Volume 90, Issue 10 | November 10, 2010
the
Charger Bulletin The official student newspaper of the University of New Haven since 1938.
www.ChargerBulletin.com
Democrats and Republicans Celebrate Midterm Victories
By LIANA TEIXEIRA STAFF WRITER
–––––––––––––––––––––––––– After months of heated debates between Republican and Democratic candidates, the 2010 midterm elections have finally drawn to a close. Voters across the United States eagerly headed to the polls on Tuesday, November 2 to decide on multiple congressional and state government offices. Results from the nationwide elections show that Republicans gained a significant number of seats in the House of Representatives: approximately 60. While some seats remain undecided, the House will now mainly consist of 188 Democrats and 239 Republicans, a drastic change from the former Democratic House majority since 2008. These results come as a delight to Republicans throughout the country. “Tonight the voters ensured their message was heard loud and clear,” Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said to NBC News after the polls closed. Excitement over the positive election results has already influenced the minds (and wallets) of possible GOP candidates for the 2012 Presidential elections. Former 2008 Republican candidates Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike
Huckabee are already preparing platforms and raising money for the upcoming presidential campaign, according to Tom Diemer of Politics Daily. Campaigning for the 2012 elections could start as early as spring of 2011. Although the GOP impressively surpassed the 40 seats needed to get control of the
to Blumenthal by over 100,000 votes. Blumenthal fills the seat vacated by former CT Senator Christopher Dodd, also a Democrat. In addition to maintaining a Democratic senator, many of Connecticut’s other state positions were also filled with leftwing candidates, including the
House, Democrats have reason to celebrate as well; they maintain the Senate majority at 53. Republicans failed to gain control over both congressional houses despite winning an additional six Senate seats, resulting in a divided Congress. Democrats particularly fared well in Connecticut, where the coveted position of Senator was up for grabs. Ultimately, former Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was elected to the U.S. Senate after defeating Republican Linda McMahon. McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, spent over $40 million of her own money on the campaign, but lost
governor. The gubernatorial election in CT was one of the closest races in the nation, with Democrat Dan Malloy beating out Republican Tom Foley by a mere 5,644 votes according to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz. “We think there was a strong turnout,” Bysiewicz reported to the Hartford Courant after the polling places closed, “Many towns are reporting 60 percent”. This high voter turnout could not have been more evident than in Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest city. 12 of the 25 voting locations in Bridgeport ran out of ballots, forcing an emergency extension of
Where’s the Gulf Oil? In the Food Web, Study Says By SETH BORENSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
–––––––––––––––––––––––––– WASHINGTON – Scientists say they have for the first time tracked how certain nontoxic elements of oil from the BP spill quickly became dinner for plankton, entering the food web in the Gulf of Mexico.
said chief study author William “Monty” Graham, a plankton expert at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. “It just became food.” The study didn’t specifically track the toxic components of the oil that has people worried. It focused on the way the basic element carbon moved through the beginnings of the all-impor-
AN AP PHOTO
The new study sheds light on two key questions about the aftermath of the 172 milliongallon spill in April: What happened to the oil that once covered the water’s surface and will it work its way into the diets of Gulf marine life? “Everybody is making a huge deal of where did the oil go,”
tant food web. Graham said the “eye-opening” speed of how the oil components moved through the ecosystem may affect the overall health of the Gulf. Michael Crosby of the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida didn’t take part in the study but said what fascinated him was See GULF OIL page 5
See MIDTERM page 6
Three Lives Take the Stage
in history. As Kahlo, Almanzar made the audience laugh with –––––––––––––––––––––––––– the painter’s brash, yet independent and free-spirited personOn Monday night, Novem- ality. However, she still found ber 1, Dodds Theater brought time to enrich the audience on three women to life for a night Kahlo’s life, her tremulous reof culture and wonder. The Latin lationship with her husband, American Student Association painter Diego Rivera, the inju(LASA), along with the Office of ries and hardships she suffered, Intercultural Relations, brought and the style of her art. For this The Core Ensemble to campus last lesson, Almanzar was acfor a presentation of Tres Vi- companied on stage by Los Dos das (Three Lives), a play that celebrates the lives of three important Hispanic women. The Core Ensemble is made up of three musiAN AP PHOTO cians: Wendy Law on the cello, Hugh Hinton Fridas (The Two Fridas), one of on piano, and Michael Parola on Kahlo’s most famous works. It percussion. The is also actress depicts two versions of the artRosanne Alamanzar. They pro- ist: the traditionally minded and vided various pieces of music traditionally dressed woman on throughout the production, in- the left and the independent, cluding traditional Hispanic folk feminist Frida on the right. Both songs and the works of many fa- hearts are exposed, but the tramous Hispanic composers, such ditional Frida’s bleeds over the as Astor Pizzaolla. The play was dress. Not only is the indepenwritten by award winning writer dent Frida’s heart intact, but it Majorie Agosin and designed as pumps blood into the other heart a “one woman show,” as Alman- through a connected artery. This zar plays all three roles. reinforces how passionately Tres Vidas began with the sto- Kahlo felt towards her indepenry of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), dence and strength. one of the most famous and imThe night suddenly took on a portant Hispanic woman artists See THREE LIVES page 4 By ISAAK KIFLE STAFF WRITER
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Signs of Political Progress as Iraqi Leaders Meet
tacks since last week, following the slaughter of more than 50 –––––––––––––––––––––––––– Christians in a Baghdad church and a string of 13 coordinated IRBIL, Iraq – Leaders of all bombings across Baghdad that the main Iraqi political blocs met killed more than 70 people. Monday for the first time since Prime Minister Nouri alMarch elections in a new push Maliki, who is fighting to keep to break the eightmonth deadlock over forming a new government. Car bombs struck the country’s two holiest cities and killed 14 people, a reminder that insurgents remain determined to destabilize Iraq. The 90-minute meeting of political leaders in the northern town of Irbil kicked off three days of negotiations that could his job, was among the leaders signal the deeply divided politi- who attended the meeting in Ircal blocs are close to a power- bil. His main rival, Ayad Allawi, sharing agreement. However, was also there. Allawi heads the officials said there are still major Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition obstacles to overcome. that won 91 seats, more than any Since inconclusive March 7 other party, in the parliamentary elections, insurgents have tried election. Al-Maliki’s bloc took to exploit political uncertainty second with 89 seats. over the new government with But no party won an outright periodic violence. Monday’s majority in the 325-seat parliablasts were the third major at- ment and the blocs have spent By YAHYA BARZANJI ASSOCIATED PRESS
the past eight months haggling to form alliances that could lead to a government inclusive enough so that it will not trigger a new outbreak of sectarian strife that just a few years ago brought Iraq to the brink of civil war. Al-Maliki described the meeting as a new push forward by the political blocs to reach an agreement. “We need to open a new page and leave the past behind,” he said. Others who attended pointed to difficulties in forging an agreement between political parties that have in the past fought their AN AP PHOTO battles on the streets and still view each other with deep suspicion. Vice President Tareq alHashimi, a Sunni from the Iraqiya alliance, warned that negotiating committees who have been meeting for weeks before the Irbil summit had left many of the most contentious issues to the leaders to work out. “Based on that, I do not think that the leaders will be able to See PROGRESS page 6