April 25, 2017

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NEVADA SAGEBRUSH SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO SINCE 1893

THE

TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2017

FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES $1.00 EACH

VOLUME 123, ISSUE 30

THOUSANDS MARCH FOR SCIENCE

NEWS in REVIEW By Rachel Spacek

INTERNATIONAL SYRIAN FAMILY KILLED IN POTENTIAL US AIRSTRIKE Eight Syrian family members died in an airstrike that appeared to have been launched by a U.S.led coalition on Monday. The family was fleeing a fight between U.S.-allied Syrian forces and the Islamic State in a northern Syrian town called Tabqa. The family’s vehicle was struck and five children died. The Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the children were between the ages of six months and 15 years old. Tabqa is largely under IS control with only U.S. backed Syrian forces flying missions over it. The U.S. and its allies are trying to remove IS from Tabqa before moving forward to Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS. The U.S. and allies entered Tabqa on Monday to remove IS, but it still remains under jihadi group’s control.

NATIONAL NEW ORLEANS RELOCATES CONFEDERATE MEMORIALS New Orleans began the first of four controversial scheduled relocation of Confederate memorials early Monday morning. Workers were reported to have been wearing masks and tactical vests with police snipers positioned on rooftops nearby. The relocation came after years of public debates and legal battles since city officials attempted to move the monuments in 2015. Last month a federal judge in Louisiana affirmed the city’s right to remove the monuments and the city shortly gained private funding to complete the project. The city released a statement that said the monuments would be removed because they “failed to appropriately reflect the values of diversity and inclusion that make New Orleans strong today.” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the relocation of the Confederate memorials are not a political move or retaliation against a specific group, but instead show that the city can understand and reconcile and choose a better future. The Battle of Liberty Place monument was the first to be removed and the project began a few hours before sunrise on Monday morning. The monument was erected in 1891 to mark a deadly fight between members of the “Crescent City White League” and state militia that included officers from the police force.

By Gabriel Selbig Scientists and science supporters adorned in lab coats and carrying signs flooded downtown Reno, Saturday for the Northern Nevada March for Science. Marchers took to the streets to show resistance towards President Donald J. Trump’s anti-environmental policies and budget proposals. The Northern Nevada March for Science, along with over 600 other marches worldwide, showcased homemade signs from doctors, biologists, archaeologists, teachers, parents and their children and a diverse group of speakers. The Reno Police Departestimated around Joey Lovato/Nevada Sagebrush ment Science marchers gather at Reno City Hall on Saturday, April 22, for the Northern Nevada March for Sci- 2,000 attended the Reno march. ence. The Reno Police Department estimated that around 2,000 marchers attended the demonstration. As the last few stragglers of the crowd cleared the Virginia Street Bridge, they gathered into City Plaza where the marchers heard from a number of speakers. “The science community many times has evaded parBy Rachel Spacek a similar written policy for univer- material and substantial disrupticipation in community sity student publications. tion at the school. activism, but not anymore,” To respond to the current “What it would do is to clarify Frank LoMonte, executive said Sarah Mahler, chairperpolitical climate that has been student journalist rights at the director at the Student Press son for the Democratic Party dominated by accusations of “fake high school and university level,” Law Center in Washington D.C. of Washoe County. news” toward truthful and ac- said Patrick File, Media Law pro- testified in favor of the bill at the Mahler emphasized curate news stories and threats to fessor at the University of Nevada, Senate Committee on Education her work as a doctor in members of the press from politi- Reno, and coordinator of SB 420. meeting earlier this month, saying veterinary medicine and cians and government officials, “The main point of this is to set the legal protections for student as a mother before her eflawmakers in Carson City will be a clear and even standard that is journalists are “imbalanced” and forts as chair, in which she given the opportunity to clarify protective of student free speech “widely recognized as inadequate facilitates the participathe rights of student journalists. rights in a way that we argue is for the effective teaching tion of Democrats in party Senate Bill 420, sponsored by conducive to civics education and of sound journalistic values and activities and assists party Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro, would engaged citizenship, in addition practices.” members seeking public ofrequire the board of trustees of to learning about it is what we LoMonte cited the Supreme fice and other positions. every school district in Nevada to think it important particularly at Court’s 1988 ruling in Hazelwood “They’re just as active adopt a written policy that relates the high school level.” v. Kuhlmeier as the case that reas any other community to the right of expression for File said the bill would clarify to moved all federal protection of the member,” Mahler said of students working as journalists on public schools that the best prac- rights of student journalists. the science community. student publications. The bill also tice is to only punish and censor “After nearly 30 years “There’s a certain populaauthorizes the Board of Regents of student media when the school tion that strives to remain the University of Nevada to adopt can show that there is going to be See SB 420 page A2 non-partisan as a scientist, until this presidency. It’s united masses of people that otherwise would not spend a day together.” Other demonstrators said they borrowed lab coats and drew up signs to express

Nevada legislation looks to protect student journalists

COURTS DECLARE MISTRIAL FOR MEN IN BUNDY CASE

Rachel Spacek can be reached at rspacek@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.

COACHELLA REVIEW

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Cortez Masto talks Trump at town hall

LOCAL A United States District Court Judge declared a mistrial on Monday against four men who had allegedly turned against federal agents during the Bundy Ranch standoff in 2014. U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro said the men would be retried on June 26. Among the men accused of taking up arms against federal agents in the Bundy Ranch standoff, were two defendants that were convicted on multiple counts. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict against the other four individuals. The case on Monday was the first of three trials scheduled to be charged in the standoff. For decades the BLM ordered Cliven Bundy to remove his cattle from federal lands and obtained a court order to seize his cattle in 2014 as a payment for more than $1 million unpaid grazing fees. The order resulted in a standoff between cattle ranchers, antigovernment protesters and militia members against the Bureau of Land Management.

the importance of science. Those signs expressed the marcher’s desires to save bees, promote clean energy, encourage science education in elementary schools, political participation and scientific literacy. On March 28, President Trump signed an executive order that scrapped six Obama era climate change policies and called for a complete review of the Clean Power Plan. The plan was essential for the U.S. to meet its goal for carbon emissions set in the landmark 2015 Paris agreement. His budget proposal to Congress calls for an 18 percent cut to the National Institutes of Health and a 31 percent cut and elimination of 3,200 EPA employees from the Environmental Protection Agency. Ana Casareto and other community organizers held the first meeting for the Northern Nevada March for Science four days after the Trump administration ordered a media blackout at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Trump’s order came four days after the Jan. 20 inauguration. “We’re standing up against fiscal cuts to the scientific endeavor,” Casareto said. “To be a science advocate, you can be anybody and you should be everybody.” Lack of political will from Nevada representatives Dean Heller and Mark Amodei was one of the reasons several marchers gave when asked why they had chosen to show their support for science. Heller and Amodei’s names appeared on several signs on Saturday, pleading them to vote against the president’s budget proposal and other policies. “We don’t need coal-fired

By Jacob Solis

Rachel Spacek/Nevada Sagebrush

David Greene, left, RonNell Anderson Jones, center, and Patrick File, right, discuss the First Amendment and the freedom of the press on Tuesday, April 18, in the Joe Crowley Student Union. The panel discussed ways the audience could support the press in the current political climate.

First Amendent under fire, experts discuss ways to help By Rachel Spacek From threats to remove the White House Press Corps to denials of press credentials to traditionally credentialed press, President Donald J. Trump has changed the norms and customs of how the President and his team interacts with the press. Media Law Professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, Patrick File hosted a forum called “First Amendment Under Fire?” where File and two experts discussed how the First Amendment is in jeopardy and ways the public can help.

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David Greene, a Senior Staff Attorney and Civil Liberties Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and RonNell Anderson Jones, a professor of law at the University of Utah SJ Quinney College of Law discussed threats to the freedom of the press and the First Amendment in the current political climate. “So it may be, as they say, the best of times and the worst of times for the First Amendment,” File said in his introduction. “One thing is sure, however, the robust public discussion about the First Amendment and the freedoms of speech and press is urgently needed.”

Before beginning the Question and Answer portion of the forum, both Greene and Jones gave a short introduction of their work and their feelings towards the First Amendment in today’s political climate. In her intro, Jones said she fears that many people think that the Constitution will protect the press against many of Trump’s anti-press policies. She argues instead that the Constitution provides few laws that protect the freedoms of the press. “It is comforting to a lot of people to assume that the

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., received a warm welcome from a friendly crowd at a town hall event held Saturday at Reno High School. It was a stark contrast to the oftencontentious town hall held just a few days prior by her senate counterpart, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., the state’s only two congressional Republicans. Cortez Masto was asked about a variety of topics, which ranged from Planned Parenthood funding to the possibility of U.S. military action in North Korea. However, throughout much of the town hall, it was President Donald J. Trump who dominated the conversation. A spot of contention arose when Judy Engman, a supporter of Trump, asked Cortez Masto about her plans for immigration reform. Engman said she came to the town hall to press the senator on her immigration policy in particular, a policy

which she says lacked the kind of specifics she wanted to know. Her question and subsequent interjections, however, were met with loud jeers from the crowd. “To say that we need a border wall, but at the same time say that we’re having a decrease in border crossings makes no sense to me,” Cortez Masto said before being interrupted by Engman. “The only reason we have decreased immigration is because Donald Trump has stood up for the American Citizens, and trying to keep drugs and criminals out,” Engman said. “You deport criminal aliens and they come back and they come back and they come back.” The comment, which was met with a round of boos from the crowd, did end up leading to one of the longer one-on-one discussion Cortez Masto had with any constituents that day. Even so, Engman, along with her husband Sterly Engman, later said her question was not answered. “I saw [here] exactly what I saw at the Republican

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IS S-TOWN JOURNALISM?

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See TOWN HALL page A2

‘QUEZE TO SUCCESS

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