Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!
Get your drink on this winter without the extra calories
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Do you want candy? Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013 | Volume 107, Issue 13 | the-standard.org
Heffner said “there’s a window of about 1-2 years,” to get Aaron Carter in front of a crop of students who remember back to the time when he was at the height of his popularity. Heffner also said that student response has been good, if a little wary at times. “I think some people will be like ‘Is it really Aaron Carter?’ and then go, and really certs chair Emily Heffner. Heffner said this was comparable to the enjoy it.” The show will take place in the Plaster price of past concerts, such as last fall’s visit by The Rocket Summer, which ran a total cost Student Union theater, and tickets will be free for students. of $21,301.93. She said that Carter, who has been on an 80-plus stop tour with sold-out shows, was a Starting the party How exactly do you decide to bring Aaron good fit for the current group of college stuCarter to campus, anyway? dents.
1990s pop sensation Aaron Carter will be featured in SAC’s Winter Week concert this January
By Trevor Mitchell The Standard
How much will Aaron’s party cost this time around? Probably somewhere around $22,589.50. That’s the budgeted cost for Aaron Carter’s upcoming Jan. 21 campus concert, according to Student Activities Council con-
Heffner said that the concert committee works with a middle agent – someone who communicates between SAC and the acts themselves – to see who is available at prices that fit the committee’s budget. Once the field has been narrowed to around five or six acts, a series of several voting rounds take place to see who will be brought to campus. The committee must then work to figure out production costs for the show. These range from the instruments the band will be playing to any additional lighting or stage additions that the artist requests. The production costs are often a major u See CARTER, page 2
Millions and millions of meals
Evan Henningsen/THE STANDARD
Volunteers help pack just a few of the million meals at the Friends Against Hunger’s Pack-A-Thon the weekend of Nov. 15 at the Springfield Exposition Center.
Pack-A-Thon helps pack meals to fight hunger in Springfield, overseas
Hunger’s Meals A milion event to help those fighting hunger in Springfield and overseas. Volunteers participated in the $165,000 + 29 hours + 5,400 volunteers = 1 million meals packed this Pack-A-Thon in the Springfield past weekend during Friends Against Exposition Center, working to pack
By Rose Marthis The Standard
approximately 150 meals per person during every two-hour shift, according to Karen Wood, director of Friends Against Hunger. Wood and her husband started Friends Against Hunger in 2007 and have since provided 6.5 million meals to families in need. This is the second year of the Meals A Million Pack-A-Thon, and Wood estimates that there were about 1,000 more
volunteers than last year. Wood and her husband used to hold small packing sessions in a warehouse to produce 1 million meals over an entire year. She said that switching to the large-scale Pack-A-Thon format is more cost effective, because they only have to rent the exposition center for one weekend to produce 1 million meals. Now the couple works year-
Minimum wage to increase Increase will take effect in January, but not everyone agrees that it’s the right move By Andrew Shields The Standard
For the second year in a row, Missouri will be raising the state minimum wage. Making a 15-cent increase, wages will be going up from $7.35 to $7.50 on Jan. 1, 2014. Minimum wage had previously been set at $7.35 at the beginning of 2013, replacing the previous value set of $7.25 in 2009. According to Thomas Wyrick, an emeritus professor of economics at Missouri State, the economic dynamic is different when only one state raises its minimum wage and not the
country as a whole. Wyrick said that when Missouri’s wages go up, so do the prices of products within the state. This, in turn, can encourage consumers and business owners to seek materials and services outside of the state, stunting economic growth in Missouri. He also said that when minimum wage goes up, employers have to find somewhere to get the extra money to pay their employees, often resulting in a loss of jobs or a hiring freeze. “Today, state legislature said it was illegal for employers to hire someone whose labor is worth less than $7.50 an hour,” said Wyrick. “If they’re worth less, you can’t hire them for that. So basically, now you can’t hire people with low skills and education if their services are worth $7.30 an hour.” Wyrick said that a loss of jobs, as a result of this, would slow down economic growth, because there isn’t money being spent when “we’ve got 1,000 people sitting on the couch at home.” While 1,000 is a potentially high prediction for the amount of lost jobs, Wyrick said that he wouldn’t be surprised if it was close. Terrel Gallaway, the acting head of the eco-
nomics department, is skeptical of the impact of the minimum wage increase, but says that wages in Missouri aren’t a black and white issue. Gallaway said that, on one side of the issue, you have the idea that the very people that the wage increase sets out to help may be instead hurt by a loss of hours, or even their jobs. He said that, while employers had to comply with the standard going into effect, “they’re not in this game to lose.” However, there is an argument that the current minimum wage is not a livable one, and an increase would encourage economic growth and an alleviation of the pressure on financial assistance in the state of Missouri. “Over the lifetime of many of the students of Missouri State, a very large percentage of the population has seen little or no economic advancement,” said Gallaway. “While the economy has grown, most of that growth had gone to a small set of affluent people.” He said that one of the main reasons raising minimum wage was on the table was to make u See WAGE, page 2
round to recruit volunteers, raise money and organize the event. The meals cost 16 cents each, and Wood said the final cost is $165,000 for facilities, food, containers and shipping. When the volunteers arrived at the exposition center, they watched an introductory video and went u See MEALS, page 2
Police identify man killed in hit-and-run By Trevor Mitchell The Standard
The victim of a Nov. 17 hit-and-run collision near MSU has been identified as Zachary S. Gibson, 23, of Springfield. A press release from the Springfield Police Department said Gibson was traveling west on Bear Boulevard on a bicycle. At approximately 6:45 p.m., while crossing Kimbrough Avenue, Gibson was struck by a white sedan traveling south on Kimbrough, according to police. The vehicle left the scene, where Gibson was pronounced dead. Police said a tip led them to the recovery of the suspect vehicle in the 600 block of West Edgewood on Monday morning. At press time Monday, The Standard was unable to confirm whether Gibson was ever enrolled at MSU.