Mustang Daily - 2/26

ARTS: Nothing mellow about this drama; San Luis Obispo fancifies the functional SPORTS: Freshmen in the middle Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Volume LXXVII, Number 72

www.mustangdaily.net

Tractor breaks

Chavez Day celebration to get more controlled

DILLON PAYNE

Special to Mustang Daily

SEAN MCMINN

smcminn@mustangdaily.net

Thousands of students came to Shell Beach in 2012 for the cultural holiday turned beach-binge-drinking bonanza known as Cesar Chavez Day. The party left behind enough trash to fill nine Ford pickup trucks and resulted in three arrests and two hospitalizations, according to The Tribune.

But changes in the holiday’s timing and increased police presence will likely influence the party’s scope this year.

Instead of students having the day off from school during a Friday in spring quarter, Cal Poly will observe it on Monday, April 1 — one day after Easter and directly before spring quarter begins on April 2.

“Even if you’re not doing anything on Easter, you could turn Monday into your travel day back to SLO,” said agribusiness junior Jason Colombini, who is leading an effort to clean up the beach on Cesar Chavez Day as part of his role as Interfraternity Council president.

“So that could completely change this dynamic.”

What could also change the dynamic is a more organized response from the Pismo Beach Police Department than there has been in the past. Officers present in 2012 mostly observed the day’s partying from nearby cliffs, but Pismo Police Cmdr. Jake Miller said that will not be the case this year.

Pismo Beach police are planning a “zero-tolerance” policy for Cesar Chavez Day 2013 — the result of what they say has been two years of illegal partying on a strip of Shell Beach approximately nine miles away from Cal Poly in the city of Pismo Beach.

Alcohol is prohibited on the beach in the city, so police will inspect partygoers as they arrive, Miller said.

“It caught us a little by surprise,” Miller said about the first year of partying in 2011. “We were a little more prepared for it last year because we didn’t know if it was just a one-year deal, but then we realized, ‘OK this isn’t going to be just one year.’”

Pismo Beach police helped shut down SLOtopia in 2009, a beach party that attempted to rival the University of California, Santa

Feeling wolfish?

PHOTOS BY NHA HA/MUSTANG DAILY

While at the Wolf-Hybrid Adoption and Rescue (WHAR) facility this weekend, student volunteers had the chance to pose and play with several “social” wolves and wolf-hybrids, such as the one above.

SARA NATIVIDAD

snatividad@mustangdaily.net

Members of Poly Paws and other student volunteers explored the wolves and hybrids of the Wolf-Hybrid Adoption and Rescue (WHAR) facility Sunday, donating their money and time to the foundation.

The visit included a tour of the different wolf enclosures where students were allowed to touch a few of the “social” wolves and help clean up the wolf memorial site.

As Kris Krutsinger led the group toward the center of the wolf facility during the event, a man walked toward them with a large wolf named Lucian.

The male hybrid — a dog/wolf mix — seemed pleased to be let out of his confinement, but his mate, Lily, howled with disappointment.

Lily is a “hands off ” hybrid, which means the trainers do not touch her at all. She’s a stubborn dog who has been difficult to manipulate and communicate with from the very beginning, according to

the trainers. She only has a small amount of wolf in her, but she channels her wild dog spirit. Lily is a perfect example of how wild hybrids can be and how important it is that they are provided with the proper environment and care, they said.

“She was a great challenge and learning experience because we can’t touch her, ever,” said Krutsinger, who is the CEO of WHAR. “In the end, Lily taught us as much, if not more, than we taught her.”

Lily is just one of the wolves

in WHAR that needed the training and habitat WHAR provides. There are currently 13 canines in the facility, and the facility is preparing for the arrival of another hybrid in a week, Krutsinger said.

Some canines have made far advances in their training and are social enough to be put up for adoption, but others such as Lily will spend the rest of their lives in the facility.

The establishment takes in canines that have either been see WOLVES, pg. 2

see CHAVEZ, pg. 2

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First they build it. Then they try to break it — again and again.

Cal Poly’s PolyBuilt Quarter Scale Tractor Design Team builds a tractor for the annual American Society of Biological Engineers’ International Quarter Scale Competition each academic year. And they constantly face the same problem.

Almost every year, Cal Poly’s tractor breaks down during the competition, Quarter Scale adviser and bioresource and agricultural engineering (BRAE) lecturer Keith Crowe said.

But this year, the team is determined not to repeat the mistakes of earlier teams, they said.

This year, the tractor is going through tests to find where the weak parts are, Quarter Scale Design Chair and agricultural systems management senior Sam Terpstra said.

“We keep on pulling it to try to break stuff,” Terpstra said. “So that’s how we keep things from breaking is by trying to break them.”

Last year’s tractor had many parts that broke, Quarter Scale President and BRAE senior Weston Soto said. That tractor had brake failure, a jammed belt and a broken steering cable.

To prevent the tractor parts from breaking, the team advanced the schedule so it can have an operable tractor by midMarch, Crowe said. That way the team can test the tractor thoroughly and put it through its extremes before it arrives at the competition.

Cal Poly is one of the few universities that fabricate almost all the parts used for the tractor, which creates a drawback, Crowe said.

“It really puts us at a disadvantage in the competition; you can tell we fabricated it,” Crowe said. “And the judges like really fancy looking things. Ours isn’t fancy looking.”

The time and energy put into the creation of the tractor is unbelievable, Terpstra said. The time spent on the tractor last year was more than 3,000 hours. That number is larger than the other universities whose teams only put in a few hundred hours, he said.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Terpstra said. “That’s on top of us being students.” see TRACTOR, pg. 2

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MDnews 2 TRACTOR continued from page 1

Working on a tractor can be difficult, but the members have a special resource they can use if they have issues. The team can turn to the professors in the department for support and help to improve the tractor because they are tractor pull gurus, Terpstra said.

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers puts the competition on every year, Terpstra said.

The competition prepares students for things they might face in the real world and the industry, Soto said.

“You learn what industry is like,” Soto said. “We’re practically running a business here. You learn how to work in the environment.”

Cal Poly has created many different designs compared to its competitors’ tractors in past years. The team plans to keep it simple, Soto said.

“We will still do things that are unique but be as simple as possible with it,” Soto said.

“We want to think outside of the box but not be too crazy.”

The team works on the tractor in the Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Shop during the winter quarter to prepare for the competition.

The team has been designing and working since the end of the last competition from the past year, Soto said.

The team even has a class that lets members work on the tractor, Crowe said.

“I go into that shop and watch these guys work and I’m picking up my jaw, watching these guys work,” Crowe said. “It’s just absolutely amazing what these guys do.”

The total cost of the tractor ranges from $25,000 to $30,000, Crowe said.

The funds for the project come from the state as well

as the fundraising that the team does. The Instructional Related Activities provide approximately $12,000 because the team is viewed as something that benefits the university and the department, Crowe said. The rest of the money is brought in by Quarter Scale fundraising, which is heavily supported by those who donate from the agricultural industry, he said.

There are 10 returning and five new members on the team, Soto said. There are also new people in different positions from last year. This year is a building year, he said.

“We’re definitely trying to make a foundation for the club,” Soto said.

The team members are confident in building the tractor, Soto said.

“This year, personally, is absolutely the strongest team I’ve ever been with,” Soto said. “And they’re the smartest group of guys and girls that I’ve ever worked with.”

The team members call the tractor “Dark Horse” because they are usually the underdogs in the competition, Terpstra said. The team is the farthest away from the competition and does things its own way which makes it looked down upon, he said.

Because the other competitors do not take Cal Poly seriously, the team is working to surprise all the universities at the competition, Terpstra said. There has already been so much more productivity compared to last year and the team is very dedicated, he said.

“We think we are a lot stronger of a team than we were last year,” Terpstra said.

“We are hoping to show up and catch people off guard.”

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

MAGGIE KAISERMAN/MUSTANG DAILY

Thousands came to Shell Beach for Cesar Chavez Day 2012, despite an ordinance requiring permits for special events and a no-alcohol policy on the beach. Police say they are planning to strengthen their enforcement on the holiday this year, but encourage people to come and celebrate the holiday in small groups.

CHAVEZ continued from page 1

Barbara’s Flotopia.

Thousands of students were expected to come for SLOtopia, but when the city and Cal Poly told the event’s organizer about more than $1,000 in possible fines, a STOP SLOTOPIA Facebook page emerged and few came to the beach.

This year, authorities from Pismo Beach and neighboring cities will station themselves at the two entrances to the beach on Cesar Chavez Day, Miller said. They’ll be watching for illegal activity — officers will search coolers and bags for alcohol if they have “reasonable cause” to believe something illegal is inside.

Though police believe focusing their efforts where students

went last year will stop partiers who show up, Miller said police can easily mobilize and monitor different stretches of beach if needed.

Students could move to nearby Avila Beach, Miller said, though they would find similar alcohol laws there.

Some overflow partiers went to Avila in 2012, but biomedical engineering junior Sylvia Jarzynski made it to Shell Beach with her friends and described the 3,000-person crowd as “pretty crazy.”

“One of the interesting things was if you were down on the beach and you looked up, you could see 10 cops just standing at the top of the cliffs,” she said. “They just looked so helpless, they didn’t know what to do.”

Students at this past year’s Cesar Chavez Day beach celebration spent the day dancing, tanning and playing football, Frisbee and drinking games, Jarzynski said.

The festivities even drew Ray Daily, founder of The College Culture, a website that creates mini-documentaries about the “other side of college.” Daily, a sophomore at Mira Costa Community College in San Diego, said his friends told him if there was any weekend

to visit Cal Poly, it would be Cesar Chavez Day. After also filming at UC Santa Barbara, University of Colorado, Boulder and the University of Arizona, Daily said Cal Poly’s party was the most “original” he’d ever seen.

“It was crazy,” Daily said, “the amount of people that were on the beach and the controlled environment at the same time. It was relaxed and full of people, it wasn’t outof-control. It was just people having a good time.”

But the festivities brought more than just a good time to the area. There was police activity — Daily said he saw students pouring out beer after officers discovered kegs buried in the sand — and an environmental impact that sparked controversy in the small community.

In the hours after students left the beach, the Pismo Beach employees picked up 18 to 20 cubic yards of trash in 2012, according to The Tribune. A city public works manager told the newspaper it cost nearly $8,000 in equipment and labor costs to clean up the mess.

In addition to what the city picked up, some Cal Poly students worked throughout the day to minimize the amount

of trash left on the beach.

Members of the Cal Poly Surfrider Club came armed with six trash and recycle bins for Cesar Chavez Day 2012, club president and environmental engineering senior Adam Rianda said.

The bags filled up quickly, he said, and by the end of the day there was so much trash they had trouble disposing of it all.

“The environmental impact, it’s pretty big,” Rianda said.

“After all, I don’t want it (the party) to be taken away from the students because it’s a blast. But it can harm the marine life, it all gets sucked up out to the ocean.”

Littering laws aside, there is also a city policy requiring visitors to receive permits for special events that bring 50 or more people to Pismo Beach.

Pismo Beach City Councilman Ed Waage wants to stop this illegal activity at the beach, but said he is glad students want to use the city’s beaches on their day off.

“We have ordinances against organized activities, so it’s a matter of breaking the law,” Waage said. “So I guess I’m just concerned that people can enjoy our beaches, but not have large numbers and get crazy with drinking and such.”

WOLVES

call him our West Hollywood wolf because he’s about as gay as they get.”

After the students learned the unique stories of each canine, the group posed with the Alpha male, Shiloh. The trainer used various hand signals to calm the wolf, lead him to a picnic table and jump on top of the table so that the students were able to gather around him for a picture.

When Shiloh was finally situated on the table, the trainer fed him treats and continued to do so when he obeyed the commands.

The most important part in training is to make sure not to lie to them, Krutsinger said.

If a promise is made, as in a reward is given for a particular action, it is crucial that a reward is given for this action every time.

Director Coordinator for Student Community Service Diane Twitchell said her favorite aspect of WHAR is the education the organization provides for the proper care and ownership of wolves and wolf hybrids.

“I think we all learned that having a wolf or wolf-hybrid as a pet is not easy, and they are a huge responsibility,” Twitchell said. “Just because they are cute and fluffy doesn’t mean they act just like a golden retriever.”

After the students ate lunch, they helped plant flowers around the graves of the deceased wolves and clean up the memorial site.

“It felt great to be able to help fix up the memorial for some of WHAR’s favorite wolves,” Twitchell said. “I could tell that our work was really appreciated and it meant a lot to them.”

One of the graves was the owner’s daughter’s dog that passed away, agricultural systems management junior Susie Parrish said.

After the group finished the memorial, mixed tears of joy and longing poured out of her eyes.

“It was really touching seeing how we can make a difference by doing something small,” Parrish said. “I encourage people to volunteer in any way. The smallest action can be very rewarding.”

continued from page 1

abandoned or whose owners could no longer take care of them. They do not breed because there are already so many without proper homes, Krutsinger said.

Although the canines are all fixed, the trainers try to pair them together. Wolves need companionship and the trainers try to find the canine at least a buddy, if not a mate. The attachment the mates have for each other was evident when Lily saw Lucian being walked back to her pen, stopped her ferocious barking, and excitedly wagged her tail as she greeted him.

The “poster” hybrid for the program is Cherokee, whose luscious fur and calm demeanor makes him the ideal candidate for photographers.

Cherokee lost his male mate a year and a half ago and has not bonded with any other canine since.

“Yes, I did say male,” Krutsinger said. “We liked to

MDnews 3

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

WORD ON THE STREET Do you think Cal Poly handles sexual assault cases well?

“I think they address the situation well by sending out emails and things like that.”

• Sarah Bais biological sciences junior

Supreme Court to hear DNA case YVONNE WENGER The Baltimore Sun

In a Maryland case that has garnered the attention of the other 49 states, the federal Department of Justice and the national science community, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday over whether to restrict police in collecting DNA to solve crimes.

The justices will rule on a police practice common in Maryland: taking genetic information from individuals arrested — but not convicted — to link them to unsolved crimes. In the past, the court has acknowledged the power of DNA but has not allowed it to run afoul of fundamental American rights such as the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches.

At the center of the case is a Salisbury, Md., man, Alonzo Jay King. Police took his DNA

when he was arrested in 2009 on assault charges and linked him to the 2003 rape of a Wicomico County woman at gunpoint. King appealed his rape conviction, challenging the key DNA evidence.

The Baltimore-based Office of the Public Defender, which represents King, contends that taking DNA from a person before he or she is convicted of a crime tramples on the constitutional promise to be protected from warrantless searches. Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler argues that, once arrested for a crime, an individual is not entitled to the same expectation of privacy.

“There is a great deal at stake,” Gansler said in an interview. “The use of DNA has really become commonplace in criminal investigations since the O.J. Simpson case.

“Not being able to use DNA

would be a significant blow to law enforcement efforts,” he said. “When you’re using DNA evidence, you know exactly who committed a crime and who didn’t.”

Colin Starger, a University of Baltimore assistant professor of law, said a defendant, such as King, who has been found guilty of a violent crime doesn’t necessarily draw much sympathy.

“It’s not about him; it’s about much broader concerns,” he said.

Starger said allowing police to collect DNA samples in the name of solving crimes opens up the potential for the government’s systematic invasion of privacy and the risk of exacerbating inherent racial and socioeconomic inequities in American criminal justice.

African-Americans made up 60 percent of the individuals for whom DNA was stored in

Maryland’s arrestee database in 2011, but blacks accounted for 30 percent of the population.

In 2011, the last year for which data are available, DNA was taken from more than 10,500 people arrested for committing or attempting to commit a violent crime. Those samples matched evidence for 78 unsolved crimes and led to nine convictions, so far. If the suspect is not convicted, the sample must be destroyed.

State lawmakers first established a DNA database in 1994 that included genetic information from individuals convicted of rape and sexual offenses, expanding the database in 2002 to include all felons. Samples from the arrestees were included in 2009.

In Maryland, the samples are collected by brushing a cotton swab on the inside of the arrestee’s cheek.

Expanding the database was

one of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s early legislative victories. But last April, the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that the practice was unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay in July, authorizing law enforcement to collect the samples pending the outcome of the Supreme Court case.

After oral arguments Tuesday, it may be months before the court issues an opinion.

Twenty-seven other states and the federal government also can collect DNA samples from individuals arrested for violent crimes. Mitchell Morrissey, district attorney for Denver and an expert on DNA in the criminal justice system, said some of the 22 states without laws authorizing post-arrest DNA collection have held off passing legislation until the Supreme Court clears up the constitutional questions.

‘Craigslist killer’ on trial PHIL TREXLER Akron Beacon Journal

“I do not know. I haven’t heard of any.”

• Conny Liegl Cal Poly staff

Richard Beasley is no saint. He’s also not a triple murderer, his attorney told a jury Monday.

The opening remarks by defense attorney James Burdon reflected the first public defense of Beasley, the self-proclaimed Akron minister and purported mastermind of the 2011 Craigslist killings.

Burdon urged a newly seated Summit County jury to reserve judgment on Beasley and consider the lack of direct evidence linking the 53-year-old to any of the three killings of

Beasley’s personal links to the clubs might have led prosecutors to the wrong conclusion.

Burdon also referred to Beasley’s physical health and the 2006 work-related crash that led to his deteriorating physical condition. Beasley, as he has since his arrest, appeared in court seated in a wheelchair.

Defense attorneys are expected to suggest that Beasley was too fragile to kill three men and bury them in shallow graves.

“He’s not an invalid,” Burdon said. “It’s very clear, however, that he is badly impaired.”

Emily Pelphrey, an assistant Ohio attorney general, tried to

He is not a saint. He has done a lot of things wrong in his life.

JAMES BURDON DEFENSE ATTORNEY MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

“I have no clue. I guess they have the Ombuds Center.”

• William Bassett agribusiness sophomore

“I think they handle it well; they can probably be on top of it (more).”

• Rosy Villalvazo architecture senior

“I think they are great at awareness but they can take more action I guess.”

• Caleb Dunne architectural engineering junior

men who answered the Internet ad for a bogus farmhand job in rural southeast Ohio.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, countered that Beasley is merely a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who preyed on down-on-theirluck men in need of work.

One of those victims is the state’s key witness, Scott Davis, a Stark County resident who answered the help-wanted ad and wound up being shot while visiting the rural site in November 2011.

It was only after Davis survived being shot that authorities learned of three other men who were killed after responding to a similar ad. The investigation led to the arrest of Beasley and his co-defendant, Stow teenager Brogan Rafferty.

Burdon, however, told jurors that Davis wasn’t targeted for murder. He implied instead that Beasley may have acted in self-defense during a “violent encounter” with Davis.

It was Davis’ identity of Beasley, along with computer and cellphone records linking Beasley to the ad, that led authorities to arrest the onetime street minister. Burdon said law enforcement followed the wrong path.

“He is not a saint. He has done a lot of things wrong in his life,” Burdon said of his client.

However, he said, Davis is accusing Beasley “of something he did not do.”

Among Beasley’s wrongdoings, Burdon said, was befriending members of two area motorcycle clubs with a reputation for violence. One of those friends, Burdon said, owns property near the site of the Davis shooting and the shallow graves of two other men.

Burdon did not accuse the bikers or anyone of the killings.

He did, however, imply that

expound in her opening statement about her theory that Beasley was a wolf in disguise.

She was about one minute into her remarks when Burdon objected to the biblical reference.

“Beware the false prophet which comes to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves,” Pelphrey wrote, quoting a Bible verse on an overhead projector for jurors to see.

Judge Lynne Callahan granted Burdon’s objection, and Pelphrey took down the Bible verse and never spoke of it again. She also never referred by name to Rafferty, who could be called as a state’s witness.

Last year, prosecutors convicted Rafferty, 17, for his role in the shootings and Callahan sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

Instead of referencing the Bible, Pelphrey instead told jurors of the cellphone and computer evidence that authorities believe ties Beasley to the four victims. She unveiled new evidence of how Beasley assumed numerous names as well as the identity of Ralph Geiger, a homeless man whose body was found on the farmland in Noble County.

She showed jurors a job application in which Geiger’s name was used long after the 56-yearold man disappeared in August 2011. She also showed an identification card bearing Geiger’s name with a photograph that appeared to be Beasley.

In the job application, the worker gave the name of an Akron woman as an emergency contact. The woman is said to be a friend of Beasley and the same person prosecutors say Beasley wrote after his arrest in an effort to recover a wallet and computer belonging to one of the victims.

Blizzard hits Texas, Midwest MICHAEL MUSKAL Los Angeles Times

A blizzard dumped mountains of swirling snow across parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Monday, then turned toward Kansas and other parts of the Midwest still reeling from a major storm last week.

Blizzard warnings and watches were posted for

parts of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma through Monday evening as high winds blew large accumulations of snow in a wide band through the Southwest and Midwest.

The National Weather Service also warned of fierce thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast.

“A winter storm will bring a variety of hazards to parts of

the central & southern U.S. on Monday,” the weather service warned on its website.

The weather service also advised that the storm was heading toward areas hard hit last week.

In Wichita, Kan., (above) residents were barely recovering from last week’s storm before they had to prepare for another round.

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MDarts 4

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

A night at the melodrama ALLISON MONTROY

amontroy@mustangdaily.net

COURTESY PHOTO

Chaos ensues at the country club in Ken Ludwig’s “Fox on the Fairway” comedy performance at the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville in Oceano.

How is it that in one night the president of a country club barters away $100,000 and his wife’s antique shop, watches as his engaged employees fall apart over a missing ring and kisses a woman other than his wife while his wife kisses that woman’s exhusband/his biggest rival?

Welcome to the Melodrama.

Walk through the curtained doors of the western-like building on Front Street in Oceano, and it’s as if time has turned back to 1901. Deep burgundy drapes cascade over the windows, sawdust covers the floor and wooden benches line wooden walls as a pianist taps a tune in the front corner of a stage transformed into the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville’s latest comedy: Ken Ludwig’s “The Fox on the Fairway.”

This parody of golf tournament drama between country club rivals is one of seven different plays performed onstage throughout this year, most performed with a “melodrama” twist.

A melodrama is a genre of drama used in the Victorian era to talk about events of the time.

It was a comment on what was happening in society, with exaggerated performances and a caricature-like cast.

And in 1975, owners John and Lynne Schlenker brought the drama to Oceano.

“I think what makes it fun is that you can bring people who don’t typically go to theater,” artistic director Nova Cunningham said. “And they will have a great time. Every age is going to have a fantastic time. These

It was definitely one of the most funny and interesting shows I have seen in my three years at Poly.

TYLER JOHNSON AEROSPACE ENGINEERING JUNIOR

days, we also do more of a mixed bill, not just melodramas.”

Small, round tables sit in the center of the audience, while long table-benches crowd the back and sides of the theater, and people are sharing pitchers of beer and American-style dinners all around.

Aerospace engineering junior Tyler Johnson went to his first show at the Melodrama earlier this month to see the “The Fox on the Fairway” in its third week of production.

The slapstick humor and bouncing conversations between mixed-up lovers and nervous country club competitors had the entire audience, from the girl celebrating her “sweet sixteen” in the front row, to the couple married for 47 years in the back corner, laughing.

“It was definitely one of the most funny and interesting shows I have seen in my three years at Poly,” Johnson said, blaming the show for “making you laugh until your cheeks hurt.”

To Johnson, the show was a refreshing change of scenery for a weekend night.

The experience was “far more unique and creative than many other things college students can do for entertainment in the area,” Johnson said.

Locals, tourists and dedicated

subscribers fill the room, some in groups, some alone and some on dates — all laughing.

“It’s just something you can do that’s out of SLO, but still something awesome on the Central Coast,” said Cunningham, who joined the Melodrama as an actress in the 1990s. “It’s a great getaway from school. And truly, it’s a ton of fun. It’s such a great theater to be a part of.”

And the laughs don’t end when the curtain falls.

After the feature performance, the actors climbed onstage once more, decked head-to-toe in matching outfits, for a “vaudeville” show of different skits and songs all based on one theme.

Saturday night, it was “stars.”

Jim Carrey and Julie Andrews visited “Starstrucks Coffee,” the ensemble belted mash-ups of “shining star,” “star-spangled banner” and Smash Mouth, all in tribute to different kinds of stars.

In Cunningham’s eyes, the theater itself is a lucky star.

“We’re lucky enough to have been made a Central Coast icon for the past 38 years,” she said. “We’re just a pleasant find in this middle of nowhere town called Oceano.”

Ticket prices range from $18 to $22, but the Melodrama gives a $2 discount to students and offers coupons for $15 tickets in the New Times.

MDarts 5

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

PHOTOS BY DAVID JANG/MUSTANG DAILY

Finding art in routine places KELLY TROM

ktrom@mustangdaily.net

In broad daylight, a man sits in the middle of the downtown San Luis Obispo sidewalk applying paint to a utility box. No, this isn’t some ill-timed graffiti attempt. And it wouldn’t have been an uncommon sight to see last year while making a trip downtown to shop or eat.

The Box Art program is a collaboration project between the city of San Luis Obispo and the San Luis Obispo Downtown Association. It started in 2010, when 16 utility boxes in downtown’s core were painted. Round two was completed this past year, when 13 additional utility boxes were painted in areas extending beyond the downtown area, near Cal Poly and the railroad district.

The works featured on the boxes were all done by local artists.

“Artists residing in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Monterey counties were invited to apply during the open call for artists — 106 applications were submitted and reviewed by city staff and the art jury, a selection committee,” recreation and public art manager Shannon Bates said.

A passage from the application artists filled out during the open call stated the main objective of the project: “The goal of the ‘Box Art’ project is to use utility boxes as ‘canvases’ for original pieces of art as well as to contribute to the vi-

tality and attractiveness of the city, while deterring graffiti.”

One lucky artist was able to bypass the application process because of previous work he did for the city. Jeff Claassen donated a skateboard deck for the “Deck it Out” art show in 2011 that raised money for the SLO Skate Park. He was invited to paint a box, but still needed to submit a few original design concepts to the city to be approved. The design concepts Claassen submitted were loosely based on paintings he had already created.

Claassen painted his box in October 2012, working on and off for a week or two because of some rainy days, he said.

“Every time I was out there painting, people would say ‘Thanks for doing that’ or scream it out their car as they drove by,” Claassen said.

Claassen was grateful to the city for the chance to add some vibrancy to his community.

“It adds some color to the urban landscape,” he said. “It certainly adds something different for everybody. It turns a drab piece of equipment into something colorful and interesting.”

The subjects for the art on the utility boxes range from landscapes, to animals wild and domesticated, to abstract, colorful works. Some utility boxes display local landmarks, such as Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa and Bishop Peak. The artists were encouraged to paint local scenes that featured the feel

and look of San Luis Obispo.

Charlie Clingman, local artist and San Luis Obispo resident chose to bring a little piece of the sea to downtown San Luis Obispo.

“I feel like it was a neat scene that reflected a beautiful part of the coast and I wanted to bring that inland a little bit,” Clingman said. “I think landscapes are cool in a city environment because its nature in a lot of man-made stuff and it relaxes people.”

The artists were only restricted from painting any content related to advertising, religious art, sexual material, negative imagery or political partisanship. Artists were also required to use acrylic latex waterborne exterior wall and trim paint.

Local artist Lena Rushing also painted her utility box in October 2012 and decided to include some of San Luis Obispo’s nature life onto her design.

“I thought that Barn Owls would be a great way to represent SLO county,” Rushing said. “They are a common sight due to the rich farmlands and vineyards that are dotted with old red barns throughout our beautiful countryside.”

Rushing was grateful to have the opportunity to put her unique interpretation and image of San Luis Obispo into her contribution to the Box Art program.

“My vision and intent was to create vibrant, intriguing, works of art that would encourage the viewer to engage

in art related conversation and get the public involved and excited about art,” she said. “Public art serves as a running commentary for the generation and location from which it is created; a window into the soul of the city.”

The project was funded by the money raised by a city fee applied to private development projects that chose not to incorporate a public

art piece in the development.

The fee helps fund the Box Art program and other public art programs active in the city.

The utility box art program has been taken on by numerous other cities, including Berkeley, Emeryville, Santa Clara and San Clemente. Each had its own individual spin, with some cities only asking high school students to participate. Emeryville reinterpreted

classic street signs to create its utility box art program, named “Sign of the Times.”

Community members who want to know more about the background of each of the San Luis Obispo artists who painted the boxes, or simply the locations of all the utility boxes, can go online to the city of San Luis Obispo’s Public Art webpage to download a map.

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Abortions come down to selfishness Ashley Pierce is a political science freshman and Mustang Daily conservative columnist: The other day my liberal friend posted another liberal Facebook post. He wrote: “What if the cure for cancer is trapped inside the mind of someone who can’t afford an education?” Well, then they can take out a loan like the rest of us or get a job to save up for an education, I thought, but let it go.

Later, my boyfriend commented on the same post, “What if the cure was trapped in the mind of an unborn baby?” That hadn’t even crossed my mind and it made me all the more frustrated with the abortion debate.

Conservatives are portrayed as evil by the left and the media for being pro-life: We want to take away women’s rights to their own bodies, we’re pushing religious beliefs on others, we’re encouraging the government to invade people’s privacy, etc.

But there is a time and place for government to intervene in personal lives, and that is when a crime takes place or

someone is harmed (I can sense all the eye rolls I’m causing already). Conservatives, and even some liberals, believe that life begins at conception and abortion is harming the life of the unborn baby.

The typical argument I hear from pro-choice advocates is that “a woman can do what she wants. It’s her body.” What constitutes one body? DNA. Every person on this planet has their own unique DNA code. None are the same.

That’s why on all those fancy crime shows, if the murderer leaves a strand of hair, skin fragment or nail fragment, their unique DNA code is found and they go to jail.

A women’s baby, on the other hand, does not have the same DNA. It’s an entirely different code. Yes, the baby is in the woman’s body, but it is not a part of it like her arm or leg.

It is a separate entity and a separate life. Yet Roe v. Wade still stands and abortion is still seen as a woman’s right.

MSNBC reported Friday that what could become one of the “strictest” abortion laws in the

country is being voted on in Arkansas. The law would ban abortions on women more than 12 weeks pregnant if a fetal heartbeat could be found.

That would be our country’s strictest abortion law? That’s it?

That’s three whole months into pregnancy. At three months, the baby’s ears are formed and their eyelids are developed, their fingers have been in existence for a couple of weeks and fingernails have begun to grow.

The baby can suck its thumb and even get the hiccups, but it’s not really alive yet, right?

We can still get rid of it, surely.

The thing I find so silly about my friend’s Facebook post is his obvious concern for the poor and their future. How sad, he thinks, that a poor student can’t afford college (even though there are options for him or her). He pictures all the potential wasted because the government won’t pay for them to go to school. Meanwhile, he is completely fine with the government paying for an innocent unborn baby losing his or her life before birth. Apparently, they lack all potential.

There is a loss of responsibility in today’s society. If you have sex (an act that is meant to cause pregnancy) and you get pregnant, you can just get rid of it. In reality, if you are choosing to engage in that activity, then you are choosing to risk getting pregnant.

Even with birth control, they all say 99.9 percent effective, so there’s still that known risk.

This generation thinks if something bad happens because of their actions, they can just wave it away. A human life cannot be waved away — actions have consequences. If someone can’t take care of the baby, then adoption should be an option.

As for women who have the

horrible misfortune of being raped, my heart goes out to them as I could not even imagine the amount of pain and suffering they endure, and heaven forbid a pregnancy follows. While I do not think two wrongs make a right, I don’t know where I stand on this issue. With cases of rape, states should be able to decide on their own if it’s legal.

I sympathize with those who get pregnant in their teens, in poverty and in any unwelcome circumstance — and I certainly don’t think that people who have abortions are evil people. Innocent blood, however, shouldn’t be shed for their mistakes.

It’s selfish. Abortion is, in essence, an act of selfishness.

Are you serious, Washington?

How the blame game turned hypothetical sequester cuts into realistic option DOYLE MCMANUS

Los Angeles Times

The sequester, those $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to hit the federal government on March 1, was designed to be stupid.

In 2011, when President Obama proposed the scheme and both parties in Congress embraced it, their thinking was: With a whole year to work on a deal, surely we can figure out a way to avoid a catastrophe.

What Washington did they think they were living in?

With no negotiations under way, it’s virtually certain that on March 1, a long list of federal programs will get slashed. But at this point, the only thing Democrats and Republicans agree on is that the mandatory cuts will hurt the economy, the nation’s security and the well-being of the American people.

So why has there been no serious negotiation to avoid the train wreck we all see coming? One reason is that both sides think the public will side with them and blame the other party.

Obama and the Democrats think they can win the public relations battle because Americans are already on their side. A Pew Research Center poll released last week, for example, found that a big majority of Americans, 76 percent, agree with Obama’s approach of combining spending cuts with tax increases; only 19 percent agree with the Republican position that tax increases should be off the table.

But Republicans think it won’t be hard to turn the public against Obama, since he was the one who proposed the sequester in the first place (never mind that they approved the plan).

They’ll also insist that the administration is deliberately making the cuts more painful than they need to be.

Some in the GOP have even proposed

FRESHMEN continued from page 8

nature of what’s going on in college basketball now. With so much travel ball now, you’re seeing freshmen that are playing like 22-year-old or 23-yearold men because they’re more experienced and more poised.”

That poise has resonated not only with the coaching staff, but with fellow players as well. They’ve admitted that Bennett, Awich and Gordon have all done their part to fill the void left by last year’s senior class.

Junior guard Jamal Johnson said he thinks they will be key components to the team’s quest for a first-ever

giving Obama more discretion over where to slash, so he can’t complain that his hands are tied.

Both sides have a point. Most Americans do want to cut federal spending in general. But when it comes to individual programs, they want to protect them.

The Pew poll found that a majority favored cuts in only one area: foreign aid.

Most respondents didn’t want cuts in education, healthcare, unemployment benefits or defense.

That’s why the administration has offered deliberately dramatic forecasts of what spending cuts could mean, from canceled military operations and reduced Border Patrol surveillance to fewer AIDS tests, fewer children in Head Start and even potential meat shortages (because of reduced meat inspections).

And seemingly minor cutbacks can have outsized political impact. When Republicans in Congress shut down the federal government in 1995, the public reacted harshly once vacationers discovered that Yosemite and other national parks were closed. This time, the most painful cut for many people may be at the nation’s airports: If the sequester continues past April 1, the Transportation Security Administration says it will have to cut the number of screeners on duty — meaning waits of an hour or more for passengers. That won’t be pretty.

Still, Republicans hope that by challenging Democrats to come up with spending cuts to match those mandated by the sequester, they can portray their opponents as big spenders unwilling to attack the federal deficit.

“Most people agree (with Republicans) that the deficit is one of the reasons the economy can’t get back on track,” said David Winston, a GOP pollster who advises House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “So let’s get to work

Big West Conference title.

“We saw what Brian was capable of doing, Joel did very well at (UC Santa Barbara) and Zach Gordon emerging late in the season proves to me and everyone else that they’re capable of stepping up and that they show the consistency,” Johnson said.

But at the end of the day the fact that Bennett, Awich and Gordon are all freshmen getting valuable playing time in their first season of college basketball pales in comparison to the experience that they’ve recieved off the court, Bennett said.

“We’re really like a family,” he said. “Not just with me, Zach and Joel, but with the entire team.”

cutting the deficit. And then we can ask a second question: Do you really want your taxes to go up?”

In short, Republicans think they can turn the sequester into a teachable moment that will draw public opinion to their side. But they face some obvious problems. Most of the public doesn’t agree with them yet.

The White House has been energetic in pressing its case, using a week when Congress was out of town to stage events, including one that surrounded the president with photogenic law enforcement officers. And while Obama is talking to the country, the GOP has so far been talking mostly to the party faithful, making small-bore arguments about who proposed the sequester in the first place.

In the end, there will be some kind of compromise, probably around March 27, when Congress has to pass a law to keep the government operating for the rest of the year. It will probably include spending cuts that approach what the sequester demands, but with more flexibility — and, if Democrats have their way, a longer delay before the cuts kick in.

Tax increases will be a sticking point, of course. Democrats want them; Republicans reject them. But the recent history of budget showdowns suggests the GOP will compromise at the last minute.

But even if we already know roughly how the standoff will end, it’s hard to see how we’ll get there from here.

Neither side knows how to defuse the crisis before it happens; neither wants to be the first to offer concessions.

“Every time I’ve gotten into one of these high-profile negotiations, you know, it’s my rear end that got burnt,” Boehner told the Associated Press this month. That’s about as perfect a description of political dysfunction as you could want.

MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

The Transportation Security Administration predicts a series of cuts set to take effect in March would increase airport waiting times by as much as one hour because of staffing reductions. Congress can still avoid the cuts, but no deal appears to be moving forward.

NHA HA/MUSTANG DAILY

Center Brian Bennett averages 9.9 points per game while starting all 25 contests this season.

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

BASKETBALL CENTERS ON YOUTH Awich, Bennett and Gordon make impact as freshmen

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NHA HA

STEPHAN TEODOSESCU

steodosescu@mustangdaily.net

Having graduated six seniors, including one of the program’s top scorers in David Hanson and former big man Will Taylor, questions swelled around the Cal Poly men’s basketball team as to who would replace that talent in the post this season.

But instead of a single answer, the team got three.

Enter true freshmen Brian Bennett, Zach Gordon and redshirt freshman Joel Awich, the young bigs who have occupied the paint for the Mustangs since game one this season.

With Hanson, the program’s eighth all-time leading scorer, and Taylor, a junior college transfer who spent just two years with the Mustangs, Cal Poly lost two forwards who started nearly every game last season.

But in an opening game loss

SUDOKU ANSWERS

to TCU on Nov. 9 this season, the freshmen showed the former stars would not be missed. Bennett notched a team-high 10 points in 26 minutes of play — in his first ever collegiate game — and Gordon added seven points in his first 12 minutes of NCAA basketball, while Awich finished with two minutes of action against the Horned Frogs.

“Last year, we had six seniors,” head coach Joe Callero said. “You’re never going to replace guys because everyone has a different personality, everybody has a different skill set, different size or athleticism.

You don’t want them to replace somebody, you want them to become their own person.”

All three have forged those unique identities so far this season, according to Callero.

Bennett, with his 6-foot-9, 240-pound frame has stepped up as a traditional center for Cal Poly. After all, he is the biggest player on the Mustangs’ roster.

Recruited out of Plainfield East High School in Romeoville, Ill., Bennett led his team to the Class 4A East Aurora Sectional semifinals in his senior year before heading west to San Luis Obispo where he now leads Cal Poly in shooting percentage (54.5 percent), while averaging almost 10 points per game.

“It’s a great feeling to get your name called out,” Bennett said.

“But at the end of the day, I just wanted to come to (Cal Poly) to contribute. If that meant coming off the bench, then I’d be coming off the bench. I just want to help my team win.”

While Bennett has proved to be one of Callero’s top recruits in the coach’s four-year tenure, his spot on the team wasn’t always guaranteed.

After a recruiting visit and a recommendation from the coach in his junior year of high school, Bennett lost 50 pounds to prepare for the rigors of college basketball.

“We said, ‘It’s your scholarship for now, but we’re gonna continue to recruit other post players,’” Callero said. “But he really wanted to be a part of the team his freshman year. Brian has really stepped into that role.”

Neither Awich nor Gordon followed the traditional path of recruitment to Cal Poly like Bennett did.

Awich was unrecruited out of high school, but a Las Vegas tournament showcased his talents to the Cal Poly coaching staff and Callero offered the lanky freshman out of Maplewood, Minn., a spot on the team in the summer following his senior year.

Gordon was a similar situation in that he was taken off the

recruiting radar late in his high school career. After suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his senior year, potential scholarship offers from schools such as Gonzaga, California and Oregon evaporated for the Everett, Wash. native.

But Callero recognized the 6-foot-8 forward’s potential and offered him an immediate starting role after a stellar senior season at Archbishop Murphy High School.

“Once Cal Poly kept sticking with me (through the injury), and I got to come down here on an unofficial visit to see the guys and play with them, I got the scholarship and immediately started to work my butt off just to play,” Gordon said.

A need for the three young post players was highlighted most evidently when Cal Poly lost its leading scorer, junior forward Chris Eversley, to an ankle injury in a Feb. 9 game against UC Davis. Without its top player, the team called on its young guns to help avenge a loss to rival UC Santa Barbara earlier in the season.

With the help of a career-high eight points from Awich, who led the team in minutes played in that 67-49 win on Feb. 16 against the Gauchos, Cal Poly ended a six-game losing streak to UC Santa Barbara, dating back to 2010. “(Eversley’s injury) impacted Joel the most,” Callero said.

“Joel got himself a starting spot

against (UC Santa Barbara) in a highly intense and emotional game. I thought he stepped up to an A-plus level. He had the energy, he had the athleticism and he had the comfort to perform at a high level.”

Despite the labels that call them freshmen, Bennett, Gordon and Awich have had considerable experience on the hardwood before developing in Callero’s system.

“I’ve always thought that programs are always best when you recruit freshman and have them in your program and even redshirt somebody during the course of their development,” Callero said. “It’s kind of the see FRESHMEN, pg. 6

IAN BILLINGS/MUSTANG DAILY

Redshirt freshman Joel Awich is averaging 2.9 points per game, but leads the team with 10 blocks. In his first collegiate start against UC Santa Barbara, he notched eight points.