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the clackamas print An independent, student-run newspaper since 1966 Clackamas Community College, Oregon City, OR
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Volume 43, Issue 17
Senator takes hits on health care bill By Joshua Baird The Clackamas Print
At U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley’s 50th town hall meeting, he showed up to discuss the issues and wound up being heckled by members of the audience, for what many believed to be ignoring Oregon residents feelings on health care reform.
In a dimly lit room, surrounded by approximately 110 Oregon residents, Oregon City Mayor Alice Morris introduced Merkley after having the audience stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Questions from the audience were taken based on a lottery method. Each person with a seat was given a ticket and Morris announced at random the final three digits of the ticket number. “I liked the fact that he was there in jeans and was like a normal person,” said Jennifer Badeau, a Clackamas Community College student. The first question was from Cris Cristurean, a high school student who received a letter of recommendation from Merkley to attend West Point, a U.S. military academy in New York State. “Why do you support the health care bill?” he asked.
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I liked the fact that he was there in jeans and was like a normal person.
Hillary Cole Clackamas Print
Senator Jeff Merkley answers questions on Tuesday April 6 in the Niemeyer Center.
Jennifer Badeau Student
Merkley’s response was met with both jeers and cheers as he progressed through several of his reasons including what he called the Health Care Bill of Rights. This would protect citizens from being dumped from their provider after an accident, protect those with preexisting conditions and prevent gender discrimination. This would also allow a child to be covered under their parents’ insurance until they were 26 years old. Please see MERKLEY, Page 3
Hillary Cole Clackamas Print
Thomas Wasson plays bass guitar at Niemeyer during the art show in Alexander Gallery on April 8. See story on page 6
Men’s basketball takes 2nd consecutive championship Men’s basketball demolishes competiton, walks away with second consecutive title and fifth of all time
Missing two key players at the beginning of a season can be detrimental and even cost a team their season; Tapscott elaborated, saying, “At the beginning, we didn’t have all our players so we had a team of ten kids – ten new kids – two sophomores on the team then the rest was freshman, then as soon as I got back in and Justin [Steinke] got back we got back in sync.” By Mark Foster Tapscott also saw the progression from the beginning Sports Editor of the season to the end, “I would say in the preseason, we were a par team, an average team, but towards the For the second time in as many years, Clackamas’ end of the season we came together and elevated our men’s basketball team was crowned NWAACC cham- game.” pions. Southern Region All-Star guard Steinke noticed the It wasn’t as easy a road to the championship this year, difference between this year and last year. though. Beginning the season, things were shaky and “Well last year, it seemed like we were No. 1 all year, not all the essential pieces to the puzzle were there. and we were supposed to win because we were beating Sophomores Justin Steinke and Chehales everyone by so much, and this year people thought we Tapscott, Steinke missing 14 and Tapscott missing were struggling because we didn’t win as many games. seven, were out for a chunk of games in the beginning We only lost two more games than we did last year but of the season, which also contributed to the rough start. to everyone else it looked kind of bad,” said Steinke.
Coach Clif Wegner referred to the issues the team was having as a “turmoil.” For this year’s squad, success seemed to come over time. They suffered their first league loss in their home opener against Chemeketa Community College, when in the previous season their first league loss came in the twelfth game of the season. They followed that loss with two more, losing again to Chemeketa on Feb. 6, then to Lane on Feb. 20. Following the loss to Lane, Wegner had seen enough and called a team meeting which would prove to be one of the deciding moments in this team’s season. Wegner said, “We had a great team meeting with about two weeks left in the season. We’d had sort of a bad situation; we were sort of unraveling. They were some issues between players, and we just aired it out and everyone spoke their hearts and an amazing thing happened, and we walked out of that meeting and I thought we were a lot closer.” Please see NWAACC, Page 4