dailygamecock.com MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2010
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
VOL. 103, NO. 81 ● SINCE 1908
SG Elections Monday 54°
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Tuesday 46°
33°
Wednesday
Rallies kick off SG campaigns
35°
57°
Events promote candidates with food, music, speeches Josh Dawsey
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Victory over Georgia The USC men’s basketball team pulled off a close win against UGA’s Dawgs, reining in a 1-point victory.
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Fo r t h e f i r s t t i m e i n S t u d e nt Government history, candidates for Student Body executive offices held public kick-off rallies for their campaigns Sunday afternoon. The three rallies, complete with music, speeches and food, are the clearest sign so far this election will be one of the most intense in SG history, said candidates involved. “There’s a lot at stake here, and a lot of people are campaigning,” SG presidential candidate Ebbie Yazdani said. “It’s all about getting people involved.” But some say the rallies are a sign campaigning has gone too far. Rumors of possible candidacies have dogged SG for months, leading top officials in the organization to remind members to focus on the current work of the body. Many of the candidates will spend thousands to win office, and the increase led to a recent bill from Sen. Alan Tauber to limit spending to $2,500. “It ca n be excit i ng, but I t h i n k it’s a waste of money,” said former SG Treasurer Jonathan A ntonio, a fourth-year accounting student . “It’s showboating.” Scenes at the events for Yazdani, SG
Vice President candidate Steve Vereen and the joint rally for SG President candidate Alex Stroman and SG Vice President candidate Taylor Cain were drastically different. Backstreet Boys and other pop hits blared at Yazdani’s rally, the first one of the day. About 75 supporters gathered inside the game room of the Honors Keri Goff / THE DAILY GAMECOCK Residence Hall. Desserts were served on Carolina Service Council, the Residence Hall Association and the a circular table in the middle of the room, Department of Student Life sponsored Sunday’s kick-off campaigns. and those in attendance milled around, talking and playing pool. Yazdani, a third-year history and economics student, gave a brief speech, but most of the time was spent socializing. “We want people to join the Facebook group, tell their friends about what’s going on and get them to support us,” Yazdani said. Vereen’s rally, an oyster roast at the Woodlands apartment complex off of Bluff Road , didn’t draw the crowd of Yazdani’s. Vereen and his friends spent most of the day Saturday in Murrells Inlet finding the oysters. A group of supporters huddled in the freezing temperatures to roast oysters, cracking jokes all the while. Others threw the pigskin across the yard. “I’m the picture of a Carolina guy, a nd a n oyster roast is t he per fect representation of me to the fullest,” Vereen, a second-year business student, said. “Get a group of people together and Keri Goff / THE DAILY GAMECOCK have a Low Country boil.” Alex Stroman and Taylor Cain hosted a rally to promote their joint campaign for SG President and SG Vice President, respectively. Rally ● 3
Expert explains housing crisis, local foreclosures
Hope for Haiti Now
The new compilation album —including Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and John Legend —has been released in the hopes to raise money for the suffering island nation.
New legislation to improve disclosure, protect borrowers from hidden costs
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James McCoy
THE DAILY GAMECOCK
The Ugly Truth: Texting Our Viewpoints Editor premiers her new relationship column by urging people to leave feelings out Marilynn of texts — either sent Joyner under the Third-year influence or English and otherwise. dance student
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Courtesy of MTVU.com
MTV will not make its characteristic appearance in Panama City, Fla., this March.
Panama City cuts back Popular spring break location looks to control crowds by prohibitng MTV events, music festival Derek Legette STAFF WRITER
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Swim and Dive USC’s swim and dive lost their last t wo meets in Athens over the weekend. Check out how they did against Alabama and UGA online.
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Panama City, Fla., will be having a change of theme for college students du r i ng t h is yea r ’s spr i ng brea k season. P a n a m a C i t y ’ s To u r i s t Development Council will be ruling out any special events with MTV, which always films and broadcasts there in March. The council also prohibited any permits for an annual Beach Scene Music Festival, which was to draw artists like Black Eyed Peas, Lady GaGa and Green Day. “I just don’t think there’s any way in the world we could control that many people,” said Panama Cit y’s m ayor G ayle Ob er st i n a pre s s release. Usually each season of spring break has its fair share of t urmoil, but last year a Lil Wayne performance hosted by MTV resulted in violence when two people were stabbed. “I did not know about that, that’s very eye-opening,” said Eric Parsons, a first-year sport and entertainment management student. Panama City will still have a solid number of tourists for this spring, said Chad Hart, a travel agent with Inertia Tours.
“The four weeks are close to being sold out, so it doesn’t affect the rate by that much,” he said. However, Hart said that over the years it may be affected. “St udents usually come for t he hype of MTV being there,” he said. MTV filled a gap in the lack of entertainment that Panama City was already suffering. “W hen they figure out that the station will not be there, they’ll move on to ot her places such as Sout h Padre,” Hart said. South Padre Island has become popular over the years and is topranked for events such as the Beach Scene Music Festival. South Padre experienced an influx of student visitors throughout the 1980s, then spent the next decade limiting the amount of tourists. Panama Cit y is going t h rough the same cycle, so its spring break tourism may not be over yet. MTV just won’t be having its usual party there. Comments on this story? E-mail sagcknew@mailbox.sc.edu
As William Harrison, a USC professor and southeastern real estate expert, tried to explain the global meltdown of our economy’s housing sector, the best analogy he could think of was the plot of the movie “The Perfect Storm.” “‘The Perfect Storm’ is about a small fishing boat that got caught out in the middle of a huge storm,” Harrison said. “The interesting part about the storm was that there were three separate storms that occurred at just the right time to help breed this one mega storm.” This “mega storm” is what led Congress to standardize the form and procedures used by lenders, now providing borrowers with a “good faith estimate,” Harrison said. “A good faith estimate is supposed to provide a more accurate amount to borrowers in terms of the initial estimate,” Harrison said. This legislation is part of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and went into effect Jan. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Web site. The purpose was to improve disclosure between the lender and the borrower. Lenders often underestimate the price of houses so they can win the initial lending battle, only to add hidden costs and a more realistic price when the borrower gets to the closing table. Harrison said the lending community for many years sought to make hidden profits off of the entire process. Whether it was the undisclosed cost of borrowing money, appraisal fees, survey fees, documentation fees or even the attorney fees, the lenders played on the borrowers’ hope and emotional connection to the house. “Often times the lenders will work very closely with a specific attorney and then strongly suggest that the borrower use a specific in-house attorney so that they can charge a fee on top of the attorney’s fee,” Harrison said. The new legislature is supposed to provide disclosure between the lender and the borrower, but according to Harrison this isn’t the real problem. The real problem, according to Harrison, is the collapse of the pricing bubble and the irresponsible practices of the lending community. The collapse of the housing bubble began in 2006 and the first wave of foreclosures was a direct effect of that, Harrison said. “Initially, foreclosures were focused on the sub prime mortgages, which are mortgages that were given to people who really couldn’t afford the mortgage in the first place,” Harrison said. Harrison noted two important events: the start of the global recession in Europe — where Europeans came extremely close to losing control of the financial markets — and the fall of financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers and AIG. The second storm that affected the global crisis was the collapse of the capital market. When the capital market collapsed, much of the credit used to buy houses and pieces of real estate froze and are still frozen. The combination of these two factors brought us toward the point of recession that Harrison considers the final storm. Talking about South Carolina’s real estate environment, he made Housing ● 3