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Wednesday, October 5, 2011
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Volume 98 | Issue 24
Cloudy 85° / 61°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Obama campaign makes stop at Dallas college A LEX M ACON
Senior Staff Writer President Barack Obama addressed an enthusiastic crowd of about 500 students and faculty during a campaign stop at Eastfield Community College in Mesquite on Tuesday, promoting his proposed jobs bill and blasting Republican congressional leaders. Obama’s speech in the packed gymnasium concluded his brief visit to North Texas. Earlier in the day, Obama spoke at two fundraisers in Dallas to promote his 2012 presidential campaign. About 100 education majors were seated behind the president during his speech, and he was introduced by Kimberly Russell, a recently laid-off teacher. “Now this bill will prevent up to 280,000 teachers from losing
their jobs, and support almost 40,000 jobs right here in Texas,” Obama said. T he P resident wa s i n unabashed campaign mode, rallying the crowd and calling out Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by name. “I’d like Mr. Cantor to come out here to Dallas and explain what exactly in this jobs bill does he not believe in,” Obama said. “Mr. Cantor should come out to Dallas and look Kim Russell in the eye and tell her why she doesn’t deserve to be back in the classroom.” Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign released a short video “welcoming” Obama to North Texas. The video disparaged the president’s 2009 stimulus plan and provided Perry’s core principles to create jobs: lower taxes,
less government spending and regulation and reforms of the legal system to “prevent frivolous lawsuits.” The American Jobs Act, the $447 billion bill Obama proposed on Sept. 7, includes provisions for temporary stimulus spending, new job training programs, unemployment insurance and higher taxes for the wealthy, according to the White House’s website. Congressional Republicans have said they would not pass the bill into law. “We’ve had folks in Congress who said we shouldn’t pass this bill because it would give me a win,” Obama said during his speech. “Give me a win? Give me a break.”
See OBAMA on Page 2
PHOTO COURTESY OF ELIZABETH WEBB/THE ET CETERA
President Barack Obama speaks about his proposed American Jobs Act at Eastfield Community College in Mesquite on Tuesday.
Texas outsources fund management AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ outsourcing of the management of more than $1 billion in federal disaster recovery funds to an engineering firm has raised concern from federal officials. T he Au st i n A mer ic a nStatesman reports that the firm, Kansas City, Mo.-based HNTB, which the state has so far paid $45 million to process infrastructure grants for communities damaged by Hurricanes Dolly and Ike, has close ties to Gov. Rick Perry’s administration. Three years after the storms, only 20 percent of the first round of money released to Texas to aid disaster recovery grants has been spent. Federal officials say at least half those projects should have been completed by now based on the state’s original timeline. We ek s a go, t he Te x a s General Land Office cancelled HNTB’s contract, which had increased from $69 million to $144 million as the firm a s su me d more re spon si-
bility for disaster grants. But the company still runs the infrastructure program on a temporary basis at its Austin offices. Trying to get the program back on track, officials with the U.S. Department of Housing a nd Urba n De velopment started quarterly reviews. HUD warned in June that the rate of spending on administrative expenses, which as of Aug. 31 totaled 92 percent of what’s been budgeted, could jeopardize the processing of construction projects in the second round of funding. To help Texans recover from hurricanes that struck the Gulf in 2008, Congress appropriated $3.1 billion. Fift y-f ive percent of t he money, or $1.7 billion, is for housing, and 45 percent, or $1.4 billion, is for nonhousing projects including everything from emergency generators to new water and sewage treatment facilities.
See DISASTER on Page 2
Site helps students find off-campus housing NICOLE BALDERAS Senior Staff Writer
PHOTO BY MELISSA S. MAYER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior Brian Clancy studies jazz studies at UNT. He is creating his first CD with his band, The Brian Clancy Quartet, which includes a pianist, a bassist and a drummer.
Musician raises cash for new venture
PABLO A RAUZ Staff Writer
By releasing a solo album, Brian Clancy, a jazz studies senior and former saxophonist in the One O’Clock Lab Band, hopes to take his career as a performer to the next level. He hasn’t signed a fancy record
deal, and it’s unlikely he’ll have the pocketbook of a big-time producer. Clancy is in the process of releasing a solo album of original and prearranged pieces, but he’s trying to raise $4,000 to fund his project for the mastering, recording
process, liner notes and album artwork. So far, he has raised about $3,000 for the project on a website called kickstarter. com, a funding platform for artists trying to raise funds for creative projects. “Making it as a jazz musician is not the way that it used to be,
and this is just one aspect of it. To really make a living you have to do it all, including teaching, playing gigs, as well as the area where you are being the most creative and playing original music,” he said.
See CLANCY on Page 2
campus and nontraditional student services. “I think it’s a great asset to have if they call and say, ‘I need a place to live.’” The website is free for UNT students, who are welcome to call the Student Activities Of f ice for help, but Smit h said there is usually enough information on the website for students to find what they need. Because of this, Smith said h i s c om mu n ic at ion w it h Off-Campus Housing 101 is minimal. T h roug h t he website, students are able to not only post apartments they would like to rent out, but they can also create a profile or search profiles on the site’s roommate f inder, which uses a matching system to find suitable roommates.
T h roug h its of f-ca mpus hou si ng website, U N T i s trying to simplify the process of apa r t ment, hou se a nd roommate hunting. U N T i s on e of m a n y universities t hat belong to t he Of f-Ca mpu s Hou si ng 101 net work . Of f-Ca mpus Housing 101 is a third-party company that assists colleges and universities by managing a university-branded website w here proper t y ma na gement companies, apartment management, private landlords and students can list properties for rent. “I t h i n k a ny t i me you h a v e a c e nt r a l lo c a t ion where st udents ca n come and look at apartments and find roommates, it can be a one-stop shop for students,” said Dantrayl Smith, student activities coordinator for off- See APARTMENTS on Page 2
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