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MISSOURIAN GOING COCONUTS OVER SPRING BREAK!
northwest missourian
THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2012 | V87 | N22
nwmissourinews.com
Palms celebrates all things Irish JACKI WOOD Missourian Reporter
FILE PHOTO | NW MISSOURIAN
Ella Bartkoski, Wr O’Riley and Zach Bartkoski carry a shamrock flag and an Irish flag in the Palms St. Patrick’s Day Parade last year on Buchanan.
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Alex Rash News Editor
Today people can send and receive information in a matter of seconds. News travels faster than it ever has before, and the world can thank social media for playing a big part in keeping everyone and everything connected. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube give individuals the capability to express themselves, to form a platform for their beliefs and share it with the world instantly. However, with every luxury comes regulations. “You can say anything you want, I truly believe that’s what First Amendment free speech means,” Jody Strauch, associate professor in the mass communications department, said. “You can say anything you want, you then have to be responsible though for what you say and that’s where the grey comes in.” There have been many attempts to censor the Internet, from the Communications Decency Act of 1996 to the recent SOPA/PIPA con-
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Appeals court scheduled to visit Northwest
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SEE HOCKEY | A8
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A new club on campus gets its start Thursday in its first game ever. The Northwest hockey club’s opening matchup starts at 8:30 p.m. in St. Joseph against the Fort Leavenworth men’s hockey club. Club President Ryan Culver founded the team last April and is ready and excited for the first game. “I think it will be a really competitive game,” Culver said. “It’s really just to gauge where we are talent-wise.” Culver said it was not easy to get the club started, and he became frustrated while getting things going. “It was really frustrating at times because hockey is a really intricate sport,” Culver said. “Not everybody can just go out and pick it up. Not everybody can skate, and it’s expensive. We had a few members that just didn’t want to stay around, but it’s getting better...It’s really exciting to see the club grow to where it is now, compared to what it was six months ago.”
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Cheif Reporter
SEE PARADE | A8
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DALTON VITT
gether to meet up and have a good time and sometimes share a beer with each other to catch up,” she said. Maryville resident and Northwest alumna Sadie Archer also first attended the parade as a student. “My friends used to follow the end of the parade,” Archer said. “They would march at the end, beers in hand, following the truck that cleaned the street with water.” Archer said she also enjoys attending the parade now as a way to kick-start a fun evening with friends.
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Hockey club searching for success
Eighty-seven feet. It may no longer hold a Guinness World Record, but there’s plenty of tradition in those 87 feet. For the past 25 years, The Palms Bar and Grill celebrated all things Irish during the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Maryville. “It was just something the patrons and the owner decided to do 25 years ago for fun,” Jamie Scott, manager at The Palms, said. “Everyone brings out their best St. Patrick’s Day gear and comes in to drink green beer.”
This year’s parade kicks off at 3:17 p.m. on Saturday, and since it falls on a weekend, Scott said they hope to attract more alumni and community members. One of those parade-goers includes Jamie Busby, a massage therapist in Maryville, who started attending the parade as a student at Northwest. “I went mostly for the friends and beer,” Busby said. “The atmosphere is crazy fun.” Busby said she still enjoys the tradition today and describes it as a great, big block party. “The students and the alumni and the community can all get to-
troversy, both of which were unsuccessful. The Internet, along with social media, remains a viable resource for the exchange of ideas. However, recent measures by the government to supervise social media content raises new questions of the limitations on freedom of speech. The Department of Homeland Security announced in February 2011 that they planned to implement a program that would monitor media content, including social media. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, which is a public interest center based in Washington, D.C., filed a Freedom of Information Act against the DHS to obtain documentation outlining the mediamonitoring program in December 2011. In January, the DHS disclosed the documents. Within the 285 pages of information, a few guidelines of the program stood out as questionable. One being that the DHS was to identify “media reports that reflect adversely
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“You can say anything you want, you then have to be responsible though for what you say and that’s where the grey comes in.” Alex Varney on the U.S. government, DHS, or prevent, protect, respond or recovery activities” and “capture public reaction to major governmental proposals with homeland security implications.” “The search terms that DHS has chosen to monitor sweep in vast amounts of First Amendment protected speech that is entirely unrelated to the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to
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SEE SPEECH | A8
Assistant News Editor
As Northwest students anxiously await the arrival of spring break, the pre-law and political science students on campus have an event to look forward to upon their return. On Monday, March 26, Northwest will serve as the honorary host to three judges from the state’s western district of the court of appeals. The panel includes Judge James Smart, Judge James Welsh and Missouri Supreme Court Judge Zel Fischer. They will hear four previously tried cases from area circuit courts that are being appealed on the basis of claimed trial errors. The hearings will take place starting at 1 p.m. in the J.W. Jones Student Union. This will be the third time in the past four years that the Missouri Court of Appeals will hold this event at the University. “It (hosting hearings) adds to the real-life experience on the college campus,” Fischer said. “Lots of people are not familiar with the appellate process and how it works, and to the extent that courts are depicted on TV, it is usually the trial not the appeal. This gives people some familiarity with how it works. It has some educational value.” SEE APPEALS | A8
‘Bearcat Cab’ encourages student involvement EMILY DEMAREA Chief Reporter
Students were reminded of a popular television show this week as “Bearcat Cab” took over campus. Some students have said “Bearcat Cab” was one of the more popular ARCH programs put on. Kimberly Mollenhour is one of the ARCH leaders who came up with the program and drove the golf cart around Monday. She agreed that the new activity was definitely a success. “It’s just acceptable for a lot more students to participate in,” Mollenhour said. “Instead of just being available to the Hudson and Perrin residents, it reached out to the entire campus.” The idea of “Bearcat Cab” was based off the Discovery show, “Cash Cab.” On the national program, people ride in a taxi and instantly become part of a game show. The taxi driver, who also hosts the show, drives the contestants to their destination while asking trivia questions along the way. The University personalized this game for students on campus Monday. ARCH leaders drove a golf cart around campus offering students rides to their SEE CAB | A8 classes. www.nwmissourinews.com
LORI FRANKENFIELD | NW MISSOURIAN
Carmika Sims is dropped off at her dorm and receives candy from ARCHs Vince Vos and Kimmie Mollenhour on Monday from the Cash Cart. Participants answered trivia questions about Northwest.
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