1934 – 2009
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Forecast, Page 2
Check out this semester’s entire lineup of comics and online exclusives Thursday, January 28, 2010
Issue 80, Volume 75
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Obama addresses US President defends first-year decisions, admits mistakes gg
By Salomon Fuentes The Daily Cougar
Courtesy of Gettyimages.com
In Wednesday’s State of the Union address, President Barak Obama focused on the economy and defended the decision to bail out the banks with the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
In his inaugural State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Barack Obama pushed back against mounting criticism and pressed forward with promises of a new jobs creation bill to counter unemployment, as well as a federal spending freeze effective
in 2011 to fight the federal deficit. Taking a humble approach, Obama readily admitted to making mistakes in his first year in office, but took a resilient stance on the congressional healthcare reform bill, which he has backed, and stood by the decision to bail out banks as necessary to prevent a depression. “When I ran for president, I promised I wouldn’t just do what was popular — I would do what was necessary,” Obama said. “And if we had allowed the meltdown of the financial system,
unemployment might be double what it is today. More businesses would certainly have closed. More homes would have surely been lost. “ While realizing the bailout, and subsequent bonus payouts by bailed out firms such as AIG, have hurt his administration’s credibility, the president hoped to use $30 billion in money recovered from banks to extend credit to small businesses, in addition to proposed small business tax see OBAMA, page 10
UNICEF to raise money at banquet Organization hopes to educate students about world hunger
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By Neal Dasgupta The Daily Cougar The UH chapter of UNICEF will spotlight world hunger at its banquet Friday. The banquet will feature UH accounting professor Saleha Khumawala, who will speak about the state of world hunger and children who suffer from malnutrition around the world. “The startling fact that every five seconds a child dies from hunger related causes means that we have to spread awareness in order to understand this huge inequity and combat it,” UNICEF President Charlene Nguyen said. “We believe every child should have the tools in order to survive. With malnutrition and hunger being the second leading cause of death for children, we want to educate in an experiential, interactive role-playing banquet where people can learn together.” Nguyen said that the banquet will utilize each audience member’s five senses to give them the feel of going hungry, before they get to eat the food. This, she said, will leave a lasting impression on the audience that world hunger is a problem that requires immediate action. The banquet’s proceeds will all go to UNICEF, which will use the money to buy food, medicine, clothes, and other essentials for Haiti. The entrance fee will be $8 for UH members and $10 for all others. “We want to support Haiti in this dire time of need because any amount of money counts, and it’s been stated as the biggest humanitarian crisis of our lifetime,” Nguyen said. Nguyen said the banquet is also being held to educate the student body about UNICEF’s mission. “Another goal is to increase the prestige and presence of UNICEF at UH,” she said. “We’re backed by an international body that has so much clout in the countries they operate in; we feel that our see UNICEF, page 12
NEWton liu The Daily Cougar
Metro officials held an informative session Wednesday to address concerns on the two new rail lines that are to be built near the University.
Light rail on track gg
Plans for construction and precautions laid out in four phases
By Ben Mauldin The Daily Cougar
M
etro detailed its plans for the Southeast Light Rail Line and the University Light Rail Line in an information sharing session Wednesday at the Rockwell Pavilion inside the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library. The session was sponsored by the UH Faculty Senate, Staff Council and the Student Government Association. The Southeast Line will follow Scott Street and will have 10 stations, including stops near UH at Elgin Street, Cleburne
and Wheeler/Martin Luther King Boulevard. The University Line will roughly follow Richmond Avenue and Wheeler and will have 19 stations. Construction projects have been divided into four phases. The first phase includes redirecting or removing utility lines that run underground along the roads, with completion of this project expected in spring of 2011. During the second phase, streets will be widened on both sides. The third phase calls for traffic to be diverted to the outer lanes so work can begin in the middle, where the new light rail will run. “We’re using a very different construction method this time,” said
Kimberly Williams, Metro’s associate vice president of corporate programs. “Now, construction is construction. I’m not going to say that it’s not going to be inconvenient.” The fourth and final phase will test these systems and finalize everything in preparation of the opening of the rail lines. Metro officials said precautions have been taken to minimize the impact the construction will have on traffic. Metro officials also said they will be working to maintain communication with the communities they will work in to assure they address all possible concerns. The stations will be located around see METRO, page 12