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LIFE&ARTS PAGE 8
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SPORTS PAGE 6
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014
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STUDENT GOVERNMENT
POLICE
Hopefuls debate SafeRide, Riverside
Cooperate, produce ID, advises law professor
By Nicole Cobler @nicolecobler
At the Student Government debate Monday night, executive alliance candidates highlighted their differences on the issues of a new program, Safe Ride, a student activity center in the Riverside area and their respective involvements in the Greek community. Kenton Wilson and his running mate Caroline Carter took issue with Kori Rady’s support for an expansion of the URide program, which gives students rides home late
at night from the PCL. Rady helped author the SG legislation initiating the program last fall. Rady and his running mate Taylor Strickland said they hope to start a similar program, called Safe Ride, to taxi students home from Sixth Street. “I don’t like to see student fees going towards something like that as opposed to something that serves all students,” Wilson said. Rady and Strickland both said the program would give students a safer option to get home instead of waiting half an hour for a bus.
“It’s one thing to take us to our respective neighborhoods, but the next step would be right to our doorstep,” Strickland said. “Sometimes, that walk from the bus stop is also an issue.” The Rady-Strickland campaign also disagreed with Wilson-Carter’s support for the creation of a student activity center in the Riverside area. “The [center] in Riverside is interesting, but I wouldn’t want to pay for a facility I would never use,” Rady said. Wilson said he did not
DEBATE page 2
By Julia Brouillette @juliakbrou
Shelby Tauber / Daily Texan Staff
Kenton Wilson, left, and Kori Rady speak at the Student Government candidate debate Monday evening.
CITY
Food trucks head to Barton Springs Road By Danielle Lopez @ldlopz
Austin’s food trucks have found a new, permanent home and they’re taking West Campus’ Mighty Cone with them. A permanent food court is set to open mid-March on Barton Springs Road and will host a variety of Austin’s most beloved food trucks. Inspired by the removal of the major food trucks from South Congress last year, owners of the Barton Springs property — Alistair Jenkins, Kurt Simons, Christian Brooks and Ronnie Brooks — developed their idea for The Picnic. The owners of The Picnic were originally approached by national credit restaurant operators about opening up chain restaurants on the land but they decided to go a different route that they felt was truer to Austin life.
FOOD TRUCKS page 8
Illustration by StephanieVanicek / Daily Texan Staff
According to law professor David Gonzalez, the jogger who was arrested Thursday for failing to identify herself after being stopped for jaywalking could have avoided arrest by being more cooperative. Austin police officers detained Amanda Jo Stephen, 24, after seeing her disregard a pedestrian traffic signal at the intersection of 24th and San Antonio streets. Once stopped, Stephen refused to identify herself to the officers, who then arrested her. “She had already committed an arrestable offense when she failed to obey traffic laws,” APD spokeswoman Veneza Bremner said. According to Gonzalez, in most cases, withholding one’s name, residential address or date of birth only causes unnecessary tension with police. If one has not been detained or arrested, it is legal to withhold information, but Gonzalez said he discourages it. “It’s never OK,” Gonzalez said. “If you are stopped, even if you did nothing wrong, a police officer has the right to ask you for your name, your residence address and your date of birth. There’s nothing illegal or incriminating about giving that information.” “There is an argument of, ‘Well, I was illegally detained, so I don’t have to give it to the officer because I haven’t been legally detained,’” Gonzalez said. “But, in general, it’s bad practice. Asking for your name isn’t really considered an interrogation.” In Stephen’s case,
ARREST page 2
POLICE
UNIVERSITY
Former kicker to receive jail time for Ponzi scheme
Center struggles to avoid extinction
By Jeremy Thomas
By Madlin Mekelburg @madlinbmek
Former UT football kicker Russell Erxleben was sentenced Monday to 7.5 years in prison for a chain of fraudulent investment operations, through which he amassed more than $2 million. The federal indictment indicates Erxleben organized a Ponzi scheme from 20052009, misleading investors to invest in defrauded German government gold-bearing bonds from the 1920s and 1930s, as well as art by the 19th century French artist Paul Gauguin. Perpetrators of Ponzi schemes trick people into investing money into fraudulent business practices and then give them monetary returns from subsequent investors, rather than actual profits. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel accepted a December
plea deal in which Erxleben pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Erxleben will serve consecutive 90-month prison terms for each offense. David Gonzalez, adjunct law professor and Erxleben’s lawyer, said the defense team was pleased the judge accepted the agreement. “The outcome of the case, in terms of a compromise, was good,” Gonzalez said. “It was a very fair and just result.” Erxleben played football for the Longhorns from 1975-1978 and was a threetime All-American kicker. In 1977, he kicked a 67-yard field goal, which remains tied for the longest field goal in NCAA history. The New Orleans Saints selected Erxleben as the 11th-overall pick in the 1979 NFL Draft, and he played six seasons in the NFL.
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
ONLINE
UT faculty help design largest visual telescope. PAGE 3
Endorsement: Rady/Strickland for SG. PAGE 4
Mark Payton looks to continue hot streak. PAGE 6
Check out the photo slideshows of the Texas vs. Kansas basketball game.
Loudspeakers pervade Nigerian streets. PAGE 3
Endorsements for all U-wide and college races. PAGE 4
Nekia Jones, Longhorns to host TCU on Tuesday. PAGE 6
Access Austin offers students an opportunity to get away from campus and explore the city. PAGE 8
dailytexanonline.com
@JeremyOBThomas
A recent budget cutting decision by the College of Natural Sciences would not only impact the budget of the Texas Memorial Museum but are instead targeted at the entire Texas Natural Science Center, which the museum is a part of. According to its website, the Center works to create awareness and appreciation of biological diversity, especially in Texas. In addition to the museum, the Center oversees both vertebrate and non-vertebrate paleontology labs, as well as the Texas Natural History Collections. Edward Theriot, integrative biology professor and director of the Texas Memorial Museum, said the Center will be organized out of existence starting next fall. Theriot said different parts of the Center’s collection have already started moving to other colleges, including the
Zoe Davis / Daily Texan Staff
The Texas Memorial Museum is the main exhibit hall of Natural Sciences Center. Faculty Council met Feb. 17 to addressed concerns regarding new ways to fund the museum.
paleontological collection, which moved to the Jackson School of Geosciences last fall. “What I have been told about the collections is as of the last discussion I had
with [Linda Hicke, dean of the College of Natural Sciences], there was no plan at this time to cut the operational funding for the collections,” Theriot said.
“Technical, web and administrative support will become the responsibility of existing resources at the
MUSEUM page 2 REASON TO PARTY
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