The Oklahoma Daily

THURSDAY AUGUST 27, 2009

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news Still texting behind the wheel?

Legislators are aiming to ban the dangerous activity sooner rather than later.

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Want to know what’s happening in Norman this weekend? Check out the Weekend Update in today’s Life & Arts section.

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OU football must battle through a tough schedule this year. See which opponents will be the biggest test this year.

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TV4OU TAKES STEPS TO BROADEN ITS BASE Gaylord College reaches deal to broadcast in more homes MATTHEW MOZEK The Oklahoma Daily

TV4OU, the student-produced television station at the Gaylord College of Journalism, is now available to all Cox digital cable subscribers in Oklahoma, on its new home on Channel 124.

“While other institutions across the state of Oklahoma may be broadcasted on-air, the University of Oklahoma will be the only one to have its own dedicated public access channel,” said John Hockett, assistant dean of Gaylord College.

All programming produced by the Gaylord College will transition from its current spot on Cox’s Channel 4 to 124, and is now available to 180,000 homes in Oklahoma, Hockett stated in an e-mail. TV4OU’s programming, except for OU Nightly, was previously available

to only 30,000 homes in the Norman area.

OU Nightly, Gaylord College’s MondayFriday news broadcast, will air on Cox’s Channel 7 at 4:30 p.m.

Cox will also purchase 12 episodes of Gaylord College’s production, “The Set,” for their On DEMAND feature.

“It means a lot for our students,” Hockett said. “Whether you’re a major in advertising, journalism, broadcasting, professional writing, or public relations, it’s pretty impressive to be exposed to such a wide range of

viewers.”

For some Gaylord College students, the transfer signals an opportunity to establish a larger presence on and off campus.

“It’s a great proposition,” said Zach Blocker, broadcasting and electronic media senior and camera operator for “The Set.” “It will definitely get more people involved. The increase in publicity will lead to an increase in awareness. Hopefully that will lead to a STEPS CONTINUES ON PAGE 2A

President Boren and senators remember late Sen. Kennedy

LUKE ATKINSON/THE DAILY

A flag flies at half-staff Wednesday afternoon in the North Oval to honor the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Kennedy, 77, passed away late Tuesday night after a 15-month battle against brain cancer.

Recently deceased senator’s political legacy honored by politicians RICKY MARANON The Oklahoma Daily

OU President and former U.S. Sen. David Boren and current Oklahoma Sens. James Inhofe and Tom Coburn remembered the late Sen. Edward (Ted) Kennedy (D-Mass.) as a charismatic colleague who always worked toward bipartisanship on tough issues.

“I was saddened to learn about the death of Senator Kennedy,” Boren stated in an e-mail.

Kennedy died late Tuesday night at his home in Hyannisport, Mass., of brain canEDWARD cer at the age of 77.

Boren, who served from 1979 to 1994, KENNEDY said he has many fond memories of serving in the U.S. Senate with Kennedy.

“He was unfailingly kind to young people,” he said. “On two occasions when children from Oklahoma with terminal

illnesses came to Washington, he took the time to visit with them and show them souvenirs from his brother, President Kennedy.”

Kennedy served in the U.S. Senate from 1962 to 2009 and is the brother of former President John F. Kennedy, former U.S Attorney General and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Ted Kennedy is the only one of the four Kennedy brothers to die of natural causes; his brothers John and Robert were both assassinated while in public office, while oldest Kennedy brother Joseph died during World War II in an airplane explosion.

Boren, Inhofe and Coburn said even though they did not always stand with Kennedy on political issues, they always respected him, his work ethic and his legislative aspirations when he worked on tough issues.

“Even when we were on opposite sides of an issue, he was always courteous and maintained a sense of humor about our differences of opinion,” Boren stated. “With each passing year, he devoted himself more and more to bringing people together to form a consensus.”

Coburn said he would miss Kennedy both as a friend and an adversary.

“I hope one of Ted Kennedy’s legacies is that in the age of spin, he had the courage to directly express and fight for his

ideas and principles,” Coburn said. “He worked extremely hard [and] was always in command of the issues.”

Inhofe, who took Boren’s Senate seat after Boren became president of OU, said Kennedy’s personality had no political boundaries.

“I recall many fond stories about the Senator that are a tribute to his charisma and personality that transcended party lines,” Inhofe said. “Senator Kennedy’s long years of service to this country were ones that saw some of America’s darkest and brightest times.”

The Kennedy family immediately released a statement early Tuesday morning.

“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,“ the Kennedy family said in a statement. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all.”

Sen. Kennedy will be privately buried at Arlington National Cemetery Saturday near his two brothers John and Robert after the funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston.

Law student will run for Congressional seat Military veteran seeks to uphold conservative values RICKY MARANON The Oklahoma Daily

R.J. Harris, a second-year OU law student and veteran of military service in Iraq, will run against incumbent Republican Congressman Tom Cole in the 2010 primary election.

Harris said he decided to run against Cole for the fourth district Congressional seat because he doesn’t think Cole is true to the conservative ideal.

“I saw that my representative was voting for bailouts and was giving away my liberty through incremental socialism,” Harris

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said. “Tom Cole calls himself a conservative Republican, but he is not acting like one and hasn’t been acting like one since January 2008.”

Cole said he is still true to his conservative values, and he also thinks about the decisions he makes before every vote.

“I reject the notion that my opponent is the arbiter of what is, and what is not, conservative,” Cole said. “I would suggest that my lifetime ‘A’ rating with the National Rifle Association, my lifetime 100 [percent] rating with the National Right to Life, and my lifetime 93 [percent] rating from Americans for Tax Reform are more objective and accurate measures of where I stand on the political spectrum than the arbitrary opinions of a political opponent.”

Harris’ solutions include returning the

power of many public policy decisions to the states as he said the 10th Amendment requires.

“We should let the states make policy rather than expecting Congress to do everything,” Harris said. “If citizens of a state want universal health care, then they should be able to get together and raise the money and implement a universal health care policy.

Congress should not be making these kinds of decisions. It is unconstitutional.”

Harris also said President George W. Bush is not a real conservative.

“If the Bush administration and the Republican Congress and Tom Cole were truly conservative, they would not have passed Medicare Part D reform and taken us into a war which was not authorized by Congress that costs us billions of dollars

© 2009 OU PUBLICATIONS BOARD

every year,” he said. “Those two acts alone expanded government spending and were unconstitutional. It is time we return the government back to what is written in the Constitution and nothing more and nothing less.”

Cole said he understands what it means to be a conservative, and still seeks to uphold his values.

“My personal view of R.J. what it means to be conservative includes a commit- HARRIS ment to small government, low taxes, minimal government interference in commerce and trade, maximum personal SEAT CONTINUES ON PAGE 2A

VOL. 95, NO. 7

2A Thursday, August 27, 2009 Meredith Moriak, managing editor dailynews@ou.edu • phone: 325-3666 • fax: 325-6051

INTERESTED IN WORKING FOR THE DAILY? STOP BY THE NEWSROOM AND PICK UP IN APPLICATION IN COPELAND HALL 160.

Steps Continued from page 1A bigger audience.”

“I think it will be great to have our own channel,” said Sean White, broadcasting and electronic media senior and producer of “The Set.” “I’m excited about a bigger audience.”

One issue still to be decided is the new name for the network. Hockett said that name would be announced Thursday.

Students who do not have access to Cox digital cable service and would like to continue to watch TV4OU will be able to purchase a digital converter box for $10 a semester, which can be paid in monthly installments, at the Norman Cox store in Robinson Crossing Shopping Center, 1278 N. Interstate Dr. For more information regarding TV4OU, including a weekly programming schedule, please visit http://tv4ou. ou.edu/.

FAST FACTS ON TV4OU’S MOVE Where to find them: Cox digital cable Channel 124 How to get them: Everyone in Oklahoma with digital television and Cox basic digital cable will be able to view channel 124.

Students who don’t have digital televisions or Cox basic digital cable can purchase a converter box at the Cox Store located in Robinson Crossing Shopping Center, 1278 N. Interstate Drive, in Norman.

Why the change was made: Cox Cable wanted to reclaim Channel 4 in the Norman area to standardize the channel guide on Channel 4 in all of its Oklahoma markets. TV4OU will now be available in 180,000 homes statewide, as opposed to 30,000 previously. Additionally, OU Nightly, OU’s Monday through Friday newscast, can be seen at 4:30 p.m. on Channel 7.

For more information regarding TV4OU, including a weekly programming schedule, please visit tv4ou.ou.edu.

ELI HULL/THE DAILY

Stephen Whiting, journalism senior, (far right) teaches the crew of OU Nightly how to work the switcher for the three camera studio in Gaylord Hall. OU Nightly, as well as all the other shows on TV4OU, will be changing channels from Cox Channel 4 to Channel 124, and will broadcast to the entire OKC metro area.

Seat Continued from page 1A liberty, strong national defense and support for traditional American values,” he said.

Harris said though he served two tours of duty in Iraq, he felt the use of armed forces was unconstitutional and the money should be spent elsewhere.

“We are supposed to have a declaration of war approved of by the Congress, and that declaration is only to happen in times of an invasion and defense of the country in times of attack,” he said. “This war was never authorized by Congress, not to mention the amount of money we are spending is outrageous.”

Cole said although he was not serving in Congress in 2002, he supports the use of American armed forces in Iraq and the president was authorized to deploy troops under U.S. House Resolution 114.

Harris said he would like to debate Cole about conservative issues and topics like the use of American troops in Iraq and the federal

CAMPUS NOTES TODAY INTRAMURAL SPORTS Intramural aerobics sign-up will be from 7 to 11 a.m. for $35 in the Huston Huffman Center.

FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART Award winning artist Jonathan Brilliant will present a free lecture at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at 6 p.m.

CHRISTIANS ON CAMPUS The Christians on Campus welcome dinner will be at 6 p.m. at the Union.

TOMORROW SCHOOL OF ART AND HISTORY Artist Jonathan Brilliant will present his work, “Goldsworthy of the Coffee Shop,” with an opening reception at 6 p.m. at the Lightwell Gallery.

CIMARRON OPERA IDOL Preliminary rounds for an opera’s open call will be from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Sharp Concert Hall.

stimulus packages. Cole said he would consider a debate when voters are closer to hitting the booths.

“This year is not about a debate among Republicans,” Cole said. “It is a debate with the Obama administration over policy and a discussion with my constituents about their views ... Election politics can surely wait until the election season.”

Harris said he would be hosting events around OU and is even taking interns to help him with his campaign.

“We are registered with Career Services,” said Jonathan Gibbons, Harris’ campaign manager. “Anyone who wants to intern with us can sign up there. We will also bring other candidates in from around the country to talk to students.”

Gibbons said students can look forward to meeting Harris and other candidates as the election season starts.

POLICE REPORTS The following is a list of arrests and citations, not convictions. The information is compiled from the Norman Police Department and OUPD. All people listed are innocent until proven guilty.

TRESPASSING Garrett Thomas Harmon Blake, 20, 2200 Classen Blvd., Monday Jacob Stephen Sparks, 19, 2200 Classen Blvd., Monday COUNTY WARRANT Arlando Lashon Lewis, 28, 2000 W. Robinson St., Monday Dwight Tilford Davis, 45, 1491 E. Alameda St., Tuesday Eric S. Thundaner, 29, 300 Hal Muldrow Drive, Tuesday MUNICIPAL WARRANT Howard Ricardo Dixon, 19, Vicksburg Avenue, Tuesday Elijah Richard Raymond, 27, Hughburt Street, Tuesday PETTY LARCENY Samuel Lee Slate, 23, 333 N. Interstate Drive E, Tuesday Anthony Drew Hutchinson, 23, 3499 W. Main St., Tuesday, also assault and battery DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE Rickey E. Pearson, 28, N. Flood Avenue, Tuesday, also driving without a license, larceny from the house and eluding police officer

Don’t be the last to Sign-up for the Intramural Special on

Friday, August 28 between 7-11 a.m. for $35/semester!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

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Bill being created to penalize texting while driving Oklahoma will become fifteenth state to ban texting while driving CAITLIN HARRISION The Oklahoma Daily

When 22-year-old Justin Pittman sent a text message while driving one evening last June in his hometown of Pottsboro, Texas, he never dreamed it would be his last. “He was just going to go home and take a shower and come right back,� Jessica Carter, psychology senior, said of her close friend from high school. “It was only about a mile to his house and he left and he was on these back-country roads.�

Carter said Pittman’s truck swerved off the road, flipped over into a ditch and threw him out as he was trying to type a text message, killing him instantly. Pittman was not wearing a seat belt. “The reason they knew he was texting was because he had text messages sent and received right around the time that it happened,� Carter said. “A lot of people thought at first he had been drinking, but that wasn’t it. It was the texting.�

Pittman, who would have graduated this December from Southeastern University in Durant, isn’t the first — or the last — to be involved in a collision due to texting. Cell phones cause an estimated 2,600 U.S. traffic deaths every year, according to a Harvard study.

But it’s impossible to present completely accurate data on the topic because cell phone usage during an accident is self-reporting, and police are not required to ask drivers whether they were using the phone, said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Maj. Rusty Rhoades.

However, the texting and driving phenomenon could become less common in Oklahoma if the state passes a law next year banning texting behind the wheel. The practice is already outlawed in 14 other states.

Rep. Sue Tibbs, R-Tulsa, introduced House Bill 1782 into the Oklahoma Legislature last spring, which would have banned texting while driving and limited cell phone usage to hands-free devices only. Drivers pulled over for doing so would receive a citation.

Modeled after legislation from other states, the bill includes exceptions for emergency situations. “I think young people don’t understand how vulnerable they are,� Tibbs said. “I’ve had some people say you’re violating people’s civil rights, but really, when you’re saving lives, you’re helping them. Young people have a tendency to do what they’re going to do unless you put restrictions on them.�

Majority Floor Leader Rep. Tad Jones, R-Claremore, said he did not hear the bill because of concerns about restricting cell phone usage. “We had a lot of members that had concern about the cell phone portion of it, that everybody uses their cell phones when they drive,� Jones said. “They just wanted to look at that before we pass a law on it.�

Tibbs said she plans to reintroduce the bill into the Legislature next spring, although she will make a few minor changes. She said she will add a provision that bans reading texts while driving as well. “I think it will get heard, although I believe there’s going to be some controversy,� Tibbs said. “I believe it will pass.�

Jones said the bill could present difficulties. “It’s just as difficult as speeding,� Jones said. “If there’s nobody there to see you speed, then you don’t get pulled over. It would be pretty difficult to enforce.�

Rhoades said he does not see difficulty in enforcing a texting ban. “I don’t think difficulty is an issue,� he said. “It’s not unlike speed limits. If there were no speed limits, people would be speeding everywhere. Because the law’s in place, there is a ‘being caught,’ in reality. The potential to decrease that type of activity is certainly

there.�

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol would support and enforce the law if put into place, he said. “We see it out there. We know that it is dangerous,� Rhoades said. “We would certainly be supportive, opinion-wise. It is a common sense issue.�

Jones agreed a texting ban could help alleviate the problem and said the Legislature would be more likely to approve Tibbs’ updated version of the bill. “I think it would cut on the number of people that are doing it, just like speeding,� Jones said. “I think there would definitely be a drop in the usage. I think it is unsafe on the texting side of things, so we’ll probably support that

legislation.�

Carter said her friend’s death has made her think twice before texting behind the wheel, and that she would support an Oklahoma law banning the practice. “[The accident] doesn’t even have to be your fault,� Carter said. “Somebody can make a mistake because you’re not watching. Even if you’ve been drinking, you have your eyes on the road. Your eyes are completely off the road if you’re texting.�

Carter admitted she, too, was guilty of texting while driving before her friend’s tragedy. “Ever since that happened, I try not to do it because I see what effect it can have,� she said. “It’s just not worth it.�

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY LILLY CHAPA/THE DAILY

In this photo illustration, a pedestrian is hit by a driver who is texting. Texting is one of the top distractions for younger drivers and a bill is being introduced to make it illegal in Oklahoma.

CAMPUS BRIEFS FREE LIBRARY TOTES FOR NEW MEMBERS

RESTAURANT CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY

STUDENT LIFE REGISTRATION FOR ORGANIZATIONS

September is Library Card Sign-up Month at the Norman Public Library. Anyone who signs up for a library card during September will receive a free book tote.

Library cards are free for those living in the Cleveland, McClain and Pottawatomie counties. Photo identification and proof of address are required to receive a card.

For more information call 701-2600 or visit www.justsoyouknow.us.

Victoria’s Pasta Shop on Campus Corner will celebrate its 20th anniversary in September. “We have a restaurant that is relaxing and easy ‌ just right when you need a great meal and a good place to talk,â€? Chris Roth, restaurant owner, said in a press release. “The same great group of people have dined with us for years.â€?

The restaurant’s cozy bohemian atmosphere and food, including the signature dish, lasagna rolls, keep customers coming back for more, according to the release. “People often ask if we put something in our sauce that is addictive,� Roth said. “I guess it’s that good.�

Victoria’s Pasta Shop is located at 327 White St.

All functioning OU student organizations must register with Student Life by 4 p.m. Sept. 18. Among other benefits, registering allows groups to use campus facilities. For documents and information required to complete the registration process, go to http://studentlife.ou.edu/content/view/224/46/.

-Katie Rosenthal/The Daily

OFFICIALS HONORED FOR MUSEUM COLLECTION

The “Visions of Native American Artists� from the Rennard Strickland Collection at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art received a $500,000 award for publication from the Oklahoma Museums Association.

The piece was a winner of the association’s 2009 Annual Awards Program and recognizes outstanding achievements by museums and individuals for their exhibitions, promotional pieces, publications, Web sites, newsletters, conservative projects and education programs.

Officials from OU will be honored at a luncheon Sept. 25 at the Lawton Best Western Hotel and Convention Center.

-Caitlin Harrison/The Daily

STUDENT PUBLICATION SEEKS STAFF MEMBERS

The student literary journal Windmill is currently recruiting staff members. Positions are available in editing, fundraising and graphic design. The publication welcomes student poetry, prose, literary criticism and visual art. Interviews can be scheduled with staff adviser Merleyn Bell at merleyn@ou.edu.

-Natasha Goodell/The Daily

-Natasha Goodell/The Daily

-Kasey Chapman/The Daily

FREE FINANCIAL EDUCATION CLASS AT NORMAN LIBRARY

A free program on Principles of Saving and Investing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Norman Public Library, 225 N. Webster Ave. It will teach basic saving and investing tools and aims to educate people with little financial experience. To register, visit the library or call 701-2620.

-Namisha Thapa/The Daily

A LITTLE LESS READING, A LITTLE MORE ZUMBA

Zumba, the Latin music fitness phenomenon, is now being offered at the Norman Public Library, 225 N. Webster Ave. Free classes will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday evenings through Sept.

28. The class is limited to the first 35 people who register. For more information call 701-2600.

-Jacqueline Johnsrud/The Daily

FORMER ATHLETE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY Eric Thunander, a former OU football player and 2007 graduate of OU, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon under suspicion of multiple counts of child molestation and a charge of possession of child pornography.

According to court documents, on Aug. 10 the victim told day care employees Thunander had improperly touched her earlier that morning. During the ensuing investigation, the victim also described other instances of inappropriate contact with Thunander.

Thunander, a close family friend of the parents, admitted to the accusations during a controlled phone call with the child’s father, the

affidavit stated. Thunander confessed to the allegations in both writing and while speaking through the help of an interpreter after being taken to custody Tuesday. Thunander is hearing impaired.

Thunander, 29, was a reserve during the Sooners’ national championship season in 2000. He suffered an ear canal injury during the following season that ended his playing career.

Thunander wrote and published his autobiography in 2008 named “Silent Thunder,� which described his own life struggles that included accounts of his own child abuse.

-Peter David/The Daily

!

Men’s Soccer Club Tryouts AUGUST 31 & SEPTEMBER 1

TODAY

$10 TRYOUT FEE Intramural Fields Michael Kubala Beau Porter East Field michael.e.kubala@ou.edu beauporter@ou.edu 6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Will Holland, opinion editor dailyopinion@ou.edu • phone: 325-7630 • fax: 325-6051

COMMENT OF THE DAY »

In response to Wednesday’s news story, “Central Oklahoma competes for transportation grant”

“This would be a huge help for the international students as they often find themselves stranded at home since it does not make economic sense to buy a car for just a year. Traffic in Norman will become

horrifyingly bad on the east side while they put in a second track, though.”

-oumotorcyclist

YOU CAN COMMENT AT OUDAILY.COM

STAFF COLUMN

OUR VIEW

Greek system offers benefits, too Fraternities handed out bids to rushees Tuesday and Wednesday night to close the fall 2009 edition of Greek rush. Thousands of students participated in fraternity and sorority rush again this year, including a significant number of those new to campus.

And although the Greek system certainly has flaws (the inevitable underage alcohol consumption and dubious rush tactics, to name but a couple), it also does a lot to make OU and the community better for everybody, Greek or not.

The academic year is full of philanthropic events organized by individual fraternities and sororities. And the system also contributes hundreds of man hours to large, campus wide philanthropic

events such as Big Event.

That’s not to say that students who are not involved with the Greek system don’t contribute to campus, nor is it to say that all students who are members of these organizations do.

But the somewhat prevalent perception of fraternities and sororities as snobby organizations that only admit those who are interested in partying their ways through college, does not truly represent all of those involved with Greek life.

Some join because fraternities and sororities provide opportunities to be a part of an organization bigger than one’s self. They foster the formation of lasting friendships and allow for students who

wouldn’t typically have the means to organize large philanthropic events the ability to do so.

So to those who are about to embark on a journey into the Greek system, we wish you good luck. You will have opportunities to give back, and we heartily encourage you to do so.

And to those who have decided to remain unencumbered by the constraints of Greek life, we also encourage you to get involved and make OU and the community a better place.

Because, although the division between Greek and non-Greek students can sometimes seem vast, the reality is we are all united by the community we live in and the university we attend.

OPINIONATED?

The Daily is looking for cartoonists. If you are interested in applying, e-mail opinion editor Will Holland at willholland@ou.edu for information.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR THIS LETTER IS IN RESPONSE TO JOSHUA HUFF’S FRIDAY COLUMN, “ONE COLUMNIST’S PROOF FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD,” AND A SUBSEQUENT LETTER TO THE EDITOR PUBLISHED IN THE DAILY TUESDAY

argued than the column itself. The author assumed not only that religion was more complex than atheism, but even that religion took its complexity as a sign of its truth. From which he determined that Pastafarianism is the most true religion because of its utter incoherence.

If any of this qualifies as an argument, it certainly fails as an intelligent discussion.

One thing I have noticed about most (not all, I hope) atheists writing for The Daily is their arguments consist mostly of appeals to emotion. They don’t appeal to love and belonging, as many Christians admittedly do. Instead they appeal to shame and humiliation. They assume from the beginning not only that their opponents are wrong, but even that they cannot be convinced through reason. In order to spread their philosophy, they do not rely upon logic and argument as they claim, but instead mock their opponents in the hope that opposing ideas will soon appear ridiculous to everyone.

This is not debate. This is not reasonable.

I appeal to intelligent atheists everywhere to reject these demagogues of shame and to engage in a productive conversation with any intelligent Christians you know. We exist, and we’re waiting for a real challenge.

Once again The Oklahoma Daily published a column about religion containing almost no intellectual content and at least one letter to the editor praising the column as clever and insightful.

As an intelligent Christian, I’m getting rather tired of the lack of argument and effort on the part of atheists. The column sarcastically and artlessly claimed that atheism was superior to Christianity because of its simplicity. In the process he misunderstood Ockham’s razor (which opts for the most obvious, and not most simple explanation), assumed that atheism was simpler (which was immediately contested by another atheist on the comments page of the column) and belittled without warrant perhaps the most influential philosopher of all time (I’m sure Aquinas would be petrified to know that his conclusions were questioned by a college student).

This brilliant piece of writing was followed up with a Drew Slagle letter to the editor that was even more haphazardly Political Science Sophomore

Cash for Clunkers a misguided venture This summer was a time of great activity for many of us, and I’m sure plenty of my fellow students had a fantastic time hanging out at the beach or touring the world.

At the same time, I’m sure a great many others were stuck working or taking the oh-soexciting summer classes OU offers.

But, no matter what you were doing, I am sure at some point you heard about the Cash for Clunkers program.

Heck, I bet a couple of CARSON you even traded in your old PAINTER gas guzzlers for some new and more efficient compact cars.

And I don’t blame you!

The program offered up to $4,500 in rebates to those who traded in their old cars.

But, while the program has been widely considered a success by the mainstream media, no one seems to be looking at the program’s many problems or the multitude of harmful effects it’s currently having and will continue to have in the future.

When the program was first instituted, it was given a woefully inadequate budget of $1 billion, which, according to the Associated Press, was used up in just a couple of weeks.

On top of the insufficient budget, the program had an insufficient staff.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the government organization picked to run Cash for Clunkers, only 30 employees and 200 contractors were set aside to work on the project.

These men and women were swamped with work from the very beginning.

In addition to all this, the program, like many government sponsored programs, was riddled with overwhelming bureaucracy and red tape.

In many places in America, people who purchased a new car have not even been able to take it home with them yet, as the dealers are refusing to hand over the car until the government reimburses them for the rebate, something that may not happen for many months if the program continues down its current sloppy path.

Let’s shift from the producer to the consumer. A plethora of people took advantage of the Cash for Clunkers program and used the opportunity to make a little extra money on their trade-in. Many of these car buyers, however, had planned on buying a car in the future anyway.

Thus this future sale is traded in for an immediate sale, so while we have increased current auto sales, we, in turn, have also decreased future auto sales.

On top of this, consumers will now have to worry about higher used car prices due to a reduction in large car manufacturing and supply.

This will not only hurt the market, but become a burden on lower income families.

Do you know what the most purchased vehicle is under the program so far?

According to Edmunds, a popular auto trading Web site, it is the Ford Escape.

For any of you not familiar with automobiles, that is not even a car, but an SUV. The third most purchased vehicle?

The Jeep Patriot, another SUV. I would have to say that, although t h e p ro g ra m ha s h e l p e d s o m e Americans downgrade from their old economy vans to SUVs, which might be a small step in the right direction, it is by no means a cost effective way of saving the environment.

Cash for Clunkers is just another instance of the government meddling in areas where it has no business meddling and wasting taxpayers’ money on a fool’s errand.

It was a program doomed from the start and, even though this program has come to a close, many like it are sure to follow unless our government learns that, while Cash for Clunkers may have been a sound political move, as an economic plan, it utterly failed.

In the world of economics there is no such thing as a free lunch, and the sooner the national government realizes this, the better.

Carson Painter is an international business and finance junior.

STAFF COLUMN

‘Unless you’re here for the long haul, this bandwagon is closed.’

Full disclosure: I’m a selfish person, a curmudgeon far beyond my years.

My favorite baseball team, the Texas Rangers, are defying their very genetic makeup by challenging for their first playoff appearance since 1999. I’m starting to worry that they will make it.

Futility comes naturally for the only team in the Major Leagues to HENRY have never won a playoff MARTIN series. The oldest team in American professional sports to have never appeared in its league championship is looking like they may actually intend to change that fact.

The very possibility frightens me.

This team has been a constant in my life since I started watching baseball as a child, consistently crushing my dreams and teaching me evermore creative ways to lose.

Aside from a brief departure from the norm in the late 90s, the Rangers have been the very picture of constancy and stability at the bottom of the standings. Beyond simply the win-loss record, though, their

consistent refusal to play decent baseball loudly over-agonize about your Yanks’ rehas had an impact upon their fan base. cent loss when the results flicker across the U n l i k e ESPN “BottomLine,” despite whichever team not even knowing that they happens to be Remember, not only did you were in action, much less in first place at vacation in New York City for who they were playing! any given time, a week back in high school, Don’t even begin to worry the majority of but you applied to NYU and that living your entire life in the people willHouston or Tulsa, Norman ing to watch the Syracuse! Rooting for your Yanks or Purcell might make your Rangers actu- is practically a birthright. rooting for a team 2,000 ally care about miles away seem a bit them. The pususpicious. trid nature of Remember, not only did Rangers baseball actively discourages the you vacation in New York City for a week worst person in all of sports from attending back in high school, but you applied to their games, the bandwagon fan.

NYU and Syracuse! Rooting for your Yanks Bandwagon fans, if you’re out there is practically a birthright.

(Who am I kidding? Of course you are!), Despite being totally removed from the take this as a desperate plea from the twelve only geographic region where one could of us Rangers followers who could pick out possibly develop such a feeling, be sure Rusty Greer if he was standing between Jeff to let everyone in your immediate vicinity Frye and David Hulse: know just how much you hate — no, loathe The Yankees are playing well this year! those Red Sox at every opportunity.

Sure, you rooted for the Sox while the When some similarly out of touch guy Yankees mismanaged themselves into an in your class snidely brings up the Yanks’ expensive, underachieving shell of their failure to reach the playoffs last year, it is 90s glory days for the last half decade — but imperative that you go to great lengths to those days are over! convince everyone in the room that the Dust off your pinstripes and get ready to very mention of that season causes you

T=: O@A6=DB6 D6>AN Jamie Hughes Editor-in-Chief Meredith Moriak Managing Editor Charles Ward Assistant Managing Editor Ricky Ly Night Editor Will Holland Opinion Editor Michelle Gray, Merrill Jones Photo Editors

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immeasurable pain.

Of course, by doing so, you completely miss out on what makes following sports so fun. By watching a team develop over the course of many years, you become more invested in their performance.

By suffering through the rough spots, the good times become even greater.

The Rangers’ exciting run this season is the payoff for the necessary growing pains experienced in the last one. Those that watched last year caught a glimpse of what was to come, and feel more connected to today’s successes. As a fan, the ride was just as much fun as the end result.

So, with October looming, those of you starting to decide who will be your favorite team this year would do well to stay far away from Arlington, Texas.

If history is any judge, there probably will not be a World Series there this year or even the next few.

Whatever success may be in the future for the Rangers, it will not be fully appreciated by the newcomers.

Unless you’re here for the long haul, this bandwagon is closed.

Henry Martin is a history senior.

The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum and OU’s independent student voice.

Letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and should be fewer than 250 words, typed, double spaced and signed by the author(s). Letters will be cut to fit. Students must list their major and classification. OU staff and faculty must list their title. All letters must include a daytime phone number. Authors submitting letters in person must present photo identification.

Submit letters Sunday through Thursday, in 160 Copeland Hall. Letters can also be submitted via e-mail to dailyopinion@ ou.edu.

Guest columns are accepted at editor’s discretion. ’Our View’ is the voice of The Oklahoma Daily.

Editorial Board members are The Daily’s editorial staff.

The board meets Sunday through Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in 160 Copeland Hall.

Columnists’ and cartoonists’ opinions are not necessarily the opinions of The Daily Editorial Board.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

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Group seeks to open upscale bar in LA’s Skid Row LOS ANGELES — Craby Joe’s was once a joint where denizens of nearby Skid Row slouched on barstools over dirty linoleum getting soused on $2.50 mugs of Miller High Life.

Now a group of investors has a new vision for the watering hole decorated with backlit stained glass that would offer organic vodka martinis within the same walls that once housed the storied dive that closed in 2007.

The plan by Fairfax Partners is opposed by an advocacy group that insists residents of the nearby streets and single-room apartments — many with addiction problems — don’t need a new bar in the neighborhood with the nation’s densest concentration of homeless people.

At a hearing Tuesday, zoning officials ordered the investors to restart the bar’s permitting process because of an application problem, drawing out the latest conflict between the businesses fueling downtown’s gentrification and activists who say the prosperity of the long-neglected area is coming at the expense of Skid Row’s disenfranchised.

The United Coalition East Prevention Project, which is drumming up opposition to the bar to be called Haven Lounge, had filed an unsuccessful appeal to a previous zoning decision allowing a pub to open in the basement of a newly renovated loft building a half-block away.

Neighborhood groups have also fought efforts to upgrade low-rent hotel rooms in Skid Row where many people live.

A few storefronts away from the proposed site of Haven Lounge is the Cecil Hotel, where activists claim units once used by permanent residents have been converted into pricey hotel rooms.

Richard Lew, a Fairfax partner, said it was absurd to think Haven Lounge would be a temptation to Skid Row residents struggling with alcoholism.

Skid Row’s impoverished were unlikely to spend their money on the bar’s $12 drinks when

AP PHOTO

Craby Joe’s bar is seen on Main Street in Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 25, 2009. A local restaurateur has plans for a stained-glass-lit watering hole serving organic vodka martinis within the walls that once housed the skid row dive that closed in 2007. The investors’ plan has been opposed by a neighborhood advocacy group that argued area residents, many with addiction problems, don’t need a new bar in their midst. they can buy a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor nearby for under $2, he said.

“We’re not going to be cheap,” Lew said. “This is not going to be an establishment that’s going to cater to individuals that are not willing to spend a fair amount of money to be in a nice place to get nice drinks.”

Coalition East Prevention Project director Zelenne Cardenas insisted the presence of any kind of drinking establishment would harm the community where many people struggle with alcoholism.

“The excessive availability of alcohol often makes recovery even more difficult,” she said.

Such a dispute could not have

happened a decade ago, when few bars and restaurants bordering Skid Row remained open into the evening.

Now many downtown sidewalks are packed with well-scrubbed twenty- and thirty-somethings who spill into cocktail lounges behind the stone beaux-arts facades of some of the region’s oldest buildings.

The nightlife doesn’t yet extend into Skid Row, but entrepreneurs keep getting closer.

Craby Joe’s, the favorite watering hole of a Charles Bukowski-esque boozehound played by Mickey Rourke in the 1987 film “Barfly,” closed amid allegations by city prosecutors of drug dealing and

other crimes.

Regulars remember it as a cramped space with linoleum worn through to the cement beneath and a coloring-book page of Disney dwarf Dopey covering a hole in the wall.

The bar’s only furniture, aside from the long bank of bar stools, were a few mismatched wooden tables and aluminum-framed chairs with tattered upholstery.

The smell of crack-cocaine smoke clung to the air of the always filthy bathroom.

“It was one of those places you could go to any night of the week and any time of day and just see the crazy characters that were out on Skid Row,” said former patron

Jeremey Hansen, who remembered the management’s unofficial policy of letting regulars drink on the house after they paid for their first 10 or so pours of cheap booze.

“There would be guys who would come in, and all they would do is drink — they wouldn’t talk to anyone — and then there were crazy people who would come in off the street,” he said.

Hansen remembered one man who walked into the bar wearing nothing but sweat shirt sleeves, briefs and sandals, and who began playing an old guitar with only three strings, using a crushed beer can as a slide.

—AP

2009 ou vs. texas football game student ticket sale On Sale Tuesday, September 1st online at 7:00 a.m.

Only Category I Students are eligible to purchase on September 1st, while supplies last. A Category I Student is any currently enrolled, full time student who originally purchased their student season ticket during the Spring sale April 27th through May 15th. Should tickets remain after Tuesday, September 1 – tickets will be offered to Category II Students (incoming Freshmen and new Transfer Students) on Wednesday, September 2nd at 7:00 a.m.

To purchase online, all students eligible for the first sale must sign in using the email address and password that was set up previously or register their account the day of the sale, starting at 7:00 a.m. All tickets sold will be charged to student bursar accounts.

BE ADVISED THAT WITH THE SALES OFFERED ONLINE, TICKETS COULD SELL OUT QUICKLY. IF THERE IS A LINE AT THE BOX OFFICE, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT TICKETS COULD SELL OUT BEFORE ANY STUDENT IN LINE HAS PURCHASED A TICKET. You must present your OU ID to purchase tickets at the OU Athletics Ticket Office windows, if tickets are available.

Group request forms will be available at the Athletics Ticket Office beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 1st until 5:00 p.m. Friday, September 4th. Groups are limited to 20 or fewer students. We will make every effort to accommodate these requests. However, group seating cannot be guaranteed. You must have purchased a ticket through the sale prior to making a group request.

Tickets will be available for pick-up from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thursday, October 8th to Wednesday October 14th at the OU Athletics Ticket Office located in the South Plaza of the Asp Avenue Parking facility.

Each Student must pick up his/her own ticket – NO EXCEPTIONS. Please visit SoonerSports.com for more information.

2009 OU STUDENT OU vs. TEXAS TICKET ONLINE ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS 1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

5.)

6.)

7.)

Go toSoonerSports.com Mouse over the “TICKETS ONLINE” link, located on the upper right corner of the screen.

Click on “Main Window.”

Click on the “ORDER OU STUDENTS TICKETS” link.

Type in your email address and password that you have set up previously or click on “Register” and enter your Student ID Number and complete the registration process.

Click on the “OU STUDENT TICKETS” link.

Click on the link “OU vs Texas Ticket”.

For more information, visit

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

AFGHAN SUMMER BRINGS REVERSALS KABUL — It’s been a summer of setbacks in Afghanistan — with rising casualties, a divisive election and growing public doubts about the war in the United States and among key allies.

The year began with President Barack Obama promising a new beginning for an old war — long ignored and under-resourced by the Bush administration as the spotlight fell on the conflict in Iraq.

As part of a new emphasis, Obama ordered 21,000 troops to Afghanistan and replaced the top U.S. commander with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who unveiled a strategy shifting the focus from killing insurgents to protecting Afghan civilians, a mindset that helped turn the tide of the Iraq conflict.

At the same time, the administration promised to build up the capabilities of the Afghan government, accelerate the training of Afghan soldiers and police and help the Afghan leadership combat corruption and the flourishing drug trade, which helps finance the insurgency.

Months later, the American effort appears to be faltering.

Hopes that the Afghan presidential election would produce a leader with a strong national mandate have been cast into doubt by allegations of widespread fraud in the Aug. 20 balloting.

Early returns point to a possible runoff between President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, probably in October. Final returns are not expected before the middle of next month, but figures released Wednesday show Karzai leading with 44.8 percent of ballots counted to 35.1 percent for Abdullah.

AP PHOTO

Family members watch the casket of Army Staff Sgt. Clayton Bowen, 29, after arrival in San Antonio Tuesday. Bowen was killed in action Aug. 18 after he was struck by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

Karzai needs more than 50 percent to avoid a runoff. Many ballots from Karzai’s southern strongholds have yet to be counted, and it is possible Karzai may yet surpass the 50 percent mark and claim a first round victory.

Even if he does, however, fraud allegations — not only from Abdullah but some of the other 34

candidates — have so poisoned the political atmosphere that it will be difficult to bring together social and political groups opposed to the Taliban. At the worst, the controversy may trigger street riots and splinter the country along ethnic lines.

The image of Afghan politicians squabbling in Kabul at a time when

American and other international soldiers are dying on the battlefield is grimly reminiscent of the darkest days of the Iraq war, when political stagnation in Baghdad helped turn U.S. public opinion against the Bush administration’s policy in the 2006 congressional election.

Nearly 300 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan

this year, making this the deadliest year since the conflict began in 2001. Two U.S. service members were killed Wednesday in separate attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan, raising the August death toll to 43 — one short of the July figure which was the highest monthly total of the war.

At the same time, the insurgents show no sign of shrinking from the fight. With U.S. and British troops focusing operations in Helmand province, the Taliban have quietly tightened their grip in neighboring Kandahar, where a vehicle bomb attack Tuesday killed at least 41 people in an assault that appeared directed at foreign interests in the city.

Taliban intimidation kept many Afghans from the polls in the south last week — despite major U.S. and British military operations aimed at making the vote secure.

The Times of London newspaper reported Thursday that only 150 of the several thousand Afghans eligible to vote in one area of Helmand cast ballots. Four British soldiers were killed this summer trying to make the area, Babaji, safe enough for Afghans to vote, the newspaper said under the headline: “Four British soldiers die for the sake of 150 votes.”

U.S. officials have made little effort to gloss over the problems, perhaps mindful of the backlash that stung the Bush administration after years of false optimism in Iraq.

Last weekend, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the situation in Afghanistan as “serious and deteriorating” and told CNN that “I don’t think that threat’s going to go away.”

—AP

OAS chief still hopes for Honduran settlement WASHINGTON — The head of the among many with whom he met to accept the Organization of American States held out San Jose Accord, a compromise proposed by hope Wednesday for a resolution of the Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who has Honduran presidential crisis even after the acted as a mediator in the dispute. high-level delegation he led to the Central With each passing day, Insulza said, the American country failed to arrange for oust- margin for solving the crisis gets slimmer. ed President Manuel Zelaya’s return.

Attention to the coup will not disappear, he OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel said, but it will be diverted by the election Insulza urged a quick acceptance of compro- campaign season that begins Sept. 1. mise accords before campaigning heats up Many in Honduras, Insulza said, raised for the Nov. 29 presidential election to pick concerns about Zelaya’s reinstatement and Zelaya’s successor. an amnesty for his alleged offenses, both part “There’s still a climate of the San Jose Accord. for making one final ef- “There’s still a climate for The officials the delegafort,” Insulza told an OAS making one final effort.” tion met with, Insulza said, meeting speaking through appeared more interested an interpreter. Insulza was in discussing the events briefing the organization GENERAL JOSE MIGUEL INSULZA that led to Zelaya’s ouster. after returning from a visit “We wanted to get back to Tegucigalpa, Honduras’ to the agreement of San capital, with a group of Western Hemisphere Jose, which was our goal in being there,” foreign ministers. he said.

Zelaya was deposed and exiled on June On Tuesday, Honduras’ interim leader, 28 amid suspicions among his opponents Roberto Micheletti, acknowledged the counthat he wanted to overturn the constitu- try would suffer consequences for refusing tional provision limiting Honduran presi- to reinstate Zelaya, but he suggested that dents to a single term. He denies that was nothing short of armed intervention could his goal. change the situation.

Insulza noted some progress arising from Lew Amselem, the U.S. representative the OAS delegation’s meetings with senior law- to the OAS, said the U.S.’ decision to stop, makers, ministers, presidential candidates and starting Wednesday, issuing most visas at members of the judiciary, electoral commis- its embassy in Honduras sends a clear sigsion, military and citizens. At the same time, nal that “it is never acceptable in the 21st he acknowledged a continuing reluctance century to expel a sitting president from a

AP PHOTO

Honduras’ military chief Gen. Romeo Vasquez, left, shakes hands with Honduras’ interim President Roberto Micheletti, right, during an event with reservists in support of Honduras’ interim government in Tegucigalpa Saturday. country.”

Opposition to Zelaya’s return is fairly widespread, he said, but “nothing changes the fact that a president was forcibly deposed and exiled. That’s the issue.”

The interim government says Zelaya’s

removal was legal because it was ordered by the Honduran Supreme Court after he went ahead with plans to hold a referendum asking Honduran voters if they wanted to form a special assembly to rewrite the constitution.

—AP

Wind farms can appear sinister to the weatherman SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Wind farms have been blamed for disrupting the lives of birds, bats and, most recently, the landbound sage grouse.

Now the weather forecaster?

The massive spinning blades affixed to towers 200 feet high can appear on Doppler radar like a violent storm or even a tornado.

The phenomenon has affected several National Weather Service radar sites in different parts the country, even leading to a false tornado alert near Dodge City, Kansas, in the heart of Tornado Alley. In Des Moines, Iowa, the weather service received a frantic warning from an emergency worker who had access to Doppler radar images.

The alert was quickly called off in Kansas and meteorologists calmed the emergency worker down, but with enough wind turbines going up last year to power more than 6 million homes and a major push toward alternative energy, more false alerts seem inevitable.

New installations are concentrated, understandably in windy states like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Iowa, all part of Tornado Alley.

Texas, which has more tornadoes than any other state, also

has the most wind power capacity.

Dave Zaff, science and operations officer with the National Weather Service office in Buffalo, N.Y., describes the wind farms 20 to 35 miles to the southeast as “more of a pimple or a blotch on your face” that 99 percent of the time will not pose a problem.

But what about those busy, high-stress periods when a meteorologist is tasked with making quick decisions as storms grow violent? In a worse-case scenario, a forecaster could disregard a real storm for turbine interference, but, more likely, would err on the side of caution, Zaff said.

“If you take a glance and then all of the sudden you see red, you might issue an incorrect warning as a result,” he said.

Problems began to surface about three years ago, and seem to occur where a wind farm is built within about 11

miles of a Doppler site, said Tim Crum, with the weather service’s radar operations center in Norman, Okla.

That could become a bigger problem because the same terrain is attractive for both weather radar and wind farms.

“They want to be out in relatively exposed areas, high terrain, those sorts of things,” Crum said. “So we sometimes are looking for the same ground, although we’re already there.”

Software can easily filter out buildings, cell towers and mountain ridges on radar screens. Yet because weather radar seeks motion to warn of storms, there’s no way to filter out the spinning blades.

Microwave radio signals are beamed toward a particular point and meteorologists listen for the “reflection.” Experts can pick out the shape of a storm, or a tornado.

—AP

Thursday, August 27, 2009

7A

Annelise Russell, sports editor dailysports@ou.edu • phone: 325-7630 • fax: 325-6051

« FOOTBALL The Daily sports team looks at college polls in tomorrow’s Friday Face-off.

SOONERS FACE TOUGH ROAD AHEAD 2009 Football Schedule Breakdown JONO GRECO The Oklahoma Daily

If we learned anything from last season it is that even though strength of schedule is said to not be a factor in BCS rankings, it really is.

The Sooners’ difficult 2008 schedule may have given them the bump over Texas to make the trip to last year’s Big 12 Championship Game, and they look to use another tough schedule this year to make their case for another national title run.

NON-CONFERENCE Sept. 5: No. 24 Brigham Young University @ Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Both BYU and OU have a lot to prove in this exciting season opener. The Sooners have to show that they can bounce back from a national championship loss and handle their first major test of the season. The Cougars get an early opportunity to show that they and Mountain West Conference can hang with the big boys in 2009.

Sept. 12: Idaho State The Sooners should be able to just show up, let the starters play a half and win this game. Obviously they cannot overlook the Bengals, but if the starters do their job the game should be over by the end of the first quarter.

Running back Chris Brown makes a four-yard touchdown run in the first quarter of the 2008 Big 12 Championship game against the Missouri Tigers on Dec. 6, 2008.

Sept. 19: Tulsa

Oct. 24: @ Kansas

Tulsa lost its quarterback David Johnson and running back Tarrion Adams to graduation, which means a week three matchup in Norman that should fare favorably for the Sooners.

The Sooners will be looking to either continue their Big 12 dominance or recover from a loss to Texas heading into their seventh game, so look for a dangerous OU squad

Oct. 3: @ Miami The Hurricanes will not be the same pushover that they were when the Sooners beat them 51-13 during the 2007 season. This will be head coach Randy Shannon’s third year at the helm, and last season he turned a sub-.500 team into a bowl-bound contender. Expect more improvement and a tougher opponent out of the Hurricanes at Land Shark Stadium this season.

CONFERENCE Oct. 10: Baylor The game plan is simple: contain and limit sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin III to little productivity, and a victory is in hand. In 2008 Griffin t o t a l e d a m e re 1 7 7 yards – 75 passing and 102 rushing – but he should find more success, but not enough to beat OU, with more experience under his belt.

Oct. 17: No. 2 Texas @ Cotton Bowl Whether there are airplanes with signs or asterisks, the Big 12 title will have to be determined on the field. This year, like many others, it will have to be determined at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Longhorns are returning a good portion of their lineup, which means another very tough Red River Rivalry and an entertaining game that may be one of the best ones in recent years.

ZACH BUTLER/THE DAILY

should be able to have their way with Texas A&M at home, and build more confidence leading into the final two games of the regular season.

Nov. 21: @ Texas Tech

taking the field in Lawrence, Kan.

Oct. 31: Kansas State Even though the Wildcats are back under the direction of legendary head coach Bill Snyder, don’t expect a huge comeback. The Sooners should be able to take care of them with ease, especially at home.

Nov. 7: @ No. 22 Nebraska Any Big 12 road game is difficult, but going to N e b r a s k a’s M e m o r i a l Stadium may be the toughest road game of the season.

The Corn Huskers are predicted to represent the Big 12 North in the conference title game, so the game should revert from the first-quarter blowout that it was last year to the classic games that made the rivalry as historic as it has grown to be.

Nov. 14: Texas A&M Under the leadership of head coach Mike Sherman last year the Aggies looked as bad as they have in a long time, and there is no reason why they should be able to climb out of the Big 12 South cellar this year. The Sooners

Don’t be fooled by the Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree-less Red Raiders.

They may not have the exact firepower that those two players brought to the table, but they have always have good quarterbacks and receivers waiting for their opportunity to shine.

Plus, playing at Jones AT&T Stadium is never an easy task.

The last time Texas Tech lost at home was on Oct. 27, 2007.

Nov. 28: No. 11 Oklahoma State The Sooners have won six straight Bedlam matchups by a total of 132 points. The Cowboys should want revenge for last season’s beating in Stillwater, and their big three – quarterback Zac Robinson, wide receiver Dez Bryant and running back Kendall Hunter – should give the Sooners’ defense all it can handle.

Playing in Norman should give the Sooners a significant advantage, but neither the team nor its fans should overlook OSU.

SOONER FOOTBALL SEASON PREDICTIONS •Trap Game: No. 22 Nebraska •Must-See Game: No. 2 Texas •Top Non-OU Big 12 Game: Oct. 31 No. 2 Texas @ No. 11 OSU •Final Record: 11-1 •Big 12 Record: 7-1 (Second in Big 12 South) •Bowl Prediction: Fiesta Bowl (BCS At-Large Bid)

need online courses?

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Celebrity athletes: Fame has its drawbacks Living the high life is not always what it is cracked up to be for star athletes I have often heard the complaint from fans, writers and other members of the general public that they can’t stand when professional athletes get “special treatment.”

And I agree, there is nothing that bothers me more than seeing someone getting treated better simply because their talent happens to excite and entertain millions of people.

However, there is another side to that story that I’ve seen in several prominent cases recently.

Michael Vick has become the poster child for animal cruelty over the last year or so.

Many NFL teams shied away from AARON signing him simply because they didn’t COLEN want to deal with the bad PR and the threat of protests from animal rights activists.

More recently, Plaxico Burress was sentenced to two years in prison after shooting himself in the leg with an illegal gun in a New York nightclub.

Shortly after that incident occurred the mayor of New York City, Mike Bloomberg, made strong statements against Burress, and from that point forward Burress became an example of how fame can work

against athletes when they run into trouble.

Before I go on, let me make it clear that I in no way condone or sympathize with the crimes of Vick or Burress.

Dog fighting is cruel and unnecessary, and it was amazingly stupid and dangerous for Burress to be carrying that gun.

But Michael Vick was not the only one involved in the dog fighting ring.

As an NFL star with many responsibilities to his team and also to the companies that endorse him, I doubt Vick had a large amount of free time to spend dog fighting, so I think it is safe to assume that there were others who were more involved than him.

But because of his fame, Vick took the hardest fall and paid the highest price.

Plaxico Burress, while being guilty of possessing an illegal gun (and stupidity), only harmed himself in the end.

But because the mayor of the city was angered by his actions, his NFL career is likely over, and he will spend the next two years in jail all because he shot himself.

Once again, I do not condone the actions of these two players, as they were both undoubtedly wrong.

But before we complain about the benefits professional athletes receive, we should also take a minute to consider the downside to that fame.

-Aaron Colen is a journalism senior.

Sooner fans have one last chance at BYU tickets The highly touted game between OU and Brigham Young University sold out yesterday in less than an hour, but students who missed out on one of those coveted tickets still have a chance to walk to the ramps of Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

A Spirit Pass is now being offered for $25, even though the stadium has been declared a sellout.

The newly offered Spirit Pass gives fans access to six giant-sized end zone decks that encompass 180,000 square feet, public concourses, numerous concession areas and more than seven acres of outdoor plaza space.

OU fans will get the chance to experience the new sights and loud cheers from within the brand new stadium.

This includes a view of the world’s largest centerhung video board that stretches 60 yards in length.

This is the same scoreboard that has caused great controversy in the past week over how low it hangs and the potential to interfere with punts.

In addition, two 48-foot wide video boards will directly face Spirit Pass fans to enhance their game-day experience.

A Spirit Pass is similar to the infield at the Kentucky Derby, the Texas Motor Speedway, a Grounds Pass at Wimbledon, or the Pavilion at the Byron Nelson Golf Championship.

OU FACES BYU SEPT. 15 IN ARLINGTON Game: Sept. 15 at 6 p.m. in Dallas Cowboys Stadium Television: ABC Primetime •This is the first in a five year contract between ESPN and the Dallas Cowboys to bring a college football game to the new stadium.

• Driving directions and parking information is located at www. stadium.dallascowboys.com.

VS. PHOTOS PROVIDED

This is going to be a historic day when the Sooners and Cougars clash for only the second time ever.

The last time the two teams met was in 1994 in the Copper Bowl when BYU routed the Sooners 31-6; however the game is expected to be much closer.

Tickets can be purchased online by visiting www. ticketmaster.com or by calling toll-free, 800-755-3000.

The Spirit Pass may also be purchased throughout North Texas at the following locations: Macy’s, Fiesta, HEB, Homeland, Majestic Theatre, Shops at Willowbend, Firewheel Town Square, and TBAAL.

SOONER SOUNDBITES: OU FOOTBALL “I think [sophomore wide receiver] Ryan Broyles has a chance to have a breakout season. He does everything. He plays inside, he plays outside, he returns kickoffs [and] he returns punts. I just think he’s working as a big time player.”

– WIDE RECEIVERS COACH JAY NORVELL ON BROYLES’ DEVELOPMENT

“I told [Broyles] ‘hey, I didn’t really like you last year until the Big 12 Championship Game.’ I really didn’t trust him, and he’s really proved to me that he could play championship-level football. We had a big laugh about that. I didn’t really think he understood how to play in a championship setting, and he proved to me that he could.”

- JAY NORVELL ON NOT TRUSTING BROYLES BEFORE THE 2008 BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP

“[People underestimating the wide receivers] fires us up, and Coach Norvell kind of uses that as motivation. He kind of says outside ‘Who’s [sophomore wide receiver] Dejuan Miller? Who is Adron Tennell? Who is Mossis Madu?’ Besides Ryan, none of us have really seen too much time, so we feel like we have to go prove out and show that we can play.”

– DEJUAN MILLER

“It’s always friendly with my fellow receivers.

I know that I’m trying to play, and I’m trying to get a spot, but it’s nothing personal. Any time I step out on the field, I’m trying to win.

I’m not trying to make anyone look bad or anything.”

– DEJUAN MILLER ON THE RECEIVING CORPS FIGHTING FOR A COUPLE OF PLAYING SPOTS

-OU Daily Sports

THIS WEEKEND AT YOUR UNIVERSITY Thursday, Aug. 27 Campus Activities Council Howdy Week | All week there will be free lunch on the South Oval, elementary school supplies drive, OBI Blood drive and FREE golf cart rides to class provided by Chi Alpha. Visit http:// cac.ou.edu for a full schedule of events.

Daily Fun: Decorate a Picture Frame | 11: 30 a.m. in the first floor lobby of the union. Spruce up your dorm with pictures in frames you decorated yourself at one of the Union Programming Board’s “Daily” activities.

Howdy Week Involvement Fair | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on the South Oval.

Come and visit with representatives from various student organizations.

Midnight Breakfast | 11 p.m. at Crossroads Restaurant in the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Presented by CAC Howdy Week.

Friday., Aug. 28

All-Campus Grill Out | noon on the South Oval. Presented by IFC, Panhellenic & the Multicultural Greek Council.

Free Movie: “Star Trek” | 4, 7, 10 & 12:30 a.m. in Meacham Auditorium, second floor of the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Presented by the Union Programming Board and Campus activities Council Film Series.

Soccer: OU vs. Oral Roberts | 7 p.m. at John Crain Field. OU students are admitted free with Student ID. Back-2-School BINGO | 8 p.m. in the Oklahoma Memorial Union Food Court. Coming back to school can be tiring and expensive, so let the Union Programming Board help you out at Back-2-School BINGO where you can win your apartment, dorm room and classroom essentials without the hassle of busy stores or paying! We will also provide some snacks while your play .Visit www.ou.edu/upb for updates. There’s ALWAYS SOMETHING at the union!

Saturday, Aug. 29

Intramural Update | Duathalon entries begin today! For more information visit recservices.ou.edu or call Jonathan Dewhirst, (405) 325-3053.

Free Movie: “Star Trek” | 6, 9 & 11:30 p.m. in Meacham Auditorium, second floor of the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Presented by the Union Programming Board and Campus activities Council Film Series.

Huston Huffman Group Fitness Sale | 7-11 a.m. at the Huston Huffman Center. Take all the group fitness classes you want for $35 for the entire semester.

Soccer: OU vs. Tulsa | 7 p.m. at John Crain Field. OU students are admitted free with Student ID.

Daily Fun: Make a magnet | 11:30 a.m. in the first floor lobby of the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Your mini-fridge needs some love, make a magnet at one of the Union Programming Board’s “Daily” activities.

All-Campus Grill Out | noon on the South Oval. Presented by IFC, Panhellenic & the Multicultural Greek Council.

This University in compliance with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, political beliefs, or status as a veteran in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This includes but is not limited to admissions, employment, financial aid and educational services. For accommodations on the basis of disability, please contact the sponsoring department of any program or event.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

1B

SC gov rebuffs call to quit, vows to finish term COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford rebuffed his lieutenant governor's call to resign Wednesday, two months after he admitted an affair, saying he will not be "railroaded" out of office.

Sanford returned from a nearly weeklong disappearance in June to reveal he had been in Argentina to visit his mistress, a disclosure that led to questions about the legality of his travel on state, private and commercial planes.

At a news conference hours after fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer called for him to step down, Sanford said the people of South Carolina want to move past the scandals and that he will finish the last 16 months of his term.

"I'm not going to be railroaded out of this office by political opponents or folks who were never fans of mine in the first place," Sanford said. "A lot of what is going on now is pure politics, plain and simple."

Bauer and Sanford have served two terms together but were elected separately and have never been friends.

Some Republicans have been reluctant to seek Sanford's resignation or impeachment because they do not want to give Bauer what would amount to a long-term tryout for the job.

If Sanford steps down before his term ends in January 2011, Bauer said he will promise not to run in 2010 so that is not an issue. Bauer considered making the same offer in June but never officially did.

"The serious misconduct that has been revealed along with lingering questions and continuing distractions make it virtually impossible for our state to solve the critical problems we're facing without a change in leadership," he said Wednesday.

House Republicans are expected to discuss impeachment this weekend. The House will likely launch those proceedings when lawmakers return for their regular session in January, though they could also

hold a special session before then. Any House member can file a bill to impeach.

Sanford said heeding Bauer's call to resign would be like "heaven on earth" because it would get him out of the public eye, but it would not be right.

"Me hanging up the spurs 16 months out, as comfortable as that would be, as much as I might like to do that on a personal basis, it is wrong," he said.

Bauer said he tried to give Sanford the benefit of the doubt after he admitted his affair, but the state has been paralyzed by questions raised afterward about the legality of his official travel. Bauer said he is concerned that calls for Sanford's impeachment will dominate next year's legislative session instead of issues like the economy and job creation.

Bauer said he will go ahead with his candidacy if Sanford does not resign or lawmakers do not return to Columbia to force him out within 30 days. Term limits prevent Sanford from running for a third term.

Sacrificing the run for governor next year could boost Bauer's status in the state GOP but still allow the 40-year-old plenty of time for another election.

Republican Sen. David Thomas, a 2002 Bauer opponent whose Senate subcommittee is investigating Sanford's travels, said Bauer's decision would likely spur the House to action. Several Republicans have said they support impeachment.

"If he can have a successful time in the year as governor, then he sets himself up for a future race," Thomas said. "He's young.

He can re-create himself to some degree as a successful governor."

Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen said the offer could be disingenuous.

"My guess is, somehow the Bauer people have thought it through and figured this offer itself could be something — knowing Sanford would turn it down — would

AP PHOTO

Governor Mark Sanford speaks during a news conference in Columbia, S.C. on Friday, Aug. 7, where he announced Beaufort resident Jerri Ann Roseneau as the new Beaufort County Clerk of Court. benefit him in some way in 2010," he said.

Sanford, who led his staff to believe he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, told The Associated Press his mistress was his soul mate. He said he visited her in Argentina during a 2008 trade mission planned by the state's Commerce Department and, after the publicity in June, reimbursed the state $3,300 for part of the trip.

AP investigations since have found Sanford used state planes for personal and political trips, which state law prohibits. He failed to disclose trips on private planes that ethics officials say should have been made public in campaign and ethics filings.

He also took pricey flights on commercial airlines for overseas trips despite a law

requiring state employees to use lowestcost travel.

The governor says he has done nothing wrong and he said Wednesday that his administration should be looked at in comparison with others. He gave no details but accused others of misdeeds including "folks" flying on the Concorde supersonic jet "in days past." The Concorde was taken out of service in 2003.

Sanford left without answering questions.

His wife, Jenny, has moved out of the governor's mansion with the couple's four sons but says she and her husband are working on their marriage.

- AP

AUTHOR DOMINICK DUNNE DIES Author Dominick Dunne, who told stories of shocking crimes among the rich and famous through his magazine articles and best-selling books including “Another City, Not My Own,” about O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, died Wednesday in his home at age 83.

Dunne’s son, Griffin Dunne, said in a statement released by Vanity Fair magazine that his father had been battling bladder cancer. But the cancer had not prevented Dunne from working and socializing, his twin passions.

In September 2008, against his doctor’s orders and his fam-

ily’s wishes, Dunne flew to Las Vegas to attend Simpson’s kidnaprobbery trial, a postscript to his coverage of the football great’s 1995 murder trial, which spiked Dunne’s considerable fame.

In the past year, Dunne had traveled to Germany and the Dominican Republic for experimental stem cell treatments to fight his cancer. He wrote that he and actress Farrah Fawcett were in the same clinic in Bavaria but didn’t see each other.

Fawcett, a 1970s sex symbol and TV star of “Charlie’s Angels,” died in June at age 62.

Dunne discontinued his Vanity Fair column to concentrate on

Library Orientation Sessions Thursday, August 27th Tours Begin @ 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

Sessions @ Bizzell Memorial Library Information Desk, west entrance No registration required. For more information call (405) 325-4142 or email librarian@ou.edu.

University of Oklahoma Libraries http://libraries.ou.edu

finishing another novel, “Too Much Money,” which is to come out in December. He also made a number of appearances to promote a documentary film about his life, “After the Party,” which was being released on DVD. Dunne, who lived in Manhattan, was beginning to write his memoirs and until recently had posted messages on his Web site commenting on events in his life and thanking his fans for their support.

- AP

2B

Thursday, August 27, 2009

HOPE, REALITY COLLIDE IN NEW ORLEANS NEW ORLEANS — Shelia Phillips doesn’t see the New Orleans that Mayor Ray Nagin talks about, the one on its way to having just as many people and a more diverse economy than it did before Hurricane Katrina. How could she?

From the front porch of her house in the devastated Lower 9th Ward, it’s hard to see past the vegetation slowly swallowing the property across the way. Nearby homes are boarded up or still bear the fading tattoos left by search and rescue teams nearly four years ago.

The fence around a playground a few blocks down is padlocked.

“I just want to see people again,” she said recently, swatting bugs in the muggy heat.

On paper, the city’s economy appears to be thriving, with relatively low unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. But in postKatrina New Orleans, residents’ perceptions of their city’s recovery tends to depend on where they live, their vantage point of it. Swaths of some neighborhoods are sparsely populated, even desolate, and federal rebuilding dollars have provided much of the economic resilience.

While the recovery has been “stronger than anticipated,” the city “will still face challenges to longterm stability and prosperity,” according to a report released Tuesday

by GCR & Associates Inc., an urban planning and consulting firm.

New Orleans’s economy is among the healthiest of major metro areas, according to The Associated Press Economic Stress Index, which assigns counties a score of 1 to 100 based on unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy data.

The seven-parish New Orleans region scores 8.6 through June, the most recent month for which figures are available. That’s considerably lower than the national average of 10.6 and means the average New Orleans resident has felt far less relative economic pain than people in Los Angeles (15.07), Chicago’s Cook County (15.11) or Florida’s Miami-Dade County

(16.06).

There are other causes for optimism: the overhaul of New Orleans’ long-dismal public school system, an influx of college-educated residents, the greening of neighborhoods as they rebuild, and the elevating of more homes to help protect them from future flooding.

After Katrina, the mayor started talking about a new New Orleans.

What he meant, he said recently, is a “better New Orleans; an updated New Orleans, one where we basically updated all of our critical assets but respected our history.”

“I definitely think we’re on track to realizing that,” Nagin said.

Some analysts believe the economic resilience powered by tens of billions in federal rebuilding aid is unsustainable. Once the money is spent, they say, the tourismbased economy and lower-wage jobs that dominated before Katrina are likely to re-emerge.

The flow of returning residents has slowed, the cost of living has spiked and blight is rampant. Public investment in neighborhoods has been uneven, much like the pattern of Katrina’s devastation.

Water driven by the Aug. 29, 2005, storm flooded 80 percent of the city and essentially destroyed St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. Other areas were spared the worst of the damage, such as populous Jefferson and St. Tammany, and have rebounded more quickly.

Lakeview, which saw some of the worst flooding, has come back stronger than other New Orleans’ neighborhoods largely due to its relative pre-storm affluence and residents’ will to take charge of Lakeview’s recovery.

As Lakeview residents invested in homes and businesses, government dollars followed. The post office has reopened, main streets have been or are being rebuilt and a business district is thriving. It’s one of the best examples of Nagin’s market-driven approach to recovery, where money follows money.

That said, there’s plenty of work to do.

Side streets such as Bellaire

AP PHOTO

Alvin and Jill Miester, walk with their children Sam, 8 years old, left, Grace, 6 years old, and Emma, 11 years old on their way to school in front of ther Lakeview home in New Orleans Friday. The Lakeview area was severely flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“New Orleans, I think, is going to be better and going to be greater. It has to be.”

JILL MIESTER, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT Drive, a frequent bus route taking camera-toting tourists to see where a flood wall failed, are pocked with dangerous potholes. The public school is empty. Vacant houses dot many blocks.

Jill and Alvin Miester replaced the flooded split-level brick house that Alvin Miester’s grandfather built in the late 40s. Their new home — their dream home — sits nine feet off the ground, with a carport beneath it and a warm, manicured lot wrapped around it.

“New Orleans, I think, is going to be better and going to be greater,” Jill Miester said. “It has to be.”

Their elevated house also provides a great view of the cold,

cement slab next door.

By one estimate, 36 percent of New Orleans’ housing is empty, and like the lot next to the Miesters, there is no clear indication when or whether it will be rebuilt. While grace periods to many mortgage holders after the storm helped New Orleans avoid the high foreclosure rates other cities have seen, many homeowners haven’t yet decided whether to rebuild or, in some cases, don’t have the money to finish the work.

Many home construction workers had more work than they could handle in the first two to three years of the recovery. Now, small groups can be found gathered outside building superstores and at busy intersections well into the afternoon, still looking for work.

Flozell Russell, 38, a welder before Katrina, said he’s out looking for work around 6 a.m. each day; one recent day, he was among about two dozen men on a patch of grass near a busy intersection, the smells of po’ boy sandwiches

mingling with the roar of heavy equipment. Seeking work as a carpenter, welder or construction helper, he said he’s sometimes lucky to make $50 for a day’s work.

“It ain’t getting better. It seems to be getting worse,” he said, a pencil behind his ear, a spare pair of work boots handy. Russell said he lives in a friend’s tool shed because he can’t afford rent.

Russell’s experience seems contradictory to New Orleans’ relatively low unemployment rate — 7.3 percent in June compared to a national rate of 9.7 percent.

But the area’s rate is low in part because many of the poor who left after the storm never returned. And because there is a need for engineers, project managers and social workers, New Orleans is attractive to recent college graduates.

Trevor Acy, 24, moved to New Orleans from Mississippi early this year to work as a grant specialist. It was the only place he could find a job after college.

—AP

The big tease: Burlesque grows in popularity CHICAGO — In the Depression-era days of Gypsy Rose Lee, burlesque dancing was about as naughty, and as nude, as it got in public. The emphasis was on the tease more than the strip, until Playboy and harder-core pornography came along in the 1950s.

Now burlesque is back with festivals and club performances, from Amsterdam to Alabama. It’s seen as a chance for some bawdy fun and, some would say, even a little empowerment for the performers who are often amateurs with other day jobs.

But its growing visibility in mainstream clubs and theaters is also sparking a debate, and some confusion about what it is and whether it’s appropriate in those settings.

Is it performance art, as some contend?

Or is it, as others say, just a (very) thinly veiled excuse to strip in public, even if most performers end a routine in pasties and G-strings?

“The performers are interested in being sexy, but not being pornographic,” Rachel Shteir said, a DePaul University professor who has written books about burlesque.

“They’re trying to strike this middle ground.

But that’s very difficult to do in our culture.”

A few recent cases highlight that point.

Earlier this year in New York, burlesque performer Tara Lee Heffner filed a lawsuit

against the Learning Annex for referring to her as a “porn star” in an online ad for classes she was teaching. She claimed the label damaged her reputation.

This summer in London, one club owner also shut down long-standing burlesque shows after being told he’d have to purchase an adult entertainment license, something generally reserved for more traditional strip clubs with dancers who make use of laps and poles.

“There’s no doubt that some men watch burlesque and find it as sexy as other forms of entertainment,” Alex Proud said, whose club in the city’s Camden borough bears his last name. “But at the end of the day, the naked bit lasts about three seconds.”

And many audiences of burlesque shows are filled with women, who often focus as much on the costumes, glamour and dancing as anything.

“True burlesque is more of a kitschy Vaudeville act than anything else. It’s all about the art of the striptease, a cheeky and titillating performance that can induce chuckles, cheers and longing sighs all at once,” Katie Laird said, a burlesque fan in Houston.

“Performance is the key word here, not naked gyrations for dirty dollar bills.”

—AP

AP PHOTO

In this photo taken early Saturday morning, Fanny Tastic, a member of the Chicago Starlets burlesque troupe, performs at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago. Most of the troupe’s members are women who work in other professions by day and who dance burlesque for fun and entertainment by night.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

3B

MEXICO’S DRUG USE LAW WORRIES US POLICE MEXICO CITY — Mexico now has one of the world’s most liberal laws for drug users after eliminating jail time for small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and even heroin, LSD and methamphetamine.

“All right!” said a grinning Ivan Rojas, a rail-thin 20-year-old addict who endured police harassment during the decade he has spent sleeping in Mexico City’s gritty streets and subway stations.

But stunned police on the U.S. side of the border say the law contradicts President Felipe Calderon’s drug war, and some fear it could make Mexico a destination for drugfueled spring breaks and tourism.

Tens of thousands of American college students flock to Cancun and Acapulco each year to party at beachside discos offering wet T-shirt contests and all-you-can-drink deals.

“Now they will go because they can get drugs,” said San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne. “For a country that has experienced thousands of deaths from warring drug cartels for many years, it defies logic why they would pass a law that will clearly encourage drug use.”

Enacted last week, the Mexican law is part of a growing trend across Latin America to treat drug use as a public health problem and make room in overcrowded prisons for violent traffickers rather than small-time users.

Brazil and Uruguay have already eliminated jail time for people carrying small amounts of drugs for personal use, although possession is still considered a crime in Brazil. Argentina’s Supreme Court ruled out prison for pot possession on Tuesday and officials say they plan to propose a law keeping drug consumers out of the justice system.

Colombia has decriminalized marijuana and cocaine for personal use, but kept penalties for other drugs.

Officials in those countries say they are not legalizing drugs — just drawing a line between users, dealers and traffickers amid a fierce drug war. Mexico’s law toughens penalties for selling drugs even as it relaxes the law against using them.

“Latin America is disappointed with the results of the current drug policies and is exploring alternatives,” said Ricardo Soberon, director of the Drug Research and Human Rights Center in Lima, Peru.

As Mexico ratcheted up its fight against cartels, drug use jumped more than 50 percent between 2002 and 2008, according to the government, and today prisons are filled with addicts, many under the age of 25.

Rojas has spent half his life snorting cocaine and sniffing paint thinner as he roamed Mexico City’s streets in a daze. Most days he was roused awake by police demanding a bribe and forcing him to move along, he said.

“It’s good they have this law so police don’t grab you,” said Rojas, whose name, I-V-A-N, is tattooed across his knuckles.

Rojas hit bottom three weeks ago when he could not score enough money for drugs by begging and found himself shaking uncontrollably. He accepted an offer for help from workers from a drug rehabilitation center who approached him on the street.

“Drugs were finishing me off,” said Rojas, whose 13-year-old brother died of an overdose eight years ago. “I lost my brother. I lost my youth.”

Juan Martin Perez, who runs Caracol, the nonprofit center helping Rojas, said the government has poured millions of dollars into the drug war but has done little to treat addicts. His group relies on grants from foundations.

The new law requires officials to encourage drug users to seek treatment in lieu of jail, but the government has not allocated more money for organizations like Caracol that are supposed to help them.

Treatment is mandatory for third-time offenders, but the law does not specify penalties for noncompliance.

“This was passed quickly and quietly but it’s going to have to be adjusted to match reality,” Perez said.

Supporters of the change point to Portugal, which removed jail terms for drug possession for personal use in 2001 and still has one

AP PHOTO

Drug addicts help each other get high at a street corner near the international border in Tijuana, Mexico Tuesday. Mexico now has some of the most liberal laws in the world for drug users after eliminating jail time for tiny amounts of marijuana, cocaine and even heroin, LSD and methamphetamine. of the lowest rates of cocaine use in Europe.

Portugal’s law defines personal use as the equivalent of what one person would consume over 10 days. Police confiscate the drugs and the suspect must appear before a government commission, which reviews the person’s drug consumption patterns. Users may be fined, sent for treatment or put on probation.

Foreigners caught with drugs still face arrest in Portugal, a measure to prevent drug tourism.

The same is not true for Mexico, where there is no jail time for anyone caught with roughly four marijuana cigarettes, four lines of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine or 0.015 milligrams of LSD. That’s what concerns U.S. law enforcement at the border.

“It provides an officially sanctioned market

for the consumption of the world’s most dangerous drugs,” San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said. “For the people of San Diego the risk is direct and lethal. There are those who will drive to Mexico to use drugs and return to the U.S. under their influence.”

Don Thornhill, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor who investigated Mexican cartels for 25 years, said Mexico’s rampant drug violence will likely deter most U.S. drug users, and the new law will allow Mexican police to focus on “the bigger fish.”

The Bush administration criticized a similar bill proposed in Mexico in 2006, prompting then-President Vicente Fox to send it back to Congress. But Washington has stayed quiet this time, praising Calderon for his fight against drug cartels — a struggle that has seen some 11,000 people killed since Calderon took office in 2006.

—AP

China moves to cut use of executed inmates’ organs BEIJING — China has launched a national organ donation system to try to reduce its dependence on body parts harvested from executed prisoners, who make up the majority of donors, state media reported Wednesday.

Organ transplantation in China has long been criticized as profit-driven and unethical, with critics arguing death row inmates may feel pressured to become donors, violating personal, religious or cultural beliefs.

The World Health Organization and international human rights groups welcomed the new system, saying it was in line with best practices in other countries and would likely help meet the needs of all patients.

The move is China’s latest step to better regulate organ transplants. Medical officials agreed in 2007 not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families.

But in a rare disclosure about an industry often criticized for being opaque, the China Daily newspaper said Wednesday that more than 65 percent of organ donors come from death row.

Though the figure could not be confirmed with the government, Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu has publicly acknowledged in recent years that most organs used for transplants are taken from executed prisoners, though only with prior consent.

Condemned prisoners are “definitely not a proper source for organ transplants,” the China Daily quoted Huang as saying.

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AP PHOTO

China’s Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu, center, is surrounded by journalists after attending the ASEAN + 3 Health Minister Special Meeting on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The majority of transplanted organs in China come from executed prisoners, state media reported Wednesday.

With the new donor system, launched Tuesday, the Health Ministry and Red Cross Society of China want to reduce that proportion by encouraging the normally hesitant general public to donate organs after they die.

WHO’s top transplantation official in Geneva, Dr. Luc Noel, praised the Chinese move, saying: “We’re eager to see the results and are very supportive.”

Noel said a few other countries occasionally extract organs from executed prisoners, though he did not specify which.

China’s “reliance on organs from executed convicts was certainly not an option that could withstand time” and opened the way for abuses, he said.

Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said China’s dependence on death row inmates for organs was so high because there has been no system in place for organ donations.

“All organ transplants had to come from somewhere,” Bequelin said, noting the practice was riddled with problems. “If you’re a prisoner and you’re about to be executed, you do not have a real choice, especially in a system ... (that) is completely untransparent and notorious for abuses against prisoners, as the Chinese system is.”

The new donor system will link potential donors with recipients and make public a waiting list of patients to increase transparency and fairness in allocating organs.

The system was initially being launched in 10 provinces and cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin and Xiamen and will eventually be rolled out across the country.

Voluntary donations remain far below demand, partly because of cultural biases against organ removal before burial.

—AP

4B

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Malaysia’s image bruised over beer caning KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — After a series of flip-flops, authorities in Malaysia decided this week that a 32-year old Muslim woman caught drinking beer in violation of Islamic law would not be caned after all.

The controversy may have subsided, pending a legal review, but it has left a bitter aftertaste.

The case of Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a former model and nurse, drew the attention of international media and rights groups and presented a harsh view of the kind of Islamic justice dispensed in one of the world’s most moderate and stable Muslim-majority countries.

“It is pretty embarrassing,” Marina Mahathir, a leading women’s activist and the daughter of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, told The Associated Press in an interview.

Kartika was charged with violating a law prohibiting Muslims from drinking alcohol. Marina said it raised a key question about how Islamic laws are applied in Malaysia. “Are they working to dispense justice or to provide moral lessons for the rest of us?” she said.

Malaysia follows a dual-track justice system. Shariah laws apply to Muslims, who make up about 60 percent of the 27 million population, in all personal matters. NonMuslims — the Chinese, Indian, Sikh and other minorities — are covered by civil laws, and are free to drink.

Often the two sets of laws collide and the winner usually is the Islamic system. For example, a Muslim who converts from Islam is guilty of apostasy under Shariah

AP PHOTO

Muslim model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, who will be caned for drinking beer, holds the hand of her daughter Kaitlynn as she is escorted by Islamic religious officers to a waiting van to be taken away at her father’s home in Karai, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Monday. laws — punishable by jail and fine — even though freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution.

The two legal systems have also conflicted over custody cases, where a father converted to Islam and wanted the children to do the same. In other disputes, Islamic authorities have forcibly taken for burial the bodies of people who secretly converted to Islam before

their death.

Kartika’s controversy started unnoticed in December 2007 when Islamic morality police — functionaries of the government’s Islamic Religious Department — caught her drinking beer at a beach resort in Pahang state. She pleaded guilty to violating the Islamic law banning Muslims drinking alcohol and was sentenced by a Shariah High Court

in Pahang in July to six strokes of the cane and a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,400).

She paid the fine and decided not to appeal her sentence. Had she appealed, lawyers say, the caning would have been struck down and the case would have died a natural death.

Kartika’s case snowballed into a media circus after it was reported

she would be kept in jail for a week for the sentence to be carried out.

Lawyers and women’s activists were outraged. On Monday, Kartika was taken away by Islamic officials in a van headed for the prison.

But officials turned back 30 minutes later and Kartika was brought home. At first, officials said the sentencing was being suspended on compassionate grounds until the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

However, it emerged later that the chief judge of the Shariah court put the caning on hold indefinitely pending a review.

If it is carried out, the caning would be done with a thin stick and would be largely symbolic rather than to cause pain. But activists say it raises the broader question of whether such Islamic laws should intrude into Muslims’ private lives.

“These types of punishments are in the books. Whether they are used or not is something else,” Marina said, noting that many Muslim women do drink in Malaysia. “It is really between men and God. That’s how it should be.

The Quran is clear that alcohol is prohibited but it does not impose a punishment.”

There are several other gray areas in the conflict between Shariah and civil laws. While Kartika can be caned under Islamic rules, Malaysia’s penal code prohibits caning of women.

Muddying the issue further, only three states in Malaysia — Pahang, Perlis and Kelantan — impose caning for drinking alcohol. In the other 10 states it is punishable by a fine.

—AP

NYC’s ‘skinniest’ house has a fat price tag of $2.7M NEW YORK (AP) — It’s 9½ feet wide and 42 feet long and is billed as the narrowest house in New York City. But there’s nothing small about its asking price: $2.7 million.

Located at 75½ Bedford St. in Greenwich Village, the red brick building was built in 1873, sandwiched in a narrow space that used to be an alley between homes at 75 and 77 Bedford.

The narrow house is considered a curiosity and is one of the neighborhood’s most photographed homes. A small plaque on

the house notes that poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once lived there; so did anthropologist Margaret Mead.

Real estate broker Alex Nicholas says there is interest in the property and he has appointments on Thursday to show the home to three different potential buyers.

The residential interiors are a tight squeeze even by New York standards, measuring just 8½ feet wide and 42 feet long on each of its three floors.

“Due to the narrowness of the house, I

think you have to be very clever in how you decorate,” Nicholas said.

The current owners bought the house for $1.6 million in 2000.

The broker’s Web site describes it as a vertical suite, with a kitchen, dining room and parlor on the first floor, a double living room on the second floor and a topfloor master bedroom suite. A trapdoor in the kitchen floor leads to a finished

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basement.

Large windows in the front and back of the house and a garret skylight, plus a small backyard garden, give it “an airiness, a sense of light and charm,” Nicholas said.

He predicted the property will fetch its listed price due to its uniqueness, history and location in one of the city’s most famous preserved neighborhoods.

—AP

Thursday, August 27, 2009

5B

NASA to test first stage of new moon rocket

Š2009 ERNST & YOUNG LLP.

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WASHINGTON — NASA will test the pow“The problem is the size 14 foot in the size erful first stage of its new Ares moon rocket 10 shoe,� said American University public Thursday, a milestone in a program that has policy professor Howard McCurdy, author already spent $7 billion for a rocket that as- of several books about the American space tronauts may never use. program. “It’s just really hard to fit it all in. A When that first stage is tested, it will be lot of the assumptions made in 2004 (for the mounted horizontally. The engine will fire, Bush plan) have just not materialized.� shake and make lots of noise. But by design, The panel will not tell the president which it will not leave the ground. The same could choice to make. That will be up to Obama. be said for NASA’s plans to go to the moon, Until NASA is told to change course, it will Mars or beyond Earth orbit. It’s not so much continue with the Bush plan. a physical challenge for engineers as it is a fiThus, the first big test of moon program nancial challenge for budgeteers. hardware is the rocket stage firing Thursday The $108 billion program to return to the in Promontory, Utah. That test is of the main moon by 2020 was started five years ago by get-off-the-ground engine in the Ares I rocket. then-President George W. Bush. But a spe- The full test rocket, complete with a dummy cial independent panel commissioned by crew capsule and escape system, Ares I-X, is President Barack Obama supposed to get a launch concluded that the plan “NASA has been like a star test at Kennedy Space cannot work on the exist- athlete that’s broken world Center on Oct. 31. ing budget schedule beThat rocket will be taller cause it’s likely to cost at records back in the 1960s than the space shuttle, illeast an extra $30 billion and is stuck in the bleachers lustrating an agency eager through 2020. ever since, unable to suit up to launch something new.

Even NASA’s soon-to“NASA has been like a for what it does best.� be-retired space shuttle star athlete that’s broken fleet has proved that getworld records back in the ting off the ground isn’t ALAN STERN, SPACE SCIENTIST 1960s and is stuck in the a given, with two launch bleachers ever since, unscrubs this week of a misable to suit up for what sion to the international space station. it does best,� said space scientist Alan Stern, The space station is finally finished. Yet who quit last year as NASA’s associate adminNASA’s long-standing plans call for junking istrator for science. the outpost in about seven years. If the agenBut, as has been the case since about 1971, cy keeps that schedule, it would mean that in money is holding engineers back, Stern said. the next decade NASA’s astronauts could be “Bush never delivered on his promise to going nowhere if there’s no moon mission. up NASA’s funding,� Stern said. He added Obama’s special panel looked at other op- that the previous NASA administrator “tried tions available for the space program — such cannibalizing NASA (to pay for exploration) as skipping the moon and going directly to but that wasn’t enough.�

Mars or an asteroid, or just cruising in the While the Bush administration cut some solar system. But they kept using words like spending, the “real killer� came in Obama’s “least worst scenario� during their final pub- first budget, which starts in October, said lic deliberations earlier this month. In their Scott Pace, the No. 3 at NASA during the report due Monday, they will also give advice Bush administration. Obama cut $3 billion about the end of the shuttle and space sta- from projections for future spending on extion programs. ploration, with even more cut when inflation The White House told the panel to aim to is factored in, said Pace, director of space stay within current budget estimates. policy at George Washington University. “If you want to do something, you have to The administration gave the agency an have the money to do it,� said panel member extra $400 million, however, as part of the and former astronaut Sally Ride. “This bud- stimulus package. get is very, very, very hard to fit and still have Former NASA associate administrator an exploration program.�

Scott Hubbard said if the United States inThe options that face the White House vited other countries, including Russia and come down to variations and combinations perhaps China, on the next space journey, it of these themes: Pay more, do less or radi- would keep America’s costs lower. It’s an idea cally change American space policy. The the panel and some in the Obama adminismost radical idea would be to hand much of tration have discussed. —AP NASA’s duties to private companies.

AP PHOTO

In this Aug. 14, 2009 photo, a new space vehicle stands ready in NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida.

Day one

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6B Thursday, August 27, 2009

PLACE AN AD

Announcements

Phone: 325-2521

SPECIAL NOTICES

E-Mail: classifieds@ou.edu

Great tickets for U2 Concert at OK Memorial Stadium Oct 18. Chances available 8-29 from 1:30-5:00pm, or 8-26 thru 9-3 from 11:30-1:30 at 402 W Main.

Chance for two $55 tickets $20. Drawing Sept.7 at Labor Day Picnic, Andrews Park. For more info call 364-2617 or 447-3366.

Fax: 405-325-7517 Campus Address: COH 149A

DEADLINES Line Ad ..................2 days prior Place your line ad no later than 9:00 a.m. 2 days prior to publication date.

Display Ad ............2 days prior Classified Display or Classified Card Ad Place your display, classified display or classified card ads no later than 5:00 p.m. 2 days prior to publication date.

PAYMENT s r

r

For Sale MISC. FOR SALE FALL OPENING, Aug 20, 9-4, the place to shop every Thursday, 9-4, First Presbyterian Thrift Shop, 404 Toberman, end of Park St, in First Presbyterian parking lot, 1 blk N of Boyd. Low cost clothing for everyone, OU items, kitchen items, books, and more!

3 yr old Stradivarius Bach Omega TRIGGER TROMBONE. Orig cost $1800, asking $1100.

3 yr old Yamaha Advantage CL1 CLARINET $125. Call Karen at 405-831-6937

C Transportation

AUTO FOR SALE ‘05 KIA RIO, 56 mpg, 34,000 mi, 100,000 mi warranty, $4,495. 701-5930.

TM

Payment is required at the time the ad is placed. Credit cards, cash, money orders or local checks accepted.

Businesses may be eligible to apply for credit in a limited, local billing area. Please inquire with Business Office at 325-2521.

RATES Line Ads There is a 2 line minimum charge; approximately 45 characters per line, including spaces and punctuation.

1 day ............. $4.25/line 2 days ........... $2.50/line 3-4 days........ $2.00/line 5-9 days........ $1.50/line 10-14 days.... $1.15/line 15-19 days.... $1.00/line 20-29 days.... $ .90/line 30+ days.......$ .85/line

Classified Display, Classified Card Ads or Game Sponsorship Contact an Acct Executive for details at 325-2521.

2 col (3.792 in) x 2 inches Sudoku ...........$760/month Boggle ............$760/month Horoscope .....$760/month 1 col (1.833 in) x 2.25 inches Crossword .....$515/month (located just below the puzzle)

POLICY The Oklahoma Daily is responsible for one day’s incorrect advertising. If your ad appears incorrectly, or if you wish to cancel your ad call 325-2521, before the deadline for cancellation in the next issue. Errors not the fault of the advertiser will be adjusted. Refunds will not be issued for late cancellations.

The Oklahoma Daily will not knowingly accept advertisements that discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religious preference, national origin or sexual orientation. Violations of this policy should be reported to The Oklahoma Daily Business Office at 325-2521.

Help Wanted ads in The Oklahoma Daily are not to separate as to gender. Advertisers may not discriminate in employment ads based on race, color, religion or gender unless such qualifying factors are essential to a given position.

All ads are subject to acceptance by The Oklahoma Daily. Ad acceptance may be reevaluated at any time.

‘99 Mazda Protege - 116 miles, excellent cond, $4900 - call Maggie, 317-3629 ‘00 Nissan Altima - 124,000 miles, very good cond, $2700 - call Joaquin, 4743836 or 364-2773

Employment HELP WANTED Outgoing, dynamic students needed to distribute yers on 8/31 & 9/1. Flexible hours. Preferably before 2pm. $10.00/Hr. 1-800-927-9194

$5,000-$45,000

PAID EGG DONORS up to 9 donations, + Exps, non-smokers, Ages 19-29, SAT>1100/ACT>24/GPA>3.00 Contact: info@eggdonorcenter.com Part time Lab Assistant needed for general robotics/microcontroller assembly.

Work with small parts, light lifting may be required. Soldering, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering background preferred.

Email resume to jobs@kipr.org

Employment SITUATIONS WANTED Research volunteers needed! Researchers at OU Health Sciences Center need healthy volunteers ages 18 to 30 who have a parent with or without a history of an alcohol or drug problem. QualiďŹ ed participants will be compensated for their time. Call 456-4303 to learn more about the study and to see if you qualify.

The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution.

J Housing Rentals APTS. FURNISHED $400, bills paid, efďŹ ciency LOFT apartments, downtown over Mister Robert Furniture, 109 E Main, ďŹ re sprinkler, no pets, smoke-free. Inquire store ofďŹ ce.

APTS. UNFURNISHED $99 1st Month / $99 Deposit $25 Off Monthly/6 mo Free gym *some restrictions may apply.

Pets Welcome! Large Floor Plans!

Models open 8a-8p Everyday!

Elite Properties - 360-6624 or www.elite2900.com Fall Special! 1 BLK FROM OU, very nice 4 room apt, 800 sf, wood oors, 1012 S College, Apt 4, $300/mo. Call 360-2873 or 306-1970.

CONDOS UNFURNISHED 1 bd/1ba $500 mo. Includes all kitchen appliances. No pets. Longburk Real Estate 732-7474.

THE EDGE! MOVE IN SPECIAL: 1/2 off your 1st mo rent til 8/21 on 3BR/3BA 1250sf. ALSO, 4BR/4BA 1478 SF. Handicap access, ďŹ tness ctr, pool, etc! 405231-2119 The Edge Condos Very close to Campus and featuring Walk-in closets, ďŹ tness, pool, v-ball All utilities, Cable, Internet Paid $425 per bedroom, DMG 364-4114 1 bedroom Nottingham Condo for rent, avail now. 417-861-9439 or 308-8470.

NOTTINGHAM 2 bd, 2 bath, w/d, ďŹ replace, cfans, lg closets, no pets, covered parking, $650/mo. 360-4107.

J Housing Rentals DUPLEXES UNFURNISHED 1/2 Mo Free-Walk To OU Save on utilities w/Energy EfďŹ cient Windows, prefer quiet OU students, no pets, 2 bd, carpet, blinds, CH/A, appliances plus big w/d, $450/mo. 203-3493 or 321-4404.

Thad Baker, advertising manager classifieds@ou.edu • phone: 325-2521 • fax: 325-7517

HOUSES UNFURNISHED 1 bdrm, $350 + bills 1 bdrm, $400 + bills 1 bdrm, $395 + bills Smoke-free, no pets, 360-3850 Cottage in the Forest!

Small bdrm, work of art, all bills paid, internet, cable TV, $640/mo. Walk to OU. 701-5931.

The Doll House Cute 1 bdrm plus ofďŹ ce, $495, ride bike to OU. 701-5931.

1109 E LIndsey - 2bd, 1ba, CH/A, dishwasher, stove, refrig, no pets, dep $500, rent $750 914 Drake - 1 bd duplex, water & gas paid, no pets, ref req, dep $400, rent $475 127 W Hayes - 3 bd, 1 ba, completely remodeled, no pets, dep $500, rent $725 329-1933

Near OU, lg 3/4 bd, $875-$975/mo, 826 Jona Kay, 1711 Lancaster, 2326 Lindenwood. Call 360-0351, 517-2018.

TOWNHOUSES UNFURNISHED

Hunters Run / $99 Deposit $25 off / was $780 now $755 2 Bed Townhouse, 2.5 Bath Small Fenced Yd, Full sz W/D 6 Mo Free Gym, 2 Car Garage Elite Properties 360-6624 www.elite2900.com 307 POTOMAC - Lg townhouse NW Norman. Minutes from I-35 & mall. 2200 sqft, all appliances, smoke-free, 1 year lease, $1050/mo, $1050 dep. www.gorentking.com, 801-2293 Taylor Ridge Townhomes 2 Bdrm, 2.5 Bath, Fully Renovated Townhomes near OU! Pets Welcome! • Call for current rates and Move-in Specials!!!

Taylor Ridge Townhomes (405) 310-6599

ROOMS FURNISHED NEAR OU, privacy, $230, bills paid includes cable, neat, clean, parking. Prefer male student. Call 329-0143.

Previous Solution

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9 6 3 8 4 1 2 9 6 2 7 6 3 7 5 3 2 8 3 9 5 7 9 2 1 3

4 7 2 8 6 5 1 3 9

5 6 1 4 9 3 2 7 8

9 8 3 7 1 2 6 4 5

2 5 7 9 3 6 4 8 1

3 9 8 5 4 1 7 6 2

6 1 4 2 7 8 9 5 3

1 4 6 3 5 9 8 2 7

8 3 9 6 2 7 5 1 4

7 2 5 1 8 4 3 9 6

Monday- Very Easy Tuesday-Easy Wednesday- Easy Thursday- Medium Friday - Hard

Instructions: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

CAYMAN’S IN NORMAN - Full/PT sales position avail, to highly motivated selfstarter w/great customer service skills.

Apply in person, 2001 W Main St. Traditions Spirits is hiring for Riverwind Casino and Autograph Sports bar. Accepting applications for: COSTUMED BEVERAGE SERVERS, COMMISSARY ASSISTANT, BAR MANAGER, FOH MANAGER, BARTENDER AND FOOD SERVERS. Must be at least 21 to apply and available for various shifts days, nights and weekends. Experience required. No candidates will be considered without exible availability.

Apply online at www.traditionsspirits.com or in person 2813 SE 44th, Norman. 405-392-4550.

Universal Crossword Edited by Timothy E. Parker August 27, 2009

ACROSS 1 Unmitigated stuff 5 Pro ___ 10 Aired out one’s pipes 14 Collection of miscellaneous things 15 Between one another 16 “In ___ of flowers ‌â€?

17 Sample CD 18 Despot’s duration 19 Displaced gardener 20 What kids may pretend to be 23 Age verifiers 24 “___-boombah!�

25 Health-food sweets 29 Sheet of matted cotton 31 Chocolate barker 34 Subtle sarcasm 35 Centers of great activity 36 Act the cover girl 37 Two-bit hustlers, e.g.

40 Teapot cover 41 Spheres 42 Beginning 43 Bit for the dog bowl 44 Periods in history 45 Purchasers 46 Mugful at the Pig and Whistle

Bartending! Up to $300/day. No exp nec.

Training provided. 1-800-965-6520 x133.

TUTORS WANTED!!!

Available positions in the OU Athletics Department!!! Junior, Senior, Graduate, and Post-graduate applicants only!!! Hiring for Fall 2009. Call 325-8376 for more info!!!

ENGLISH TUTORS/WRITING CONSULTANTS WANTED!!!

Available positions in the OU Athletics Department!!! Junior, Senior, Graduate, and Post-graduate applicants only!!! Hiring for Fall 2009. Call 325-8376 for more info!!!

CLASS MONITORS WANTED!!!

Available positions in the OU Athletics Department!!! Junior, Senior, Graduate, and Post-graduate applicants only!!! Hiring for Fall 2009. Call 325-8453 for more info!!!

Caregiver Needed - 5 days/wk, hours varied - help w/ daily living activities. $8/ hr OR room+board & small salary possible. 321-1729 Movie Extras, Actors, Models Wanted Up to $300/day! All Looks Needed! Call NOW 1-800-458-9303 STUDENTPAYOUTS.COM Paid survey takers needed in Norman 100% FREE to join. Click on Surveys.

Tennis Shop Attendant (Part-Time) Westwood Park Tennis Center Applicant must be at least 16 years of age and have cash handling experience. $7.25 per hour. Work period: No ďŹ xed schedule.

Must be able to work evenings, weekends, and holidays. Application Deadline: Open Recruitment. Obtain application at: 201C West Gray, Human Resources Dept., City of Norman (405) 366-5482, Web: NormanOK.gov EOE/AA

47 Purrfect pet?

48 On the best of terms 56 Alphabetize 57 Former golf tournament, ___-Ryder Open 58 “Matterâ€? or “heroâ€? prefix 60 Bullets and the like 61 “It’s half ___, six dozen ‌â€?

62 Terrible czar 63 Chestnut horse 64 Overrun with vermin 65 Country music’s Loretta DOWN 1 The Almighty 2 Baldwin of “The Departed�

3 Special event rental 4 Shoe-tying maneuver 5 Units of electrical capacitance 6 Black cats and dark clouds, e.g.

7 ___ rage (cheating bodybuilder’s problem) 8 Factory VIP 9 Deity doubter 10 Chunks of concrete or marble 11 White House staffer 12 Word with

“miss� or “catastrophe�

13 What gingivitis affects 21 Female prophet 22 Drill insertion 25 Pancho’s TV amigo 26 Full metal jacket?

27 Comical tribute 28 “If I ___ Had a Brain�

29 Turkeys at the movies 30 Nonreturnable serves 31 Ready to fall out, as pages 32 One who inquires 33 Outdoes 35 Former capital of Italy 36 Dog and ___ show 38 Bullfighter

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

Š 2009 Universal Press Syndicate www.upuzzles.com

ON PATROL by Ellsworth Perkins

TUTORS WANTED!!!

Available positions in the OU Athletics Department!!! Junior, Senior, Graduate, and Post-graduate applicants only!!! Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Kiowa!!! Hiring for Fall 2009. Call 325-0771 for more info!!!

Previous Answers

39 Letter carrier’s assignment 44 Animal on Michigan’s state flag 45 Pearl of “Hello, Dolly!�

46 Give in to, as an impulse 47 Monastery emanation 48 Title for a Romanov 49 ___ sapiens 50 Role for Shirley MacLaine 51 Living room feature 52 Jogger’s gait 53 Alternative to Aspen 54 Jealousy 55 Thin half of a comedy duo 59 Quaint traveler’s quarters

Thursday, August 27, 2009

7B

« HUSH HUSH VIDEO

Cassie Rhea Little, L&A editor dailyent@ou.edu • phone: 325-5189 • fax: 325-6051

OUDAILY.COM

Find out what the local Oklahoma City band Hush Hush, Commotion thinks about controversial topics like skinny jeans and Toms shoes in a fun word association game.

CAMPUS FASHION

»

The Daily’s Life & Arts section observes back-to-school style on the OU campus.

CHINH DOAN CHINH DOAN

CHINH DOAN

Jeff Maladouangdock, Andrew Stone and Shayan Baradaran are senior architecture students taking a break in front of Dale Hall. They keep their wardrobes simple with shorts and T-shirts along with skateboards as their accessories.

Anne Sutherland, University College freshman, keeps her wardrobe fun and her day exciting as she enjoys the nice weather on South Oval. Her distinctive style can be seen from her Converse tied with colorful shoelaces to knee-high socks, fairy T and hair clip.

These freshmen pre-nursing triplets found in Cate are all stylish, yet each sister has her own unique fashion sense. They keep their wardrobe exciting by adding colorful sandals and ornate jewelry.

Watch the full soundslide with commentary from oudaily reporters.

OUDAILY.COM

CHINH DOAN

Kelsey Buchanan, a journalism and mass communications junior, is on her way to class after lunch. She adds personality to her simple v-neck by wearing brown leggings and strappy sandals paired with a red tote.

CHINH DOAN

Sam Cox, College of Business sophomore, is taking a stroll through South Greek in khaki shorts and Polo shirt.

This dressy-casual outfit can be seen throughout campus on a regular basis.

CONCERT UPDATE

BIKE SALE Save up to $300 on Specialized & Cannondale

Fruitbats & Death Vessel When: 9p.m. Monday Where: Opolis Tickets: $10 in advance/$12 day of show

Fruitbats is an indie-rock band in the vein of Rogue Wave. Sweeping guitars played with tons of heart with simple, yet astute, lyrics. Its song “When U Love Somebody” can be heard on the preview for the upcoming movie, Adam, and they are strolling through Norman in support of their wonderful new release, “The Ruminant Band.” You can also look for a free in-store appearance at Guestroom Records around 6 p.m. with a totally different set of songs.

-Joshua Boydston

WheelerDealerbicycles.com 2729 NW 50th - OKC

(405) 947-6260

Norman United Church of Christ is a developing community planted in Norman by the Mayflower Congregational UCC of Oklahoma City. We are an open and affirming church who practices Christianity as a way of life, not just a set of beliefs demanding total conformity.

Visit us each Sunday at the United Ministry Center - 1017 Elm (2 blocks south of Elm and Lindsey) for adult classes at 9:30 am (childcare provided), fellowship at 10:30 and worship at 11:15. AND - our new Christian Meditation group on Tuesday evenings at 7 pm!

Beginners welcome!

www.normanucc.com www.ucc.org

8B

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Looking for something to do this weekend? The Daily’s Live & Arts staff highlighted some of this weekends events.

▲

WEEKEND UPDATE

»

MUSIC

Paul Benjaman will perform at 11 p.m.

Aug. 27 at The Deli, 309 White St.

▲ DUST BOWL ARTS MARKET

▲

The Union Programming Board will be showing “Star Trek” Aug. 29 at 6, 9 & 11:30 p.m. in Meacham Auditorium, on the second floor of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

UGLYSUIT

The Uglysuit will play at the Opolis, 113 North Crawford St., Aug. 28 at 9 p.m.

Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 the day of the show.

not your mama’s

magazine LIFESTYLE

LIFESTYLE

HEALTH

HEALTH

Trend-settin’ Sooner

Let’s talk about sex

A look at Norman’s fashion sense. BY JAMIE BIRDWELL

SexEd from a former Sexpert. BY ROSIE SONTHEIMER

»

When you think of Norman, Okla., the first thought that comes to mind probably isn’t trendy. But with many boutiques and college influence, Norman is as savvy as any major city.

Historic Campus Corner is conveniently close to campus and is full of small boutiques that carry the latest in fashion.

“For Oklahoma, OU is pretty fashion forward,” says Amanda Clark, owner of clothing store Blush.

“Because of the college campus, people push each other to wear new things.”

»

Although the “college uniform” across campus tends to be Nike shorts, Ugg boots and white v-neck t-shirts, Norman still has much to offer in clothing, says Kara Stoltenberg, sales associate for clothing store Lucca.

Oklahoma, not exactly known for its trends, is starting to get behind the fashion movement with fashion Internet blogs and access to magazines and television shows that depict what good fashion is on the East and West Coasts.

Barbara Fite, manager of clothing and home accessories store Antique Garden, says that OU is home to an eclectic array of trends. Fite says right now people are going back to wearing anything oversized, such as boyfriend shirts and looser fitting jeans, but also sees sporty, hippie and preppy trends here on campus. Both Fite and Clark say that dresses and skirts are their hottest items and are a good summer alternative to shorts.

Smocked dresses with Mexican style patterns are starting to appear in stores like Lucca, says Caitlin Turner, sales associate. In general, an array of patterns can be seen all over campus, ranging from plaid and tiedye to stripes and paisley.

Jeans can usually be seen in skinny or boot cut form. For guys, darker jeans are worn for dressier occasions and can easily be paired with a graphic t-shirt or button up, Turner says.

Although OU campus has a wide variety of fashion trends, there are certain things that just don’t make the cut around here. Wide leg jeans failed to take off, Fite says. And another item that wasn’t popular last summer, the short jumpsuit, is being requested right now, Clark says.

In general, OU students aren’t particular to brand or style, but just wear what fits them best.

“We dress up for date nights and parties, but for the most part we’re really casual,” Fite says.

HAIR Larry Walker, owner of Impressions salon on Campus Corner, says that hairstyles on campus tend to be a little more conservative than in bigger cities.

For girls, shorter hair is still very popular. And for girls with longer hair, there is no longer a huge emphasis on having straight hair. Instead, girls on campus opt for a textured look that allows the hair to take its natural curl pattern (or use products to fake it).

For guys on campus, more length and more texturing is very popular, although there’s less emphasis on product use.

Pomades, gels, waxes and spray gels are all very popular styling tools that students buy and use.

All in all, store owners and fashion enthusiasts find Norman and OU campus to be a great spot for trends and fashion.

“OU’s a great spot to watch,” Fite says. “You can find anything.” s

PHOTOS BY PARKER JOHNSON

14 SOWER

We see it plastered all over the place: on our television sets, at the movies, on magazine covers and just about any other place Americans’ eyes may see. But how much do people really know about sex? How much do we really need to know?

While crucial for everyone, college students especially need to be educated about sex, many of whom do not get proper sexual education but who are partaking in sexual activity. According to the Guttmacher Institute, one of the leading informational groups in sexual and reproductive health, “Nearly half (46 percent) of all 15-19-year-olds in the United States have had sex at least once.”

But with abstinence only initiatives—including Oklahoma’s own K.E.E.P (Kids Eagerly Endorsing Purity)—many young adults enter their sexual endeavors and the OU campus with little ability to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

However, OU offers many educational programs aimed at giving students a comprehensive sexual education. Campus’ main group of sexual educators are the “Sexperts,” who partner with the Women’s Outreach Center to provide information about health and responsibility when it comes to sex.

“Sexperts was started by student volunteers in the Women’s Outreach Center concerned that their peers were not receiving medically accurate information about STD’s and pregnancy prevention,” says Kathy Moxley, director of the Women’s Outreach Center.

Moxley says that student groups, residence halls, Greek organizations and classrooms can request for a free Sexpert presentation.

Most importantly, “The program doesn’t aim to change anyone’s values,” Moxley says. “There are certainly many participants in the presentations who are not sexually active but at some point may choose to have sex, and we want to be sure they know how to protect themselves.”

OU Sexpert and accounting senior, Bobby Mace, says that for the most part, students seem to be unaware of the information being discussed at presentations.

“We get one or two people at each presentation that seem to know what’s going on, but that vast majority of people are usually clueless about what we discuss,” Mace says.

Mace says that parents really need to educate themselves about sex and then, in turn, educate their children.

“People have sex,” Mace says. “It happens, and to ignore that is to put you and your child at risk.”

And while a lot of the pressure can be put on women to partake in safe sex, Mace also emphasized the fact that men must be responsible in sexual situations and be respectful of their partners.

Just like clothing, accessories on OU’s campus tend to be in a wide variety and multiple colors and styles.

Scarves are a huge accessory on campus, says Cerry Leffler, owner of Milano’s Accessories. Costume jewelry is very popular as well, coming in lots of fun colors and are very affordable, allowing the customer to buy more. On campus, people tend to buy the jewelry and accessories that are more unique and that you wouldn’t be able to find in a department store, she says.

Turner says accessories at Lucca go fast and many popular items include headwear that have peacock feathers, flowers and anything large that is worn on the side of the head.

For guys, rings and bracelets are a common accessory that is bought. Cuff links aren’t very popular right now, but are starting to make a comeback, Leffler says. Guys also look for unusual and unique ties that differ from the standard ones sold at JCPenney or Dillards, she says.

For shoes, one of the most popular brands is TOMS, which are comfortable flats that come in a variety of colors and can be worn on girls and guys, Turner says. Gladiator sandals and flip-flops are also very popular with girls on campus.

STATS BY THE NUMBERS

17: the average age of first sexual encounter 90: the percent chance of becoming pregnant within a year if no contraception is used 74: the percent of sexually experienced female teens that used contraception the first time they had sex 82: the percent of sexually experienced male teens that used contraception the first time they had sex 21: the number of states that explicitly allow minors contraceptive services without parental consent 18.9: the number, in millions, of new STI cases each year 9.1: the number, in millions, of new STI cases occurring among 15-24-year-olds

8: the number, in billions, of dollars spent annually to diagnose and treat STIs (not including HIV)

MYTH VS. FACT

Myth: AIDS is a homosexual disease that only men get.

Fact: Heterosexual transmission accounts for a large proportion of newly diagnosed HIV cases amongst women.

Myth: I will know, right away, if I have an STI. Fact: Many STIs are “silent”, in that they cause few symptoms and can be diagnosed only though testing.

Myth: I am not having vaginal sex therefore I cannot get an STI. Fact: Many STIs can be transmitted through oral sex or skin-to-skin contact.

Myth: Condoms are not effective.

Fact: When used correctly and consistently, condoms are 98 percent effective at preventing pregnancy and highly effective at preventing HIV and many STIs. Myth: Abstinence-only education reduces sexual activity.

Fact: Abstinence-only programs have not been proven to reduce sexual activity at all.

PHOTOS BY NILS DOUGAN

For those already engaging in or preparing for sexual activity, OU Health Services has a wide range of options for students who wish to responsibly practice sex. OU Health Services health promotion coordinator Maggie Pool says that Goddard Health Center offers a variety of sexual health services. Goddard has an on-site pharmacy with everything from condoms to emergency contraception available.

“Services include annual exams with pap testing, breast exams, pre and post conception counseling and planning, health maintenance and counseling, testing and treatment for infections, colposcopy procedures and

contraceptive options,” Pool says.

Additionally, the Women’s Center makes referrals for positive pregnancy tests.

Whether you plan on engaging in sex during college or not, it is important to know the information and facts. You need to prepare yourself for the time when you are ready to have sex or to help inform your sexually active friends on ways to keep themselves safe and healthy. Knowledge and responsibility are crucial factors when it comes to sex if you already are or intend to be sexually active, so make sure you know the full story behind the birds and the bees. s

LOCAL STD TESTING SITES

Goddard: walk-in HIV ($15), Chlamydia and Gonorrhea ($25) Norman Health Department: walk-ins only, Syphilis, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea (free) Norman Planned Parenthood: office visit ($35) + Chlamydia and Gonorrhea ($57), HIV ($70), Syphilis ($20)

PHOTOS BY PARKER JOHNSON

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BUT DON’T

Quiz PAGE 50

WHAT KIND OF ROOMMATE ARE YOU?

5 EASYTO-MAKE Or online MEALS

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BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE August 2009

And soon at: Couch Cafeteria Huston Huffman

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Bizzell Library Cate Center Copeland Hall Dale Hall George Lynn Cross Hall Jacobson Hall Oklahoma Memorial Union Physical Science Center Sarkey’s Energy Center

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ACCESSORIES

Campus Hotspots 14

PLACES YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT

Fashion Extra

TRENDY WAYS TO BREAK OUT OF THE “COLLEGE UNIFORM”

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FREE MOVIE

The Dust Bowl Arts Market will begin at 10 a.m. Aug. 29 along Buchanan Street on Campus Corner. The open-air market will feature original accessories, artwork, music and much more.

Sower is a publication of OU Student Media in the division of Student Affairs. For more information, call (405) 325-3668.

The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution.