10-9-2013

Page 1

The Daily Free Press

Year xliii. Volume lxxxix. Issue XXII

MEDI(A)OCRE? BU sees average ranking in media mentions, page 3.

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Wednesday, October 9, 2012 The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University

RED ROVER

BU alumnus talks about driving the Mars rover, page 5.

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www.dailyfreepress.com

SCARLET TIE

Women’s soccer draws with Harvard, page 8.

WEATHER Today: Partly Cloudy, High 63 Tonight: Cloudy, Low 48 Tomorrow: 65/52 Data Courtesy of weather.com

Boston officials critical of BPS bus driver strike Wage gap growing between non-grads, grads, study shows By Alice Bazerghi and Steven Dufour Daily Free Press Staff

Boston public officials responded with criticism to a surprise strike of 600 Boston Public Schools bus drivers Tuesday morning, stating legal action will be taken against the labor union and those drivers who participated in the strike if they do not return to their posts. In the summer months, BPS partnered with Veolia Transportation to operate the city’s buses in order to improve safety and increase modernization. Veolia implemented changes, such as additional certifications to match federal transportation standards, physical checks for drivers and GPS systems to help parents track their child’s buses, which the union representing the bus drivers opposed leading to the Tuesday strike. Nat Anglin, bus coordinator for Neighborhood House Charter School, said the strike affected the school greatly, and he spent the majority of the day calling parents to let them know buses would not run in the afternoon so those affected could make other arrangements. “I just don’t see this playing out well for them [bus drivers], though, because at the end of the day, this affected the kids the most, and that’s my problem with it,” he said. “Obviously, unions have agendas just like anyone else … but I feel like this was just not a good move on their part, putting kids at risk for safety issues. We were luck-

By Rachel Riley Daily Free Press Staff

KENSHIN OKUBO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A parent leaves the William Blackstone Elementary school with two children as the school day ends. A surprise strike today by Boston Public School bus drivers affected more than 30,000 students, with many left stranded at their usual bus stops.

ily able to reach everybody that rides the bus.” Veolia Transportation filed a federal injunction Tuesday against the United Steelworkers Local 8751 union and those participating in the strike in the U.S. District Court as the strike action violated the contract between the union and Veolia. John McDonough, interim superinten-

dent of BPS, said in a Tuesday statement that the strike is a result of angry drivers who oppose new safety measures. “This action is an unacceptable attempt to shut down our entire school system because the Union is unhappy with efforts to increase safety and improve on-time

Strike, see page 4

Gov’t. shutdown impacts judicial hearings in Boston courts By Alice Bazerghi Daily Free Press Staff

After the government shutdown on Oct. 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is expected to run out of funding by Monday, forcing all court employees to either be furloughed or to work without pay once funds dissolve in Boston. Susan Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the federal Court of Appeals, said the court must stay open regardless of whether employees are paid. “We will be operating no matter what,” she said. “The question is how much … we’ll be able to provide, given the reductions we will have to make. But we will not close. We will be operating as near to 100 percent as we can … The stress falls most clearly on the employees, both those that are here and those that are not.” Goldberg said the main problem lies in employees not receiving the money they

need for living costs. “The fundamental issue, of course, is no one’s going to be receiving a paycheck,” she said. “That’s a huge burden for many court employees who rely on their paychecks to pay for basic expenses, and of course if employees are furloughed, they will have double or triple the amount of problems.” Although the debt ceiling is approaching on Oct. 17, U.S. President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner have yet to compromise on their respective stances regarding the Affordable Care Act in order to end the shutdown and resume federal funding. Several high-profile cases are scheduled to be heard in the U.S. District Court in South Boston, such as the trials of James “Whitey” Bulger and Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. If the shutdown persists, both might need to be rescheduled due to the lack of funds, ac-

cording to various news outlets. Jake Sullivan, chief of staff for Federal Relations for the City of Boston, said with the debt ceiling impending, using up reserves this early could create serious problems. “We’re looking at existing grant funds that we have and all city agencies and how long they can continue to provide levels of services,” he said. “Long-term uncertainty really could create harm, and as you dip into reserves and use your contingency plans, it becomes harder to deliver a certain level of service for your residents, so we have to see how it all plays out.” Sullivan said the Obamacare debate does not justify the negative effects of the shutdown. “The federal government needs to really dig in and make some decisions,” he said. “Members of the Massachusetts del-

Shutdown, see page 2

Boston University graduates and other graduates will likely earn significantly more than non-graduates, according to a new study by the College Board. Sandy Baum, one of the study’s authors, said the report, titled “Education Pays 2013,” discuses both non-monetary and monetary benefits of higher education and shows how the earnings gap between people with degrees and people without degrees has fluctuated over time. “The factors we looked at were the earnings of people in different years with different levels of education,” Baum said. “What you find is that over time, the earnings gap has increased dramatically, but does not go up every year. Some years it goes down, then it goes back up.” In 2011, the median income of a graduate with a bachelor’s degree working full time was $56,500, exceeding the median income of a high school graduate by $21,000, according to the study, which was released this week. The College Board relies on information from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Education, among other sources, Baum said. “We’re trying to present data in a way that people can understand them,” Baum, a George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development professor, said. “We’re not trying to advocate any particular policy — we just want people to understand what the data say about the benefits of higher education.” Education Pays is a report released every three years by College Board. This year, the board released an additional publication, titled “How College Shapes Lives,” which sought to analyze college graduate earnings and how they differ, said supplement author Charlie Kurose. “The main idea in ‘How College Shapes Lives’ is the notion that the benefits of higher education vary across different types of individuals,” Kurose, an independent consultant for College Board, said. “When you look at earnings, for example, people with the same level of educational attainment who are different genders, different races, different ages, working in different occupations — they don’t actually earn the same amount.”

Wage Gap, see page 2

Roxy’s Grilled Cheese food truck aims to obtain liquor license for restaurant ByAnnie Husted Daily Free Press Contributor

Preparing for their brick-and-mortar opening in late November, Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese, one of Boston’s most popular food trucks, started a petition on Change.org on Friday to obtain a liquor license. James DiSabatino, one of the three cofounders of Roxy’s, said one of the challenges the company is facing is getting a liquor license for the restaurant. They wanted to serve beer and wine at the opening of their brick-and-mortar restaurant at 485 Cambridge St. in Union Square, but were unable to do so without the license. “[Beer and wine] perfectly complements the food we do,” he said. “We have a lot of great relationships with a lot of local breweries, and we want to be able leverage those to open a place that is going to be a shining star in the neighborhood.” Boston Licensing Board Chair Nicole Ferrer said restaurants in Massachusetts must apply for a liquor license due to Massachusetts

Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission regulations. “If the local board finds that there is a public need for the license of the location ... you go back to the ABCC, and if the ABCC approves the license, it comes back to the local board, and [only] at that time you are issued the license,” she said. Chris Reddy, Roxy’s truck manager in Allston, said the license is mostly about supporting local breweries. “It would support the local business, and it would open up our clientele for people who are looking to have a beer with their sandwich,” he said. “Licensing is really tough in the state of Massachusetts and the city of Boston, and especially because we are coming from a food truck ... they want to know the local community is behind it. We haven’t really had an issue with that, a lot of people support it.” DiSabatino said Allston is the perfect location for his more permanent store.

Roxy’s, see page 4

ASHYLYN EDWARDS/DAILY FREE PRESS CONTRIBUTOR

Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese food truck chefs Chris Reddy (right) and Derek Dawson (left) prepare food for customers Tuesday afternoon in Copley Square.


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