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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5 CEDAR FALLS, IA Student bill of rights 2 Biogenetic racism 4 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
VOLUME 115, ISSUE 21 Preview: PMB Live 5 Wrestling at Iowa State 6
First district candidates sound off TONI FORTMANN Staff Writer
The competition continues between representative Rod Blum (R) and Abby Finkenauer (D), as the Iowa midterm election soon approaches. Blum, 63, is a Republican running for a third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Iowa’s first district, after winning the midterm elections in 2014 and 2016. Blum is an Iowa native, residing in his hometown of Dubuque, Iowa, with his wife Karen and their five children. Finkenauer, 29, is a Democrat currently running for her first term in Congress. She has previously served as the State Representative for the 99th district of Iowa since 2015. Finkenauer is an Iowa native from Sherrill, Iowa. Both Blum and Finkenauer were born and raised in eastern Iowa, with hometowns just fifteen minutes apart. Health Care Blum favors the full repealing of the Patient Protection
JOEL WAUTERS/Northern Iowan
On Nov. 6, voters will head to the polls to elect a representitive for Iowa’s first congressional district in the U.S. House of Representives.
and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Finkenauer favors the Affordable Care Act and wants to fight for achieving universal health care coverage and lowering the cost of health care across the board. Environment Blum opposes federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and is skeptical when it comes to humans’ impact on climate change. Finkenauer said she will
support clean energy jobs and common sense air and water policies. She said she will work to preserve Iowa’s climate for farming communities Abortion Blum opposes abortion and has voted to defund Planned Parenthood. He also supported the anti-abortion organization known as the Center for Medical Progress in the investigation of Planned Parenthood for
allegedly selling fetal tissue. Finkenauer believes a woman’s health is an issue considered by herself, her doctor, and her family. She believes in a woman’s right to choose and the right to have access to birth control. Immigration Blum supported President Donald Trump’s first 2017 executive order, which temporarily curtailed immigration from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen until better screening methods are devised. Blum had stated that “... The bottom line is they can’t properly vet people coming from war-torn areas like Syria and Iraq. If we can’t vet people properly, then we shouldn’t be allowing them into our country. I’m supportive of that.” Finkenauer believes that our current immigration system is broken and is failing our country, our state, and the people of eastern Iowa. On her website, she states that, if elected, she will work for bipartisan immigration reform. As voting opens Nov.
6, students gathered their thoughts on who they’re siding with. “I don’t identify with either political party that’s why I registered as an Independent, but I look at what each candidate thinks as opposed to what political party they run for,” said Helen Beier, psychology major. “So, I vote for the candidate I agree with the most.” For sophomore finance major Nicholas Schindler, that’s Rod Blum. “I support Rod Blum over Abby Finkenauer because he is fighting for our tax cuts, he fought to repeal Obamacare and he’s fighting for the unborn,” Schindler said. Wilson McNaughton, a freshman chemistry major, emphasized the importance of voting. “If you don’t vote, you’re basically as good as what you criticize,” McNaughton said. “There’s no point in not voting.” Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on election day.
Observatory show reaches for the stars ALLISON MAZZARELLA Staff Writer
Rain or shine, every Thursday evening at 9 p.m., the observatory dome atop McCollum Science Hall opens for its weekly show. Siobahn Morgan, head of the earth and environmental sciences department, facilitates the observatory show each week. During the fall semester, shows begin around the first week of September. The shows attracts UNI students, high schoolers, Hawkeye students and community members. Morgan noted the show was free. “Don’t necessarily correlate that with the quality of the show,” Morgan said. “The quality of the show is amazing – it’s priceless.” The observatory show dates back to around the 1980s, according to Morgan. M.B. Smith, who pursued astronomy as a hobby, donated the first telescope. Twenty years ago, it was replaced with the currently used Meade telescope.
“It’s a combination of optical properties,” Morgan said, describing the telescope. “Most people think it’s a reflecting telescope because it has a large mirror in the back, but technically it’s a refracting and reflecting put together.” In order to prepare for the show, Morgan and Logan Winford, a physics and earth science major doing research with Morgan, are always the first on the roof. Red Christmas lights illuminated a wooden walkway leading to the dome. Fans hummed loudly on the roof as Morgan and Winford worked together in the dark, their voices bouncing around the dome. A slat in the dome slid open like a garage door to reveal the cloudy night sky. The Meade telescope is computer-controlled. “Its internal sensors know the angle and direction it’s pointing at and then correlate that with how the sky would move over the course of the evening,” Morgan said.
GABRIELLE LEITNER/Northern Iowan
“Once it knows where it’s looking, it will then be able to find anything else in the sky over the course of the evening.” The telescope’s computer keeps track of where each planet is and where the stars are located. “[The telescope is] pretty good. I like not having to think,” Morgan laughed. “After you find the first star, you can just tell it what to
do. You can just say, ‘Go to Mars, go to the moon, go to this, go to that.’” A group of around 15 people turned up for the show on Nov 1. Despite the overcast sky, Winford spent the first part of the show orienting the crowd to the constellations that could be seen in the sky had it been a clear evening. Afterward, students crowded into the dome.
Instead of gazing at stars or planets, Morgan had students peer through the lens at several signs along University Avenue before explaining how the telescope worked and discussing the image that appeared through the lens, which had become flipped and reversed. Observatory shows continue through the week before Thanksgiving break and will resume after spring break.