Diverse pregnancy, reproductive health options available on campus PAGE 3A
THE DAILY ILLINI
MONDAY March 28, 2016
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
Vol. 145 Issue 82
Turn to PAGE 1B for full baseball coverage
City Council considers enacting five dollar penalty STAFF WRITER
The Urbana City Council is considering an ordinance that would reduce the fi ne for marijuana possession from $300 to $5. The proposition was made March 14 by Councilman Aaron Ammons, who fi rmly believes that the cost of a cannabis ticket is too high. “The fi ne for possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana should be reduced because it’s exorbitant and because the $300 fi ne causes an economic burden on poor people,” Ammons said in an email. “The fi ne for possession of cannabis paraphernalia should be lowered to less than the fi ne for cannabis possession.” For Ammons, the high levels of ticketing is specifically detrimental to racial minorities. A study by the Traffic
AUSTIN YATTONI THE DAILY ILLINI
Illinois starting pitcher Doug Hayes delivers a pitch during game one of the team's doubleheader against Penn State on Saturday. Hayes threw the first Illini one-hitter since 2007. The Illini won game one 6-1 and lost game two 5-3.
Strong student primary turnout Champaign County saw a 275 percent increase in student voter turnout with the new addition of sameday voter registration on campus.
275% increase in total student voting
150% increase voting in Champaign County
FREE
Stop Task Force showed the disproportionate number of African-Americans being ticketed in the city, and argued that the high fi ne unfairly impacts minorities. Ammons, co-founded the Champaign-Urbana advocacy group CU Citizens for Peace and Justice with his wife and Urbana State Representative Carol Ammons. The group primarily focuses on racial injustice and equality at the community level. He also implied that the current fee is so high because it helps the city of Urbana bring in additional revenue and is not designed to discourage marijuana use. “The Department of Justice just sent out a letter to all 50 states highlighting the fact that balancing budgets or intentionally using traffic and city ordinance violations to generate revenue was unconstitutional and could be considered a violation of one’s Civil Rights,” he said. However, the proposal was not unanimously praised by his fellow council members.
BY MICHAEL SEMACA
“Tuesday proved that same day registration is key to helping everyone in Champaign County vote, regardless if they wanted a Democratic or Republican ballot,” said Matt Duco, president of the Young Dems in a press release. In 2008, only 21 percent of students came out to vote. For this year’s primary, there was a 53 percent turnout rate. “Students and young people are often voting for the fi rst time in their lives and, as a result, need help with the process. I was very grateful for all the work put in by student organizations to get students registered and to inform them about the rules for grace period registration,” Duco said in the release. Of the around 7,000 votes that were
|
Drastic cut suggested for pot fine
Baseball wins first Big Ten series of the season
DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT
57˚ | 34˚
cast by students, 82 percent were in the Democratic primary and 18 percent were in the Republican primary. While the increase in turnout on campus was especially large, there was also a 150 percent increase in voter turnout for Champaign County from the 2008 presidential primary. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders received around 20,000 votes and Hillary Clinton earned about 10,000. In the Republican primary, the votes were more evenly spread across candidates. Ted Cruz received about 9,000 votes, Donald Trump earned about 7,000 votes and John Kasich received about 5,000 votes.
SEE MARIJUANA | 3A
MARIJUANA ARRESTS Illinois Urbana
news@dailyillini.com
600
ARREST RATE PER 100,000
500
400
18% of students voted Republican
82% of students voted Democratic
300
200
32% increase in student turnout rate
100
0
389 Illinois
256
590
141
USA
Chicago
Urbana
MICHELLE TAM THE DAILY ILLINI SOURCE: Institute of Metropolitan Affairs at Roosevelt University
SOURCE: Champaign County Young Democrats
New editor brings new coverage MASAKI SUGIMOTO Editor-in-Chief
As
everyone was on spring break and celebrating Easter with their families, The Daily Illini went through turnover. Turnover is when the DI’s leadership changes hands. I am taking over as editor-in-chief for the next year. My goal for The Daily Illini is to continue the coverage that keeps the student body informed. On top of that, I want expand the DI’s coverage so it better caters to groups who were potentially left out before. From minority communities to greekletter and international students, I will work diligently to ensure The Daily Illini covers issues that
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUSTIN BROOKS, C.O.O. OF CAST21
Model of the Cast21 prototype in Champaign, IL.
Student startup rethinks the cast BY LILLY MASHAYEK STAFF WRITER
A student project turned startup company completely reinvented the cast. The startup, Cast21, was formed by three University students who came up with the idea as a part of their senior design project in Fall 2015. Essentially, they wanted
to solve the common problems associated with the fi berglass cast, the most commonly used cast. “We wanted to design a better cast because personally, I’ve spent almost three years of my life in casts … I’ve experienced a lot of the problems that are commonly associated with casts,” said Jason Trout-
ner, senior in Engineering and chief technology offi cer of Cast21. “As engineers, we looked at the casts that are currently used. We looked at how they functioned and really thought that there’s a much better way to achieve the same purpose
SEE CAST | 3A
matter to everyone. Just as past years, the coming year will bring a lot happening on campus. A new chancellor will be named, Lovie Smith will be in his first season as head coach for Illini football and we will have a new president elected come November. Not to mention, there is always breaking news you can’t see coming, like this past year with Steven Salaita and Tim Beckman. I can guarantee you that The Daily Illini and I will be around for whatever campus brings us in the next year. We will be going through some changes in how news is brought to you. Already in the past year, we started printing only two days a week, launched a newsletter, and will be creating a new website in the coming months. We do all of this so the DI can better adapt to a
news industry that is rapidly turning digital. These changes will help us deliver the news to you more immediately and keep you as up-to-date as possible with everything going on around our campus. Of course I am not going to do this all alone. I have a great staff of editors and reporters who will be covering what’s important on campus. I have the utmost confidence in this group and guarantee you will be impressed by their work. I hope that the DI will cover what matters to you, in a fair, quick and informational manner. If you feel we aren’t, please let me know. I would love to hear from you. I am excited for this opportunity to serve you and the Illinois community with this great staff.
Masaki is a junior in Media msugimo2@dailyillini.com @MasakiSugimoto
OPINIONS
LIFE & CULTURE
SPORTS
Don’t set limitations
Dancing robotics
Atkins shutout
Students should not back away from travel opportunities in light of recent attacks
UI professor finds unlikely research connection between dance and robotics
Men’s tennis breaks Boilermakers winning streak.
PAGE 4A
PAGE 6A
PAGE 3B
DAILYILLINI, DAILYILLINISPORTS
INSIDE
Police
2A
|
Opinions
4A
|
Letters
4A
|
Crossword
5A
@THEDAILYILLINI
THEDAILYILLINI
@THEDAILYILLINI, @DI_OPINION, @DI_SPORTS |
Life
&
Culture
6A
|
Sports
1B
|
Classifieds
THEDAILYILLINI 3B
|
Sudoku
3B