December 5, 2013

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CAMPUS & METRO

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Tenants and business owners are still recovering from recent fires in the University area.

Kendal Shell is a walk-on guard that has improved his game.

Minnesota fire departments receive training grants

Shell excels off the court

u See PAGE 4

ST PAUL

u See PAGE 14

THURSDAY

DECEMBER 5, 2013

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM

TRANSPORTATION

Faculty take Bus changes worry students on clinical drug trials The Markingson case prompted a proposed Faculty Senate resolution.

BY CODY NELSON AND EMMA NELSON cnelson1@mndaily.com enelson1@mndaily.com

The University of Minnesota Faculty Senate will discuss a resolution Thursday to create an independent, external panel to investigate how the institution conducts clinical research on human subjects.

The Faculty Consultative Committee is recommending that the full Senate approve the resolution in order to ensure the University is meeting ethical standards.

The proposed resolution stems from the years-old controversy surrounding University drug trial participant Dan Markingson, who committed suicide six months after joining the

study in 2003.

Markingson participated in the CAFE study, a psychiatric drug trial sponsored

by AstraZeneca and run by University professors.

In October, a group of bioethicists from around the world wrote a letter to the Faculty Senate asking for an outside investigation of the case. The group raised concerns about previous action on the case, including a Minnesota Board of Social Work investigation and a lawsuit filed against the University by Markingson’s mother, Mary Weiss.

“We are aware that officials within your university have suggested that various investigations have already taken place,” the letter said.

“However, such claims hold only at the most superficial level.”

Some researchers say an investigation will find more cases like Markingson’s. u See SENATE Page 20 A prior investigation found wrongdoing by a study coordinator.

HOLLY PETERSON, DAILY

University students get on and off the Campus Connector on Tuesday. On Dec. 7, the connectors and other Metro Transit buses will resume service on Washington Avenue for the first time since May 2011.

The Campus Connector will revert to its preconstruction route.

BY KAITLYN WALEK kwalek@mndaily.com

On Monday, the University of Minnesota Campus Connector bus route

will change, rever ting to Washington Avenue and bringing back the Washington Avenue Bridge Circulator.

Wa s h i n g t o n A v e n u e has been closed since constr uction on the Central Corridor light rail began nearly three years ago.

Next week, city and campus buses will resume old r outes, sparking some

BUSINESS

Housing boom isn’t slowing down It’s difficult to predict when the student housing market will bust.

BY NICOLAS HALLETT nhallett@mndaily.com

The student housing market near the University of Minnesota remains stable with historically low vacancy rates, but developers and real estate experts agree its future is a mystery.

Nationwide, the housing market is recovering from the Great Recession, but some markets are rebounding faster than others. The Twin Cities metro area boasts the fifth-lowest vacancy rate in the U.S. Developers are taking advantage of this by building more and more. The University gained nearly 500 apar tment units in 2013, and more than 1,500 are expected in the next three years, according to May data from real estate

consulting firm Marquette Advisors.

Minneapolis City Assessor Patrick Todd said this raises the question: When does the market hit saturation?

Area developers said they’re watching closely, hesitant to propose any future projects for now. But it may be hard to stop when many say they’re experiencing record leasing numbers.

“We’ve never been this leased this soon,” said Tim

Harmsen, owner of Dinkytown Rentals and landlord of roughly 700 bedrooms near campus.

Doran Companies CEO Kelly Doran said his five open proper ties near the University are completely full this year.

“I think the market is in danger of being over-built,” he said, “but we’ll just have to see what happens.” u See HOUSING Page 7 The area’s major developers said they’ve become more cautious.

STUDENT LIFE

CSE students light up campus The Winter Light Show combines student design and engineering.

BY THOM Q. JOHNSON tjohnson@mndaily.com

A mile of extension cords snakes across the grass and brick of the Civil Engineering Building‘s plaza. Intricate networks of computer-contr olled switches connect thousands of LED lights placed by hand.

The setup is barely visible during the day, but at the click of a button Friday night, the setup will burst to life in the 20-minute spectacle of light and music that is the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering’s Winter Light Show.

The process to create the light show was long and grueling. Trevor Laughlin, a mechanical engineering sophomore, is the project leader who helped create the show.

“We probably have a solid group of 50 people from all dif ferent backgrounds

fr ustration among students.

The routes seem new for students who didn’t attend the University before Washington Avenue was a “construction site,” said University spokesman Tim Busse.

The Campus Connector’s route will reinstate stops at Coffman Union, the McNamara Alumni Center and Blegen Hall.

Those three will replace bus stops at Ridder Arena, the intersection of University and 15th avenues southeast and the Recreation and Wellness Center. In total, 11 stops are affected by the change.

Blegen Hall will be the u See BUSES Page 6 Students are worried about adjusting their commute.

CITY GOVERNMENT

New City Council could change Dinky Freshmen City Council members mostly favor development.

BY ALEXI GUSSO AND NATHANIAL RABUZZI agusso@mndaily.com nrabuzzi@mndaily.com

The Minneapolis City Council saw a large turnover in last month’s election, leaving many projects — including Dinkytown development — in the hands of newcomers.

Of the seven freshmen members, most said development in the area is necessary, but they also said that it’s impor tant to consider the community’s needs.

Dinkytown development has spur red debate between developers and those who want to preser ve the district’s character.

“I don’t think we’re at the point where there’s

consensus, and I think it’s my job to build that consensus,” said incoming Ward 3 City Councilman Jacob Frey.

The full City Council could vote on a Dinkytown small-area plan as early as January.

Frey will take over current City Councilwoman Diane Hofstede’s seat representing Ward 3, which covers Dinkytown and other neighborhoods in the University of Minnesota area.

He said Dinkytown’s future should balance the demand for student housing and the protection of small businesses, and it’s best to find a middle ground between new development and preservation.

“There are people that would like to keep Dinkytown just as it is,” Frey said.

“And there are people that u See COUNCIL Page 4 New council members will have a steep learning curve.

HOLIDAYS

This year’s Hanukkah timing tough on students

LISA PERSSON, DAILY

Senior Stephen Nixon sets up the College of Science and Engineering Winter Light Show on Monday before its premiere Friday at the Civil Engineering Plaza.

working on it,” Laughlin said. “We use the things that we had last year, and then we ask, ‘What can we add to that?’ ” Strings of LED lights, not unlike those found hanging on most Christmas trees, must be hooked to a daisychained system of more

than 30 computer-controlled boxes with circuit boards designed and partially fabricated by students.

A week before the premiere of the show, Laughlin and his workers were still soldering control mechanisms and untangling lights. Laughlin said it takes

about two hours of programming for every 30 seconds of the light show. For the full-time students who put the 20-minute show together, that was a hefty investment. u See LIGHTS Page 12 The show features original music by students.

The eight-night holiday ends Thursday, before winter break.

BY ROY AKER AND MEGHAN HOLDEN raker@mndaily.com mholden@mndaily.com

For the first time in more than a centur y, Hanukkah began on Thanksgiving this year — making the eight-day holiday fall outside of the University of Minnesota’s winter break.

Because Hanukkah, which ends Thursday, conflicted with the last weeks of the semester, some Jewish students have turned to University events to celebrate the holiday.

Hillel student board member Sidney Usem said that despite classes, the University Jewish student center has celebrated with various events throughout the week.

Biology sophomore u See HANUKKAH Page 3 The University sent an email to remind professors of the holiday.

VOLUME 115 ISSUE 54

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Daily Review

Thursday, December 5, 2013

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1945 At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. They never returned.

HISTORYCHANNEL.COM/TDIH

VIDEO Vol. 115 Thursday, December 5, 2013, No. 54

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WORLD BRIEFING

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Libya spends foreign reserves to offset oil revenue losses

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya’s prime minister said on Wednesday that his government is spending billions of dollars to offset the loss of revenue caused by militias who have shut down oil terminals in the country’s restive east, one of many challenges to state authority in the North African country after its 2011 uprising and civil war.

Ali Zidan spoke as Republican Sen. John McCain made a brief visit to Tripoli to meet with the prime minister and other officials. McCain reaffirmed a U.S. pledge to train Libyan troops, and said that stability there can only be achieved by outside help.

Zidan said at a news conference in Tripoli that Libya has allocated $7 billion of its foreign reserves to compensate for the terminals held by eastern militias and tribesmen, and said that it will need $6 billion more.

“This is to show to people how this is getting dangerous,” he said. Libya is losing millions of dollars every day after production dropped from 1.4 billion barrels a day

to a few thousands since the closure.

The groups holding the terminals meanwhile stepped up their demands, saying after a meeting in the eastern city of Tobruk on Wednesday that the oil terminals will not open until the government agrees to set up a committee with representatives of the country’s three regions to divide up oil revenues.

Eastern groups say the region suffered from marginalization and unequal distribution of wealth under ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

They demand the creation of a federal system in which each region has some autonomy, reviving the system in place from 1951 until 1963 when Libya, ruled by a monarchy, was divided into three states: Tripolitania in the west, Fezzan in the southwest and Cyrenaica in the east — or Barqa, as it was called in Arabic.

During Wednesday’s televised meeting, Essam alJehani of the Political Bureau of Barqa, one of the eastern groups, demanded the government hand power to a

“federated council” where seats are allocated equally between Libya’s three regions. A future system for the country would then be decided by a referendum.

The Tobr uk meeting came after a 10-day ultimatum given last month by Zidan to the militia to open the terminals expired. The government however appeared to have no response ready for when the terms of the ultimatum were not met.

Zidan said during the new conference that he didn’t want “bloodshed,” but vowed, “the government will not stand with its hands tied forever.”

The standoff over the terminals is one of many challenges to the central government. The countr y has no strong army or police, and has been str uggling to control armed groups formed mainly of former anti-Gadhafi rebels. Some militias are driven by political agendas and alliances in parliament, while others are backed by cer tain cities, tribes or regions.

Last month, Washington said it is planning to train

5,000 to 8,000 Libyan soldiers in the continuing effort to improve security. A stronger army is seen as key to reining in the militias.

McCain reaffirmed the US pledge to train Libyan troops in his visit. “It (progress) can only been achieved by the cooperation of assistance of the United States and other friends in Europe and in the region,” he said.

Libya has seen in the past weeks a popular backlash against militias in some places. Scores were killed when a militia opened fire last month during a march on their headquar ters in Tripoli, triggering outrage.

Since then, residents of other cities have also marched against the militias.

The eastern city of Darna, known as a stronghold of the hard-line Ansar al-Shariah, has seen a series of night matches against the militias in recent days.

Early Wednesday, a security official said that an explosion rocked the city center, killing local activist Murad al-Zawi and leaving his vehicle on fire.

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EU warns about Stolen cobalt-60 found threat of foreign abandoned in Mexico fighters in Syria

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s anti-terror chief will tell EU interior ministers on Thursday about the “major security threat” that the increase of foreign fighters in Syria poses.

A note for the meeting from the office of EU CounterTerrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove stresses that numbers of fighters traveling back and forth from Syria is increasing.

The 11 western European countries with the biggest contingents in Syria are estimated to have some 1,200-1,700 people among rebel forces, according to government and analyst figures compiled by the AP for a story published Tuesday. That compares to estimates of 600-800 from those countries in late spring.

Last month, the head of Britain’s domestic spying agency said the intelligence service had seen “low hundreds of people” from Britain go to Syria and that some have since returned — stoking fears extremists could pose a domestic threat.

The official said the total number of EU fighters could be well above 1,000, bringing it roughly in line with the AP assessment.

The EU-based rebels are drawn by recruiters arranging travel and comfortable lodging. They instill militant Islam that EU security officials see as a potent threat once the fighters return home.

“There are cases where individuals continue traveling back and forth,” the note for the ministers said. Rebels are often seen as heroes to a small section of youths upon return, making them ideal to further foster recruitment.

MEXICO CITY — A missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico, the country’s nuclear safety director said.

The highly radioactive material had been removed from its container, officials said, and one predicted that anyone involved in opening the box could be in grave danger of dying within days.

The cobalt-60 was left in a rural area about a half a mile from Hueypoxtla, an agricultural town of about 4,000 people, but it posed no threat or a need for an evacuation, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

“Fortunately there are no people where the source of radioactivity is,” Eibenschutz said.

Commission physicist Mardonio Jimenez said it was the first time material like this had been stolen and extracted from its container. The only threat was to whoever opened the box and later discarded the pellets of high-intensity radioactive material that was being transported to a waste site. It had been used in medical equipment for radiation therapy.

“The person or people who this took out are in very great risk of dying,” Jimenez said, adding that the normal survival rate would be between one and three days.

He said there was no word so far of anyone reporting to area hospitals with radiation exposure. He said those who exposed themselves to the pellets could not contaminate others.

Federal police and military units on the scene put up a cordon of 500 meters (yards) around the site.

The cargo truck hauling the cobalt-60 was stolen from a gas station early Tuesday in the neighboring state of Hidalgo, about 24 miles from where the material was recovered, Jimenez said. Authorities had put out an alert in six central states and the capital looking for it.

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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Odd Hanukkah timing tough on students Hanukkah u from Page 1

Michael Sobin said he’s celebrated this week by lighting the menorah nightly with his fraternity brothers at Sigma Alpha Mu, a historically Jewish fraternity.

Hillel and Chabad, both Jewish student organizations, are hosting a joint Hanukkah par ty at Mariucci Arena on Thursday night, Usem said.

“It’s an important event because the entire Jewish community is coming together to celebrate,” said Chabad co-director Rabbi Yitzi Steiner.

Because the first day of Hanukkah coincided with Thanksgiving, he said, students had at least four days to celebrate with their families.

According to University policy, students are allowed to miss class for religious obser vances if they notify their professors.

Kimberly Hewitt, director of the University’s Office of Equal Oppor tunity and Af fir mative Action, sent an email to all faculty,

3

SNOWSTORM

“When you have to miss a day of school and make up that time, just a day can be a bit of a struggle.”

MICHAEL SOBIN Biology sophomore

reminding them of Hanukkah’s early star t this year.

She said the University advises professors to be aware of religious holidays before they plan their syllabuses for the semester.

Usem said he expects that professors would be willing to extend deadlines or excuse absences if Jewish students chose to go home for the holiday.

Usem said he, along with some other Jewish students, chose to stay on campus for the last night of Hanukkah because they don’t want to fall behind in their classes.

“When you have to miss a day of school and make up that time,” Sobin said, “just a day can be a bit of a struggle.”

JULIET FARMER, DAILY

A menorah, placed by University Jewish student group Chabad, sits at the Knoll area Wednesday.

JULIET FARMER, DAILY

Erbert’s and Gerbert’s general manager Ginger Jungling shovels snow off the sidewalk outside the store on Wednesday morning.

China stands firm in air dispute

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING — Giving no ground, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden traded strong arguments Wednesday over China’s contentious new air defense zone, with no indication of progress toward defusing a situation that is raising anxieties across Asia and beyond.

Though Biden made clear the deep concern of the U.S. and other countries during the 5 ½ hours of talks — themselves highly unusual for an American vice president and Chinese president — Xi vigorously made his case, too, for China’s declaration of new rules concerning a strip of airspace more than 600 miles long above disputed islands in the East China Sea. The U.S. worries that China’s demand that pilots entering the airspace file flight plans with Beijing could lead to an accident or a confrontation spiraling dangerously out of control.

Now it is up to the Chinese to take steps to lower tensions, and “it’s a question of behavior and action,” said a U.S. official, who briefed reporters on the private talks.

The official was not authorized to be quoted by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Though Biden expressed no disappointment in public remarks, the outcome of his visit was not what the U.S. might have hoped for.

A day earlier, the vice

president had stood shoulder to shoulder in Tokyo with the leader of Japan, China’s regional rival, pledging to raise Washington’s concer ns with Xi directly. But as he arrived in Beijing, an editorial in the state-run China Daily charged Washington with “turning a blind eye to Tokyo’s provocations,” warning that Biden would hit a dead end should he come “simply to repeat his government’s previous erroneous and one-sided remarks.”

Late Wednesday in Washington, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called China’s announcement of the zone “destabilizing” and complained that it had come “so unilaterally and so immediately without any consultation.”

“That’s not a wise course of action to take for any countr y,” Hagel said at a Pentagon news conference.

Neither Biden nor Xi mentioned the dispute as they appeared briefly before reporters at the end of their first round of talks.

But in private, the issue came up at length at the beginning and again near the end of the long-planned meeting, senior Obama administration officials said.

The typically upbeat Biden appeared subdued as he reflected on the complexity of the relationship between China and the U.S., two world powers seeking closer ties despite wide ideological gulfs they have as of yet been unable to bridge.

“This new model of major-country cooperation ultimately has to be based on trust, and a positive notion about the motive of one another,” Biden said, flanked by top advisers in a resplendent meeting room steps away from Tiananmen Square.

Earlier, however, Biden told Chinese youngsters waiting to get visitor visas processed at the U.S. Embassy that American children are rewarded rather than punished for challenging the status quo, an implicit criticism of the Chinese government’s authoritarian rule.

“I hope you learn that innovation can only occur where you can breathe free, challenge the government, challenge religious leaders.” Biden said.

Xi, for his par t, stuck to the script — at least in public. The Chinese leader touted the benefits of closer U.S.-China ties as he laid out “profound and complex changes” underway in Asia and across the globe.

Behind closed doors, Xi made his own case for why China’s action to establish the air zone is appropriate, said the U.S. administration officials, who weren’t authorized to comment by name and demanded anonymity. Xi listened earnestly as Biden presented his own arguments, the officials said, but it was unclear what impact there might have been.

The simmering dispute over the tiny islands and the airspace above them has trailed Biden throughout

his weeklong trip to Asia.

After meeting with China’s premier and speaking to business leaders Thursday, he will fly to Seoul in South Korea — another neighbor whose air defense zone now overlaps with China’s.

American of ficials say as far as Washington is concerned China’s newly claimed zone doesn’t exist, and the U.S. militar y has flown B-52 bombers through it to drive the point home. But U.S guidance to commercial pilots to abide by the airspace rules has rankled Japan and other allies, who urged the U.S. to stand firm against China as Biden headed to the region.

The Obama administration sees China’s move as part of a broader strategy to solidify its claims to territory as the country asserts its power more vigorously in the region. Wary that nationalist sentiments in China may preclude Xi from backing down now that he’s established the zone, Washington has sought to persuade Beijing to quietly refrain from enforcing it, nullifying it in practice if not in deed.

“Xi has no room on this, at least right now,” said Victor Cha, who headed Asian affairs for the White House National Security Council in the George W. Bush administration. “Maybe the space will come later in terms of enforcement of the zone, but now they are butting heads on the issue, and the Chinese see us as carrying too much of Japan’s water.”

4

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Minn. fire depts. receive training grants cide in the spring whether Tenants and business owners are to rebuild. still recovering from ‘Better-prepared’ firefighters recent fires in the Th e gr ant p r o gr a m, University area. called Fire Safety Account,

BY ALLISON KRONBERG akronberg@mndaily.com

O n T u e s d a y, D a v i d Barnhar t demolished the remains of his building, which caught fir e and burned to the ground Aug. 1. But he had only good things to say about the firefighters who fought the eight-hour blaze in Prospect Park. “[The firefighters] were totally aggressive in fighting the fire, totally responsive to our fears and were ver y kind and accommodating,” he said.

For the past three years, the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education has given a training grant to the state’s 785 fire departments on a per-firefighter basis.

The Minneapolis Fire Depar tment received $32,640 at the end of November to train its 408 firefighters.

The building that bur ned down at 2812 SE University Ave. housed three small businesses.

The most significant loss, besides the building itself, was a number of automobiles from the auto body shop housed there. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Bar nhar t said insurance cover ed his loss, paying nearly $1.3 million.

But many of the tenants didn’t have insurance, he said, and had to cover the losses themselves.

“It was quite traumatic for the tenants,” said Barnhart, who owned the building with his son.

He said there was nothing left to salvage of the building but hopes to de-

is funded by a 0.05 percent surcharge on insurance for Minnesota business and homeowners.

Minnesota Boar d of Firefighter Training and Education Executive Director Bruce West said the board divides the budget it receives from the state by the number of firefighters in Minnesota to determine how much each firefighter gets. This year, all 20,700 firefighters received $80 each to enhance their training, he said. “[The grant] is supposed to enhance a fire department’s training budget,” West said. “It’s not supposed to replace it.”

Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fr uetel said his depar tment uses the grant mostly for new hire and cadet training, which happens almost daily. Training includes Emergency Medical Technician certifications and controlled burns.

“It’s been a great asset and ver y helpful for our depar tment, because it provides funding and helps of fset the cost of training firefighters,” Fruetel said.

Espresso Royale manager Rex Vogen agreed the training has been effective.

A fire star ted in the apartments above the café in October. “[The fire] seemed to be dealt with really well,” Vogen said. “Once they got here, they took care of things, and the fire chief was out her e and was available to talk to if we needed information — and to let us know what the next step was.”

The cause of this fire also remains undeter-

HOLLY PETERSON, DAILY

Firefighter Emergency Medical Technicians Brock Tuntland and Riley Champagne practice high-performance CPR at the Emergency Operations Training Facility on Tuesday. EMT training uses grant funds from the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education.

mined. Vogen said the tenants of the apartments that caught fire should be moving back soon.

Espresso Royale was out of business for a couple of days and suf fered minor damage, including water damage from when

NATO chief: Not just Karzai can sign pact

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRUSSELS — NATO’s chief said Wednesday that President Hamid Karzai isn’t the only Afghan government official who can sign a security pact so that thousands of coalition troops can stay in Afghanistan after 2014. But an Afghan diplomat insisted Karzai will have final say anyway.

Karzai has balked at signing the bilateral security agreement with the United States. The deal would allow NATO to follow suit for plans for a far smaller assistance mission set to replace its longtime combat role after the end of next year.

The nearly 12-year mission in Afghanistan following the U.S.-led war that toppled the Taliban regime is the biggest ever for the alliance.

Karzai’s refusal loomed large at a two-day meeting of alliance foreign ministers that ended Wednesday.

NATO chiefs say they need time to plan for the new mission, and need clear rules before then — in part to help unlock more than

$8 billion in annual international militar y and development aid planned for Afghanistan after 2014.

In a sign that alliance leaders might be looking for a way to circumvent Karzai, NATO Secretar yGeneral Anders Fogh Rasmussen told repor ters after a meeting with two top Afghan envoys at NATO’s Br ussels headquarters that “ever yone who is authorized to represent respective gover nments would be able to sign such an agreement.” He did not elaborate.

A day earlier, U.S. Secretar y of State John Kerr y suggested that Karzai’s “minister of defense can sign it, the gover nment can sign it. Somebody can accept responsibility for this.”

U.S. of ficials tempered that comment Wednesday, saying that the defense minister could sign the bilateral agreement — but only if Karzai delegated such authority. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief re-

por ters by name, added that this was not a diplomatic avenue the United States was now pursuing or encouraging.

Karzai’s refusal comes despite strong support from a key Afghan national assembly. He is deferring a decision to his successor after elections in April.

Janan Mosazai, a spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministr y, told repor ters that his gover nment supported the agreement and would sign it “in good time.” But it also wanted two assurances — that a “meaningful” peace process that includes the Taliban must begin in Afghanistan, and U.S. and NATO forces must stop militar y operations against Afghan homes “because that’s not where the terrorists are.”

In any case, “it’s up to the president of Afghanistan to determine whether the bilateral security agreement will be signed at the presidential level or at a different level between the two governments,” Mosazai said.

firefighters were putting out the blaze.

Vogen said the café had to throw out all of the food and drinks that were exposed to smoke — which was nearly ever ything — but it could have been much worse.

The Minneapolis Fire Depar tment fights about 1,200 fires per year, Fr uetel said.

West said the training grant will help ensure safe and ef ficient firefighting around the state.

“Our desire is to en-

hance the training for firefighters for better s a f e t y, ” h e s a i d . “ T h e more training they get as a firefighter, they’re going to be safer on the ground. They will be better trained and better prepared.”

Council

agreed, and he said it’s important to consider each development issue individually.

“I think we need to look case by case and stick to our area plans,” he said.

posals before voting.

“I think doing a smallarea plan is appropriate because it’s a roadmap for growth,” she said.

u from Page 1

want to build skyscrapers.

Probably neither of those options are best in the short term.”

Incoming Ward 5 Councilman Blong Yang said people shouldn’t shy away from new housing development in Dinkytown.

“I think new development is good there,” he said.

In August, Hofstede proposed a moratorium that could have potentially blocked Dinkytown development.

The proposal failed in a tied vote a month later, echoing the City Council’s split stance on the issue.

The majority of newcomers said they would have voted against the moratorium because it would limit city growth.

Incoming Ward 10 City Councilwoman Lisa Bender, a former San Francisco urban designer, said moratoriums halt conversations about progressing a neighborhood’s development.

“Generally, I wouldn’t support moratoriums on development because they’re such a blanket approach,” she said.

Incoming Ward 12 City Councilman Andrew Johnson

Small area, big plans Dinkytown’s small-area plan focuses on preserving the area’s business district while considering development options.

City planner Haila Maze has been drafting the plan since spring. She said the incoming council members will need to get up to speed, which is challenging because the area is constantly changing.

Planning is difficult because there are many businesses looking to develop in the area and there’s never a still period, she said.

“The area doesn’t stay the same, so you’re planning for an area that’s in motion,” she said.

Incumbents, like Ward 11 Councilman John Quincy, agreed the new council members will need time to digest the plan before voting on it, which will mean doing research on what’s been done.

“I think the lear ning cur ve is pretty ver tical when people come in,” he said.

Bender said she plans to delve into the small area plan and consider its pro-

‘That Dinkytown feel’

Opponents of Dinkytown development argue the area’s unique character and histor y could be lost with new construction.

Incoming Ward 6 City Councilman Abdi Warsame said historic preservation is important when considering change — but only for the right reasons, like being “good on the eyes.”

Ward 2 City Councilman Cam Gordon said he’s drafting a new ordinance to present to the City Council next year that would create a new classification system similar to historic districts, called “conservation districts.”

Since 2006, Gordon has represented Ward 2 — an area that includes parts of the University, Southeast Como and the Prospect Park and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods.

The new ordinance would be more flexible and have a unique set of standards, he said.

“That might be a way to … keep that Dinkytown feel,” he said.

Jessica Lee and Alex Bitter contributed to this report.

Venezuela cyber crackdown ensnares, censors Bitly website

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans have been scrambling for dollars for weeks, taking refuge in the greenback as their own currency is in free fall. Rather than address the economic imbalances behind the bolivar’s plunge, the government is going after the bearers of the bad news — it’s taking down websites people use to track exchange rates on the black market.

Cyber-activists say the crackdown goes to absurd lengths, even targeting Bitly, the popular site for shortening Web addresses to make it easier to send

them as links via Twitter and other social media. For more than two weeks, access to the service has been partially censored by several Internet service providers in Venezuela, apparently because Bitly was being used to evade blocks put on currency-tracking websites.

The New York company says such restrictions have only previously been seen in China, which has one of the worst records for Internet freedom, and even then not for such an extended period. Opponents of Venezuela’s socialist government say the restrictions are designed to obscure repor ting of the nation’s

mounting economic woes.

“We help connect people with information and insight about their world,” Bitly CEO Mark Josephson said. “When someone is standing in the way of that mission, that’s not something we feel good about.”

Bitly got caught in the crossfire of Venezuela’s polarized politics a month ago, shortly after President Nicolas Maduro decided to block access to sites such as www. dolartoday.com that publish the black market rate for the bolivar, which is now 10 times the official rate of 6.3 bolivars per dollar.

Maduro accuses the sites of fueling an “econom-

ic war” against his government, which is facing municipal elections this weekend that will be its first political test since he narrowly won the presidency in April following Hugo Chavez’s death. Many of the sites are also openly critical of the government.

But with the blocks in place, many sites managed to skirt the controls by migrating to Twitter, keeping hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans informed of the black market rate by using Bitly to direct traffic to newly created websites.

In response, telecommunications regulator Conatel sent a letter to Twitter on

Nov. 19 asking it to immediately shut all accounts used to violate Venezuela’s currency controls, warning that its failure to do so would be “highly damaging to the Venezuelan economy.” Twitter has ignored the request but declines to comment on the matter.

Around the same time, Bitly was taken down without notice — a least for Venezuelans who are subscribers to the state-run service provider, CANTV. As a result, the average number of clicks on Bitly-generated links has fallen by half to about 1.5 million a day in Venezuela, Josephson said.

“It’s like shutting down all

the highways in the country because there was an accident on one street,” said Luis Carlos Diaz, a cyber-activist and tech columnist for the Caracas newspaper Tal Cual.

Meanwhile, the government hasn’t said how it intends to stem the bolivar’s decline, a major factor fueling inflation that hit a twodecade high of 54 percent in October. Economists say the only way to stabilize the currency is by devaluing the bolivar and unwinding decade-old controls that restrict the amount of foreign currency Venezuelans can purchase. Maduro vigorously insists he will never adopt such policies.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

5

6

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Bus route changes worry students Buses u from Page 1

Connector’s only stop on West Bank. The Washington Avenue Bridge Circulator will take over some stops, including W illey Hall; 15th Avenue South and Cedar Avenue; Mondale Hall; and on East Bank, Pleasant Street and Pillsbur y Drive and Sanford Hall.

For more information on the changes, visit the University’s Parking and Transportation Services website.

Maps and other resources are also available at stops and on buses.

University Parking and Transpor tation Ser vices spokeswoman Jacqueline Br udlos said she’s confident the website will help students understand the changes.

Adjusting to the routes

Though of ficials are stressing these routes are not new, many students have become accustomed to the detoured routes and are even fr ustrated with the retur ning connector routes.

University design freshman Sarah Mattson, who lives in the 17th Avenue Residence Hall, said she uses campus transportation to travel to the St. Paul campus every day.

With the change, Mattson cannot board the Campus Connector at the Rec-

HOLLY PETERSON, DAILY

The Campus Connector driving on the Washington Avenue Bridge on Tuesday. On Dec. 7, the connectors and other Metro Transit buses will resume service on Washington Avenue for the first time since May 2011.

reational and Wellness Center, adding walking time to her commute.

“I think it’s very inconvenient,” she said.

Busse said the University community will receive an email outlining the

changes before they take effect.

“We’re all doing our best to make sure that this is communicated to ever yone,” he said.

Pedestrian and bicycle routes will be af fected as

well, Busse said, noting it’s important to be aware of the changes to ensure safety.

Metro Transit is also working to educate students about the changes, said Metro Transit spokes-

man John Siqveland.

“It’s our goal to make sure students understand schedules are going to be changing,” he said. “We want students, staff and faculty to understand that.”

Still, some students say

the resources are not helpful.

“I looked at the map [online] of the new stops, but it was confusing,” junior Hannah Hof fman said. “I’m not sure where the stops are.”

NEW CAMPUS AND CITY BUS ROUTES Metro Transit bus stop University bus stop

3

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2

Metro Transit route changes begin Dec. 7.

Campus bus route changes begin Dec. 9.

10

15

TH

TH

AVE N

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6

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WASHINGTON AVE. BRIDGE CIRCULATOR

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16

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SOURCE: PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION SERVICES, METRO TRANSIT

Diligent Asian students dominate global exam

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING — As a ninthgrader, Shanghai’s Li Sixin spent more than three hours on homework a night and took tutorials in math, physics and chemistr y on the weekends. When she was tapped to take an exam last year given to half a million students around the world, Li breezed through it.

“I felt the test was just easy,” said Li, who was a student at Shanghai Wenlai Middle School at the time and now attends high school. “The science par t was harder... but I can handle that.”

Those long hours focused on schoolwork — and a heavy emphasis on test-taking skills — help explain why young students like Li in China’s financial hub once again dominated an inter national test to

15-year-olds called the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, coordinated by the Parisbased Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. Students from Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan — all from Asia — were right behind.

Students in the wealthy city of Shanghai, where affluent families can afford to pay for tutors, are not representative of China overall, although they are ranked as a group alongside national averages for countries such as the United States and Japan. Still, they are indicative of education trends in China and elsewhere in Asia — societies where test results determine entrance into prestigious universities and often one’s eventual career path.

Shanghai scored an aver-

age of 613 on math, as compared with the nearest rival Singapore with 573, and the global average of 494. Hong Kong ranked third in math, scoring 561, while Japan was ranked seventh and scored 536. The test is given every three years.

The results have led to hand-wringing elsewhere, including in the United States, where students failed to rank in the top 20 in any category.

U.S. Education Secretar y Arne Duncan called the results a “picture of educational stagnation.”

In China, educators say hard work is a key to their students’ impressive showing.

“They listen carefully in the class and do the homework,” said Bai Bing, the headmaster of Li’s school, where about 40 students were chosen to take the global test. “They respect the teachers, and do exactly

the assignments that teachers ask them to do.”

“And it is a tradition that the Asians pay more attention to mathematics,” Bai said.

In Hong Kong, 16-yearold Rosita Or said extra tutorials can extend her school days to 8 p.m. — but she does credit them with improving her math grades in school.

“Ever yone is taking them — my friends, other students are taking the tutorial class. If I do not take this tutorial class, I feel like I have missed something,” Or said.

Still, Chinese educational experts are taking a more somber view in the face of the stellar achievements by their students, saying the results are at most partial and covering up shortcomings in creating well-rounded, critical thinking individuals.

“This should not be

considered a pride for us, because overall it still measures one’s test-taking ability. You can have the best answer for a theoretical model, but can you build a factor y on a test paper?” asked Xiong Bingqi, a Shanghai-based scholar on education.

“The biggest criticism is that China’s education has sacrificed ever ything else for test scores, such as life skills, character building, mental health, and physical health,” Xiong said.

Even the par ty-r un People’s Daily noted the burden on Shanghai students. “While many countries have been urged to increase more study time and more homework for their students, Shanghai clearly needs some alleviation,” the editorial reads.

Japan’s education minister, Hakubun Shimomura, pointed to the test results

as evidence of success in reforms aimed at reducing class sizes — despite continued criticism of the pressure-filled university entrance examination system.

Many Japanese students also attend cram schools to get an extra edge.

“Asian countries do better than European and American schools because we are ‘examination hell’ countries,” said Koji Kato, a professor emeritus of education at Tokyo’s Sophia University. “There is more pressure to teach to the test. In my experience in working with teachers the situation is becoming worse and worse.”

In China, where educational inequity is deeply entrenched, Shanghai has become an oasis of high standards and generous government support. The city invests four times the national average per student.

7

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Housing boom isn’t slowing down Housing u from Page 1

A dif ferent market Food systems sophomore Cour tney Pietras said she’ll need to move out of her apar tment in Sydney Hall next year be-

Argentine police strike ends

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A sit-in by police seeking pay raises in Argentina’s second-largest city prompted hours of looting, robberies, injuries and vigilante mobs trying to protect their neighborhoods before the provincial government agreed to the officers’ demands and peace returned to the streets Wednesday.

Three deaths were reported amid the violence in Cordoba and a copycat effort to loot a store outside the nation’s capital.

The accord brings steep pay hikes for Cordoba police. Gov. Jose Manuel de la Sota said they will now be the best-paid in the nation.

But the violence suggests how easily social conflicts can er upt in Argentina, where most cities are surrounded by slums known as “miser y villages,” and street protests by activists demanding more handouts to keep up with inflation are

a daily fact of life.

De la Sota, a political rival of President Cristina Fernandez who says she star ves Cordoba of federal support, said her administration could have easily prevented the violence by sending national police in earlier.

“It’s like we have to burn our national identity document because there are some who don’t consider us par t of the Argentine Republic,” de la Sota complained in a fier y speech Wednesday after resolving the strike.

The president’s Cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, denied this and accused de la Sota of trying to shift the blame for a problem that was entirely his responsibility. Still, 2,000 border police were dispatched to Cordoba

by Wednesday afternoon to help restore order.

The violence began Tuesday evening after police abandoned their posts while the gover nor was traveling outside Argentina,

and continued through the night, with storefronts shattered, mobs stealing merchandise, robbers attacking people in the streets and vigilantes arming themselves to protect their homes.

Banks and schools were closed and people huddled inside Wednesday as more supermarkets and a mobile television van recording the violence were attacked, even as officers and provincial authorities negotiated the deal.

Hospital authorities repor ted two deaths: a young motorcyclist was shot in the chest and an 85-year-old man collapsed while his home was being robbed, according to Cordoba’s Voz del Interior newspaper. More than 100 were injured, mostly from shattered glass. At least 56 people were arrested, and both the governor and police chief said after signing the deal that anyone responsible for looting will go to jail.

APARTMENT CONDITIONS IN THE TWIN CITIES AND THE U.S. Twin Cities apartment market conditions PHYSICAL VACANCY RATE

AVERAGE MARKET RENT $966 $927 $906

$899 $846

$837

$851

$729 7.6%

7.3% 6.1%

2.8%

2.8%

2013

2.0%

2011

4.2%

4.0%

$620

2009

2007

2005

2003

2001

1.7%

1999

U.S. metro vacancy rates

SAN FRANCISCO

3.4%

LOS ANGELES

TWIN CITIES

3.4%

BOSTON

2.9%

3.4%

PHILADELPHIA

2.7%

2.8%

3.0%

SAN DIEGO

4.4%

SAN JOSE

3.1%

2.2%

UNITED STATES

1.8%

OAKLAND

cause it’s too expensive.

The average student rent for a two-bedroom apar tment near campus is $700 to $1,050 per bed, according to May data from Marquette Advisors.

M a r q u e t t e ’ s W i t t e nberg said student housing doesn’t follow apar tment industr y standards, because it’s often furnished, it’s leased by the individual bedroom and it combines utilities into the rent structure.

Because it’s such a different animal, exper ts are tracking student housing on its own.

University enrollment numbers and the dying trend of student commuters also af fect student housing unlike any other submarket, Bujold said.

But she said the most important factor driving the student housing boom is the willingness of parents to subsidize living costs.

“Students aren’t affording it; parents are paying for it,” she said. “I think the mindset has changed how parents interact with their children.”

Pietras said her parents cur rently pay more than $850 per month for her apartment.

Even if the market busts, Bujold said the last thing landlords will do is reduce rent. Instead, she said they’ll offer incentives like a free month of rent or complimentar y televisions. These incentives are tax-deductible because they’re considered marketing expenses, Bujold said, so they’re better for developers’ bottom line.

“If ever ything comes online, there will be some rent discounts, eventually,” she said. “It depends on how bad the market gets. If the market gets re-

PORTLAND

The Twin Cities vacancy rate increased slightly to 2.5 percent in the last three months, according to the Marquette repor t — but it’s not as high as experts forecasted.

I n M a y, W i t t e n b e r g predicted the vacancy rate would reach 6 percent by 2014 and possibly scrape 7 percent sometime during 2015-16, based on the number of units set to open.

There’s a 50-50 chance the University area could reach these levels, Maxfield Research Inc. President Mar y Bujold said.

Maxfield Research specializes in development feasibility studies.

Bujold said she wouldn’t advise a client to open a large-scale student project in 2016 or beyond.

Doran said he’s concer ned about market saturation, but that didn’t factor into his decision to change plans for an apar tment complex in the hear t of Dinkytown to a 125-room hotel.

It could be Doran’s last campus development for some time. Because of all the development around the University, Doran said he’s not looking at other student development opportunities right now.

When his newest apartment complex, the Bridges, opens this fall, Doran

said he’ll own 1,200 bedrooms near campus.

“If some unbelievable proper ty came down the road at us, would I look at it? Sure,” he said. “But I would have real reser vations about building something.”

CPM Companies owner Daniel Oberpriller owns 2,400 beds and has been leasing since 2005. He said vacancies are ver y rare.

Oberpriller hopes to open his latest luxur y housing project, WaHu, in 2015. With 333 units and 27,000 square feet of retail space, it’s the largest proposed development in the University area. Oberpriller is also building a smaller project, 700 Washington, in Stadium Village.

After WaHu is finished, Oberpriller said he’ll have to step back and re-evaluate the market, but he said he isn’t worried about the University area’s vacancy rising.

“I just flat out don’t see that happening,” he said.

The University houses a low percentage of its students on campus compared to other Big Ten schools, which Harmsen said is the reason he’s rented his proper ties for next fall at a record pace.

If the market busts, Harmsen said the properties closest to campus will sur vive. Customers should be rooting for this, Harmsen said, because only the landlords will suffer.

“Competition helps ever ybody,” he said. “If you explode a market, then the prices will go down.”

1997

The future of development

LISA PERSSON, DAILY

A view of the Marshall and the Venue, two new housing developments on Fifth Street Southeast and 14th Avenue Southeast.

NEW YORK

B e c a u s e o f t h i s d emand, renters have increased what were already considered “luxur y” rent rates. The average rent across the Twin Cities increased to $984 this year, up 3.5 percent from 2012, and it’s projected to rise even more, according to Marquette Advisors’ most recent quarterly report.

“When you have low vacancy for an extensive number of quarters … that increases the oppor tunity to raise rents,” Marquette Vice President Brent Wittenberg said, adding that the demand is still exceeding the supply.

The Twin Cities metro area average vacancy rate has r emained below 3 percent for more than two years, according to the November report, and the gold r ush for developers shows little signs of stopping.

“When you talk to realtors, they’re saying we’re seeing one of the best markets we’ve seen in years,” Todd said. “There’s nothing for me to say, ‘Boy, the market has peaked.’ ” But Todd says this was the case right before the housing bubble popped in 2005.

“Ever ybody knew the market was just on fire,” he said. “But, no one knew: When will we hit that point where one more building is just too many more buildings?”

SOURCE: MARQUETTE ADVISORS

ally bad, yes, they will permanently reduce rents.”

Wittenberg said even if vacancy rates rise dramati-

cally, they should bounce back.

“That’s not a disaster.

That’s still not a red flag

situation,” he said. “And I don’t know how to define one [for this market] necessarily.”

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lights up

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — W ith a flick of the switch, a 76-foot Nor way Spruce officially became the Rockefeller Center Christmas t r e e We d n e s d a y n i g h t after it was illuminated for the first time this holiday season in a ceremony that’s been held since 1933.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg turned on the lights just before 9 p.m., setting off a dazzling 45,000 multicolored LED lights and a 9 1/2-foot-wide Swarovski star that topped the 12-ton tree.

Adam Conner y, 41, and his wife Kristy Conner y, 37, from Tyngsborough, Mass., watched the ceremony on their first vacation to New York City.

“It’s gorgeous, it’s enormous,” said Kristy Con-

ner y of the massive tree towering above the hundreds of thousands of people who gathered to watch the ceremony. “Christmas is my favorite time of the year.”

The holiday event in midtown Manhattan also was watched by millions on television. The tree will be on display until Jan. 7, after which it’ll be milled into lumber for Habitat for Humanity.

Artists such as Mar y J. Blige, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jewel, Mariah Carey and Leona Lewis performed.

Lamar Lakins, 37, a housekeeper from Queens, brought his wife, mother, 10-year-old daughter Shanel, and newborn son to watch the per formances and see the tree lighting.

He and Shanel danced together in the plaza dur-

ing a performance of “Jingle Bells.”

“I just love this,” he said of the gathering. “It’s just people out enjoying themselves. I’m definitely a fan of the holiday season.”

The approximately 75-year-old tree made the 70-mile trip to New York City on a tractor-trailer from its home in Shelton, Conn., last month.

Danbur y, Conn., resident Mar y Hynes, 60, declared the show to be “outstanding.”

“The excitement of the crowd, the brilliance of the lights. It was great,” she said.

“Today Show” personalities Matt Lauer, Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie and Natalie Morales co-hosted “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” which aired on NBC.

8

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Prospect Park plans to build oven The neighborhood wants to build a community oven in one of its parks.

BY ALEX BITTER abitter@mndaily.com

Prospect Park residents may have something warm to look forward to after the winter is over.

The neighbor hood’s community organization is considering a proposal to construct a wood-fired oven that would be open to residents for baking next summer. The organization plans to apply to receive $16,000 from the University of Minnesota’s Good Neighbor Fund to pay for supplies and labor to build it.

The idea comes amid a resurgence in oven building in the Twin Cities, where residents have constructed several new community ovens in recent years.

Former Prospect Park East River Road Improvement Association President Steve Cross said he got the idea after using a brick oven during a bread baking class last spring at the Nor th House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minn.

Community ovens were common in the United States until the early 19th century, Cross said, when advances in technology moved most cooking indoors.

“Before that, every community had numerous ovens where [residents] did their baking and food preparation,”

he said.

Cross brought the idea to PPERRIA in June, and other interested members started to work out the details. Since then, the Community Oven Task Force has been turned away from possible sites — including a garden at the intersection of Franklin Avenue Southeast and Cecil Street and the property of the St. Frances Cabrini Church, he said.

Cross said the task force is trying to secure support from the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to build the oven in Luxton Park, which fronts Williams Avenue Southeast.

A group of PPERRIA volunteers, including a designated ovenmaster, would manage the oven. The proposed brick oven is 6 feet wide, 7 feet long and 8 feet tall.

Br yce Johnson, pastor at White Bear Lake United Methodist Church, said his congregation built an oven on church land in 2010. The church holds monthly bread baking sessions and pizza nights during the summer, Johnson said.

“It’s a pretty wonderful way to be together as a community,” Johnson said.

Mike Faust, a member of the church’s congregation and former engineer for 3M, said he collaborated with Johnson to draw the plans for the oven before building it with $6,200 and 40 volunteers.

Faust said city building inspectors had to approve certain aspects of its construc-

tion, like its placement on the property and its location relative to other structures.

The oven at White Bear Methodist must meet the same requirements as an outdoor fire, Faust said, although the oven’s brick exterior completely encloses the fire.

“They look at it basically as an outside fire, and in the case of the fire itself, it’s really contained — it’s not out in the open,” he said.

Unlike the White Bear Lake site in the suburbs, Faust said, Prospect Park’s proposed Luxton Park site in the city might draw smoke complaints from nearby neighbors.

Faust said the success of the White Bear Lake church’s oven convinced him to build another in his backyard — and other churches and organizations, including Cross’, have since come to him for advice on building their own ovens.

Susan Bruno, a saleswoman at Smith-Sharpe Fire Brick Supply on Broadway Street Northeast, said the company has seen more people buy supplies for ovens during the last few months.

She said the prospective bakers range from people taking classes on oven building to people with a do-it-yourself approach, and they’re different from the company’s normal business and industrial clients.

“People are excited about doing this at home,” she said.

“It’s just one of those things that’s really caught fire.”

10 whales dead, dozens stranded

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK, Fla. — Wildlife workers in boats struggled unsuccessfully Wednesday to coax nearly four dozen pilot whales out of dangerous shallow waters in Florida’s Everglades National Park, hoping to spare them the fate of 10 others that already had died.

The workers suspended their efforts after dark, but planned to return Thursday morning to tr y again, said Kim Amendola, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-

tration, which is taking part in the effort.

Six of the whales were found dead, and four of the whales had to be euthanized Wednesday, said Blair Mase, coordinator for NOAA’s marine mammal stranding network. At least three could be seen on the beach, out of the water.

The whales are stranded in a remote area near Highland Beach, the western boundar y of Everglades National Park and about 20 miles east of where they normally live. It takes more than an hour to reach the spot from the nearest boat ramp

and there is no cellphone service, complicating rescue efforts.

“We want to set the expectation low, because the challenges are very, very difficult,” Mase said.

Park spokeswoman Linda Friar said rescuers were trying to surround the whales, which were in roughly 3 feet of salt water about 75 feet from shore, and herd them back to sea.

“They are not cooperating,” Friar said.

Workers also tried to nudge the whales out to sea earlier in the day with no success.

U course straightens out students’ study habits Some say the U’s academic refresher course helps students, but it’s underutilized.

BY KYLE STOWE kstowe@mndaily.com

As Rachel Horoshak’s fall semester unfolded, she realized she had some bad habits she needed to kick.

“I had never cracked open a textbook before to study,” said Horoshak, a neuroscience sophomore. “But things are different now.”

To boost her study skills, she enrolled in the University of Minnesota Counseling and Consulting Services’ one-credit academic refresher course. Both students and instructors say the class is effective for improving academic habits, but some say it’s underutilized.

The eight-week, passfail course begins midway through fall and spring semesters. Many students enrolled at the suggestion of their academic advisers, said Scott Slattery, program director for UCCS’ Student Academic Success Services.

Communications junior Alissa Moe transferred from the University of Texas at Tyler last fall.

After encountering difficulties with managing her coursework, her adviser suggested she take the re-

fresher course.

“I really wasn’t prepared for the dif ference in academic intensity between my original school and the U,” she said. “This class has really opened my eyes up to some new skills that I can incorporate into my studies today and going forward.”

In the class, students meet with their instructor twice a week — once in a lecture and once individually or in a small group. The class aims to get students back on track for the rest of the semester by teaching them how to improve study skills and by providing individual feedback for each student.

Slatter y said some students struggle with a lack of confidence in academics and sometimes resor t to dropping a class or not completing a semester.

“If a student falls behind, there’s a real temptation to want to just give up,” he said. “But there really are ways you can recover and get back on track.”

Slatter y said UCCS introduced the course shortly after the University began its midterm aler ts policy, which requires instructors to notify students and their advisers in the middle of the semester if they’re in danger of receiving an N, D or F in a 1000-level class.

“The class’s creation really was a response to a call from the University to develop some options for

students who weren’t where they needed to be in the classroom as the semester unfolded,” he said.

Slatter y said he thinks students don’t use the refresher course and other academic support options often enough. This semester, the course has seven students enrolled.

“We would like to see more students interested in the course, because we know it can help,” Slattery said. “But at the same time, we understand that it can be difficult for students to discuss their struggles with other people.”

Moe said she thinks students who are struggling should seek help to get back on track with their schoolwork rather than simply relying on themselves.

“Students have so many great resources to help them here at the University,” she said. “It’s important to realize they’re not all on their own.”

Refresher course instructor Rob Wilson said students of all ages are prone to experiencing academic difficulties during their time at the University.

Many students come to the class with a basic knowledge of study skills, he said, but there’s often room to improve.

“A lot of what we work on with students in the class is building on the skills they already knew,” he said.

Arizona probe places blame on forestry division in firefighter deaths

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHOENIX — An Arizona commission that oversees workplace safety blamed the state’s Forestr y Division on Wednesday for the June deaths of 19 firefighters, saying state fire of ficials knowingly put protection of proper ty ahead of safety and should have pulled crews out earlier.

The ruling by the state Industrial Commission came after its investigative agency, the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health, released its findings and recommended citations and financial penalties. The commission levied a $559,000 fine.

The ADOSH report was a stinging rebuke of an earlier investigation commissioned by the Forestr y Division, which found that state fire of ficials communicated poorly but followed proper procedures when 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed in a blaze near the small community of Yar nell nor thwest of Phoenix.

All but one member of

the crew died June 30. The Hotshots were trapped as the flames they were battling changed direction in a fierce thunderstorm.

The Arizona State Forestr y Division oversaw the fight against the blaze that sparked on state land.

The ADOSH investigation found that state fire of ficials lacked key personnel to battle the Yarnell Hill Fire at critical times. Marshall Krotenberg, the safety agency’s lead investigator, told the commission there should have been of ficers to ensure firefighters’ safety, a planning section chief and a division super visor, who wasn’t replaced after he abandoned his post.

Family members who attended the hearing sobbed softly when the names of the dead were read.

Juliann Ashcraft, whose husband, Andr ew Ashcraft, was killed, said the report provides important insight.

“Finally, people that are educated, that are experienced, that have researched it and have a less biased opinion — they’re just there objectively — that they get it,” she said.

Krotenberg told commissioners that fire mana g e r s s h o u l d h a v e r emoved firefighters an hour before the thunderstorm

arrived.

“The storm was anticipated, it was forecasted, ever ybody knew it,” he said. “But there was no plan to move people out of the way.”

In addition, senior fire managers had already deter mined that the town itself was indefensible, he said.

The commission’s chairman, David Parker, said he believed the fire management team on site did ever ything in its power to defend the community and provide for the safety of people.

“But it’s not the intention of the people that (is) in question, it’s that employees remained exposed after they no longer should be exposed,” he said.

Car rie Dennett, a spokeswoman for the Forestr y Division, said the agency fully cooperated with the investigation and declined comment. The Forestr y Division has 15 working days to appeal.

Gov. Jan Brewer’s office also declined comment, citing pending litigation. The mother of one of the firefighters has filed a $36 million notice of claim against the state, Yavapai County and the city of Prescott, saying their negligence led to the death of her son.

Editorials & Opinions www.mndaily.com/opinion

Thursday, December 5, 2013

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The Editorials & Opinions department is independent of the newsroom. The editorial board prepares the editorials labeled “EDITORIALS,” which are the opinion of the Minnesota Daily as an institution but not representative of Daily employees’ opinions.

Columnists’ opinions are their own.

STUDENT LIFE

EDITORIAL

In the classroom, phones can wait

Use Vikings money for public safety

Texting during class has real consequences for college students.

W

alking like a zombie to an 8 a.m. lecture isn’t fun. Students are tired, probably hopped up on caffeine, and have possibly not eaten yet. When midway through class you feel a tingling sensation from your pocket, the instinct to investigate can be overpowering. However, I urge students to limit their phone use during class.

Texting during class is one of the more disrespectful acts a student can commit aside from missing class. Using a phone shows the teacher that, although their class session was worth showing up for, it wasn’t nearly as important as whatever is on the screen.

And yet, disrespectful as it may be, it happens in almost every lecture. In nearly every one of my classes this semester, I can recall an instance when a student a few rows ahead abruptly looked around the room, slid their hand into their pocket, pulled out a gadget and

CONNOR NIKOLIC columnist

plugged away. They pay almost no attention to the professor, choosing rather to focus on the iPhone in their lap.

I think this is even more of a problem for those of us who have been at the University of Minnesota awhile.

As upperclassmen, we tell ourselves that our past phonechecking methods were inconspicuous or that we can handle the class regardless. We don’t fret ourselves about looking away to text every five minutes.

The freshmen see the line in their syllabuses regarding cellphone use, but they don’t know how little most lecturers actually enforce such rules. Underclassmen may also still cling to expectations of cellphone use based on their high school experience.

Obviously, in the case of unusual circumstances, we all have reason to keep a phone at our sides.

If family texts about health emer gencies, a student shouldn’t necessarily wait until the end of class to check their phone. In these cases, they deserve to know immediately.

To combat such unlikely circumstances, I recommend setting all of your non-voice calling settings on your phone to silent, no vibration, during class and leaving only vibrate turned on for calls. When your gadget starts blowing up during lecture, you will know something is important enough for someone to call, but you can wait to read messages.

If a student still has trouble kicking the habit, they should enroll in courses with lower class sizes or study more appealing topics. If you’re simply bored in class, then the problem is bigger than your digital device.

In a 2012 Indiana University and Purdue University study, 90 percent of undergraduate students said they felt a phantom vibration, which is when one thinks their phone is vibrating

DEATHS IN IRAQ: U.S. & COALITION TROOPS: 4,802 — IRAQI CIVILIANS: 115,503- PLUS DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN: U.S. & COALITION TROOPS: 3,386 — AFGHAN CIVILIANS: UNKNOWN

when it’s not.

If you’ve developed phantom vibration syndrome and the phone-checking instinct is a problem, then you may just want to leave your phone at home.

In the end, using a device too much harms its owner, not the class, the most. Burying your head in an iPhone for the next few days of lecture won’t help you with upcoming finals.

If students really want to make the grade, they should take advantage of quiet or courtesy hours in residence halls or head to the library. Quiet and studious space may help students focus.

Some students may find it helpful to detach themselves from their phone altogether during finals week.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tells drivers to “Click It or Ticket.”

You know that button on the top of your iPhone? Click it. The ticket may come in the form of a poor final test grade or an upset professor.

Connor Nikolic welcomes comments at cnikolic@mndaily.com.

MULTICULTURAL

Don’t hastily label Daley’s sexuality When British athlete Tom Daley came out, some falsely claimed he was gay.

B

Maxwell Smith welcomes comments at msmith@mndaily.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Letter signatories deser ve Faculty Senate response on Markingson case The Faculty Senate will consider an extraordinar y plea this Thursday. More than 170 scholars in biomedical research, health law and medical ethics have asked the Senate to endorse an external inquir y into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dan Markingson.

Markingson was a mentally ill young man who killed himself in an industr y-funded psychiatric research study at the University of Minnesota in 2004.

University of ficials have responded to the suicide with, as these scholars put it, a “near-complete denial of any problems.”

This is its reaction despite troubling evidence that Markingson was coerced into the study while mentally incapable of giving informed consent — and then kept in the study for months, even as his mother repeatedly warned of ficials that Markingson was in serious danger of killing himself.

The signers addressed the letter to members of the Faculty Senate and included the chair, President Eric Kaler, and vice chair Eva von Dassow.

There was a good reason for sending the letter to the Senate. The University administration has failed to deal honestly with

the Markingson case.

In a Nov. 12 response to the letter, University General Counsel William Donohue wrote, “We do not believe that fur ther review is warranted.” Case closed.

In our experience, anyone asking questions abo ut th e M ar kings on case can expect exactly this response. No matter whom the question is directed to — the Faculty Senate, the Board of Regents, Kaler or even the supposedly independent University research integrity of ficer — the answer inevitably comes back from the Office of the General Counsel.

Its reply is some variant of the following: This is an old case that has been repeatedly investigated, and we have been exonerated of blame.

In fact, it’s precisely because of the inadequacy of the Of fice of General Counsel’s supposed “investigations” that these scholars have requested an exter nal independent review.

Nor are these all old issues from the distant past.

As a result of public advocacy about the Markingson case, nearly a dozen people have contacted us, claiming that they or their family members have suffered abuses while enrolled in psychiatric clinical studies.

Many describe experi-

ences similar to what Dan Markingson endured.

Of course, we cannot be sure that these claims have merit. But if even a fraction of them prove credible, the University is facing a major research scandal.

The scholars asking for an investigation are not wild-eyed opponents of medical research. They come from elite academic institutions: Har vard University, the University of Oxford, Stanford University, Duke University, Penn State, T ufts University, McGill University and the University of Toronto.

Many of them hold endowed chairs. T wo are former editors of the New England Journal of Medicine, arguably the most influential medical publication in the world. Quite a number are either University alumni or current faculty members.

They deser ve to be taken seriously.

We urge the Faculty Senate to do the right thing Thursday and ask for an external inquir y.

Lives may well depend on it.

Carl Elliott Professor University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics Leigh Turner Associate professor University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics

ritish Olympianturnedcelebrity Tom Daley revealed he is in a samesex relationship in a video on his ERIC BEST YouTube channel editorials & opinions Monday. While editor the media’s reaction was largely positive, some media outlets and viewers incorrectly assumed Daley was gay.

In the video, titled “Tom Daley: Something I want to say...,” Daley said he wanted to set the record straight after a national newspaper misquoted him regarding his sexuality.

“Of course, I still fancy girls,” Daley said. “But, I mean, right now I’m dating a guy, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Daley’s words reflect an obvious attraction to men and women, or bisexuality. Regardless of whether this was Daley’s only same-sex relationship or one of many, Daley seems to be bisexual, though he did not use the word in his video.

His lack of defining ter ms should also be a sign to viewers that Daley doesn’t value labeling his sexual orientation.

The Guardian sex columnist Nicki Hodgson said Daley’s lack of labels confused the media. Tabloid newspaper Express labeled Daley “a gay” and focused its coverage on how Daley’s sexuality would help gay people. A variety of viewers — from homophobic to respectful — took to calling Daley “Tom Gayley” on Twitter.

The media’s reaction shows improvement in the outlook of gay people — specifically male homosexuality — but it also reflected a limited understanding of sexual orientation, specifically the existence of bisexuality.

The situation sends a message to bisexual people that they’re lying to themselves about their sexual orientation or their sexuality is taboo.

For celebrities, bi-visibility is nonexistent. Coming out as bisexual still means dealing with rumors of promiscuity, attention-seeking and/or denial.

While all LGBT communities continue to struggle for acceptance, we should be wary of the instinct to label or assume someone’s identity, even if we support them.

Daley struggled with reporters misrepresenting and misquoting his sexuality. Ultimately, it should be his decision what his identity is and how we talk about it, not the media’s.

Eric Best welcomes comments at ebest@mndaily.com.

There’s money on the table as the Vikings arrive at TCF, and it should go toward preventing crime in University-area neighborhoods.

T

his semester, we’ve seen an uptick in violent crime around campus. We’ve also seen the Gophers’ last season at TCF Bank Stadium before the Minnesota Vikings join them in 2014.

As the neighborhoods sur rounding the University of Minnesota grapple with several alarming crimes against students, the University is preparing to divvy up about $125,000 in neighborhood donations from the Vikings.

As the semester comes to a close, it’s becoming clear this money in the Good Neighbor Fund should be spent on new safety initiatives for the University and surrounding neighborhoods.

The Good Neighbor Fund, comprised of $90,000 in cash and $35,000 of in-kind donations, is ostensibly set aside for long-lasting, tangible improvements, but the University is also looking for highly visible projects that show neighborhood collaboration.

Crime is at the forefront Marcy-Holmes, Como, Prospect Park and Cedar-Riverside made more headlines for community development and rapid development than public safety until recently, when a series of alarming, violent crimes blindsided the neighborhoods.

The University isn’t immune; an alleged armed robber y in a campus building during the day paralyzed the school and set of ficials scrambling to maintain the school’s reputation for safety — with mixed success.

The violent robberies, sexual assaults and attempted kidnapping of a student all come at a time when community groups are tr ying to puzzle out a project proposal large enough to fit University Community Relations’ criteria for the Vikings funds.

Como was attempting to expand potential improvements, and Marcy-Holmes was taking proposals.

What could we do with the money?

A Good Neighbor Fund public safety initiative could take many forms, and there’s enough money for each neighborhood to allocate resources according to its own needs.

Community groups could expand neighborhood watch programs, upgrade lights and cameras, of fer self-defense classes or even hire of f-duty police of ficers, like some Dinkytown businesses do.

Each neighborhood group knows what its area needs, but strategizing under the umbrella of one new initiative for 2014 would stay true to the collaborative spirit the University is seeking.

Because the University sits at the center of recent crime and distributes Good Neighbor Fund money, it would be easy to integrate any new or expanded neighborhood projects with campus safety programs like the escor t ser vice or the recently expanded Gopher Chauffer.

Ever yone has something to gain As the middleman, the University is in an ideal position. The onus of creating the new program is rightfully on the neighborhoods, and the University simply has to distribute someone else’s money to bolster its own public image tremendously.

Funding a new public safety program would also help the Vikings’ public image more than new playgrounds or an appearance from Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson — two ideas the franchise repor tedly pitched during negotiations with the University.

With an NFL team, thousands of fans and all the accompanying fanfare arriving on campus, safety will be an even bigger concern next fall.

Students, neighborhoods, the University and the Vikings all stand to benefit from a new, collaborative neighborhood safety initiative.

The money is already on the table, and we hope the University and community groups will put it toward crime prevention.

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Thursday, December 5, 2013

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ART

To protect and preserve the artworld “Restoring a Masterwork III” showcases the many sides of art restoration.

BY ALEX BRODSKY abrodsky@mndaily.com

T

he art restoration process has long been hidden from prying eyes in the backs of museums, and rarely does one consider the work that goes into maintaining collections of centuriesold works.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, in conjunction with the Midwest Art Conservation Center, is opening that world up to the public.

The exhibit, the third of its kind at the MIA, centers on the restoration of a single work: Max Beckmann’s “Blind Man’s Buff,” a massive, vibrant triptych painted between 1944 and 1945.

Erika Holmquist-Wall, the curator of the exhibit, said she hopes that restoring a relatively recent work proves restoration isn’t just for classical paintings. Additionally, the exhibition illustrates that however scientific the restoration process has become, it still retains plenty of humanity.

The use of technology has transformed the art restoration world rapidly throughout the past few decades.

Curators like HolmquistWall often use X-rays and infrared light to identify previous — often failed — attempts at restoration. These antiquated attempts, which Holmquist-Wall described as “horrifying,” involved techniques that permanently altered the works.

That generation of restoration has tainted the field of art preservation in some artists’ minds. In the 1950s, curators used “wax lining” — essentially ironing hot wax onto the back of a painting — in an effort to preserve works.

This technique would flatten the brushstrokes, destroying a painting’s unique character.

Modern restoration has shied away from these irreversible methods in favor of less “heavy-handed” ones, Holmquist-Wall said. For instance, she described “inpainting,” which involves tinting only microscopic areas of a degraded painting. Compared to previous methods that retinted paintings completely, inpainting precisely

CHELSEA GORTMAKER, DAILY An exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts features the restoration of a triptych by Max Beckmann titled “Blind Man’s Buff.”

restores the faded color of a work.

With the exhibition, Holmquist-Wall hopes to demystify her job. Though she believes the public has become savvier about the art world, she still sees cases of misunderstandings.

Holmquist-Wall described an instance when a man brought the Midwest Art Conservation Center a painting he wanted to restore. Beforehand, “he took a garden hose to it, hoping to wash off the grime,” she said. She hopes the exhibit will help illuminate how art restoration goes deeper than just cleaning.

The exhibit, though, demonstrates more than just the restoration process. It allows patrons to engage with a painting in this entirely new context.

“Restoring as major a work as the Beckmann gives the public a taste of just how interesting this work is,”

WHAT RESTORING A MASTERWORK III: MAX BECKMANN’S “BLIND MAN’S BUFF” WHEN THROUGH MARCH 1, 2014 WHERE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, 2400 S. THIRD AVE., MINNEAPOLIS COST FREE

Holmquist-Wall said. “It’s got a fascinating story, and I’m thrilled to share it.”

Seeing a curator meticulously restore a work reminds onlookers of exactly how physical a painting is. The exhibit demonstrates firsthand how important every brushstroke, pigment and layer is to a work of art.

Prior to restoring, art conservators have to research everything about a painter to ensure they remain faithful to his or her original vision.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS Senior Paintings Conservator Joan Gorman works on restoring “Blind Man’s Buff” by Max Beckmann at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Through this research, a conservator gains an intimate knowledge of every stroke

in a painting. The restoration process is certainly scientific, yet it still requires a human

element. There’s no single formula for touching up an old work.

FILM

You’ve gotta fight for your right to combat crime Aspiring University of Minnesota filmmakers release “So-Called Superheroes,” a sevenepisode web series.

BY EMILY EVELAND eeveland@mndaily.com

W

hat do you do when you want to make films but your school lacks a cohesive program? For Nathan Hastings, Jacob Fritz and Jacob Johnson, the answer was simple: You pool your resources and do it anyway.

“If you’re serious about studying film at the [University of Minnesota], you sort of have to do your own thing,” Fritz said.

Last summer, Hastings, Fritz and Johnson directed and filmed a seven-episode web series called “So-Called Superheroes” on a $600 budget. They released one episode on YouTube per week throughout the fall semester.

Throughout the process, the boys consulted communications professor Mark Neuman-Scott for writing and filming advice, rented their cameras from the Rarig Center and used the series to apply and refine the skills they picked up in the University’s scattered assortment of film classes.

“We had a handful of

months to write out 25 pages of script, which is a real luxury, because we didn’t have to do it for a class,” said Hastings, a communications senior.

“So-Called Superheroes” centers on a group of four wannabe heroes with lessthan-stellar powers who set out to fight crime in the fictional neighborhood of Glasstown, an amalgamation of familiar Minnesota locations like Pillsbury A Mill and Minnehaha Falls.

Hastings, who plays Super Ryan Gosling, and Johnson, who plays Plague Doctor, found the remaining two lead actors to play Furie and Thundercloud through the Minnesota Film and TV Board. “[The characters] each approach crime-fighting and patrolling in a different way,” Hastings said.

Plague Doctor threatens enemies with a syringe filled with an unknown substance, Super Ryan Gosling terrifies with his looks, Furie occasionally kicks things, and, well, it’s unclear what Thundercloud does.

Instead of fighting crime, the group gets involved in a turf war with a gang called Contenders, fronted by a switchblade-wielding character called Eddie Griffin.

“Oh, you’re a band!” Thundercloud says upon hearing their name. The contested

PHOTO COURTESY OF NATHAN HASTINGS Super Ryan Gosling, Furie, Thundercloud and Plague Doctor hard at work.

turf is actually the Pillsbury Tower near St. Anthony Falls.

“The idea is that this is a Lake Nokomis-type neighborhood,” Johnson said. “The superheroes want to hang out there because there are not a lot of hardened criminals around there and they’re not very tough.”

The Contenders challenge the heroes to a rumble. Whoever wins the rumble gets to stay.

Hastings, Fritz and Johnson took a hands-on approach to choreographing the fight sequence.

“We broke out the toys and the action figures and blocked out how we were gonna do this stuff,” Fritz said. “Nathan and I were kicking chairs over and jumping over things.”

The rumble is similar to the fight scene in “Anchorman.” At one point, Plague

Doctor forces a Contender to slap himself with his own hands and, at another, simply flaps his arms and makes bird sounds while standing over a dif ferent gang member.

“What are you doing?” the Contender says in response.

“That doesn’t even hurt.”

Mustard Bus, an indiefunk hybrid from St. Paul, provided the score for the fight scene and is featured

throughout the series.

Minneapolis-based Strange Names, which is fronted by University theater graduate Liam Benzvi, also provides the soundtrack for the series.

In the end, “So-Called Superheroes” is about the people underneath the masks.

“If you take that superhero and strip off the mask and the costume and everything, you have an interesting story re-

Thursday, December 5, 2013

11

THEATER

Artists bare it all to improve their craft Naked Stages 2013 helps young artists shape worlds on stage.

BY JOE KELLEN jkellen@mndaily.com

M

olly Van Aver y’s eyes beamed when she was asked about her job as the director of Pillsbur y House Theatre’s Naked Stages program.

The program has been close to her hear t for a while now. Though it’s her first year as director, she’s worked as a coordinator for the program in the past.

Naked Stages is an immersive, seven-month development program that gives emerging ar tists an oppor tunity to focus on a single piece of their work.

They’r e pr ovided with funding, mentorship and full access to Pillsbur y’s resources. “ Wa t c h i n g a r t i s t s sor t of fumble their way through the creative dark to allow themselves to figure out their voice is so satisfying,” Van Aver y said.

Naked Stages allots more than half a year to its participants — an anomaly in the theater world. Van Aver y said that time is crucial to the project’s success.

“How do you find a process as an ar tist that works for you, unleashes your own creativity and helps you think about how to maximize your full potential? It’s a big question,” she said.

Because the program focuses on developing and fine-tuning, the applicants are chosen based on how ready they are to realize their idea. The board that makes the decisions changes ever y year and is made up of one Naked Stages alum, an artist that doesn’t work with the performance and a local producer.

The three selected ar tists –– Zainab Musa, Emily Zimmer and Moheb Soli-

JULIET FARMER, DAILY Zainab Musa rehearses for “Habeas Corpus” on Monday at the Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis. “Habeas Corpus” is one of three productions in the Naked Stages series, which provides mentorship to emerging performance artists in Minnesota.

man — have kept consistent goals since the beginning of the project.

“How can I create the work that I want to see?

That’s been my question throughout the year,” Musa said. “I’m looking for a creative home, and they’ve been really welcoming.”

Musa, who r ecently moved to Minneapolis from Winnipeg, said Naked Stages has been an ideal venue to produce her work “Habeas Corpus.”

The piece experiments with the human body and the culture surrounding it, using choreography to explore physical freedom.

Musa said Pillsbur y’s mentorship has allowed her to work through rough patches and get as close as

possible to fulfilling her vision.

Soliman said his experience has been similar.

His work, “A Great Lakes Vista,” depends on projection and visual art in order to create its desired effect.

“How much time you get to just be here and explore things without having to always focus on the final product was really special to me,” he said.

The piece mainly uses poetr y to illustrate a journey across Canada and the United States. “Vista” aims to capture how location mixes with identity, delving into the par ticulars of the places we call home.

Soliman is from Egypt, and he’s lived in Canada as well as the Midwest,

which explains his penchant for geography.

Emily Zimmer’s work “3 Figure$” is rooted locally. After witnessing multiple foreclosures in her Minneapolis neighborhood, Zimmer figured it was time to speak out.

“Theatr e has always been the way I learn about the world and interact with it,” she said.

Zimmer portrays three characters who directly confront the housing crisis.

She hopes that by showing her audience different perspectives ranging from the philosopher that inspired our political system to a struggling homeowner, she’ll be able to investigate how money influences our minds and our hearts.

Alan Berks, a local playwright and Pillsbur y’s director of communications, said the program assists in developing an audience for experimental theater.

“We get a lot of people from the sur rounding community for Naked Stages,” he said. “A lot of it is dependent on whether somebody in Naked Stages lives in the community.”

Mentioning a past Naked Stages par ticipant that lived near the theatre, Berks said it felt as though “ever y single person from Powderhor n Park came [to the shows].”

Now that the program is coming to an end, the three performers are anxious for show time.

“It’s been an exponen-

WHAT NAKED STAGES 2013 WHEN 7:30 P.M., DEC. 5-7 AND 12-14 WHERE PILLSBURY HOUSE THEATRE, 3501 S. CHICAGO AVE., MINNEAPOLIS COST $15 OR PICK YOUR PRICE

tial creative slope, because in the last two months, so much more has happened than the last five months combined,” Soliman said.

Each artist is entangled in the web of their work, looking for oppor tunities to improve their craft.

“I’m gonna use ever y minute,” Zimmer said.

MUSIC

Making it together

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thursday

nyone who cites R yan Gosling as inspiration for an album is bound to raise eyebrows, but for Mason Jennings, it makes sense.

His newest record, “Always Been,” came out Nov. 12, and its influences range from that blond hear tthrob of the silver screen to Patti Smith to Bach.

“I just watch for things to light up, and then I gravitate towards them. I know that whatever goes into my hear t and mind will come back out as music,” Jennings said. “It’s sort of like musical biodiesel.”

Jennings wrote the entirety of the album alone at his cabin studio. When he felt ready to record in Minneapolis, he emerged with a plethora of material.

On his 2009 record, “Blood of Man,” he relied

“Wits: Tim Heidecker with Aimee Mann and Ted Leo” OK, so a friend of pharmacists, a sultry singer and a comic genius walk into the Fitzgerald Theater. Welcome to the 38th episode of “Wits,” featuring Tim Heidecker, Ted Leo and Aimee Mann. The last name Heidecker may not ring a bell, but this is the Tim of “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” fame. Their show is a spastic mix of low-quality comic sketches of varying effectiveness. But when they hit the mark, they really nail it (see John C. Reilly’s character Dr. Steve Brule). u Where: Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul u When: 8 p.m. u Cost: $35-45

WHAT MASON JENNINGS WITH PIETA BROWN WHEN 6 P.M., FRIDAY AND SATURDAY WHERE FIRST AVENUE, 701 N. FIRST AVE., MINNEAPOLIS COST $20 AGES 18+

hold close again.”

The album’s title comes from the lyrics of the second track, “Patti and Robert,” detailing the relationship between the punk rock goddess and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe — their song has “always been.”

The record is balanced with hoedown-inducing rousers like “Witness” and tunes like the ear nestly quiet, ukulele-soaked closer, “Just Tr y.”

While Jennings said he digs the recording process, his favorite part of making music is playing live.

“I love the transcendent aspects of music. When a live show is really unifying a room, sometimes

PHOTO COURTESY OF FRESH AND CLEAN MEDIA Mason Jennings’ simple and raw song structures add a folky, downhome charm to his style.

from stage I can feel the whole thing kinda lift and expand,” he said. “That’s really a great, joyful, connecting feeling.”

Jennings said his passion for the ar t form runs so deep that he sometimes wor ries about not doing the material justice.

Anxieties aside, the singer-songwriter hopes to communicate the joy he feels while he plays. He

The Church Ladies in “The Last (Potluck) Supper” “Well, isn’t that special?” Since the days of Dana Carvey’s “SNL” character the Church Lady, the world has been treated to great comic versions of penitent women — from Satan-fighters to the variety on display in “The Last (Potluck) Supper” at the Plymouth Playhouse. It’s supposedly the last in a run of five productions, so if you haven’t had a taste of the Minnesota classic, now’s your chance. If Friday doesn’t work out for you — these shows are known for selling out — don’t worry, because the run has been extended through June 29, 2014. u Where: Plymouth Playhouse, 2705 N. Annapolis Lane, Plymouth u When: 7:30 p.m. u Cost: $27-38

said that Minneapolis, the city where he got his start as a musician, is one of the best places to accomplish this.

“I love how suppor tive audiences are to original music,” he said. “It is a fantastic community for artists.”

As for the future, Jennings is keeping quiet.

He prefers to focus on the present and pursue other

saturday

BY JOE KELLEN jkellen@mndaily.com

on two single microphones and GarageBand. For “Always Been,” Jennings decided to switch it up, recording at the Terrarium in Minneapolis and collaborating with producer Bo Ramsey, who’s worked with the likes of The Pines and Greg Brown.

“I think it really benefited the album. Maybe the biggest benefit was that I could focus more on singing and the vocal performances,” he said. “Sonically, it’s ver y rich.”

Jennings’ r ustic folk rock embraces a touch of Americana on this latest ef for t. W ith appearances by ar tists like Iris DeMent and Neil Young’s drummer Chad Cromwell, “Always Been” shifts the focus away from the Swiss Army knife approach and replaces it with something similar but more diverse, like a collection of handmade silver ware.

As usual, Jennings plays raconteur with his lyrics. Tunes like “Number of the Sun” take on a somber tone, lamenting the loss of someone who the singer only wants “to

friday

Mason Jennings returns to Minneapolis for a double-header at First Avenue.

interests while keeping the tour rolling.

When asked how he would describe himself as a musician, Jennings resisted labels.

“I guess I think of myself as an artist. I do visual art, too, and I love sports.

Some sor t of athlete/ar tist/stor yteller/musician guy,” he said.

We can get down with that hybrid, Mason.

Minnesota Timberwolves vs.

Miami Heat The love-to-hate defending NBA champs are rollin’ into the Target Center. The T-Wolves are hovering around .500, which is disappointing after a promising start to the season. It’s too bad they don’t play in the Eastern Conference, where that record would put them in contention for a mid-range playoff seed. The Heat will contest every shot, and the T-Wolves will have to do without as many open looks at the bucket. But we’ve got the weapons to make the Heat bleed if the cards fall right. Crunch. u Where: Target Center, 600 N. First Ave., Minneapolis u When: 7 p.m. u Cost: $26-1200

CULTURE COMPASS BY SPENCER DOAR

12

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Being one of the most popular bands in the histor y of music means your songs will be covered for eternity.

Enter the fifth installment of “The Minnesota Beatle Project.” Vega Productions started the series in 2009, recruiting local artists to cover Beatles songs. All of the proceeds go toward music education in Minnesota, so this holiday release will elicit warm fuzzies even if it isn’t your cup of tea. With the solid local acts featured on the album — Chris Bierden of Poliça, Dosh, The Cactus Blossoms and Actual Wolf, to name a few — this is bound to please. Last-minute Hanukkah gift, anyone?

Candy canes Smoking cigarettes may not be cool, but oral fixations cer tainly are — hence the common confusion. Long before Kojak and his lollis, the mouth has been a destination spot for all types of cool stuf f. Candy canes are just another great addition. Avoid the red-and-white barbershop tradition, and go for the more flavor ful and colorful varieties. Those always remind me of giant suckers that little kids in olden times are always depicted with — the type that a young Mr. Burns would steal from a baby. That makes the experience so much more enjoyable.

watch

Minnesota Beatle Project Volume Five

eat

listen

CULTURE COMPASS BY SPENCER DOAR More James Bond movies When Spike star ted doing Thanksgiving Bond marathons a while back, I was enthralled and appropriated the tradition.

Now, ever y Thanksgiving goes something like this: turkey, football, turkey and then 007. Thanksgiving is over, but with all of the Bond movies to choose from, tr ust me — you’re not done. Did you rewatch any of the underrated Tim Dalton ones yet?

Or Conner y’s comeback special, “Never Say Never Again”? See, you’re not ready to star t on Frosty yet.

STUDENT LIFE

MUSIC

All of the lights

Organic sound in a digital age

Light u from Page 1

The show, now in its third year, was conceived by the student group Tesla Works.

Their other projects include a hovercraft, an animatronic barbershop quartet and an app that helps students navigate campus.

With the emphatic support of CSE, Tesla Works has been given free reign over the Civil Engineering Plaza, free Coca-Cola for workers, an office to work from and a budget that lets them order anything they need.

Working on the project is more than just fun; it’s a meaningful professional experience, Laughlin said. Everyone can walk away with something new for their resumes.

“It’s really just making that connection between your curriculum and what it’s all used for,” Laughlin said. “Making that technical connection is very important these days.”

The Light Show also taps into students’ creative energy for the show’s design and music selection. This year, five pieces of music composed and performed by students will serve as the show’s backdrop. One piece is the work of a University of St. Thomas student; the rest are the creations of University of Minnesota undergraduates.

The Grammy Awardwinning Steep Canyon Rangers have played their way to the top of the bluegrass scene, with a little help along the way.

BY CALLIE SACARELOS csacarelos@mndaily.com

LISA PERSSON, DAILY Physics senior and Tesla Works President Peter Wagner shows some of the circuitry behind the College of Science and Engineering Winter Light Show.

Individualized stud ies senior Kurt Weber said he wrote the piece “Frozen North” while noodling around on the piano in seventh grade.

He’s spent years developing pieces on his own and now plans to publish a selection of his compositions.

Aside from a few YouTube videos, the Light Show will be his first major exposure.

“Music is what I do for fun,” Weber said. “When I heard [Tesla Works] needed some music, I submitted my stuff. … It’s a great experience for me to have my music performed like this.”

The Light Show will be shown four times a day during a four-day period. After

WHAT CSE WINTER LIGHT SHOW WHEN 4:30-6 P.M., FRIDAY (PREMIERE); 5:30, 6, 6:30 AND 7 P.M., SATURDAY AND DEC. 12-14 WHERE CIVIL ENGINEERING BUILDING PLAZA, 500 PILLSBURY DRIVE SE, MINNEAPOLIS COST FREE

that, everything will be disassembled, rolled up and stored until next year’s performance, when the process is repeated.

As CSE’s website proclaims, it’s the “new tradition on campus.”

S

teep Canyon Rangers won the 2013 Grammy for best bluegrass album with their fifth record, “Nobody Knows You.” Though the band was relatively unheard of when they began playing together about 14 years ago in North Carolina, a series of fortunate events led them to the forefront of the bluegrass music scene.

“We were just a college bar band playing for parties and local bars in Chapel Hill and Asheville, [N.C.],” mandolin player Mike Guggino said. “Then we graduated from college, and the music thing was all anybody really had going on, and we stuck with it.”

They won the International Bluegrass Music Association “Emerging Artist of the Year” award in 2006. Then their friend Anne Stringfield introduced them to comedian Steve Martin, who’s now her husband, at a party.

“We were friends with her before she even met him. It was just one of those chance things where she started dating Steve Martin and she introduced us,” Guggino said.

“It just so happened he had made a record and was looking to go out on the road and we were the only band he knew. So we were at the right place at the right time.”

The collaboration led to a Grammy-nominated album, “Rare Bird Alert,” and the 2011 International Bluegrass Music Association’s “Entertainer of the Year” award.

Although the band already proved they were a talented musical act in their own right, being on the same bill as Martin led to a performance at the White House, where they met the president and first lady.

The Steep Canyon Rangers also per formed at Car negie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Bonnaroo and several popular bluegrass festivals.

“We’ve been lucky to be able to experience all of these great, top-levels gigs for our kind of music

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID MCCLISTER The founding band members of Steep Canyon Rangers were friends during their college days before starting a band.

because of working with Steve,” Guggino said.

For their most recent album, “Tell the Ones I Love,” the band switched gears and producers. They recorded in the late Levon Helm’s home and studio, “The Barn,” in Woodstock, N.Y. When they met Helm playing at one of his Midnight Ramble concer ts at “The Barn” a few years ago, he told them no one had ever recorded a bluegrass album in his studio. He invited them to do it, but he passed away before they took up his offer.

“Still, the vibe and the whole experience of being at Levon’s was amazing,” Guggino said.

The band worked with producer and folk rock musician Larry Campbell, who toured with Bob Dylan for several years in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

Guggino said the collaboration of their different backgrounds was like “two worlds meeting.”

“For him, it was probably the most traditional thing he had worked on as far as bluegrass goes,” Guggino said.

“For us, it was probably the least traditional bluegrass

WHAT STEEP CANYON RANGERS WITH THE LONG SHOTS WHEN 7 P.M., THURSDAY WHERE THE CEDAR CULTURAL CENTER, 416 S. CEDAR AVE., MINNEAPOLIS COST $20-22

thing that we’d ever done in the studio.”

The band had already toyed with unconventional musical elements, like using dif ferent chord progressions and song structures outside of traditional bluegrass standards.

For “Tell the Ones I Love,” drummer Michael Ashwor th uses a box kit — a wooden percussion instrument that he plays with a kick drum pedal, brush sticks and mallets — to produce a more organic and acoustic tone. They don’t use snare or bass drums.

“We worked hard to learn that traditional bluegrass sound and use those instr uments,” Guggino said. “I think we’re staying within the format but pushing the boundaries with the songwriting, arrangements, chord str uctures and things like that.”

Guggino said there are songs from past albums that they never play live, but on their current tour, they’ve been playing every song from the new album.

“I think this says a lot about this record,” he said.

“We really like the sound, the style and the songwriting on this record.”

For tunately for Steep Canyon Rangers and other bluegrass bands, instr uments like mandolins, banjos and fiddles are showing up in pop music.

Americana bands like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers introduced larger audiences to a similar sound, and Minnesota-based Trampled By Tur tles brought bluegrass to local radio.

“It’s been great for the music,” Guggino said.

“People like seeing real musicians playing real instruments. There’s something cool about that in this digital age where everything is electronic.”

Thursday, December 5, 2013

13

FOOD

College Kitchen: Sausage fest Don’t worry how the sausage is made. Just enjoy the product.

BY ALEX BRODSKY abrodsky@mndaily.com

D

on’t believe the hype. For too long, ha t e r s ha v e m a ligned the contents of these glorious meat tubes we call sausage.

“Do you even know what goes into a hot dog?”

Yes, yes, I do — love goes into it.

But the world of sausage extends past the pack of frozen turkey dogs you shamefully microwave because there’s nothing else to eat. Humans can do mar velous things with meat, spices and sausage casing.

Though most kinds of sausages can be eaten by themselves on a bun, incorporating them into dishes is an easy way of cooking more complextasting food.

Where you shop will determine if you can find precooked sausage versus raw. For many dishes, browning the sausage yourself imparts an essential, smoky flavor. But the precooked variety has its place. Precooked sausages can be more convenient, since all you have to do is heat them up before adding them to a dish.

Grocer y stores will reliably stock your standard sausages: Italian, Polish, kielbasa and the like. If you’re looking to spend an extra buck or two, a specialty deli like Kramarczuk’s in Northeast carries almost ever y wiener under the sun.

Jambalaya Half the r eason you should make jambalaya is so you can say its name.

Just tr y it out. I bet you can’t do it without using whatever you think a Cajun accent is.

This rice dish perfectly showcases ever ything good about Andouille sausage: It’s spicy, garlicky and pepper y.

Though classic jambalaya also contains shrimp and chicken, this cheaper version omits them because the rice is filling enough already.

2 precooked Andouille sausages, sliced 1 yellow onion, diced 2 stalks celery, diced 1 green bell pepper, diced 1 jalapeño, diced 2 tomatoes, diced 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups rice, uncooked 4 cups chicken stock 1 tablespoon paprika 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon dried thyme In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, sauté the onion, celer y, bell pepper, garlic and jalapeño. These three veggies for m the so-called “holy trinity” of Cajun cooking. When the onions tur n translucent, after about seven minutes,

A spicy jambalaya with Andouille sausage.

add the tomatoes and Andouille sausage and mix thoroughly.

Add the uncooked rice, tomato, paprika, cayenne pepper, thyme, salt and pepper. Mix so the rice is coated in the spices.

Pour in the chicken stock, and bring the mixture up to a boil; then cover and let simmer until the rice is cooked — about 30 minutes. Taste the rice to see if it’s sufficiently cooked and seasoned.

Pinto beans with chorizo Chorizo, a classic sausage throughout the Hispanic world, will jazz up even the lamest of foods.

Any bland rice, potato or egg dish will benefit from the spicy pork mixture.

Take any of your favorite breakfast foods and crumble a bunch of chorizo into it. Scrambled eggs? Add chorizo. Hash browns? Add chorizo.

T r y to buy the uncooked variety so you can take of f the casing and cr umble the meat before cooking.

8 ounces uncooked chorizo sausage, casing removed, crumbled 20 ounces canned pinto beans, drained 1/2 onion, diced 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced 3 cloves garlic, minced Olive oil Salt and pepper In a large skillet, brown the chorizo in a bit of olive oil. Add the onion, garlic and jalapeño, and sauté until soft — about five minutes.

Add the beans to the mixture, cover and let simmer for about a half hour, until the beans are entirely

cooked through.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ser ve alongside white rice and tortillas.

Proper brat preparation Any sucker can toss some brats on the grill and talk about how “Midwestern” they are. Only a select few know the true secrets to unlocking maximum flavor from the mysterious sausage.

If you have a grill available, don’t brown the brats in a pan. Instead, simmer them in beer on the stove and finish them off on the grill — about three minutes on each side.

4 bratwursts 2 cans beer; just about any kind will do 1 large onion, diced 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 4 brat buns — real thick bread, none of that flimsy hot dog garbage Olive oil Butter In a large pot, brown the brats on all sides in the olive oil. Add in half of the onions. Along with half of the onions, pour in the beer, and bring to a boil.

Cover and let simmer until the brats are cooked all the way through — about 15 minutes.

In a separate pan, cook the onions and bell peppers in butter for about 10 minutes. Add the apple cider vinegar, and allow it to simmer off.

To p t h e b r a t s w i t h the bell pepper mixture, and add your prefer red mustard.

ICHIGO TAKIKAWA, DAILY

14

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Sports

@MNDAILYSPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Shell excels off the court Kendal Shell has improved his game and will graduate next semester.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Banham tries to emulate Bryant on the hardwood

BY JACE FREDERICK jfrederick@mndaily.com

Under any circumstances, graduating in three years is an impressive feat.

Doing so while playing Big Ten basketball is incredible.

That’s exactly what Gophers junior walk-on guard Kendal Shell is set to accomplish in the spring, when he’ll graduate with a degree in business marketing education with minors in leadership and sport management.

And if that isn’t enough, he also spends time volunteering.

“He’s a good all-around guy,” junior guard Andre Hollins said.

Community man Shell’s parents always wanted him to be well-rounded.

His parents and two older brothers were all active in volunteering, and he followed the same path. In high school, he volunteered with a summer camp, tutored classmates in French and math and went on mission trips with his youth group.

“It doesn’t just make you feel better,” Shell said. “The opportunities really help you build a network and build a lot of people you can count on.”

Shell has continued his volunteering efforts during his time with the Gophers, and it’s spread across the team. The team is doing more in the community this year than it has in the past, he said. The Gophers have already gone to a battered women’s shelter and participated in a food drive.

“Not too many people get the opportunities that we do,” Shell said. “And I think it’s very important that our team as a whole has really embraced that this year.”

Shell seems to have helped every community in which he’s lived. His father, William Shell, said when Kendal comes back to St. Louis, he takes time to speak with kids in the neighborhood and still helps out at camps.

William Shell said he tries to credit his son for the positive effect he has on others, but it’s often to no avail.

“He’s like, ‘Dad, it’s no big deal. ... I’m just doing what I’m supposed to be doing,’ ” William Shell said.

Education W illiam Shell knew sports were important to his son, but school had to come first.

So he told Kendal he had to adhere to the family’s educational standards — which were much tougher than the school’s policies — if he was going to participate in athletics.

Kendal Shell did his dad one better. He said he’d stay on the honor roll throughout school.

Shell stayed true to his

HOLLY PETERSON, DAILY FILE PHOTO

Minnesota guard Rachel Banham sets up a play against Loyola at Williams Arena on Tuesday.

Rachel Banham scored 85 points in three games in Hawaii last week.

BY JACK SATZINGER jsatzinger@mndaily.com

HOLLY PETERSON, DAILY FILE PHOTO

Minnesota guard Kendal Shell walks the ball up the court against Lehigh on Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, at Williams Arena.

word and did so with a difficult course load. He took multiple college classes and graduated with a 4.02 GPA. He earned more than 40 college credits before stepping foot on the University of Minnesota campus.

Shell brought his strong academic work ethic to college. He said he maintains a course load that varies from 13 to 16 credits, even during the season.

“It’s a lot,” he said. “I think time management is huge as an athlete. It takes time, [but] coming into college, I just knew I’d be ready for this.”

He’s proven just how ready he was.

William Shell said he couldn’t believe it when he got a letter saying his son made the Dean’s List with a 3.90 GPA. Shell plans to enter graduate school at the University next year to start work on a master’s degree in sport management.

Shell credited suppor t from his coaches and the athletics department for his continued academic success.

“The athletic program’s been huge in the way I’ve been able to finish my career early here,” he said.

On the court Shell’s father thought his

MEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

VS MINNESOTA

NEW ORLEANS

2 p.m. Saturday at Williams Arena

MINNESOTA: The Gophers (7-2) have won 27 consecutive nonconference home games.

Andre Hollins’ 21-point performance in the Gophers’ 71-61 win over Florida State on Tuesday marked the third time this season he has topped the 20-point plateau. He reached the mark just once through the Gophers’ first nine games last season.

Minnesota is getting it done beyond the arc this season on both ends of the court. The Gophers are shooting 34.6 percent from threepoint range while allowing opponents to shoot just 28.7 percent.

NEW ORLEANS: The Privateers (1-3) have lost three straight games after their season-opening win over Millsaps.

New Orleans’ last matchup against a Big Ten opponent came in 2005, when it lost 68-56 to Purdue.

The Privateers are led by senior forward Cory Dixon. Dixon is averaging 16.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

son might play baseball in college. Shell won the Silver Slugger award for sporting his team’s best batting average in three of his four seasons at Webster Groves High School.

But when he was playing hoops in a high school tournament, he caught the eye of former Gophers head coach Tubby Smith.

William Shell said Smith told his son that if he came to the Gophers as a preferred walk-on, he would have the

opportunity to earn a scholarship for his final two seasons.

But just one day after Shell’s sophomore season wrapped up, Smith was fired.

When Richard Pitino was hired to fill the position in April, the possibility of earning a scholarship was likely out.

“I thought that was going to get him down a little bit,” William Shell said.

It didn’t.

Pitino said when he first arrived on campus, Shell was “light-years away from anything.”

“I had a lot of doubts about him when I first took the job,” Pitino said. “He was bad.”

But Shell worked hard over the summer, and it paid off.

Pitino said Shell lost 25 to 30 pounds in the offseason and is now in as good of shape as anyone on the team.

He’s become a team leader, he said, and often demonstrates the most energy and enthusiasm on the bench.

“He comes to work every single day,” Pitino said.

“He deserves to be here … [and] I’m proud of him.”

Regardless of whether Shell’s improvement ever leads to a scholarship or more playing time on the hardwood, he loves the experience he’s having now.

“It’s just so fun,” he said.

“I just love the game.”

The Lakers haven’t played a home game in Minneapolis since moving to Los Angeles in 1960, but one of their biggest fans plays games in the Twin Cities area.

Rachel Banham, who’s been on a tear for the Gophers of late, put on a show similar to that of her favorite Lakers player over Thanksgiving break.

She scored 85 points in thr ee games at the Waikiki Beach Mar riott Rainbow Wahine Showdown, upping her season average to 21.7 points per game.

“I decided to just go into Kobe mode,” Banham said. “I’m obsessed with Kobe [Br yant] and wanted to have that mindset — be relaxed and take over.”

Br yant has long been known as the “Black Mamba” for his killer instinct in the NBA, and that’s something Banham has tried to emulate.

That makes her the “Maroon Mamba” as the Gophers rack up wins.

“I saw a killer instinct in her that I haven’t seen before,” head coach Pam Bor ton said. “You either have a killer instinct, or you don’t. I saw a refuseto-lose attitude.”

Still, one elite player isn’t always enough for a team to get the win. Br yant may have five championships with the Lakers, but none have come without the help of an elite big man.

Banham appears to have one this season in Amanda Zahui B. The redshir t freshman center scored 28 points and

reeled in 19 rebounds in her first game at Minnesota — Shaquille O’Neal-like numbers.

Zahui B. has since followed that up with another dominant per for mance against Kansas, recording a triple-double. Zahui B. finished with 10 blocks — a school record.

Bor ton said the Gophers will have some mismatches to exploit when they face Miami on Thursday night.

“They’re ver y fast and ver y athletic,” Bor ton said. “They like to press and push in transition. … They play that way because they don’t have ver y much size.”

The Gophers have good size in large par t because of the 6-foot-5-inch Zahui B. Bor ton said Minnesota will use that to its advantage.

The Gophers haven’t had a game since Sunday night but were plenty busy with games on back-toback-to-back days before that.

“We played five games in eight days,” Bor ton said, noting her players made the necessar y adjustments in Hawaii.

Since coming back to the mainland, Minnesota has had to make more adjustments. Banham said her sleeping schedule still isn’t back to normal and her legs were extremely sore after playing so hard.

Zahui B. said she was also fatigued from playing multiple games in a few days but said she’s determined to help lessen the load on Banham.

Still, the “Maroon Mamba” seems more than capable of doing the heavy lifting.

“I think I finally just let it go and didn’t care,” Banham said. “Sometimes I feel like I think about stuff too much. … I was just like, ‘Let’s go.’”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

VS MINNESOTA

MIAMI (FLA.)

8 p.m. Thursday at Williams Arena

MINNESOTA: After winning two of three games in Hawaii for the Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Showdown, the Gophers (72) look for another big win to add to their NCAA tournament resume.

That may be possible with the improved play of junior Rachel Banham.

Banham, who is on the John R. Wooden Award preseason top 30 and the Wade Award watch list , caught fire in Hawaii and was named tournament MVP. MIAMI: Minnesota (5-2) leads the all-time series against Miami 2-1 .

Still, Miami has won four games in a row and recently won the Miami Thanksgiving Tournament championship .

In four games, Caprice Dennis leads Miami in scoring with 21.5 points per game SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

Thursday, December 5, 2013

15

WRESTLING

Schiller leads team as a redshirt junior

Scott Schiller beat the No. 1-ranked 197-pound wrestler last weekend.

BY NATE GOTLIEB ngotlieb@mndaily.com

Gophers wrestler Scott Schiller was a 4-year-old and had just lost his first match. He was sitting in his father’s lap sobbing when another dad asked if Scott would wrestle his son.

Scott said yes.

He won the match, kept wrestling and went on to become a three-time Nor th Dakota state champion.

“He experienced the trials and tribulations of wrestling in a ver y quick way,” said Scott’s father, Brad Schiller. “And he was hooked.”

Nearly 20 years later, Schiller is making a name for himself at the collegiate level as a Gophers redshirt junior.

He beat the top-ranked 197-pound wrestler last Saturday and assumed the No. 1 ranking in the class.

“It felt good to get that win,” he said. “But at the same time, it was expected.”

His teammates and coaches echoed that sentiment.

“I said ‘Congrats’ but didn’t want it to sound like it was that big of a deal,” Schiller’s roommate and teammate Seth Lange said.

“We kind of know that it’s expected of him.”

WRESTLING PREVIEW

VS NO. 2 MINNESOTA

2 p.m., Sunday in Stillwater, Okla.

MINNESOTA: The Gophers lost to Oklahoma State early last season but beat it in February at the National Duals. They won’t face the Cowboys again this season because Oklahoma State isn’t competing in the National Duals.

Minnesota is 3-0 in duals this season after beating No. 20 Oregon State last Saturday. Redshirt junior Scott Schiller (197 pounds) assumed the No. 1 ranking in his class with a win over then-top-ranked Taylor Meeks.

Redshirt senior Kevin Steinhaus and redshirt freshman Brett Pfarr (184) will travel with the team this weekend, but coaches said they didn’t know who would start. Steinhaus hasn’t wrestled this yet this season as he recovers from a torn ACL. Redshirt junior Dylan Ness (157) will also travel with the team this weekend after missing last Saturday’s dual.

OKLAHOMA STATE: The Cowboys lost to No. 4 Oklahoma last Sunday and are 1-1 in duals this season.

Oklahoma State won the Big 12 championship last season and took second at the NCAA championships.

Six Cowboys wrestlers are ranked in the top 10 of their respective weight class, including senior Chris Perry (174), who won an NCAA title last season.

Oklahoma State leads the all-time series with Minnesota 22-12.

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

Schiller wrestled for the West Fargo Youth Wrestling Club and the Tech Team Wrestling Club as a kid and joined the West Fargo High School team in eighth grade.

He wrestled predominantly on the junior varsity team that season, but injuries to the team’s top 135-pound wrestlers bumped him into a starting role on varsity.

Schiller wound up making the North Dakota state tournament at 135 pounds that year, despite wrestling against older kids.

He didn’t win, but he recorded a consolation-round pin that helped the team to a state championship.

“Even though he was getting beat, it didn’t bother him,” Brad Schiller said.

“He just knew that he had to get better.”

Schiller went on to become West Fargo’s first three-time state champion, posting a 43-0 record his senior year. He was also a two-time all-state linebacker on the West Fargo football team.

“Ever y coach said the same thing: that he was going to succeed in college because of his work ethic and determination,” West Fargo wrestling coach Kayle Dangerud said.

Schiller worked with former NCAA Division IIchampion wrestler Steve Saxlund throughout high school. Saxlund said he was impressed by Schiller’s dedication.

“He’s a super-hard work-

NBA

VOLLEYBALL

Dedication to wrestling

T’Wolves game gets postponed

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — The game between the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timber wolves was postponed Wednesday night because of smoky conditions inside the Mexico City arena.

The game will be made up in Minnesota at a later date.

The arena was evacuated about 45 minutes before the scheduled 9:30 p.m. EST tipoff when a generator malfunction outside the arena sent smoke pouring into the building, according to NBA spokeswoman Sharon Lima.

About 15 minutes after the scheduled star t, the Spurs bus pulled away from the building. The Timberwolves bus followed soon after.

While the teams were warming up for their regularseason matchup, lights went out in parts of the arena and smoke began coming out of vents in the upper deck. The court quickly became cloudy.

“I thought they were practicing fireworks, Spurs TV analyst Sean Elliot said.

“A lot of teams do that before introductions. But then the smoke just kept creeping and it wasn’t white smoke. It was like a brown dark smoke and it started taking over the whole court. It was surprising.”

Fans had not yet been allowed into the arena for the NBA’s first regular-season game in the countr y since Houston and Dallas played in Mexico City on Dec. 6, 1997, when the evacuation was ordered. The teams went to their buses, still wearing their practice gear.

NO. 5 OKLAHOMA STATE

er, and that’s what it takes,” Saxlund said. “I tried to instill that in him.”

Schiller waited until the spring of his senior year to choose a college and picked Minnesota over offers from Nebraska, Oregon State, Northern Iowa and North Dakota State.

He redshirted the 201011 season and spent his redshir t freshman season behind All-American Sonny Yohn at 197 pounds.

“Obviously, it wasn’t ver y fun not star ting,” Schiller said, “but it was a great learning experience.”

Schiller compiled a 26-4 record competing in mostly open tournaments as a redshirt freshman.

He cracked the star ting lineup last season as a redshir t sophomore and compiled a 29-6 record, finishing fifth at the NCAA championships and earning All-America honors.

His teammates voted him the most dedicated wrestler on the squad.

Leading by example Schiller is 12-0 this season and will face the 10th-

JAAK JENSEN, DAILY FILE PHOTO

Minnesota’s Scott Schiller takes down Illinois’ Mario Gonzalez on Jan. 21 at the Sports Pavilion.

ranked 197-pound wrestler this Saturday at Oklahoma State.

He’s par t of a formidable group of Minnesota upper-weight wr estlers that includes two-time N C A A c h a m p i o n To n y Nelson and All-Americans Logan Storley and Kevin

Steinhaus.

“Just having the par tners is the key to our success,” Schiller said.

“Wrestling with someone like that ever y single day, you’re going to learn.”

Those who know him well said he’s earned his success through hard

work and dedication.

“Scott’s never been particularly fast or strong, but he’s been ver y, ver y focused on completing all those things, so he is a stronger athlete,” Brad Schiller said. “Nobody else practices as hard as he does.”

Gophers prepared for NCAA opening round Minnesota will face Radford and could face either Colorado State or Iowa State.

BY DAVID NELSON dnelson@mndaily.com

After 20 grueling conference matches against 11 formidable opponents, the Gophers have reached the last stage of their season.

The NCAA tournament is the culmination of a team’s hard work throughout the season.

“We certainly feel battletested and battle-ready,” head coach Hugh McCutcheon said. “That’s one of the huge advantages of playing in such a tough conference.”

The demanding Big Ten schedule revealed the good and exposed the bad — something McCutcheon sees as an advantage. “[There were] lots of opportunities to improve,” he said. “[Our] weaknesses have been exploited … and we’ve had a chance to shore those up.”

This year, the uncertainty in the team’s lineup was a major weakness early.

“A year ago … we were ver y set right from the beginning of the season in terms of who was going to play,” McCutcheon said.

“We certainly feel battle-tested and battle-ready. That’s one of the huge advantages of playing in such a tough conference.”

HUGH MCCUTCHEON Gophers head coach

VOLLEYBALL NCAA TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

NO. 10 MINNESOTA

IOWA STATE

COLORADO

RADFORD

4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., Friday at Sports Pavilion

MINNESOTA: The Gophers arrive at the NCAA tournament riding a four-game winning streak, with three of those victories coming on the road . Minnesota’s four wins all came against teams ranked in the top 20 at the time in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll.

The Gophers are led by their trio of seniors. Two of them — Ashley Wittman and Tori Dixon — were named All-Big Ten honorees RADFORD: The Highlanders earned an automatic qualifying bid when they defeated Coastal Carolina in the Big South conference championship. Radford holds an impressive 9-2 road record and a 25-9 overall record.

The Highlanders are led by junior outside hitter Rachel Wiechecki, who leads the team with 3.77 kills per set . That average would rank sixth in the Big Ten. COLORADO: Colorado tied for seventh in a tough Pac-12 conference and enters the grouping as arguably the least impressive team.

In the Pac-12, the Buffaloes didn’t rank higher than eighth in any major statistical category besides service aces, where they finished third.

IOWA STATE: The Cyclones are arguably the toughest team in the grouping, and they could meet Minnesota in the second round. Iowa State led the Big 12 in service aces and digs, and it ranked second in kills per set.

Kristen Hahn, the Cyclones’ senior libero , could make life tough for Gophers hitters. She averages 5.73 digs per set and was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week five times this season.

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

“This year, we’ve had a bigger squad, more depth, more competition.”

McCutcheon said the added competition in practice has been “wonderful,” despite the uncertainty in the lineup.

“You get to earn the right to stand on the floor and wear the maroon and gold,” McCutcheon said.

Senior Tori Dixon said she’s felt more comfortable with the talent ready to go behind her.

“That’s been one of our strengths all season,” Dixon said. “[We have] a large bench to come in … and make an impact whenever we need them.”

McCutcheon said he’s been impressed with the un-

derclassmen’s development this season.

“You would expect freshmen would have a significant learning cur ve,” McCutcheon said, “but they’ve responded to the adversity. … We’re seeing the fruits of that now.”

Those fr uits have allowed the Gophers to switch schemes late in the year — a switch that helped them win their last four matches.

The team has shifted from a one-setter system to a two-setter system down the stretch.

“That’s shored up our blocking defense … [and] I think it’s harder for teams to scout us now,” McCutcheon said.

Radford, a V irginia

BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY FILE PHOTO

Gophers middle blocker Tori Dixon prepares to spike the ball against Penn State on Nov. 16 at the Sports Pavilion.

school with about 44,000 fewer students than Minnesota, will be the first team the Gophers face Friday night.

Despite playing in the smaller Big South conference, Radford is a team McCutcheon said the Gophers cannot overlook.

“It’s tempting, I think, for lots of people to be dismissive of these first-round opponents,” McCutcheon said, “but I assure you, we won’t be.”

This weekend marks the fifth time in the last six years the Spor ts Pavilion will host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

The Gophers, who hold an 11-2 record in that building this season, are happy to play at home.

“It’s an advantage for us,” senior outside hitter Ashley Wittman said. “We have a great home crowd.”

If the Gophers beat Radford on Friday night, they will play the winner of the Colorado-Iowa State match Saturday.

Wittman said it won’t matter who Minnesota plays.

“I think ever yone’s focused and ready to go,” Wittman said. “We’re just going to step on the floor and do what we need to do.”

16

Thursday, December 5, 2013

MEN’S HOCKEY

Ambroz finds his niche as vocal leader Seth Ambroz had four goals in the Gophers’ sweep of the Badgers last weekend.

MEN’S HOCKEY PREVIEW

VS

BY MEGAN RYAN mryan@mndaily.com

When Gophers head men’s hockey coach Don Lucia first met 15-year-old Seth Ambroz, he said he was “socially awkward” and could barely look the coach in the eye.

Now, the junior for ward easily hammed it up for his teammates on a road trip to Notre Dame, performing Foreigner’s classic ballad “I Want To Know What Love Is” for a prank.

“You have got to go all out,” Ambroz said. “You can’t just not give 100 percent. So I went out there, gave my best, and apparently, I have a pretty good voice.”

Senior defenseman Jake Parenteau begs to differ.

“It was ver y subpar,” Parenteau said. “I don’t think he’d win ‘American Idol’ or ‘The Voice.’ ” Out of tune or not, Parenteau said the team

NO. 1 MINNESOTA

MICHIGAN STATE

6 p.m., Friday and 3 p.m., Saturday in East Lansing, Mich.

MINNESOTA: The Gophers continue their conference season on the road this weekend at Michigan State. Minnesota swept Wisconsin last weekend with a 4-1 win Friday and a 4-3 win Saturday to open the Big Ten season.

Gophers junior forward Seth Ambroz won the conference’s First Star weekly award for his performance against the Badgers. He tallied two goals in each game, including the two game-winners.

Minnesota is 11-2-1 overall and 2-0-0 in the Big Ten. The Gophers sit atop the conference standings along with Michigan with six points.

MICHIGAN STATE: The Spartans are also coming off a sweep, beating Princeton 4-1 on Friday and 8-2 on Sunday. This weekend will be Michigan State’s conference opener.

Michigan State is 5-7-0 overall, but only two of its losses have come at home. The Spartans are winless on the road.

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

always gets a kick out of Ambroz’s antics.

And his growing confidence hasn’t just improved his karaoke skills — it’s also boosted his per formance on the ice.

In last weekend’s series sweep of Wisconsin, Ambroz scored four goals, including two game winners, earning the Big Ten conference’s weekly First Star award.

In fact, Ambroz only

needs two goals, two assists and four points to match the career highs he set last year — and the conference season just started last weekend.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a player that has grown so much as a person,” Lucia said.

Lucia said Ambroz has developed from a shy kid into the most vocal leader on the team.

“He’s always talking in

CHELSEA GORTMAKER, DAILY FILE PHOTO

Minnesota forward Seth Ambroz skates against Mercyhurst in the Ice Breaker Tournament at Mariucci Arena on Oct. 11.

the locker room,” sophomore defenseman Brady Skjei said. “[He’s] always getting the guys going.”

Ambroz said he’s become more talkative because the young team is pretty quiet. He said he jokes around to make his teammates smile because being loose and having fun

SWIMMING & DIVING

Smith improves in second season Kierra Smith holds the best 200-yard breaststroke time in the NCAAs.

Gophers duo proves valuable this season

BY BETSY HELFAND bhelfand@mndaily.com

ICHIGO TAKIKAWA, DAILY FILE PHOTO

Minnesota’s Kierra Smith swims the 100-yard butterfly against Iowa State on Oct. 12, 2012, at the University Aquatic Center.

pool this year than she did last year.

“This year, even in training, I just have a higher confidence level,” she said.

“I know what to expect now, whereas last year, I was … adjusting to being so far away from home.”

Smith’s hometown of Kelowna, British Columbia, is roughly 1,260 miles away from Minneapolis.

Gophers junior Kiera Janzen, one of Smith’s good friends and teammates, said she’s tried to make Smith feel as at home as possible.

“In the role as her ‘big sister’ on the team, [I’m] just making sure that she’s comfortable,” Janzen said.

“I think she took a little time to come out of her shell freshman year.”

Now, Janzen said, Smith is much more outgoing in practice.

“You can tell now that she’s starting to get more comfortable around people,” Janzen said. “She’s got a lot

SWIMMING AND DIVING PREVIEW

@ MINNESOTA

Friday and Saturday at University Aquatic Center

On Friday and Saturday, the Gophers men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will host an invite in honor of former head women’s coach Jean Freeman. Freeman, who coached the Gophers coach for 31 years, died of cancer in October 2010.

Kelly Kremer, who was hired in April 2011 as the men’s and women’s head coach, spent time with Freeman early in his career.

“I just hope I can take care of the program like she did,” Kremer said. “Her handprints are everywhere around here.”

Kremer said the best way to honor Jean is to swim fast and have fun doing it.

“That was kind of Jean,” Kremer said. “She wanted people to … know the reasons why they were swimming and then have fun doing it.”

The Aquatic Center will welcome seven schools from the MIAC conference: Carleton College, Gustavus Adolphus College, Hamline University, Macalester College, St. John’s University, St. Olaf College and the University of St. Thomas.

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

to offer in and out of the pool, and [I’m] just making sure that she’s aware of that.”

In the pool, Smith swam to a new level this season.

She credited her improved

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outside-the-pool preparation.

“I should have been eating better, and I should have been sleeping more [last year],” Smith said, “but I just thought that the things that I [was doing in the pool] were adding up.”

When things didn’t add up at the end of her freshman year, she said, she realized something needed to change. She upped her tenacity, and the coaching staff took notice.

“It really star ted last spring,” Kremer said. “She had a different demeanor, a different work ethic … a different level of professionalism.”

And now that better times have started appearing, winning has suddenly become an expectation.

“None of the results are going to come as a surprise now,” Kremer said.

“The reality is we’re getting ready for meets that are bigger in March and in April for her.”

As far as the 2014 NCAA championships go, Smith said she feels better prepared this time around.

“It’s such a difficult meet to perform at,” Smith said.

“This year, I feel like going into it, I’ll be a lot more ready for what’s coming.”

Her opponents had better be ready, too.

enteau said.

“We tell him, but he doesn’t care.”

And as long as Ambroz keeps talking on and of f the ice, his teammates will just have to put up with it.

“I lear ned to just not even car e what people think when I say some stupid stuff,” Ambroz said.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Kelly Terry and Dani Cameranesi have played on the same line all year.

BY DAVID NELSON dnelson@mndaily.com

Kierra Smith had exactly three hours to kill before the NCAA finals began.

With nothing to do, she contemplated smashing a hotel chair through the television set.

To say Smith was dissatisfied with her 42nd-place finish in the NCAA 100-yard breaststroke preliminaries would be an understatement.

“I think I was so focused on results and not on the process that that probably hurt me a lot last year,” she said.

Smith, now a sophomore, has come a long way since March 22.

She currently holds the best 200-yard breaststroke time in the NCAA, the 11thbest time in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 12thbest time in the 200-yard individual medley.

She posted all of these marks in last month’s Minnesota Grand Prix.

“She went from being kind of a normal college student to being an elite student-athlete,” head coach Kelly Kremer said.

“She’s focused on the things she wants to do and needs to do to compete at the highest level of our sport.”

Smith said she’s felt more like herself in the

makes for a better game.

“I just enjoy … chatter on the ice and in the games and before games and in practice,” Ambroz said.

Parenteau said it’s clear Ambroz likes to talk, but that’s just a product of his “different” personality.

“We can’t get him to be quiet before a game,” Par-

Gophers head coach Brad Frost has been toying with his lines lately, tr ying to find the best combinations of for wards.

“We have this motto where ‘If it’s not broken, keep fixing it so it doesn’t break,’ so that was the whole deal with changing the lines up,” freshman for ward Dani Cameranesi said.

A constant that hasn’t changed is the combination of Cameranesi and senior for ward Kelly Terr y.

The two played with freshman for ward Kate Schipper earlier in the year and have been playing with senior for ward Bethany Brausen lately.

Terr y said sticking with Cameranesi while the line changes have been going on has been the “best of both worlds.”

“We get to tr y other things throughout at the team, but at the same time, sticking with Dani has been great,” Ter r y said.

“We keep developing and feeding off each other.”

A big point in the duo’s chemistry development has been their communication.

Terr y, an alternate captain on the team, has been working to help Cameranesi become more vocal on and off the ice.

“I only really call for it when I really want the puck, but they’re kind of teaching me to call for it at all times,” Cameranesi said.

She said she was quiet in high school, too.

While the communication process has been gradual for Cameranesi, she’s gotten the hang of it this season.

Terr y said Cameranesi

is actually “ver y vocal” on the ice, but they’ve been working on talking more in between shifts and periods.

“Now she wants me to star t communicating with her more about where she should go at some times,” Cameranesi said.

But because the two have been playing together all year, Terr y said being able to direct each other has become more mutual.

The two also have similar strengths, which makes playing together easier.

Among those strengths is speed.

Frost said he thought Terr y was the team’s fastest player and Cameranesi was probably in the top three.

Ter r y said speed is great for them when they have a breakout or when she has the puck on the rush.

“I’m expecting to be totally alone, and I look over, and Dani’s right ther e crashing the net,” Ter r y said.

Terr y said Cameranesi knows how to use her speed while she is using hers. And, at this point in the season, Cameranesi said it is getting easier to anticipate where the other is going to be on the ice.

Frost said the duo’s speed and tenacity on the forecheck has helped the two create scoring opportunities.

Ter r y is tied for second in the NCAA with 12 goals this season. Cameranesi leads the team with 80 shots on goal.

“They’re not going to score a ton of really fancy goals with their hands, but they are going to generate a ton of of fensive oppor tunities and then bang things home when they get those,” Frost said.

So far, they’ve been doing just that for the Gophers.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY PREVIEW

VS NO.1 MINNESOTA

OHIO STATE

5:07 p.m. Saturday and 11:07 a.m. Sunday in Columbus, Ohio

MINNESOTA: The Gophers will resume WCHA play this weekend with a series against Ohio State. Minnesota sits first in the WCHA with a 17-1-0 record. It is coming off of a commanding sweep of Princeton.

Nine Gophers players scored goals in Minnesota’s 9-1 win against Princeton last Sunday.

OHIO STATE: The Buckeyes are 5-9-2 this season. They most recently swept New Hampshire on the road.

Ohio State is led offensively by junior defenseman Sara Schmitt, who has 13 points this season. The Buckeyes average just 1.94 goals per game. Minnesota leads the nation with 4.67.

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Classifieds

17

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EMPLOYMENT

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PT Receptionist for Morries Mazda in Minnetonka has an immediate position opening for evenings & Saturdays.

Responsibilities are answering phones promptly & professionally w/ light office duties.

Please send resume to Jennifer.zuniga@morries.com or stop in to complete an application.

$13/hr Full time/part time RECEPTIONISTS for office bldg DT Mpls next to the Metrodome.

Greet visitors, handle in-coming calls, must have good customer service, and have excellent fluent English speaking skills. between 7:30am-5:30pm M-F. Call Veena 612-321-0000

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1 BR for rent for F in 2BR 1B Craftsmanstyle Duplex for student or faculty. $550/ mo. Fireplace, cable, washer/dryer. Util. incl. Near Macalester, St. Thomas, St. Kates & EZ access to buslines serving UofM Mpls. & St. Paul campuses. Garage avail @ small xtra charge. No inside smoking. F Housemate works FT & finishing degree @ UofM. Avail. 12/15, could be earlier if needed.

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What: Raise Hope for Congo Who: STAND, Human Rights Program Student Advisory Board When: 6–8 p.m., Friday Where: Room 56, Rapson Hall, Minneapolis Price: Free Raise Hope for Congo is a campaign that aims to build a constituency of activists who will advocate for the human rights of all Congolese citizens and work toward ending the ongoing conflict in eastern Congo. Volunteers will be gathering signatures that support this goal in Minnesota.

We will be remembering the lives that have been lost, learning more about Congo with guest speakers and celebrating the impact that we have made.

What: Nollaig Shona: a Celtic Christmas Concert Who: Nuala Kennedy (Ireland), Andrea Beaton and Troy MacGillivray (Cape Breton) When: 7 p.m., Sunday Where: The Celtic Junction, 836 Prior Ave, St. Paul Price: $20 at door, $16 advance A holiday feast of music, song, dance and stories presented by three of the top names in Irish and Cape Breton traditional music. Get your tickets in advance at www.vitalculture.com/thecelticjunction.

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18

Thursday, December 5, 2013

BACKTALK sudoku

horoscopes

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9.

For strategies on how to solve sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk.

12/5/2013

Yesterday’s solution © 2013 Michael Mepham. Distributed by Tribune Media Services.

All rights reserved.

Today’s Birthday (12/5): Mercury enters Sagittarius today (until 12/24), launching the year with far-reaching communications, exploration and investigation. Share love and relax over holidays, before January profits roll in.

To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.

Written By Linda C. Black

Aries (3/21 - 4/19): Today is a 7 — Mercury enters Sagittarius (until 12/24); you see (and can articulate) a broader perspective. Get extra efficient. Pack everything you do with passion.

Libra (9/23 - 10/22): Today is a 6 — For the next three weeks with Mercury in Sagittarius, reconsider assumptions. You’re especially bright, witty and persuasive.

Taurus (4/20 - 5/20): Today is an 8 — It’s time for adventure time. Try something new, or explore areas you normally avoid to discover something you didn’t know about yourself.

Scorpio (10/23 - 11/21): Today is a 7 — It could get easier to spend over the next three weeks, so think before handing over that card.

Gemini (5/21 - 6/21): Today is a 7 — For three weeks with Mercury in Sagittarius, communication with your partner is more direct and easy. Rely on others.

Sagittarius (11/22 - 12/21): Today is a 9 — Ask probing questions to deepen your studies, which expand through communication over the next three weeks.

Cancer (6/22 - 7/22): Today is an 8 — For the next three weeks, expand your sphere of understanding. Let yourself get persuaded to participate.

Capricorn (12/22 - 1/19): Today is a 9 — For the next three weeks, realizing dreams goes easier. It’s a philosophical phase, and what you learn could have volatile moments.

Leo (7/23 - 8/22): Today is a 9 — For the next three weeks, you’re even smarter than usual and especially good with words. You can afford to invest in your vitality, and this includes rest.

Aquarius (1/20 - 2/18): Today is a 6 — For the next three weeks, consider all possibilities and discuss them. Group participation gets powerful results.

Virgo (8/23 - 9/22): Today is a 7 — For the next three weeks, improve things at home, especially through communication. Stay out of somebody else’s battle.

Pisces (2/19 - 3/20): Today is a 7 — For three weeks, what you say impacts your career directly. Answers lead to new questions. Your assets are gaining value.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

overheard Girl 1: “Eugh, that smells terrible!”

Girl 2: “Brothel. It’s a brothel.”

—Outside Eddy Hall

“I’ll give you $25 to write this paper.”

—Unknown

Girl: “It’s January. It’s, like, supposed to be snowing!”

—Campus Connector

Admissions Ambassador: “Under Coffman, there is a variety of food.

Chick-Fil-A, Topio’s, Panda Express, Einstein’s ... and the Mexican burrito place.”

Regarding a poster design with red, black and white colors: Professor: “You really like that color palette?”

Student: “I do.”

Professor: “So did Hitler.”

—Unknown

Professor: “The scrotum is outside the building.”

—Anatomy class

“He said, ‘I have a kitten, but I don’t have a condom.’”

—Appleby Hall

—Minnesota Marketplace

Guy: “I hope you used a condom last night. Winter isn’t coming anymore ... winter already came.”

—Hanson Hall

Guy talking to a guy wearing a fedora: “It’s not about the fedora on your head; it’s about the fedora on your heart.”

—Unknown

“I have an idea. We’ll get a cute golden retriever and put him in a black cloak. Then we will put him on a map, and wherever he sits — that is what we will blow up first.”

—Comstock Hall dining hall

What did you overhear?

4Post submissions on the “Overheard at U of M” Facebook group.

4Visit mndaily.com and look for the “Connect with the Daily” box on the homepage.

4Email submissions to overheards@mndaily.com.

crossword

FOR RELEASE DECEMBER 5, 2013

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

ACROSS 1 Rewards for waiting 5 Sauce finisher, often 10 Bit of Halloween makeup 14 Gray subj.

15 Expansive 16 Parting words 17 Family nickname 18 Parting word 19 Erelong 20 “ ” 23 Presidential nickname 24 Inflationary fig.?

25 Drive off 26 Language of Pakistan 28 Peak on the 1,000-yen note 31 Language suffix 32 __-Julie, Quebec 33 Nail-biting way to win 36 “ ” 40 Jerks 41 Morse code letter after dit-ditdit 42 Outlaw Clanton 45 Get rid of 46 Gorilla trained to use sign language 47 Holiday air 49 Mao __-tung 51 Ten-cent pres.

53 “ ” 58 Designer Schiaparelli 59 The Joe in Detroit, for one 60 Superb 61 Tallow source 62 Huge 63 Earthworm habitat 64 Stun, in a way 65 Bout of retail “therapy” 66 Fine subject?

DOWN 1 “Lost” actress Raymonde

12/5/13

By Steve Blais

2 How soldiers may lie 3 Gratify the baser side of 4 Have the lead 5 Shellfish morsels 6 Lines from the center 7 33-Down’s homeland 8 Open-mouthed 9 Western landform 10 Clichéd 11 Happy hour morsel 12 Makes amends 13 Rub the wrong way 21 Manjula’s husband on “The Simpsons” 22 Like autumn mornings 27 Like morning grass 28 Made-up 29 Loosen, as laces 30 Enroll 33 U2 frontman

Wednesday’s Puzzle Solved

(c)2013 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

34 Belly laughs 35 Prefix with morph 37 Pixar title robot 38 Hardwood option 39 Mystery 42 Most distant 43 Black Russian component 44 Fulfills a takeout order?

12/5/13

46 Alpine parrot 48 Roundish 49 1,000 kilograms 50 Kerry’s department 52 Projection room stack 54 Badgers 55 It may be round 56 Stuff in a backpack 57 José’s home

dr. date Dr. Date,

I asked my boyfriend of 10 months to come home with me for Christmas and meet my family, and he said no! To be honest, I was shocked. We’ve been together for a while, and I thought we were really serious. When I asked him why, he said he thinks it’s too soon to meet my parents. Is it really too soon? Or is there something else going on?

—Jumping The Gun?

How To Meet Your Mother,

While he didn’t intend it quite this way, remember the word of wisdom from the classic Fabolous song “Breathe.” Count to 10. ¡Cálmate!

Just because you’re ready to take the plunge doesn’t mean he’s ready to join in on this leap of faith. Everybody operates on different timetables. I dated someone for a year and a half before meeting the folks. (And after, I kinda wished I’d waited another year and a half.)

I wouldn’t say you brought it up too soon, but you did bring up the wrong event. A huge family Christmas gathering is a lot different than having him chat with your parents during a summer barbecue. The stakes are higher; the whole family drama is simmering under the surface of the holidays, and then there’s going to be this outsider thrown into it? If I was him, I’d think about declining the invite, too — unless, of course, your family’s cooking is the stuff of regional lore.

It’s unlikely there’s something serious going on other than his rational fear of meeting your family. There’s a reason that run-ins with the in-laws are stereotypically negative and the subject of so much television programming …

—Dr. Date

Dr. Date,

I was abroad last semester and casually dated this guy while I was there.

Things ended well when I left, and we still talk occasionally on Facebook and Skype. I never planned to continue our relationship after I left — in fact, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see him again.

However, I recently made plans to go back over winter break and visit some friends there. I’m sure we’ll run into each other, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to handle it. Should we just keep things friendly? Should I try to rekindle something? What if he has a new girlfriend now (and what if he doesn’t?)

—Globetrotter

Back For Seconds,

According to you, this was never anything more than a casual fling. So why, when about to revisit the scene of the crime, are you talking about this old relationship like you’re going to see the love of your life for the first time since he broke your heart?

You clearly have residual feelings for him (see your girlfriend concerns), and when you say you’re sure you’ll “run into each other,” I’m going to assume that means you will make sure to run into him.

Be honest with yourself. If you don’t want to make life complicated for a temporary rekindling, keep it friendly.

But you want this guy, so go for it.

Maybe the second time ’round the track will clarify your emotions and you’ll hop on the return flight knowing whether he’s worth the long-distance treatment.

—Dr. Date

Need relationship advice? Email Dr. Date at drdate@mndaily.com.

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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Kerry to present plan in Mideast

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JERUSALEM — Secretary of State John Kerry will present the outlines of a West Bank security plan in meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week, stepping up American involvement in hopes of reviving faltering Mideast peace efforts, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The proposal will mark the first time that Kerr y, who was to arrive in Israel late Wednesday, has directly intervened in the talks since they began in late July. By all accounts, the negotiations have made no progress, despite an April target date for reaching a deal.

Kerry has lots riding on

the outcome of the negotiations. The sides agreed to resume talks, their first substantive dialogue in five years, under heavy American pressure, and he has repeatedly shuttled to the region and held lengthy phone conversations with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in hopes of pushing them forward.

Negotiators have said discussions touched on all key issues in the long-festering conflict, primarily Israeli security concerns and possible border arrangements between Israel and a future Palestine. But they say the talks have amounted to little more than restating positions.

The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank, east Jeru-

salem and Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in 1967, for an independent state.

They say that Israel’s pre1967 boundaries should be the basis for a future border, allowing for slight modifications through negotiated land swaps.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects a return to the 1967 lines, and has signaled he wants to retain large parts of the West Bank, where hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers live. Netanyahu also opposes any shared control over east Jerusalem, the Palestinians hoped-for capital.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The U.S. diplomatic officials said Kerr y and his

security adviser, retired Gen. John Allen, have been working on security issues in hopes of breaking the deadlock. They believe the absence of any concrete plans so far is a main reason for the lack of progress.

The American of ficials spoke on condition of anonymity because Kerr y has not yet presented his proposals.

The Haaretz daily said that Allen would present his ideas at a meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday.

After that meeting, Kerr y is scheduled to head to the West Bank for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It said the American thinking is that if Israeli security concerns can

be met, other issues, such as borders, will then fall into place.

One U.S. of ficial said Allen “has been working closely on the ground with his Israeli counterpar ts.”

The official said the Americans realize that security is “paramount” as Israel contemplates taking “calculated risks for peace.”

A U.S. official traveling with Kerr y in Moldova on Wednesday said the ideas were not a “plan” that could be accepted or rejected. Instead, it was described as part of an ongoing effort to help ease Israeli security concerns. The official said many of the ideas have already been raised with the Israelis in prior meetings.

Faculty Senate takes on clinical drug trials Senate u from Page 1

Trudo Lemmens, a University of Toronto professor and one of the letter’s key authors, said par t of its intent was to show that concerns about the Markingson case aren’t unique to researchers in Minnesota.

“The external academic community is really worried about what is happening at the University of Minnesota,” he said.

The proposed investigation wouldn’t consider past research like the CAFE study. But the resolution

says it would examine “current policies, practices, and oversight of clinical research on human subjects at the University, in particular clinical research involving adult participants with diminished functional abilities.”

Multiple reviews of the Markingson case — from University, state and national bodies — found no wrongdoing in the CAFE study. The only of ficial finding of wrongdoing was a corrective action agreement from a Minnesota Board of Social Work investigation last fall.

The board’s investigation found that study coordinator Jean Kenney made

repeated errors in documentation, performed tasks beyond her expertise and didn’t adequately address family concerns over how Markingson was treated.

Associate professor in bioethics and public health Leigh Turner, who arrived at the University in 2008, said his colleagues have been concer ned about the CAFE study as long as he’s been on campus.

“It’s just something that needs to be addressed, and it needs to be addressed in a definitive way,” he said.

Mechanical engineering professor William Durfee, chairman for the University’s Faculty Consultative

Committee, said psychiatric clinical trials involving human test subjects are a highly sensitive area of research.

The panel’s investigation could provide reassurance that University research practices meet ethical standards, he said.

“You need to do the research to get ahead,” he said, “but you need to be exceptionally careful that you’re following best practices in terms of enrollment and managing subjects all the way.”

But Mike Howard, a close friend to Weiss who has been involved with the Markingson case, said he thinks it’s unlikely an in-

vestigation would find no wrongdoing, and he thinks there are other “victims” like Markingson.

“I find it hard to believe that they would not find anything wrong,” Howard said.

Issues with the University’s research practices in the Markingson case have lingered for years, Turner said.

Though much discussion of research misconduct focuses on the CAFE study, Turner said, one important question remains: “Is Dan Markingson part of a larger community of research subjects that’ve been harmed by research studies here?”

MNsure signups grow

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Enrollment for health coverage through Minnesota’s insurance exchange more than doubled from its first month to its second, according to figures released Wednesday.

With the Jan. 1 start of coverage under the federal health law now less than a month away, officials at MNsure said 24,586 individual Minnesotans have completed the enrollment process.

That translates to insurance coverage for an estimated 71,579 people, since many individual signups are for family plans.

The rate of sign-ups spiked from October, when 10,940 people signed up, to November, when 13,646 people signed up.

Of the nearly 25,000 signed up so far, more than three-quarters are on public insurance plans: MinnesotaCare or Medical Assistance, the state’s Medicaid program. The remaining signups — 4,478 — have been for private insurance.

So far, of those who signed up for private insurance, 55 percent are women and the median age is 50.

Health care officials have said the federal overhaul needs large numbers of younger enrollees in order to succeed, but MNsure Executive Director April ToddMalmlov said the agency sees younger enrollees as more likely to procrastinate and expect more to sign up in the days before the Dec. 23 deadline to get coverage immediately on Jan. 1.

Family of Navy Yard shooting victim files lawsuit

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TAMPA, Fla. — The Florida family of a woman slain during the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard is the first to file a lawsuit against the government and defense contractors, alleging that officials ignored red flags about the killer’s deteriorating mental health.

The suit on behalf of the family of Mar y DeLorenzo Knight was filed Wednesday mor ning in federal cour t in Tampa. The lawsuit named the Navy, the Department of Veterans Affairs and two defense contractors as defendants. It’s seeking at least $37.5 million in damages.

“We’r e all just tor n apar t,” said Patricia DeLorenzo, the sister of the victim. “We just want to get through this.”

Mary DeLorenzo Knight was one of 12 people killed

by Aaron Alexis on Sept.

16 before he was killed in a shootout with police.

The lawsuit said the contractor that Alexis worked for should have told the Navy about his prior, and documented, mental health problems and that the Navy should not have given him security clearance. Navy officials have said they found no record that the company alerted the Navy about his mental health.

The lawsuit said the VA failed to treat his mental illness when Alexis went to a VA emergency room Aug. 23 for insomnia and detailed three arrests involving Alexis and his posttraumatic stress disorder, anger management problems and alcohol abuse.

A VA spokesman said Wednesday it does no comment on pending litigation.

A Navy spokeswoman said the Navy remains committed to providing continued support to the victims and families through its Washington Navy Yard Recovery Task Force but refer red The Associated Press to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment about ongoing litigation. An email sent to the Department of Justice seeking comment wasn’t immediately answered.