VOL. 109 No. 11
A new normal college experience
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017
NTDAILY.COM
A speaker presents at the bimonthly city council meeting on Tuesday, April 4. A new board will be elected May 6. Keeley G. Briggs, far right, is the only current member running for re-election. Samantha Hardisty
Rep. Lynn Stucky’s drafted bills focus on Denton
By Kyle Martin He starts to see customers file in, sporadically, around 11 p.m. Most nights, he listens to sitcoms in his headphones to pass the time. Tonight, he’s got “Seinfeld” on his mind. Because he works the cash register from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. six nights a week at two different gas stations in Denton, regular customers walk or stumble through the storefront and remember his face, just as he remembers theirs. They’re here to buy sugary and salty snacks, energy drinks or beer before midnight. Most commonly at this time of night, people buy cigarettes, and now he just does the math in his head, having memorized most of their prices. This particular international graduate student’s identity, now to be referenced as The Student, is kept anonymous in this story because he attends the University of North Texas on a F-1 Student Visa, and on scholarship. The Student’s wife and child live with him under F-1 Dependent visas, immigrated from their home country in Southeast Asia to Texas so that he may pursue a graduate degree. With the degree, he hopes to provide a better future for his family — better than anything that was there for them in their home country. “If someone finds out, they will deport me. Definitely,” he said. He is here in the U.S. on an F-1 Student Visa and by law is not legally allowed to work outside of his campus employment. However, with a wife and a five-year-old son to provide for, he and his family cannot afford school and living expenses for their one bedroom, 750-square-feet apartment on just what he makes from the university working for $22 an hour for 20 hours a week on campus. On top of school and his campus job, he averages around 50 hours a week as a cashier for the two different gas stations in Denton. “I didn’t want to go [to America] without [my family],” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.” Because of his odd schedule, he said he only gets to see his family for about 10 hours a week, sometimes less. “Take a job, that’s the only plan,” he said. “Nothing else. Yesterday I spoke with someone, a customer at the other store. He comes there all the time. His step-father has a
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By Julia Falcon
A guide to May’s Denton city council election By Julia Falcon With Spring in full swing and the city council election only a month away, candidates are preparing for the home stretch of their respective races. On May 6, residents will vote to re-elect certain candidates or pick from a number of local names. With applications closed since Feb. 17, Keely Briggs of District 2 will begin her second term in her position after the election. But others face tougher battles. The last day to register to vote is tomorrow, April 6. Here is a guide of the candidates for Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4:
District 1 Frances Hawes, Gerard Hudspeth and Emily White are running for District 1, which opened up after Kevin Roden finished his third and last term. He was first elected in May 2011 and cannot run again. Transparency, an ethics ordinance and infrastructure are the main things Hudspeth plans to fix if elected. “We are guaranteed three new council members,” Hudspeth said. “It will be very important for someone to step in those roles. It will be very important to have someone to understand those seats, I think my time in the planning and zoning committee has helped me
SEE ELECTIONS ON PAGE 2
SEE STUCKY ON PAGE 4
Balancing tacos and music with break ins and renovations By Nina Quatrino From an outside perspective, the restaurant looks like an average, residential house and can easily be mistaken for one. But if you happen to stop by on a Monday morning during lunch hour, or a loud Friday night, you’ll never think twice about the little white house on the corner. Nestled in the residential area of Scripture and Bryan Street sits Killer’s Tacos, a local taco joint by day and live music venue by night – very fitting for the city that is commonly referred to as a “mini-Austin.” Having just recently celebrated their one year anniversary, Killer’s Tacos prides itself on serving the Denton community with fresh fish, lean chicken and crazy combination street tacos while
also representing themselves as one of the few music venues left around Denton. Many of the Denton locals who visit Killer’s Tacos come specifically for the food. The menu is all original creations by owner Jeff Seley, who said everything has his own slant to them. “I put things on tacos that I like, like BBQ and bacon,” Jeff said. “The meats are very lean. We use white chicken breast – it cost more but it’s better for you. We use fresh fish, fresh vegetables and cheese.” This unique combination of this Americana-Mexican inspired cuisine is the product of the Seley family, a father and son duo. Jeff says that he and his son, Joseph “Joey” Seley,
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NEWS
Domestic violence pg 3 There have been 126 charges of domestic disturbances reported to the Denton Police Department in the first months of 2017.
Killer’s Taco owner Jeff Seley and his son Joey Seley, 21, stand in front of the menu of custom tacos. Jeff says he wouldn’t have started the business without his son. Samantha Hardisty
UNT Sports clubs pushing through recruiting problems By Samantha Morrow
ARTS & LIFE Denton Community Market pg 5 The Denton Community Market is in its seventh year. The market has experienced growth over the years, now with 120 vendors.
SPORTS Mean Green spring football pg 9 UNT football players will compete against each other in the annual spring football game on Saturday.
OPINION The Future of the EPA pg 11 Columnist Gabriela Macias discusses Scott Pruitt as the head of the EPA and the agency’s potential future under his leadership.
understand some of these changes.” White, who received her bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from Texas Woman’s University and is now a professor at North Central Texas College, said she wants to be involved with the decision making. “I think that serving our city council will be the ultimate volunteer opportunity,” White said. “I teach rhetoric and argument, and I think it would be good for my students to see me living the political life that I talk to them about in class with being leaders in their community and being effective communicators.” Hawes, a caretaker who has lived in Denton
Since the Texas state legislature convened on the second Tuesday in January, the newly elected Texas House representative Dr. Lynn Stucky of District 64 has been busy authoring or co-authoring 15 bills. He was involved in drafting bills he said would “benefit Denton County,” like one aiming to count the number of middle school drop-outs in order to avoid further dropouts, another that will allow judges to carry firearms into a courtroom and one that will help along rapid development in Denton with a hotel occupancy bill aimed at promoting more tourism for the city. Stucky said he and his staff are working diligently on getting those bills to pass legislation and get it to the governor’s desk. He said the hotel occupancy tax bill will benefit the City of Denton for promoting more visitors to the fast-growing area. He said he’s making sure everyone involved is heard in order to perfect the language. His goal is to be transparent, effective and helpful for him to feel like it benefits district
Men’s and Women’s rugby team practice every Tuesdays and Thursdays evenings at Sports Recreation Complex, which is next to Library Annex Recreational Sports Equipment, 1001 Precision Drive in Denton. Koji Ushio
For NCA A sports at UNT, the recruiting process is one that is guaranteed. High school students across the nation are courted by various programs and some are offered scholarships as added incentive. But recruiting for club sports is an entirely different ballgame that presents an uphill battle every season. Unlike their school-sponsored counterparts, club sports push through the strain of bringing in new players year in and year out. They do not have the luxury of a list of athletes who are trying to play college sports or any added bonuses to entice players. Instead, clubs are forced to sit on their hands and wait, hoping students join their team. “An actual athletic team is allowed to hand out scholarships,” senior executive sports club council member Josh Fuller said. “They are allowed to go recruit in homes of high schoolers. We aren’t really allowed to do that.” One of the problems facing club sports and recruiting is simply finding players willing to suit up.
While most NCA A athletes have an idea of what sport they will play, students that rely on club sports are often undecided or unsure of what they will participate in. Clubs that are not traditional sports have an even larger strain recruiting than some of their well-known counterparts. “Bigger teams like hockey, lacrosse, rugby — a lot of people know we have those,” Fuller said. “But people may not know that we have these more niche teams like archery, sailing and powerlifting.” Most teams try combating this issue with information tables on campus during the Mean Green Fling or Sports Club Fair at the Pohl Recreational Center. The men’s lacrosse team has even taken an extra step to get the word out about their sport by adding a recruiting section to their website with a survey for prospective students to fill out. This helps the club gauge the interest of new students and a way to reach out to potential new players. “We can’t really help out a lot,” junior lacrosse
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