence to examine individual complaints alleging torture. Individual complaints are an “important tool” for gauging the implementation of the convention, allowing torture victims to present their cases before the international community, Grossman said. He called those complaints “reallife situations.” The committee this year determined that deportation of people to countries where they risk sexual violence amounts to a breach of the convention. Grossman said the decision was taken because the convention against torture is a case of evolving jurisprudence. Grossman is dean of the American University Washington College of Law and a member of the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights. The signers of the convention include the five U.N. Security Council permanent members: the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain.
“Very Young Girls,” a film about the early entry of young women into prostitution in New York City, 7 p.m. at Gallagher Theater.
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