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The Daily Illini
Friday September 28, 2012
High: 71˚ Low: 46˚
www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
Vol. 142 Issue 25
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13th District race takes aim at student vote Close outcome expected in race for crucial swing district BY DANNY WICENTOWSKI WEBSITE EDITOR
With the primary season and party conventions over, most of the country is fi xated on the upcoming presidential debates. But here in Illinois’ 13th District, the congressional election is gaining recognition as one of the critical swing districts in the battle for Congress. “This election touches every element of people’s lives,” said Democratic candidate David Gill , a Bloomington physician who has run, and lost, for Congress twice. “People pay attention to the presidential election, but we’ve really seen, especially these last two years, that it doesn’t matter who the president is if he doesn’t have a Congress that is going to work with him.” The current 13th District has only existed since 2011, when its borders were drawn by a Democratic-run Illinois General Assembly. However, while what was the old 15th District awarded a two-point victory to John McCain in 2008, Gill said the new 13th now has a 1- to 3-percent Democratic tilt. “Twenty to 30 districts around the country are going to decide who’s going to be the majority in the House,” Gill said. Adding to the competitive nature of the election is the fact that Gill barely won his own party’s nomination, defeating his primary opponent Matt Goetten by a mere 163 votes out of about 31,000. The razor-thin margins of
this election have prompted both parties to pump funds into the campaigns. And in a district that contains tens of thousands of college students across four major state universities, both Gill and Republican candidate Rodney Davis have a vested interest in capturing the college vote. The two, along with independent John Hartman , will debate at the WILL-TV Studio, 300 N. Goodwin, at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 , with live video streaming available on will.illinois.edu. Recently endorsed by former Gov. Jim Edgar, Davis said “there’s a lot at stake in this election for students in the 13th Dist r ict,” add ing that many graduates over 25 are underemployed and working only part-time jobs. “Uncertainty from Washing- DAVID GILL ton is stifl ing job growth, so we must take action, such as extending the cur rent tax rates, to enable our businesses to feel comfortable to expand RODNEY DAVIS and hire once again, providing much-needed jobs to our college graduates,” he said. Gill, an alumnus of the University’s medical school, contends that the most pressing issues for college students are rising tuition and debt. With a Democratic-led Congress, he said, Obama will fi nally be able to make good on all his promises to help students. “I look forward to going to Washington and working with (the president) to put legislation through that makes higher
See DISTRICT 13, Page 3A
High poverty levels in Champaign Co. tax local women’s shelter BY MATT RICE STAFF WRITER
Poverty is on the rise in Champaign County, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data . The annual American Community Survey, released last week, estimated that 24.9 percent of Champaign County and 33 percent of the Champaign City township live under the federally designated poverty threshold per household . These numbers are signifi cantly higher than the 15 percent rate for Illinois and the 15.9 percent rate for the country as a whole. Including students in the census calculations partly accounts for the high rates, said Elizabeth Powers, professor of economics. “Since students are temporarily low-income with good
reason, they don’t think of themselves as poor, but they show up in the official statistics as poor households,” she said. Cynthia Hulsizer, interim director of the Center for Women in Transition , sees the effect of higher poverty rates through her work with the poverty-stricken. “One of the things we’ve seen is that the number of people staying on the waiting list is going down,” she said. “Rooms are always full. People are dropping off because the wait is so long. People are really falling back on Plan C and fi nding alternate living situations.” The CWT provides shelter to women and children who com-
MICHAEL BOJDA THE DAILY ILLINI
Tom Peled, the founder of Bike For the Fight, rides around the Quad on Thursday afternoon. Peled has already logged 2,300 miles since starting his crosscountry journey Aug. 1 in Los Angeles.
Bikers cross US to raise money for cancer On cross-country journey, founder of Bike For the Fight stops to speak at Illini Hillel BY CORINNE RUFF STAFF WRITER
After his father died of a rare form of cancer a few years ago, Tom Peled said he was stuck in a rut. “I felt I needed to take a personal challenge, physical challenge, mental challenge in order to get out of where I was,” he said. “So for three months, I biked by myself across Europe on a 3,000-mile journey. Every day was a new adventure.” After that journey, Peled was inspired to create Bike For the Fight, an organization that fundraises for the Israel Cancer Research Fund, a nonprofit that gives grants to Israeli scientists to work on innovative cancer-fighting technology. To further awareness for the New York-based firm, he decided to bike across America with his team. Over the past three months, Peled has biked 2,300 miles from Los Angeles to Chicago, but before continuing to his final destination in New York, Peled visited Champaign to speak to students about his organization Thursday. Peled’s team consists of four people: himself; Roey Peleg, fellow biker; Luca Seres, videographer and social-media coordinator; and Eran Rozen, manager. So far, the group has raised $70,000 for the fund. Seres said two of the scientists working for the fund are Nobel Prize winners and have already developed cancer-fighting drugs.
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A Nobel Peace Prize nominee visited campus Thursday to give a lecture on migration and human rights in Russia. Lidia Grafova, journalist and chairwoman of the Forum of Migration Organizations, said these issues are main concerns for nongovernmenal organizations in her country. On Thursday, leading NGOs in Russia defied a law by Russian Parliament that requires NGOs to register as “spies” or “foreign agents” if they are receiving funding from abroad. “I am shamed by the insane actions of our authorities,” Grafova said. About 40 University students
ROCHELLE WILSON THE DAILY ILLINI
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See BIKE FOR THE FIGHT, Page 3A
STAFF WRITER
Russian journalist Lidia Grafova, left, speaks to students and faculty on migration and human rights in the Russian Federation with the help of translator Richard Tempest at Gregory Hall on Thursday.
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The event was sponsored primarily by Israel Illini and Illini 4000. The event began with a ride looping around the Quad several times and was followed by the presentation at the Illini Hillel about Peled’s journey.
BY STEVEN VAZQUEZ
See CENSUS, Page 3A
ELIZABETH POWERS, professor of economics
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After riding in Chicago early Thursday morning, the group drove to Illini Hillel in Champaign to share its cause with students. “This morning, we were riding in Chicago on Lakeshore Drive by the huge wheel, and now we are riding with you,” Peleg said. “This is insane.”
Russian journalist holds lecture on human rights
“Since students are temporarily low-income with good reason, they don’t think of themselves as poor, but they show up in the official statistics as poor households.”
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MICHAEL BOJDA THE DAILY ILLINI
Tom Peled, the founder of Bike For the Fight, talks late Thursday afternoon at the Illini Hillel chapter about how the organization first started. Above him is a picture of his father, who died of cancer in 2011. Peled had already logged 2,300 miles since Aug. 1, before entering Champaign, a brief stop on his cross-country bike journey.
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and professionals attended the lecture, which she gave entirely in Russian and translated with the help of Richard Tempest, associate professor in Slavic languages and literature. The lecture was presented by the Russian, East European and Eurasian Center as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series. “Human rights and migration are certainly prominent issues in Russia,” said Alisha Kirchoff, associate director of REEEC. “It’s something we should all be aware of and something we could all learn more about.” Grafova, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2005 for her human rights work, spent most of
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See GRAFOVA, Page 3A
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