Partly Cloudy with a 30% chance of rain HIGH LOW 57 45
Assistant Sports Editor Zac Ellis campaigns for Lady Vols vs. UConn
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 Issue 40
E D I T O R I A L L Y
I N D E P E N D E N T
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906
Local band, Four Leaf Peat, to play tonight at the Square Room
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Research journal to publish student work Katie Freeman News Editor
Prescription drug heist nets $75 million HARTFORD, Conn. — In a Hollywood-style heist, thieves cut a hole in the roof of a warehouse, rappelled inside and scored one of the biggest hauls of its kind — not diamonds, gold bullion or Old World art, but about $75 million in antidepressants and other prescription drugs. The pills — stolen from the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. in quantities big enough to fill a tractor-trailer — are believed to be destined for the black market, perhaps overseas. Chicago man to plead guilty to terrorism charges CHICAGO — Prosecutors said a Chicago man accused of scouting the Indian city of Mumbai before a November 2008 terrorist rampage will plead guilty to federal charges. David Coleman Headley had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to bomb public places in India and aiding and abetting the murder of American citizens killed during the attack that left 166 dead. But the government said in a Tuesday court filing that Headley will change his plea Thursday. Headley attorney John Theis (TICE) said he and his client have been in discussions with federal prosecutors and that Thursday’s court action will reflect that. Headley is also accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper that ran cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. That attack never took place.
Pursuit, the first UT student journal of entirely undergraduate research, will release its first issue during the Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement next week. The Pursuit editorial staff conceptualized a publication that supports UT as a research institution and encourages original work that pushes the boundaries of research at the undergraduate level. The idea started last year with a Chancellor’s Honors Program student, Payal Sharma, senior in biological sciences. “We had been kicking around the idea of a undergraduate research journal amongst ourselves, so it was fortuitous that Payal also had this vision,” Rebekah Page, assistant director of the Chancellor’s Honors Program and faculty adviser to the Pursuit editorial board, said. A founder’s letter from Sharma is included in the inaugural issue. Todd Skelton, Pursuit editor-in-chief and senior in College Scholars, said the journal was possible through the joint support of the Chancellor’s Honors Program and the Office of Research. The editorial review board was able to select eight papers from dozens of submissions for the inaugural issue, Skelton said. “The first issue is mostly senior projects,
several honors theses or projects from science classes with capstone projects,” Skelton said. “However, all majors and years are accepted, and it’s a great resource for UT students.” A couple of the papers featured in the first issue were submitted by UT undergraduates who have now moved on to their first years at Harvard Law School or the Harvard graduate program in earth and planetary sciences, Will Barnes, Pursuit managing editor and senior in history, said. “The inaugural issue that comes out in the next few weeks encompasses a lot of different disciplines,” Barnes said. “There’s a really good history paper, an impressive paper on social security and another on geologic fault lines.” Page said topics range from trade relations to economics and engineering. “In addition to the research papers, we’ve included an interview with a UT graduate who is now at Cambridge (University) on a National
Tenn. House advances bill to make primary results final The Associated Press
Beach jogger killed by landing plane HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Robert Gary Jones was a pharmaceutical salesman on a business trip, looking forward to getting home to celebrate his daughter’s third birthday. He was enjoying a moment to himself on this resort island, jogging on the beach and listening to his iPod. Officials said the Woodstock, Ga., man neither saw nor heard what struck him from behind Monday evening: A single-engine plane making an emergency landing. The Lancair IV-P aircraft, which can be built from a kit, had lost its propeller and was “basically gliding” as it hit and instantly killed Jones, said Ed Allen, the coroner for Beaufort County on the South Carolina coast. “There’s no noise,” said aviation expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the National Transportation Safety Board. “So the jogger, with his ear buds in, and the plane without an engine, you’re basically a stealth aircraft. Who would expect to look up?”
Institutes of Health scholarship,” Skelton said. “This is a resource meant to push us further as a research institution.” The journal will release every fall and spring and will be available in hard copy in the Office of Research and the Chancellor’s Honors Program office, as well as online through the UT Libraries TRACE academic research database. “It’s been a hectic semester trying to get everything organized,” Barnes said. “But it’s definitely a resource good schools have.” Pursuit is one of a few of its kind among the national university community, according to a UT press release. Students interested in submitting research for the Fall 2010 issue of Pursuit can check for application information in the hard copy or online version of the journal after its release on March 25. Submissions will be accepted from April 1 through May 31 and will be reviewed throughout the summer and beginning of the fall semester. Graduates may submit their work within one year of their undergraduate graduation date. “My hope is that more undergraduates will engage in research,” Skelton said in a UT press release. “I think many students to do not realize research is not just something to fulfill a senior project requirement and that research opportunities are open to everyone, not just science and engineering students.”
Hayley DeBusk • The Daily Beacon
Construction workers look at the progress of Neyland Stadium. The football stadium in the largest in the South and the thirdlargest in the Nation. This is the 17th addition that the stadium has had since it was built in 1921.
NASHVILLE — Tennessee political parties would lose the right to overrule the results of primary elections under a bill that advanced in the state House on Tuesday. The House Elections Subcommittee cast a voice vote in favor of the measure sponsored by Republican Rep. Frank Niceley of Strawberry Plains, who said the bill would dictate that “if you’re elected and certified, then you’re the nominee.” The measure would also provide for write-in candidacies in primaries that could give House Speaker Kent Williams of Elizabethton an avenue for running again as a Republican. The proposal is strongly opposed by the state Republican Party. “We are totally against any provision that would inhibit our ability to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure that credible nominees appear on our ballot,” Chairman Chris Devaney said. “This is bigger than Kent Williams.” Several committee members cited the example of former Democratic Sen. Rosalind Kurita, who had her 19-vote win over Clarksville attorney Tim Barnes vacated by the Democratic Party’s executive committee in 2008 after Barnes’ legal team argued there was heavy Republican crossover voting, and because poll workers allegedly directed Barnes supporters to vote in the wrong primary. Many Democrats were angry at Kurita for casting a key vote for Sen. Ron Ramsey in the Blountville Republican’s election as Senate Speaker over the Democratic nominee the previous year.
Niceley’s bill found its most vocal support on the panel from Williams, who has had his own battles with the political establishment for bucking his party’s nominee in a legislative leadership contest. Williams was stripped of his right to run for re-election as a Republican by the state party for banding together with the chamber’s Democrats last year to thwart the GOP’s choice for the top leadership post in the House by a single vote. “To allow a committee to dictate who’s a Republican, who’s a Democrat, is ridiculous,” Williams said during the committee hearing. “I’ve been down that road. I know what that road feels like.” Williams has been unsuccessful so far in his efforts to have his GOP credentials restored before the April 1 filing deadline. But Niceley’s bill could allow Williams to seek the GOP nomination as a write-in candidate and an independent candidate. The measure would allow a candidate winning the nomination through the write-in process to then drop the independent bid before the general election. Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester said the current system “protects the integrity of each individual party,” and he opposes any changes. “These proposals could invite partisan mischief in our election process,” he said. In 2004, the Republican executive committee adopted a resolution to urge voters “to reject the candidacy of James Hart wholly and unequivocally” for his views that “lessfavored races” should be discouraged from reproducing. Two years later, the party barred Hart from running in the GOP primary.