mar. 17 edition
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Thursday, Mar. 17 edition of The ParthenonTRANSCRIPT
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Thursday, March 17, 2011Marshall University’s Student Newspaper marshallparthenon.com
Onlinemarshallparthenon.com
Inside
PAGE EDITED AND DESIGNED BY WHITNEY BURDETTE
Volume 114 I No. 106
News .......................... 2Sports ........................ 3Opinion ....................... 4Cartoon ...................... 5Life ............................. 6
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Sunshine laws
ensure government
transparency.
Page 4
Pedal for PATH raises
money for bike trail.
Page 2
St. Patrick’s Day has it’s
roots in Catholicism.
Page 6
Tuesday’s CIT game
poorly attended
Page 3
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BY ASHLEY GROHOSKI AND KELLEY BUGLERTHE PARTHENON
� e Parthenon only printed advertisements and no news articles Wednesday to represent the sig-ni� cance of student journalism.
� is week is Sunshine Week, which is a national initiative to promote the importance of open gov-ernment and freedom of information. Community and student media are able to publish government documents because of the Freedom of Information Act.
“Sunshine Week is an e ort to get people talking about freedom of information in the government,” said Richard Karpel, executive director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. “We are focused more on the value of government trans-parency and the sharing of information through newspapers, websites and individuals.”
Karpel said because Marshall University is a state school receiving public funds, university
administration should be just as accountable as city and state government bodies in providing information.
“University administration must be transparent with students and the community about what they are doing,” Karpel said.
� e Florida Society of Newspaper Editors started Sunshine Week in 2002 a� er learning that Florida legislators tried to create new exemptions to open government laws.
“� e organizers understood that we needed to try to educate the public about the importance of open government,” said Neil Ralston, vice presi-dent of campus chapter a airs for the Society of Professional Journalists. “It’s something that con-servatives, liberals and everyone in the middle can agree on.”
Approximately 300 exemptions to open govern-ment laws were defeated in legislative sessions that followed Florida’s � rst three Sunshine Sundays due to increased public awareness, according to
sunshineweek.org.“We can’t hold our public o� cials accountable
if we don’t know what they’re doing,” Ralston said. “So any time they try to close a meeting or hide a record, we need to be damn sure they’re doing it for the right reasons.”
Karpel said people o� en assume they have all the information needed to make a decision, but with open government laws, people can learn even more about the issue.
“Government is more e ective if it is open,” Kar-pel said. “It’s not about the public being snoops. Most of the time, the local heroes we nominate are people who just couldn’t get a question answered.”
Mike Hiestand, consulting attorney at the Stu-dent Press Law Center, visits schools and talks to students about the importance of FOIA laws and campus media.
“Student media has really stepped in and � lled
Sunshine week raises awareness of importance of college media
See SUNSHINE I 5
BY ASHLEY MANNONTHE PARTHENON
� e Municipal Home Rule Board is expected to make a decision about Huntington’s proposed 1 percent sales and occupation tax at this morning’s meeting in Charleston.
� e tax would replace the $3 weekly user fee and make signi� cant changes to the city’s business and occupation tax. Manufacturers would no longer pay this tax and retail and service-based businesses would pay half of what they are currently paying.
A 1 percent tax would be added to all goods sold within the city. Additionally, employees of busi-nesses within the city limits would pay a tax of 1 percent of their gross income.
Huntington City Councilman Steve Williams said the problem with the business and occupation tax is that it’s only charged by cities.
“If a business is able to locate just outside the city limits, have access to all the markets of the commu-nity, but not have to pay the B&O tax, it places us at a competitive disadvantage,” Williams said. “In the 30 years since I have been out of college and in my business life, I have heard nothing but complaints about B&O taxes placing the city at a competitive disadvantage. I saw this as an opportunity to begin weaning us away from that in this process.”
Williams said it was important to note that the Home Rule Program is a pilot project lasting until July 1, 2013. He said four cities applied and received approval for their speci� c proposals.
“As a pilot project, the intention is to evalu-ate what works and what doesn’t work and make recommendations to the legislature as to any ad-justments that might need to be made, if they’re going to give authorization for these things for ev-erybody within the state,” Williams said.
Williams said one problem with the proposed tax program is that people who live within the city but do not work within city limits would not have to pay the tax, whereas those who work within the city but live elsewhere would have to pay it.
“� at’s an inherent problem with the proposal that somehow we would need to work out,” Wil-liams said. “My thought is that we need to do what
Home Rule Board to rule on city’s proposed occupation tax
See TAX I 5
BY ANNA SWIFTTHE PARTHENON
Members of the West Virginia House of Delegates and Senate have been addressing this year’s state budget through means of an extended session since Sunday.
Introduced in the House on Jan. 12, the House’s budget bill passed both chambers last week but not without amendments from the Senate, according to the Legisla-ture’s website. Neither the House nor the Senate would step back from its position, however. � us, a conference was appointed Sat-urday to bring together an equal number of members from both chambers following the end of the Legislature’s regular session. Act-ing Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin had proclaimed March 9 that the Leg-islature would be able to consider the budget three days beyond the � nal day of its regular session.
In an earlier interview, professor Marybeth Beller, associate profes-sor of political science, said it is very common for the Legislature to hold a special session for con-sideration of the budget. In a later interview, Beller also said it is com-mon for a conference committee to be called.
“Everyone has constituents they need to please,” she said. “Every-one has a stake in the outcome.”
Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, said the Senate’s amendments re-¢ ect the governor’s budget. Plymale
See BUDGET I 5
Budget debated in extended session
Harrell wins SGA election
TREVAN HANNAHS | THE PARTHENON
Newly elected SGA president Ray Harrell celebrates with friends after his victory was announced Wednesday. Harrell defeated opponent Joe Stefanov 546-400.
BY TREVAN HANNAHSTHE PARTHENON
Students elected current SGA Busi-ness manager Ray Harrell as student body president. SGA Election Com-missioner Josh Sime announced the results Wednesday night.
Students voted in the Memorial Student Center and Rec Center for student body president and vice president, as well as college senators and a resolution to give the student
government full power to update the constitution as well.
Harrell, sophomore political sci-ence major from Boca Raton, Fla., and junior SGA Parliamentarian Kelly Kutzavitch were elected to the top two spots in SGA. � e two said they would work together to repre-sent the students on campus. Harrell said he is honored to represent the student body for Marshall University.
“Its feels fantastic. Glad the stu-dents came out and voted,” Harrell
said. He said he plans to introduce the
marketing platform he promised to students on day one. He said the SGA apathy is going to decrease.
“Facebook, Twitter website you name it because everyone is going to know about us next year,” Harrell said.
Kutzavitch said she was ecstatic and ready to work with Harrell.
See HARRELL I 5
Thursday, March 17, 20112 marshallparthenon.com
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PAGE EDITED AND DESIGNED BY MARCUS CONSTANTINO - [email protected]
BY CRYSTAL MYERSTHE PARTHENON
Members of the Student Ac-tivities Programming Broad handed out “spring break sur-vival guides” Tuesday at the Memorial Student Center.
� e groups sponsoring the guides originally planned to continue the project Wednes-day, but due to the popularity of the idea, all guides were given away Tuesday.
More than 200 guides were handed out to help protect students during the upcoming week o� . � e survival guides included a tube of SPF15 chap stick, three packets of sun screen, eight condoms, infor-mation on how to get tested for HIV and AIDS and a list of safety tips and facts packed inside of a cup. Hilary Gibson, sophomore communications disorder major from Poca, W.Va., said she thinks most of the kit was a good idea.
“Not necessarily the chap stick, I’m not sure people will need that, but de� nitely the condoms and sunscreen,” Gibson said. “Hopefully ev-eryone knows they should always use both of those.”
� e Marshall Student Resource Center, SAPB, Marshall Women’s Center and Marshall Student Health sponsored the guides.
Resource center resource specialist Jessica Jordan said she was happy with the suc-cess of the guides.
“I think it reads suc-cess because we planned to have enough for both days but could not continue on Wednesday,” Jordan said. “We have received nothing but positive feedback. � e students have been really ap-preciative that we were able to give out things that they needed for free.”
Although Gibson said she was upset she didn’t receive a guide, she was able to look through a friend’s copy. She said she thinks the guides will be seen by and inform more than just those who received them.
“� ere was a fact on there that said one in � ve college students have an STD and I mean giving out condoms is logical and will help protect against that,” Gibson said. “In all seriousness, one out of � ve people means I could have one or you could have one and that’s kind of scary. People should de� nitely use the condoms because of that alone.”
Jordan said the guides were given out this week in hopes to inform and protect stu-dents from possible spring break dangers.
“We questioned given out the condoms at � rst, but de-cided it is better for students to have the information and the option to protect them-selves if they choose to have sex,” Jordan said.
“Let’s be honest, when stu-dents see something free of course they will take it,” Gib-son said. “It’s just nice that this time it was something that can be used.”
Jordan said the success of the kits has members of the organization hoping to give them out next year as well.
“We not only hope to do it again, we hope it can be on a bigger scale,” Jordan said. “We are even hoping to pair up with MUPD and the women’s center to do a workshop so no matter where our students go, they will know how to protect themselves.” Crystal Myers can be contacted at [email protected].
Kits prepare Marshall students for spring break
BY CHRYSTAL PHILLIPSTHE PARTHENON
Marshall medical students and recreational cen-ter organized a Spin-a-� on event Tuesday to raise money for a new walking and biking trail.
� e event raised $3000 dollars for the Paul Am-brose Trail for Health, whose mission is to build a trail from Westmoreland to Barboursville, W.Va. to encourage healthier lifestyles.
� e “Pedal for PATH” took place in the spin room at Marshall University’s Recreational Center and had a total of 88 participants.
Participants pedaled for 50 minutes on stationary bikes to donate money for the cause.
“Everyone was excited and had a good attitude,” said Heather Smith, senior assistant � tness director and spin class instructor at the recreational center. “I’m happy that people want to come and support an event held here at the Rec Center.”
Shannon James, second year medical student and
chair of the American Medical Association at Mar-shall University, said she was happy to have people wanting to support the cause.
“We did this last year and had a great response from the community and businesses in the area wanting to support this cause,” James said. “We ex-pect nothing less this year.”
James said the purpose of the event was not only to raise money for a new trail to be built but to honor the e� orts of Marshall Alumni, Paul Ambrose, who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Ambrose was a physician in Huntington, W.Va., who focused on family health and preventative medicine to � ght obesity.
His father, Kenneth Ambrose, professor of sociol-ogy and anthropology at Marshall, said he had just � nished his � nal edit on the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevention and Decrease Overweight and Obesity.
On his way to present this in Los Angeles,
terrorists crashed Paul Ambrose’s plane into the Pentagon.
James said she had the opportunity to meet Am-brose personally and building this path is going to be the best way to remember him.
“It’s the best way to honor him and what he had accomplished in a short period of time,” James said.
Kenneth Ambrose said the hope that this path will have on the community will not only bene� t the memory of his son.
“Building this path will hopefully bene� t the stu-dents at Marshall and the community to deal with the health issue of obesity,” Ambrose said.
Ambrose also said he appreciated the work e� orts that medical students were doing for this cause and was grateful for all the sponsors for the Pedal for PATH fundraiser.
Contact Chrystal Phillips at [email protected].
Medical students help remember physician’s efforts
CHRYSTAL PHILLIPS | THE PARTHENON
A total of 88 participants pedaled for 50 minutes each to raise money for a walking and biking trail and to honor Marshall alumni Paul Ambrose, who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
BY RALPH VARTABEDIANLOS ANGELES TIMES(MCT)
LOS ANGELES — A net-work of sensors is watching and waiting for the � rst sign of nuclear fallout from the crippled Japanese reactors at the Fukushima plant 5,000 miles away.
Operated by the U.S. Envi-ronmental Protection Agency, the network — known as Radnet — is a system of 100 radiation monitors that op-erate 24 hours a day, spread across the United States.
� e system is part of a much larger interagency federal plan for emergencies having to do with radioactive releases. � at plan is now high gear, even as federal o¢ cials simultaneously try to calm the U.S. public over fears that fallout from Japan’s nuclear disaster will hit Ameri-can shores.
� e Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the nuclear industry, again said Wednesday that it does not expect dangerous levels of radioactivity to hit the West Coast of the U.S. But at the same time, it sharply raised its warning to American citizens, instructing them to evacuate at least 50 miles from the Fu-kushima complex.
� e NRC released comput-erized projections showing that within a half-mile of the plant radiation levels were so high that people could receive a fatal dose and that even 50 miles away, they could receive
more than 16 times the aver-age annual dose individuals are exposed to from natural sources.
� ose numbers were sharply higher than ones the NRC released in earlier days. But although the reactors are leaking more radiation now, experts continued to say that the particles would wash out of the atmosphere before they could reach the U.S.
So far, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fuku-shima No. 1 facility, and the Japanese government have not released any measure-ments or estimates of the total amount of radioactivity re-leased by the accident. � ese numbers would be critical to better projections of whether the material could a� ect other Asian nations, the Paci� c is-lands or even the U.S.
Edwin Lyman, a nuclear specialist at the nuclear watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists, said that while it’s true that the more radioactivity released in Japan the more could migrate away from the region, but he does not think the U.S. is at serious risk.
“We can never say never,” Lyman said. “My judgment is that there will probably be measurable radiation, but ex-cept for a few hotspots it is not something we should re-ally worry about.”
Lyman noted that the NRC’s warning Wednesday to Americans in Japan to evacuate 50 miles from the
Fukushima reactors is a long overdue admission that their prior warnings of a 10-mile exclusion zone from U.S. re-actors during an emergency was inadequate.
Key federal o¢ cials in-volved in the monitoring program have so far not dis-closed their predictions for U.S. radioactive exposure.
� e projections are being developed by the National Atmospheric Release Advi-sory Center operated at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. � is center, part of the Energy Department, uses sophisticated mod-els on supercomputers to project the movement of ra-dioactive particles and other
toxic substances through the atmosphere.
However, a computer model of atmospheric currents devel-oped by the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy shows that the Fukushima plumes theo-retically can travel across the Paci� c, though the levels of ra-dioactivity that could reach the U.S. remain unclear.
THE PARTHENON
Local gra¢ ti artist ‘EPIK’ was arrested Monday in connection with the rise of gra¢ ti on campus.
An anonymous Marshall University Police De-partment was able to identify and arrest Samuel Harrison Pauley, 19, of South Charleston who ad-mitted to using the alias “EPIK.”
“We had a tip on our ‘silent witness’ page regard-ing a Marshall student,” said James Terry, chief of campus police. “We contacted the student and he was willing to cooperate.”
Terry said Pauley denied painting any stencils on
campus, but did take credit for three tags on the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center and another tag on the � ird Avenue side of the Henderson Center.
MUPD obtained three misdemeanor warrants and one felony warrant for destruction of property on Monday. According to the police record books, Pauley turned himself in and was transported to Western Regional Jail with bond set at $11,000.
A destruction of public property count reaches felony status if the cost of the damage exceeds $1,000. Pauley had taken credit for a tag on a large sports banner on the side of the Henderson Center and the gra¢ ti was unable to be removed.
Terry said this is the � rst arrest with hopefully more to follow. He said MUPD has obtained infor-mation regarding another suspect in connection to gra¢ ti and destruction of property counts on cam-pus and the surrounding area.
� e silent witness reporting system is a service provided by the MUPD website. � e system allows the witness to anonymously send information to the Marshall University Police Department without any fear of knowing the information could come back to harm the person writing the report. � is service can be located at http://www.marshall.edu/mupd/silentwitness.htm.
MUPD arrest student in connection with campus graffiti
Network of sensors monitors possible nuclear fallout
CAROLYN COLE | LOS ANGELES TIMES | MCT
At the Yamagata Sports Center, residents of Fukushima are screened for radiation when they check into the displaced persons center, Wednesday, March 16. Here, Yukiko Fushimi, center, gets checked along with her two grandchildren, but none of them showed elevated levels.
Thursday, March 17, 2011marshallparthenon.com
“Our fans are phenomenal. The ones who turned out tonight.”Men’s basketball coach Tom Herrion, on the low turnout to Tuesday’s CIT game at the Cam Henderson Center.
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PAGE EDITED AND DESIGNED BY WHITNEY BURDETTE - [email protected]
226307CAMPUS MEDIA/ LOVE COLLEGE HOO
SPRINT 4 x 8.0
BRANDON ANICICHQUICK PITCH
“Give me some peanuts and Cracker Jack... I don’t care if I ever get back...”
Well, I do care if I ever get back, Beckley. I’ve got stu� to
do, man.We’ve got to
do something about this ball park business. Marshall has been rocking a Division I program for quite some time now —
and I’m not so sure keeping it a commuter sport is bene� cial to the school or Huntington.
Oh, wait... yeah. It’s not bene� cial at all.
If you take a look at the baseball program’s sched-ule, you’ll notice that these “home” games have been held either in nearby Charleston or far—by Beckley, W.Va. � is week alone, Marshall will be up in Beckley (a two hour drive one way) for three games three separate days to face St. Bonaventure. Matter of fact, it looks like the major-ity of our Herd home games will be at Beckley for the rest of this season.
Since 2002, Marshall’s base-ball program has gained some momentum and at least a smat-tering of national attention depending on the year. � e last nine years has also seen the ini-tiation and continuance of “� e Bridge” project (that’s the one responsible for our shiny bright Commons, a state-of-the-art engineering building, our Rec Center and a so� ball � eld) that includes a number of renova-tions that our extra fees have been used towards.
My opinion on � e Bridge? Great move. Seriously. It gave this campus a face li� that it desperately needed and it’s go-ing to give Marshall that good ol’ growing prominence so vigorously sought a� er in the quest for aesthetically pleasing lifestyles in higher education.
So, tens of millions of dollars were raised by private investors and our student fees to help to a� ord these changes. We got ourselves a sweet so� ball � eld out of it (one that the so� ball program damn well deserved I might add — way to go girls) and it seems to all be put to good use. Why wasn’t there a baseball � eld?
A� er doing some research, I discovered the idea for an on—campus ballpark has been proposed a number of times, two attempts within the last decade that gained enough steam to be covered by the Herald—Dispatch and � e Parthenon. Unfortu-nately, both were shot down.
Dispatch reporter Jim Ross did a piece back in 2003 where a couple of do—good-ers, Tim Turman and Mike Hicks, brought the idea of putting a stadium where the Big Sandy Superstore Arena sits today. Financially, the project seemed sound, but then-mayor David Felinton and his administration shot the idea down in a heartbeat.
In 2008, Dispatch reporters Ben Fields and Grant Taylor covered discussions regard-ing the obstacles around simply � nding the right fund-ing and land for a stadium. Apparently, we don’t have the resources available to get
a ball park put in. � e land near the river might be con-taminated, � e Bridge project is going to take until 2013 to � nish, the funding isn’t there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
� e whole problem here is that there’s too many problems. You ask the city — it doesn’t want to demolish a building. You ask Marshall’s administra-tion — there’s no revenue in a stadium.
� e bottom line? � e longer this gets swept under the rug, the longer Marshall waits to get what every single Ameri-can college should have — a ball park.
No, we don’t need to drop $12 million to $15 million on a clone of AT&T park — and we don’t have to settle for putting in a � eld in Barbo-ursville, Kenova or any other wonderful places that aren’t Huntington. But we need that � eld. If only to put the univer-sity on the path to being truly complete.
A few years back, East Caro-lina University’s Pirate Club � nagled enough funding to get a ball park put in — and guess what? It’s working out. � ey’re happy with it. � ere is a way to make this happen — we’ve just got to get some more realistic ideas on the ground. Everybody seems to think that we need to construct Yankee Stadium in Huntington. I side with head coach Je� Waggoner on this one. Give ‘em a � eld — and the stadium will come later. But in the time it takes to get the sta-dium mapped out, we’ve sprung for a cheaper option in a regular � eld with bleachers — and the momentum of that program becomes an integral part of the Marshall experience. � e so� -ball � eld on campus has given us the Herd Hooligans. We’ve got the Marshall Maniacs. Ev-ery single sport that is here on campus is a thousand times more likely to garner student support than those that require travel. Some sports we can’t control — as much as I’d like to see some country club lined down all fairways in green and white polos, it’s just not gonna happen.
I’d be more than happy seeing the Big Sandy get a french kiss from a wrecking ball and a dynamite tickle. � at boring box of unorigi-nal architecture is nothing more than a queasy combina-tion of terrible design, awful acoustics and a constant re-minder of how two—thirds of a real arena and le� over high school bleachers can take a should’ve—been great en-tertainment experience and cram it into a “oh this is what we have to work with” venue.
� ere are plenty of other places to have shows, conven-tions and conferences — and I’m sure our Marshall Artist Series guests would appreci-ate performing in a joint that doesn’t look exactly like the parking garage their bus is jammed into.
� e ballpark doesn’t have to be one of those dreams we never get to see come to frui-tion. I’m sure there’s a way that we can start small and build up from there. Maybe stop trying to hit grand slams and look for some base knocks. � at’s how Marshall’s baseball program built its momentum — maybe we should take the hint.
Brandon Anicich can be contacted at [email protected].
BRANDON ANICICH
Herd baseball team should not have to travel to ‘home’ games
BY JAKE SNYDERTHE PARTHENON
A season-low crowd of 4205 showed up for the opening round game of the Collegeindsider.com Postseason Tour-nament on Tuesday.
It seemed a number of players didn’t show up for the Herd’s 65-64 loss to Ohio University, as well.
“It seemed like we weren’t focused and didn’t come ready to play,” said Nigel Spikes, sophomore center. “Everybody’s intensity didn’t match and it seemed like they wanted the game more. � ey took it.”
� e men’s basketball team was com-ing o� a second round defeat in the Conference USA tournament and many people expected a bid to the National Invitational Tournament. � e NIT se-lection committee le� the Herd out of the bracket.
“In dealing with 18, 19 and 20-year-olds, their expectations for where they were going to play and then the reality, make no mistake about it, there was a high level of disappointment,” Marshall head coach Tom Herrion said.
Disappointment seemed to show for the players as the Herd struggled to � nd any rhythm on the court.
“Tonight, we just seemed drained — like some of us didn’t want to play,” Spikes said. “It just came back to bite us.”
Spikes went on to say the disappoint-ment of not making the NIT could have a� ected the players.
“� at could be so,” Spikes said. “Some of the players probably took the tourna-ment lightly; and Ohio is a very good team. We had trouble with them earlier in the season and tonight they probably got the best of us about the tournament. But, we didn’t come ready to play and they took the win.”
� e game marked the � rst time since early January that less than 5000 fans entered the gates of the Cam Hender-son Center for a men’s basketball game. Herrion said, despite the small crowd, the fans were appreciated.
“Our fans were phenomenal, the ones
that turned out tonight,” Herrion said. “I applaud them greatly. I share on be-half of all of our program how much we appreciate their support throughout the season. Tonight was a great indicator of how passionate a fan base we have.”
� e average attendance on the season was just over 5500 people per game. � e largest crowd of the year, at 9036, came on senior night took on UCF and
former Marshall coach Donnie Jones.Student-fans seemed to be lacking
the most. � e Marshall student section seemed to be just over half full and the upper-levels of the Henderson Center were nearly empty. � is was the � rst home game of the season when students had to pay for tickets.
Jake Snyder can be contacted at [email protected].
Marshall men play before season low crowd in CIT appearance
www.marshallparthenon.com
JOHN YEINGST | THE PARTHENON
Junior forward Johnny Thomas prepares to take a foul shot in Tuesday’s CIT game at the Cam Henderson Center. Only about 4,200 fans showed up to the postseason tournament, the fi rst for the Herd men since 2007. The Herd lost to Ohio 65-64.
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I’ve lived in the shadow of Hun-tington my entire life. It’s not a bad situation; Huntington was
just the closest thing to a cultural hub around here. All of my life I passed by the steel mills and thought little of them. � ey were monstrous and mysteries facilities to me, facilities it seemed like every one of my Little
League coaches worked at. � ey’re relics of a fading Rust
Belt, and with every major set of layo� s we take another step to losing a major source of local em-ployment. � e steel industry will someday leave the Tri-State as a major force; there is no doubt about it. Until that day comes, however, we have no other option but to clock in and press forward.
When the future comes, it’ll come, and there’s no stopping it. We will get more eco-friendly. We will � nd cheaper raw materials and labor elsewhere. We will create a better product and see less con-struction projects. It other words: the steel industry as we know it is either going to leave town or shrivel up into a much smaller shadow of itself. It’s inevitable no matter who you talk to.
As sad as it is, that’s business as usual. Industries die, new ones are made, and the work force will � ow to wherever the money is streaming.
� ere’s no point in trying to save all of the old-school industrial gi-ants, but that shouldn’t stop us from riding it o� into the sunset.
I see politicians and city o� cials talking about bringing jobs into the area. It’s said that industry will make a comeback and more money will follow.
It will at some point, that’s life and capitalism, but not without � nancial bloodshed from the company.
Whether by government man-date or choices within the company, the green revolution will work its way into steel, coal, and chemical production.
And honestly, that’s going to hurt business until productivity can fully assimilate ecology into the spectrum.
Until that time comes, relying on companies like Steel of West Vir-ginia, ACF, and Special Metals to keep the Tri-State’s working men and women with a steady paycheck is our best option.
Contact Bishop Nash at [email protected].
EDITORIAL
If you’re reading this right now, then it’s safe to assume you caught what transpired in Wednesday’s edition of The Parthenon. To those individuals who read (or rather, didn’t read) yesterday’s paper and are still somewhat bewil-dered, then please allow us to take this moment to help recap what happened.
According to the organiza-tion’s website, Sunshine Week is a national initiative designed to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofi t organizations, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know. Wednesday was recognized
as being the actual Sunshine Day holiday, and the aforementioned national movement is what simul-taneously inspired and justifi ed us hijacking our own print on this most notorious of journalist-embracing holidays.
In meetings leading up to the release of Wednesday’s issue, the editors thoroughly discussed the possibilities of how we, as members of the news media, could appropriately capture the essence of this underrated holiday and help facilitate its celebration toward our audience — what we decided was what you saw yesterday.
And to those select indi-viduals who are reading today’s editorial but missed Wednes-day’s edition, we virtually
hollowed out the entire day’s publication and ran nothing but the same Sunshine Week logo centered on each page.
At this point in the editorial, the reasoning for our actions is proba-bly becoming a little more evident, but you may still be wondering what the main purpose of all this was. Well, we’ll tell you.
The only actual requirement of Sunshine Week is that one does something to engage in a discus-sion about the importance of open government and journalism. The association suggests this could be anything from holding a large pub-lic forum or a classroom discussion to running an article or series of articles about access to important information. So we decided to get
a little bit creative with our method and, hopefully, evoke a reaction out of our readers. The majority of your questions have been an-swered by now. So, we’ll leave you with one fi nal note:
We’re not trying to fi ll the newsstands with a blank edition of The Parthenon for one day simply to exercise our power, nor are we attempting to fl aunt what we do in anyone’s faces. However, the editorial staff takes pride in what we do. Our editors hail predomi-nantly from within the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications, with majors consisting of print, broadcast and online journalism, along with public relations – and even an edi-tor (who’s writing this editorial)
enrolled in the College of Science. We create this publication day in and day out for you, the readers, and we hope you appreciate us in the same symbiotic manner.
Remember, the whole point of this was simply to remind the masses that society would not be what it is today without the me-dia’s assistance. We recognize that the increased prominence of media in this day and age can be a double-edged sword at times; but, ultimately, would you re-ally rather go through your day without knowing what’s going on in the world around you? Didn’t think so. The news is important. Communication is important. Journalism is important.
Happy Sunshine Week, folks.
EDITORIAL CARTOON I RICK MCKEE I THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE
OpinionThursday, March 17, 2011marshallparthenon.com
Open government, journalism go hand-in-hand
HUMZA BOKHARIHARVARD POLITICAL REVIEWHARVARD UNIVERSITYUWIRE
� e ga� e has found its way on nu-merous websites: Michele Bachmann mistakenly confused New Hampshire’s Concord with Massachusetts’, botch-ing history along the way. She is not alone in her personal revisionism: Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi seems to have forgotten much of the injustices towards African Americans in the his-tory of his state. Mike Huckabee, in his own right, seems to have gone back in time and placed a young Obama in Kenya, where he supposedly learned about the Mau Mau Revolution from an anti-British perspective.
Did they simply misspeak? Or is there a serious lack of knowledge of historical facts in the Republicans’ top crop? And if so, should we be worried?
Maybe this isn’t surprising given that many Americans actually don’t have a solid grasp of much of our nation’s past. But, then again, most Americans aren’t running for President. We can be forgiv-ing if a passing pedestrian doesn’t know about New England’s geography, Missis-sippi’s racial con� ict history, or basic facts about our President’s life. But if you’re the President of the United States, who needs to know how to avoid � ghting the wrong wars, how to revitalize the economy, how to improve education and infrastructure, and how to get our nation on the right track, you need to understand America’s past. It is imperative that our President know what the Presidents before them did. Conservatives may be furious with the fact that the “liberal elite media” is ecstatically plastering Bachmann’s, Huckabee’s, and Barbour’s ga� es all over the internet; to note, Conservatives4Palin has compared Bachmann’s fallacies with Obama accidentally calling Europe a country – but the analogy doesn’t work.
While it is clear Obama misspoke, we cannot con� dently state that Bachmann did the same. � e “lamestream media” is right to call her, and other contend-ers, out. As for Bachmann, she should have known the basic facts about the Revolution. She was clearly using her non-fact to pander to New Hampshire voters, so we know that she was trying to use the � ction to her advantage. But it’s essential to properly understand our na-tion’s founding. How else can a President best understand a nation’s fundamental principles? � is problem is especially pertinent because she was incorrectly educating voters. Our President needs to know the basic facts, and New Hamp-shire’s residents need to know the truth about their legacy. America rests on its foundation – let’s not forget what it’s made of, and let’s especially not miscon-strue realities in order to win votes.
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What if the next president doesn’t know history?
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Huntington: Past, present, future
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the gap where community media may not have the time or budget to work on certain stories,” Hiestand said. “Stu-dent media cover campus events, but they also help � ll the gap in community news.”
Ralston said a student newspaper o� en re� ects the campus it represents.
“Student newspapers are vital to providing reli-able information to campus communities, and a vibrant student newspaper is a sign of a strong campus commu-nity,” Ralston said.
“Take a look at the best colleges and universities in the country; they all have strong student media. � at’s not a coincidence.”
Hiestand said FOIA laws empower the public and help keep watch over the government.
“I hope Sunshine Week helps the public understand and appreciate FOIA laws and reminds news media of the tools available through FOIA.”
“Especially pertaining to the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan,” Ralston said, “people rely on news media during catastrophic events. In times of crises, the public learns very quickly to appreciate the reliable in-formation that news media provide.”
Ashley Grohoski can be contacted at [email protected], and Kelley Bugler can be contacted at [email protected].
SunshineContinued from Page 1
we can to try to encourage businesses to invest in the community and hire people in the community because right now they have no incentive, other than just the services that we provide of police and � re service, to move into the city.”
He used Wal-Mart as an example.“� ey bought property just feet out-
side the city limits,” Williams said. “� ey don’t have to pay B&O taxes or any of those things, yet at the same time they have to depend on the sheri� ’s o� ce for law enforcement and volunteer � re de-partments for � re service. I think you could make a case it would be of their bene� t to be within the city but the prob-lem is the B&O taxes would be so large they are looking at it saying, ‘Well, that is clearly something that will cut into pro� ts.’”
Williams said the proposed tax pack-age would provide increased revenue to the city that would bene� t residents. He said the current $3 weekly user fee has a revenue of about $4.5 million dollars. � e occupation tax is expected to have much more, and revenue in excess of $7 million would go directly to one-time expenses. � ese include street paving, demolition of dilapidated buildings, street � ooding elimination, road repair and other expensive public projects.
Despite the advantages expressed by Williams, not everyone in Huntington is in favor of the changes.
John O’Connor, vice president of Steel of West Virginia Inc., said he is not in favor of hardworking employees being
required to pay additional taxes. He and other employees of Steel of West Virginia Inc. have opposed the tax since it was originally proposed.
“Our work is pretty cyclical,” O’Connor said. “Because of that, when our people are working it is important for them to make as much of their money as they can because they could be on layo� later. It doesn’t appear fair to us that if someone’s making all their money in investments and lives within the city or if somebody lives in the city and uses all the services but works outside the city, they pay noth-ing. And then our guys, if they don’t live here and the most they ever get out of the city is they drive into work and that’s about it, they’re the ones that get really hit on this.”
O’Connor said a worker making $40,000 a year currently pays $156 to the user fee each year. He said with the oc-cupation tax, that number would more than double to $400.
“� ese guys are sweating it out in the mill and working hard for their money,” O’Connor said. “� ey’re not the people whose taxes you should be doubling.”
O’Connor said another problem with the proposed taxes is constitutionality. He said the proposal passed at the city level and was presented to the Home Rule Board a few months ago. At that time, the board said they needed more information including an opinion on the constitutionality of the taxes.
O’Connor said a professor from West Virginia University was asked to write his opinion that will be presented to the board at today’s meeting. He said he read the statement from the professor
a� er � ling a FOIA request and the pro-fessor said the taxes were constitutional. O’Connor said there is now a question of whether or not that professor is correct.
According to a Wednesday news re-lease, Dale Steager, former general counsel of the West Virginia Depart-ment of Revenue, was asked by Steel of West Virginia Inc., to review whether the occupation tax is constitutional. He has found it to be unconstitutional and shared this information with the Munici-pal Home Rule Board.
Steager referenced an article in the state constitution that said cities can be allowed by Legislature to assess and col-lect taxes, but those taxes are required to be “uniform with respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the authority imposing the same.”
According to the news release, the professor hired by the city said this is not applicable to the occupation tax, but to taxes on persons and property only. It also said the city’s consultant claimed the tax was constitutional because it is considered a privilege tax. � e identity of the professor is not known by � e Parthenon.
Steager said the tax should be consid-ered an income tax on persons rather than a privilege tax and therefore has to be imposed on all persons in a uniform manner, according to the news release.
“Simply put, if it looks like a duck, wad-dles like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck even if City Council calls it something else, it is a duck,” Steager said in a news release.
Ashley Mannon can be contacted at [email protected].
TaxContinued from Page 1
said the Senate and House budgets di� er because they are based on di� erent � s-cal-related bills. � us, he said conference committee members would have to go through each budget ver-sion line item by line item to resolve di� erences.
“You have to say this is the budget, these are the di� er-ences, what bills passed that cost money and what needs to be done,” he said.
Joining Plymale are six other senators and seven delegates, according to the Legislature’s website. All together, the con-ference committee represents 12 di� erent counties.
House Bill 2012, which represents the legislative budget and appropriations for state departments and agencies, allots around $54 million to Marshall Univer-sity. Another $50 million is designated for the Promise scholarship transfer fund
from various sources, ac-cording to the bill.
� ese numbers may change over the coming days, however, said Mar-shall’s Chief of Sta� Matt Turner.
Turner said the num-ber for Marshall isn’t unexpected.
“� ere’s nothing that has us terribly concerned,” Turner said. “We’re just waiting for it to make it through.”
Although Tuesday marked the end of the three-day extension, Plymale said the conference committee hadn’t even been able to consider higher education funds by that time.
To deal with the deadline issue, the Senate was told through an executive mes-sage Tuesday morning that the budget session would be extended through Friday, ac-cording to the Legislature’s website.
Anna Swift can be con-tacted at [email protected].
BudgetContinued from Page 1
BY RENEE SCHOOFMCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERSMCT
WASHINGTON — Toxic air pollut-ants such as mercury, which can lower the IQ of children who get high doses early in life, will be reduced from coal-� red power plants under a major air pollution regula-tion that the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled Wednesday.
� e proposed rule also would reduce other forms of air pollution that cause heart attacks, asthma attacks and other serious health conditions. � e EPA esti-mates that 17,000 lives would be saved by the new rule every year, and thousands of people would avoid missing work and visiting an emergency room.
� e nation has never had a national
limit on the 386,000 tons of hazardous air pollutants that coal-� red plants put out each year. Vast parts of the country and millions of Americans are a� ected, because more than 400 coal-� red plants are scattered across 46 states, and their emissions spread over hundreds of miles.
� e same equipment that cuts the toxic pollutants such as mercury also captures � ne particle pollution. � at dirty air, or soot, causes premature death, heart attacks and lung diseases. � e EPA es-timates that the additional reduction of particle pollution would prevent 11,000 heart attacks and 120,000 childhood asthma attacks annually.
� e Electric Reliability Coordinat-ing Council, the leading electric-power industry trade group, issued a state-ment opposing the rule. It said the new
regulation on toxic pollution is too ex-pensive and that there are no health bene� ts from reducing hazardous pol-lutants other than mercury.
“Such controls are extraordinarily costly with profound impacts on electric-ity supply and price, and job creation,” the group said.
� e EPA, however, said that other toxic metals emitted from the plants, in-cluding arsenic, chromium and nickel, can cause cancer.
“Today we’re taking an important step forward in EPA’s e� orts to safeguard the health of millions of Americans,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a packed auditorium at her agency’s head-quarters, where the audience included a class of second graders from a Washing-ton school.
EPA to limit coal-fi red power plants’ toxic emissions
Visit
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“Ray and I are going to set down and work out everyone’s responsibilities and � gure out what we are going to do. We are going full force,” Kutzavitch said.
Current Student Body President Pat-rick Murphy said he was proud of all the teams who participated. He said he en-joyed the e� ort each team put forth and he is elated to see Harrell elected.
“Ray is a good guy and I know how pro-fessional he is and I know how hard of a worker he is,” Murphy said. “I know how much he already knows about student gov-ernment and I’m excited able to get that opportunity to show how well he can do.”
He said he is fortunate to pass the torch to Harrell. Murphy said Harrell is a member of his current administra-tion and has worked closely on several
di� erent issues with him. “We have had a lot of conversations
about what I did wrong and what I can do better and what he can build upon on. He has seen behind the scenes of what goes on already and already knows about it,” Murphy said.
Joe Stefanov came in a close second place for student body president. Mur-phy said Stefanov has been extremely dedicated in SGA and is a very hard worker. He said he has a great e� ect on student government with all aspects of the constitution.
“I really want to commend Joe and he has done a great job. He has worked so hard and ran an extremely tight cam-paign and making the race so close,” Murphy said.
Sime said the election process went as planned. He said he felt candidates en-joyed campaigning and conversing with
students. “Everyone did a great job and everyone
should be proud of themselves. � e people who are in pace for next year will do a great job with their positions,” Sime said.
Students elected to the student senate were as followed: Ben Crowder, Amanda Branch, Karl Shaver, Derek Ramsey, Ajia Smith, Kayla Johnson, Danny Holderby, Dustin Murphy, Hannah Mc-Cargish, Ashley Roberts, Ryan Kerns, Luke Brum� eld, Cameron Loader, Jor-dan Wooldrige, Sarah Mathis, Kendrick Vonderschimtt, Adam Fridly, Callie Tucker, Derrel Black, Jay Roudebush and Alyssa Salyers.
� e notion was passed by the student body 511 to 65 to give the senate full responsibility to revise the current con-stitutional bylaws.
Trevan Hannahs can be contacted at [email protected].
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BY JOANIE BORDERSTHE PARTHENON
St. Patrick is one of the most well-known saints in the American Catholic Church today and possibly the greatest missionary of Christendom, but the holiday in his honor has moved far away from what the saint intended it to be.
Brother Dennis Klemash, Catholic priest at St. Anthony’s Church in Charleston, W.Va., said the Irish-American Catho-lic culture is very di erent from what’s typically celebrated by Americans.
“St. Patrick’s Day is not meant to be a drinking fest,” Klemesh said. “What it’s most about is remembering the Green Isles of Ireland � lled with life and appreciation of God’s goodness.”
According to Klemesh, not much is known about St. Pat-rick’s early life. He was originally thought to be from Scotland or England. Along with his father and his father’s workers, St. Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and sold into slavery for six years. A� er that time, he escaped and returned to either France or England.
“His enslavement gave him a new outlook on life and he sub-mersed himself in the church, eventually becoming a priest,” Klemesh said.
According to Klemesh, as the story goes on, St. Patrick had a dream one night of all the mothers and children in Ireland had their hands reached out. He interpreted this as a call from God to go back to Ireland and preach to the people that had once enslaved him.
At the time of St. Patrick’s return to Ireland, the country was almost entirely without faith. � rough his diligent preaching St. Patrick eventually Christianized Ireland. He established the Catholic Church in Ireland and built monasteries for the church.
Klemesh said St. Patrick had two major accomplishments. � e � rst is due to his strength and faith his preaching scared all the snakes out of Ireland and to this day there are not any snakes to be found in the country. � e second is that he taught the people the mystery of the trinity.
In explaining the mystery of the trinity, St. Patrick used the shamrock. According to Klemesh, St. Patrick told the people that the trinity was evident in the shamrock, a native plant to the country, and it could be seen in the three leaves the plant contains. � e green shade of the shamrock is also the reason the color is so closely related to the holiday.
Ireland became the single largest export of missionaries in Europe. When the 1990s potato famine hit Ireland many Irish immigrant came to the United States, because of this more American bishops were Irish at the time than anything else, according to Klemesh.
“In large Irish Catholic communities, the observance of the holiday would be to attend a large mass to celebrate the feast of St. Patrick,” Klemesh said.
� e mass would include a traditional Catholic mass, as well as a festive mass, ending with a traditional Irish feast.
Klemesh said he will be observing the holiday by partaking in mass and eating traditional corned beef, cabbage and potatoes.
� e United Methodist Students will also be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a pancake breakfast for students. � e pan-cake breakfast will take place in the Christian Center on Friday morning from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.
“We wanted to do something for students in honor of the holiday as an outreach opportunity,” said Michael Lyden, sophomore applied math and education major from Fairmont, W.Va.
� e pancake breakfast is open and welcome to all students. Joanie Borders can be contacted at [email protected].
St. Patrick’s Day tradition continues
Capital: DublinPopulation: 4,203,200Life expectancy: 78.24 yearsLabor force: 2.16 million(2009 est.)Total area: 27,132.557 sq mi
(70,273 sq km) — slightlylarger than West VirginiaMedian age: 35 yearsLanguages: English, Gaelicin areas along the west coast
Frequency NotesJAMES BLAKE – “JAMES BLAKE”CHRIS MILLER
It seems like no one really knows how to de� ne James Blake’s sound. His music is undoubtedly based in dubstep, unstable beats, heavy low-end bass lines and haunted elec-tronics. It is qually in� uenced by gospel and classic soul, pop song structures, and years of piano lessons, leaving most descriptions of his music un-derstandably confusing.
Blake’s debut self-titled LP follows a string of incredibly well-received EPs from 2009 and 2010, covering a wide range of styles and creating an almost impossibly high expec-tation for his � rst full-length. � e record, released last month though leaked at the end of De-cember, almost unbelievably does not disappoint.
“James Blake” builds o the material of the EPs that pre-ceded it, though shying further away from their dubstep roots. � e � rst two tracks, “Unluck” and “� e Wilhelm Scream,” feature Blake’s soulful auto-tuned vocals above spacious, wobbly grooves and R&B key-boards – equal parts dubstep forerunner Burial and the neo-soul of D’Angelo.
And the album gets even more diverse as it progresses. “I Never Learned to Share” swells around one vocal line for nearly � ve minutes, creating the big-gest moment on the record, and “Lindesfarne I” is entirely acappella, built on heavily processed vocals surrounded by pure silence. “Give Me My Month” and “Why Don’t You Call Me” are keyboard ballads - the most pop-sounding tracks on the album, though still covered in characteristic haze, and “Measurements” closes the album with a gospel-sounding return to the soulfulness it opened with.
James Blake creates an en-tirely unique world on this record, full of juxtapositions – naked, robotic soul, o -balance grooves, and a spaciousness that feels incredibly close. De-spite the processed everything, the album is also unbelievably human sounding, best com-pared to an electronic version of Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago.” All this probably won’t make much sense until you ac-tually listen to the record, but when you do, the reward is one of the most forward-sounding albums in recent memory. Contact the columnist at [email protected].
BY ELIZABETH STEWARTTHE PARTHENON
Fans of anime and manga have the opportunity to come together and share their love of Japanese culture at Animara-thon at Bowling Green State University, March 26.
“It’s 24 hours of pure madness, chaos and fun,” said Caro-line Coates, president of Anime Northwest Ohio.
Anime Northwest Ohio is Bowling Green State Universi-ty’s anime and manga club, which has hosted Animarathon for the past nine years.
Anime is an animation and storytelling technique devel-oped in Japan.
“Western cartoons tend to focus on the character’s mouth and words, while anime focuses more on the character’s eyes and emotions,” Coates said. “Manga is basically just the written form of anime, which is similar to comic books in America.”
“Some people think anime and manga is just for kids, but it is so much more than that,” said Amanda Hull, vice presi-dent of Anime Northwest Ohio.
“Anime and manga have stories in all genres from horror to fantasy to mystery and everything in between,” Hull said.
“I’ve always told people who say they don’t like anime that ‘even though you may think you don’t like it, give me a chance and I will � nd something you like,’” Coates said.
Animarathon o ers several options for students to either learn more about anime, manga and Japanese culture or to share their passion with others.
“Everyone is welcome, Animarathon is very newcomer friendly,” Coates said.
Animarathon will feature an artists’ alley where you can � nd fan art, paintings, jewelry and handmade cra� s.
One of the unique features of the artists’ alley is a woman who sells traditional Japanese kimonos.
“Attendees can learn about the history of the kimono and watch a demonstration of the proper way to wear a kimono,” Coates said. “She’s not just selling a piece of clothing, she’s sharing a piece of her culture.”
Visitors also have the chance to learn more at the panel discussions o ered.
“We have panels discussing every aspect of anime, manga and Japanese culture, and attendees are encouraged to par-ticipate and learn,” Hull said.
Attendees have another opportunity to get directly in-volved by competing in cosplay.
“Short for costume play, participants create a costume of their favorite anime or manga character and some write and perform skits in these costumes,” Hull said.
Competitors are judged in two di erent categories, cra� s and skit. Cra� s judges the quality and detail of the costume, while skits judges the creativity of the performance.
“One of the most fun parts of cosplay is showing o all the hard work you put in, and if you have a really cool costume people want to take their picture with you,” Coates said.
Animarathon will also be host to their � rst guest speaker, Doug Walker, also known as “� at Guy with the Glasses” who is a movie and game critic on the Internet.
“� e best part of Animarathon is the entire experience,” Coates said. Elizabeth Stewart can be contacted at [email protected].
Animarathon provides education on Japanese culture
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY CAROLINE COATES
Students have the opportunity to share their love of the Japanese culture using both costume and their creativity in the Anime Northwest Ohio anime club at Bowling Green State University.
Fast facts about Ireland
Offi cial Name: Japan
Total Area: 377,899 square kilometers
Head of State: Emperor
Head of Government: Prime Minister
Capital: Tokyo
Major Cities: Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kobe, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Kawasaki, Hiroshima
Language: Japanese
Religion: Shinto, Buddhism,
Currency: Yen
Population: 127.7million (UN Estimate, 2006)
Literacy: 99 percent
Fast facts about Japan