Daily Egyptian

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Daily Egyptian THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM

VOL. 99 ISSUE 86

SINCE 1916

Illinois House allows Rauner’s veto of student trustee bill BILL LUKITSCH | @Bill_LukitschDE

The Illinois House of Representatives voted to allow Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of House Bill 4113 Wednesday, among other pieces of legislation. The motion to override the amendatory veto was introduced by Illinois State Rep. Jerry F Costello II (D-Smithton) and lost on the House floor 54-49. A minimum of 71 votes were needed to put the bill

before the Illinois Senate. “I can’t begin to explain how disappointed I am that the bill did not pass,” said former SIUC student trustee Adrian Miller. Miller worked with Illinois state legislators and lobbied in Springfield for more than two years to grant student trustees from SIUC and SIU-Edwardsville voting privileges on the SIU Board of Trustees by amending the Southern Illinois University Management

Act. He said he counts the inaction of state legislators as a failure, which directly affects the university’s student body. “I think the votes today are just a sign of politics at its finest,” Miller said. Miller said the first draft of the bill received bipartisan support and passed favorably in both the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate before the governor vetoed the legislation on Aug. 25.

“I don’t think we would be having these issues if the ‘grown-ups’ in Springfield and the governor’s office would have appointed a vote two years ago,” Miller said. In an email response, Costello said enabling both student trustees to vote would better address important issues at each campus. “Unfortunately,” he wrote, “many of my colleagues chose to ignore these simple facts in voting to sustain the governor’s veto.”

At this point, Miller said he hopes the governor grants one of the student trustees with a vote, but is doubtful it will happen this year. “We’re going into three years now that students have not had a voice on the Board of Trustees,” he said. “The idea that we don’t have a voice on the board is … highly disrespectful to students and the families across Illinois that have students that attend SIU.”

Library to Fox Lake mourns fallen officer host mass surveillance presentation SAM BEARD | @SamBeard_DE

The federal government and their corporate partners are spying on everybody. From Google searches to text messages, Facebook posts to online purchases — no activity conducted on an electronic device is safe from Big Brother’s snooping eyes and ears. However, there are measures individuals can take if they wish to protect themselves from mass surveillance. Encryption, softwares and other tools can safeguard private information when used properly. Students, staff, faculty and community members can learn the importance of privacy in the age of mass surveillance and how to protect themselves online at 7 p.m. on Sept. 8 in Guyon Auditorium. The free event is facilitated by Morris Library and will feature a presentation by Alison Macrina, director of the Library Freedom Project. By teaching librarians and communities about surveillance threats, privacy rights and privacy-protecting technology tools, the project hopes to make the promise of intellectual freedom in libraries a reality. Macrina said when she heard the U.S. government was secretly spying on the private lives of its citizens, she knew she had to do something and founded the project a year and a half ago. In 2012, Edward Snowden leaked hundreds of thousands of top-secret documents to two American journalists, revealing the largest mass surveillance operation in world history. The measures have been defended by President Barack Obama and various governmental agencies in the name of counterterrorism. “The telephone metadata program under [the Patriot Act] was designed to map the communications of terrorists, so we can see who they may be in contact with as quickly as possible,” Obama said. Please see FREEDOM | 2

Stacey Wescott | Tribune News Service Carol Weitzman of Fox Lake and her 3-year-old grandson, Brayden, drop off balloons at the memorial for slain Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph “G.I. Joe” Gliniewicz on Wednesday in Fox Lake. Three suspects still remain at large and a manhunt is underway in the area.

House overrides Rauner’s heroin veto SHANNON ALLEN | @ShannonAllen_DE

Illinois House members overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner’s changes to the bill proposing Medicaid pay for treatment for heroin addictions Wednesday with a vote of 105-5. Rauner denied the bill on Aug. 24 because the state cannot afford it. The bill suggested doctors use a reversal drug, such as Methadone, to bring people out of otherwise fatal situations. No Republicans in the House voted against the plan at first, but some sided with Rauner on the issue of cost. “Unfortunately, the bill also includes provisions that will impose a very costly mandate on the state’s Medicaid providers. I

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am returning the bill with recommendations to address that concern,” Rauner said in his veto. There were 633 deaths attributed to heroin overdoses in Illinois in 2014, according to Illinois Department of Public Health data. Illinois has the highest number of heroin overdoses per capita nationwide, according to the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association. “Just as Illinois was ground zero for the heroin crisis, Illinois can be ground zero for the solution,” said Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), as per Chicago Tribune. Although there are other options to pay for treatment, many abusers rely on Medicaid and would be affected financially. This bill was passed in Springfield, but

heroin addiction is a growing epidemic in Carbondale. From July 2014 to June 2015, Centerstone — a behavioral health care provider — has treated nearly 1,250 substance abusers in Carbondale, including heroin addicts. Centerstone also treats people with mental disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities. While Centerstone tends mostly to adults, it also assists the treatment of minors with these problems starting at age 12. Each patient comes in for a 90-minute appointment where a personalized treatment plan is created. Kathryn Sime, director of advancement at Centerstone, is a part of this process. Please see HEROIN | 2


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