March 14, 2017

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NEVADA SAGEBRUSH SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO SINCE 1893

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TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2017

FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES $1.00 EACH

VOLUME 123, ISSUE 24

NEWS in REVIEW

Author beats language challenges

By Madeline Purdue

INTERNATIONAL BUS PLOWS THROUGH HAITI FESTIVAL A bus drove through a festival in Haiti just before dawn on Sunday, Mar. 13, killing 38 people and injuring at least 13 more. Authorities are calling the incident a hit and run accident. The driver of the bus ran from the scene on foot and has not been caught. People who witnessed and survived the incident wanted to set the bus on fire while the passengers were still inside, but police prevented the crowd from doing so. A witness told CNN that when the bus finally stopped, you could see people stuck underneath. “You could hear people crying and calling for help, but I could not make a difference on who is alive and who is not,” a man named Rigorov said to CNN. The people in the street were celebrating Rara, a festival that is celebrated from Mardi Gras to Easter Sunday. Three Rara bands and many pedestrians were among those struck by the bus.

By Rachel Spacek

NATIONAL MAN STEALS GIRL SCOUT COOKIE MONEY A man in San Diego stole money from a Girl Scout cookie stand outside a grocery store on Sunday, Mar. 12. The man took around $400 from the cash box and ran away. According to police, he dropped an iPhone while running away. None of the Girl Scouts were injured. The San Diego Police Department arrested 28-year-old Erik Mullen later that night. He was charged with petty theft and possession of narcotics. Police did not say how they identified him or tracked him down. The San Diego Police Department tweeted “SDPD pleased to announce arrest in Girl Scouts of USA cash box theft.Erik Mullen 28yoa was taken into custody #crimedoesntpay#wewillfindyou” around 9:30 on Sunday. San Diego Girl Scouts spokeswoman Janine Rojas told the local Fox 5 on Sunday night that she was aware of the situation and would provide information to the community about how to donate to the troop that was robbed later in the week.

LOCAL AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION BILLS PASSES SENATE The Nevada Senate passed an initiative on Monday, Mar. 13 that would automatically register people to vote when they renew their driver license. The initiative now will have to be signed by Governor Brian Sandoval for it to be put into place. Initiative Petition 1, or the “motor voter” initiative, would automatically register people to vote when they update their information at the Department of Motor Vehicles. People would be able to decline to register to vote. Assistant Senate Minority Leader Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he was concerned about how this initiative could lead to voter fraud. “Of the number of folks who have driver’s licenses and ID cards who used green cards as their form of ID to receive them, more than 100 have filled out the voter registration form and those voter registration forms were submitted to the county registrars to register those people to vote,” Kieckhefer told the RGJ. The initiative was favored by more Democrats than Republicans. Madeline Purdue can be reached at mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @madelinepurdue.

OTAKUPALOOZA

Illustration by Nicole Skarlatos

Staff Report After six weeks campaigning, students will vote for Associated Students of the University of Nevada Senate, Vice President and President. The elections will run from Wednesday, March 15 to Thursday, March 16 online on WebCampus, or inperson at the Blue Fish Bowl inside the Joe Crowley Student Union. The Nevada Sagebrush sat down with the two candidates

running for President of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Reno and the two candidates running on their ticket for Vice President. Sen. Alex Crupi and Sen. Trenton Jackson are running on a ticket together and Speaker of the Senate Noah Teixeira and Chief of Staff Sebastian Atienza are running against them. To read part of the Q&A, flip to page A2. For the full question-and-answer session, head to nevadasagebrush.com.

See Q&A page A2

Reno residents show support for welcoming city By Rachel Spacek In the weeks following the Trump administration’s pledge to expand deportations of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., Reno community members have put increased pressure on the City Council to make a pledge to support the immigrant communities in Reno. Several University of Nevada, Reno, students and community members spoke to the Reno City Council last Wednesday, Mar. 8, to urge them to approve City Council member Oscar Delgado’s request for staff time to prepare a statement on the city’s commitment to become a welcoming city. A “welcoming city” is defined as a city that supports locally-driven efforts to create a more welcoming, immigrant-friendly environment that maximizes opportunities for economic and cultural growth, according to Welcoming America, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to supporting the diverse communities in the US. In Welcoming Cities, all sectors, including government, business, non-profit and others are engaged to work together to create a community that welcomes immigrant communities. The City Council heard over an hour of public comment from individuals who pledged their support and asked for the support of the council members to make Reno a welcoming city. “The current executive order by President Trump

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is causing a lot of heartache and a lot of pain for both immigrants who are living in this city and for refugee families,” said Carina Black, Executive Director of the Northern Nevada International Center. “We believe strongly that they deserve a city that welcomes them and we hope to be working with the City of Reno on a resolution that designates the city of Reno as a welcoming city and there are many such efforts across the country, so there are many models that we could be using, so I look forward to working with you on this.” The calls to make Reno a welcoming city have been received following the Trump administration’s pledge to target the deportation of immigrants who have been convicted of an unresolved offense, criminal or otherwise. The Department of Homeland Security also said they would try to enlist the assistance of local law enforcement agencies to crack down on deporting undocumented immigrants. Elvira Diaz, a Reno resident, spoke in public comment in support of making Reno a welcoming city. She recalled a trip to Las Vegas she had taken earlier this month where she was stopped by a local police officer who asked her if she was a United States citizen. Diaz showed him her passport but said she shouldn’t have had to.

See IMMIGRATION page A3

WAGE DEBATE

Photo via twitter.com/SpeakerRyan

Paul Ryan outlines the American Health Care Act to reporters on Friday, March 10. The bill, which would serve as the first step in the GOP “repeal and replacement” of Obamacare, could head to the House floor for a vote as soon as the next few weeks.

ACA repeal would impact millions By Jacob Solis Since House Republicans revealed their long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, often known simply as Obamacare, earlier this month, there have been lingering questions about what effects the new bill might have on the 18 million Americans who use the law to get their health insurance. On Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan downplayed expectations for the number of people who that might lose their insurance under the new plan, dubbed the American Health Care Act. Speaking with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” he said that the goal of the plan shouldn’t be universal coverage, but rather reduced health care costs. “What we are trying to achieve here is bringing down the cost of care, bringing down the cost of insurance

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not through government mandates and monopolies but by having more choice and competition,” Ryan said. Later that day though, the number was larger than anyone thought it would be. Over the next decade, an estimated 24 million Americans will lose health insurance under the new GOP plan, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. In the same report, the CBO also found that the plan would reduce the deficit by about 300 billion and reduce the average cost of premiums by about 10 percent over the same period of time. But why are these numbers so high and how else would the new plan affect Nevada specifically?

THINGS AS THEY STAND To

understand

how

An Xiao Mina, an artist, author and technologist, set out with a goal to attempt to overcome global communication’s toughest barrier: language. Mina is responsible for founding the team behind the website Meedan, a platform for tools that support global journalism and translation. Meedan offers two tools to journalists: Check and Bridge. Bridge enables translation of social media and adds cultural, social and political notes to the translation for understanding. With many languages being so complicated and different from region to region, the importance of the explainer along with the translation is that it gives a description and reasoning of word choice in the translation. “We really believe in human’s ability to translate and I think that is what is really great about this program. It is about focusing on the journalistic value and value that people can contribute,” Mina said. “If we think about our tools more as facilitators rather than replacers, I think a lot of people will talk about translation as an automated process, and I firmly believe that’s not possible. I think many of us who are multilingual know that if you have run something through google translate, it just doesn’t work.” The translated Tweets and social media posts are embeddable, with the original tweet or post on top, the translated version in the middle and the explainer on the bottom. Mina explained that journalists can easily embed the full translated tweets or social media posts and explainers into their stories that are in either language. University of Nevada, Reno, Reynolds School of Journalism student Jose Olivares translated tweets during the presidential campaign that were featured in a story on Fusion about the translation project. The other tool available on Meedan is Check, a platform used to verify breaking news stories. For example, a team can collaborate on a story or social media post and Check allows them to add notes with the team about the work the writer did and analyze the work and then come to a conclusion to determine if the post is false, verified or hard to determine. Mina said the goal at Meedan is to get both Check and Bridge to work together, but for now they work as two separate tools. In addition to Meedan, Mina is also working on a book called “Memes to Movement.” Mina said she was working on translating memes from Chinese, realized how political memes are and started working on her book. “I’m writing a book now about the global meme culture and looking at the cultural differences between memes, especially in relation to social media. I work with a translator at Spanish and Chinese in particular, but I’ve also tried to bring in some Russian as well,” Mina said. Mina said she is looking at tying in language, culture, memes and social media. Aside from her book, Mina is also working with the Bridge tool on Meedan on the global refugee crisis and doing translations on refugee resources and information. Mina said for this project they would be working on translations less for journalistic purposes and more for the purposes of aid workers. With the enhancement of global communication, Mina reminds journalists that language is still a huge barrier in many communities and encourages journalists to find the best ways to overcome that barrier.

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Rachel Spacek can be reached at rspacek@sagebrush.unr.edu and See ACA page A3 on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.

BIG DANCE AWAITS

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March 14, 2017 by The Nevada Sagebrush - Issuu