SPORTS Lacrosse Writers discusses Northwestern’s postseason chances » PAGE 8
NEWS On Campus StuCo Green Initiative aims to reduce waste in theater » PAGE 3
OPINION Wang ASG must be fair without vilifying Cilento, Vinson » PAGE 4
High 60 Low 51
The Daily Northwestern Wednesday, April 20, 2016
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
Find us online @thedailynu
Hearing to be held on leaks
Religious leaders call for end to flat tax Locals urge state lawmakers to change income tax system By ROBIN OPSAHL
daily senior staffer @robinlopsahl
ASG’s Rules Committee will consider election violation Wednesday
worldwide who might have been unaware of the scandal before, even though the story was published more than a decade ago. Even the Catholic Church, she said, had a more positive reaction to the film than to the original story. “The church has embraced a movie in a way that it didn’t embrace our story a decade ago,” she said. Raised in a devout Catholic family, Pfeiffer said her upbringing helped her understand why people would choose to ignore these sexual abuse cases. “After the story ran, my grandma, who was depicted in the movie, said to me ‘You know, we all thought the priests were little gods,’” Pfeiffer said. “I remember thinking, ‘Well, that’s exactly why it happened,’ because when you think priests
Religious leaders in Evanston are urging state legislators to change the current flat income tax to a graduated tax system considering deficits to social services due to the budget crisis. The First Congregational Church of Evanston held a town hall meeting last Saturday, hosted by the Community Renewal Society, a progressive Chicago-based faith organization, asking attendees to reach out to their legislators in support of a bill calling for a referendum on a constitutional amendment to be placed on November’s ballot. The constitutional amendment would change Illinois’ current flat income tax — which requires all taxpayers pay the same percent of their earnings — to a graduated income tax, in which the amount residents are taxed varies on the amount of income they earn. Illinois is on its tenth month without a budget, and social services in the state have been struggling to continue providing programming. Rev. Ann Rosewall of the First Congregational Church of Evanston said the issue is urgent because the deadline to get the constitutional amendment question on the ballot is May 7. She said churches need to be leading discussions on this issue because they are often the providers of the social services being affected as well as places people in need turn to when their services shut down. “Because of the budget cuts there are fewer and fewer mental health services people in need can turn to,”
» See SPOTLIGHT, page 6
» See FLAT TAX, page 6
By TYLER PAGER
daily senior staffer @tylerpager
Associated Student Government’s Rules Committee will hold its hearing Wednesday night on the election violation regarding leaked voting margin data during this year’s presidential election. The hearing comes after ASG’s election commission ruled Christina Cilento and Macs Vinson’s campaign violated election guidelines by failing to disclose they had received information about the voting margin while polls were still open. The hearing, which will be held at 5:30 p.m. in Norris University Center, will be closed to the public, per Cilento’s request. According to ASG Code, either party can request a closed hearing. Cilento, a SESP junior, declined to comment on the hearing. The election commission ruled the campaign’s use of the leaks and decision not to come forward about them constitutes SESP sophomore Kevin Corkran, the commission member who leaked the information, as “working on behalf of ” Cilento and Vinson’s campaign. At the hearing, the Rules Committee, which currently has eight members including parliamentarian Shelby Reitman, will hear arguments from Cilento and Weinberg junior Lauren Thomas, the election commissioner. Both parties will also have the opportunity to present evidence and call witnesses. The Rules Committee will then vote on whether to punish to Cilento and Vinson. If they decide to punish the ticket, they can recommend a range of punishments including impeachment, probation or a public apology. “If the Rules Committee issues a punishment, Senate would hold a hearing Wednesday,” said Reitman, a Weinberg sophomore. “I would hope that if it goes to Senate then that hearing would be open to the public.” Senate would then have to approve the punishment by a two-thirds vote, but Senate could also decide to administer a different punishment. “My ultimate goal is to see as fair and as just a resolution to this as possible,” Thomas said. “If I could go back and time and stop this from happening, I think that would be the best.” Cilento and Vinson, a McCormick » See HEARING, page 6
Keshia Johnson/The Daily Northwestern
ON THE RECORD Boston Globe journalists Sacha Pfeiffer (left) and Walter Robinson discuss their Pulitzer Prizewinning work that uncovered a series of Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Boston. The journalists visited Northwestern during an event hosted by A&O Productions and Studio 22.
‘Spotlight’ reporters visit NU Journalists talk church sex abuse story By MARIANA ALFARO
daily senior staffer @marianaa_alfaro
Journalists Walter Robinson and Sacha Pfeiffer, winners of the Pulitzer Prize for their Boston Globe series that uncovered Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse cases, said they never expected to discover such deep networks of corruption when they first started working on the story. Last year, their work was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight.” Robinson and Pfeiffer spoke Tuesday night to about 250 students after a screening of the film hosted by A&O Productions and Studio 22. During the Q&A session, moderated by Medill Prof. MeiLing Hopgood, Robinson and Pfeiffer
spoke about their experiences writing the story and collaborating with the film’s actors and creators more than a decade after. “This may be … perhaps the first major investigative story of the Internet age,” Robinson said. “It went viral. Within a day or two we were getting phone calls and emails literally from all over the world … the story just exploded.” In the film, Michael Keaton plays Robinson, who led the Boston Globe’s 2002 coverage of the scandal, which resulted in international outrage against the Catholic Church and the resignation of Boston’s Archbishop. Rachel McAdams plays Pfeiffer, a portrayal the journalist said was “uncanny.” Pfeiffer said the film reminded her of the power of Hollywood because she continues to receive emails from viewers
Medill alumna wins Pulitzer for local reporting Lisa Gartner’s team uncovered school ‘failure’ in Florida By ERICA SNOW
the daily northwestern @ericasnoww
In 2007, Lisa Gartner wrote for North by Northwestern, advising students on what to eat on a night out. In 2015, Gartner wrote for the Tampa Bay Times, investigating five failing elementary schools. On Monday, Gartner won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. Gartner (Medill ‘10) said she believes local reporting can make a tangible difference in people’s lives. In an investigation of public schools in Pinellas County, Florida, Garter and her colleagues Michael LaForgia and Cara Fitzpatrick found that a 2007 school board decision led to “de-facto
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
segregation” and resulted in 95 percent of black students failing reading or math. The team of journalists followed the story by “tracking promises” the school board had made, including increased resources, and reporting on them when they went unfilled. But winning the esteemed journalism prize was never Gartner’s original intention — instead, she wanted to understand why some of the worstperforming schools in Florida were so close to each other and what caused their low test scores. “For us, the focus was more on the community and if we could start a conversation or shed more information on this issue or create change,” said Gartner, who also worked for The Daily. “It’s been so amazing to see how
the community here has taken off in a charge and embraced this.” Spencer Kornhaber (Medill ‘09), a founder of NBN, said the Pulitzer announcement was no surprise. Kornhaber, now a staff writer at The Atlantic, said he and Gartner developed a close friendship because of the time they spent working at NBN. Even though Gartner first started writing in the lifestyle section, Kornhaber said her writing skills helped her advance until she eventually became editor in chief her junior year. “Lisa is someone who embodies the idea that journalism can be fun and innovative and not traditional, while also adhering to the bedrock principles that have guided it for so long and that » See PULITZER, page 6
Source: Eve Edelheit
Lisa Gartner
INSIDE Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Opinion 4 | Classifieds & Puzzles 6 | Sports 8