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Troy Pope • The Collegian
Residents from the Fresno area march in the May Day March in central Fresno on Sunday, May 1, 2016. The march was to support fair wages for working class people.
By Troy Pope @troycpope
International Workers’ Day drew a crowd of people to march down Blackstone Avenue on Sunday for the annual May Day March in central Fresno. About 70 people marched from Man-
chester Center to Shaw and Blackstone avenues chanting in English and Spanish. The people marched to support wage increases for the working class. California recently struck a deal that will bring the minimum wage to $15 per hour nationwide by 2022. Juan Avitia is a high school teacher
with Madera Unified. He’s also a Fresno State alum who ran La Voz de Aztlán, the Chicano-Latino supplemental newspaper that appears in The Collegian twice a semester. “I think what people don’t realize is just how much energy people exert and how much blood, sweat and tears goes into producing a product or providing
NEEDLE EXCHANGE
Needles for needles
a service,” Avitia said. “And to not recognize that and to not want to say ‘give people a better wage or give people safer working conditions or benefits’ — it’s a disservice and it’s an embarrassment because we have a certain standard of living here.” Avitia said the group of mostly-Lati-
See MAY DAY, Page 4
Clean needle exchange prevents the spread of disease By Jasmine Castrellano @TheCollegian
Drug addicts waited in line with empty milk cartons, plastic bags, jugs or anything they could find to fill with used needles to exchange for new, clean instruments that will maintain their drug addiction but ensure it will be in a clean way. The Needle Exchange, run by Dr. Marc D. Lasher, gives out clean needles in exchange for dirty ones to help reduce the spread of AIDS, HIV and hepatitis B and C. Along with needles, Lasher also provides addicts with medical attention and a basic CPR Fresno Free Medical Clinic Needle Exchange helps reduce the spread of diseases and bacterial infections, April 30, 2016.
Khone Saysamongdy • The Collegian
See NEEDLES, Page 2
NEWS
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MONDAY, MAY 2, 2016
Nursing students help local drug addicts NEEDLES from Page 1 course. Ed, whose last name is being withheld, has been using heroin for 10 years and Saturday he sat in the needle exchange truck getting a muscle infection cleaned out by Lasher. When addicts run out of veins to shoot heroine in, Lasher said, they start injecting them into their muscles, which can cause serious infections. Cassandra Dewitt, a nursing graduate student from Fresno State, said that working with Lasher at the needle exchange has taught her a lot. “Everyone deserves to be treated ethically, with dignity and respect – no matter what background they come from,” Dewitt said. A blue Needle Exchange card is given to a patient that allows them to legally carry needles and Narcan. Narcan is a drug that reverses opiate overdose, Dewitt said. “[Lasher] teaches basic CPR as well as what to do in case of an emergency” Dewitt said. “So if someone uses too much – for example, heroine, and now they aren’t
breathing and we can’t find a pulse, at least they know the steps of CPR and how to administer the drug, while emphasizing that you call emergency medical service.” Dewitt said that patients are encouraged to still call an ambulance because although the Narcan will reverse the opiates, there is still a change they can fall back into an overdose state of being. The Narcan should be used as a way to buy time until the ambulance gets there because it increases their chances of living. “Sometimes when you do give Narcan to someone who is down, they wake up kind of angry because what you did was reverse their high – their pain medication,” Dewitt said. “So if you give that to them, it is going to uncover all of that pain the were trying to mask.” Dewitt said the only real side effect of Narcan is that you will feel pain after taking it, but you can’t overdose on it. The saddest thing Dewitt said she has seen is a patient’s ongoing wounds. “If you’ve seen a zombie apocalypse movie where people are emaciated skinny, open wounds and untreated medical issues – we see that here,” Dewitt said. “We see
Khone Saysamongdy • The Collegian
The Fresno Free Medical Clinic doctor injects a patient with a lidocaine filled needle to numb his arm, treat the infection and kill the bacteria.
people who go on with these chronic problems that aren’t treated by a doctor for so long they end up looking miserable and in so much pain.” Shahram Aghaei, a pre-med graduate from Fresno State and a volunteer at Saint Agnes Medical Center said she believes fresh needles are important. “Providing fresh sterilized needles for them allows them to keep certain diseases like Hep C, AIDS, from spreading,” Aghaei
said. “A lot of these addicts also don’t know the proper way of shooting drugs and they end up overdosing and killing themselves and spreading disease.” Aghaei said that death would not give them future opportunities. “The goal is to get them to quit,” Aghaei said. “But if they are dying before they get the opportunity to quit then they won’t ever be able to.”
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RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
CRUZ ‘RIGHTEOUS CANDIDATE’ By Megan Bronson @Bronsosuarus
Pastor Rafael Cruz, the father of presidential hopeful Senator Ted Cruz, stood at Cornerstone Church Conference Center’s pulpit in Fresno on Friday night and urged members of the congregation to engage in the political process. “Authority flows from God to the people – to the government,” he said, “And with that authority comes an awesome responsibility for us to elect righteous leaders.” Roughly 300 people gathered at the conference center to listen to Cruz discuss history, national politics and why they should vote for his son in the upcoming June primary. Cruz asked members to put down their qualms about being politically correct, and start voting “biblically correct,” citing the lack of evangelical voters in the 2012 presidential election. He said there were 12 million evangelical Christians who were not registered to vote and another 26 million evangelicals who did not vote. “We need to make sure that people of faith are involved in the political process,” he said. As audience members entered the conference room, they were asked in they would like to endorse Ted Cruz and were then given campaign stickers. Cornerstone pastor Jim Franklin publicly endorsed Ted Cruz and encouraged church members to get involved with the political process and to “come out of the
closet” and select leaders to represent the congregation’s values. Cruz said the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia could be a turning point for representation of conservative values in America. “One more liberal justice on that court and our religious liberties will all go down the drain,” Cruz said. If something is not mentioned in either the ninth or 10th amendment, he said, then the federal government has “no business” making judgements on it. He cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that made gay marriage legal as “unconstitutional and unlawful.” Also unconstitutional, according to Cruz, is the implementation of Common Core education. “The word ‘education’ is nowhere in article one, section eight [of the Constitution].” Cruz said that Common Core, the national educational standards for K-12 students, was “insidious” and was being “crammed down our throats” to “brainwash” children. Cruz also denounced GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, saying the campaign had done a successful job of preying on people’s anger. “Trump hit a nerve by appealing to people’s anger,” he said. “People are frustrated – and rightly so because America has been on a downward spiral for a long time – Trump has been fueling that frustration and anger. The problem is that Trump has no solutions. He is just hot air.” Dr. Thomas Holyoke, professor of political science at Fresno State, said that a win for Trump could boil down to the California
Khone Saysamongdy • The Collegian
Pastor Rafael Cruz speaks to the public at the Cornerstone Church, April. 29, 2016. He also references the bible and politics during his presentation.
republican primary. “Trump needs to win big in every state yet to come, including California because he is still needs 310 delegates to get to 1,237, and that means winning every state yet to come,” said Holyoke. Jeremiah Folia, a Fresno State student and the Central Valley Chair of Millennials, commented on Cruz’s chances of winning the nomination. “In California, different polls have ranked Cruz from 7 percent to 17 percent behind Trump,” Folia said. “Polls from many of the remaining states show good favorability for Sen. Cruz, and if the rest of the states vote as projected, we will only need to keep Donald Trump with under 50 percent of the delegates from California to prompt a contested convention.” Cruz encouraged the congregation to vote for the righteous candidate – his son Ted – mentioning that he had been preparing for this role since he was 9 years old by being engaged with the church and memo-
rizing the Constitution. Franklin echoed Cruz’s call to action by asking young voters to do their research on the candidates. “Don’t listen to the rhetoric. Don’t listen to the sound bites. Do your homework,” Franklin said. “Everything you read on the Internet isn’t right. Get a book out – look at our past, look at our history, and then use that as a guidepost to our future.” Folia praised the grassroots movement in California, saying that Millennials for Cruz has developed a presence in each congressional district. “I think we will take this election to a contested convention, and when we get there we will win,” said Folia. Cruz ended his talk by encouraging audience members to, “Vote righteousness. Vote conviction. Don’t vote tradition. Vote the principles of the word of God.” For more information on the Millennials for Cruz organization, email Folia at foliapatriot@mail.fresnostate.edu.
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MONDAY, MAY 2, 2016
SOFTBALL
‘Dogs win second-straight MW title, earn NCAA Tournament berth
Khone Saysamongdy • The Collegian
The nationally-ranked Bulldogs are back-to-back Mountain West Conference champions.
By Cox Odia @coxthaone
The 20th-ranked Fresno State softball team clinched its second-straight Mountain West Championship and secured the league's automatic bid into the 2016 NCAA Tournament with a 6-4 road win over San Jose State on Sunday. After a 13-7 victory just a day ago, the Bulldogs defeated the Spartans to earn their sixth series sweep of the year with six games still remaining on the 2016 regular-season schedule. Fresno State started off strong with four base hits in a row, putting a run on the board with two away with Bulldogs’ catcher Paige Gumz recording an RBI in the first inning. San Jose State tied the game in the bottom of the second inning with a leadoff home run. In the top of the third inning, junior outfielder Kierra Willis crushed a solo home run to give the ‘Dogs their first lead at 2-1. But soon after, the Spartans took a 4-2 lead on a two-run shot and Bulldog error with two outs in the middle of the inning. With the scored tied four runs apiece,
a solo home run from outfielder Vanessa Hernandez followed by another homer from infielder Lindsey Willmon put Fresno State up 5-4 in the fourth inning. “I’m so proud of this group,” Bulldogs’ head coach Trisha Ford said. “These seniors, which was the first class when I got here, have worked their tails off. Paige [Gumz] and Jill [Compton] were calling most of that game today and they settled in nicely. Vanessa Hernandez came up with a big hit and Lindsey Willmon was huge for us again today and so was Kierra Willis. I’m just so proud of them.” As the conference leader in walks with 37, Willis reached base on four balls to lead off the fifth innings for the Bulldogs and scored from first on a standup double by senior Alyssa Villalpando (2-for-4). Villalpando leads the league in combined RBIs (50) over 47 games played. Compton (21-4, 13-0 MW) had a solid outing on the mound, allowing just one hit in the first two innings and only allowed two runners on base for the remaining four innings after the `Dogs went ahead in the fourth. She also added three additional strikeouts to her 659 career total during the series finale.
With six games still remaining in the regular season, Compton ranks sixth in program history in strikeouts, seventh in wins (85), second in appearances (155), eighth in innings pitched (791.2) and 10th in complete games (84). The Bulldogs have a pair of series remaining against Nevada (May 6-8) and UNLV (May 12-14) before the NCAA Regionals, which begin May 20. “That’s what I was hired to do – continue the program’s legacy and get us into the postseason,” Ford said. “For sure we’re in again this year … but we have to continue to get better, that’s our goal every day.” Notes • The nationally-ranked Bulldogs have won 14 MW games with 10 or more hits and won in double-digit fashion during 10 contests this season which includes eight MW matchups. • The squad is riding the nation's longest win streak of 19 games, aside from continuing what is the best start to a conference season in MW history. • The No. 20 Bulldogs have been ranked in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll for 11
consecutive weeks. That streak is the second-longest in MW history, trailing only San Diego State, which was ranked for 13 consecutive weeks in the NFCA poll in 2008. • The squad is currently 28-0 in conference play dating back to the 2015 season and is riding the longest win streak accomplished by any MW program in league history. • The Bulldogs have won their last 19 contests including 18 Mountain West matchups and a single nonconference game. The last time the Fresno State softball program opened conference with more than 16-straight wins was a 24-0 stretch, accomplished in 1999. • In the past four weeks the Bulldogs have swept Boise State, New Mexico and San Jose State on the road and took all three contests from San Diego State, Utah State and Colorado State at home. When combining the past six conference series, Fresno State has outscored its opponent 166-72 which includes four run-rule victories and three walk-off wins.
Many chanted ‘Dump Trump’ as they walked MAY DAY from Page 1 no marchers aren’t fans of the presidential frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. “The truth is we’re non-partisan. We’ve come to realize that both parties — they’ll say what they need to to be elected,” Avitia said. “But Donald Trump represents the epitome of what’s wrong with us. [He’s] putting profits over people, and that’s not fair. His direct statement is that the national minimum wage is already too high. The guy is a billionaire; he lives in luxury; he can say that.” On April 3, Trump did a Town Hall with Greta Van Susteren. When asked a question about the Fight for $15 movement, he said raising the minimum wage, which is nationally at $7.25 per hour, isn’t the way to go. He said he’s going to back high-pay-
ing jobs to America, instead. “The minimum wage is a very, very complex situation because we are a non-competitive country,” Trump said. “If you look at what’s going on throughout the world, one of the big problems we have are wages. I’m gonna make our country so competitive that people at minimum wage are going to escape the minimum wage — they are going to go up, and they’re gonna make a lot of money and they’re gonna have companies and be involved with companies that are really successful where they can be paid more and more money.” Trump continued, “If you start raising the minimum wage, you can make a lot of our companies even more non-competitive, and it would be a big, big problem. But what I want to do, is I want to bring jobs back. We’re gonna bring jobs back from
China. We’re gonna bring jobs back from Mexico and Japan...” The march was also to encourage people to boycott Driscoll’s — a berry distributor. Avitia said that the subcontractors that Driscoll’s hires create terrible working conditions. “You’ve got 70,000 workers that walked out last year because conditions are horrendous. Women are being sexually assaulted — raped. The children as young as 8 are out there with their parents and working in these hard working conditions. And they don’t work for $7 an hour; they work for $7 a day.” Driscoll’s couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Oscar Ramirez, a plant science major at Fresno State focusing in ethnobotany, marched to support workers’ rights.
“If you look in whatever workplace you’re at, if you get stuff like disability benefits, overtime pay, safety regulations, fire sprinklers, fire escapes — these are all the things that if it were up to the bosses they wouldn’t have,” Ramirez said. “People had to fight for all these things and maybe most workers take for granted or don’t recognize what a long, deep struggle had to take place for them to be able to have these things.” There were a few voices of dissension from passersby. Some people yelled at the march “Trump’s going to make America great again,” and others shouted expletives. However, the march, which was just over two miles long, elicited a lot of honking horns of support. Some people even joined in the chanting when the march shouted “Dump Trump” and “Sí se puede” — which translates to “yes we can.”