Friday, April 1, 2016 | Volume 211 | Number 127 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
Assault survivor debuts film Alumna helps sexual assault survivors share stories
Campaign raises awareness for autism
By Alex.Connor @iowastatedaily.com For Vanessa McNeal, ISU alumna, producing films is a life-changing experience, her passion and what she lives for. The 15-minute-film “We are Survivors” aired to students, faculty and staff at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. McNeal worked with filmmakers Michael Phipps and Quinton Wayne to produce the film, which featured eight survivors and their stories. Before the film, since the topic can be triggering to many survivors, the audience was made aware of resources and advocates available in the room. Introducing McNeal, Amy Popillion, human sexuality professor, spoke out about her own experience with sexual violence and emphasized the importance of education on sexual assault awareness. McNeal then thanked everyone for coming to the showing, saying, “Your presence means more [to me] than you’ll ever know.” McNeal said she questioned “why me?” many times before her first documentary, “I Am,” which chronicled her story of sexual abuse. However, after the release of the film, survivors began telling their own stories to her, which generated her idea for her second film,
By Kim.Hiltabidle @iowastatedaily.com
W
hen talking politics, issues concerning immigration, abortion, climate change and gun control are at the center of heated debates among not only politicians but also among friends, relatives and acquaintances. On first instinct, one wouldn’t think to include autism under that vast array of issues. The reality is, autism is a political issue that carries its own economic, social and scientific controversies and problems. One in 68 children are diagnosed with the complex disorder that can impair an individual’s social and intellectual abilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
AUTISM p8
Courtesy of iStock
The Light It Up Blue campaign will take place Saturday, and people can raise awareness for autism by wearing blue.
ASSAULT p8
Uber might leave Iowa New state legislation on liability insurance impacts car services By Shannon.McCarty @iowastatedaily.com Just as Iowa State students are getting used to having Uber, a disagreement on liability insurance in the state legislature may take it away. Iowa legislators are attempting to regulate transportation network companies such as Uber with a bill that contains liability insurance requirements for drivers.
Uber has one issue with the bill that could threaten the company’s operations in Iowa. The growing ride-sharing company that allows customers to get a ride through an app on their cellphones came to Ames in August 2015. “Aspects of the bill are good,” said Mike White, Uber Iowa general manager. White said Uber has worked in collaboration with similar companies such as Lyft, as well as major insurance companies
to build an insurance structure for liability insurance as a base for lawmakers. States including California, Ohio, Florida, Kentucky and many others have passed similar regulations for the transportation network companies. “Before [the bill] left the house, an additional requirement not in the model of legislation was added,” White said. That new addition is the re-
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Katy Klopfenstein/Iowa State Daily
Terry Aguilar, an Uber driver in the Ames area, checks his app during a ride-a-long Aug. 24, 2015 . Uber is a widely popular driving service that allows customers to put their location into an app and a driver will take them anywhere.
Officers’ funerals bring together community By Alex.Connor @iowastatedaily.com The deaths of two Des Moines police officers have shaken central Iowa. Early Saturday morning, March 26, officers Carlos Puente-Morales and Susan Farrell were transporting passenger Tosha Hyatt from Council Bluffs to Des Moines on warrant when their SUV crashed head-on into the car of 25-year-old Benjamin Beary, who was driving the wrong way on I-80. No one survived the fiery crash. Puente-Morales and Farrell’s deaths, however, will not be forgotten. A winding motorcade of approximately 1,000 officers from across Iowa and the country attended Farrell’s funeral on
Courtesy of Des Moines Police Department
Officers Carlos Puente-Morales and Susan Farrell were transporting a passenger from Council Bluffs to Des Moines on Saturday when their vehicle was struck by another vehicle driving the wrong way.
Wednesday. Puente-Morales’ funeral will take place at 8:30 a.m. Friday at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic
Church in West Des Moines, and he will be buried at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Adel, Iowa. Hundreds of fellow police offi-
cers, family and friends attended Farrell’s funeral, which began at 11 a.m. Wednesday. A long line of officers paid their respects to Farrell, as the members in the room stood in silence before the regular funeral proceedings began. Farrell and Puente-Morales are among 22 officers who have lost their lives while serving Des Moines. The first death was in 1891 and the latest before Farrell and Puente-Morales was in 2008. Farrell is the first female officer to be killed in action in Iowa, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Both Farrell and Puente-Morales had served with the Des Moines Police Department for only five months. However, both had served in many other roles,
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including friend, spouse and parent. After a short prayer, Police Chief Dana Wingert greeted the family, friends and fellow officers by extending his deepest sympathies, asking the family of Farrell to “make no mistake, your hurt is our hurt.” He described Farrell as a gift, a woman who worked hard and was always looking to improve, and an officer who “you can’t go wrong with.” Wingert described the moment in which they were notified of both Farrell and Puente-Morales’ death as one of the memories where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing. “They didn’t make it,” he said,
FUNERAL p3
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