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Thursday, October 15, 2015
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STATE
CITY
Smoke from Bastrop fire reaches UT
City council to consider ride-hailing regulations
By Zainab Calcuttawala @zainabroo94
Brush fires that began Tuesday in Bastrop have spread to an area of 3500 acres and are 10 percent contained, according to reports from the Texas A&M Fire Service. Bastrop County declared a state of disaster Wednesday afternoon after estimates of the fire’s size grew from 375 acres to more than 1500 acres. The fire was 50
percent contained Wednesday morning. Firefighters from 12–15 agencies across Texas have been called into the Bastrop area to aid in the relief efforts, Mike Fisher, deputy director of the office of emergency management for Bastrop, said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. The efforts of firefighters over the past two days led to the rescue of UT MD Anderson Cancer Research Center located in Bastrop County.
Fisher said the fire will likely continue for several more days. “I don’t see the end of this anytime soon,” Fisher said. “Our local firefighters have been here for over 24 hours and they’re exhausted.” Smoke also spread from Bastrop County to Austin Wednesday morning. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TECQ) air monitoring sites measure the amount of particulate matter found in the atmosphere, including
dust, smoke, chemical residue from power plants and more. According to the data from the monitoring sites, levels in the Austin area reached a high of 51.4. The high Tuesday was 17. Although the particulate matter levels were elevated in area, the particulate matter decreased by day’s end and air quality was still considered “good,” according to the air quality index using by TCEQ. The index considers levels 1–50 to be in the “good” range, levels 51–100
to be the in the “moderate” range and levels 101–150 to be in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” range. Sensitive groups include people with breathing disabilities, such as asthma. People with breathing impairments should make decisions about whether to go outside based on the severity of their illness, according to TCEQ media relations manager Andrea Morrow. The National Oceanic and
FIRE page 2
CAMPUS
UT permits support animals for 8 students By Nashwa Bawab @nashwabawab
While most incoming students spent their summer buying shower caddies and deciding which posters to bring to their dorm, one freshman was going through the process of bringing his emotional support animal — a cockatoo — to campus. Biology freshman Brady Lee, who lives in Jester West and said his emotional support cockatoo, Alpine — or Al for short, is therapeutic to his social anxiety and depression. “She gives me someone to come back to everyday,” Lee said. “She is a very tactile animal — cockatoos are — which means that she likes to cuddle, so that’s really good for comfort in general so that’s basically what I do with her. I’ll come home and I’ll play with her and I’ll cuddle her and it’s like a stress reliever.”
ANIMALS page 2
Thalia Juarez | Daily Texan Staff
Biology freshman Brady Lee is one of eight students approved for the fall of 2015 to have an emotional support animal in his dorm. Lee says having his pet cockatoo Alpine live with him is a stress reliever.
CAMPUS
By Lauren Florence @laurenreneeflo
Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft may soon have to comply with stricter background check regulations and pay an annual operating fee after mobility committee recommendations. At an Austin Mobility Committee meeting Oct. 7, council members proposed the regulations for transportation network companies which include all vehicle-forhire apps such as Uber and Lyft. City council is expected to approve an amendment to city code regarding fees for transportation network companies at Thursday’s meeting. The mobility committee should then consider the amendment no later than Nov. 16. Stricter background checks would impose barriers for drivers, according to a Lyft press release, and Austin would be an outlier compared to 40 other cities where stricter regulations have been imposed without requiring fingerprinting. The tougher background check would have no benefit to public safety, according to the press release. “Lyft does not currently operate in any city that requires fingerprinting and has been forced to pause operations in cities that implement the measure,” the press release read. “Lyft’s safety screening processes are thorough and rigorous, but also
UBER page 2
UNIVERSITY
PCL holds bake sale for cancer society Professor wins prize for battery research
By Claire Allbright @claireallbright
The Perry-Castañeda Library held its annual bake sale Wednesday to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. The initiative was a part of The Hearts of Texas State Employee Charity campaign which occurs in October every year. Susan Hallgren, senior library specialist in the Bibliographic Database Management Department, has organized the event since 2005 and said the American Cancer Society was important to donate to. “I feel everyone knows someone who is affected by cancer, so if we can raise money and do what we can for research to help that cause and find a cure for this illness, it would be great,” Hallgren said. Loretta Acevedo, a retired library employee, said she was pleased the funds were going to the American Cancer So-
By Rachel Freeman @rachel_frmn
Morgan Boone | Daily Texan Staff
Sarah Brandt, librarian for first-year programs, serves treats at the annual Perry-Castañeda Library bake sale Wednesday morning.
ciety. Acevedo said her sister died from cancer at the age of 38. “I know how cancer can affect not only the individual, but family and friends and loved ones,” Acevedo said. “So I always think the
cancer society is a good thing to support. It was pretty devastating to all of us as a family.” Hallgren said the bake sale has raised $1,130, making it the most successful bake sale in PCL history. This exceeds
the previous record of $983 from last year. Acevedo and her husband, Stephen Stein, a manager in Computer Services at the library, helped bake items for the sale.
PCL page 3
Mechanical Engineering UT Professor John B. Goodenough was recently awarded the Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels from Israel’s prime minister and science, technology and space minister. “I was surprised and honored to learn about it by a phone call from Israel,” Goodenough said in an email. “I am pleased that [my work] has enabled the wireless revolution that is empowering the poor as well as the rich of the world to communicate across the world. I am pleased that my work has contributed to the developing field of materials science and engineering.” Goodenough won the award for his research on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are used globally as a
GOODENOUGH page 2 REASON TO PARTY
NEWS
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ONLINE
Students march for Paris Climate Summit. PAGE 3
Student political groups are valuable to democracy.
PAGE 4
New softball duo add to team. PAGE 6
Author Sandra Cisneros discusses new book. PAGE 8
Watch our science scene video about the difficulty of remembering names at
UT libraries host coding worskshop. PAGE 3
Students can turn apathy into engagement. PAGE 4
Longhorns rushing ability paying off. PAGE 6
Memory processes affect ability to remember names. PAGE 8
dailytexanonline.com
John Goodenough
Mechanical engineering professor
source of alternative energy for cellphones, laptops and other wireless devices, according to the University press release. Goodenough shares the win with professor Jay Keasling of the University of California, Berkeley, for his work on genetic engineering. The 1 million dollar award is the world’s largest monetary prize awarded in the field of alternative fuels. Good-
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