DAILY LOBO new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Always a bridesmaid... see Page 4
thursday February 21, 2013
DANCE IN THE DARK
IN SESSION
Make Lottery tougher to keep, shorter?
Lawmaker wants 15 credit hours, only seven semesters by John Tyczkowski news@dailylobo.com
The latest proposal to save the Lottery Scholarship aims to make requirements for keeping the scholarship stricter. House Bill 309, “Lottery Scholarship Solvency Program,” sponsored by Rep. James P. White (R-Albuquerque) is scheduled to be heard in the House Education Committee on Friday. The bill is another attempt to prevent the Lottery Scholarship from running out of money in July. This one proposes to do so by increasing the number of credit hours required and decreasing the number of semesters for which the scholarship is awarded. For students attending fouryear institutions, the bill would change the time period undergraduate students can receive the scholarship from the current eight semesters to seven semesters. It would raise the minimum number of required credits from 12 to 15. These new guidelines would apply to students who have received five semesters or fewer of the scholarship as of fall 2013. Chris Sadler, a UNM astrophysics student, had the scholarship for his first three semesters but said he lost it for his fourth semester because his GPA dropped 0.5 points below the 2.5 limit. If he regains his scholarship and if the bill passes, he will be subject to the bill’s seven-semester limit. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea,” Sadler said. “It might make students try to cram more classes in each semester, and take more than they could handle to finish before then.” Sadler said he is also concerned about the proposed 15credit requirement, because he works part time at the SUB. “It’s already difficult to take 12 credits and work,” Sadler said. “Many students do this, and it would be even harder for students who work full time to take 15 credits.”
see Lottery PAGE 3
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 117
issue 106
Sergio Jiménez / Daily Lobo UNM student Louis Roccato dances alone for a moment during “NLN,” one of several pieces in the upcoming dance faculty show “ArtFacts.” “NLN” is choreographed by professor Vladimir Conde Reche and features a multimedia visual piece projected onto one of the dancers. See full story Page 10.
Sen. Domenici admits secret child by Jeri Clausing
The Associated Press Former Sen. Pete Domenici has disclosed that he fathered a secret child in the 1970s with the 24-yearold daughter of one of his Senate colleagues — a startling revelation for a politician with a reputation as an upstanding family man. Domenici and Michelle Laxalt sent statements to the Albuquerque Journal that announced the relationship for the first time and identified their son as Nevada attorney Adam Paul Laxalt. They said they decided to go public with their decades-old secret because they believed someone was about to release the information in an attempt to smear Domenici. “I deeply regret this and am very sorry for my behavior,” Domenici, 80, said in his statement. “I hope New Mexicans will view that my accomplishments for my beloved state outweigh my personal transgression.” The Journal reported on the relationship in an article published Wednesday. Domenici, a Republican, was the longest-serving senator in New Mexico history when he retired in 2008 after six terms. He was known for his unflagging support of the state’s national laboratories and military installations, and he became a power broker for his work on the federal budget and energy policy.
Domenici voted for the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton in 1998 after his affair with Monica Lewinsky, but his floor statement focused on the fact that Clinton had lied under oath, noting that the trial “has never been about the President’s private sex acts, as tawdry as they have been.” But in the same speech, he cited the value of “truthfulness” and how it’s the first pillar of good character. Reached at his home in Washington on Wednesday, Domenici said he had nothing more to say. Domenici and his wife have been married more than 50 years and have eight children. The scandal has all the elements of an inside-the-Beltway soap opera. Michelle Laxalt is the daughter of former U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt, himself a significant political figure in the 1970s and ‘80s as he served as Nevada governor and two terms in the Senate alongside Domenici. Michelle Laxalt became a prominent lobbyist, Republican activist and television commentator after the affair. She said in the statement that she chose to raise her son as a single parent and that the two agreed that it would be a private matter. “One night’s mistake led to pregnancy more than 30 years ago,” she said. Laxalt’s prominence in national politics occasionally put her in an
Feline felicity
Aural affections
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J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo In this Nov. 1, 2011 file photo, former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) right, speaks before the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Domenici is acknowledging he fathered a son outside his marriage three decades ago. odd position of publicly discussing the integrity of the man who is the father of her child. In 2008, Domenici was reprimanded by the Senate ethics committee for his involvement in a scandal over the Bush administration’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys. At the time, Laxalt defended Domenici’s integrity on CNN, calling him an honorable man who was supporting “no fewer
than eight children.” The website for Adam Laxalt’s law firm said he is a former U.S. Navy officer and lawyer who served in Iraq. He also worked for then-Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and as a special assistant to an undersecretary of state, according to the website. He has also written a number
see Domenici PAGE 3
TODAY
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