Wednesday, March 17, 2010 Print Edition by Collegiate Times

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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Clean energy rally maintains coal agenda LIANA BAYNE news reporter Beyond Coal at Virginia Tech hosted a rally for the National Day of Action for Stricter Ozone Controls yesterday in support of newly proposed national standards for ozone pollution levels. Beyond Coal continues to campaign for cleaner energy on campus, senior member Bryce Carter said. Tuesday’s rally was designed to be a portion of their campaign for switching exclusively to clean energy on campus by 2020. After university administration rejected the student group’s push to remove coal-powered energy, generated by the on-campus power plant, Beyond Coal is now re-grouping. “They know we’re serious,” Carter said. Tuesday’s rally, backing new regulations for air cleanliness standards, was a way for Beyond Coal to emphasize their platform by calling attention to a detrimental side effect of coal usage. Sophomore Sarah Grant, a Beyond Coal spokeswoman, said the group began planning the event before spring break to coincide with a nationwide rally day in support of the stronger standards. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a revision to air quality standards in January. The current average level is about 80 parts per billion; the new standards would reduce the maximum level to a range of 60 to 70 parts per billion. The EPA also suggested establishing a distinctive “secondary” standard, which would have a different range and is “designed to protect sensitive vegetation and ecosystems,” according to the proposed rule. The last set of standards was set in 2008 and was not as protective as recommended at the time, according to the proposal. Project leader sophomore Kara Dodson said the event would hopefully raise awareness of the proposed change in standards. “It’s encouraging students to come out to collect public comments on the recent legislation,” she said. Cathy Milbourn, spokesperson from the EPA’s air quality headquarters, said

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Students and members of the on-campus environmentalist group Beyond Coal at Virginia Tech hold a rally supporting EPA clean air regulations and university action on energy. the standards haven’t yet been finalized. They should be finalized by August 31. The public comment period on the legislation closes March 22. Linsey Marr, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tech, said changing the standards would help protect public health, both for people and nature. Marr spoke at yesterday’s rally about the “ample evidence” she has found through more than 15 years of research of the harms of coal.

She became involved with Beyond Coal when the student group contacted her asking if she would be interested in contributing her expertise to the event. “I think I’m probably the person on campus who knows the most about it,” Marr said. Marr’s research has found the ozone levels in Blacksburg to be in compliance, mainly because of the fact that there are less cars being driven in the area than other more populated areas such as Roanoke.

Obama losing chance to reshape judiciary makeup JAMES OLIPHANT mcclatchy newspapers An early chance for the Obama administration to reshape the nation’s judiciary — and counter gains made in the federal courts by conservatives — appears close to slipping away, due to a combination of White House inattention and Republican opposition. During President Barack Obama’s first year, judicial nominations trickled out of the White House at a far slower pace than in President George W. Bush’s first year. Bush announced 11 nominees for federal appeals courts in the fourth month of his tenure. Obama didn’t nominate his 11th appeals court judge until November, his 10th month in office. Moreover, Obama nominees are being confirmed at a much slower rate than those of his predecessor, largely because of the gridlocked Senate. Key slots stand without nominees, including two on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the body that reviews decisions by federal agencies and a court that is considered second in importance only to the Supreme Court. Federal judicial vacancies nationwide have mushroomed to well over 100, with two dozen more expected before the end of the year. To date, the Obama administration has nominees for just 52 of those slots, and only 17 have been confirmed. For almost three decades, conserva-

tives and liberals have been warring over control of the federal courts. By the time Bush exited the White House, Republican presidents had appointed 60 percent of the nation’s federal judges and seven of the nine justices on the Supreme Court. Liberals believed they had found a champion in Obama. That hasn’t happened. “It’s just a missedopportunity,”lamentsGeoffrey Stone, a professor at the University of Chicago who has known Obama since he lectured at the school. “I don’t know how committed he is to it.” Stone was one of a dozen law professors from schools including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Stanford who sent Obama a letter late last month urging him to act with “far more energy and dispatch” on the issue. Other matters have clearly taken priority in the Obama White House, including health care and economy. Obama’s top lawyer, Gregory Craig, who departed in November, was consumed with issues such as the Guantanamo Bay prison. The judicial nomination machinery has cranked up under his successor, Robert Bauer, and now the administration is trying to make up for lost time. The White House named two new appeals court judges just last week. “The president has moved swiftly to fill vacancies considered to be judicial emergencies, and the pace of nominations overall has significantly increased in the new year,” said Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman.

“When brought to a floor vote, the president’s nominees have passed with strong bipartisan support.” But much of the rest of this year in the Senate will be consumed with finishing the health care overhaul and more job-creation legislation, making time for floor votes scarce. The fall brings a congressional election, where the balance of power in the Senate could shift. If the Democrats lose seats — or if Republicans take control of the body — then Obama likely would be forced to appoint centrist judges more acceptable to the GOP. The same fate befell President Bill Clinton after the 1994 election. Obama’s defenders say he already approaches nominations with a nonpartisan perspective. “President Obama has taken his time in making judicial nominations out of respect for the judicial office,” said Douglas Kmiec, a former Reagan administration lawyer. “While some prior presidents sought to ‘pack the bench’ in a hurry for solely political purpose, President Obama has applied what I would call an ethic of justice to his nominations.” Of course, Obama can claim one high-profile success: the newest Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor. Liberals were also encouraged when Obama last month nominated Goodwin Liu, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

“Ozone is mainly due to vehicle emissions,” she said. Blacksburg’s ozone emissions are usually “no more than 50” parts per billion, Marr said. Various counties throughout the nation monitor ozone levels on the ground level, which are the most harmful to people and wildlife. Milbourn said that although the EPA’s data doesn’t show Montgomery County in violation of current smog standards, Roanoke County is current-

ly in violation. Other violating Virginia counties include Arlington, Caroline, Chesterfield, Fairfax, Fauquier, Henrico, Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford. The EPA has also compiled a list of counties that they expect will be in violation with ozone levels over 60 parts per billion in 2020. These predictions are based on the probability of the legislation being enacted. “It’s based on modeling which would include estimates of what would hap-

pen,” she said. “It’s really just an estimate.” Some Virginia counties estimated to remain in violation are Arlington, Chesterfield, Fairfax, Henrico, Loudoun, Prince William, Roanoke and Stafford. Dodson said even though Montgomery County is not currently in violation of smog standards, other areas of the state and country can still affect it. see COAL / page four

A leap of faith

Steve Domecus, a redshirt senior, makes a home plate slide during the Hokies’ Tuesday matchup against Rider University. photo by luke mason

sports 2Sophomore wrestler looks to make noise as three-seed in NCAA Championships editor: alex jackson sportseditor@collegiatetimes.com/ 540.231.9865

COLLEGIATETIMES

march 17, 2010

GEORGE TILLERSON sports staff writer Virginia Tech sophomore wrestler Jesse Dong did not always take wrestling seriously. When the 157-pound Atlantic Coast Conference champion began wrestling as a child, it was simply for fun. Dong never knew that his new hobby would turn into a successful college career. It was not until he was in eighth grade, actually, when he even began consider wrestling as DONG to something he could have a successful future in. “I started taking wrestling pretty seriously towards the end of middle school,” Dong said. “I always wrestled when I was younger, but obviously I didn’t take it seriously, and after my freshman year of high school, I knew that wrestling was a great sport and that I could really excel at it. So I started working hard and it’s gotten me where I am now.”

This season, Dong is happy he decided to stick with the sport. Currently ranked third, fourth and fifth in three different national polls, the sophomore is coming off a 30-2 season in which he went undefeated in ACC play and captured his first ACC title two weekends ago with a 7-5 victory over Maryland’s Kyle John. That’s a lot of success for a sophomore. Nevertheless, Dong does not let the high rankings get to his head or make him angry. “The thing about the rankings is that you can’t let them get to your head, no matter how high you are or how low you are,” Dong said. “Last year I let the rankings get to my head. This year I’m not letting them get to my head. So I can’t let the third, fourth and fifth rankings upset me or allow me to put myself on a pedestal.” “I think the one guy that stepped it up the most from November to now, number one is Jesse Dong,” Tech wrestling head coach Kevin Dresser said. “You know he’s ranked top four, top five in the nation. We knew Jesse was going to be a highly ranked guy, but he’s right there debatably to be in the top three in the nation by the end of the season.”

Dong had a successful year last year as he went 27-11 overall and 2-2 in the conference competition. However, he did not perform as well as he would have liked in the ACC tournament where he placed second. The main reason Dong believes he fell short of first place in the tournament was because of his youth. “Last year I was young, a little naive and obviously a little undersized, so that had a big part in it,” he said. “But you know last year towards the end of the year I took matches for granted and that really started to hurt me, but I did pick it up in the ACC and I got a couple good wins especially in the semis over (Virginia’s) Jedd Moore. “I feel I have matured overall and have a lot more mat sense now with so much more intensity,” Dong said. Dong’s self-disappointment carried over to the NCAA tournament in 2009 where he fell in two straight matches to finish his freshman year. This year, though, Dong said he has what it takes to win it all. “This year, obviously I’m not going to settle for anything less than the NCAA champion-

ship,” he said. So you know sometimes things do go bad, but I’m still going to wrestle my hardest and do the best I can, and I’m not going to settle for anything less than the gold medal.” Along with Dong’s disappointment in the ACC and NCAA tourney last year, the team as a whole was disappointed as well. The Hokies placed second in the ACC tournament last season, mainly because of their youth. “Like myself, I think that our team kind of took things for granted,” Dong said. “We were ranked 11th in the country last year and we had a really good dual meet season and a really good season overall.” Despite increased experience this year, the team finished even worse in the conference tournament, placing third behind champion Virginia and second place Maryland. With four individual conference champions and six wrestlers headed to the NCAA tournament, however, the team hopes it can shake off the third place finish and represent well on the big stage. “I think last year we went into the NCAA tournament there a little starstruck,” said junior Tommy Spellman, who is also headed to the

championships this year. “We didn’t really know what to expect. We have a lot of people returning this year that have been there before. So we’re going in there looking for blood. Can’t accept going 1-2 or 0-2 again.” “This year, we have a chip on our shoulder and we need to use that to show up at the NCAA tournament,” Dong said. Dong is focused on preparing for the championships by staying humble and keeping his focus. “I have to stay humble, but at the same time I have to realize that I’m the one that everybody’s looking for. I’m the target, so I should be able to blow kids out,” he said. “So I have a chip on my shoulder to punish kids and to win by a major decision, win by a tech fall or a pin. Every match I look for that and if I don’t, I come out disappointed.” The NCAA Championships will begin on March 18 in Omaha. Dong, a three-seed, along with his teammates, 11-seed junior Chris Diaz, sophomore Jarrod Garnett, freshman Brian Stephens, redshirt junior Matt Epperly and junior Tommy Spellman will represent the Hokies at the event.

march 17, 2010

page 3

Tech can either feel sorry for itself, or run the table in NIT E

very college basketball fan worth his tortilla dip and six-pack of beer is familiar with the quintessential “trap game.” In most instances, those games occur when a team is facing a lesser opponent and has a big upcoming game that it is more concerned about. For the Virginia Tech basketball team, the 2010 NIT is a trap tournament. The campus is still seething after the Hokies were left stranded from the big dance Sunday evening and left to play in the NIT for the third straight season. Despite the disappointment from barely missing the cut yet again, there is still reason for the Hokies to leave it all on the floor in the next few weeks. Will it be a hard task? Of course it will; no team that goes from NCAA Tournament “lock” status to having to play in the “Not Important Tournament” would be thrilled about it. Essentially, Tech has two choices about how it wants to approach this tournament. It can feel sorry for itself, play uninspired basketball and end a mildly successful season on a sour note.

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Forward Jeff Allen takes the ball to the rim during Tech’s loss to Miami last week in the ACC tournament.

Or the Hokies can man up and make a run in the NIT, maybe even win it, and go into the off-season with a good vibe. For head coach Seth Greenberg, he needs to get his team to choose the latter. Next season promises to be a memorable one in Blacksburg if everything goes according to plan.

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A fan base that was ecstatic just six years ago to simply qualify for the Big East Tournament is now slightly agitated to be the top seed in the NIT.

The entire starting lineup is expected to return next season, including the Atlantic Coast Conference’s leading scorer Malcolm Delaney. The addition of Florida transfer Allan Chaney along with incoming freshmen Jarell Eddie and Tyrone Garland will help comprise the most talented roster Greenberg will have had since coming to Tech. If the Tech fan base spends the initial months of the off-season talking about how stunningly and poorly the 2009-10 season ended, it won’t create near the energy around the program that an NIT championship would. Besides, one of the calling cards of Greenberg’s teams is the edge they play with night in and night out. Next year can be a four-month long “look how good we really are” tour around the country, and winning the NIT would be the ideal start. The Hokies don’t need to look any further than last season’s finale, an 8466 home loss to Baylor in the second round of the NIT, to find motivation this time around. After just missing the big dance, the Hokies narrowly escaped Duquesne in the opening round before being embarrassed against the Bears. It was clear that Tech wanted to be anywhere but in Cassell Coliseum that afternoon. The Bears, meanwhile, went on to lose in the championship game of the tournament in Madison Square Garden. After returning the core of that team, where are the Bears this March? They

are the third seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament. That’s what is at stake this go-around for Greenberg and the Hokies. Hopefully that game and its aftermath taught them a lesson, which is to take this tournament seriously and use it to build for the future. As a No. 1 seed in its region, Tech is unquestionably one of the favorites to make it to Madison Square Garden (for the semifinals or finals). Two seasons ago, it was in a similar position but lost to Mississippi in the quarterfinals. Two seasons of NIT futility should only stoke the Hokies’ fire in 2010. After seven seasons at the helm in Blacksburg, Greenberg has slowly moved the standard for the program to NCAA Tournament berths. A fan base that was ecstatic just six years ago to simply qualify for the Big East Tournament is now slightly agitated to be the top seed in the NIT. While that shows great progress by Greenberg and his staff, even he knows this program is capable of greater things. A loss to Quinnipiac Wednesday night, and anything short of a trip to New York (Greenberg’s home state) will go unnoticed by most of the country. Although in Blacksburg, it will be another bitter end to a once promising season and a crippling transition to 2010. How the Hokies want to end their season is up to them. They just better watch out for traps.

JOSH PARCELL -sports staff writer -sophomore -communication major

Quinnipiac to compete in ﬁrst Division I postseason contest in school history JOHN HEALY the quinnipiac chronicle The Quinnipiac men’s basketball team’s loss to Robert Morris in the Northeast Conference Finals last Wednesday shattered the team’s dreams to play in its first NCAA Tournament. Now, the Bobcats will get a second chance to shine in its first National Invitation Tournament appearance on Wednesday against the first-seeded Virginia Tech Hokies. Quinnipiac (23-9) clinched a berth to the NIT

after a first-place regular season finish in the NEC. “It’s obviously a great thrill and a great honor to be the first Quinnipiac team to play in a national postseason tournament at Division I in the history of this school,” said Quinnipiac head coach and NEC Coach of the Year Tom Moore. “It’s the culmination of what’s been a recordsetting season for us. We’re thrilled and excited to have the opportunity to play in the NIT. It’s something that’s never been associated with

our school’s name, so to be noticed nationally in such a historic postseason tournament is a great honor.” Junior forward and NEC Player of the Year Justin Rutty will lead the Bobcats from the post after averaging 15 points per game this season. Rutty has compiled 12 double-doubles in his last 14 games and his 11 rebounds per game currently rank ninth in the nation. Senior forward James Feldeine, along with Rutty, earned All-NEC first-team honors and Feldeine led Quinnipiac in scoring with 17.3

points per game this season. Tech (23-8) narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament as well after losing in its Atlantic Coast Conference quarterfinal matchup against Miami 70-65 on March 12. Junior guard Malcolm Delaney leads the Hokies, along with the rest of the ACC, averaging 20.4 points per game. Junior guard Dorenzo Hudson is 10th in the ACC, averaging 14.5 points per game. Junior forward Jeff Allen is a physical force inside, averaging 12.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.

“Virginia Tech is a terrific basketball team, extremely well-coached by Coach (Seth) Greenberg,” Moore said. “Anytime you’re playing a team that’s won 10 games in the ACC, you know you’re playing a fantastic team. They are always playing with a lot of energy and coach Greenberg historically gets his team to play hard.” The winner of Wednesday’s game will face the winner of the University of Connecticut and Northeastern matchup in the second round of tournament play.

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new river valley news editor: zach crizer university editor: philipp kotlaba newseditor@collegiatetimes.com/540.231.9865

march 17, 2010

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Coal: Group keeps up energy fi ght ] from page one

Slow progress in Iraq vote count fuels suspicions BAGHDAD — Iraq’s embattled election commission announced Tuesday that 79 percent of the votes from parliamentary elections have been counted, a breakthrough for a process so slow that it’s raised suspicions of fraud. The close race got even closer as a secular rival edged nearer to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition. The longer the process drags on, the more anxious and speculative Iraq’s rival parties become as they await the results of the March 7 vote, the second general election since 2003. Election Day was hailed as a success as millions of Iraqis defied attacks and intimidation to head to polling stations. The chaotic ballot-counting process, however, has sapped voter confidence amid allegations of ineptitude, fraud and manipulation. A Western diplomat, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment publicly, summed up the vote-counting process as “a Florida situation,” an allusion to the 2000 presidential election. The Shiite, Iranian-backed Iraqi National Alliance and the main Kurdish ticket each lead in three provinces, according to the partial results. No coalition is expected to win a clear majority, which means that months of intense negotiations are likely before a new government is seated. by hannah allam mcclatchy newspapers

CORRECTIONS JUSTIN GRAVES -Contact our public editor at publiceditor@ collegiatetimes.com if you see anything that needs to be corrected.

“Air flows between regions,” she said. “Air from the Ohio industrial belt can travel to our area.” Dodson said she hoped students attending Tuesday’s rally would become more educated about the dangers that air pollution can pose, especially health dangers like asthma, allergies, and heart attacks. Sophomore Matthew Monteverde also spoke at the rally. Monteverde, who grew up in Indonesia, has suffered from asthma his entire life. “We are lucky in the United States to have cleaner and more regulated air standards,” he said. Monteverde said he became involved with Beyond Coal because he supports a switch to clean energy. Grant said the goal of the event was to enhance awareness of the problem of ozone pollution and to encourage public support of the legislation. “Public health is an important issue everywhere,” she said. If accepted, the plan would become effective by August 2011. All states would then be required to submit outlines of their plans to reduce pol-

mcclatchy newspapers U.S. Marine Sgt. Brad Vandehei stood on the edge of the small opium poppy field that serves as a central helicopter landing zone for the new military compound that’s rising nearby. “Those are poppies, sir?” Vandehei, 25, of Green Bay, Wis., asked Maj. David Fennell as they gazed at the spiked young plants that should be ready for harvest next month. “Let’s burn it down, sir.” Fennell was scoping things out for another reason, however: That morning, the poppy farmer turned up with a dozen neighbors to complain about the Marines transforming his lucrative field into a rural helipad. The swift American-led military offensive that drove the Taliban from power in this southern Afghan farm belt came at an inopportune time for the area’s poppy farmers. That’s created a quandary for Marjah’s new, U.S.backed leaders and for the American

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Two Americans killed in Mexico shootings

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Members of Beyond Coal tried to obtain 250 signatures on a petition to support the new regulations. lution to meet the new standards by December 2013. Marr said she thinks the legislation will “probably” pass. “There’s strong scientific evidence

for it,” she said. Carter said Beyond Coal would continue to campaign for clean energy sources on campus and nationwide and their ultimate goal of elimi-

nating the coal plant on campus by 2020. “It’s not going to be a flick of a switch,” he said, to switch to clean energy.

Afghan poppy harvest is next US challenge DION NISSENBAUM

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military as they try to transform this sweltering river valley, whose biggest cash crop is opium poppy, into a tranquil breadbasket. “The helicopters are landing in my field,” the weathered farmer told Fennell as they sat in the dirt outside the Marines’ newest forward operating base in Marjah. “You have to stop landing there. Next time, the Taliban will put an IED in the field,” an improvised explosive device, the military’s term for a homemade bomb. Using his skills as one-time trial lawyer, a few essential Pashto words and an evolving understanding of local tribal culture, Fennell sought to reassure the farmer. “I apologize for your inconvenience,” the 36-year-old Denver reservist told the farmer. “We’re here to provide security, and one person must be inconvenienced to provide security for 1,000. But we’re not like the Taliban. We’re not just going to take; we’re going to compensate you.” Unswayed, the Marjah men again

pressed Fennell to stop using the field as a landing zone. When it became clear that the Marine wasn’t going to budge, they asked for money to pay for the damaged poppy field. “We’re not here to eradicate your poppies, but we won’t pay for damage to your poppies,” Fennell said. “What we will do is pay for the inconvenience and for any damage to your wheat.” Marjah leaders and the U.S. Marines so far have no clear answers for farmers such as these. The Marines and the new Marjah government are still trying to figure out how to persuade poppy growers not to harvest their crops this spring. “We are entering the poppy harvest season, which will also put us at great risk for having instability,” Marine Col. Randy Newman warned Marjah leaders this past weekend. “So we must talk to the people with one voice about how we will deal with the poppy.” For years, Marjah has been the center of the drug trade in Afghanistan, which provides about 90 percent of

the world’s opium. About 50 percent of Afghanistan’s poppy crop is grown in surrounding Helmand province, and much of the multibillion-dollar industry is centered in and around Marjah. The opium trade supports tens of thousands of local farmers and fuels the Taliban, who taxed the crops to pay for weapons and supplies. “If I was a farmer here I’d be growing poppies,” said Mike Courtney, the senior field director in Marjah for Adam Smith International, a global consulting firm that’s working in Afghanistan. “It’s a Catch-22. How do you win over the population and, at the same time, stop the drug trade?” U.S. officials largely have given up on destroying Afghanistan’s poppy fields as the best way to combat the drug trade. Razing the fields was seen as counterproductive. Instead, the American-led coalition in Afghanistan launched programs meant to encourage farmers to plant wheat, cotton and other alternative crops. They’ve had modest success.

WASHINGTON AND MEXICO CITY — Three people connected to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico’s deadliest city, Ciudad Juarez, were shot to death by gunmen who intercepted their cars as they returned from a child’s birthday party, officials said Sunday. Two of the dead, an American couple, were discovered slain in their vehicle, their uninjured baby crying in the back seat. President Obama on Sunday expressed outrage at the drive-by slayings. The three victims were killed in broad daylight Saturday near the city’s border with El Paso. Ciudad Juarez, a critical entry point for drugs into the U.S., has seen a staggering increase in bloodshed as narcotics gangs battle for control of smuggling routes, turf and market share. Mexico’s raging drug war has claimed thousands of lives, including some Americans. But this appears to be the first time in recent years that Mexican drug traffickers have attacked U.S. diplomatic personnel and their families. In response to the escalating violence, the State Department on Sunday told employees they could send family members and other dependents home to the U.S. from six northern Mexican cities where Washington maintains consulates. The State Department also updated its existing travel warnings, cautioning Americans about traveling to or within northern Mexican states and strongly cautioning American youth about spending their spring break in Mexico. In Washington, the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs on Sunday reiterated a travel warning for Americans going to Mexico and those living there. by tracy wilkinson and richard a. serrano, mcclatchy newspapers

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march 17, 2010

Drug policy neglects valid medical reasons D

uring the 11th annual Students for Sensible Drug Policy International Conference in San Francisco, I had the unique opportunity to take a tour of the Harborside Health Center in Oakland, California. A non-profit medical cannabis dispensary, Harborside prides itself on its ability to develop interpersonal relationships with its patients in order to meet their specific health needs. The dispensary provides highquality cannabis that is checked for pesticides and dangerous chemicals, and it employs trained professionals who know which strains are the most useful for the different afflictions experienced by its patients. Aside from the sale of cannabis, the dispensary offers holistic health services to patients such as massage therapy, yoga lessons and acupuncture. While Harborside makes money on the sale of medical cannabis, that money is used to provide low-income patients with free or subsidized medicine and the remainder is given back to the community. Harborside represents a paradigm for dispensaries, which has started to become increasingly common in California. While for-profit dispensaries have generated skepticism both from patients and the public, non-profit “compassion centers,” as they are sometimes called, seek to provide patients with health care services that simply cannot be met by conventional medicine. Because of a lack of standards and central regulation in the medical cannabis industry, many dispensaries do not have quality standards, adequate customer service for patients, or knowledgeable staff. In fact, many for-profit dispensaries are run by former pot dealers who entered into the medical industry simply for legal protection. However, as industry standards have started to develop, so has the quality of care provided to patients. Let me give some background on medical cannabis. Studies have shown that the THC content in the cannabis plant is effective at treating various medical conditions such as glaucoma, spasticity, multiple sclerosis, depression and intense pain. Moreover, it can be used as an appetite stimulant for patients who have undergone chemotherapy, and it is an effective muscle relaxant. Unlike many FDA-approved prescription drugs used to treat these afflictions, medical cannabis is nonhabit forming and does not produce many of the harmful side effects and allergic reactions that are common with conventional medications. Cannabis can also be used to make skin ointments to treat various dermatological afflictions. It can be consumed in many different ways including being smoked, vaporized, cooked in food, and extracted into pills. Vaporizing and eating cannabis are preferred methods because smoking can be damaging to throats and lungs. Medical cannabis was legalized in California with the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996. Currently, 15 states have some sort of medical cannabis law, as well as the District of Columbia (although its implementation was blocked by congress until very recently). In California, licensed patients are allowed to grow medical cannabis for personal use, obtain it from a private caregiver

(grower), or to buy it from distribution centers called dispensaries. The dispensaries in turn grow their own cannabis or obtain it from collectives or cooperatives of medical patients. Unfortunately, the right of patients to adequately obtain their medicine has historically not been respected by the federal government. The Drug Enforcement Agency conducted numerous raids of the homes of patients, dispensaries and collective grow operations between 1996 and 2008 (especially during the time of the Bush administration). The 2005 Supreme Court case, Gonzales v. Raich, upheld the right of the federal government to prosecute licensed medical marijuana patients under federal law. In order to combat federal raids, patient advocacy groups such as Americans for Safe Access have formed in order to ensure that patients are able to get access to their medications without fear of being prosecuted by the federal government. ASA lobbies governments and provides legal support for medical patients. Thankfully in 2009, the Obama administration ordered the DEA to no longer pursue patients in states where medical marijuana has been legalized. Nonetheless, there has been much unwarranted federal opposition to medical marijuana, and DEA raids have occurred since then. The intervention by the federal government is largely responsible for the lack of standards and central regulation, which I talked about above. For fear of arrest by federal authorities, medical marijuana collectives operated largely underground. Patients and caregivers were forced to work under the radar of the DEA in unsavory neighborhoods under high security. Luckily, the election of Obama has represented a new era for cannabis patients. The openness of the Obama administration has allowed the industry to grow and create regulations and norms. The fact that our federal government is not allowing patients safe access to the medicine that can provide them with the greatest relief with the least amount of harm is simply immoral. The reality that patients and caregivers are actually imprisoned simply for the possession of their medication is nothing short of appalling. I cannot envision any other scenario where people in need of help are treated like common criminals for seeking that help. The fact is that it is a moral imperative not only that medical cannabis is allowed to function on the state level, but legalized on the federal level as well. Medical cannabis should be legal everywhere in the United States and centrally regulated. Unfortunately, the war on drugs has consistently blinded our law enforcement officials and policy makers from making compassionate, reasonable and moral decisions.

MARK GOLDSTEIN -regular columnist -president, Students for Sensible Drug Policy

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MCT CAMPUS

Spring break lesson: Respect differing views, preferences I

t may seem a bit odd, or even just a bold-faced lie, to claim that I learned over an all-too-short spring break. Still, if you can take me at my word on that, it was actually a relatively illuminating week, especially considering most of it was spent in bed or on a tennis court. The first thing on my respite was that residents in an old-folks home get mildly suspicious when three guys carry their former resident’s belongings across the building to a U-Haul truck; I may as well have been carrying a scythe and wearing a black robe. (For the record, I don’t know if the woman is dead or not.) I also learned a good lesson in prank playing. Specifically, it usually isn’t a good idea to pull a fast one on the guy who works on your car. Two weeks after sending my mechanic, who doubles as my uncle, to Subway with a gift-card that had no money on it, the “check engine” light promptly appeared on my dashboard. I always had impeccable timing. After the obligatory chop-busting and grief-giving, he informed me that an oxygen sensor had gone bad. Bad news: A new one cost just less than what I made doing the aforementioned moving job. Good news: It wasn’t my catalytic converter, and my uncle thought I was still an OK guy, so labor was free — but next time I want to be a wise guy, I’d better go after my father. My last revelation was a bit more serious (although from what I’m told, a new catalytic converter is no joke, either). Attempting to make smalltalk with an old friend, I asked if he had seen the gold medal hockey match a few weeks ago. I received an apathetic “no.” Asking why, he told me that he refused to watch the Olympics because of the subjectivity in events like figure skating, and the 1972 Olympic Games, where the Soviet Union won a controversial gold medal basketball match over the United States. In fairness to my friend, he was alive when the game happened, and the game was incredibly controversial and reviewed along

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Once we learn to tolerate opposing viewpoints, we can combat evil ideas, such as the writings of Hitler and Mussolini, and rationally prove them wrong. SCOTT MASSELLI COLUMNIST

Cold War lines. Still, him being a rational and intelligent person, I thought he would respond to my pointing out that the Cold War was over, the Black Sox Scandal in baseball, and the rampant “cheating” in football, such as when he called shenanigans on the 2002 Miami-Ohio State pass interference national championship game (apparently it was decided that it was the Big Ten’s turn to win the BCS). Instead, I was told that the ’72 games and subjectivity (also a factor in baseball) were good enough reasons and this was not something he had to justify to me. I am not so arrogant to think everyone owes me a justification of their preferences, nor am I out to force everyone to go through a rigorous logical proof of why they enjoy football; the former is as pompous as the latter is pointless. Still, there is something to be said for understanding one’s preferences rather than relying merely on prejudices formed years ago. This may seem trivial when considering things like hockey or football games (especially ones involving Miami), but the potential for this to carry over into meaningful decisions has long been realized. Edmund Burke, the so-called “Father of Conservativism,” wrote in the 1790s that France had made a grave error in removing its monarchy, saying of the queen, “surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision” and lamenting the loss of “that proud submission, that dignified obedience” in reference to the French crown. For Burke, prejudices were a

good thing. It seemed only natural to assume one person is simply better than another by birth — to not question authority, or the prevailing opinions of the day. Is this anything more than the justification of tyranny? Anything other than a well-worded defense of one man’s illegitimate claim of sovereignty over another? Or, more frighteningly, does it sound similar to the logic of white supremacists, who just “know” that white people are the “chosen ones.” I am reminded of the writing of Bruce Ackerman, whose conception of justice was guided by what powers people can claim without claiming they are better than others or their conception of right and wrong is better. While I have a hard time applying his argument to a theory of social justice because of intellectual inequalities, it does make sense in an intra-personal decisions. If we can learn tolerance for other points of view, the things that we can logically and rationally justify to ourselves will likely be wiser and lead to a better society. In the spirit of John Stuart Mill, an intellectual hero of mine, tolerance is one of, if not the most important, virtue humans are blessed with. Once we learn to tolerate opposing viewpoints, we can combat evil ideas, such as the writings of Hitler and Mussolini, and rationally prove them wrong. In the process, tolerance and intelligence grow exponentially, all the while eradicating villainous radicals. After all, there would never be a United States if someone had not rejected the assumption that King George was always right and decided all men were created equal.

SCOTT MASSELLI -regular columnist -economics major -sophomore

Charter schools fail on promise to outperform public schools T

here have been two features that regularly mark the history of U.S. public schools. Over the last century, our education system has been regularly captivated by a Big Idea — a savant or an organization that promised a simple solution to the problems of our schools. The second is that there are no simple solutions, no miracle cures to those problems. Education is a slow, arduous process that requires the work of willing students, dedicated teachers and supportive families, as well as a coherent curriculum. As an education historian, I have often warned against the seductive lure of grand ideas to reform education. Our national infatuation with education fads and reforms distracts us from the steady work that must be done. Our era is no different. We now face a wave of education reforms based on the belief that school choice, testdriven accountability and the resulting competition will dramatically improve student achievement. Once again, I find myself sounding the alarm that the latest vision of education reform is deeply flawed. But this time my warning carries a personal rebuke. For much of the last two decades, I was among those who jumped aboard the choice and accountability bandwagon. Choice and accountability, I believed, would offer a chance for poor children to escape failing schools. Testing and accountability, I thought, would cast sunshine on

low-performing schools and lead to improvement. It all seemed to make sense, even if there was little empirical evidence, just promise and hope. Today there is empirical evidence, and it shows clearly that choice, competition and accountability as education reform levers are not working. But with confidence bordering on recklessness, the Obama administration is plunging ahead, pushing an aggressive program of school reform — codified in its signature Race to the Top program — that relies on the power of incentives and competition. This approach may well make schools worse, not better. Those who do not follow education closely may be tempted to think that, at long last, we’re finally turning the corner. What could be wrong with promoting charter schools to compete with public schools? Why shouldn’t we demand accountability from educators and use test scores to reward our best teachers and identify those who should find another job? Like the grand plans of previous eras, they sound sensible but will leave education no better off. Charter schools are no panacea. The nation now has about 5,000 of them, and they vary in quality. Some are excellent, some terrible; most are in between. Most studies have found that charters, on average, are no better than public schools. On the federal tests, known as the National Assessment of Educational

Progress, from 2003 to 2009, charters have never outperformed public schools. Nor have black and Latino students in charter schools performed better than their counterparts in public schools. This is surprising, because charter schools have many advantages over public schools. Most charters choose their students by lottery. Those who sign up to win seats tend to be the most motivated students and families in the poorest communities. Charters are also free to “counsel out” students who are unable or unwilling to meet expectations. A study of KIPP charters in the San Francisco area found that 60 percent of those students who started the fifth grade were gone before the end of eighth grade. Most of those who left were low performers. Studies of charters in Boston, New York City and Washington have found that charters, as compared to public schools, have smaller percentages of the students who are generally hardest to educate — those with disabilities and English-language learners. Because the public schools must educate everyone, they end up with disproportionate numbers of the students the charters don’t want. So we’re left with the knowledge that a dramatic expansion in the number of privately managed schools is not likely to raise student achievement. Meanwhile, public schools will become schools of last resort for the unmotivated, the hardest to teach and those who didn’t win a

seat in a charter school. If our goal is to destroy public education in America, this is precisely the right path. Nor is there evidence that student achievement will improve if teachers are evaluated by their students’ test scores. Some economists say that when students have four or five “great” teachers in a row, the achievement gap between racial groups disappears. The difficulty with this theory is that we do not have adequate measures of teacher excellence. Of course, it would be wonderful if all teachers were excellent, but many factors affect student scores other than their teacher, including students’ motivation, the schools’ curriculum, family support, poverty and distractions on testing day, such as the weather or even a dog barking in the school’s parking lot. The Obama education reform plan is an aggressive version of the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind, under which many schools have narrowed their curriculum to the tested subjects of reading and math. This poor substitute for a wellrounded education, which includes subjects such as the arts, history, geography, civics, science and foreign language, hits low-income children the hardest, since they are the most likely to attend the kind of “failing school” that drills kids relentlessly on the basics. Emphasis on test scores already compels teachers to focus on test preparation.

Holding teachers personally and exclusively accountable for test scores — a key feature of Race to the Top — will make this situation even worse. Test scores will determine salary, tenure, bonuses and sanctions, as teachers and schools compete with each other, survival-of-the-fittest style. Frustrated by a chronic lack of progress, business leaders and politicians expect that a stern dose of this sort of competition and incentives will improve education, but they are wrong. No other nation is taking such harsh lessons from the corporate sector and applying them to their schools. No nation with successful schools ignores everything but basic skills and testing. Schools work best when teachers collaborate to help their students and strive together for common goals, not when they compete for higher scores and bonuses. Having embraced the Republican agenda of choice, competition and accountability, the Obama administration is promoting the privatization of large segments of American education and undermining the profession of teaching. This toxic combination is the latest Big Idea in education reform. Like so many of its predecessors, it is not likely to improve education.

DIANE RAVITCH -mcclatchy newspapers

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COLLEGIATETIMES

Musical gumbo: Galatic’s latest samples New Orleans sounds H

ow tall is Galactic’s drummer Stanton Moore’s kick drum? Judging from tracks like “Double It” or “Katey Vs. Nobey,” it has to be a good 60 feet tall. Well, at least 45 feet tall. There’s just no other explanation for the bass drum sound on those songs. Throughout Galactic’s fifth LP, Moore proves himself yet again as one of the funkiest and most versatile drummers around. From the aforementioned pounding beats to head-nodding soul-jams, break-beat influenced funk storms and Latin-tinged dancers, this album makes you move. Speaking of breakbeat funk jams, go out and listen to “Cineramascope”; if that beat doesn’t convert you, no review could. For those uninitiated to this band, Galactic is from New Orleans and while they could be tied down to a jazz-funk label, I hesitate to use it. That’s because the past 15 years have seen the band conquer the jam-band circuit, successfully dabble in electronica and collaborate with a ridiculous number

Hendrix gets second life with new release, tour JON BREAM mcclatchy newspapers Elvis and Michael better watch out. Jimi is making a move. Forty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix is enjoying the kind of a resurgence in the posthumous rock-star derby that might rival the sales of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. Last week, Hendrix’s estate released the first bona fide “new” Jimi album in decades as well as deluxe remastered versions of his three landmark studio albums. A Hendrix “Rock Band” video game is promised this year, and there’s talk of a Jimi “Anthology” a la the Beatles. There’s a concert tour called “Experience Hendrix” — an all-star revue of guitar heroes, including Joe Satriani, Robert Randolph, Ernie Isley and Jonny Lang, performing tunes from the Hendrix catalog. Isley said the mission of “Experience Hendrix” is to prove that the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was well rounded — a first-rate songwriter, imaginative interpreter and a pioneering guitar virtuoso. Isley knew Jimmy Hendrix firsthand. From spring of 1963 until Thanksgiving 1965, the guitarist lived in the Isley family’s New Jersey home while playing with the Isley Brothers. Isley, who was 11 at the time, remembers watching the Beatles’ debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” with Hendrix. Hendrix, who was 10 years older than Ernie, used to stay in a back room at the Isley house. Self-taught, he’d practice his electric guitar without an amplifier and listen to a 5-foot-high stack of blues 45s. Ernie, who didn’t take up guitar until he was 15, remembers Hendrix practicing how to play guitar behind his back and between his legs. Hendrix liked to watch TV, too — “Bonanza,” “Wild Kingdom” and cartoons. “He got along well with kids,” Isley said. “He was polite. Great sense of humor.” After leaving for England with his white Stratocaster guitar and his destiny as Jimi Hendrix, he did visit the Isley household in 1967 en route to the Monterey Pop Festival in California. “He looked different in terms of his clothes,” Isley recalled. “He had a hat, scarf, rings on every finger, stuff around his neck. He walked down the hallway sounding like (cowboy character) Shane.” Isley opens the “Experience Hendrix” show, backed by Stevie Ray Vaughan’s drummer, Chris Layton, and bassist Billy Cox, who befriended Hendrix in the Army and played with him in 1969 and ‘70. Isley says he doesn’t necessarily try to replicate Hendrix’ work, but Satriani says that’s unavoidable. “Some of the stuff I love so much and I just have to hear it played as close to the way Jimi had played it,” Satriani said. “Having said that, Jimi played it a million different ways. I imagine if (tour producer) John McDermott comes to me before I go on and says, ‘We have twice as much time as I thought, so have fun,’ then I can think about some more outrageous, exploratory versions of the songs and stretch it out.” Music historian McDermott is catalog director for Experience Hendrix LLC. After each performer submitted a request list, McDermott decided who would play which songs — and with whom, to create special moments. Satriani gets “Third Stone From the Sun,” “Foxey Lady” and “All Along the Watchtower” backed by the band Living Colour, featuring guitarist Vernon Reid. Satriani, 53, who started as a drummer, was profoundly affected by Hendrix’ death from a drug overdose at age 27 in 1970. “The day he died was so devasting to me,” he said, “that I remember quitting the (high school) football team — I was a tight end — and marching home and announcing to my family that I was going to become a guitar player.”

of musicians. The band even managed to put out a quality hip-hop album. In other words, if the music’s got a groove, Galactic is probably trying to branch into it somehow. The band’s most recent endeavor sees the band working with a host of musicians all from their hometown, and the band seems to revel in embracing the local music that’s spawned all of these artists. The guests on the album range from legendary to underground, and they all turn in some great performances. Irma Thomas sings on the exceptional “Heart of Steel,” a song with a headnodding beat and light touches of swirling psychedelic elements that ebb and flow in their momentum while simultaneously packing wallop of soulful singing from the hardly aging songstress. The hip-hop tracks on the record come courtesy of some underground emcees that are part of the Bounce style popular in New Orleans. For those not in the know, Bounce is a type of hip-hop where the emcees are

called sissies, the rhymes are loud and videos like the one for “Do It Again” are allowed to exist. The examples on “Ya-Ka-May” sound like reggaeton and crunk injected with a good dosage of funk. Ultimately, the songs are great club fun as long as you’re not expecting clever lyrics and dexterous flows: “I want some Popeyes, some French fries and a medium-m-m-m Sprite” is about the furthest the lyrics get from their booty-popping ambitions, but it totally works thanks to an outrageously hilarious delivery. The liner notes of the album assert that this isn’t “your grandfather’s New Orleans record,” but in a lot of ways it is. Songs like “Boe Money” and “Katey Vs. Nobby” bring in Latin and reggaeton influences from the city’s gulf neighbors, something that Louis Armstrong was doing almost a century ago when Caribbean rhythms brought from local immigrants were a part of the sound that became Swing music. The namesake for the album is a traditional New Orleans food that con-

sists of making a soup of essentially whatever food you’ve got left. It’s just about a perfect name for an album that takes just about any type of music being made in the city and flies it all under Galactic’s groove-drenched banner. Galactic keyboard player, Rich Vogel, calls the band a “glorified rhythm section” and this album can back up that statement, showcasing his group’s flexibility and strengths. If you’re looking for an album trying to make a statement thematically or consciously attempting to make a piece of art, then you should have no problem skipping over “Ya-Ka-May.” But those looking for a band at the top of their game, making excellent music for music and a good party’s sake while occasionally stepping into genius — this is not one to pass up.

STU RUIZ -The WOOVE contributor -freshman -computer science major