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Celebrities stoop to new social media lows Opinion page 11
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Portland State University Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012 | vol. 67 no. 15
Clean air coming your way
Gearing up for election
Smoke-free zones to be enforced Erik Mutzke Vanguard Staf
It’s happening all over Oregon. In 2009, Portland Community College became a tobacco-free campus. On Sept. 1, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon also became smoke-free. Starting Jan. 1, 2013 Portland State is introducing a Clean Air Corridor— officially beginning the university’s campaign for a clean air environment on campus. The corridor will be a designated pollution-free zone in the heaviest foot traffic areas of campus: between Lincoln Hall and Cramer Hall; Cramer Hall and the Smith Memorial Student Union; SMSU and Neuberger Hall; and Neuberger Hall and Shattuck Hall. The university currently has no plan in place for a designated smoking area on campus. The hardest question for planners to answer has been where smokers are going to go, according to Alex Accetta, campus rec director, who helped put the plan together. “We understand that there will be unintended consequences and it will take at least two years to figure out. We are still in a stage of forecasting and have decided to begin with one compact area,” Accetta said. See clean air on page 3
KAYla nguyen/VANGUARD STAFF
amanda fritz (left) and MAry Nolan face off about Portland’s issues at the city commisioner debate. Flouridated drinking water and urban renewal were among the topics discussed.
PSU hosts city commissioners Josh Kelety Vanguard Staff
Portland city commissioner candidates Amanda Fritz and Mary Nolan came to Portland State Monday night for a verbal wrestling match. About 50 people gathered in the Cascade Room in the Smith Memorial Student Union to listen as the candidates sparred over the city’s Education Urban Renewal Area plan, fluoride and each other’s political records. With elections just around the corner, the exchange served as a
critical chance for both candidates to prove their worth, not just to the Portland community but to PSU students in particular. The debate was organized by the Associated Students of Portland State University and the PSU Debate Team. Fritz, the incumbent, is a retired registered psychiatric nurse. She was elected to the Portland City Council in 2008 and was a member of the Portland Planning Commission for seven years. She was born in England. Nolan, a Democrat in the Oregon House of Representatives since 2001, was House Majority Leader from November 2008 to November 2010. One of the first topics was the city’s planned Education Urban Renewal Area, a plan projected
to provide up to $169 million in tax increment financing for investment in educational facilities, affordable housing and private taxable development in the downtown University District. Nolan said she is a strong advocate of these development programs. “It [urban renewal program] has lots of potential and has done wonderful things,” she said, calling the plan a “top priority.” “[Because of ] the critical role that Portland State plays, and the critical need for having a really strong university, I support the education urban renewal district,” she said. Fritz, on the other hand, does not support the plan, and voted against it in May.
Life in the extreme Studying nature’s most uncanny embryo Maya Seaman Vanguard staff
COURTESY OF Claire Riggs
killifish embryos can survive in mortally harsh enviroments.
There is a creature that can survive without oxygen. It can live for weeks without water. It stops its own heart for months at a time, and starts it up again without physical repercussions. This organism could be an evolutionary key to helping humans survive life-threatening illnesses. To hear it described, one might envision something out of a superhero comic—an indestructible mutant or a genetically advanced alien. A being that is larger than life. In reality, it’s a fish embryo. The annual killifish is a fish found in the deserts of Africa and South
America. Yes, you read that right— deserts. They live in small puddles and ponds that form after intense seasonal rains and are called an “annual” because they only live for one year. Once the ponds dry up, the adult fish die. Any spawned eggs are left in the hot, caking mud, where the embryos somehow survive without oxygen. Claire Riggs, a graduate student of biology at Portland State, studies the killifish’s tolerance for zero oxygen, a state called anoxia. “As humans, we don’t do very well within a matter of minutes without oxygen,” Riggs said. “If we can learn some of [the killifish embryo’s] tricks, maybe that can be applied
“Urban renewal is supposed to be for blighted areas,” she said, adding that PSU has already had much investment and that there are other, more deserving, areas of Portland. “If we are going to invest more in blighted areas, we should invest more in really blighted areas,” she said. “If we look around at Portland State, it is not a blighted area. It already had its turn at urban renewal.” The moderator asked several questions about how the candidates approach civic engagement and how elected leaders should interact with and respond to their constituents. The issue first came up via a question about representation See debate on page 4 to help people survive heart attack or stroke.” During development, killifish embryos go dormant when exposed to harsh conditions such as anoxia. They reduce their metabolism to base levels, put their cell development on pause, and can even stop their hearts for more than 90 days with no consequences. f that mechanism could be developed in humans, it would be a major breakthrough for cancer therapy or reducing the damage caused by lack of oxygen during a heart attack or stroke. To determine how the killifish survives and, moreover, how it can start its heart back up without tissue damage, Riggs examines its microRNA. “MicroRNA can suppress genes. The thinking is that maybe something is being suppressed during this See killifish on page 4