Thursday,September13,2012 // Issue3,Volume78 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
N E W S P A P E R
O F T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
H O U S T O N
UH Law helps immigrants Jessica Crawford News writer
On Aug. 15, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting requests from applicants interested in benefiting from deferred action under the Deferred Action Executive Policy. Pre s i d e n t Ba ra c k O b a m a announced the Deferred Action Executive Policy on June 15. The executive policy allows for people who immigrated to the U.S. as children to defer prosecutorial removal from the country, according to the USCIS.
In order to be considered, the applicant must meet certain criteria — including arrival in the U.S. prior to their 16th birthday and not posing a threat to the country. The University of Houston Law Center’s Immigration Clinic is helping students and members of the community utilize the new executive policy. “The Deferred Action Initiative was put together for our immigration clinic,” said Janet Heppard, associate professor of clinical practice at the UH Law Center. “It allows our LAW continues on page 3
S I N C E
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OPINION
Is enlisting the right choice? LIFE+ARTS Geoffrey Hoffman is a faculty supervising attorney at UH Law’s Immigration Clinic where illegal immigrants can take advantage of the new deferred action policy. | Nine Nguyen/The Daily Cougar
ELECTION 2012
Unanimous overturn of voter ID law Harrison Lee News writer
The proposed Texas Senate Bill 14, which would have required government-issued photo ID be presented at the election polls, was struck down Aug. 30 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. in a unanimous 3-0 decision. Judges David Tatel and Robert Wilkins, both former President Bill Clinton appointees, and Rosemary Collyer, appointed by former President George W. Bush, agreed that the law qualified as intentional discrimination against Hispanics and African Americans. “Unpersuasive, invalid or both,” read Tatel’s description of the defense and justification of the Texas voter ID law. According to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Texas is prohibited from
passing a voting law that in any way hinders the ability of minorities to vote. The court says this law does just that. “We find that Texas has failed to make this showing — in fact, record evidence demonstrates that if implemented, SB14 will likely have a retrogressive effect,” the court opinion said. Texas was one of several states that passed new and stringent voter ID laws in the wake of the 2008 and 2010 election cycles. Those states that currently require governmentissued photo IDs are Pennsylvania, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Kansas, according to the National Conference of State Legislature’s website. The bill was introduced January 2011, and the controversy was immediate, as the proposed law would disallow previously adequate
forms of ID, like student IDs. After numerous amendments, including one allowing gun permits to be suitable forms of identification, it was sent to Gov. Rick Perry on June 18 and signed into law on June 27. The basis of SB14, as voiced by proponents of the law, was to combat voter fraud. “Chalk up another victory for fraud,” said Perry in a statement. “Today, federal judges subverted the will of the people of Texas and undermined our effort to ensure fair and accurate elections.” As of September 2012, there have been 51 convictions for voter fraud in Texas in the past decade. Of those 51, only four have not been associated with voter impersonation, according to www.politifact. com. Additionally, about 60 percent are not classified specifically as convictions.
After the D.C. Court of Appeals ruling, Attorney General Gregory Abbott vowed publicly to appeal, but the actual assistant attorney general, who argued the case, issued no comments on the oral arguments or the opinion. “Today’s decision is wrong on the law and improperly prevents Texas from implementing the same type of ballot integrity safeguards that are employed by Georgia and Indiana — and were upheld by the Supreme Court,” Abbott said in a statement. It is unknown if the U.S. Supreme Court will even hear the case in particular. Assistant attorney general for the Allegany County State’s Attorney’s Office, John Hughes, declined to comment. news@thedailycougar.com
RESEARCH
Researchers battle Parkison’s disease using mouse model Channler Hill News writer
Parkinson’s disease may prove to be no match for a team of UH researchers at the Center of Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling. CNRCS Director Jan-Åke Gustafsson and professor Margaret Warner, along with their team of researchers, have found a link between betasitosterol — present in many plants and good for preventing cholesterol
absorption from one’s diet — and ALS-Parkinson’s disease. This discovery may aid in the fight against Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s disease is a chronic progressive neurological disease linked to a decrease in dopamine. “If ALS-Parkinson’s patients do have a defect in LXRbeta signaling, they will benefit from pharmaceuticals which target signaling of this receptor.,” Warner said. In 1995, Gustafsson’s lab
discovered two novel nuclear receptors — one was LXRbeta. An efficient way to unmask the function of the newly discovered genes is to use gene technology to eliminate the hormone in mice and see what happens. “The receptor continues to show promise as a potential therapeutic target for this disease, as well as other neurological disorders,” Gustafsson said in a press release for HealthNewsDigest.com. “LXRbeta performs an important function in
the development of the central nervous system, and our work indicates that the presence of LXRbeta promotes the survival of dopaminergic neurons, which are the main source of dopamine in the central nervous system.” During World War II, ALS-Parkinson’s disease was prevalent in the Pacific Islands and Guam where there were a lot of cycad seeds, CNRCS continues on page 3
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
A look at the UH band SPORTS
Offense picks it up GET SOME DAILY
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ONLINE XTRA More details in the “UH Law helps immigrants” article
NEXT WEEK See our post-game coverage of UH vs. UCLA
COUNTDOWN
9
Days until the autumnal equinox. Houston fall fashion: a swimsuit.