The King of Threes Paul’s 35 points help defeat Gonzaga SPORTS, 1B
Wednesday December 12, 2012
The Daily Illini www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 142 Issue 73
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Officials urge police officers to live in city Council approves new contract, incentives BY MADDIE REHAYEM STAFF WRITER
Champaign officials are trying to create more of an incentive for police officers to live in the city. The city council unanimously approved a new police union labor contract at its last meeting, which included a $3,000
incentive for officers to live in the city. The contract, which will be in effect until June 2015, also promises pay raises and mandatory drug testing following any instance of an on-duty fi rearm discharge that results in injury or property damage. Deborah Frank Feinen, council member at-large, said the contract included some proposed changes from activist groups, which the city council and Fraternal Order of Police took into consideration.
Champaign Mayor Don Gerard said the residency incentive rejects the oldfashioned idea that police should not live in the towns in which they work. He said having officers live in the town where they work is a more positive approach to law enforcement in the community. “We certainly want to respect people’s rights to live where they want to live,” Gerard said. “But we thought it would be helpful to have police officers going to Little League games and par-
ticipating in schools within the community in which they’re enforcing the law.” The contract guarantees the $3,000 in moving expenses for police officers who choose to move into the city and stay for at least three years, according to the contract. “Living in the city, they (police offi cers) have more opportunities to interact with residents in off-duty ways,” Feinen said. Gerard said with staff turnover at
the police department, this incentive system comes at a good time. The contract also ensures 2 to 3 percent pay increases, depending on seniority, to be given to officers and sergeants in the next three fiscal years. While in the past there had to be reasonable suspicion for an officer to be subjected to drug testing, the new contract makes the exception of an onduty fi rearm discharge that results in
See POLICE, Page 3A
ISS implements publicity campaign
All I want for Christmas
PSAs to be shown at basketball games BY TYLER DAVIS STAFF WRITER
Fans of men’s basketball will see the fi rst airing of the Illinois Student Senate public service announcements at Wednesday’s game. 15-second spots aimed at promoting the senate will be aired at the 21 remaining home men’s and women’s Illinois basketball games, and at the United Center on Dec. 29 when men’s basketball plays Auburn, for a total cost of $7,500. The broadcast announcements join other efforts to promote the senate with the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, including $1,500 spent on an ad on the Fighting Illini website. The senate resolution for the PSA, sponsored by Damani Bolden, campus affairs chair and sophomore in ACES, is meant to reach out to students and inform them of ISS’s presence. “I’ve come to the realization that a lot of students just don’t
know who we are, what we do and that we exist,” he said. “Because we are the official voice of the student body, we serve them. I think it’s vital that we meet them at a place they go.” Rachael Markwell, public relations chair and senior in Media, said she feels a lot of students are frustrated that their voices aren’t heard, and that the senate is a forum for their concerns. “We’re supposed to be representing the whole student body, but it’s really hard to reach out to your own students to try to get them interested in helping us change (the) campus,” she said. The online ad with fightingillini. com pays for 200,000 impressions, which Bolden said will contain a link to the senate’s website. Bolden’s resolution originally planned to purchase 200 student basketball tickets, as well.
See PSA, Page 3A
JOHN RAOUX THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, carrying an X-37B experimental robotic space plane, lifts off from launch complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Air Force officials said the unmanned space plane provides a way to test technologies in space.
HASAN KHALID THE DAILY ILLINI
The Office of Volunteer Programs, the Illini Union Courtyard Café and the Illini Union Board collect items for their holiday gift drive. Toys and other items can be delivered to the Illini Union Office of Volunteer Programs until Thursday.
Air Force launches secret space shuttle in Florida BY MARCIA DUNN ASSOCIATED PRESS
Appeals court strikes down Ill. concealed carry law State given 180 days to end its gun prohibition BY DON BABWIN AND JOHN O’CONNOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — In a major victory for gun rights advocates, a federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a ban on carrying concealed weapons in Illinois — the only remaining state where carrying concealed weapons is entirely illegal — and gave lawmakers 180 days to write a law that legalizes it. In overturning a lower court decision, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the ban was unconstitutional and suggested a law legalizing concealed carry is long overdue in a state where gun advocates had vowed to challenge the
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ban on every front. “There is no suggestion that some unique characteristic of criminal activity in Illinois justifies the state’s taking a different approach from the other 49 states,” Judge Richard Posner, who wrote the court’s majority opinion. “If the Illinois approach were demonstrably superior, one would expect at least one or two other states to have emulated it.” Gun rights advocates were thrilled by the decision. They have long argued that the prohibition violates the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and what they see as Americans’ right to carry guns for self-defense. “Christmas came early for law-abiding gun owners,” said state Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Democratic lawmaker from southern Illinois whose proposed legislation approving concealed carry nar-
rowly lost in the Legislature last year. “It’s a mandate.” Gov. Pat Quinn, who favors strict gun control laws, was reviewing the opinion and did not have immediate comment, according to a spokeswoman. Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whose office is responsible for defending the state’s laws in court, will review the ruling before deciding whether to appeal or take other action, said spokeswoman Maura Possley. “The court gave 180 days before its decision will be returned to the lower court to be implemented,” Possley said in a statement. “That time period allows our office to review what legal steps can be taken and enables the legislature to consider whether it wants to take action.” Richard Pearson, the executive direc-
See CONCEALED CARRY, Page 3A
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The military’s small, top-secret version of the space shuttle rocketed into orbit Tuesday for a repeat mystery mission, two years after making the first flight of its kind. The Air Force launched the unmanned spacecraft Tuesday hidden on top of an Atlas V rocket. As if on cue, clouds quickly swallowed up the rocket as it disappeared out over the ocean. It is the second fl ight for this original X-37B spaceplane. The craft circled the planet for seven months in 2010. A second X-37B spacecraft spent more than a year in orbit. These high-tech mystery machines — 29 feet long — are about one-quarter the size of NASA’s old space shuttles and can land automatically on a runway. The two previous touchdowns occurred in Southern California; this one might end on NASA’s three-mile-long runway once
reserved for the space agency’s shuttles. The military isn’t saying much if anything about this new secret mission known as OTV-3, or Orbital Test Vehicle, flight No. 3. In fact, launch commentary ended 17 minutes into the fl ight and a news blackout followed. But one scientific observer, Jonathan McDowell of the HarvardSmithsonian Center for Astrophysics, speculates the spaceplane is carrying sensors designed for spying and likely is serving as a testbed for future satellites. He dismisses rumors of “exotic ideas” for the X-37B as weaponry or shadowing a Chinese satellite. While acknowledging he does not know what the spaceplane is carrying, McDowell said on-board sensors could be capable of imaging or intercepting transmissions of electronic emissions from terrorist training sites in Afghanistan or other hot spots. “All the sorts
See AIR FORCE, Page 3A
Po l i ce 2 A | H o ro s co p e s 2 A | O p i n i o n s 4 A | C ro sswo rd 5 A | Co m i c s 5 A | H e a l t h & L i v i n g 6 A | S p o r t s 1 B | Cl a ss i f i e d s 4 B - 6 B | S u d o ku 4 B