THE DAILY ATHENAEUM
2 | NEWS
Festival of Ideas speaker visits Sept. 27 West Virginia University’s Festival of Ideas has become a year-round event. The Festival brings a series of speakers to WVU to discuss different topics such as politics, business, entertainment, research, sports and culture. The first speaker is Rebecca Skloot, an award-winning science writer, on Sept. 27. Originally, all speakers came in the spring semester, but that made the events very condensed, said Stephanie Conrad, director of University Events.
“Students will have more flexibility in attendance,” Conrad said. “It also opens up a realm for guest speakers who sometimes aren’t available during the spring.” The Festival is generally five to eight lectures long, depending on the year and the availability speakers, she said. There won’t be more events this year, they will just be spread throughout both semesters. “Some of the speakers are those who students haven’t ever heard of,” Conrad said.
“They are sometimes thought provoking.” The next lecture date and speaker has not been set, but Conrad said it will take place sometime in October. The Festival of Ideas was revived in 1995 by President Emeritus David C. Hardesty, Jr., who was inspired by the events he organized in the 1960s as WVU student body president. It is supported in part by the David C. Hardesty, Jr. Festival of Ideas Endowment. — eaf
Morgantown No. 10 small metropolitan city Morgantown ranked in the top 10 on Forbes’ list of Best Places for Business and Careers. The city came in No. 10 in smaller metros, or areas with populations under 245,000. It had also previously been ranked the No. 2 college town for jobs in the nation. Morgantown was ranked among 184 small towns based on 12 factors such as costs, job growth, educational attainment, projected
program
economic growth as well as quality of life, subprime mortgage rates and the presence of a highly ranked college in the area. Although major companies may prefer big cities like New York for their headquarters, small towns such as Morgantown offer business costs and strong employment prospects, according to Forbes. “Morgantown benefits from large concentrations of higher education, govern-
ment and health care activity,” said George Hammond, associate director of West Virginia University’s College of Business and Economics, in a release. “These sectors tend to be less sensitive to national recessions,” he said. “They also tend to attract workers with high levels of human capital, which contributes to strong long-run growth.” — sac
day, Bruffy said. Participants get free parking in their lot and transportation to the Mountain Line bus depot located at 185 Garrett Street, according to its website. WVU students and employees will receive $1 per round trip in Mountie Bounty and a maximum of $20 per month, according to the program’s website. Participants can then com-
mute from the depot by obtaining a bus pass, which is good for five round trips and can be renewed, the website states. Parking spaces are not guaranteed and are firstcome, first-served, the site states. However, the lot still has plenty of available spaces, especially in the afternoon hours.
it’s becoming less and less taboo.” Tattoos are popular among students, said Tim Brummage, a tattoo artist at Living Canvas Pro Tattoo and Piercing in Mount Morris, Pa. Although students usually put tattoos in non-visible areas, Brummage often makes sure they realize the possible
consequence if they ask for a tattoo in a visible area. “I’ll ask them what they are thinking they want to do down the road,” he said. “Students put a lot more thought into placement now than in the past.
community. Russell suggested student Continued from page 1 artwork be displayed on bare retaining walls to beautify Charlie Byrer brainstormed the area. Hunt agreed by sayways to get people in the ing Sunnyside was an eclectic area more involved in the area and would benefit from
all types of art. Selin suggested reaching out to art students at the Creative Arts Center for submitted works.
Continued from page 1 commuters, students, faculty and staff to avoid congested downtown areas, park at its Westover Park and Ride Lot on DuPont Road and travel by bus. Students and employees may leave their vehicles in the lot over night, though they will not receive payment for the
tattoos
Continued from page 1 the visible tattoo on his leg is consistent with the type of jobs he’s looking for. “Every job that it would affect isn’t one I’m interested in,” Jones said. “I’m not a 9-to-5 kind of guy, and today
sunnyside
joshua.cooper.mail.wvu.edu
danewsroom@mail.wvu.edu
travis.crum@mail.wvu.edu
1st woman in 5 years executed in US JARRATT, Va. (AP) — The first woman executed in the United States in five years was put to death in Virginia on Thursday for arranging the killings of her husband and a stepson over a $250,000 insurance payment. Teresa Lewis, 41, died by injection at 9:13 p.m. Thursday, authorities said. She became the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly a century. Supporters and relatives of the victims watched
her execution at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Lewis enticed two men through sex, cash and a promised cut in an insurance policy to shoot her husband, Julian Clifton Lewis Jr., and his son, Charles, as they slept in October 2002. Both triggermen were sentenced to life in prison and one committed suicide in 2006. Lewis appeared fearful, her jaw clenched, as
she was escorted into the death chamber. She glanced tensely around at 14 assembled corrections officials before being bound to a gurney with heavy leather straps. Moments before her execution, Lewis asked if her husband’s daughter was near. Kathy Clifton, Lewis’ stepdaughter, was in an adjacent witness room blocked from the inmate’s view by a twoway mirror.
Friday September 24, 2010
local
W.Va. supporters stand by besieged health care law CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia supporters of the new federal health care law heralded provisions taking effect Thursday, and blasted the pledge unveiled by congressional Republicans to repeal the historic overhaul. Executive Director Perry Bryant and other members of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care also vowed to step up their efforts to combat what they called misconceptions and myths about the sweeping measure. That effort includes holding town hall-style meetings around the state over the next two months. “We, including myself, have not done a good enough job of explaining the legislation,” Bryant said at a Capitol press conference. “It is the most complex public policy initiative that I’ve dealt with in 30 years.” Numerous changes to the nation’s health care system arrive with the six-month anniversary of the lawsuit’s passage. Several extend to all health plans: insurers can no longer cap lifetime benefits, or cancel coverage retroactively when a policyholder runs up high bills; children on their parents’ policies can stay covered until age 26. For all group and new individual health plans, insurers are barred from capping annual benefits or excluding children with pre-existing medical conditions. Several changes apply only to new plans, including one that extends coverage to include preventive and well-
ness care without co-payments or deductibles. Another bars higher rates when a policyholder obtains emergency care out of the insurer’s network of providers. Bryant’s group cited West Virginians encountered during its previous education campaign who would be helped by these provisions. They included a Morgantown family who hit their policy’s lifetime cap because of a child’s illness. Another resident, a convenience store worker, was uninsured and eventually died from what they said was a treatable thyroid condition. Group member Sam Hickman, head of the state’s social worker association, said the legislation will help his mother and other seniors with prescription drug costs while allowing coverage for his 23-year-old son. Hickman noted that his family’s plan and others that follow a calendar year won’t actually change until Jan. 1, however. “These are fundamental changes,” Bryant said. “They are a down payment on the full-blown reforms that will begin Jan. 1, 2014.” But the insurance industry is already balking at the changes. Several, for instance, say they will stop selling new child-only individual insurance policies because they face covering potentially costly pre-existing conditions. Bryant said the new law includes several provisions meant to hold down costs. But the head of West Virginia’s largest private health in-
surer believes the legislation falls short in that area. Fred Earley, president of Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield, estimated that the changes to coverage will increase its premiums by 2 to 3 percent. Earley said West Virginia’s provider groups have begun to collaborate on possible ways to address medical inflation, but would be doing so with or without the federal overhaul. A recent Associated Press poll, meanwhile, found that Americans still do not really know what the law does. More than half of those surveyed, for instance, mistakenly believe the overhaul will raise taxes for most people this year. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new law will reduce the federal deficit over time, but 81 percent of those polled believed the opposite. Renate Pore was among the members of the West Virginia group who faulted foes of the overhaul for some of the confusion. Pore also said that the new law is complex partly because it includes provisions proposed by the congressional Republicans who ultimately voted against it and who vowed Thursday to see it repealed. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., was among those on hand for the GOP pledge. Spokeswoman Jamie Corley said that while Capito believes some of the provisions taking effect “move in the right direction,” overall it “simply does not live up to what was promised to the American people.”
Supreme Court refuses ballot challenge CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A legislative candidate sought to join the state GOP’s lawsuit targeting the Nov. 2 ballot on Thursday, after West Virginia’s Supreme Court turned down her challenge. The justices voted 4-0 to refuse the petition filed by Janet “J.T.” Thompson. Justice Thomas McHugh did not take part. The independent House of Delegates candidate objected to the decision by Secretary of State Natalie Tennant to include the special U.S. Senate election on the regular general election ballot. But the Supreme Court’s decision allowed Thompson to intervene in the Republican Party’s case. She filed to do so Thursday, and has said she’s pursuing her challenge as a concerned citizen. Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey has set a Friday hearing in that case. Seeking a separate ballot for the Senate race, the GOP opposes allowing a “straight ticket” vote to extend to that contest. That option allows a voter to select all of one political party’s candidates with a single mark.
Outnumbered by Democrats in West Virginia by nearly 2-to-1, the Republicans argue they would suffer “irreparable harm” if straight ticket voting is allowed. The Senate election will decide who serves out the more than two years then remaining in the term of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, who died in June. The legislation setting up the special election made plain that it was separate from the regularly scheduled general election. But separate elections don’t mean separate ballots under state law, a lawyer for Tennant argued in a Thursday response to the Republican lawsuit. Lawyer Arden Curry cited special elections already on the Nov. 2 ballot for state Supreme Court, state Senate and the Huntington Park Board. The same has been true for prior ballots, Curry’s filing said – including the one that began Byrd’s tenure as history’s longest-serving senator. Byrd ran for and won a full term in 1958. He appeared on that year’s ballot just above the race for an unexpired Sen-
ate term, won by fellow Democrat Jennings Randolph. Then-Gov. Cecil Underwood, a Republican, set up the special election following the death of Sen. Matthew Neely. “That ballot likewise allowed West Virginia voters to vote a straight party ticket,” Curry wrote. Curry also noted that the Legislature specified a separate election as part of a bid by Republican lawmakers to allow a general election candidate to run also for the Senate seat. The GOP hoped for a dual candidacy by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who is already seeking a sixth House term. She demurred. “It literally had nothing to do with separate ballots or the elimination of straight party ticket voting,” Curry wrote. Tennant has said that past election practices prompted her decision, as did the potential costs and confusion from separate ballots. After the GOP filed its lawsuit, Chairman Mike Stuart suggested she could resolve the dispute by removing the straight ticket option or printing a separate paper ballot for the Senate race. The second route would involve reprogramming voting machines so they would not count any votes cast on the general election ballot in that race. Tennant said each of Stuart’s suggestions violates either state or federal law. “They’re grandstanding. There are so many holes in this, they’re making a mockery of it,” Tennant, a Democrat, told The Associated Press. “They don’t understand election process and they don’t understand election law... I’m standing by the decision. The ballot is not incorrect.”
The Daily Athenaeum USPS 141-980, is published daily fall and spring school terms on Monday thru Friday mornings and weekly on Wednesday during the summer terms, except school holidays and scheduled examination periods by the West Virginia University Committee for Student Publications at 284 Prospect St., Morgantown, WV, 26506 Second class postage is paid at Morgantown, WV 26506. Annual subscription price is $20.00 per semester out-of-state. Students are charged an annual fee of $20.00 for The Daily Athenaeum. Postmaster: Please send address changes, from 3579, to The Daily Athenaeum, West Virginia University, PO Box 6427, Morgantown, WV 26506-6427. Alan R. Waters is general manager. Editors are responsible for all news policies. Opinions expressed herein are not purported to be those of the student body, faculty, University or its Higher Education Governing Board. Views expressed in columns, cartoons and letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect those of The Daily Athenaeum. Business office telephone is 304/ 293-4141 Editorial office telephone is 304/ 293-5092.