MONDAY APRIL 19, 2010
TH THE HE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITYY OF O OKLAHOMA’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE
ANYTIME AT
TUESDAY’S
news
The impact of the Murrah Building bombing still resounds 15 years later. Check out The Daily’s special commemorative anniversary article on page 2A.
Weather
Read The Daily’s opinion on thee newest superhero flick, “Kick-Ass.” See page 5A..
62°
45°
Men’s gymnastics finished 3rd at the NCAA Championships over the weekend. Recap page 5.
owl.ou.edu
OUDAILY.COM » FOR FULL COVERAGE OF THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING AND CAMPUS BREAKING NEWS COVERAGE VISIT OUDAILY.COM
OKC BOMBING PROVES OKLAHOMANS’ RESILIENCE, UNITY The Thunder, Ford Center, Memorial Marathon help move city beyond tragedy, mayor says CASEY WILSON Daily Staff Writer
Fifteen years after 168 people lost their lives in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, life in downtown Oklahoma City is thriving while living in the shadow of the deadliest
domestic terrorist attack on American soil. Today, the Ford Center is filled with thousands of people united in cheering on the Oklahoma City Thunder. This team is, for Mayor Mick Cornett, a prime example that shows how the city and the state has moved forward after the bombing. For many years, Oklahomans allowed for the bombing to define them, Cornett said. But now the Thunder allows the city and the state to connect itself to something more positive, he said. Cornett said the Thunder and its success in Oklahoma could be, in part, traced back to April
19, 1995. “There is one aspect you can look back and trace, and I think that’s the unity of the city,” he said. Oklahoma City came out of the bombing strengthened as a more tightly knit group than ever before, he said. With the playoffs in town this week, Cornett said Oklahoma City will have a noticeably higher public profile. The Memorial Marathon is another example of how the state has moved forward, he said.
Visit OUDaily.com to read about the experiences of Randall Coyne, an OU law professor who provided legal assistance for Timothy McVeigh.
BOMBING CONTINUES ON PAGE 2
Student Senate delays bills; fills vacancy Representatives ask to hold off on resolutions to provide more time before making decisions TROY WEATHERFORD Daily Staff Writer
MERRILL JONES/THE DAILY
Buddy Wilson sells vegetables Saturday at the Norman Farm Market. The Norman Farm Market is held at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds, 615 E. Robinson St., every Wednesday and Saturday 8 a.m. -12 p.m.
Farm Market keeps it fresh Market brings farm-grown produce to Norman community every Wednesday, Saturday until October CASSI TONEY Daily Staff Writer
The overwhelming aroma of fresh produce welcomes shoppers to Norman’s Farm Market, where dozens of booths from local farms sell farm-grown fruit, vegetables, herbs, natural soaps, bread, honey, fruit preserves and flowers. The Norman Farm Market opened for its 30th season at the beginning of April, and will remain open from 8 a.m. to noon every Wednesday and Saturday until October. Approximately 500 to 600 people shop at the market each Saturday, which is usually busier than Wednesday, said Richard Kill, president of vendors. Kill, who has sold produce at the market for nine years, said the goal of the Farm Market is to bring fresh produce and products to the Norman community. “Most of [the produce] has been picked the night before and brought in instead of sitting in the grocery stores for two weeks,” Kill said.
Kill said the market is only open two days a week to allow the shoppers to use what they have bought from the market. “If we had it open every day it would just be a trickle of people come in instead of the big crowds,” Kill said. Barry Myze, of Myze Produce, said the main difference between the Farm Market food and the grocery store food is the better, richer taste of homegrown foods. Myze said he has sold at the Norman Farm Market for six years. He said July through September is the busiest time for the market. Dylan Ward, a Norman resident, said he shops at the market every Wednesday with his grandmother, Betty Groom. He said they like browsing the selections. “The market is pretty successful,” Ward said. “I’ve seen the same people year after year.” Betty Groom said she thought the market was a good place to come and visit with people. She said she shopped at the farm market to help local farmers. “To help out the community, [the Norman community] should shop here instead of at the commercial grocery stores all over the country,” Groom said. Kill said Norman is probably the premier market in the area. He said farmers from Guthrie, Ardmore, Seminole and other areas of Oklahoma come to the Norman Farm Market to sell their produce.
The Graduate Student Senate tabled a resolution, filled a vacant position and sent an act back to committee Sunday night. GSS postponed action on a bill that encourages Undergraduate Student Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against UOSA Superior Court. The Superior Court sent down a decision that penalized the GSS $500 and two senators, Lindsey Harvell and Susan Adams Johnson, each $75 in connection to a March 21 forum discussing referendums in the general election. The court issued an injunction against GSS holding the forum without equal time being given to both sides. The organizers of the event maintain it was not sponsored by GSS but by Graduate Students for a Better Tomorrow. The author of the bill that encourages impeachment, Silas Deboer, was unhappy with the Superior Court’s ruling that the forum held violated an injunction against GSS holding a forum. Deboer said the Superior Court had infringed upon GSS’s rights to freedom of speech. “Frankly, if I were assessed this fine I wouldn’t pay it, just as I would hope that you wouldn’t pay it either,” Deboer said. Secretary Derrell Cox asked the bill be tabled so he and other senators could familiarize themselves with the court decision that influenced the bill. ELECTION BOARD VACANCY FILLED GSS named Michael Upkong as special election chairman for the upcoming presidential run-off election. UOSA Election Board Chairman Jeff Riles resigned Friday, stating in his resignation he needed to focus on finals and that the run-off election was a time conflict. Other people considered for the position were Shane Pruitt, CAC candidate, John Jenning, previous UOSA chairman, and Nicholas Harrison, UOSA presidential candidate, said Susan Adams-Johnson, GSS chairwoman. Harrison said President Katie Fox told him he would be the election chairman, and he was surprised Upkong was chosen at the meeting. APPROPRIATIONS ACT SENT BACK An act to provide administrative appropriations for 2010-2011 was sent back to the committee. The appropriations totaled $483,593. GSS CONTINUES ON PAGE 3
Professor studying differences in local, global quakes Local earthquakes different from those in other countries due to different points of origin, professor says JESSICA SHEETS Daily Staff Writer
Oklahoma has experienced 34 earthquakes this year, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey Observatory website. However, Oklahoma earthquakes pose no major threat, especially when compared to those occurring around the world. OU Geophysics Professor Randy Keller
FREE — ADDITIONAL COPIES 25¢
compared an Oklahoma earthquake to the recent earthquake in Chile. “For the sake of comparison, the energy released by the recent earthquake in Chile was about 1 million times larger than that of our biggest recent earthquake,” Keller said by e-mail. The reason for this difference in energy is due to plate boundaries. “Most earthquakes occur along the boundaries of the tectonic plates,” Keller said. “The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile are examples. Intraplate earthquakes occur away from the plate boundaries, and their causes are poorly understood. The recent
earthquake in China is an example.” Three years ago, a team of U.S. geophysicists paired up with a team of Chinese colleagues to learn more about intraplate earthquakes. Keller is leading the U.S. team and said they have used new instruments to locate the earthquakes more accurately. “An important issue is that they are occurring deeper in the Earth (5-10 km) than we expected,” Keller said. Holly Gunzenheiser, communication science disorders sophomore, remembers feeling an Oklahoma earthquake in her apartment in Traditions Square West. “I was sitting on my bed when it happened,”
© 2010 OU PUBLICATIONS BOARD
Gunzenheiser said. “It just felt like the whole room was shaking for about five seconds, and then I felt tiny vibrations for about 30 seconds longer. It happened the same day as the huge earthquake in Chile, so my first reaction was that I was being paranoid.” Keller does not believe these earthquakes pose any sort of threat to Oklahoma and said the state has a history of small earthquakes. “The recent activity is not all that anomalous from a historical perspective,” Keller said. “We do not believe that the relatively small quakes we have experienced are leading up to a larger one.”
VOL. 95, NO. 137