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Valley housing won’t take summer off BY PAUL CHRISTIANSEN staff writer
With the end of USU’s regular school year approaching, many students will be faced with the feat of looking for a new place to live. Some individuals will leave for the summer while others will stay in Cache Valley. In any case, local housing agencies — both on and off campus — don’t get the benefit of a summer vacation, said Whitney Milligan, director of Housing and Residence Life. Because so few students enroll in sum-� mer courses, the Housing Office sees the number of on-�campus residents decrease to almost 10 percent of normal occupancy. “Generally when summer is here, there are between 200 and 300 students still living on campus,� Milligan said. “During the year when they’re full, we have 2,800 students living in housing.� Still, just because many students leave Logan for the summer, Milligan said, that doesn’t mean the residence halls and dormitories go empty for months at a time. Much of campus housing is used for conferences for basketball camps, football camps, cheerleading camps and other youth groups. “They’re mostly high school-�age kids that come during the summer,� Milligan said. “They’re here for a couple of days and then they leave, then other groups
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VEHICLES PACK THE PARKING LOT near Continental Apartments. CURTIS RIPPLINGER photo
Valley residents hold vigil for marriage equality BY JESSICA SONDEREGGER Hard News Cafe
NEARLY 140 CACHE VALLEY RESIDENTS turned out for a vigil at the Old Cache County Courthouse in support of marriage equality. JESSICA SONDEREGGER photo
Shades of red decorated the steps of the historic Cache Country Courthouse as nearly 140 community members gathered in sup-� port of same-�sex marriage equality and equal rights. “We are here to take a stand for justice and equality,� said Pastor Paul Heins of Logan’s First Presbyterian Church. “You have been waiting long enough.� The candlelight vigil was part of the nationwide “Lighting Our Way to Justice� campaign, sponsored by Marriage Equality USA. The vigils came as the U.S. Supreme Court began arguments in two related cases over same-�sex marriage—the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman only; and California’s Proposition 8, passed in 2008 to outlaw same-�sex marriage. The local vigil was the work of three groups—the Logan chapter of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and USU’s Allies on Campus and LIFE (Love Is For Everyone)—which put the event together to raise awareness within Cache Valley and localize a national issue. Amy Bailey, a member of the steering committee of Allies on Campus, said that
because constitutional challenges to both DOMA and Prop 8 have succeeded in lower federal courts, there is a definite chance that at least some of the provisions of these laws could be overturned. It’s time to extend civil rights to all couples and families across America, Bailey said. “Equality matters to me, because I want a wedding album for Chris,� she said, recog-� nizing her nephew as a key motivator in her push for marriage equality. Many supporters, including Cary Youmans, president of the local PFLAG branch, and LIFE President Kennedy Tripp, find hope in the outcomes of equal rights movements throughout the nation’s history. Referring to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Youmans said the country is once again divided. “The issue is getting the whole country on the same page,� he said, “just as we had to on the issue of slavery.� It wasn’t just women or people of color who voiced opposition to discrimination, Tripp said. “Other people had to stand up and say, ‘I think this is wrong,’� he said. The gay rights and same-�sex marriage move-� ments are creating the same kind of societal support, he said. “I believe we are on the winning side,� Heins said. “My friends, we stand with you.�
North Korea ratchets up talk of war
BY CHICO HARLAN
(c) 2013, The Washington Post.
SEOUL — North Korea’s army said Thursday it had received approval for a “cutting edge� nuclear strike on the United States, adding that the situation on the Korean Peninsula had reached an explosive stage. The threat followed the North’s move Wednesday to ban South Korean workers from a joint industrial complex that has long stood as a symbol for the tenuous peace on the pen-� insula. South Korea’s defense minister said Seoul would con-� sider military action if the safety of workers is put at risk. Those moves, paired together, raised concerns in the region about the prospect for armed conflict amid uncer-� tainty on whether the North is blustering, bluffing, or rath-� er becoming more dangerous than it’s been since the Korean War. In recent weeks, North Korea has upped its hostile rheto-� ric while also pulling the plugs on its few lines of commu-� nication with South Korea, including at Kaesong Industrial Complex and a military hotline along the demilitarized
border. The statement issued Thursday followed up on a threat last month to launch pre-�emptive nuclear strikes on the United States and its allies, including South Korea. The North blamed Washington for its “hostile� policy and said its resentment toward the United States has reached an “irrepressible phase.� “The moment of explosion is approaching fast,� the North said. “No one can say a war will break out in Korea or not and whether it will break out today or tomorrow.� Some analysts say the North is using the threats as a way to raise tensions and pressure Seoul or Washington into negotiations. For new South Korean President Park Geun-� hye, the next days will be critical in determining the future of Kaesong, where North and South Koreans worked side by side until Wednesday. Experts said the North may be reluctant to close the Kaesong complex — located six miles north of the heavily fortified border. They said the North may instead hope to spark alarm from its richer neighbor, whose people typically view Pyongyang as a worrisome but far-�removed threat —
one unlikely to upend their own lives. But the North’s decision to ban entry presents an immedi-� ate and “serious� obstacle to the roughly 120 South Korean businesses that operate at Kaesong, a South Korean govern-� ment spokesman said. North Korea has tried in recent weeks to boost tensions on the peninsula, nullifying an armistice agreement, declar-� ing a “state of war� and vowing to produce new fissile mate-� rial for its nuclear weapons. But the Kaesong move marks an even more forceful step, showing the North’s willingness to meddle with — and potentially lose — a cash cow that gen-� erates between $20 million and $100 million annually for the authoritarian government, according to estimates from economists. The North banned entry to Kaesong at least once before, for a matter of days in 2009 during joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. But officials in Seoul and Washington say the situation on the peninsula is now more volatile, with the North controlled by a relatively
See KOREA, Page 3