TWO DRIVERS, UMass picks up first win of the season
ONE HERO
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THE MASSACHUSETTS
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DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Shutdown
entering week two
A
News@DailyCollegian.com
dAy of celebrAtion
By Brian Bevilacqua
By liSa MaScaro, Brian Bennett and chriSti parSonS
Collegian Staff
see
SHUTDOWN on page 3
Tribune Washington Bureau
MARIA UMINSKI/COLLEGIAN
Members of the current UMass softball team wear the visors given out at Sunday’s ceremony in tribute to their late coach Elaine Sortino.
Late softball coach Elaine Sortino honored, inducted into UMass HoF By Stephen hewitt
D
Collegian Staff
Associate Athletic Director for Sports Programs and Student Services. Sortino was also a member of the George “Trigger” Burke UMass Athletic Hall of Fame Selection Committee, where she was responsible for helping select nominees into each respective class, for years. Two weeks ago, Burke said the committee gathered for a special meeting at Gillette Stadium, where it voted unanimously to make Sortino the newest member of the UMass Athletic Hall of Fame. Burke, who was joined by McCutcheon to make the announcement, urged him to find a suitable replacement on the Hall of Fame committee for Sortino, who was the only female member. “Believe me, Elaine was my confidante,” Burke said. “She would tell me who was good, who was real good, who was the best. I’m going to miss her so much on that committee. And John (McCutcheon), I’m assigning you a responsibility to find a woman of Elaine’s capacity to serve on that Hall of Fame com-
“Elaine was my confidante. She would tell me who was good, who was real good, who was the best. I’m going to miss her so much.”
uring their weekly staff meetings behind cl o s e d doors in University of Massachusetts conference rooms, Elaine Sortino would typically sit to Athletic Director John McCutcheon’s right, silent yet attentive to the topic being discussed. Sortino, the longtime UMass softball coach who also served as the Senior Women’s Administrator, would listen to McCutcheon, but that didn’t mean she was agreeing with what he was saying. And McCutcheon, who admitted that he often “was about to make some kind of ill-advised decision on how we should handle” the topic at hand, could sense it. “I would feel this burning sensation just about on my right temple,” McCutcheon joked. “There would be no words spoken. Maybe just a little shifting around in her chair, but I knew I was getting ‘the look’ that so many umpires have received. “I slowly turned and asked our master of non-verbal communication where I was going
George “Trigger” Burke
astray,” McCutcheon continued. “Elaine would calmly point out how we might be looking at the situation differently, and thus the good shape of UMass Athletics remained on a true course. “I will truly miss those learning moments,” he said. Those learning moments were the theme of the day on Sunday afternoon at the Mullins Center, where about 300 people, including family, friends, fans and UMass softball alumni, gathered to celebrate the life of Sortino, who died on Aug. 18 after a nearly two-year battle with cancer, bringing Alumni Weekend festivities to a conclusion. During her 34-year career at UMass, Sortino took on many positions and roles. In addition to being softball coach and Senior Women’s Administrator, she was also the head volleyball coach from 1979 to 1986 and
see
SORTINO on page 3
Aid groups short on money for Syrian refugees Hard winter expected for displaced survivors By hannah allaM McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON– Only weeks ahead of what forecasters say could be a brutal winter, humanitarian aid agencies working on the Syrian conflict are sounding the alarm that little is being done to provide assistance to a refugee population that’s expected to reach 3 million by the end of the year. The United Nations has collected only half the $5 billion it needs to provide assistance, and humanitarian aid groups say they’re resigned that they’ll be able help only some of the 2 million refu-
Budget solution nearing Reid: Congress is ‘getting closer’
Students reflect nation: deadlock “immature” The United States government is approaching the second week of shutdown and so far, signs of progress are start-and-stop towards a deal to reopen federal services. The government shut down on Oct. 1 after the House of Representatives and Senate failed to agree on a budget proposal to send to President Barack Obama. Republicans in the House refused to vote for a budget that included complete funding for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Speaker of the House John Boehner had agreed in principle to a budget with Democrats, but backed off from the deal after Tea Party members and interest groups persuaded House Republicans to shut down the government, rather than to fund it with the Affordable Care Act included. Many immediate effects of the shutdown began on Oct. 1, with some social services and government regulations bearing the immediate brunt of the deadline. “Non-essential” government workers have been furloughed, resulting in the closings of offices, national parks, government websites and public programs funded by the congressional budget. The public has become increasingly disenfranchised towards the government for its inability to agree on a budget, especially in light of the significant choices the people will demand Congress and the president to tackle in upcoming weeks. Public opinion has favored the president, but Congress’ approval rating has fallen below 10 percent, with more than half of the nation putting the blame on House Republicans as the shutdown wears on, according to recent Gallup polling and many news surveys. Critics of the Republican Party are frustrated at the lack of negotiation or compromise regarding their opposition to the Affordable Care Act, as well as their willingness to halt the government to pass their legislation. Their supporters see them as minority supporting their rights against a President
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gees outside Syria and the millions more who have fled their homes but remain in Syria. “The reality is, a huge amount of aid is needed and as long as countries are sending guns and ammunition rather than food or blankets, the crisis is only going to worsen,” said Noah Gottschalk, senior humanitarian policy adviser for Oxfam America, an international aid group that focuses on poverty and hunger. “It’s not too late, but it’s getting closer and closer. The clock is ticking,” Gottschalk said, referring to the narrow window of opportunity to mobilize winter aid before communities begin to suffer and roads to some areas become impassable. There’s no sign of an urgent aid mobilization on the scale that
would be needed to help hundreds of thousands of refugees, particularly the so-called invisible Syrians who are living, unregistered, in urban areas in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. While there are stepped-up efforts to get families winter kits with items such as plastic sheeting, heating stoves and blankets, the need greatly outpaces the resources. Winters are always hard on vulnerable populations, humanitarian workers say. But this year, Syrians are expected to face even more miserable conditions for several reasons. In Lebanon, the huge flow of refugees has forced tens of thousands of families to sleep under flimsy shelter in areas with high altitudes and heavy snowfall. The conflict
has gone on so long that families’ savings are depleted, just as rents go up because of the high demand. The already slim prospects for finding work - both in Syria and in neighboring countries - become even slimmer in winter, when construction and agricultural jobs dry up. Fearful of not having sturdy shelter when the cold sets in, some refugees already are selling some of their aid on the black market, to avoid eviction. “It is sort of a perfect storm of negative market forces combined with a bigger and bigger influx of refugees with a total lack of means,” said Erin Weir, the protection and advocacy adviser for the Middle East at Norwegian Refugee Council, an Oslo-based humanitarian nonprofit organization.
WASHINGTON – Senators edged closer to a budget deal Monday as the top four congressional leaders were called to an afternoon meeting at the White House. “We’re getting closer. We’re working on it,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said after leaving a nearly half-hour meeting with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. With the government expected to hit its borrowing limit on Thursday, President Obama invited Reid, McConnell, House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to meet. But aides said Obama would repeat his past demands: that the congressional leaders raise the debt ceiling, pay the nation’s bills and reopen the government. Obama intends to reiterate that he “will not pay a ransom” in exchange for those things, White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. But after Senate talks suffered a setback over the weekend, Reid suggested that Senate Republicans and Democrats may be starting to work something out. Over the weekend, with Republicans in some disarray on the subject, Democrats pressed their advantage. Democrats rejected a bipartisan proposal led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in part because it would have kept the harsh budget cuts known as the sequester in place through March. Collins kept working Monday to keep her compromise alive, meeting with McConnell and reaching out to Democratic colleagues. “We continue to discuss the parameters of an agreement,” she said. The Collins proposal would raise the debt limit through January and extend funding to run the government through March. The latter provision would lock in a new round of sequester spending cuts coming early next year. Collins also sought changes to the president’s health-care law, including a two-year delay of a tax on medical-device makers. The 2.3 percent excise tax is opposed by Republicans and some Democrats. For his part, Obama has sent signals that he might be willing to delay the medical-device tax, though he has also warned that such a move would slow the current pace of deficit reduction. Otherwise, he hasn’t publicly budged much from the lines he has already drawn in the budget and debt talks. Obama, in a visit to a food kitchen in the capital, said the afternoon meeting would show whether the progress on a deal is real. There’s a “good chance of default” if no compromise is reached, he said. In announcing the meeting, Carney said the president would “reiterate our principles to the leaders” and “make clear the need for Congress to act to pay our bills and reopen the government.” Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee, took the long view Monday. “It’s not over until it’s over,” he said. “I’m quite confident it all be put together before the debt limit’s reached.”