DAILY LOBO new mexico
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
September 15, 2009
Party Patrol polices tailgate
Students to aid health care in Central America by Alex Borowski Daily Lobo
Amid the uproar over health care in the U.S., two medical student delegations are traveling to El Salvador, and, for the first time, Honduras, to provide basic medical aid. Graduate student Megan Fitzpatrick founded the International Medical Delegation program, which makes annual trips to El Salvador, while she was an undergraduate student three summers ago. Lilliam Aguilar, who was part of last year’s delegation, created a UNM branch delegation of Operation Smile, a children’s charity treating facial deformities such as cleft lips and cleft palates all around the world, which will travel to Honduras. The two programs are accepting applications until Friday. The IMD program is accepting 10 delegates and the Operation Smile program is accepting up to 14 people. Christian Garcia, president of the IMD 2010 delegation, said the program’s aim is to help the impoverished population of El Salvador. “Our main focus is to provide medical aid and health education to rural, underserved areas in El Salvador,” he said. According to the UNM IMD Web site, the state of La Paz in El Salvador has only five doctors for a population of 30,000, and the average El Salvadorian family lives on $3 a day, with little to no access to medical professionals. Students raise funds for the trip through much of the year and work with the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights for the
Children of El Salvador to finance the program. Fundraisers in the past have included concerts with local bands, such as Asper Kourt and Le Chat Lunatique, and the Miles for Medicine run, with more than 160 participants. Garcia said the delegation is helping El Salvadorian locals and doctors secure clean drinking water to improve the country’s overall health for the first time. “(We) will aim to provide more biofilters to more households and explore other ways of facilitating clean water in the rural areas we visit,” Garcia said. Students who participate come from a range of backgrounds and majors, from pre-medical to political science, from chemical engineering to anthropology, Garcia said. Although the program is still young, its impact on UNM students who participate is great, said Junior Chris Plaman. Plaman went on the trip during his freshman and sophomore years. “It makes you more aware of the global situation and it makes you more aware that not everyone has the same situation as you have …,” he said. “It teaches you to appreciate the little things in life that other people take for granted.” Loren Wohletz, who went on the trip his senior year, said he would recommend the program to other students. “If you have any doubts or hesitation on whether or not to go … just do it or at least apply,” he said. “I had no regrets, and it’s one of the coolest things I did as part of the
by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
Tricia Remark / Daily Lobo A Salvadoran doctor reaches for prescription medicine for members of her community in this photo taken in May. UNM International Medical Delegation members raised money to buy medicine for communities in the impoverished country. undergraduate program.” Freshman Kate Freeland said she is applying to the program because it will help her medical career. “I want to get my master’s in public health, and this is a public health project,” she said. “A lot of internships you can get in public health are mostly pencil-pushing, but this is much more hands-on.”
IMD program: apply to Christian Garcia at cgarcia2@unm.edu Operation Smile: apply to Lilliam Aguilar at lilliama@unm.edu
The Albuquerque Police Department Party Patrol was on the lookout during tailgate parties on Saturday and issued six citations for underage drinking, said Lt. Harold Medina, APD party patrol coordinator. Officers were checking for underage alcohol drinking, and APD sent out an e-mail to all UNM students on Friday warning that law enforcement would be at the next three games checking IDs and issuing citations to drinkers under 21. The Party Patrol issued six citations for minors in possession of alcohol during pregame tailgating Saturday, Medina said. Twelve officers from the Party Patrol were at the tailgate, he said. Medina said the Party Patrol will continue to come to future tailgate parties to enforce drinking laws. “I think that the University opens themselves up to a lot of liability if they don’t put their foot down about underage drinking,” he said. Medina said Party Patrol didn’t start coming to tailgates because of any specific incident, but he knows that there have been many problems that involved alcohol at tailgates. “I do know that in the past there have been fights out here because
see Tailgating page 3
Obama delivers warning to Wall Street by Ben Feller
The Associated Press NEW YORK — President Barack Obama sternly warned Wall Street Monday against returning to the sort of reckless and unchecked behavior that threatened the nation with a second Great Depression. Even as he noted the U.S. economy and financial system were pulling out of a downward spiral, Obama warned financial titans on the first anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that they could not count on any more bailouts. He credited his administration and the $787 billion stimulus package rammed through Congress in the first days after he took office for pulling the country back from the brink. “We can be confident that the storms of the past two years are beginning to break,” he said. And even as the economy begins a “return to normalcy,” Obama said, “normalcy cannot lead to complacency.”
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Nevertheless, Obama said, “Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we are still recovering, they are choosing to ignore them.” His tough message warned the financial community to “hear my words: We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses.” Obama spoke at Federal Hall in the heart of Wall Street before an audience that included members of the financial community, lawmakers and top administration officials. Afterwards, he joined former President Bill Clinton for lunch at a New York restaurant as the White House announced Obama would address the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative Sept. 22 while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting. In marking his determination to prevent a repeat of the crisis that nearly brought down the global
financial system last fall, Obama said he was attacking the problem on several broad fronts, including asking Congress to approve new rules to protect consumers and a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to enforce those rules. He also called for the closure of regulator loopholes and overlap that “were at the heart of the crisis” because they left key officials without “the authority to take action.” At the Pittsburgh G-20 economic meeting later this month, Obama said the U.S. will focus on ways “to spur global demand but also to address the underlying problems that caused such a deep and lasting global recession.” Obama and others seeking ways to better monitor the financial system and to police the products banks sell to consumers have been opposed by lobbyists, lawmakers and turf-protecting regulators. Mergers and sales of banks have consolidated lending power in even fewer hands. And those large firms still bet far more than the capital they have on hand. Yet regulations have not moved.
Charles Dharapak / AP Photo President Barack Obama speaks about the financial crisis on Monday at Federal Hall on Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. Yesterday was the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse. Much of the legislative motivation in Washington has been consumed by the contentious debate over changes to the health care system. Government intervention into private automakers such as General Motors has left lawmakers skittish to move further into corporate boardrooms. And it’s not
Opinion: Pants on fire
Photog keeps work
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as if another collapse is obviously imminent. On Capitol Hill, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the administration deserves “considerable credit” for acting to stabilize the financial system, but he warned that Congress should not overreact in approving new regulations.
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