Jan. 29, 2014

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Life

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Central Michigan University’s premier news source and student voice since 1919.

Harlem Globetrotters Team brings smiles, leaves memories at McGuirk Arena »PAGE 3A

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WEDNESDAY, JAN. 29, 2014 | MOUNT PLEASANT, MICH | ISSUE NO. 50 VOL. 95

LIFE IN BRIEF VIBE

City explores off-campus parking options Mount Pleasant City Commission interested in increasing parking enforcement By John Irwin Senior Reporter

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NEW MACS New iMacs in the Charles V. Park library are fully-loaded with the Adobe Suite 6 programs that students need to do grade A work. w 5A

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LIFE INSIDE Obscure major gives CMU students confidence

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Students weigh in on worst film adaptations

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Card games remain popular among locals, CMU students

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Check out this weeks MAC standings for spring sports

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The B i CRYSTAL BRADFORD See what junior women’s basketball player Crystal Bradford thinks of the Chippewas next opponent as CMU prepares to host Eastern Michigan on Thursday. w 7B

Daniels entertains hundreds at first Max & Emily’s winter concert By Katherine Ranzenberger Senior Reporter

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s he sat on the lone chair on Plachta Auditorium’s stage, Jeff Daniels heated up the room with guitar in hand and his Emmy Award sitting beside him. Daniels returned to Mount Pleasant and Central Michigan University’s campus, a place he considers home, to share his stories and his music with the community as a part of the Max & Emily’s Concert Series. “You can cancel classes, but you can’t cancel me,” he said to begin the evening Tuesday. For nearly two hours, Daniels had the audience captivated with stories of his wife, his family and the adventures he’s had in acting. He sang songs about his days at CMU and in New York City. Daniels shared a story about one of his first big callbacks. He and four other men were sitting in a waiting room, chatting about where they had gone to school. Daniels said it was the first time he realized his education hadn’t been for nothing. w DANIELS | 2A

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Obama: ‘Give America a raise’

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DC VS. MARVEL Among the two comic book giants, heated debates continue to rage on, but who is the champion of the printed page? w 2B

test their effectiveness. It will also pilot a “smart meter” program, expanding meters to West Campus Drive, increasing parking enforcement and reinvesting parking revenue into neighborhoods. Smart meters allow drivers to pay for their parking spot using a phone or credit card as opposed to change, ideal for students. Baron said CMU, which currently partners with the city in enforcing the parking meters on West Bellows Street next to the graduate student housing complex, is interested in expanding its partnership with the city, which

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HEROCLIX Discover the world of super heros and adventure with friends and enemies “clixing” the night away. w 1B

Central Michigan University might soon be expanding its parking enforcement efforts further across Mount Pleasant if city commissioners have their way. Following Monday’s Mount Pleasant City Commission meeting, commissioners met with Phil Baron of Walker Parking Consultants for a work session to discuss the results and recommendations of a parking study. “When residents know the money

they pay is going back into the neighborhood, it’s a great tool (for implementing new parking programs),” Baron said. Baron and Walker Parking, which received a $25,000 contract from Mount Pleasant in 2012 to conduct the study, came back with five recommendations on how to deter CMU students and commuters from parking in residential areas directly north of campus. Recommendations in the “all-encompassing” plan include launching a pilot residential parking permit plan, potentially free of cost to residents in neighborhoods north of campus to

is short on enforcement personnel should it adopt any of those measures. “It’s a better product to park on campus,” Baron said at Monday’s city commission meeting. The university would have an interest in stricter off-campus parking measures, as Walker Parking found 75 percent of CMU’s 11,158 parking spaces are used during peak hours on campus. That means 2,835 spots remain unused. “They would be willing to do the enforcement, but they’re not going to do it for free,” Baron said, adding that the university is interested in partner-

Samantha Madar | Photo Editor Jeff Daniels performs at Plachta Auditorium Tuesday night at the Max and Emily’s winter concert. Illustration by Kayla Folino | Page Designer

President encourages minimum wage increase during State of the Union w

By John Irwin Senior Reporter

President Barack Obama called on Congress to help him restore “opportunity for all” in his fifth State of the Union address and said he will take action even if they do not. “America does not stand still, and neither will I,” Obama said. “So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.” Obama spent much of the speech highlighting the successes of his administration over the past five years and laying out executive actions he will take to advance his agenda, often urging Congress to expand on Barack Obama those actions. He announced a minimum wage increase to $10.10 per hour for employees of federal contractors through an executive order, in addition to urging Congress to pass a federal minimum wage hike and an extension of longterm unemployment insurance. “This will help families,” Obama said. “It will give businesses customers with more money to spend. It doesn’t involve any new bureaucratic program. So join the rest of the country. Say ‘yes’. Give America a raise.” The speech was geared toward addressing declining economic mobility and rising income inequality, in addition to lingering unemployment rates. “Inequality has deepened, upward mobility has stalled,” Obama said. “The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all. Our job is to reverse these trends.” In the official Republican response, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said Obama’s policies have contributed to growing inequality of opportunity. “Too many people are falling further and further behind because right now the president’s policies are leaving them behind,” McMorris Rodgers said. Obama defended the Affordable Care Act, his signature health care reform law that came under fire last year for its bungled rollout, tying it to the economic recovery. He blasted House Republicans for voting to repeal it several times over the past year. “Let’s not have another 40-something votes to repeal a law that’s already helping millions of Americans,” Obama said to loud applause from Democrats. “The first 40 were plenty. We all owe it to the American people to say what we’re for, not just what we’re against.” w OBAMA | 2A

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