THE BIG BAN, 2
BOO-TIQUE, 6
CRIMSON ON ICE, 8
PAT-RIOT, 10
Vaping ban survives lawsuit, but changes must be made.
A look into Boston’s Halloween costume scene.
The Harvard Crimson was right to reach out to ICE for comment.
Belichick’s men are leading a defensive revolution
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THURSDAY, OCT. 24, 2019
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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
YEAR XLIX. VOLUME XCVII. ISSUE VII
Ben Shapiro campus visit confirmed for Nov. 13 BY ALEX LASALVIA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Ben Shapiro is scheduled to speak at Boston University on Nov. 13, a BU official confirmed Wednesday. BU Spokesperson Colin Riley
said it is confirmed that Shapiro will come to campus at the invitation of BU student group Young Americans for Freedom. YAF has been in negotiations with BU to bring Shapiro to campus since September. The
location for the event has not yet been confirmed, but Morse Auditorium was proposed by BU during September negotiations. The visit has generated controversy on campus, with students raising concerns about
both hate speech and freedom of speech. Students held a rally Oct. 16 to protest the visit, saying Shapiro’s rhetoric is hate speech and should not be allowed on campus. The rally was organized by BU
Candidate Cory Booker speaks at Fenway bar BY ANGELA YANG AND GABRIELLA FINOCCHIO DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Fresh out of Yale Law School, Cory Booker didn’t know what he wanted to pursue. But when his mother told him to make decisions out of faith rather than fear, the future presidential candidate packed up his life and moved to Newark, New Jersey to begin a career in advocacy. Sitting inside a Boston sports bar at a grassroots fundraiser Monday night, Booker reflected on how his mother’s words eventually led to his decision to run for the Oval Office and said to The Daily Free Press that this advice pushed him to overcome his inhibitions over entering the 2020 race. “When I started weighing the pros and cons of running for president, I began to look at the lists,” Booker said. “One was all about fears and the other one was all about courage and faithfulness. And so I when I saw that, it was clear to me what I needed to do.” Boston locals gathered at the Game On! sports bar in Fenway to hear the presidential candidate and
New Jersey senator speak and hopefully interact with him as he made his way around to take selfies with attendees. Booker opened the event with a speech that ended in him shouting out to the crowd after his microphone died mid-deliverance. Under the overarching umbrella of unity over partisanship, he spoke on issues such as the underfunding of public schools, lack of health care for pregnant women and inequity in the criminal justice system. While the candidate’s fundraising numbers are down, Booker said to reporters he remains confident in his ability to win the Democratic nomination. “Right now, there’s never been a point in history where someone who was leading in the polls this far out, in the Democratic Party, went on to win the presidency,” Booker said, citing former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. “We’re always getting shellacked in the polls right now, but they kept forging forward.” Previously, the senator has clarified that he believes in student debt
Students Against Hate Speech, a coalition that formed in response to the visit announcement. BU Students Against Hate Speech is holding a sit-in at Marsh Plaza Oct. 28 to protest Shapiro’s visit.
A look at the past decade of campus crime statistics BY SAMANTHA KIZNER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
the fundraiser as a happy hour event to attract college students. The campaign has held similar grassroots events across the country, including another one in Boston this past summer. “This is a fun, more casual way to just enjoy an event like this and learn more about Cory and hear what he’s all about,” Moyer said. Harvard University student and founder of the Harvard College Democrats for Cory Selena Zhang introduced Booker at the event. Zhang said she became a supporter soon after the 2016 presidential election, when she was researching “sources of hope” to run for office within the next four years.
Last month, the Boston University Police Department released its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report for 2019. Statistics from the past decade of reports show trends in crimes such as burglaries, liquor and drug law violations, and aggravated assaults. The Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports detail the security and safety services available to students and staff, information on how to report incidents, as well as statistics regarding various crimes on both the Charles River and Medical campuses from the past three years. These reports are published according to guidelines set by the Clery Act, a law set to create transparency between students and campus officials around the crimes occurring on college and university campuses around the country.
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GABRIELLA HUTCHINGS/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Presidential candidate Cory Booker speaks at a grassroots rally at Fenway bar Game On! Monday night.
forgiveness for individuals who work in public service. After his speech, Booker spoke with The Daily Free Press about his plan for those graduating into the private sector. “We have a nation right now where the federal government makes billions and billions of dollars off of your interest payments — I think we should take that money, re-channel it so that we could freeze or eliminate interest rates,” Booker said. “I believe that young people who’ve been built by for-profit colleges or colleges that have used insidious means, they should have their debt forgiven as well.” Chris Moyer, Booker’s New Hampshire communications director, said organizers decided to host
Councilor at-large candidates debate Cannabis start-up finalists announced BY GABRIELLA FINNOCHIO DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
When the eight surviving candidates for Boston city councilor at-large gathered at WBUR’s CitySpace on the Boston University campus for a debate, they were asked to grade current Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s performance in office. Ranging from A to C-, the diversity of their responses reflected the wide range in ethnicities, ages and experiences represented on the debate stage. The debate featured incumbent candidates Annissa Essaibi George, Michael Flaherty, Althea Garrison and Michelle Wu, who shared the stage with challengers David Halbert, Julia Mejia, Erin Murphy and Alejandra St. Guillen. Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker and “Radio Boston” host Tiziana Dearing moderated the debate, which aired live on 90.9 WBUR and WBUR’s YouTube channel. The moderators divided questions into four categories: transportation, housing and development, addiction and policing and education.
BY ELLIE YEO DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
RACHEL SHARPLES/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The eight city councilor-at-large candidates at a debate hosted at WBUR’s CitySpace Tuesday.
The debate opened with a discussion on transportation and included questions equity in public transportation and other issues such as highway traffic and parking permits. All eight candidates agreed Boston’s transportation systems need improvement, but they differed on how best to make these changes. Wu, who is running for her fourth term as a city councilor, said improving the city’s transportation systems — and doing so equitably — can help the city achieve other policy goals.
“We have to recognize that public transit is a public good, that the funding for the system should not come on the backs of riders,” Wu said. “We need to invest because this will be the big picture infrastructure that connects us to equity, climate resiliency, affordability, et cetera.” As for addiction and policing, candidates commented how national conversations on topics such as addiction recovery and drug abuse can affect local experiences. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
The third annual Cannabis StartUp Competition, which is hosted by Innovate@BU and Green Lion Partners and helps Boston University students and alumni who are developing companies ancillary to the cannabis industry, released its five finalists and slate of judges Friday. The finalists are competing to win $10,000 and free consulting services from Green Lion Partners, a Denver-based business strategy firm focused on fostering ingenuity and development in the cannabis industry. Five finalists were chosen from an applicant pool of startup companies that support the regulated cannabis industry. Each team consists of at least one BU student or alumnus. The finalists are Boundless Robotics Inc., Trella Technologies, Phenoxpress, SMART and Waev. Boundless Robotics Inc., founded by Carl Palmer, a 2004 graduate of the College of Engineering and
2012 graduate of Questrom School of Business, employs robotics and AI to construct one of the world’s largest cannabis farms available to all prospective growers of safe and legal cannabis. Trella Technologies, started by Angela Pitter, a 1986 graduate of ENG, also focuses on cannabis farming by using their TrellaGro LST horizontal plant-training technology to make indoor cannabis farming more accessible and efficient. Phenoxpress, founded by Wendell Orphe, a 2019 graduate of the Metropolitan College, is a cannabis genetic testing company that offers low-cost sex testing, chemotype determination and plant pathogen screening to cannabis cultivation facilities. SMART, The Student Marijuana Alliance for Research and Transparency, started by Mariah Brooks, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a national network that provides education, research, and professional opportunities to college students in the cannabis industry. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3