Sunnyy with a 0% chance of rain HIGH LOW 79 53
Diamond Vols drop weekend series to Gators
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Monday, April 12, 2010 Issue 58
E D I T O R I A L L Y
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://dailybeacon.utk.edu
Vol. 113
I N D E P E N D E N T
Actress and Tennessee native Dixie Carter dies at age 70
S T U D E N T
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U N I V E R S I T Y
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T E N N E S S E E
Dickens goes digital UT Libraries get media friendly with new mobile-ready Web site Robbie Hargett
Miss. governor says Confederacy flap not worth ‘diddly’ NEW ORLEANS — The dustup over Virginia’s proclamation for Confederate History Month seems like a lot of noise over something that “doesn’t amount to diddly,” Mississippi’s governor said in an interview aired Sunday. Virginia’s Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, apologized for leaving out of his proclamation any reference to slavery. He added language to the decree calling slavery “evil and inhumane” after being criticized for reviving what many Virginians believe is an insensitive commemoration of its Confederate past. Fellow GOP Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi said he doesn’t think the proclamation was a mistake. “To me, it’s a sort of feeling that it’s a nit, that it is not significant, that it’s not a — it’s trying to make a big deal out of something (that) doesn’t amount to diddly,” Barbour said in the interview aired on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Staff Writer David Ratledge and Teresa Walker, Hodges Library technology staff members, discussed the future implementation of UT Libraries Mobile during a presentation in the Communication Building’s new Scripps Convergence Lab last week. UT Libraries Mobile is an attempt to create a mobile library presence for Internet-accessing mobile devices, such as the iPhone or Blackberry. Instead of going through the traditional UT Web site to get to the library home page, users can open UT Libraries Mobile like a smartphone application, similar to the familiar iPhone “apps.” One reason behind the idea is the fact that these kinds of Internet-accessing mobile devices, like the iPhone and Blackberry, are becoming more prevalent. “This is something that’s here to stay,” Ratledge, associate professor in Library Technology Services, said. “It’s not a shortterm thing, and it’s something that we need to make a part of our regular dispensing and usage of information.” Ratledge’s team observed similar projects from other universities to get a better understanding of what they wanted to do in creating with UT Libraries Mobile. “We were very careful from the very beginning to say that we did not want to duplicate our main Web site,” Walker, associate professor in the library’s
Integrated User Technology Department. “We wanted to pick out the things that made sense and start there.” The seven categories of UT Libraries Mobile include an Hours/Locations section, a Search section and a
Computer Status section. Under the Computer Status category, users can view the status of open computers in the Commons. Users can also contact the library through UT Libraries Mobile, as well as make comments on the mobile site. The Search function allows users to browse library online content, such as eBooks, articles, images and data. “While you might not want to sit down and read a 300-page book on a little phone screen, a lot of people are just wanting to scan through and find quotes or something like that,” Walker said. UT Libraries Mobile also provides IM services and text services, with which the team members are still experimenting. Although it seems like an application, Ratledge made it clear that UT Libraries Mobile is actually a Web site. “An app is very hardware specific, so if you create an iPhone app, it’s only going to run on an iPhone,” Ratledge said. Creating a Web site then allows for it to be used across multiple devices, instead of having to create multiple versions of the application to be compatible with specific devices. Some of the functions are still in the works. The team wants to integrate media streaming over mobile devices, as well as upgrade the Search function to include the entire library catalog. “We know that this is just the beginning,” Ratledge said. “There is a lot we want to learn, in particular from everyone else.”
Magnitude 4.4 quake, others shake San Diego SAN DIEGO — A cluster of moderate earthquakes near the U.S.Mexico border is continuing to rattle southern California one week after a magnitude 7.2 quake slammed the area. The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck at 9:42 a.m. Sunday, about 11 miles west of downtown Calexico. Six other quakes above magnitude 3.0 were also reported in a threehour period. No damage or injuries have been reported. Scientists say the increased seismic activity is normal following the magnitude 7.2 earthquake last Sunday. Officials say the Easter quake killed two people and caused an estimated $100 million in damage to California alone. Station wagon crashes in Pa., killing three children HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania state police say a station wagon has crashed into a highway guardrail and rolled down an embankment, killing three young children. Police say a 57-year-old woman was driving the car Saturday night in tiny Middle Paxton Township, in Dauphin County. They say the car veered out of its lane, crashed through the guardrail and hit a guide wire before going airborne and slamming into a tree. They say it went down a 50foot embankment and landed upside down. — The Associated Press
Hayley DeBusk • The Daily Beacon
The National Guard College Fishing Championships were held on Fout Loudoun Lake and at UT this weekend. Top 25 college fishing teams attempted to qualify for the 2010 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
Fair transports job interviews to Web Kristian Smith Student Life Editor With unemployment still a problem, the job search can be challenging. Now students at UT have a new and innovative way to find employment. The Virtual Career Fair, hosted by CareerEco and UT’s career services, will be available for students in engineering, science and technology. This fair is unlike a traditional in-person job fair. Employers register online and post available positions. Each employer has their own chat room with specific hours of availability and job-seeking students can interact with the employers. Gayle Oliver-Plath, CEO of
CareerEco, the company hosting the fair, said students can also upload their resumes and drop them in “job boxes” for the particular postings or companies they find interesting. “Employers can see which students are interested in their company and can send them an e-mail asking them to come to their chat room,” she said. Oliver-Plath said a video feature is also enabled, and employers can invite students to video chat (if they have a Web camera). She said one way to stand out is to initiate a private chat by right-clicking on an employer’s name. Oliver-Plath said since this fair is non-traditional, students must behave and prepare them-
selves differently than they would for a traditional face-toface job fair. “It’s a good idea to have an ‘elevator pitch,’” she said. “This is one or two sentences that you can say or write about yourself as an introduction. You must be concise.” She said students should not enter chat rooms asking, “Do you have any jobs?’, but should say the things that are most important and interesting about them. Some things, like asking questions and doing research, still apply to the virtual fair. “It’s really important that students come to the table with compelling questions, even though it seems really casual,”
Oliver-Plath said. “Also don’t use ‘yup’ or any other casual language familiar with texting or IMing.” This is the first virtual fair that UT has hosted. Leslie Fox, coordinator for Career Services, said she thought this fair would be good for students in engineering, science and technology. “We felt these groups would be comfortable with the technology, and these fields still have opportunities,” she said. Since the College of Engineering did not have a live fair this year, Fox said the virtual fair is a good way to reach out to those students. “(Virtual fairs) are created for employers who have already
been at fairs but still have opportunities or employers who may not reach out to UT at a live fair because of costs,” she said. Oliver-Plath said there are many advantages to a virtual fair. “It’s extremely time-efficient,” she said. “Employers can see your resume, interact with you and find out things very quickly. It’s much more straight-forward and allows students to come across companies they normally may not stand in line for at a traditional career fair.” She said previous fairs at other schools have been successful. See CAREER on Page 3
T GH I E N E! T LA TTL W U NE SH
CAMPUS CALENDAR
2 • The Daily Beacon
Monday, April 12, 2010
InSHORT
?
What’s HAPPENING AROUND CAMPUS
April 12 - April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12 —
• 3:30 p.m. — Ramunas Stepanauskas, senior scientist and director of the Single Cell Genomics Center at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, speaks on “Redefining Microbial Genomics: Sequencing Individual Organisms (Cells)” in room 32 of the Alumni Memorial Building. This microbiology seminar is free and open to the public.
• 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. — Mihai Coman, dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Bucharest in Romania, speaks about journalism in Romania in the Baker Center. The lecture is free and open to the public. • 8:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m.— The film “Rudy” will be shown on a big screen in the Humanities Amphitheater. The movie is free and open to the public, and popcorn and cotton candy will be provided.
Tuesday, April 13 — • 3:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m.— The International House presents a Turkish cooking demonstration, during which attendees will learn how to make sigara boregi (cigarette borek), which are stuffed cheesy pastries. Following the demonstration, participants will be divided into groups that will compete by trying to make the most pastries in 10 minutes. Tickets are $2 for students and $5 for others.
Hayley DeBusk • The Daily Beacon
Lady Vol senior tennis players Caitlin Whoriskey and Zsofia Zubor are honored during UT’s Senior day celebration before taking on South Carolina on Sunday. Whoriskey and Zubor hold the fifth and six spots, respectively, on UT’s career doubles victory list.
THIS DAY IN
HISTORY
• 1633 — Chief inquisitor Father Vincenzo Maculano da Firenzuola, appointed by Pope Urban VIII, begins the inquisition of physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church. Standard practice demanded that the accused be imprisoned and secluded during the trial. This was the second time that Galileo was in the hot seat for refusing to accept church orthodoxy that the Earth was the immovable center of the universe: In 1616, he had been forbidden from holding or defending his beliefs. In the 1633 interrogation, Galileo denied that he “held” belief in the Copernican view but continued to write about the issue and evidence as a means of “discussion” rather than belief. The church had decided the idea that the sun moved around the Earth was an absolute fact of scripture that could not be disputed, despite the fact that scientists had known for centuries that the Earth was not the center of the universe. • 1861 — The bloodiest four years in American history begin when Confederate shore batteries under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Unionheld Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston
Bay. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern “insurrection.” As early as 1858, the ongoing conflict between North and South over the issue of slavery had led Southern leadership to discuss a unified separation from the United States. By 1860, the majority of the slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans, the antislavery party, won the presidency. Following Republican Abraham Lincoln’s victory over the divided Democratic Party in November 1860, South Carolina immediately initiated secession proceedings. On Dec. 20, the South Carolina legislature passed the “Ordinance of Secession,” which declared that “the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved.” After the declaration, South Carolina set about seizing forts, arsenals and other strategic locations within the state. Within six weeks, five more Southern states — Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana — had followed South Carolina’s lead.
• 1945 — While on a vacation in Warm Springs, Ga., President Roosevelt suffers a stroke and dies. His death marked a critical turning point in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, as his successor, Harry S. Truman, decided to take a tougher stance with the Russians. By April 1945, Roosevelt had been elected president of the United States four times and had served for over 12 years. He had seen the United States through some of its darkest days, from the depths of the Great Depression through the toughest times of World War II. In early 1945, shortly after being sworn in for his fourth term as president, Roosevelt was on the verge of leading his nation to triumph in the Second World War. Germany teetered on the brink of defeat, and the Japanese empire was crumbling under the blows of the American military. In February 1945, Roosevelt traveled to Yalta in the Soviet Union to meet with Russian leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss the postwar world. Roosevelt returned from these intense meetings drawn and sick. He vacationed in Warm Springs, Ga., but the rest did not lead to recuperation. On April 12, 1945, he suffered a massive stroke and died. — Courtesy of History.com
Monday, April 12, 2010
STATE&LOCAL
Defense-related radioactive waste to ship along Interstate 81 to N.M. The Associated Press GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Disaster and emergency responders in northeast Tennessee have been told about plans to ship defenserelated radioactive waste along Interstate 81 for the first time, starting next year. The Greeneville Sun reports that officials from the U.S. Department of Energy held a briefing in Greene County about the “transuranic” radioactive waste shipments that will start in July 2011. Volunteer firefighters and other emergency responders were shown trucks and special containers that will be used. The radioactive waste is to be sent from a DOE facility near Pittsburgh to the DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The route extends southbound to interstates 40 and 75 through East Tennessee and then to I-59 and I-20 passing through Birmingham, Ala. Bobby St. John, a spokesman for DOE contractor Washington TRU Solutions, LLC, said similar radioactive waste has been shipped from Oak Ridge to WIPP for several years.
He said the waste to be shipped on I-81 “has to be handled robotically.” A DOE document shows that “waste temporarily stored at sites around the country is shipped to WIPP and permanently disposed of in rooms mined out of an ancient salt formation 2,150 feet below the surface,” the newspaper reported. St. John said transuranic waste is composed only of man-made radioactive elements. He said WIPP accepts only radioactive waste from Department of Energy defense-related facilities. Tennessee Highway Patrol Lt. James McKenzie said each truck carrying radioactive waste will be escorted by two troopers and an emergency management agency officer. He said each truck will be routed to the Greene County Scales complex on I-81 to be inspected. Bill Worth, area coordinator for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, said container radiation levels will be checked. All shipments will be tracked by the DOE’s TRANSCOM satellitebased tracking and communications system.
CAREER continued from Page 1 “At Georgia Tech, one employer hired four people from one fair,” she said. Along with benefits for employers and job-seekers, Oliver-Plath said virtual career fairs also benefit the environment. “It saves money and time, and people are not wasting plane rides and gas,” she said. Though neither Fox nor Oliver-Plath think virtual fairs will take the place of live fairs, they both agree that virtual fairs will become more common in the future. “Students need to be comfortable with this, because it’s something recruiters are using more and more,” Fox said. Oliver-Plath thinks employers will use this type of fair to have more concentrated events that target a niche audience. Oliver-Plath said she hopes students are willing to participate in these kinds of fairs. She said that if this fair is a success, her company would look into doing virtual fairs for other colleges at UT. Fox said the fair is targeted to only those companies with needs, and she hopes to have 20 to 30 companies signed up. She said that though this will not be a big fair, all companies are actively recruiting and hiring. The fair will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, and students can register from now until Wednesday at http://www.utknox.careereco.net.
The Daily Beacon • 3
4 • The Daily Beacon
Monday, April 12, 2010
OPINIONS
Letter Editor to the
Actions of American soldiers justified I am writing in response to Jake Lane’s April 8 staff column “War not valid excuse for civilian atrocities.” His analysis of the video showing alleged murders of “civilians” by our armed forces is not consistent with what I know about the Iraq war, which, given that I served nearly two years in that war, is a considerable amount. In fact, his analysis of the event and video overlooks many key facts. First, there were two individuals that I noticed carrying weapons. One of the weapons was an AK47, the other was an RPG — or Rocket Propelled Grenade. Possession of the RPG by itself is enough to warrant hostile intent, one of the conditions that by itself is enough to justify the use of deadly force — according to our Rules of Engagement in 2007. So the pilot of that helicopter acted well within these rules. I didn’t notice these weapons when they were behind the wall; I noticed them about three minutes and 40 seconds into the video, when the two men with weapons were standing in the middle of the street. I discerned that one of the weapons was an RPG when he stood the weapon up on end and the weapon stood as high as his chest. An AK-47, from butt to barrel, is only 34 inches; this would barely come up to an individual’s hip. The pilots were talking about these weapons, not the cameras the journalists were holding. Though I understand how Lane could not tell they were weapons, as the video is in thermal imaging. Second, having participated in the Iraq war — a service of which I am very proud — I can tell you the military has not “tagged an entire race of people ... as ‘potential insurgents.’” In fact, we were told specifically not to do this. We were told to be nice to people until they gave us a reason to kill them. Fighting with honor is a belief that is inundated into every American fighting man from day one of their training, whether in boot camp or basic training. Third, the government didn’t tell “we the people” of these events because communications regarding war function on a “need-to-know” basis, and “we the people” did not need to know. This was not kept from us out of any particular need to cover up wrongdoing, but in order to spare the public from the horrors of war and to protect our troops from further harm. Fourth, yes, there were two Reuters journalists killed in that incident, but they understood the risks of journalism in a war zone. If you walk around with an individual carrying an RPG when there are American military personnel flying overhead, you can expect to get shot. Yes, the pilots did fire upon the van that came to pick up the wounded, but the van was also retrieving weapons. One thing you do in war is deny your enemy the means to do you more harm, whenever possible. What were they supposed to do — allow them to keep their weapons? No, they should not have done this, because the weapons would have been used to fight against and possibly kill other Americans. The pilots did not begin firing in a “bloodlust” or out of a desire to kill “innocuous civilians.” In fact, they waited for permission to engage, a luxury which I would not have afforded the enemy. Our military acted within the rules of engagement as they were laid out at the time. It seems that people seem to forget that war requires that you kill the enemy, and that is sad. But columns like Lane’s do not show that Americans “have the knowledge and guilt ... due to indifference,” but instead show Americans’ ignorance and unreasonable expectations of the realities of war. So, in light of this new evidence, what “bald-faced lies” were audible? Jonathan Dunham Junior in enterprise management USMC veteran, 2003-2007 Iraq war veteran, 2004, 2005-2006, 2006-2007
THE DAILY BACON • Blake Treadway
DOONESBURY • Garry Trudeau
Columns of The Daily Beacon are reflections of the individual columnist, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or its editorial staff.
Teen pregnancy PSA candid, effective Wor d A N N A rc hy by
Anna Parker Bristol Palin continues to utilize her status as a teen mother in a new public service announcement produced by the Candie’s Foundation. The Candie’s Foundation works to advance public awareness of the negative consequences associated with teen pregnancy. Bristol joins a long list of celebrities such as Hillary Duff and Rachel Bilson who have lent their faces to the advertisements. Because most people agree that teenagers should not produce children, the campaign has remained without controversy — up until this point. Bristol appears to be Candie’s first celebrity ambassador who is actually living the life that she warns against. The content of her PSA, therefore, varies significantly from the traditional format utilized by the Candie’s Foundation. In Bristol’s PSA, she appears dressed in expensive clothing with her child, Tripp. Bristol asks the audience what her life would be like if she were not from a “famous family,” or if she did not have support at home. Without Bristol actually referencing wealth, the audience infers that Bristol maintains the resources necessary to care for Tripp while simultaneously pursuing other goals such as an education or career. As the PSA progresses, Bristol loses all of her expensive clothing and the nice furnishings in the room disappear. Bristol finally stands in a vacant room with only a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans on. “Pause before you play,” she says. Criticism aimed at this PSA suggests that Bristol openly flaunts her family’s ability to provide for her — something like, “Do as I say, not as I do, because honestly, you can’t afford it.” While I’m certainly no fan of the Palin family, I do believe that the driving
force behind the criticism of Bristol is in fact the hate that her mother engenders on the left. Bristol, in this instance, should be applauded for telling it like it is. The Palin family has provided for her financially, and many potential teenage mothers will never have access to the same degree of assistance. Bristol remains, in fact, an outlier among teenage mothers. Most teenage mothers will face great obstacles to achieving academically and professionally. Teenage mothers remain a significant portion of welfare recipients, and unfortunately many of these women will never leave the rolls. I cannot understand why we would not want to be honest with teenage women about the severe hardships they can face as a result of birthing a child prior to economic stability. Unfortunately, Bristol’s message concerning teenage pregnancy doesn’t always rely upon this kind of reason. The PSA in fact doesn’t end with a disenfranchised Bristol in plain attire. “Pause before you play” reminds viewers of the real message: “Sex kills.” Despite Bristol’s own lack of success in remaining a virgin, she still claims that abstinence should be the path that teenagers pursue and plans to recommit to this goal herself until she marries. I stand flabbergasted that someone who can articulate the extent of the dangers of teenage pregnancy would then ensure this risk to the willpower of a teenager. Safe sex is an option, Bristol! Pregnancy, death and eternal damnation are not guaranteed consequences of sexual activity. Putting a ring on your finger does not make birth control and condoms more effective. If the end goal of these campaigns or any attempt to dissuade teenagers from birthing a child remains to, in fact, stop teenage pregnancies, then we must remain focused on methods that work for everyone, not just those who live up to the Bristol Palin standard — one that she herself could not even accomplish. — Anna Parker is a senior in English literature. She can be reached at aparke23@utk.edu.
New justice must see Constitution as flexible R ed, White & B o ld by
Sam Smith IV
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Blake Treadway The Daily Beacon is published by students at The University of Tennessee Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Friday during the summer semester. The offices are located at 1340 Circle Park Drive, 5 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The newspaper is free on campus and is available via mail subscription for $200/year, $100/semester or $70/summer only. It is also available online at: http://dailybeacon.utk.edu. LETTERS POLICY: The Daily Beacon welcomes all letters to the editor and guest columns from students, faculty and staff. Each submission is considered for publication by the editor on the basis of space, timeliness and clarity. Contributions must include the author’s name and phone number for verification. Students must include their year in school and major. Letters to the editor and guest columns may be e-mailed to letters@utk.edu or sent to Nash Armstrong, 1340 Circle Park Dr., 5 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The Beacon reserves the right to reject any submissions or edit all copy in compliance with available space, editorial policy and style.
With the news of Justice John Paul Stevens’ retirement, we’ve already begun to hear some expectations about who President Barack Obama should and will nominate to fill Stevens’ seat on the Supreme Court. While I have my own opinions on this matter (It should be a woman; we don’t have enough and someone relatively young.), I give great deference to Obama, as he is a former Constitutional law professor, to make a great pick, just like he did with Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In any case, let me share those opinions with you. If I were president, the first litmus test that my appointee would have to pass would be to tell me that she, in no uncertain terms, viewed the Constitution as a living document, a framework established by wise men to allow for legitimate adjustments in our government and legal system with the changing of the times. Unfortunately in the circus ring that is American politics, we often seem to pay close attention to the Congress, even closer attention to the president and almost none to the courts. Few of us probably know that there are a group of judges that call themselves “originalists,” people who somehow believe that we must follow to the letter the regulations of the Constitution, based upon the intent of the founding fathers. The problem is that, quite frankly, when these jurists put on the masks of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and claim that they are doing what these men intended, they are simply making things up. How do I know this? Well because despite what they might think, men like Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and certainly Clarence Thomas are not blessed with any gift of intelligence that I or any other human being does not possess. They cannot say that they know what the founders of our country would
have wanted, because they simply weren’t there, case closed. Yes, there are areas where the Constitution is quite clear: however, let’s take the case of free speech in schools. Conservative justices argue that, by their interpretation of the Constitution, students don’t have free speech in public schools. The problem is that when the Constitution was written, public schools didn’t exist, so they really can’t know, can they? For that matter, we also didn’t have airplanes, nuclear weapons, abortion, freedom for all humans or many other contemporary concepts and ideas that have shown themselves before the court in the past. The writers of the Constitution knew that the country would change, and so they specifically wrote a document that was flexible and would endure the test of time by way of contemporary interpretation for future generations. That much we do know. Anyone that questions this just doesn’t understand American history properly. If you need more evidence look no further than the very fact that the Constitution is so vague in many aspects where it could be quite specific. The terms “excessive bail” and “cruel and unusual” found within the Eighth Amendment are great examples, as the writers simply could have listed specifically what excessive means, or what exactly is cruel and unusual. At the end of the day, the answer is that Obama must appoint someone who supports individual rights, recognizes the right to privacy and rejects the recent surges of conservative judicial activism which have granted corporations personhood, allowed businesses to screw over their employees and overturned state election laws to appoint George Bush president. But none of this will happen if this justice believes that somehow the Constitution is not a living, breathing document. But don’t take my word for it. After all, it wasn’t me that said, “The Constitution belongs to the living and not to the dead”; it was Thomas Jefferson, and I happen to agree with him wholeheartedly. — Sam Smith IV is a junior in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at ssmit162@utk.edu.
Monday, April 12, 2010
The Daily Beacon • 5
NATION&WORLD
Poles grieve over president killed in crash The Associated Press WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s government moved swiftly Sunday to show that it was staying on course after the deaths of its president and dozens of political, military and religious leaders, even as tens of thousands of Poles expressed their grief over the plane crash in Russia that shocked the country. New acting chiefs of the military were already in place and an interim director of the central bank was named Sunday, with work running as usual, said Pawel Gras, a government spokesman. It was a rare positive note on a day wracked by grief for the 96 dead and laced with reminders of Poland’s dark history with its powerful neighbor. The Saturday crash occurred in thick fog near the Katyn forest, where Josef Stalin’s secret police in 1940 systematically executed thousands of Polish military officers in the western Soviet Union. President Lech Kaczynski and those aboard the aging Soviet-built plane had been headed there to honor the dead. A preliminary analysis showed the plane had been working fine, a Russian investigator said. Tens of thousands of Poles softly sang the national anthem and tossed flowers at the hearse carrying the 60-year-old Kaczynski’s body Sunday to the presidential palace after it was returned from Russia’s Smolensk airport, the site of the crash. The coffin bearing the president’s remains were met first by his daughter Marta, whose mother, the first lady, Maria Kaczynska, also perished in the crash. She knelt before it, her forehead resting on the coffin. She was followed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the former prime minister, and the president’s twin brother. He, too, knelt and pressed his head against the flag-draped coffin before rising slowly and crossing himself.
Standing sentinel were four Polish troopers bearing sabers. There was no sign of the twins’ ailing mother Jadwiga, who has been hospitalized. The president had canceled several foreign trips lately to be by her side. The coffin was placed aboard a Mercedes-Benz hearse and slowly traveled several miles to the palace, watched by thousands of weeping Poles. “He taught Poles how to respect our traditions, how to fight for our dignity, and he made his sacrifice there at that tragic place,” said mourner Boguslaw Staron, 70. President Dmitry Medvedev declared Monday a day of mourning in Russia, and his country held two minutes of silence in memory of those killed in the crash. Church bells pealed at noon and emergency sirens shrieked for nearly a minute before fading. Hundreds bowed their heads, eyes closed, in front of the presidential palace. Buses and trams halted in the streets. No date for a funeral has been set, and the Polish presidential palace has not yet said if Kaczynski will lie in state, though it is not a Polish tradition. Kaczynski was the first serving Polish leader to die since exiled World War II-era leader Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski was killed in a mysterious plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943. Poland is a young democracy, adopting its constitution in 1997 after decades under communism, but political scientist Kazimierz Kik of Kielce University said he was confident it would remain stable. “The democracy is passing the test; there is no doubt about it,” he said. “This tragedy does not threaten the state in any measure; Poland’s institutions are strong, but there is the trauma of the nation.” Among the dead were Poland’s army chief of staff, the navy chief commander, and heads of the
released by the Russian Cabinet. In Warsaw, government spokesman Gras lauded the cooperation with Russian investigators and sought to tamp down fears that Poland was not being consulted in the case. He told reporters that Russian authorities waited until their Polish counterparts arrived before the black boxes were opened and analyzed. The Smolensk regional government said Russian dispatchers had asked the Polish crew to divert from the military airport there because of the fog and land instead in Moscow or Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus. Russia’s Transport Minister Igor Levitin reported to Putin that the pilot had been warned about difficult weather conditions, with visibility limited to 400 meters (1,300 feet). Vasily Piskarev, a deputy chief of Russia’s top investigative body, said that 24 victims’ bodies had been identified so far, most of them based on clothes and IDs. Former Polish president, Solidarity founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa, said it was too soon to cast blame. “Someone must have been making decisions on that plane. I don’t believe that the pilot made decisions single-handedly,” he told reporters. “That’s not possible. I have flown a lot and whenever there were doubts, they always came to the leaders and asked for a decision, and based on that, pilots made decisions. Sometimes the decision was against the leader’s instructions.” The Tu-154 was the workhorse of Eastern Bloc civil aviation in the 1970s and 1980s. Poland has long discussed replacing the planes that carry the country’s leaders but said it lacked the funds. The Polish presidential plane was fully overhauled in December, its three engines repaired and updated with retrofitted electronic and navigation equipment.
air and land forces. At the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army in Warsaw, hundreds gathered for a morning Mass and left flowers and written condolences. Also aboard the aging Tu-154 plane were the national bank president, the deputy foreign minister, the army chaplain, the head of the National Security Office, the deputy parliament speaker, the Olympic Committee head, the civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers. Michal Boni, an official in the prime minister’s office, said it remained in constant contact with the deputy head of the National Bank of Poland, Piotr Wiesiolek, who is acting director of the bank until a new one is appointed. He said the bank’s Monetary Policy Council will hold a meeting on Monday, as previously planned. “We are prepared to make various decisions, but we do not see that anything dangerous could happen in the economy,” Boni said. Poland’s economy has so far managed to avoid recession. The acting president, Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski, said he would call for early elections within 14 days, in line with the constitution. The vote must be held within another 60 days. The focus now turns to the investigation into the crash. The head of Russia’s top investigative body, Alexander Bastrykin, told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Sunday that a preliminary analysis of the recording of the crew’s conversations indicated the plane had no technical problems. “The recording that we have shows that there had been no problem with the plane, that the pilot had been informed about difficult weather conditions, but still decided to land,” Bastrykin told Putin, according to minutes of official meeting
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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD • Will Shortz Across 1 Capitalized, as a noun 7 Tapioca source 14 Raw material for a steel factory 15 Draws in 16 Home of the U.S. Air Force Academy
43 Writers of i.o.u.’s
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56 “Mad Money” network
19 Chimney grime 20 Fit ___ (be perfect on) 21 State that was once a republic 24 Letters after epsilons 27 Vampire slayer of film and TV
45 City in 21-Across 48 Big name in video arcades 49 Literature Nobelist William Butler ___ 53 Chester Arthur’s middle name
37 Once around the track 38 Service charge 39 Santa ___ winds 40 Stetson or sombrero 41 Comes into play
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59 Slime 60 Comedic inspiration for Robin Williams 65 Leave high and dry 66 Eroded 67 Take another sip of 68 Bread bakers’ buys
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32 Old trans-Atlantic jets, for short
55 Sci. course for a doctor-to-be
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57 Street through Times Sq. 58 Give as an example 35 Of sweeping 61 Six-point scores, proportions for short 39 Tooth doctors’ org. 62 Just off the grill 42 Musical group with 63 Teachers’ union, in brief its own 1977-81 TV show 64 “___ the season to
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be jolly”
6 • The Daily Beacon
Monday, April 12, 2010
ENTERTAINMENT
Tennessee television star passes away at 70 The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — “Designing Women” star Dixie Carter, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, has died at age 70. Carter died Saturday morning, according to publicist Steve Rohr, who represents Carter and her husband, actor Hal Holbrook. He declined to disclose the cause of death or where she died. Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area. “This has been a terrible blow to our family,” Holbrook said in a written statement. “We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy.” A native of Tennessee, Carter was most famous for playing wisecracking Southerner
Julia Sugarbaker for seven years on “Designing Women,” the CBS sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1993. The series was the peak of a career in which she often played wealthy and self-important but independent Southern women. She was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for her seven-episode guest stint on the ABC hit “Desperate Housewives.” Carter’s other credits include roles on the series “Family Law” and “Diff’rent Strokes.” She married Holbrook in 1984. The two had met four years earlier while making the TV movie “The Killing of Randy Webster,” and although attracted to one another, each had suffered two failed marriages and were wary at first. They finally wed two years before Carter landed her role on “Designing Women.” Holbrook appeared on the show regularly in the late 1980s as her boyfriend, Reese Watson. The two appeared together in her final project, the 2009 independent film “That Evening Sun,” shot in Tennessee and based on a short story by Southern novelist William Gay. The middle of three children, Carter was born in 1939 in McLemoresville, Tenn. Carter was the daughter of a grocery and department store owner who died just three
years ago at 96. She said at the time of his death that he taught her to believe in people’s essential goodness. “When I asked him how he handled shoplifting in his new store, which had a lot of goods on display, making it impossible to keep an eye on everything, he said, ‘Most people are honest, and if they weren’t, you couldn’t stay in business because a thief will find a way to steal,’” Carter said. “’You can’t really protect yourself, but papa and I built our business believing most people are honest and want to do right by you.’” Carter grew up in Carroll County and made her stage debut in a 1960 production of “Carousel” in Memphis. It was the beginning of a decades-long stage career in which she relied on her singing voice as much as her acting. She appeared in TV soap operas in the 1970s, but did not become a national star until her recurring roles on “Diff’rent Strokes” and another series, “Filthy Rich,” in the 1980s. Those two parts led to her role on “Designing Women,” a comedy about the lives of four women at an interior design firm in Atlanta. Carter and Delta Burke played the sparring sisters who ran the firm. The series also starred Annie Potts and Jean Smart.
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The Daily Beacon • 7
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8 • The Daily Beacon
Monday, April 12, 2010
SPORTS
Five-tool player Polk gets on base, hits homers Robby O’Daniel Chief Copy Editor Throughout the first half of the 2010 season, UT outfielder P.J. Polk has redefined what it means to be the leadoff hitter. Polk, who has batted No. 1
in the Vols’ lineup for the vast majority of the season, excels in the leadoff hitter’s primary function: getting on base. The UT junior in sport management posted an onbase percentage of .377 in 2008 and .357 in 2009, but his OBP has made a major jump in 2010 to .487 after Saturday
play. And it makes sense when one considers Polk’s main objective when he steps up to the plate. “I just take pride in getting on base,” he said. “I feel like that’s my part on the team that I have to bring every game. I may not get a hit every game, but hopefully I get a walk, get hit by a pitch, do something to get on base.” The Oakland High School graduate attributed his rise in OBP to experience. “I pay more attention to the pitchers’ tendency and have a better idea of what they’re going to throw me,” he said. “Once I get something I want to hit, I don’t miss as much as I did last year and in my freshman year.” First baseman Cody Hawn describes Polk as a consummate leadoff man. “P.J.’s our sparkplug, no
doubt about it,” Hawn said. “He starts everything for us, and he’s on fire right now. We couldn’t really ask more from what he’s been doing.” Hawn highlighted Polk’s speed and ability to take pitches. “You got a guy (Polk) that can score from first to home,” Hawn said. “He’s one of the fastest guys in the SEC, makes you feel good because the pitcher’s gotta worry about him. You see more fastballs out of it. He seems like he’s always on.” Yet Polk excels in more than just getting on base — blasting homers and slugging his way to the top of the team. When asked about the prospect of moving down in the order to accommodate his power, Polk was reluctant during his April 6 interview with The Daily Beacon. “There’s always a chance,
but right now I feel pretty comfortable in the leadoff spot, and like I said, those guys in the middle that’s hitting for us, they’re going to get the job done,” he said. “I think that keeping me at leadoff is going to help the balance of the team in the long run.” Yet after an April 7 loss to Western Carolina, UT head coach Todd Raleigh drastically shook up the lineup for the weekend series against No. 8 Florida — one of the biggest moves being dropping Polk from the No. 1 slot to No. 3. The No. 3 slot is the position usually reserved for a team’s best hitter, and statistically, going into the Florida series, Polk was just that, leading the team in OBP, slugging percentage and runs scored. Yet days before the switch, Polk was sure that his place was leading off, not batting third. “I don’t really think my job is hitting home runs on the team,” Polk said. “I just really want to get on base, and let the other guys knock them in.” But regardless of job titles, Polk is hitting homers. He leads the team with seven, already eclipsing his HR totals in 2008 (five) and 2009 (three). The Murfreesboro, Tenn., native was not sure what was the source of his power. “Probably just a little more strength,” he said. “I’m healthier this year. That has a lot to do with it. But I don’t know.” Some of Polk’s homers are even surprising to him, like the second homer he hit in an April 3 game against Ole Miss. Polk was not expecting any more fastballs that day, yet he got one, and he took advantage by driving a second roundtripper in that game. But even then he didn’t think he hit the ball out of the park. “I came out of the box pretty hard, looking for a double, just trying to get down the line,” he said. “And it just kept carrying and kept carrying
and before you know, it was over the fence.” The two-homer day helped net Polk two awards that week — the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week award and his second SEC Player of the Week award. But even when musing on his personal accomplishments about the plate, Polk thinks of the team. “I was hoping (the homers) would spark our team, so that we’d get the win that day, and I think it played a part in doing so,” he said. He’s third on the team in runs batted in with 25, but the two men who are ahead of him — Hawn and catcher Blake Forsythe — have spent the majority of the season in the middle of the order, while Polk was leading off. So Hawn and Forsythe have had more runproducing chances with men on base than Polk. Polk is also riding a 13game hitting streak, going into Sunday’s action. Speed kills Since high school, teammates of Polk have compared him to such major-league players as Juan Pierre, Alfonso Soriano, B.J. Upton, Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez. What do all these players have in common? Speed. And speed is a natural attribute that Polk is taking more advantage of in 2010. Before Sunday’s game, Polk had stolen 17 bases out of 21 attempts. In 2008, Polk stole just three in four attempts, while he stole seven in seven attempts in 2009. Polk said an offseason talk with Raleigh has led to him risking more on the basepaths. “I’m being more aggressive, taking more chances,” he said. “I’ve been thrown out too, but that hasn’t stopped me.” Coaches pushed Polk to be more willing to run and not simply stay at first base. See POLK on Page 9
Monday, April 12, 2010
SPORTS
POLK
your head, it’s a home run,” he said.
continued from Page 8
Like father, like son
“I think they drilled that into me during fall practice and spring practice, so that now, in a game, it’s just natural for me to want to steal and get to the next base,” he said. Born to play outfield While Polk had to learn to steal naturally, the outfield was always his place of work, dating back to his days in tee ball when he was about five years old. “Ever since I started playing, they’ve pretty much stuck me in the outfield, let me run out there,” he said. “Ever since I can remember, I’ve been an outfielder.” He’s played every game this season in the outfield, mostly in left field, though he did play some center field when Josh Liles was injured. Polk outlined the fundamental differences in approach to fielding left field and center field. With center field, he said there’s more ground to cover, and the fielder is able to get a true read on the ball. Over at left, his usual stomping grounds, it gets a bit more tricky. “I’ve learned, in left field, the ball cuts a lot,” he said. “You don’t really get a straight ball hit at you. I’ve just taken numerous flyballs at that position, just learning how the ball’s going to cut, where the ball’s going to end up.” And at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, with its tall porch, no Ichiro Suzuki-like acrobatics at the wall will save home runs. “Once you get back there (to the left-field fence) and it’s over
The Daily Beacon • 9
His earliest memories of baseball remind him of his father Michael Polk. Father and son have a love for baseball in common, as well as a name. P.J. Polk’s given name is also Michael Polk. He picked up the nickname P.J., standing for Polk Jr., from his mother. “Originally that wasn’t supposed to stick,” he said. “I was supposed to be known as Michael, but whenever she would call or holler for me or my dad, she’d say, ‘Michael,’ and we’d both have to come to her. So when I was little, she started calling me P.J., and it just kinda stuck. So now today just about everybody knows me as P.J.” As Polk grew up, his dad Hayley DeBusk • The Daily Beacon threw batting practice to him in Outfielder P.J. Polk avoids a dropped pitch in UT’s matchup against Florida on Sunday. Polk, usually the Vols’ the backyard or hit flyballs for leadoff hitter but recently dropped to No. 3, holds a .487 on-base percentage going into Sunday action. Polk to catch. Polk credited his father for he conferred with his father and Even today, Polk’s father hit two weak flyballs might person.” enabling him to play travel ball The well-rounded Polk played eventually chose baseball. every summer and getting him drives him to excel and has plen- prompt him to talk to Polk about “Sometimes I don’t like to lisdropping his shoulders and hav- football, basketball and baseball on the best teams with top com- ty of advice. extensively, and he played foot- ten to what he’s got to say,” he He attends most home week- ing an uppercut. petition. “It’s kinda weird,” Polk said. ball and baseball throughout said. “I’m like, ‘Dad, c’mon now,’ “He played a major role in end games, but even when he’s but he definitely knows what helping me get to UT and help- not in attendance, he has a few “He knows exactly what I’m high school. When it came time to choose he’s talking about.” ing me be the player I am today,” pointers. Hearing on the radio doing wrong at the plate, and he that his son popped up twice or doesn’t even have to see me in which sport to pursue in college, Polk said. Polk’s father pushed him to improve his skills, which led to a mother-father dynamic where the father, an engineering technician, might use tough love while mother Jackie, a secondgrade teacher at Siegel Elementary, consoles. “Growing up, whenever my dad would get on me and try to get me better, she would ... tell me it’s going to be alright and be the shoulder I could lean on,” Polk said.
SPORTS CALENDAR
10 • The Daily Beacon
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What’s HAPPENING
Bats cool down against Gators Chris Thomas
IN SPORTS
Staff Writer
April 13 - April 16, 2010 Tuesday, April 13 — Baseball Lipscomb Knoxville 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 14 — Softball Arkansas DH-1 Fayetteville, Ark. 6 p.m. Softball Arkansas DH-2 Fayetteville, Ark. 8 p.m.
Friday, April 16 — Baseball Mississippi State Starkville, Miss. 7:30 p.m.
Men’s Golf SEC Men’s Golf Championship St. Simons Island, Ga. All Day Women’s Track Volunteer Track Classic Knoxville All Day
Daily Quote
“P.J.’s our spark plug, no doubt about it. He starts everything for us, and he’s on fire right now.” – UT first baseman Cody Hawn on the Vols’ usual leadoff hitter, P.J. Polk
Monday, April 12, 2010
THESPORTSPAGE
In what was an important SEC home series, the Diamond Vols (16-17, 3-9 SEC) fell just short of improving their conference record, losing two out of three games to the Florida Gators (23-8, 8-4 SEC) this weekend at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Disappointing day Tennessee played hard in Friday’s series opener, but ended up falling 4-2 to eighthranked Florida on Friday night. The Diamond Vols brought the tying run to the plate three times in the bottom of the ninth but failed to cash in. “It was a tough one,” Tennessee head coach Todd Raleigh said. “You have to give them some credit. They made some unbelievable plays, I mean, I think we hit the ball a lot harder than they did. They just outpitched us and played better defense than we did today.” Tennessee junior starting pitcher Bryan Morgado had another solid start, going seven innings and allowing four runs on five hits while walking three batters and striking out eight. “It was disappointing,” Morgado said. “We should have beat them, I think. We were honestly a better team (today) hittingwise. So if we come out tomorrow swinging the bats, I think we’ll be fine.” The Big Orange offense was sparked via a double off the bat of junior first baseman Cody Hawn, tying the score at 1-1 after two innings. The Gators bounced back, however, scoring three runs total in the fourth and fifth innings, which proved to be the difference in the game. Junior outfielder P.J. Polk had another great night at the plate, going two-for-four, while Khayyan Norfork, Josh Liles, Matt Ramsey and Matt Duffy all recorded one hit a piece. The Vols actually outhit the Gators 7-6 on the night but, until the ninth inning, were only able to move three runners into scoring position. Complete team effort The second matchup of the series was a different story, however, as Tennessee’s bats came alive and the Vols blasted the Gators by a score of 12-4. The Vols abused Gator pitchers as every starting position player recorded a hit, allowing the Tennessee offense to score runs in five of the first six
innings during Saturday’s contest. “We hit the ball hard all day,” Raleigh said. “Matt Ramsey gave us a lift, and P.J. Polk was tremendous again, but, offensively, the big one was Cody Hawn’s double. We had two outs, and he hit that one just inside the line. We ended up scoring all seven of those runs (in the fifth and sixth) with two outs and nobody on. That was big for us.” A first-inning home run by Florida first baseman Austin Maddox put the Gators up early, but that would be their only lead of the game as the Vols would quickly answer with a Polk single down the third-base line, scoring Norfork. The Vols took the lead for good in the bottom of the second by a rare inside-thepark home run from Ramsey, marking the first time a Tennessee baseball player accomplished this feat since former third baseman Cody Brown did so on April 15, 2009. Starting pitcher Stephen McCray had a Hayley DeBusk • The Daily Beacon fantastic outing, recording his fourth win of UT head coach Todd Raleigh watches the Vols during the season by going 6.1 innings, giving up Sunday’s matchup. Raleigh’s Vols ended a threejust one earned run and striking out a game home series against Florida on Sunday. career-high seven batters. “I felt pretty good out there,” McCray said. “I felt like I did a pretty good job moving the ball in and out, keeping it down, and it let the guys behind me play well.” Bats cool down In Sunday’s rubber game, the Volunteer bats were virtually non-existent as Tennessee fell to Florida by a score of 9-1. The Vols only compiled six hits on the afternoon, a far contrast to Saturday’s offensive showcase. “We didn’t play well today,” Raleigh said. “Their pitcher did a good job early, no doubt about it, but it was tied in the sixth, and I think (UT starting pitcher) Steven Gruver just ran out of gas.” Gruver, who was credited with the loss, started out strong before surrendering a big three-run home run off the bat of Florida second baseman Josh Adams. “I felt like I could have stayed out there,” Gruver said. “I just made a bad pitch or two, and they capitalized on it.” Tennessee’s lone offensive output came in the sixth inning when sophomore shortstop Zach Osborne recorded one of his two singles, the Vols’ lone RBI for the game. Khayyan Norfork and P.J. Polk had been riding a wave of hot hitting as of late but saw their hitting streaks of 10 and 13 games, respectively, come to an end on Sunday afternoon.
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