Friday, March 31, 2017

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Friday, March 31,, 2017

IDS Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

IUSA

Court grants part of petition By Jesse Naranjo jlnaranj@indiana.edu | @jesselnaranjo

The IU Student Association Supreme Court ruled Thursday to grant part of an appeal filed by the Engage with IUSA ticket to the Election Commission. The petition asked the court to direct the commission to review four complaints filed by the ticket and that were initially denied on a formatting basis. Complaints 21 and 24 were filed against Empower IU and pertained to Student Life and Learning advertising, licensing policies and distribution of the voting link. Complaints 22 and 23 were filed against the Focus ticket and also pertained to vote link distribution and SLL advertising policies. This decision only grants a portion of the petition. The initial appeal from Engage asked the court to order the commission to review the rejected complaints, but it also asked that the next Election Commission post all procedures according to the timeline set in the IUSA bylaws. The court denied the latter request. “After reviewing the procedures set forth in the IUSA Election Code and Procedural Election Code, the Student Body Supreme Court rules that complaints submitted as .DOC or .DOCX files prior to the stated deadline shall receive equal consideration to those submitted as .PDF files,” the court wrote in its decision. When reached for comment after the ruling, Engage’s presidential candidate, junior Michelle Long, said her ticket was pleased with the decision, not the circumstances that provoked it. “But this sort of situation is precisely what turns people off from IUSA,” Long said. “There are much more important things to argue about than file type.” Dan Niersbach, junior and presidential candidate for Empower — the ticket that took first place in a preliminary vote ranking — said because his ticket replied to every complaint regardless of status, the decision does not change much for Empower. He said the ticket members believe their position was defended thoroughly and they don’t see any deductions or violations in their future. He said his ticket didn’t appreciate IUSA President Sara Zaheer, senior, involving herself on behalf of Engage in the complaint process. Some of Empower’s campaign members worked on Zaheer’s REAL ticket in last year’s IUSA election. “We still think it’s really petty of Engage and Sara to be going after us,” Niersbach said. “If anything, this is just a huge inconvenience SEE IUSA, PAGE 5

PENCE TAKES ANOTHER SWING

sports@idsnews.com | @ids_sports

Collin Hartman is returning for another season Senior forward Collin Hartman will return next season, he announced in an IU press release Thursday. Hartman suffered a non-contact knee injury and underwent surgery in September 2016 and missed all of this past season. However, he provided leadership on the bench for the Hoosiers. Prior to senior night, he said he was unsure whether he was coming back for another season.

liramoor@indiana.edu | @_lindsaymoore

V

February 2001 Introduced Indiana legislation criminalizing harming an unborn child. This made women and fetuses separate victims, but exempted doctors who perform abortions or medical treatments from prosecution. February 2003 Introduced Indiana legislation to criminalize partial-birth abortions November 2007 Pence introduces one of the first federal bills to defund Planned Parenthood January 2009 Pence reintroduces the same bill January 2011 Pence introduces it a third time December 2011 Introduced Indiana legislation prohibiting abortion based fetus’s race or gender May 2013 Signed Indiana law requiring an ultrasound prior to the prescription of an abortion-inducing drug May 2015 Signed Indiana law establishing rules for disposition of aborted fetuses March 2016 Signed Indiana law that prohibits abortions based on the fetus’s potential race, color, sex, national origin, ancestry or diagnosis of a disability

Ten years later, he cast the tiebreaking vote to undo Obama’s rule protecting state funding to family planning facilities.

Hartman staying, Blackmon declares for NBA Draft By Andrew Hussey and Zain Pyarali

By Lindsay Moore

Vice President Mike Pence sponsored one of the first bills to defund Planned Parenthood.

“This is something that I had been leaning toward since before the season had ended, and I needed to make sure that I could fully dedicate myself both mentally and physically to the process,” Hartman said in a release from IU Athletics. “It is important that I am able to come back and perform at the level I was at before the injury occurred.” Hartman averaged 5.0 points and 3.1 rebounds per game during the 2015-16 season and helped the Hoosiers win the regular season Big Ten Championship. New IU Coach Archie Miller SEE SPORTS, PAGE 5

ice President Mike Pence’s tie-breaking vote in the Senate was 10 years in the mak-

ing. Thursday’s vote is one battle in the war Pence has waged on Planned Parenthood throughout his political career. As a representative, Pence proposed the same bill that prohibited federal funding to family planning facilities that perform or provide funds to abortion providers three times. During his time as Indiana’s 50th governor Pence signed every abortion restriction bill that passed his desk including the controversial House Bill 1337. This week, the Senate voted to repeal former President Barack Obama’s last-ditch effort to protect state funding for family planning facilities, which stated that family planning providers could not be discriminated against for reasons other than the quality of care they offer. This vote was separate from the hot button issue of defunding Planned Parenthood by blocking Medicaid reimbursements. The defunding proposal was tied to the GOP’s promise of repealing Obama’s health care law. The repeal of “Obamacare” did not happen last Friday. Instead, this action gives states the right to deny public funding to Planned Parenthood and similar health clinics. It now awaits President Trump’s signature. This type of action is one Betty Cockrum, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, has been anticipating. “It’s been troubling that he’s been the kind of politician that he’s been in Indiana — both in Congress and the

last four years as our governor — and for him to now ascend to the national platform as the second-highest-ranking elected official, it’s just a huge concern,” Cockrum said in a December interview with the Indiana Daily Student. A direct attack on family planning and abortion providers, along with the still-pending Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch, is what kept Cockrum hiding in her bed after the election. “He needs to get out of our doctor’s offices,” Cockrum said of Pence in December. “He didn’t get a medical license when he was sworn in as governor. The legislators don’t get a medical license when they’re sworn in to become our lawmakers here in Indiana.” The threat of Trump’s legacy and his administration’s conservative agenda is also what keeps her coming into back into the office every day. There’s work to be done, one day at a time. “The immediate issue is it’s going to play out in the wrong direction for a pretty long time,” Cockrum said in December. The bill passed Thursday was sponsored by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. It reached a 50-50 vote when Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, returned to the Capitol after recovering from back surgery to cast his vote. The vote was kept open for an hour while the Senate waited for Isakson to arrive from the Reagan National Airport. Pence walked him to the Senate floor, according to CNN. These proposed restrictions all SEE PENCE, PAGE 5 TIMELINE SOURCE VOTESMART.ORG GRAPHICS BY EMILY ABSHIRE | IDS

Fuentes-Rohwer wins women’s award for local leadership and activism in public education By Brooke McAfee bemcafee@indiana.edu | @bemcafee24601

An awards ceremony recognized the activism of a local leader in public education Thursday. The City of Bloomington Commission on the Status of Women’s leadership development event “Linking Arms for Social Justice: If Not You, Then Who?” featured a panel discussion and ceremony for Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer, the winner of the 2017 Emerging Leader Award. Beth Friedman Kirk, who is a member of the CommisREBECCA MEHLING | IDS sion on the Status of Women, said this event was both a Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton congratulates Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer, the SEE AWARD, PAGE 5

winner of the Emerging Leader Award, Thursday evening at the Women’s Leadership Development Event. The event was put on by the Bloomington Commission on the Status of Women.


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