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Friday, April 10, 2015
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STATE
Lawmakers debate Uber, Lyft policy By Eleanor Dearman @EllyDearman
Uber and Lyft, ride-sharing companies popular with many UT students, may soon be regulated on a state level in a shift from the current policy. Lawmakers on the House transportation committee heard a bill Thursday that would allow the state, rather than individual cities, to set operation guidelines for Transportation Networking Companies. The debate centered on whether cities should be able to regulate background
check policies for Lyft and Uber drivers. If passed, HB 2440 would allow the state to implement certain standardized operation guideline and require a yearly $115,000 operation fee and background checks conducted by the transportation network company or a third party. The bill was left pending in committee. “The needs for this bill became apparent after the TNC were met with a patchwork of regulations in each of the cities they’ve attempted to
operate in,” said Rep. Chris Paddie (R-Marshall), primary author of the bill. Uber spokesperson Sally Kay said ride-sharing companies should be regulated by the state and should be allowed to conduct their own background checks. “What we are seeing now on a national scale is that this issue is going to state jurisdiction,” Kay said. The hearing followed recent controversy regarding driver background checks
Griffin Smith | Daily Texan Staff
Rep. Chris Paddie, author of the bill discussed Thursday, asks speakers about their arguments for and against legislation to regulate ride-sharing companies such as Lyft and Uber.
UBER page 2
By Jackie Wang @jcqlnwng
Photos by (clockwise from top left) Ellyn Snider, Jack DuFon, Xintong Guo | Daily Texan Staff
While the city of Austin has no specific prevention methods to keep well-known murals from being vandalized, it invests money to clean up graffiti if it occurs. The Graffiti Abatement program removes much of the graffiti around Travis County.
will vandalize it if they can.” While the Graffiti Abatement program removes much of the graffiti around Travis County, Awn and the other
‘40 for Forty’ beats annual fundraising expectations @caleber96
Artists, city fight to protect iconic murals
ing, and there’s also cameras up there. There would have tapes if anyone did it. It’s a little better, they’ve got better lighting — they’re aware now that people
CAMPUS
By Caleb Wong
CITY
The city has no specific prevention methods to keep murals in Austin from being vandalized, but it invests significant funding to clean up graffiti when it occurs, according to city officials. Carole Barasch, communications and community development manager of the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, said although the department has a hard time preventing graffiti, some murals are protected and preserved to a degree by a clear paint coating applied by the artists. Artist Kerry Fitzgerald, known as Kerry Awn, painted the murals in the courtyard of 23rd Street and Guadalupe Street with two friends from the University’s art school in 1974. After the murals were seriously tagged with graffiti two years ago, security cameras were installed and the artists made repairs and applied the coating, Awn said. “Supposedly [the murals are] sealed now,” Awn said. “You can take graffiti immediately and wash it off. It’s anti-graffiti coat-
bit.ly/dtvid
artists who originally painted the murals did the restoration work themselves after they raised $25,000 through a Kickstarter campaign, Awn said.
Awn said he realizes the danger of having artwork continually displayed in public,
GRAFFITI page 2
UT raised more than double its fundraising goal during the “40 for Forty” campaign, which ended Thursday night. The campaign, which ran for 40 hours from 4 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Thursday, raised $367,690, exceeding the University’s original $140,000 goal. The event, which ran for the first time last year, raised money to fund any UT initiatives donors wished to support, and could be designated for a specific college, department, facility or student organization. Adrian Matthys, director of annual giving programs for the UT Development Office, said fundraising campaigns are a necessary supplement to tuition revenue and state funding the University receives. “If the University was only run on tuition alone, classes would start in September, and they would end somewhere in mid-November,” Matthys said. “If we didn’t have money from the state, if we didn’t have charitable gifts, if we didn’t have gifts from corporations and foundations — school would be done.” Michael Sulkis, mechanical engineering sophomore and the vice president of Texas Rock Climbing, said the club hoped to fundraise $2,000 to cover expenses for the team’s trip to San Diego. “Our national championship this year is in San Diego,” Sulkis said. “Every dollar that we can get through events like this and other fundraising will help send more climbers to our competition and have a stronger representation of the team. [The money will go towards] travel, hotels and working out
FORTY
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CAMPUS
STATE
Civil War anniversary prompts conversation
Invest in Texas students lobby at Capitol
By Matthew Adams @MatthewAdams60
On the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, UT history professors discussed different motives of the warring parties and analyzed the demographic changes that came about as a result of Reconstruction efforts. The Civil War ended on April 3, 1865 when Union troops invaded Richmond, Virginia, and the Confederate army was forced to surrender. Six days later, Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant of the Union army met at Appomattox to agree on the terms of surrender. At the event, history professor H. W. Brands said Grant exemplified traits of a general
who was skilled in the art of war, but nothing else. “The trait Grant [had] — that you see in any other great general or commander, which is admirable and appalling — is the way to know when to pull the trigger and when to decide to fight,” Brands said. “Grant went around the night before battle knowing that hundreds would die. This is admirable if you believe in war, but it is appalling in that it uses human lives as means to an end.” Brands said Lincoln knew the war would help end slavery, and that the issues between the federal government and the governments of the Southern states were ultimately resolved
CIVIL WAR
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By Samantha Ketterer @sam_kett
Student leaders headed to the Capitol on Thursday as part of the annual Invest in Texas campaign, speaking with legislators and their staff about campus carry regulations, in-state tuition for undocumented students and a host of other higher education-related issues. As part of this year’s Invest in Texas campaign, a nonpartisan lobbying effort between the Graduate Student Assembly, Senate of College Councils and Student Government, leaders from the organizations presented six platform points on behalf of the student body. “We ran a well-oiled machine,” said John Brown, government junior and Invest in
Texas co-director. “Our messages — they were very wellreceived. We got a lot of good feedback on our platform.” One of the group’s platform points supported a capital investment for the renovation of Welch Hall. Welch houses the UT chemistry and biochemistry departments, and the building is 85 years old. The University needs around $125 million to renovate the building and improve laboratory safety, according to adminAndy Nguyen| Daily Texan Staff istrators from the College of Rep. John Zerwas, chair of the House committee on higher education, Natural Sciences. speaks to members of Invest in Texas at the Capitol on Thursday. Geetika Jerath, international The platform also called for relations and global studies members fear for their safesenior and Senate of College ty,” Jerath said. “This is not a legislators to continue support Councils president, said she mindset that Longhorns … of the Texas DREAM Act, believes Welch, which approxi- should have. We should be fo- which grants in-state tuition mately 10,000 students use each cused on conducting ground- for undocumented students day, is unsafe for laboratory use. breaking research in state-ofLOBBY page 2 “Students and faculty the-art facilities.”
Name: 3626/House Ads; Width: 60p0; Depth: 2 in; Color: Process color, 3626/House Ads; Ad Number: 3626