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SPORTS PAGE 6
LIFE&ARTS PAGE 4
Student referee talks intramural sports
Free East Side summer film festival
NEWS PAGE 2
APD’s red-light camera program assessed
THE DAILY TEXAN Friday, June 25, 2010
WEEKEND
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
TOMORROW’S WEATHER
www.dailytexanonline.com
City drives transit shifts forward
Up against the wall, redneck mother
ban rail system so far. The council will decide whether to take the next major step, starting the environmental-review process, for the urban rail system in December. “We have to find ways for people to get into Central Austin,” Spillar said. He said that widening existing streets throughout Central Austin wasn’t an option because there simply isn’t any space
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The Dude
Devin the Dude takes the stage at Lamberts Downtown Barbecue at 10:30 p.m. Tickets cost $30.
Dinner and a movie
Master Pancake Theatre takes on “The Blind Side” at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at the Ritz at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $13.50.
SATURDAY
Bad to the bone
Stubb’s Bar-B-Q’s second round of celebrity-chef cookoffs begins at 8 p.m. at the Waller Creek Amphitheatre. Audience text voting decides the winner.
Who’s the dummy now?
Ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham cracks up the Frank Erwin Center at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $55.
SUNDAY ‘Go Daddy-O’
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy swings its way through a set at the One World Theatre at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $20.
Inside In Opinion: Slow Simkins response tarnishes UT’s image page 3
In Sports: Two Longhorns picked in the NBA draft’s first round page 6
In Life&Arts:
“Amelie” director releases a top-notch new film page 4
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Quote to note “Not everyone who plays is always the best of athletes. But it seems as though they all have their moments.”
— Kyle St. Nicholas Intramural sports official SPORTS PAGE 6
Photos by Erika Rich | Daily Texan Staff
Above, Austin McDaniel leaves a City Council meeting on the expansion of bicycle lanes in Austin on Thursday. McDaniel is a member of The League of Bicycling Voters and relies on his bike for transportation. Below, Major Lee Leffingwell listens to speakers at Austin City Hall at Thursday’s briefing on the proposal to build a light-rail system in Austin.
Bicycle boulevard, bond on City Council’s agenda in last session before break By Destinee Hodge & Michelle Truong Daily Texan Staff City Council convened for its last session Thursday to discuss more than 150 items before a monthlong break. Council members spent much of the time discussing the Downtown Bicycle Boulevard, which is slated to begin construction in the winter, as well as the mobility bond that is part of the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan.
Bike Boulevard The Downtown Bicycle Boulevard saga pushed on and was arguably the lengthiest discussion at the meeting. Because of the varying opinions on the effectiveness of the plan, the discussion leading up to Thursday has been contentious at times. The plan, proposed by the Public Works Department, is to have Nueces and Rio Grande streets specifically cater to bicycle traffic. From Third and Fourth streets to MLK Boulevard, the department plans to have more lanes for bike traffic as well as fewer stop signs and lower speed limits. “We are considering looking at lowering the speed limit on Nueces as part of the staff recommendations,” said Annick Beaudet, project manager with the department’s Neighborhood Connectivity Division. “However, we didn’t want to outright recommend it, as we will be looking at removing some north-south stop signs.” Beaudet stressed that because of the high UT and Austin Community College student traffic in the area,
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Rail system to be reviewed; ridership increase expected By Nolan Hicks Daily Texan Staff City planners told the City Council in its meeting Thursday that Austin’s best long-term option to relieve traffic congestion in Central Austin is to build an urban rail system. Mayor Lee Leffingwell and the council members were briefed during the meeting by city transportation director Robert Spillar on the progress of planning for the ur-
Campaign sheds light on light pollution By Shamoyita DasGupta Daily Texan Staff In an effort to help reduce light pollution, the UT McDonald Observatory is launching a radio and Internet campaign to educate the public about people’s effects on the night sky. “What we’re doing in our campaign is trying to educate people to the problem,” observatory assistant director Anita Cochran said. “We’re utilizing our [radio] programs along with education on the Web in order to sort of explain to people not only what the problem is, but how they can go about helping to alleviate the problem.” Light pollution is caused when excess lighting from man-made fixtures on the ground radiates upwards, drowning out the night sky. The light effectively prevents researchers from observing stars and other objects. While the observatory is located in one of the darkest regions of the country, West Texas, growing and glowing metropolitan areas miles away are slowly shining away what it can see. “When light goes up into the sky, it’s making the whole background lighter, so you can’t see the stars,” Cochran said.
Research measures impact of investment By Collin Eaton Daily Texan Staff UT has a leading role in testing a new federal pilot program designed to create a scientific, quantifiable measurement of the economic and social impacts of federal research spending. STAR METRICS, or Science and Technology in America’s Reinvestment: Measuring the EffecT of Research on Innovation, Competitiveness and Science, is a data-compiling program that will report the number of jobs created as a result of federal research spending at all universities. Susan Sedwick, co-chair of the STAR METRICS steering committee and director of UT’s Office of Sponsored Projects, said the University became part of a working group of six universities that was established to develop a standardized measure of the effects of federal research spending, or phase one of the STAR program. Sedwick said the program is aimed at demonstrating the value to society of investments by developing a mechanism for demonstrating matching data from institutional administrative records with those on outcomes such as patents, publications and citations “[UT] is participating in the proof of concept — we extract data from our systems and provide that to [STAR METRICS operators]. They import that data into their system, manipulate it and publish it into their reports.” When the U.S. Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the $787 billion distributed across the country came with requirements for quarterly reports on how the money was spent and how spending translated into job creation. Congress spends more than $31 billion on research every year, and the idea of a quantifiable way to measure research spending’s effect on the economy came to the forefront of federal science policy soon after the stimulus bill was passed. Julia Lane, program director at the National Science Foundation, is now spearheading the effort to present early STAR METRICS testing to the Federal Demonstrations Partnership. Lane said before STAR METRICS, there was no empirical infrastructure or any cumulative data on the impact of $31 billion in federal tax dollars spent on research. Early tests show that once research administrators collect the existing, scattered data created by
Veteran Texas songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard plays the Cactus Cafe at 8:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15 at the door.
The eighth annual Keep Austin Weird festival kicks off at 2 p.m. on the South First Street Bridge and includes a 5K run, as well as live music, food and vendors.
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Mountains provide encouragement, change of scenery Editor’s note: Riders from the Sense Corp Texas 4000 for Cancer correspond with The Daily Texan through a series of articles from the road. Each week over the 70-day trek, riders from the Rocky Mountain and Coastal routes will describe their experiences along the journey, depicting the places they pedal through and the people they meet along the way.
crease their usability and save energy, Cochran said. “If you focus the light downward — which is where you want it, on the ground — not only does it not block
By Jordan Deathe Daily Texan Guest Columnist Rocky Mountain Route Our team began a new chapter this past week as it entered the Rocky Mountains pathway. The mountains were so faint in our first sighting that they could have been mistaken for clouds. But, our arrival was exciting and brought new energy to everyone. Riding through Colorado has been beautiful — far better than the droll wheat fields of Oklahoma. Of course, the scenery of the front range of the Rockies is a sight to see: From the sprawling and rolling plains, the ground shoots upward, eclipsing everything behind the mountains. Our hosts continue to greet and provide for us,
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Jose Castillo | Daily Texan file photo
UT’s McDonald Observatory, located in West Texas, is launching a campaign to increase public awareness of the causes and effects of light pollution. This light pollution can be caused by anything from lights on billboards pointing skyward to lights placed on people’s property as a safety measure. The best way to reduce light pollution is to point these lights at the ground instead of into the sky, which will in-