Daily Toreador The
THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013 VOLUME 87 ■ ISSUE 110
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Texas Senate passes $195.5B two-year plan AUSTIN (AP) — A new state budget cleared its first major vote in the Texas Legislature on Wednesday when the Senate approved a $195.5 billion spending plan that will test a relatively civil political climate as Democrats ratchet up pressure for more state spending. The spending bill passed 29-2 and proposes a 7.7 percent increase in general revenue spending over the current budget, which lawmakers cut to the bone in 2011 to erase a massive shortfall borne by the Great Recession. Senate Republican leaders lauded the proposed 2014-15 budget as making the best of sunnier economic fortunes this time around. Public schools gutted of $5.4 billion two years ago would win back about onefourth of those historic cuts, mental health funding would increase by $240 million and financially shaky state parks would be spared from closure. Democrats raised skepticism during a three-hour Senate floor session about whether the spending kept pace with population growth. They also urged majority Republicans to dig deep into the state’s Rainy Day Fund, which is projected to reach nearly $12 billion in cash reserves.
Demographics, changed minds in gay marriage shift WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s views on gay marriage are more favorable in large part because of a shift in attitudes among those who know someone who is gay or became more accepting as they got older of gays and lesbians, according to a national survey. The Pew Research Center poll also finds that a large group of younger adults who tend to be more open to gay rights is driving the numbers upward. The issue has grabbed the national spotlight recently with the public embrace of same-sex marriage by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio. Overall, the poll finds 49 percent of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, and 44 percent opposed to the idea. That’s more people now favoring gay marriage than opposing it. A decade ago 58 percent opposed it and a third supported it.
OPINIONS, Pg. 4
DuPont: SXSW crowd overtakes Austin
Smoke shop raided for banned substance By MATT DOTRAY STAFF WRITER
The Lubbock Police Department is inspecting businesses in response to the ordinance passed by Lubbock’s City Council that bans the use and sale of synthetic marijuana. Shon Ross, vice president of Marketing Corporation for Lubbock’s Nothin’ Butt Smokes stores, said LPD has been performing ordinance inspections in his stores during the past few days. According to an article in The Daily Toreador on Tuesday, the ordinance, which went into effect March 9, bans the sale, use and possession of synthetic marijuana throughout the City of Lubbock. Ross said members of the police department have entered the tobacco shops and seized substances they believed to be outlawed by the ordinance. However, he said all products sold at Nothin’ Butt Smokes are in compliance with the ordinance, and police are overstepping the boundaries in the ordinance. “We stand behind the fact that everything we have is in compliance with city ordinance,” Ross said. “The problem is the law enforcement is not well versed in what the ordinance says or what it is, so they’re kind of going out and randomly trying to enforce something that they don’t know anything about.” The ordinance has two major parts:
By EMILY GARDNER STAFF WRITER
Ten Texas Tech professors were honored at the 11th annual Professing Excellence Awards Wednesday in the Red Raider Lounge of the Student Union Building. The event started with a welcome given by Colleen Sonnentag, manager for Academic Initiatives in University Student Housing, opening remarks given by Kyle Clark, vice president for administration and finance, and a keynote address given by Audra Morse, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the Whitacre College of Engineering. University Student Housing received 90 nominations from Tech students for 68 individuals, Sonnentag said. “(Professing Excellence) is an awards ceremony for outstanding instructors that have been nominated by students who live on campus,” she said. Tiffanie Brooks, a university veterinarian and professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences; Scott Burris, an associate professor in
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background information and the specific chemicals banned, he said. According to the ordinance, the City Council found that although chemical mixtures are labeled as “not for human consumption,” they are designed for the consumer to smoke or ingest to achieve narcotic effects. “The City Council deems it to be in the
best interests of the citizens and residents of the City of Lubbock to prohibit the sale,” according to the ordinance, “public display for sale, attempted sale, gift, barter, delivery, possession or use of illicit synthetic drugs and misbranded drugs.” The purpose of this information, Ross said, is to explain why the council decided to
pass the ordinance, but LPD is interpreting it as actual law. The ordinance then specifies the banned substances, which include four chemicals commonly found in synthetic marijuana, as well as salvia. SUBSTANCE continued on Page 2 ➤➤
the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications; Lauren Gollahon, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences; Bruce Hermann, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance; Thomas Kimball, an associate professor; Daniel Nathan, an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Philosophy; Brenda Rodgers, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences; Richard Verrone, graduate studies coordinator in the Department of History; Austin Walden, a professor in the Department of Political Science; and Brock Williams, an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, were the professors honored at the event. After the nominations were received, Sonnentag said a student committee selected the 10 who were honored. “Each of the recipients exemplify the art of professing excellence as teachers to your students in the emphasis of continuing research and the ongoing creation of innovative methods of instruction to engage your students,” Clark said. Sonnentag said Morse’s keynote speech was
PHOTO BY LAUREN PAPE/The Daily Toreador THE 11TH ANNUAL Professing Excellence Ceremony was hosted Wednesday in the Student Union Building. Awards were given to 10 instructors based on students’ votes.
about thoughts on excellence in teaching. Students, Morse said, are the reason teachers educate and are excited to come to class. At the ceremony, Morse discussed the effec-
tive teaching model, which addresses intellectual excitement and interpersonal rapport. AWARDS continued on Page 3 ➤➤
Graduate School hosts 12th annual research poster competition STAFF WRITER
INDEX
PHOTO BY BRAD TOLLEFSON/The Daily Toreador NOTHIN’ BUTT SMOKES is one of many shops in Lubbock that took synthetic marijuana off its shelves a week after the ban on sales went into effect March 9.
Students present excellence awards to 10 professors
By CAROLYN HECK
Tech student runs iPhone repair business -- LA VIDA, Page 6
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Texas Tech graduate students are competing against one another in a battle of research and presentation skills for the 12th annual Graduate Student Research Poster Competition. The 192 participating students set their research posters up Monday in the Tech Museum’s Sculpture Court, and will be judged Friday, said Lora Lopez, senior adviser of enrollment management for the Graduate School and the director of the competition. Florencio Aranda, a master’s student and Graduate Student Advisory Council president, is submitting a poster in this year’s competition. He said each research poster is generally geared toward the student’s specific focus of study. “Typically what happens is a lot of Ph. D. and master’s students, they’re focused on a specific area,” he said, “so a lot of the work that is in this poster competition is toward that thesis or dissertation.” The purpose of the competition, according to the Graduate School’s website, is to encourage students to exercise mental ADVERTISING: 806-742-3384
agility and develop communication skills. “The students are supposed to be explaining their research in layman terms,” Lopez said, “so our judges from the community can understand what their research is about.” There are 20 different categories in the competition, she said, and 65 judges total with three to four assigned to each category. The judges are selected from Tech faculty and staff, community volunteers, private business owners, Lubbock ISD and Plains Capital Bank, she said. The judges will evaluate each poster based on its abstract, introduction, background, results from the student’s research, conclusions and presentation, Lopez said. Posters also must follow guidelines such as size. After the judging, officials will tally up the scores and determine the first, second and third place winners for each category, she said. Winners will receive monetary award for their success. However, the Graduate School will not release the amounts awarded to each winner. “We don’t list those because we don’t want students to feel like that’s the only
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PHOTO BY EMILY DE SANTOS/The Daily Toreador AMANDA SOOTER, A master’s biotechnology student from Seminole, looks at her poster about molecular events associated with cotton fiber development for the Graduate School Research Poster Competition on Wednesday in the Helen DeVitt Jones Auditorium and Sculpture Court inside the Museum of Texas Tech. Final judging of the posters will take place Friday.
reason they are participating,” she said, “so we don’t list the amounts. And we do not even announce winners until April 12 at the
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graduate student awards ceremony.”
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