Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Print Edition

COLLEGIATETIMES

wednesday october 24, 2007 blacksburg, va.

www.collegiatetimes.com

yesterday’s CT Because of printer error, yesterday’s Collegiate Times appeared in black and white instead of color. You can view the color edition on our Web site at www.collegiatetimes.com.

The Collegiate Times apologizes for any inconvenience.

news CALIFORNIA BRUSH FIRES CONTINUE TO SPREAD LOS ANGELES — Firestorms raged across Southern California on an epic scale for a third day Tuesday, with flames as high as 100 feet stoked by extremes of wind, heat, and dryness.

Brush fires still beyond the control of firefighters forced the largest evacuation in modern times, officials estimated. The orders called for vacating 350,000 homes, affecting 950,000 people — Los Angeles Times

MATERIALS MISSING AT LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON — About onesixth of the books, monographs and bound periodicals at the Library of Congress weren’t where they were supposed to be because of flaws in the systems for shelving and retrieving materials, according to a survey to be made public at a congressional hearing Wednes0day.

Officials at the library say they believe most of the missing materials are misplaced, not stolen or lost.

Investigators for the congressional library have told lawmakers on a House oversight committee that its review of the retrieval system for the general collection concluded that a 17 percent of materials requested could not be found.

— The Washington Post

weather

Bass fishers reel in national championship T. REES SHAPIRO

ct sports reporter These guys were roddin’ and reelin’, weighin’ and keepin’, and in the 72 hours Scott Wiley and Brett Thompson cruised the Arkansas river last weekend, they captured the ultimate title for undergrad anglers nationwide: the heavyweights of the College Bass National Championship.

Wiley and Thompson, both Richmond natives, represented Virginia Tech in the third annual CBNC, the first trip for the Hokies, and lured in the top honors by crushing the 36 team field by four pounds at the final weigh-in.

“It’s definitely cool to win it our first time out,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of great fisherman out there, and to be considered national college champions of bass fishing, it’s pretty awesome.”

Wiley, a senior landscape architecture major, and Thompson, a junior building construction major, were consistent throughout the three day tournament, out-reeling their opponents each day with the heaviest five fish catch. They weighed in at 13 pounds and 11 ounces the first day, 13 pounds the second, and pulled in four fish for 8 pounds 8 ounces the final day to capture the title.

The Arkansas River system is chock full of dams and locks, which can be copiously supplied with Bass that haven’t seen bait since they were trapped inside. Wiley and Thompson though, were unfamiliar with dam and lock fishing, and decided to stick with what they knew best.

“We’d never dealt with a lock and dam before,” Wiley said. “We were kind of nervous to do so because we had heard of people getting stuck with barges and not being able to make it back to weigh in on time. We knew that we’d be able to find some good fish in the area that we were in, and wouldn’t have to go up or down.”

To be able to win the tournament in the team’s historical first try is impressive enough. But to defeat your opponents by a total of four pounds, that takes a little more than beginner’s luck.

“The trick was for us that we picked that spots that naturally replenish themselves with fish everyday,” Wiley said. “We fished rock walls and naturally in a river system these fish will move down the river and find homes temporarily along COURTESY OF CAREER SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT these rock walls and chase bait that comes by down the river. We threw our bait, like a natural Virginia Tech students Scott Wiley (left), and Brett Thompson hold up their winning catches at the College Bass National Championship.

see BASS, page nine

Local businesses remain undaunted by Tech student indicted on big competition coming to the area MICHELLE RIVERA

ct news reporter Blacksburg is known for its distinct small-town businesses, but with the recent arrival of large, popular chain stores in the new power strip in Christiansburg, the question remains as to how well the smaller downtown shops will fare.

The strip consists of a Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy, PetSmart and many other stores. For local, independent businesses like Gourmet Pantry and Crossroads, Bed Bath & Beyond and Best Buy could prove to be sources of competition.

Best Buy has much to offer in the area of electronics, including computers, phones, games, and home appliances as well as music, videos and more.

Also offering a large range of items is Bed Bath & Beyond, which recently opened on Oct. 9.

“Whatever you need, we can get it for you here,” said Allen George, manager of Bed Bath & Beyond in Christiansburg. “From bath, bedding, cookware, to electronics, and the beyond section has pretty much everything.”

George said the store offers a homely and friendly environment with good customer service.

“I think once people come in, they’ll see it’s more than just a bed and bath store. The beyond is what gets everybody excited,” he said.

Gourmet Pantry owner Roya Nazare said that having an established business in Blacksburg is what sets her store apart. “(Bed Bath & Beyond) has some of the appliances we carry, but we carry some that they don’t have,” Nazare said. “We only bring in good quality products. We also have many more different cat-

HEAVY RAIN high 68, low 48

corrections The photograph of Images by B in yesterday’s CT was incorrectly attributed. The photographer was Danielle Dunaway.

In the story “Annual battle of the bands provides biggest fundraiser for Silhouette,” (CT, Oct. 23) the Beat Takeshi’s song was incorrectly spelled as “Yoko Ono.” The actual song is “Yoko (Oh No!)” The Collegiate Times regrets these errors.

coming up TOMORROW’S CT Check out the CT’s preview of the Thursday night Boston College football game in tomorrow’s paper.

ON THE WEB Search the CT’s new faculty grade database to see professors’ average allocation of grades.

index News.....................2 0pinions................5 Features................6

Classifieds..............7 Sudoku..................7 Sports....................9

An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 104th year • issue 158

KYLE SWANSON/SPPS

Bed Bath and Beyond, one of several stores opening this month at the New River Valley Mall, may compete with local establishments already in the Blacksburg area.

egories in our store than they do.”

The store specializes in wine, food, coffees and teas, and also offers a selection of appliances.

Nazare said stores that sell appliances must abide by the Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP). With MAP pricing, large stores, like Bed Bath & Beyond, cannot sell items for cheaper prices.

“We have the same prices,” she said.

Nazare also explained that Gourmet Pantry is a specialty store with different services available, like cooking classes.

Regarding what may be competition in the form of a large chain store among a strip of big businesses, Nazare said she did not think her business would be too affected.

“We might be affected at the beginning; that happens at the beginning of every business because everyone wants to see the new store,” she said. “But the town and people are very supportive of the merchants of Blacksburg.”

As for Crossroads, co-owner Lori Fisher admitted that the business is a hard one to be involved with. Fisher and her husband own the local, independently owned CD and video store. What sets Crossroads apart from other similar stores, however, is its specialized, college-oriented pieces.

Fisher said Crossroads has two passionate, specialty buyers who cater toward the serious music lover.

“We strive to be the best provider of the music and movies that other people can’t find or don’t want to take the time trying to locate in a big mass merchant type store,” Fisher said.

She said Crossroads caters to the masses, but also specializes in things not found at Best Buy or Wal-Mart.

“We’ve had a lot of competition in the past, and because we have strived to do what we do and maintain that very friendly customer oriented staff and vibe in our store, I don’t think it’ll really affect our business,” Fisher said.

Crossroads has been in business in Blacksburg for approximately 15 years.

“Competition always makes you stronger,” Fisher said. “You just have to improve in different ways.”

three counts of arson CAROLINE BLACK

ct university editor The Virginia Tech student connected with the three fires started in Terrace View apartments between July and Sept. 2007 has been formally indicted by a federal grand jury.

On Oct. 17, Robert Lawson, 23, a resident of 5500 Terrace View, was arrested and officially charged in a three-count indictment with “maliciously damaging by means of fire a building or other real property used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce,” said a press release from the office of John Brownlee, US attorney for the Western District of Virginia.

Because of that specific charge, Lawson will be prosecuted at a federal level. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 20 years in prison, and/or a fine of $250,000 for each count.

According to the federal indictment, the first fire occurred in the late evening of July 19. The Blacksburg Fire Department responded to a call placed by Lawson at 9:55 p.m., saying that there was a fire in the basement common area used by tenants for storage and laundry in building 5500 of Terrace View.

After the fire was extinguished, a Fire Code Official conducted a cause and origin investigation of the fire, and was able to rule out all natural and accidental causes. The official concluded that the fire originated in a storage unit in the laundry room of the 5500 complex, and labeled the fire as “suspicious.”

On July 31, the Blacksburg Fire Department

see ARSON, page two

SGA unveils ‘Hokies on Fire’ campaign for basketball GORDON BLOCK

ct news reporter The Student Government Association unveiled last Wednesday the new Hokies on Fire T-shirt. The T-shirt is expected to be a critical aspect of the SGA’s new campaign to promote the Virginia Tech basketball program.

“The SGA created the program to increase awareness of the basketball team and their home games,” said Matt O’ Leary, senior accounting and information systems major and member of the SGA executive council as director of the Hokies on Fire program.

The shirt, featuring an orange and maroon tie dye design, features the slogan “Cassell Coliseum: The Only Place You Can See A Flying Hokie.” The slogan was selected after an

extensive submission process.

“We had 400 people submit slogans to the SGA,” O’Leary said. “After taking out the ones that obviously were not appropriate, we rounded the number of slogans down to five.”

Students played a major role in the decision of the new slogan.

“We sent out surveys and received over 500 votes to decide the slogan,” O’Leary said. The Hokies on Fire shirt, similar to the Orange and Maroon Effect T-shirts, will have special games dedicated to them.

For the men’s basketball team, the Hokies on Fire game will be the Jan. 24 vs. Duke, while the women’s team will play their Hokies on Fire game Feb. 4 against Maryland.

“We chose that (the men’s game) because Duke has become a major rival for us in the ACC, and because the game will be broadcast

nationally,” O’Leary said.

For the women’s Hokies on Fire game, the choice for the game came between the UVa. game and the Maryland game.

“We decided (for the women’s game) the shirt would have the most effect if it was done during the Maryland game,” O’Leary said.

The shirt, priced at $7, is set to hit stores early November, before the men’s team’s home opener vs. Elon. The shirt, available in sizes from youth small to 2XL, will be sold at all university bookstore locations: the on-campus bookstore, Volume 2, Dietrick General Store, and at a kiosk inside Cassell during the games.

“We’re trying to hit everybody on campus,” O’Leary said.

The SGA has set a goal to sell over 10,000 of the shirts. Charlie Whitescarver, the associate director of Volume 2 Bookstore expects that

they will sell well.

“I think they’re going to be hot,” Whitescarver said.

The shirt’s design is also expected to influence its sale.

“It’s a unique shirt, with its tie dye design, and we expect there to be a high demand for it,” said senior management major Andy Koch, assistant director of the Hokies on Fire program. “We’re counting on a large number of students and alumni to buy the shirt.”

Overall, the goal for the shirts and the program is to increase attendance and interest in the Tech basketball program.

“We want basketball games to be a part of a student’s schedule,” O’Leary said. “We don’t want the basketball games to be an afterthought for students.”

have a news tip? want to see something in the CT? e-mail tips@collegiatetimes.com

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2 news

university editor: caroline black email: universitynews@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

october 24, 2007

news in brief SGA PUSHES STUDENT INVOLVEMENT IN ELECTIONS The Student Government Association is hosting their annual voter drive during elections for state senate this week. This election is rather unusual, as all 140 state senate and delegate seats are up for reelection.

Meredyth Kenney, junior English major and SGA director of public relations said, “We need to get the whole Virginia Tech community more involved with the voting process; students, especially are not aware of this process.”

Emily Webb, SGA co-director of government affairs said in a statement, “While many people believe that only voting for the president is important, these officials impact our daily lives much more than the president.”

To spread the news about the drive, SGA is taking advantage of its two

marketing directors, sophomore marketing and finance double major Brandon Carroll and junior marketing management major Malissa Bradshaw.

Kenney said, “We are trying to get the word out all over campus as much as possible.”

The SGA is stressing during the voter drive the importance of having the voices of the students heard through casting their votes. Students can send in their absentee ballots until Oct. 26 at 2 p.m.

“We ultimately want students to have a say in who gets elected,” Kenney said.

“It’s critical to get the best elected official into office.”

Students can pick up absentee ballots at 321 Squires Student Center or print them out at www.sga.vt.edu.

-Ashley Oliver, CT News Staff

No apologies

new river valley editor: kevin anderson email: nrvnews@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 1 - 3 p.m.

campus news editor: meg miller email: campusnews@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Tech helps the Washington area go green KERRY O’CONNOR

ct news reporter Virginia Tech announced on Oct. 15 that it would be a partner in a program aiming to reduce energy use in the greater Washington area.

Working with Hannon Armstrong, the investor who has pledged $500 million to the program, and Pepco, who will be the engineering force behind the project, Tech will act as a facilitator by overseeing and planning the project.

Tech’s role in the program will be to promote the university in the greater Washington area, and also provide opportunities for Tech professionals and students to participate in planning and research.

“Principally, we believe we could bring to that partnership a strong research and educational component,” said Jim Bohland, the Virginia Tech vice president and executive director of the National Capital Region Organizations.

“Our primary role is educational programming, research and outreach.”

The “Energy Efficiency

Partnership of Greater Washington” will use the $500 million to retrofit buildings that currently have inefficient energy sources over the course of the five years.

Renovations will take place on a small scale, with improvements such as replacing old light bulbs and air conditioning with newer, more efficient systems.

John Chermak, a geosciences professor, realizes the importance of buildings constructed with energy efficient systems.

“I think there’s a greater awareness than there used to be. Part of the problem is the demand for energy continues to increase,” Chermak said. “I think anybody can evaluate how efficiently they are using energy.”

The program is constructed so that engineers from Pepco will conduct audits that will inform buildings where they can utilize energy more efficiently. The money invested by Hannon Armstrong will then give the building owners an opportunity to use money they normally would not want to invest to retrofit and renovate. Owners

will then begin to repay Hannon Armstrong with the savings from their energy bills.

“From a social standpoint, it’s a environmentally helpful thing to do, but from an investment standpoint, it is also good,” said Jeffrey Eckel, president and CEO of Hannon Armstrong.

Eckel said they expect to break even after the first five years, and for it to turn into a profit in the years following the program initiatives. Hannon Armstrong, an investment bank that often works primarily with federal programs, regularly invests in programs dealing with the environment.

“Almost all our work is with environmentally supportive policies,” Eckel said. “We’ve worked with Pepco for the last 10 years, and they are great engineers. This was also a great opportunity to work with Virginia Tech.”

In addition to educational and research opportunities, Tech also plans to additionally make money through arrangements made with the partners and external foundation funding for which they have

applied. Bohland said they have received a lot of positive responses regarding funding requests.

Planning and programming have already begun for several buildings, but Bohland speculates the program will not be full speed ahead for a few moths. The Reston International Center, and two buildings in L’Enfant Plaza, situated in the heart of Washington, D.C., will be the first of over 100 buildings this program intends to help reduce energy use.

While Tech works to help the Washington area go green, Chermak outlined many ways Tech students can help Blacksburg reduce our energy demand. Sixty percent of energy in households is used in heating and cooling; therefore turning down the thermostat a few degrees this winter could go a long way.

Switching to more efficient light bulbs, taking shorter showers, and even washing laundry in cold instead of hot water are all small and manageable steps members of the Tech community are encouraged to take.

Arson: Fires damage Terrace View complex from page one

BERT GREEN/SPPS

Justin King and the Apologies, an underground band, known for their technical guitar skills, performed at Attitudes Bar last night.

again responded to a call, this one not placed by Lawson, of a fire in building 5500 of Terrace View. This second fire originated in the water heater room of the complex, and there was another investigation conducted once the fire was extinguished.

The official cause of the fire was labeled as arson, and the storagelaundry area of complex 5500 was secured. While attempting to suppress the fire, police and firefighters observed Lawson in the vicinity of the fire, holding a portable police scanner.

At 4:23 a.m. on Sept. 20, members of the Blacksburg Fire Department responded to a third call of a fire in

Terrace View, this one in apartment complex 5100, located across a small parking lot from 5500. After extin-

“Mr. Lawson’s attempts to burn these apartment buildings posed a real threat to many Virginia Tech students and other tenants.

Working with our state partners, we will do our best to make certain that Mr. Lawson is brought to justice.”

- JOHN BROWNLEE US ATTORNEY

guishing the fire, an investigation concluded that the cause of the fire was arson.

Lawson was observed at the scene of the arson, being one of the first four persons to arrive on scene. With the use of a hydrocarbon gas detector, a device that can detect trace amounts of accelerants after a fire, officials detected the presence of hydrocarbon gas on Lawson.

In each of the three instances, the fire significantly damaged, burned, and charred the structure of the Terrace View properties.

“Mr. Lawson’s attempts to burn these apartment buildings posed a real threat to many Virginia Tech students and other tenants,” said US attorney Brownlee in a statement.

“Working with our state partners, we will do our best to make certain that Mr. Lawson is brought to justice.”

The initial investigation of the case was conducted by the Virginia State Police, Blacksburg Police Department, Virginia Tech Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The case has since been handed over to the U.S. Attorney’s office for federal prosecution, according to Jo Brooks, spokesperson for the US Attorney’s office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald R. Wolthuis will prosecute the case for the government. There is no more information about Lawson’s trial available at this time.

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national news 3

october 24, 2007

New fires force additional evacuations in California MICHAEL MUSKAL

los angeles times SAN DIEGO — High temperatures and fierce winds returned to Southern California on Tuesday morning, complicating the efforts to control a string of wildfires that grew overnight, prompting new evacuations. San Diego County authorities estimated 1,000 homes had burned there, and a second person was reported to have died.

Fires sprang up in San Diego and Los Angeles counties, and new evacuations were ordered in Orange and San Diego counties. Weary firefighters fought major blazes that have burned since the weekend in seven counties, with containment days away at the soonest.

In an area as large as Southern California, officials remained focused on how to cope with their individual disasters, and there was little information for the region as a whole. But most officials agreed that all of the numbers grew overnight.

There was no official figure for the number of people forced to flee, but the disaster was being called the state’s largest evacuation crisis. San Diego officials said they had ordered 346,000 homes evacuated. At more than two people per home and with evacuations elsewhere, that could mean more than 700,000 people have fled to shelters, hotels, relatives and friends.

The extent of the damage was widespread, with more than 400,000 acres burned. More than 1,500 homes and other structures were destroyed, 1,300 in San Diego alone.

Officials at the California Geographic Area Coordination Center, which coordinates resources, confirmed that a second person had died in the fires, but they had no details. The number of injuries also grew, to more than four dozen civilians and firefighters.

Estimates of the monetary losses start in the tens of millions, and the cost of fighting the fires was expected to at least match that number. Help was on the way after the White House declared a state of emergency, clearing the way for additional federal aid.

If there was one factor that officials

agreed would solve the current crisis, it was a break in the weather. Santa Ana winds need to quiet their roar so rescuers can catch up. That could happen by Wednesday, but for the rest of Tuesday, officials were keeping their fingers crossed.

“We’re probably at the most critical time of this fire,” San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarman warned Tuesday.

In San Diego County, Roberts said that the burned area could be approaching 300,000 acres, with more than estimated 1,000 homes lost.

He said 270,000 “reverse 911” calls had been made warning residents to evacuate. At least 15,000 people spent the night in shelters, and the number of evacuees could exceed half a million.

Overnight, San Diego County fires expanded in Fallbrook, pushed closer to the heart of Rancho Santa Fe, one of the most exclusive communities in the nation, and began to march closer to Chula Vista and Bonita. Homes were still burning in Poway, Rancho Bernardo and Escondido.

Fire officials hope reinforcements will arrive from throughout the state.

President Bush on Tuesday declared a state of emergency and federal officials, still smarting under criticism of how the government handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, said at a news conference that they began monitoring the situation over the weekend and were already sending in supplies for those forced to flee.

Speaking in Washington before he headed west to tour the disaster area, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he met with Bush on Tuesday morning. “He has instructed everyone in the federal government to move as rapidly and fully as possible,” Chertoff said.

There was no question that help would be needed.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders sent out an urgent plea for volunteer doctors and nurses at Qualcomm Stadium.

Upward of 10,000 people stayed at the stadium. National Guard troops were deployed to the stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds, another evacuation spot. Other troops will fan out Tuesday into neighborhoods, Sanders said. The mayor also asked residents who had

not been evacuated to stay off the roads and their cell phones so that aid efforts wouldn’t be impaired.

Among the new fires that erupted overnight was one that burned at least 400 acres at the La Jolla Indian Reservation in northeast San Diego County. Personnel at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base were ordered to be prepared to evacuate.

Navy bases in San Diego provided shelter to sailors and their families who fled their off-base homes.

Officials hope to bombard the fires soon.

“The intent is to get aircraft into the air as soon as possible,” said Coronado Fire Chief Kim Raddatz, one of the officials coordinating the countywide attack.

At Lake Arrowhead, officials said at least 100 homes had been destroyed and more were burning in Running Springs. More than 200 houses have been lost in the area.

In Orange County, the Santiago fire forced an additional 3,000 residents to evacuate overnight, said Christy Romero, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Department.

About 870 homes are threatened in the local canyon areas In Malibu, fires had devoured about 3,800 acres so far, said Inspector Ron Haralson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Six homes, one church and a commercial trailer had been destroyed and nine homes and five businesses damaged, he said.

About 1,765 firefighters were working there.

The Magic fire was burning in Valencia, to the southwest of the Magic Mountain theme park and right above the Stevenson Ranch community, Haralson said. No structures had been damaged or lost and no one had reported injuries, he said. The Magic fire was caused by an accidental spark created by construction workers, said Capt. Mike Brown of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The Ranch fire in Castaic had burned through about 54,518 acres and was 10 percent contained and moving southwest, with about 767 firefighters working the blaze, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

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Bush seeks $500 million aid package to help fight Mexican drug cartels MANUEL ROIGFRANZIA

the washington post MEXICO CITY — President Bush announced Monday in Washington that he will ask Congress to approve a $500 million package to help Mexico fight drug cartels, the largest international anti-drug effort by the United States in nearly a decade.

The proposal could represent a seismic shift in relations between two countries, whose law enforcement agencies and policy-makers have often bickered over the drug war, as well as other hugely contentious issues such as immigration reform and trade.

U.S. and Mexican negotiators reached the agreement in secrecy.

There were worries in Mexico that an aid package would infringe upon its sovereignty, and concerns in the United States about costs and strategy in light of the oft-criticized effort to combat drugs in Colombia.

The much-anticipated Mexico aid plan, which is included in the president’s $46 billion supplemental budget request for war funding, would pay for helicopters, training, canine units, communications gear and inspection equipment, the State Department said.

The program also would include training and technical advice on vetting new police officers, and case-management software to track investigations in a nation where drug kingpins have infiltrated many state and local governments, and infighting among drug traffickers has cost more than 4,000 lives in the past 22 months.

The violence is particularly acute in northern Mexico, where gunfights frequently spill across the U.S. border, a major reason congressional delegations in Texas and other border states have pushed for the aid deal.

Mexico’s drug cartels have been engaged in a fierce war for at least two years as they compete for lucrative trade routes and try to fill power vacuums left after the extradition of several major cartel leaders to face trial in the United States.

While the bulk of U.S. attention is focused on Mexico, Bush also announced an additional $50 million in proposed aid for Central American nations that have been beset by rampant violence and drug cartel corruption as traffickers seek new routes for the tons of cocaine and other drugs that flow into the United States every day.

The aid packages are part of what the Bush administration hopes will be a multiyear, $1.4 billion initiative.

Bush barely mentioned the package in his budget remarks. But within minutes of his announcement, the White House — cognizant of possible opposition in Congress — launched a public relations offensive, distributing a statement about the aid plan that was followed by enthusiastic news releases from the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Antonio O. Garza Jr., and the State Department.

“This initiative ... represents a fundamental shift in strengthening our strategic partnership and is the single most aggressive undertaking ever to combat Mexican drug cartels,” Garza said.

In a conference call with reporters, Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the State Department’s top diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, hailed the president’s request as “historic” and predicted it could create “a new paradigm” in U.S.-Mexico relations.

Mexico’s foreign minister, Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, called the request “a program of cooperation” rather than an aid package, and said it would give Mexico “better tools to protect the population from

organized crime.”

There are already signs that the proposal could face difficulties in Congress, where some members have complained that Mexico and the Bush administration have been negotiating for months in secret.

Rep. Eliot L. Engel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said he plans to hold a hearing on the proposal Thursday.

“Congress was not consulted as the plan was developed. This is not a good way to kick off such an important effort to fight the increase in narco-trafficking and violence in the region,” Engel said in a statement. “I hope that the administration will be more forthcoming with members of Congress now that they have announced the plan.”

Few hard details are known about the Mexico aid package, which has been dubbed the Merida Initiative because Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon discussed it during a summit in the Yucatan city in March.

The naming of the proposal has become a nettlesome issue, illustrating the sensitivities of talks between Mexico and the United States.

In Mexico, the news media have dubbed it Plan Mexico, a moniker that infuriates top Mexican officials because of its similarity to Plan Colombia, an ongoing, multibillion-dollar program launched seven years ago that sent U.S. troops to Colombia as part of an effort to eradicate coca production and battle Marxist rebels.

The State Department released a general outline of the Mexico proposal Monday, but Shannon declined to go into detail until meeting with members of Congress on Tuesday. Shannon also said it was too early to say how many years the program would last.

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4 world news

october 23, 2007

Immigrants finding themselves less than welcome in Italy TRACY WILKINSON

los angeles times

TRACY WILKINSON/LOS ANGELES TIMES

Immigrants Malika Masrour, left, and Koko Fossung, second from left, work as cultural facilitators in Padua, meeting with immigrants and Italians in troubled areas.

TREVISO, Italy — Giancarlo Gentilini likes to call himself the sheriff of Veneto, this prosperous, fabled region of northern Italy.

The de facto mayor of Treviso is proud of the toy pistols and tin star someone sent him from Abilene, Texas, and of the cowboy hats and bigger-than-life portrait of himself that adorn his regal office. And he is proud of the hard line he takes on immigrants.

“When they see me, they run,” he said, ticking off a list of what he claims as accomplishments: Getting rid of African street vendors and Romanian buskers. Closing the city’s only mosque.

Removing park benches to discourage immigrants from loitering. And banning red lanterns outside Chinese restaurants because they spoiled his hometown’s Italian character.

“For the things I’ve said and done, I’ve been called the biggest racist, the biggest fascist, the biggest Nazi of all time,” said Gentilini, 78, now deputy mayor after term limits prevented him from a third stint as mayor. “But now I see everyone following the gospel according to Gentilini.”

It might be easy to dismiss Gentilini as one flamboyant extremist. But he articulates, however indelicately, an anti-immigrant sentiment that is spreading across parts of Italy, a country that for years exported its people as migrants and only recently began to welcome foreign-born workers. Once homogenous, Italy is now struggling to adapt and cope with the change.

The backlash, fed in large part by fears of terrorism and other crimes, is especially intense here in the north, a region that has attracted the lion’s share of immigrants because of abundant work in factories and farms.

The region is also home to the rightwing Northern League, a small but influential political party that pushes a xenophobic agenda and was part of the national government until earlier this year.

But the backlash crosses political lines. In cities from Florence to Bologna, authorities want to arrest immigrants who swab car windshields at traffic stops, and they are debating ways to further toughen restrictions on new arrivals. In one nearby city , the center-left government erected a fence around an immigrant enclave, and elsewhere, campaigns have been

launched to stop mosques from being built.

Roberto Calderoli, a senator and former government minister from the Veneto region, has proposed a regular “pig day” in which he will parade his pet pig on land where fast-growing Muslim immigrant communities are planning new mosques. The action desecrates the land, in the Muslim view, and the project would probably be nixed.

Calderoli already pulled this stunt once in Lido, near Venice, a few years back, achieving his aim of blocking the mosque.

Much of the hostility toward immigrants is directed at Muslims, who make up the largest group of immigrants after Latin Americans.

Although no acts of terrorism in Italy have been blamed on Muslim immigrants, authorities say they have detected several networks based in mosques that were training potential terrorists. Scores of people, mostly from Morocco and other countries in northwest Africa, have been arrested.

“The proliferation of mosques and Koranic schools in Italy must be stopped immediately,” said Isabella Bertolini, a lawmaker with the main opposition Forza Italia (Go, Italy) party of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. “Our land is contaminated with thousands of these dangerous, spreading cancers which are centers for recruiting fanatics to be martyred in the holy war which Islam is waging against the West.”

As Gentilini’s equal-opportunity agenda shows, however, it isn’t only North Africans who are unwelcome.

An especially horrific rape-murder of an Italian couple, allegedly by one Romanian and two Albanian immigrants, this summer and a number of other crimes have led to calls for curtailing immigration.

And the hard-knuckle business practices of Chinese immigrants, which some Italians think undercut their economy, have created resentment and tensions in the Chinatowns of Milan and other cities. Violent demonstrations erupted last spring as Italian police began fining Chinese businessmen for their use of trolleys, bikes and cars to transport merchandise in the downtown commercial district.

An annual survey of Italy’s five largest cities showed substantial hardening of attitudes toward Muslims and other

immigrants. Whereas 61 percent favored building mosques two years ago, only 28 percent were so disposed now. A similarly precipitous decline was registered in those favoring giving immigrants the right to vote.

Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said he was alarmed by the trends.

“This fear is typical of closed and aging populations for whom diversity in itself is a threat ... and it is combined with a cultural predisposition, opinions which have hardened into prejudices,” he said.

In Padua, a classic city of medieval learning and Renaissance art near Treviso, the center-left government yielded to residents’ demands to fence off an immigrant enclave where drug trafficking and gang fights were rampant. The fence quickly became known as a local Berlin Wall, a rusty construction with fluorescent pink graffiti.

The enclave, a collection of dilapidated high-rise buildings that the locals called “the Bronx,” was such an eyesore that authorities finally closed it down this summer. Inhabitants who were legal immigrants were given other housing, said Maria Luisa Ferretti, a senior police official. The others were either arrested and slated for deportation, or faded into the woodwork.

Hoping to soothe the tensions, Padua’s leaders launched a program of “cultural facilitators,” a group of wellestablished, Italian-fluent immigrants who serve as go-betweens and offer something other than the “traditionally repressive approach” that authorities have had toward immigrants, Ferretti said.

At least 10 percent of Padua’s 200,000 residents are immigrants; in Treviso, 20 percent of newborns are the offspring of foreigners.

The “facilitators” don bright yellow vests and roam Padua’s trouble spots.

They speak to immigrants and to the Italians who still run businesses in changing neighborhoods.

And sometimes, they get an earful.

Antonio Righetto has owned a coffee bar on Padua’s Via Roma, near the train station, for decades. He greeted “cultural facilitators” Koko Fossung, 35, of Cameroon, and Malika Masrour, 42, of Morocco, with a typical litany of complaints.

Noting the advent of the holy month of Ramadan when observant Muslims keep fasts, Righetto said, “I wish it were Ramadan all the time. Fewer Moroccans around.”

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editor: laurel colella email: opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

october 24, 2007

Letters to the Editor Concealed weapon protest Fellow Hokies, have you noticed?

Some of your colleagues have been wearing empty holsters this week, participating with thousands of other students across the country in a protest.

They are wearing these to encourage you to consider what it means to carry a concealed handgun, specifically on campus. I know it might seem awkward to glance at someone’s waistline, and certainly don’t get your self into trouble, but please take note. Some people wear ribbons, T-shirts, or hats to voice certain things, and this is no different.

If you missed Friday’s CT, I’ll recap. The protest is organized

by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), www.ConcealedCampus.org, and encourages participation by simply wearing an empty holster this week and going about your normal day.

This passive protest approach is

meant to show that advocates of this right are just like you and me, and are comfortable with carrying to protect themselves (and potentially others).

While I could take this opportunity to argue many of the points of this debate, I will instead encourage you to consider them and read up on your own, and then discuss them with others. For more information and to discuss this, check out the various Facebook groups, the SCCC Web site, and Friday’s CT article — you can find that at collegiatetimes.com and search for “concealed carry.” There is a great discussion going on there, too.

If you see a participant, please voice your opinion! I’ll acknowledge “I support concealed carry” or “that’s not going to work” in my general direction, as well as stopping to engage and discuss. I know many of us will be using our voices Thursday night, why not give it to this, too?

Ken Stanton Ph.D. student, education

engineering

How should we punish our children?

The writer of “Sensationalizing sexual harassment,” (CT, Oct. 23) suggests school administrations focus on “the prevention of the more damaging problems that result from true sexual harassment.”

Yet, she also suggests we do not punish children for objectifying young girls in a degrading manner.

If that’s the case, then when exactly is this “prevention” supposed to take place? Little boy bullies grow up to be adult predators.

They must learn the consequences of their actions early. I can assure you this, if a six-year-old sticks his hand down my daughter’s pants, his parents are going to have hell to pay.

Cliff Hall junior, sociology

China responds to the Dalai Lama’s visit to Washington This month, we found ourselves fortunate enough to entertain one of the planet’s greatest champions of human rights and equality: Tenzin PEBBLES Gyatso, or as we SQUIRES know him, the 14th iteration of regular the Dalai Lama. columnist A Winner of the Nobel Peace prize along with a slew of other awards, Gyatso has spent his life espousing a Buddhist message of peace and cooperation. The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India, mere miles from his rightful home in Tibet in response to Chinese pressure on the religious figure. A prominent target of China’s communist regime, he has not seen his homeland since 1959.

During the Dalai Lama’s visit to Washington D.C., President Bush presented the holy man with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award a civilian can garner in the United States.

China’s Communist party issued a strong statement in response to our opening the doors to the exiled leader, issuing the expected warnings that come from a government that refuses to recognize the most basic of human rights. Condemning the visit, China urged the White House that inviting the dispossessed monk to Washington D.C. could produce “an extremely serious impact” on our relationship with China.

On occasion, President Bush’s perceived moral imperative actually produces a result that resembles what I would call “right.” When he isn’t busy asking Congress for money to fund a $200 million a day Middle Eastern catastrophe or chasing after

homosexuals on horseback, a hint of what actually makes George Bush the man he is slips through the cracks.

Our government’s decision to invite such an upright figure in the face of criticism from one of our greatest, but certainly most misguided trade partners requires more than a pragmatic approach to politics, and it is in his ideology that Bush certainly excels.

A rock solid founding father of the neoconservative movement, we are no strangers to Bush’s frequently controversial takes on what’s “good” for America and the rest of the world.

“Tenzin Gyatso, or as we know him, the 14th iteration of the Dalai Lama. A Winner of the Nobel Peace prize along with a slew of other awards, Gyatso has spent his life espousing a Buddhist message of peace and cooperation.”

Ideology is a powerful tool; all one needs to do is look at our two largest political parties. Republicans have been able to maintain party identity through strict adherence to the conservative values that form the glue of the party. The democrats have done just the opposite, fronting themselves as a catch-all party with a mission to help the common man, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to glean any kind of modus operandi from the Democrats other than high taxes and pro-choice. So it goes, the Republicans alienate and the Democrats pick up the leftovers, and through the great mechanism that is Congress, we accomplish nothing. The GOP’s crazy and the Democrats have no idea what’s going on. A great illustration of this phenomenon surfaced just two

weeks ago as Democrats struggled to pass a resolution that officially classifies events that occurred in Turkey 92 years ago as genocide. Countless Armenian men and women were forcibly deported or massacred in what may be the largest attack on an ethnic group apart from the Holocaust. Needless to say, the event was and still is a dark point in world history and should be given appropriate reverence.

But wait, aren’t we in the middle of a war here? What are we doing unearthing a dormant dialogue that does nothing more than strain our already tense relationship with Turkey? A huge portion of coalition supplies and aircraft use Turkish territory as an entry point into Iraq. If the Democrats genocide resolution is sincere, its timing is perfect. Placing that sort of tension on Turkey could severely disrupt our working relationship with the country, whose cooperation has proven to be absolutely indispensible in keeping our soldiers in one piece. I’m no supporter of our presence in Iraq, but we know better than to cut off our own legs when the you-know-what has long ago hit the metaphorical fan. Of course, to say house Democrats have pulled an obscene party publicity stunt with this resolution isn’t that unlikely a prospect. This is politics, after all.

So, idealized, mildly insane Republican leadership took the safe route whilst Pelosi and her hodgepodge of misguided followers went for the gold, and fell exceedingly short.

I am willing to bet that a majority of Americans know who the Dalai Lama is, but I bet half of them couldn’t find Armenia on a map. I reluctantly give points to the GOP this time. When it comes to making the people look like your party legitimately cares, gentlemen, you take the cake.

Americans are not happy with Iraq JASON VICK regular columnist America is not very happy with Washington these days. According to polls from The Washington Post, President Bush’s approval rating remains stuck at 33 percent, making him about as popular as President Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Congress is fairing no better in the eye of the public, and largely for the same reason. Neither President Bush nor the new democrat-led Congress has been able to alter the situation in Iraq.

Even following the upbeat Petraeus report and the apparent decline in American and Iraqi casualties in September, the American people remain largely unmoved.

Unfortunately, the actions of the American people have yet to reflect this discontent. We may be sick of the war in Iraq, but apparently we are not sick enough. There has been enough pressure to send a withdrawal bill to the desk of Bush, but not enough to generate the quantity of votes necessary to override the president’s veto.

So what is to be done? Is there anything we can do besides sit around and wait for Congress and Bush to bring the troops home? The answer is an emphatic yes. However, we have to be willing to work for it. The reason for the inadequacy of past activism has been not so much one of quality but of quantity. Calling and writing to our representatives and senators, publishing anti-war literature, protesting and engaging in civil disobedience.

All of these things are good and every one of them can contribute to ending the war in Iraq.

We may be sick of the war in Iraq, but apparently we are not sick enough. There has been enough pressure to send a withdrawal bill to the desk of Bush, but not enough to gnereate the quantity of votes necessary to override the president’s veto.

It is largely thanks to popular pressure that twenty-two representatives have now signed onto the impeachment proceedings against Dick Cheney. To those who may be put off by such a strong move, the justifications are both simple and plentiful.

Chapter One, Article Two of the U.N. Charter states that “all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”

As a signatory, the United States is obligated by both American and international law to adhere to these principles.

In this sense, Bush, Vice President Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others acted in direct violation of the U.N. Charter

when they chose to invade Iraq. Not only did they do so, but they also violated the American constitution, which states in Article VI, “all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land.” All leaders have not regarded our international obligations as supreme law.

Along with this, an appeal to the democratic wishes of the Iraqi people, which presumably is of some concern to us, should also yield an American withdrawal. Although President Bush has said that he will withdraw American troops if the Iraqi people ask us to leave, he has not mentioned in what manner they might do so.

Much like the American Congress, the Iraqi National Assembly has been utterly inept in ensuring steps toward an American withdrawal of troops.

As for the Iraqi people, they have shown in poll after poll that an overwhelming majority is opposed to the presence of American troops. The fact that nearly 60 percent of Iraqis — as expressed in countless polls — approve of the use of violence against Americans seems to be the very definition of foreign occupation.

One ought to remember, according to September polls reported by The Washington Post and elsewhere, that a large majority of Iraqis living in the “success story” of Anbar Province described living conditions as having deteriorated over the past year.

It seems that America’s leaders have different standards for success than the people actually living in Iraq.

Still, when all is said and done, what do the above words mean? Americans who oppose the war may nod their heads in agreement and those who support the president’s policy will respond to these arguments as they see fit. Until we begin to move toward greater action, we haven’t really gotten anywhere.

This Sat., Oct. 27, United for Peace and Justice is organizing eleven regional demonstrations in major cities across the country to demonstrate the scope and depth of popular opposition to the continued American presence in Iraq. To express our solidarity with these demonstrators and to demonstrate local opposition to the war, a rally and vigil is being held Friday evening, Oct. 26, at the War Memorial pylons.

We encourage every student, faculty, staff member and local who is interested to join us at 7 p.m., Friday night, at the pylons. You do not need to be a radical. There is no political litmus test. The purpose of this vigil is to demonstrate the extent of popular discontent with this war across all walks of American life. We invite and hope to see students of every stripe: republicans and democrats, libertarians and socialists, moderates and radicals, pacifists and anarchists and anyone who simply thinks that if our government is going to be doing anything, it has better things to do than invade and occupy foreign nations. All we ask is that you bring a spirit of respect for the terrible loss of life that has accompanied this horrible war.

Editorial local issue

Tech should lead energy efficiency campaign at home, not in Washington

Have an opinion?

Let campus know.

Send an e-mail to. . . opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com

As of last week, Virginia Tech has become involved in a program called the “Energy Efficiency Partnership of Greater Washington,” based in Washington D.C. Tech is partnering with lead investor Hannon Armstrong and the company Pepco.

Changes will be made in various buildings in D.C. such as more efficient light bulbs and air conditioning systems will be installed. It is predicted that the $500 million that will be invested into this project will be made back after five years of the new energy efficient changes.

The partnership has added benefits for Tech since students and professors will have opportunities to use the program for research.

Tech’s involvement in the “Energy Efficiency Partnership of Greater Washington” is a great step toward encouraging energy efficiency in the nation’s capital — the highly populated city creates plenty of opportunities to generate energy efficient systems. Such changes will continue to be adopted in other buildings in other cities once everyone is able to view the benefits of installing more energy efficient systems.

However, why doesn’t Tech

begin its efforts toward energy efficiency on its own campus and in its own community? Putting money and time into creating awareness and encouraging change among students, staff and Blacksburg citizens would turn Tech into a good model for other universities across the nation. Starting energy reduction programs at Tech could encourage other schools to adopt the same programs, creating a nation-wide effort to reduce energy on campuses.

Many student organizations are working toward helping the environment within the Tech community, such as The Environmental Coalition and the Society of Environmentally Focused Students. With support from the university, these organizations could create bigger programs to encourage students to save energy.

John Chermak, a geosciences professor, in an article for the CT, suggested that students take shorter showers and use more efficient light bulbs. Such suggestions are excellent for decreasing Tech’s use of energy, and Tech has enough students and staff that if the majority of people were to make such small changes, there would be a significant change in energy use.

With over 9,000 students in dorms, Tech would save money on utilities if those students were more mindful of their water and electricity use. If a campaign was created and heavily publicized, many students would be willing to help out by making small changes. These environmental changes would not be an inconvenience to students, which means the campus would be likely to see some results.

Considering Tech finally received a recycling truck this year, after five years of not having one due to lack of funds, it’s clear that the administration would be focusing on its own community before investing time and effort into a project so far from the Tech area.

The partnership will create opportunities for research for both students and professors, but there is enough need at Tech to improve the school’s energy efficiency. The primary focus for Tech should be to create a community that works together to reduce energy, and then move on to broader projects.

The editorial board is composed of Amie Steele, Joe Kendall, Saira Haider, Laurel Colella and Sara Mitchell.

The Collegiate Times is an independent student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 Collegiate Times Editorial Staff Editor in Chief Amie Steele Managing Editors Joe Kendall, Saira Haider Production Manager Claire Craft Public Editor Colleen Webster News Editors Kevin Anderson, Meg Miller, Caroline Black Associate News Editor Ashley Oliver News Reporters Rosanna Brown, Michelle Rivera, Peter Hurley, Andrea Woods Features Editor Sharon Pritz Associate Features Editor Drew Jackson Features Reporter Katelyn Lau Opinions Editor Laurel Colella Sports Editor Ryan McConnell Associate Sports Editor Charles Barrineau Sports Reporters T. Rees Shapiro, Torrey Smith, Bryan Wright Head Copy Editor David Harries Copy Editors Mary Hardbarger, Kati Ann Leonburger, Cate Summers, Alexandra Mandzak Photo Editors Sally Bull, Kyle Swanson Layout Designers Josh Son, Krystal Stevens, Melanie Welzel, Jenna Wolfe Graphic Designer Ben MacDonald Online Director Christopher Ritter Multimedia Editor Colin Smith Multimedia Producer Christina Pfeifer Senior Web Producer Tim Tutt Web Producers Jon Boblitt, John Edstrom, Gabreil Martinez Community Content Editor Sean O’Mara Web Staff Timothy Lee Collegiate Times Business Staff Business Manager Robert Bowman Marketing Manager Whitney Ludvik College Media Solutions Staff Advertising Director Xavier L. Herrera Ads Production Manager Anika Stickles Asst Production Manager Ashley Shoemaker Ads Production/Creation Kristin Claeys, Sarah Ford, Kaiesha Morgan, Alyssa Peltier, Catherine Worsham Assistant Advertising Directors Ashley Culbreth, Patrick Fitzgerald, Katelynn Reilly National Account Executive Robbie Zayas Account Executives Tara Darby, Jenna Given, Don Janocha, Beau King, Katy McCall, David Ross, Suzanne Watkins, John Welch Assistant Account Executives Kayla Clements, Blythe Dalton, Amy Guzewicz, Ashlee Goodwin, Jennifer Himlich, Kelli Lyman, Mike Walsh Marketing Manager Devin Armstrong Student Publication Photo Staff Director of Photography Shaozhuo Cui Business Manager Jim Dickhans

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editor: sharon pritz email: features@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.

october 24, 2007

Money WhizDom: Newest reality: Celebrity Crap Superstar Start now to taste success early Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Michael Dell have something besides an abundance of wealth in common. They identified and pursued ADHVITH their passion and, DHUDDU most importantly, started early in regular life. columnist Whether it’s investing, entrepreneurship or even a full-time job, excelling early will put you on a path to financial success and early retirement.

A university environment is an ideal place to start. Here you possess something very precious: time and freedom, which will soon become scarce when you enter the real world. In addition, you have access to unlimited resources and knowledge in the form of professors, research centers, a voluminous library, clubs, organizations, etc.

Here at Virginia Tech, there are innumerable opportunities to give your career an early boost. Remember that your undergraduate and graduate colleagues take the same classes, study the same textbooks, hear the same lectures and are exposed to the same knowledge. How you manage your free time in order to add more feathers to your hat is what will make you more marketable and appealing than your classmates.

Bond and Securities Investing by Students (BASIS) and Student-managed Endowment for Educational Development (SEED) are two topquality organizations that budding investors, money managers and entrepreneurs should consider joining. Here you will meet some intelligent and highly motivated individuals striving to make money yield handsome returns for the university.

Although admission to SEED or BASIS is highly competitive, getting a foot in the door is beneficial.

SEED invests university funds primarily in securities and BASIS concentrates more on fixed income investments.

“It’s a unique experience to manage large funds at such a young age.

With students from different majors involved in the decision making process, you learn a lot because you have to incorporate diverse opinions while assessing different positions and trades.

Investing as a team is poles apart from investing individually,” said BASIS member and junior mechanical engineering major, Nandan Shah.

Shah also expressed how the team feels a sense of accomplishment when a certain investment goes through. It’s one of those rare win-win situations where the school makes money and you learn a great deal in the process.

SEED and BASIS are two elite groups from which many investment banks and asset management companies are known to hire regularly.

Recently, Tony Yang, a senior undergraduate industrial and systems engineering student, started the Private Entrepreneurs Society, where budding entrepreneurs meet weekly to discuss and evaluate potential business ideas, real estate ideas and investment opportunities.

“It’s different here,” said co-founder and class of 2007 alum, Josh Prior. “As we are not associated with the university, we can execute potential business ideas with making profits the primary goal.”

“Everyone in the society got involved automatically because they know their work will be rewarded via the revenue sharing business model,” Prior added. Although admission to this society is by invitation only, Yang expressed a desire to expand the society. He can be contacted at private.entrepreneurs@gmail.com.

Leadership Tech and ELITE are two more associations where you can hone your leadership, communication and people skills and learn how to be a high-performance individual. And you get to work with like-minded people to achieve your passion, which is a great feeling.

It’s not vitally important for us to start making millions by the time we graduate, but what is essential is that we have sufficient practical knowledge in addition to the academic knowledge that all of us possess. So, one definite way to get ahead in this rat race is to start right and start early.

more more more more more

Civilization has been forecast by a great many things.

The rise of disco in the 70s, hair-metal in the 80s, and JAMES movies about CARTY break-dancing in that golden regular decade that columnist was the 1990s are just a few on a very long list chock full of aggravation and puzzlement.

Well, folks, get ready to add one more item to the list, something so vile, so completely absurd, you may find yourself ill at the very mention of its name. I am, of course, talking about the horrible abomination that is MTV’s Celebrity Rap Superstar.

If you haven’t heard, the wizards at Viacom cooked up this little concoction as part of the recent wave of “celebreality” shows that have been dominating cable recently. The premise is simple: assemble eight D-list celebrities, give them Z-list rappers as coaches, or “mentors” as they are referred to on the show, and have them battle it out on the stage in an exploitative showcase of the absurd that would make even

Gallagher cringe.

After the eliminations of former Atlanta Falcons running back Jamal Anderson, actor Efren Ramirez (also known as Pedro of Napoleon Dynamite fame), and Jason Wahler from Laguna Beach, viewers were left with a much pared down roster of rap favorites that included gossip kingpin Perez Hilton and “Girls Next Door” sexpot Kendra Wilkinson, just to name a few.

As you might have guessed, these people could not rap their way out of a wet paper bag, let alone on stage in front of a live studio audience.

The performances were deplorable even when the celebs were allowed to use existing songs, but soon bordered on the criminal when the contestants were tasked with creating their own “original” rap songs.

After a few weeks of noise pollution and pointless rap battling, the show ended in a grand finale between finalists Kendra Wilkinson and Shar Jackson, with Jackson eventually coming out on top.

So, who cares about all this? It’s just worthless reality TV right?

Well, yes and no. It is most definitely pointless drivel meant for those with IQs that match their shoe size and certain people with an addiction to

NICHOLAS KHAYAT/ MCT CAMPUS

Shar Jackson took home the golden microphone on Celebrity Rap Superstar. an odiferous green plant, but at the same time it is a shining beacon of the cultural destruction that goes on under our noses every day of the week.

Ladies and gentleman, step right up and see the show! Witness the

dissolution of the hip-hop culture, live and uncut in the comfort of your own home for just the price of your monthly cable bill.

It is an offer that, quite literally, you cannot refuse, for no matter what you do, the machine will not stop rolling, consuming, destroying.

All we can do is wonder what will come next.

Maybe MC Karl Rove will make resurgence with his rendition of Cypress Hill’s classic “Hits from the Bong.”

Perhaps Suri Cruise will chime in for a chorus of “Ay Bay Bay.” If we’re lucky, we might even get to see Stephen Hawking do the robot.

Literally.

In any case, all hope is not lost for hip-hop, that most beleaguered of genres, bloated to the point of bursting with corporate perversions and inane imitations.

Contrary to popular belief, it is the public who dictates what sells and what doesn’t. Keep this in mind the next time you see a farce like this on the airways. You, too, can combat the destruction of culture by lowest common denominator programming. Your weapons need only be a remote control and smile. The fate of a musical genre can be decided with a simple flick of the wrist.

Turning up the volume on feminism AILEEN JACOBSON

newsday MELVILLE, N.Y. — Back in the 1970s, feminist artists often made bold public statements about their discontent with the ways galleries and museums treated women.

Today, the passion for change — more women in charge, more women’s art on prominent display — is still there, but its expression is “just a murmuring in the background,” says Katherine Crum, former chief curator of the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton.

Crum is moderator of a panel, “Feminism: Then and Now,” that will gather art-world women of different generations Sunday in Riverhead. If the event goes as its organizer, Joyce Beckenstein, plans, the discussion will turn up the decibels well beyond murmurs.

“This is an opportunity to look at the movement from different perspectives,” says Beckenstein, coordinator of the North Fork Arts Project, which is presenting “Art, Women, Feminism,” of

which the panel is a part. It’s preceded by a performance piece, “BodySite,” by Andrea Cote, who will also join the panel.

Cote, now 37, was a youngster when Crum, 65, observed the actions of ‘70s feminists and another panelist, Poppy Johnson, 58, was a participant.

Johnson, now assistant director of the Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport, was in the thick of things. “My time of ribald active feminism was in the 1970s.

I was very young then, and we were very serious.” Among the actions she took part in with the Ad Hoc Women Artist’s Committee, she says, was a demonstration at Manhattan’s Whitney Museum of American Art when it included only eight women in an exhibit of 200 artists.

Her group projected slides of women’s works onto the Whitney’s outside wall from a nearby apartment, she says, while she and others at a reception inside blew whistles and placed hard-boiled eggs in the galleries. “We weren’t throwing eggs,” she adds, but were using them “as a symbol of femininity or fertility.”

To illustrate how scarce women

friends. family. fun. food.

were in the higher echelons, Johnson found a 1977 photograph taken at a celebration of the Castelli gallery’s 20th anniversary at Frank Stella’s New York studio. Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein and others — 19 male superstars in all — were there. She’s the only woman in the picture.

In 1982, “tired of the New York art world,” Johnson moved to Long Island with her three children. She’s curious to hear what the younger female panelists have to say, she says.

“There are lots of women artists, but women in positions of power — I don’t know. ... How many women are really running museums or galleries or selling their works?” (Her own art didn’t make money, she says.) “When it comes down to it — money and power, that’s what it’s all about.”

Crum, now president of the Art Museum Partnership for directors of small and medium-size museums, echoes Johnson’s disappointment.

Women are still “doing wonderful work,” says Crum, also an art historian, but very few have become “rock star”

artists and only a handful run museums or galleries, especially larger ones.

People’s concerns, she says, should be “expressed in some kind of action. ...

I don’t know what that will be, but it needs to be from someone the right age to come up with that idea.”

Maybe it will be Cote, who moved from Brooklyn to Flanders this spring with her husband, or Cote’s friend Karen Conway, 36, another panelist, who is a curator and research consultant at the Whitney.

“I see myself as a feminist,” Cote says.

In “BodySite,” her outdoor work, she says, she appears wearing an abstractly painted dress, her face painted to match.

“The dress unfolds and becomes a giant square. It could be a painting, a gallery, the floor of a studio.” She’s still working with a choreographer to deepen the 15- to 20-minute piece and has added sharper movements to convey “notions of being trapped within one’s skin, trying to get out of one’s skin, the safety of one’s skin.” As she explores issues of body consciousness, she says, she’s building on the work of women three decades ago: “I’m very indebted to them.”

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october 24, 2007

Two very different teams meet up in the Fall Classic Ask the Cleveland Indians, and they’ll say game seven should’ve never happened.

Ask their third base coach, Joel BRIAN Skinner, and he WRIGHT wishes it never ct sports happened.

The Tribe reporter held a three games-to-one American League Championship Series lead over the Boston Red Sox, but then dropped game five and an opportunity to clinch the pennant at home. Game six at Fenway Park was a blowout: 12-2, Boston.

The pendulum had swung in favor of the Sox. In the deciding game on Sunday, the Indians were trailing again, but it was only 3-2 in the top of the seventh.

With one out, Kenny Lofton popped up to shallow left field. Red Sox shortstop, Julio Lugo, drifted toward the ball and dropped it, allowing Lofton to get to second base.

Bass: Club takes top honor from page one

down the river. We threw our bait, like a natural bait would come down a rock wall, and the fish would ambush our lures, and we ended up catching probably 35 fish that day, but some were just really small, and under the length limit.

So I think our tactics were right, and we stuck with it.”

Before Wiley founded the team, the concept of being considered the top in the country seemed surreal because neither of them had even heard of competitive fishing at the collegiate level.

“I’m actually the one that learned about college bass fishing, and I had the idea that we should definitely have it here at Tech,” said Wiley, who founded the club in March last year. “I went through the steps to find the people that would want to do it with me, and found out how to submit some paper work to become a student organization.”

Though, if you’d asked Wiley or Thompson back in early March if in a few months time they would be the best college bass fisherman in the country, they’d humbly deny that kind of notion as far fetched an idea as a 20 pound large mouth.

“I don’t really think I deserve this championship,” Thompson said. “There’s better fishermen than me out there, and I haven’t had a lot of experience, but I’ve honed my skills over the years and tried different techniques and strategies, and that’s what’s made me successful.”

But now that dreams are a reality, Wiley and Thompson track their beginnings in the tradition of angling to their younger days.

“I’ve been fishing ever since I was old enough to walk down to the local reservoir and throw a worm off the dock,” Wiley said.

“I’ve been bass fishing my entire life,” Thompson said. “I grew up in ponds near my house, but never really got into tournament fishing until I got to Tech.”

Both Wiley and Thompson learned the trade from their fathers, who taught them their secrets at an early age, which paid off this past weekend. With all the knowledge of river ecology, and constant casting, Wiley explained that the common misconception that fisherman are not athletes is a load of worms.

“I wouldn’t say so much physical, except this past tournament we threw pretty much the entire time and constantly moving. At home you cast maybe every minute or so, but out there we were casting like every 10 or 15 seconds ... that becomes physically demanding especially if you’re out bouncing on a boat, trying to keep one foot on a trolling motor, and one foot balancing you,” Wiley said.

However, these two, and the rest of the Bass Fishing Club, are looking forward to more opportunities on the open water to uphold their reputation as “heavyweight” contenders. They usually go to Claytor Lake to practice locally, but in the near future are looking to host a club tournament locally.

“We just want to get the word out for Virginia Tech bass fishing,” Thompson said. “The plan is to get this sport out there, we hope to eventually get a conference championship in the future. We’re trying to host something this spring at Smith Mountain Lake.”

While almost anyone can explain the basic rules of football, the sport of Bass Fishing is, to say the least, not quite on the radar of college students at the moment, but as Wiley can testify, it’s gaining popularity.

“We have four official members right now,” Wiley said. “But in the past two weeks or so, we’ve had about 10 people respond who were interested in joining … We really want to try to grow the club, become more organized, and have a lot more fun.”

page

sports 9

editor: ryan mcconnell email: sportseditor@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw noon - 2 p.m.

The next batter, Franklin Gutierrez, lashed a base hit down the third base line. The ball caromed off the facing of the stands and back into shallow left field.

Then Skinner had a moment of indecision as Lofton rounded third base. Even though it looked like Lofton would score and tie the game, Skinner gave him the stop sign.

Little did he know, he would help yield all momentum over to the Red Sox. On the next pitch, Casey Blake grounded into a double play. Inning over.

Boston promptly blew the game open, and secured a spot in the World Series with an 11-2 win.

If this were about five years ago, that ghost of bad luck hovering over Fenway Park would certainly be wearing a Red Sox cap.

Now, they may have gladly passed that distinction of misfortune over to the Indians … or the whole city of Cleveland, for that matter. A city that hasn’t seen a professional sports championship since the Browns won the NFL title in 1964.

The Indians, who have been without a World Series crown since

1948, may be turning into baseball’s compelling close-but-no-cigar team, much like Red Sox were prior to 2004.

Things are different today. The 21st century Red Sox are talented, fearless … and a bit lucky. All that luck does come at a price. But money doesn’t buy as much sentiment as it used to.

Outside of New England, this club isn’t exactly America’s darlings. With the second highest payroll, they’re now just another large-market team that paid big bucks to get players like Josh Beckett, J.D. Drew and Daisuke (Dice-K) Matsuzaka.

Shelling out cash isn’t the only solution to winning championships. Recent history shows that even small-market clubs can obtain success.

Exhibit A: the Colorado Rockies.

And for a little perspective, consider this: The Red Sox paid $51 million to the Seibu Lions for the rights to talk to Dice-K, the Japanese pitching sensation, last off-season. The entire Rockies payroll? A K-Mart Blue Light Special of $54 million. These players, though, have “Mile-High” value.

Matt Holliday could be the National League Most Valuable Player with a .340 batting average, 36 homers, and 137 runs batted in.

Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki may very well be the league’s Rookie of the Year. Starting pitcher Jeff Francis led the team with 17 victories.

The Indians, who have been without a World Series crown since 1948, may be turning into baseball’s compelling close-butno-cigar team, much like Red Sox were prior to 2004.

These players didn’t come in blockbuster trades or with mega-contract deals. They came from their own, small minor league system. Now, they’re on the big stage in the World Series.

Although the Sox are 2-to-1 favorites to win, the Rockies couldn’t care any less. They’ve had the odds against them since mid-September, when they were seemingly eliminated from the postseason.

However, Colorado went on a miraculous season-ending stretch.

They came from nowhere to win the Wild Card. Then they swept the Phillies … then the Diamondbacks to reach the Fall Classic.

Now, these two teams with distinctive price tags will meet in Boston for game one tonight. The Red Sox deserve to be the heavy favorites in this series. They are the best team in baseball, played in a far superior American League, and looked strong in their comeback against the Indians.

One thing that might hurt the Rockies is their eight-day lay-off following their League Championship Series win. It didn’t help the Detroit Tigers last year, who had a full week off before struggling in a five game World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The lay-off may hurt the Rockies hitters, and Red Sox game one starter Josh Beckett won’t help matters either. Beckett was sensational in his two ALCS starts, winning the series’ Most Valuable Player award.

The Rockies did win twice in

a three-game series at Fenway in June. For them to have any chance, they’ll need to win one of the first two in this series. The Rockies better be careful if they manage to take a three-games-to-two lead back to Boston. Just look how it turned out for Cleveland.

The one aspect that gives the Red Sox the edge is experience. The Cardinals had it last year. And with guys like Beckett, Curt Schilling, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez (all with World Series rings), the Sox most definitely have it this time around.

They proved that in the ALCS over a youthful Indians team, while the Rockies overwhelmed two National League opponents who also had little postseason familiarity. Colorado hasn’t faced a team that is used to the pressures of October baseball.

That, plus overall depth will give the Red Sox enough to overcome Cinderella.

So, expect cheers in Beantown.

What they should do instead is breath a sigh of relief … at least it didn’t take 86 years to get their next title. Red Sox in six.

page 10

wednesday, october 24, 2007

NFL marketing ploy: Snub U.S. fans, go global instead ANDREA ADELSON

the orlando sentinel We are getting hit everywhere with images of our favorite players and favorite teams playing in not-so-favorite places. Shanghai?

Macao?

Now comes NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, floating the idea of playing a Super Bowl in London.

This has to stop. How are any of these international games helping teams, coaches and fans back home in the United States? Every pro sport in America has started to go overseas to play games just to expand their product and make more money.

But all of this madness is just a slap in the face to fans in this country, fans that are being told more and more how irrelevant they are on a constant basis.

Do these leagues think fans are stupid enough to buy their reasons for playing in Europe and Asia and Mexico? If I hear one more time how great it is to bring the game to f oreign fans, I might just pull my hair out.

The message being delivered is obvious: We already have our fan

base in the United States, so we can forget about you. We need more fans, more money, more exposure — did we mention more money — so we need to start looking elsewhere for people to buy our tickets and merchandise.

There is no other reason why the Magic and Cavaliers are playing three games in China and Macao. It can’t be worth it to players and coaches to travel 18 hours and cross 12 times zones just to play some exhibition games in front of Chinese fans. I had to laugh when I saw the picture on the front page of the sports section of the Sentinel Web site on Wednesday with plenty of empty seats in the background as Dwight Howard went for a rebound.

Coaches and players are creatures of habit. They hate altering their entire routine and scheduling for anything.

They might be saying all the right things now, but I go back to a quote from 2003, when I covered the New York Jets.

They went to Tokyo that year to play the Bucs in an exhibition game.

Veteran guard Dave Szott, who had already been to Japan twice with the Chiefs, said, “All I have to say about

Japan is, ‘God Bless America, the land that I love.’ . . . We’re ambassadors to the NFL. There has to be a greater reason we go over there.”

Then Bucs-tight end Ken Dilger wasn’t thrilled with the idea, either, saying, “I’d rather stay here.”

Exhibition games are one thing. The NHL and NFL have taken it one step further with regular-season games.

The Dolphins and Giants are playing this coming weekend in London, and 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium will be packed. Great. I am sure the Dolphins are thrilled about trekking across the Atlantic and losing a home game for this, especially since there are precious few in football. (Granted, fans are probably happy they will only have seven chances to see the Dolphins at home this year).

The league plans on playing one or two overseas games through 2011 as it continues to build its market. The next step seems to be the Super Bowl.

Earlier this week at a news conference in Arizona, Goodell was asked about future Super Bowls and he said: “There’s a great deal of interest in holding a Super Bowl in London. So we’ll be looking at that.”

At the risk of sounding like an

ugly American, this is the worst idea yet. This is America’s favorite sport, a game Americans invented, and should be played here.

There is no way the FA Cup or Champions League final would be played in New York. Soccer knows its place — they are the favorite sport of the world and could care less if Americans are interested. But the professional leagues in America

Exhibition games are one thing.

The NHL and NFL have taken it one step further with regularseason games. The Dolphins and Giants are playing this coming weekend in London, and 90,000-seat Webley Stadium will be packed. feel the need to keep expanding the product — and will shove it down your throat even if the interest is lukewarm at best.

A quick glance at the Web pages of the six major London daily newspapers Tuesday showed only two

carried the comments from Goodell about the possibility of the Super Bowl being held there.

Mostly, you had to click several times to even find information on American football. Even then it was scarce, or outdated. The Sky television network shows games every Sunday, and BBC has the right to the Super Bowl this year. But a friend of mine who lives in London said most people shrug their shoulders when it comes to the NFL. Meanwhile, the American sports Web sites and talk shows debated the topic of a Super Bowl overseas all week, clearly more interested in their favorite sport than anyone else.

Can you imagine a Super Bowl in London, anyway?

I can picture it now — New England Traitors win, Bill Belichick gets doused with a kettle of tea and Tom Brady mouths into the camera “Hi, Mummy!”

Please, commissioners, stop and realize one thing: Your leagues would be nowhere if it were not for the good ol’ fans in the U.S.A. Instead of focusing on new markets, maybe focus on keeping the fans you have, before it’s too late.

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