THE BG NEWS A test of love
ESTABLISHED 1920 A daily independent student press serving the campus and surrounding community
Wednesday April 9, 2008
Volume 101, Issue 135
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‘Hoe Down for Health’ today on campus
Students will be able to measure their cholesterol and have their skin tested for sun damage at the Health and Wellness Fair | Page 3
The demand for gasoline is expected to go down by 0.4 percent due to the price increase | Page 7
Baby born in India with two faces
SPORTS FORUM
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A woman gives birth to a baby with a very rare condition who is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a goddess | Page 14
By Christie Kerner Reporter
A recent New York Times poll shows that 81 percent of Americans think that the U.S. is on the wrong track, Columnist Sean Lutzmann explains why | Page 4
‘Big Oil’ does not exist
Columnist Sean Martin argues that Americans and the government should be worried about ‘Big Politics’ | Page 4
What do you put on your pancakes?
HAMID JAMZHIDI, Senior, Computer Science
“I don’t like pancakes.” | Page 4
TODAY A.M. Showers High: 58, Low: 36
TOMORROW P.M. Showers High: 54, Low: 45
See LOVE | Page 2
Business class taste tests new frozen treat
The Falcons continue their losing streak, falling to the Dayton Flyers 7-2. | Page 9
The future of America
PEOPLE ON THE STREET
By Kristen Vasas | Reporter
Gas prices may reach $4 this summer
BG baseball loses big
WEATHER
Students balance books and vows
he sound of ocean waves are heard in the distance as a reggae sounding tune is played on an accompanying piano. Gulls cry overhead as a soft breeze lifts Kelsey Ahern’s white veil while she walks down an aisle lined with palm trees and leafy fronds. She stops at the steps of a white veranda and reaches for the hand of her best friend and soul mate Luke Ahern. As the 21-year-olds recite their vows and kiss for the first time as husband and wife, the worries and pressures that are associated with college students are far from their minds. But unlike other newlyweds, the Aherns still must worry about textbook prices, tuition and graduation after the honeymoon is over. Though they are married, they still are enrolled as students at Bowling Green State University. “When we first got engaged, a lot of people said we were too young to get married, especially because we were still in college,” Kelsey said. “But I want people to know that it’s OK to get married when you’re in college if you truly love your significant other.” Although the Aherns were told to expect a number of extra stressors because of their decision to get married while in college, Kelsey said the couple has had a relatively easy time balancing their romantic and educational lives. “We make life work even though we don’t have a lot of money or luxury,” Kelsey said. “We have fun together, and that makes life easier.” And though the Aherns may feel they are
The aroma of pancakes filled the air as students waited in the lounge of the Business Administration Building yesterday evening for a taste test of pancakes made from frozen batter. The event was part of a an entrepreneurship class project to help Former Board of Trustee Kermit Stroh conduct product research for the pancakes, which he hopes to bring to stores across the United States. Stroh first discovered the pancakes at the Americana restaurant that opened in the 1960s in Petoskey, Mich. “I was in my own business in Burt Lake, Michigan right outside Petoskey when my daughters were little and we started going to the restaurant and getting to know the family,” Stroh said. The Americana restaurant made a name for itself during its years of business.
day and judged the product on convenience, perception, cost, price, appearance and packaging. The results will determine whether or not the next step will be taken to move forward with the product. Milt Baker, the course instructor, thinks it is beneficial for students to work with entrepreneurs like Stroh. “I started the class BA 491 where students can work with businesses and have an acaENOCH WU | THE BG NEWS demic perspective plus handsFLAP JACK FROST: Jonathan Barrett, a pancake entrepreneur, prepares a batch of pancakes on [experience],” Baker said. for a group of students and faculty who are taste-testing his family’s product against other The students tasted the panpopular pancake products. Barrett hopes to carry on the family tradition by introducing a frozen cakes with two different syrups pancake batter to the market. and compared them with three other types and brands of pan“People used to stand outside pancakes back to people again cakes. The ingredients are the and wait 20 to 30 minutes,” Stroh — and Stroh wanted to help same as any pancake batter, but how the pancakes are cooked is said. make it happen. But the store, who got the orig“I sold my old business but the the secret. “[The recipe] has everything inal recipe from the Whiter hotel fire was still burning to do someyou would find in the kitchen in Detroit closed six years ago. thing else,” Stroh said. After the restaurant closed, To assist Stroh, The but it is the timing in which it the pancake recipe sat dor- Dallas-Hamilton Center for is put together,” granddaughter mant for four years. But the Entrepreneurial Leadership at See PANCAKES | Page 2 owner’s grandson, Jonathan BGSU and entrepreneurship Barrett wanted to bring the class tested the pancakes yester-
Olympic torch greeted with protests in San Francisco
Fed slashes interest rate fearing recession By Jeannine Aversa The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Worries about a deep recession — not a shallow one — drove Federal Reserve policymakers to slash a key interest rate last month, meeting minutes show. Even as the Fed battled in almost unprecedented fashion to stem a widening credit and housing slump, some members fretted over the possibility of a “prolonged and severe” economic downturn. It was in that environment that they voted — with two dissents — to cut its most important interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 2.25 percent. That action capped the most aggressive Fed intervention in a quarter-century. Some Fed policymakers thought that such a widening recession could not be ruled out given the “further restriction of credit availability and ongoing weakness in the housing market,” according to the meeting minutes that were made public yesterday. Two Fed members — Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — opposed such a big rate reduction, however. They favored a smaller cut because of concerns about a potential inflation flare-up. It was a crack in the mostly unified front that the fed often has projected to the public. The minutes of the closed-door March meeting underscored the economic cross-currents pulling at Fed policymakers. “With the uncertainties in the outlook for both economic activity and inflation elevated, members noted that appropriately calibrating the stance of [interest-rate] policy was difficult,” the minutes stated. On the one hand, the Fed has been urgently moving to prevent the trio of economic woes — housing, credit and financial— from plunging the country into a deep recession. On the other hand, with soaring energy prices and high food costs, policymakers realize that they can’t afford
See FED | Page 2
STUDENT SLAVE SHIP SIMULATION
By Juliana Barbassa The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The Olympic torch arrived for its only North American stop amid heavy security yesterday, a day after its visit to Paris descended into chaos and activists here scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to protest China’s human rights record. Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the body’s executive board would discuss Friday whether to end the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay because of widespread protests. The torch’s global journey was supposed to highlight China’s growing economic and political power. But activists opposing China’s human rights policies and a recent crackdown on Tibet have been protesting along the torch’s 85,000-mile route since the start of the flame’s odyssey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to Beijing, host of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Rogge told The Associated Press he was “deeply saddened” by violent protests in London and Paris and concerned about the relay in San Francisco, where activists expressed fears that the
KIM KOMENICH | AP PHOTO
OLYMPIC TORCH: Olympic torch bearer Kortney Clemons, 27, of Little Rock, Mississippi participates in a media event yesterday in San Francisco.
torch’s planned route through Tibet would lead to arrests and violent measures by Chinese officials trying to stifle dissent. The flame arrived in San Francisco shortly before 4 a.m. and was immediately put in a vehicle to be whisked away to a secret location, San Francisco Olympic Torch Relay Committee spokesman David Perry said. Security was heightened because several protests were planned before the torch’s six-mile relay today. “We treated it like a head of state visit,” airport spokesman Mike McCaron said.
Already, one runner who planned to carry the flame during the San Francisco relay dropped out because of safety concerns, Perry said. The person was not identified, but Perry said he understood the concern. Three people climbed the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday and tied the Tibetan flag and two banners to its cables. The banners read “One World One Dream. Free Tibet,” and “Free Tibet 08.” They later climbed down and bridge workers cut
See TORCH | Page 2
SCOTT RECKER | THE BG NEWS
ALL TIED UP: University students interact in an activity that emulates what it was like to be a prisoner on a slave ship. Last night in Hanna Hall “The Box of Horrors: Not Your Ordinary Haunted House” allowed students to interact in several hypothetical situations like this.
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