Daily Lobo new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
tuesday October 14, 2014 | Volume 119 | Issue 40
Students rally against Columbus Day By Jonathan Baca and William Aranda
To many students, Columbus Day is just another Monday. But to others, it is a sanctioned holiday celebrating the oppression and genocide of indigenous peoples, and on Monday they took to campus and demanded change. Around noon, a group of students from numerous organizations and clubs, some bearing signs with “F**k Columbus” written in bold letters, led a tour of campus to celebrate sites of past campus resistance and to point out examples of what they called UNM’s “complicity in colonization and oppression against native peoples.” Members of the group put up a large banner on the fence surrounding President Bob Frank’s on-campus residence reading, “This Is Stolen Land,” as well as an “eviction notice” on the front gate of the property. The notice said the group reserved the right to “seize ALL occupied and dispossessed lands now occupied and/or owned by the University of New Mexico.” “We cannot be responsible for property or persons remaining on these lands,” the document continued. “Charges for the disposal of abandoned property will be applied to the outstanding land-debt the United States of America owes Indigenous Peoples
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Columbus page 2
William Aranda / Daily Lobo / @_WilliamAranda
UNM fifth-year sociology/native science double major Keioshiah Peter speaks to protesters and other UNM students during a rally against Columbus Day at the G Lot shuttle stop on Monday afternoon. Protesters hung banners and eviction notices around that area, including the University House.
Bang for your bike — Page 5
Criticism doesn’t deter David Correia By Lena Guidi It was a late-summer afternoon when 32 protesters crowded into City Hall to demand justice for victims of APD shootings. The sit-in — peaceful by most accounts — was one of several demonstrations sparked by recent
Diana Cervantes / Daily Lobo / @DailyLobo
Ryan Harris works on a tire for a Mongoose Hilltopper on Thursday afternoon at the Esperanza Community Bike Shop. The shop promotes bicycle safety and maintenance, and offers various bicycle programs. The shop relies on donations from the community for bicycles and parts.
File Photo / Daily Lobo / @DailyLobo
David Correia
fatal shootings such as the death of James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless man shot by two APD officers in March. Officials cancelled the city council meeting that night and 13 protesters were arrested. Among those protesters was David Correia, an associate professor of American Studies who specializes in environmental politics. Correia caught the attention of the local media when he was arrested on June 2 for alleged battery on a police officer during the sit-in — a charge he said was completely unfounded. James Boyd’s death and the ensuing protests may have put his name in the papers, but Correia was involved in efforts against police violence in Albuquerque long before that. He said he became interested in it while doing research for his book “Properties
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Correia page 3
Assistant professor puts ‘obesity gene’ in new light By Lauren Topper
Two friends share a diet of fast food and sugary desserts. One friend gains 20 pounds, the other gains two — a puzzling outcome, and one that hardly seems fair. But UNM assistant professor William Sherman Garver may have found the reason for the difference. Garver said he was among the first discoverers of an “obesity
gene” known as the Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) gene. Certain variations in this gene are strongly associated with developing obesity and/or diabetes — variations that a large amount of people have. The NPC1 gene is a small segment of DNA that provides instructions for making the NPC1 protein, which helps the body process cholesterol and fatty acids. Variations in the NPC1 gene
change the way the NPC1 protein is made and interferes with its function, he said. NPC1 was first identified as the gene that, when mutated, results in Niemann-Pick C1 disease — a disorder Garver has studied for nearly two decades. For a child to develop NPC1 disease they must have two copies of a rare NPC1 gene variant, meaning that both of their parents
were “carriers.” The carrier parents have no symptoms. In his research, Garver regularly bred two carrier mice to get offspring with NPC1 disease. However, it was while working with these mice that he made an unexpected observation. “I was looking at them and I noticed they were gaining weight — they were chubby, the parent mice,” explained Garver. “I knew this 10 years earlier, but I never
thought about it. They were chubby; that’s all we said, and we continued studying the rare disease.” Eventually he succumbed to curiosity and tracked weight gain in his carrier mice on different diets. Garver said he was astonished to find that these mice gained weight on a high-fat diet much quicker and more dramatically than normal mice.
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Obesity page 2