The Oklahoma Daily

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Sports, Page 7

Sooners beat Bears 49-17 A&E, Page 5

The Daily gets down and dirty with three actors from the road trip comedy THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA’S I NDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE

VOL. 93, NO. 33 FREE — Additional Copies 25¢

MONDAY, OCT. 6, 2008 © 2008 OU Publications Board

RED RIVER RIVALRY

5 DAYS TO GO UNTIL OU-TEXAS

Group plans to revitalize Porter Avenue • Porter was once home to the main commercial district in Norman JAMIE HUGHES Daily Staff Writer

ESPN Gameday at OU-Texas ESPN commentators will hype up the crowd outside the Cotton Bowl before Saturday’s Red River Rivalry game. ESPN announced Sunday it will broadcast College Gameday live from Dallas, starting at 11 a.m. central standard time.

Porter Avenue could undergo a major facelift in the next several years. The Porter Avenue Planners held open meetings last week at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church for input from the community on the current downtown section of the street.

Charlie Warnken, assistant professor of regional and city planning, said the group is trying to make the area a center of commerce again. “Historically, Porter was the main pipeline into Norman. It was the real heart of the commercial district,” he said. “It’s been in a stage of decline over the past 30 years. They want to revitalize it.” Goals determined by community residents include more defined sidewalks and crosswalks, safer traffic, a bike lane, a left turning lane and neighborhood markers. Options for heightening the area’s aesthetics include adding a roundabout with either a fountain or tall sculpture in the middle, archways and cultivating the existing Art Deco architecture in the area. “Everybody else that has Art Deco has found it and has celebrated it,” said Shannon Gordon, senior

project manager for Ocshner Hare and Hare, a planning consultant firm based in Kansas City, Mo., hired by the City of Norman to evaluate the area. Gordon said plans are in the initial stages. The proposal has not been presented to the City of Norman yet. But Gordon said it is crucial for plans to move forward to halt Porter’s decline. “If we don’t do anything, there’s a real problem on Porter,” he said. Curt Jennings, landscaping architecture graduate student, said he gained valuable experience by helping Ocshner Hare and Hare during the week. Jennings walked the area with associates from the planning group and helped take pictures of the area and identify points of interest for the redesign. “I was seeing the whole process,” he said. “From developing bus stops, to everything. It’s been great.”

CAMPUS BRIEFS

Racing team fuels careers

Air Force officer talks peace A retired Air Force officer will speak about what he calls the misuse of America’s military might at 7 p.m. today at St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church, 1801 W. Brooks St. ROBERT Lt. Col. Robert M. BOWMAN Bowman is a retired member of the U.S. Air Force, who flew more than 100 combat missions in Vietnam.

• Students gain real-world experience

OU rocks the vote today Graham Colton, Pictures of Then and former Senator Cal Hobson will be at a free Rock the Vote event at 6 p.m. today. The location has been changed from Walker-Adams Mall to the food court of Oklahoma Memorial Union.

JAMIE HUGHES Daily Staff Writer

M

Free screening of noodling film A screening of “Okie Noodling II,” a documentary about barehanded fishing in Oklahoma, shows at 7:30 p.m. in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Meacham Auditorium. The audience will have the chance to discuss the film with director and producer Brad Beesley after the screening. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit ou.edu/gaylord.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Yoga studios in Norman

Michelle Gray/The Daily

Better start stretching — it’s yoga time. A&E’s got the scoop on yoga studios offering different types of classes for those who want to live better and breathe easier. Page 6.

Kwame Cave, University College freshman, works on the Dyno machine, which measures engine horsepower, for the Sooner Racing Team's car, Saturday morning in the basement of Felgar Hall.

Log on to OUDaily.com for more of today’s A&E feature on yoga studios.

TODAY’S INDEX Opinion Photo Essay Police Reports Sports Sudoku World News

• OU ROTC groups and Patriot Guard Riders fly flags for slain soldiers

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WILL HOLLAND Daily Staff Writer

WEATHER FORECAST

TODAY LOW 61° HIGH 70°

TUESDAY LOW 55° HIGH 75° Amy Frost/The Daily Source: Oklahoma Weather Lab

RACING Continues on page 2

Veterans honor Norman soldier killed in Iraq helicopter crash

OUDAILY.COM

A&E 5-6 Campus News 3 Campus Notes 11 Classifieds 10 10 Crossword Horoscope 11

any students fetch coffee and run errands as interns to gain experience for their resumes, but members of the Sooner Racing Team actually build and race competition racecars. The team competes in Formula SAE, a student design competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers International. Students design, build and race a prototype race car from the ground up, and in return, receive feedback from specialists in the automotive industry. “We do all the design, manufacturing, assembly and fundraising,” said Dave Collins, captain of the Sooner Racing Team. “We do anything a professional racing team does.” Formula SAE is often a college requirement for those hoping to

work as designers or engineers at most major auto manufacturing companies, said Collins, mechanical engineering junior. “It’s a base requirement,” he said. “Team experience is vital. [Professionally] you work as a team all the time.” Honda is one company that won’t accept applications without team experience, he said. “It’s like applying for a job when the requirement is 35 and you’re 18,” Collins said. The team finalized its plans and began working on the car last week. For the next nine months, team members will give up their Saturday afternoons to work on the car and gain experience for the “real world.” “It definitely really prepares you for what’s out there,” said Bobby Alley, the team’s vice president and mechanical engineering senior. “The team encompasses everything.” He said students learn techniques and gain experience not found in a classroom. Collins said seeing plans come to life is the most rewarding part of the whole process. “Getting to see your ideas made

Members of the Patriot Guard Riders form a flag line in front of the CrossPointe Church Saturday in Norman. The members came to support the family of Oklahoma Army National Guard Sgt. Dan Eshbaugh of Norman, who died Sept. 18 in a helicopter crash in Iraq.

About 100 military veterans on motorcycles escorted the family of a Norman soldier killed in Iraq to his funeral Saturday morning in Norman. The Patriot Guard Riders came to the funeral of Oklahoma Army National Guard Sgt. Daniel Michael Eshbaugh, 43, of Norman, who was killed Sept. 18 in a helicopter crash in Iraq. The Patriot Guard Riders were founded in 2005, when a group of military veterans attended a soldier’s funeral in Chelsea. Many members of the group are military veterans who ride motorcycles, but it is not a requirement for members to be veterans or bikers. The Patriot Guard Riders is a national organization that attends the funeral services of American soldiers to support the soldiers, their families and their communities.

Dennis Patterson, 53, of For more photos Purcell, was one of the riders who attended the service. of the Patriot He said honoring soldiers who died while serving their Guard Riders, country is the sole mission of see Page 12 and the group. “That’s it. No other pur- OUDaily.com pose,” Patterson said. Before the funeral service began, a group of protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas stood near the CrossPointe Church on Highway 9 holding signs that read “pray for more dead soldiers” and waving upside-down American flags. According to Westboro’s Web site, the deaths of American soldiers are God’s way of punishing the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuality. The protesters were required by law to remain 500 feet away from the church. The riders revved their engines to drown out the sound of the protesters’ yelling. The protesters left before the service began. The patriot riders cheered their departure and yelled, “Mission accomplished.” “They’re insignificant,” Patterson said of the

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