Daily Toreador The
FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2013 VOLUME 87 ■ ISSUE 153
AUSTIN (AP) — A Texas Senate committee on Thursday pushed through new abortion restrictions, setting up a Senate vote before the weekend to send it to Gov. Rick Perry. With the Republican majority set to pass the bill, a top Democrat says his party’s efforts to block it at the Capitol have run out. Sen. Royce West of Dallas says abortion rights activists will ask the courts to intervene. The bill returns to the Senate chamber, where a filibuster and outbursts from the public gallery interrupted a vote on June 25. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says security will clear the gallery at the first sign of any outburst. The bill would require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, only allow abortions in surgical centers and bans abortions after 20 weeks.
Study: Distant quakes can affect oil, gas fields LOS ANGELES (AP) — The powerful earthquake that rocked Japan in 2011 set off tremors around a West Texas oil field, according to new research that suggests oil and gas drilling operations may make fault zones sensitive to shock waves from distant big quakes. It’s long been known that large quakes can trigger minor jolts thousands of miles from the epicenter. Volcanically active spots like Yellowstone National Park often experience shaking after a large distant event. Less is known about the influence of remote quakes on fault lines that have been weakened by man-made activity like the deep disposal of wastewater at the Texas oil field. A new study led by researchers at Columbia University and published Friday in the journal Science suggests a strong quake that strikes halfway around the globe can set off small to mid-size quakes near injection wells in the U.S. heartland. “The seismic waves act as the straw that breaks the camel’s back, pushing the faults that last little bit toward an earthquake,” lead researcher Nicholas van der Elst said in an email. There has been heightened scrutiny in recent years of quakes near industrial areas as drilling is ramped up to satisfy the country’s energy hunger. Research has shown that wastewater disposal — the process of pumping fluids deep into the ground at high pressures — can weaken nearby fault lines and even produce quakes big enough to be felt. The controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses high-pressure mixtures of water, sand and chemicals to extract natural gas or oil, also can trigger quakes, but they’re typically microquakes — smaller than magnitude-2.
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INDEX Classifieds................3 Crossword..............3 Sudoku.......................2 EDITORIAL: 806-742-3393
Tech Museum hosts Patriotic Salute By SIDNEY RICHBURG Staff Writer
In the final minutes leading up to the performance, the room was filled with a mixture of melodies as two bands proceeded with their last minute practicing. Music at the Museum: “A Patriotic Salute,” with performances from the Texas Tech Band Camp and the Westwinds Brass Band, was hosted at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Helen DeVitt Jones Sculpture Court of Museum of Texas Tech. Nicky Ladkin, assistant director for community engagement at the museum, said “A Patriotic Salute” was a post July Fourth bash celebrating America. The turnout was a wonderful surprise, she said, and people were standing even though the museum put extra chairs out. “We were hoping for a good audience,” Ladkin said. “This was a wonderful audience, way more than we were expecting.” Jennie Sung, a sophomore music education and performance major from Dallas, said this event was special because it brought the community and people from around the state together to enjoy a concert. Sung said she enjoyed the concert being hosted in the museum because it
PHOTO BY BEN FOX/The Daily Toreador
SARAH MCKOIN, THE director of bands, conducts the Texas Tech Band Camp Honors Wind Ensemble as part of Music at the Museum: “A Patriotic Salute” on Wednesday.
was not a typical place for a concert. “I’ve never been in this kind of setting for a concert, and I thought it was a new experience that not a lot of
other people have been in,” she said. “I thought it was fun and new.” Duane Hill, director of athletic bands and associate director of bands, said
the students who performed were high school students from across the state. SALUTE continued on Page 2 ➤➤
Deal emerging on student loans, talks continue WASHINGTON (AP) — An emerging deal to lower interest rates on student loans took shape Thursday, offering Democrats promises that interest rates would not reach 10 percent and giving Republicans a link between borrowing terms and the financial markets. Lawmakers and their aides were in talks about how they might reduce rates on subsidized Stafford loans, which doubled to 6.8 percent last week in the wake of congressional inaction. Efforts to restore those rates to 3.4 percent were abandoned in favor of a new compromise that bears many similarities with a bill that House Republicans have passed, and with President Barack Obama’s budget proposal. “There is no question that there is a compromise available on this impor-
tant issue and that the sides have not note plus an additional percentage to pay for administrative been that far apart costs. and we just need to Undergraduate get it done,” White House spokesman students would see Jay Carney said. a better deal than the current 6.8 per“We have been cent rate but could working with lawface higher costs if makers to make the economy imthat compromise happen. We need proves and Treasury to make sure that notes become more students don’t see expensive. Rates for students this fall their rates double,” would be around 4 he said. Under the plan percent and would LAMAR ALEXANDER lawmakers are conbe capped at 8.25 U.S. SENATOR sidering, interest percent in future years. rates on new loans Graduate students and parents, too, would be based on the 10-year Treasury
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We must focus our attention now on a long-term solution such as the president supports ...
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Senate gets abortion bill setting up final vote
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Texas Senate approves roads, criminal justice AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Senate on Thursday approved key road-building and criminal justice measures that have been overshadowed by the intense debate over abortion during the second special session. Lawmakers sent voters a proposed constitutional amendment that would pump billions into road building from the state’s cash reserve fund. That fund is supported by oil and gas severance taxes. If approved by the House, the measure would go to voters statewide in November. Texas transportation leaders say the state needs about $4 billion more for roads per year. The measure before lawmakers would spend less than a quarter of that. The measure passed the senate unanimously. The Senate also approved a bill that would bring Texas in line with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning sentences of life in prison for 17-year-old capital murder defendants. Some Democrats questioned whether minors should ADVERTISING: 806-742-3384
face mandatory sentences if convicted. Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, said judges and juries should have more flexibility to consider individual circumstances. “Juveniles offenders because of their brain development and other factors are different from other offenders,” he said. Rodriguez also expressed concerns about statistics that show racial disparities in how teenagers are charged and sentenced, with blacks and Hispanics receiving harsher penalties than whites for the same crimes. Huffman said her bill meets the new constitutional requirements and be consistent with sentencing for 14-to-16year-olds, who also receive a mandatory sentence of life with the possibility of parole in 40 years. “In my eyes, 25 years would be too short of a sentence for someone who has committed a capital felony,” Huffman said. Both measures now go to the House for consideration.
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could find better deals next year but again would face higher rates than the current 7.9 percent. Borrowing for those PLUS loans would be around 6 percent this fall and capped at 9.25 percent in coming years. Lawmakers were still working on specific rates but both parties were in rough agreement on the numbers. They were waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to double check their math to make sure the proposal did not cost taxpayers or generate too much profit. Talk of a compromise came just hours after Democratic-led efforts to restore the 3.4 percent interest rates failed to overcome a procedural hurdle in the Senate. LOANS continued on Page 2 ➤➤
MASONIC MAINTENANCE
PHOTO BY ASHLYN TUBBS/The Daily Toreador
GROUNDS MAINTENANCE WORKERS lay brick for a new hardscape in front of Stangel/Murdough Residence Hall. Along with the bricks, the residence hall has gotten a new sidewalk and will receive paved bike parking areas and sitting areas.
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