RECEIVERS, MEET THE DEFENSIVE BACKS MC AND THE MENTOR PREP FOR DRAFT SPORTS — 9
ARTS & LIFE — 6
UAPD HANDS OUT COMMUNITY AWARDS
NEWS — 8
DAILY WILDCAT
Wednesday, April ,
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SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA SINCE 1899
With 4th closed, patrons dwindle Court Businesses see decrease in pedestrian traffic, but owners look to future By Stephanie Casanova DAILY WILDCAT
While business owners on Fourth Avenue are seeing a decrease in clientele due to streetcar construction, proprietors remain confident the project will help businesses prosper in the future.
“It would be naive to think we won’t lose business during this time, but I think a lot of people are still finding their way,” said Trudy Mills, co-owner of Antigone Books, a bookstore on Fourth Avenue. Fourth Avenue closed to traffic from Sixth Street to University Boulevard on April 9 and will remain closed throughout the summer. Sidewalks and businesses, however, will remain open during the construction period. Finding parking is the public’s main concern during this time,
business owners say. “I don’t think people should be afraid to come down here and park. There are designated parking areas,” said Martin Fontes, owner of Martin’s Comida Chingona. “The only thing I have a gripe upon is people riding their bikes on the sidewalk because there’s only 5 feet of sidewalk and people are trying to get by.” A walkway through Fifth Street was created for people to walk across Fourth Avenue more conveniently. FourthAvenue.org highlighted maps
on its site to show customers where they can park or walk their bikes and bike corrals were installed throughout locations on the avenue. “Since it’s getting hotter, people don’t want to be walking around, struggling to get from one side to the other,” said Alexsis Corral, owner of Lollipop Culture Shop. Businesses on Fourth Avenue are also trying to attract customers by working together and staying
STREETCAR, 8
date set for Jesse Perry By Cameron Moon DAILY WILDCAT
Former Arizona basketball player Jesse Perry is set for a preliminary hearing at Pima County Justice Court on May 11 after being charged with felony domestic assault stemming from an incident that occurred early Thursday morning. Police said the UA helped turn Perry in Friday evening. He was charged with one count of domestic violence aggravated assault, a class 4 felony. According to police reports, officers responded to a call from Tucson Medical Center, where the victim, a former girlfriend of Perry’s, was being treated for “obvious but not life-threatening in nature” injuries to her neck, back, legs and face. The victim told police officers that she was at the Cactus Moon bar with a friend when she ran into Perry. After seeing him and having a civil conversation, she left with her friend. Perry and the victim exchanged text messages, and he invited her to meet him
MISSING CHILD ISABEL CELIS
PERRY, 13 STEWART MCCLINTIC / DAILY WILDCAT
A girl holds a candle during a vigil for 6-year-old Isabel Celis. The event was held after Celis disappeared from her home this weekend.
THE SEARCH GOES ON UA students organize efforts to find missing Tucson girl
By Stewart McClintic DAILY WILDCAT
A sea of people wearing purple rallied on Tuesday in support of finding Isabel Celis, a 6-year-old girl who went missing early Saturday morning. About 200 community members gathered at Freedom Park on East 29th Street to share prayers, thoughts and memories of Isabel. In addition, there was a candlelight vigil and a ceremony in which people tied purple ribbons to the fence of the baseball field where she played for the Diamondbacks Little League baseball team. Communities affected by Isabel’s abduction extend all the way to the UA, where two students are organizing an effort to help find her — Denisse Ortega,
a political science senior, and Ramon Munoz, a biosystems engineering senior. Ortega said she worked closely with Isabel’s mother, Becky Celis, at the Tucson Medical Center. Munoz said that Ortega has been working hard to rally students to help her in this effort. Ortega said Office Max donated flyers that she and a team of UA students have posted all around campus and beyond. As of Monday, Munoz said, he and the rest of the students have been trying to get Isabel’s picture on billboards around Tucson to raise awareness about the incident. Munoz also added that the team is planning to host a softball game to collect donations to help cover the Celis family’s expenses. Some vigil attendees knew the Celis family personally, but others were simply
Tucson residents who wanted to show their support. Many cried as the crowd sang “You are My Sunshine.” Isabel’s little league team and its opponents came fresh off the field after a game to release purple balloons. “My heart goes out to the family,” said George Hannah, the field manager and a coach of Freedom Little League baseball. Hannah added that he could not fathom the grief that the family could be going through. Melissa Munoz, a woman whose two young daughters were playmates of Isabel’s, said she as a parent was scared because of what has happened. She added that she knew things like this happen all the time, but the fact that it happened so close to home is “something to be aware of.”
Obama says action needed to keep loan rates from doubling By Brittny Mejia DAILY WILDCAT
SHAWN ROCCO / MCT
President Barack Obama talks about the affordability of higher education during a speech at Carmichael Auditorium at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Tuesday.
President Barack Obama called on Congress to prevent interest rates on subsidized federal student loans from doubling during a conference call with student journalists on Tuesday. Throughout the call, Obama described his desire to visit colleges across the nation and speak with students about keeping the rates, which are currently at historic lows of 3.4 percent, from doubling on July 1. He said Congress needs to pass legislation to keep the rates low. Without it, interest rates on student loans could jump to 6.8 percent.
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Obama also discussed how to make higher education more affordable and opposed tax cuts for “millionaires and billionaires.” These tax cuts, he said, would interfere with programs that allow students to succeed. “So the bottom line here is we can’t just cut our way to prosperity,” he said. “Making it harder for our young people to afford higher education, allowing them to earn their degrees — that’s nothing more than cutting our own future off at the knees.” Obama said he empathized with students facing debt, relating his own experience with student loan debt
LOANS, 3
Longtime golf coach to retire By Zack Rosenblatt DAILY WILDCAT
After 39 seasons as a head coach at the UA, 34 of which were spent as the men’s golf coach, Rick LaRose will retire at the end of the season, athletic director Greg Byrne announced Tuesday. “It is difficult to overstate the impact Coach LaRose has had on our golf programs,” Byrne said in a press release. “For nearly four decades, he has built Arizona into one of the elite names in all of college golf.” LaRose will retire on July 1 and take on a new role as part-time special assistant to Byrne. His duties will include fundraising events with a focus on raising money for a golf practice facility. A national search for LaRose’s replacement will begin immediately. The native of Delmar, N.Y., wasn’t always the head golf coach. He started
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