Bright Hall

Supreme Court Explores High School Searches, Personal Drama

Sam Guzik — 2009-04-24T10:06:00+00:00

Filed under: National News, Washington University, News

Sam Guzik is now a contributor for The Cram, a student news arm of the newly launched PoliticsDaily.com. To follow his future work, click here.

The Supreme Court is one of the United States's most venerable institutions, packed with nine of the nation's best legal minds, so it makes sense that they might be a little too busy to keep up with popular culture. Comments during the oral arguments in a case earlier this week, though, take out of touch to a new level.

Safford Unified School District v. Redding, heard by the court on Tuesday, asks the justices to weigh in on the constitutionality of strip searching students in schools when administrators have received a tip about hidden contraband but no location-specific information. While sorting through the complex fourth amendment issues, Justices found themselves transported back to their own time in school.

Take Justice Breyer, who wondered how the strip search was any different than what he had to endure while being forced to change for gym class and, less relevantly, while being teased by fellow students.

"In my experience when I was 8 or 10 or 12 years old, you know, we did take our clothes off once a day, we changed for gym, OK? And in my experience, too, people did sometimes stick things in my underwear," said Breyer while trying to point out that it might not be unusual for children to hide things from teachers in their underwear. As the court broke out into laughter, Breyer quickly added, "Or not my underwear. Whatever. Whatever."
Putting aside the troublesome assumption that forcing students to change for gym is analogous with forcing a 13-year-old girl to expose her breasts and pelvic region to school administrators, Justice Breyer's anecdote should be enough to start shaking your head at the Court.

Justice Scalia was surprised to learn that students sometimes sniff markers to get high when he asked why the school was attempting to confiscate them from students. "They sniff them?" Scalia said. "That's what kids do, your honor, unfortunately," said Matthew Wright, the representative for the petitioners. "Really?" Scalia responded.

The Court is expected to find against Savana Redding, now 19 (pictured at right), when it rules on the case in June based on the precedent of several other cases that establish a lower standard for administration searches of schools.

During the oral arguments, only Justice Ginsberg--coincidentally the only woman on the court--seemed shocked by the situation, observing the differences between Justice Breyer's experience in the men's locker room and Redding's search.

"It wasn't just that they were stripped to their underwear! They were asked to shake their bra out, to stretch the top of their pants and shake that out!" she said.

According to USA Today, The National Association of Social Workers - joined by the National Education Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children - sides with Redding in a court filing. "Social science research demonstrates that strip searches can traumatize children and adolescents and result in serious emotional damage," they say, citing studies in educational and legal journals.

After the strip search, Savana never returned to Safford Middle School. She transferred to other schools but never obtained her high school degree. She is currently taking classes at a community college and working to prepare for her GED.

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Obama Announces $13 Billion Train Project

Adam Kirchner — 2009-04-17T00:11:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, The Economy, Towson University

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced a $13 billion high-speed American rail transit development project on Thursday.

The transportation project will be funded by an initial down payment of $8 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and an additional $1 billion per year for five years, beginning with the 2010 budget.

Ten regional rail systems have been identified for the project: the California Corridor, the Pacific Northwest Corridor, the South Central Corridor, the Gulf Coast Corridor, the Chicago Hub Network, the Florida Corridor, the Southeast Corridor, the Keystone Corridor, the Empire Corridor and the Northern New England Corridor.

Amtrak, the passenger rail system founded in 1971, operates with revenue below expenses and receives an annually increasing federal subsidy reaching $6.3 million for fiscal year 2013, as mandated in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

Additionally, Amtrak received $1.3 billion of the 2009 ARRA funds.

The difference between the existing rail transit system that operates at a $6.3 million annual deficit and the proposed rail transit system which will presumably operate at a staggering deficit, as well, is that the new rail transit system will have 150-mile-per-hour trains. Why have one underutilized, operationally inadequate transit system when American travelers can have two that are rarely used?

Of course, the new $13 billion high-speed train system is meant to serve as a disincentive for American travelers to drive the 100,000 automobiles that the Obama Administration encouraged them to buy three weeks ago.

Spend lots of money on more cars, while already spending lots of money to subsidize one underutilized rail transit system, then spend lots of money to build another rail transit system, then stop driving the cars that cost lots of money and ride the new underutilized rail transit system that cost lots of money to build and costs lots of money to operate, instead, while there already was an underutilized transit system?

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GM Recalls 1.5 Million Cars, Prepares for Bankruptcy

Adam Kirchner — 2009-04-14T23:33:00+00:00

Filed under: National News, Towson University

General Motors will conduct a massive recall of 1.5 million cars in May while preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Six models, among three makes under the GM brand, spanning seven years of manufacture are being recalled due to a risk of engine compartment fire, according to the National Highway Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation.

The models being recalled include the 1997-2003 Buick Regal, the 2000-2003 Chevrolet Impala, the 1998-1999 Chevrolet Lumina, the 1998-2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the 1998-1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue and the 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand Prix.

The New York Times reported on Monday that the Treasury Department is urging GM to prepare to file for bankruptcy on June 1, rather than reorganizing out of court before its 60-day deadline extension on the provisional $13.4 billion federal loans granted in December.

In that Times article, former GM President and current GM CEO Fritz Henderson (pictured) has been giving "increasingly clear signals that bankruptcy is probable," since replacing former GM CEO Rick Wagoner, who was pressured out of office by the Obama Administration for failing to effectively restructure the company before the original March 31 deadline.

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FOX News Launches FOX Nation

Kaitlynn Riely — 2009-04-01T01:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, National News, Media, Notre Dame

Conservative commentators on FOX News may have argued against the election of Barack Obama during the campaign, but they can't deny that four -- or eight -- years of an Obama administration will be good for their business.

FOX News Channel, which has long been the No. 1 cable news operation, extended its lead over CNN and MSNBC in recent months, the New York Times reported. Bill O'Reilly's show, The O'Reilly Factor, reached a milestone in March of 100 consecutive months as the most popular program on cable news.

FOX recently launched a new Web site, The FOX Nation, which the AP described as a "Huffington Post-style" site, a reference to Arianna Huffington's left-leaning blog site.

Though FOX is a leader on television, it falls behind on the Internet, the AP said, with 16 million unique visitors in February compared with MSNBC.com's 41 million viewers and CNN.com's 36 million.

The new Web site features one of the most grandiose introductory letters ever posted on a Web site. The letter lauds America as the "city on a hill," and says FOX Nation is dedicated to the people of America who have made it great.

And I thought FOX Nation was just a way to boost traffic to their online product at a time when the government, particularly Obama and Democrats in Congress, are doing a lot of things to irk conservatives.

Of course, these are hard times, FOX Nation says, but Americans have always risen up to face challenges and will again.

"How, exactly, should we assure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?" the letter says. "How do we perfect our union? How can we make certain that children of all races are fairly judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character?"

The answer to FOX Nation's questions is, of course, FOX Nation.

"FOX Nation will be a forum for Americans to speak out on important and controversial issues, and to act out their beliefs and values -- while always upholding the traditional American ideals of free speech, fair play and tolerance," the letter says.

The site is a more user-friendly version of FOX News' actual Web site. It features content from O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, and the AP reported that FOX Nation will be adding social networking components and encouraging visitors to post their opinions in response to the stories.

FOX Nation is also one of the few news organizations where Joe the Plumber remains a top news story. So now you know where to go to get your daily Joe.

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Former Airport Worker Arrested After Stealing 600 Bags

Adam Kirchner — 2009-03-29T00:01:00+00:00

Filed under: National News, Towson University

A Dallas man faces 20 years in prison after being arrested and charged with stealing more than 600 pieces of luggage from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport and Tulsa International Airport.

Patrick Brown, 39, a former worker at D/FW Airport, stole an average of three bags per day from baggage claims between July 2008 and January 2009, according to D/FW Airport Public Safety. Luggage theft at D/FW Airport has tripled in the past five years.

Brown kept the stolen luggage in a storage unit and sold the contents and bags separately at the Traders Village flea market in Grand Prairie, about 15 miles south of D/FW Airport, according to police in a story by Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA.

"This guy accounts for probably more than half of our baggage thefts we've had out here," D/FW Airport Public Safety Vice President Alan Black said in the WFAA report. "It's a mini-crime wave that's come to an end."

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Obama To Give Commencement Address at Three Colleges

Kaitlynn Riely — 2009-03-20T17:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, Small Campus, Big Story, National News, News, Local, Notre Dame

I thought the biggest thing that was going to happen at Notre Dame this week was St. Patrick's Day. I was wrong.

According to an Associated Press report, President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address at Notre Dame's graduation May 17. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs made the announcement Friday that Obama will speak at my school, as well as at the Arizona State University and the U.S. Naval Academy graduation ceremonies. Notre Dame's media office issued a news release saying Obama will also be the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree.

The Facebook statuses of many Notre Dame students were all about the news Friday afternoon. There hasn't been this much buzz since freshmen year when rumors swirled that U2 was coming in for the ND-USC game.

I think Obama's gotten bigger than Bono.

Many people seem excited, but undoubtedly, there will be protests, especially by those who see Obama's stance on abortion as contrary to Catholic teachings. This is Notre Dame. We protest for weeks on end when students put on productions of The Vagina Monologues.

Obama will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree by Notre Dame and the sixth to be Commencement speaker, according to the news release.

And don't forget, Notre Dame also graduated the nation's best fake president, West Wing's Josiah Bartlett.

President George W. Bush delivered his first presidential commencement address at Notre Dame in 2001, four years before I was a student here.

It's not a bad way to graduate, with the president stopping by to send us out into the collapsing job market with some soaring rhetoric. I'm guessing that he'll tell us "we are the ones we've been waiting for," that "hope is the bedrock" of our future, and that "yes, we can."

While we have him on campus, the University administration should convince Obama to swing by South Bend in the fall to give some pep talks to our football team.

We'll have the teleprompters ready and waiting in the locker room.

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"The Decider" Decides To Write Book About His Biggest Decisions

Kaitlynn Riely — 2009-03-19T21:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, Notre Dame

Former President George W. Bush is writing a book, tentatively titled "Decision Points," to be released in 2010.

This will be a great compliment to my current favorite Bush family memoir, Millie's Book. That Springer Spaniel had so much insight into life in the White House.

George W.'s book will be a bit less fluff. Or so I hope.

Bush said he won't recount his entire life story, but will instead focus on 12 important choices he made in his personal life and as president, including, according to the Associated Press, his decision to give up drinking, picking Dick Cheney as his vice president and sending troops to Iraq.

"I want people to understand the environment in which I was making decisions," he told the AP Wednesday. "I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me."

The book, which will be published by Crown, part of the Crown Publishing Group, will also focus on his relationships with his family members, his religious faith and his response to Hurricane Katrina.

Bush told the AP Wednesday that he began writing his memoirs two days after he left office, and that he has already written about 30,000 words.

I have trouble sitting through a 15-minute Bush speech. Hopefully his book includes pictures. Here's some unsolicited editorial advice to Crown Publishing: don't include the "Mission Accomplished" banner picture.

Bush said he is working with research assistants and a former White House speechwriter to draft his book, and he told the AP that it would include some self-criticism. But he also wants people to see events as he saw them, in the moment, without the clarity of hindsight.

Bush told the AP he wasn't sure if he would write about the departure of his first defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, or if he would discuss his decision not to pardon Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

"I made a lot of decisions," he said.

He was, in fact, "The Decider" for eight years.
Bush spoke about his upcoming book at an event in Calgary, Canada Tuesday, where he made his first speech since he stopped being president in January. The invitation-only event, titled a "Conversation with George W. Bush," attracted nearly 2,000 guests.

Bush said his book will be fun to write.

"I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened," Bush said.

I think he means authoritative voice, not authoritarian. Or maybe he had it right?

I'm looking forward to reading the Bush take on the Bush administration come 2010. Will it be in the fiction or nonfiction section of my local bookstore?

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Chicago's Sears Tower Will Change Name To Willis Tower

Kaitlynn Riely — 2009-03-16T07:50:00+00:00

Filed under: National News, News, The Economy, Notre Dame

I landed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport late Saturday night and saw, probably for the last time, the Sears Tower.

The next time I'm in Chicago, the Sears Tower will be the Willis Tower.

Willis Group Holdings, a London-based global insurance broker, announced last week that it was consolidating its Chicago-area offices and moving into the Sears Tower, which they will rename in July.

"Having our name associated with Chicago's most iconic structure underscores our commitment to this great city, and recognizes Chicago's importance as a major financial hub and international business center," Joseph J. Plumeri, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Willis Group Holdings said in a news release on the company's Web site.

Plumeri acts like he is doing Chicago a favor, and maybe he is, by investing in real estate in the midst of a struggling economy. But the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States as well as the entire Western hemisphere, is too iconic to have its name changed. The Sears Tower is classic; the most prominent part of the Chicago skyline. Willis Tower sounds like the punchline to a bad "Diff'rent Strokes" joke.

The Chicago Tribune reported last week that, following the announcement about the building's name change, people were stopping by the 110-story building to take pictures of the Sears Tower name before it is gone.The Sears Tower hasn't been the headquarters of the Sears department store for 17 years, since Sears took up residence in the suburbs of Chicago in 1992. The company moved into the building, then the world's tallest, after it was completed in 1973, and even when they left, the name stuck.

Plumeri seemed surprised at the negative reaction to the proposed renaming of the Tower, according to statements reported in the Chicago Tribune.

"Would you rather have an iconic building with nobody in it, which doesn't say a lot about Chicago, or someone with enough faith to take the space?" he asked. "The headline should be: A company has decided to invest money in Chicago, and if you miss that headline, you've missed the side of the building by a mile and a half."

Plumeri may be a great CEO, but I think he would have struggled in the headline-writing business.

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Limbaugh at CPAC: 'We Can Take This Country Back'

Joshua Chaney — 2009-03-01T12:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, Muskingum College

Democrats want and need Rush Limbaugh to shut up - some argue that the Republicans do too.

And at a time when some Democrats are suggesting bringing back restrictions particularly targeting him, conservatives are embracing him - giving him what Fox News called an "immense" ovation before he began his keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC).

What transpired was nothing short of a chest-beating, conservative pep rally.

The talk radio giant, made famous for various extreme suggestions such as wanting Obama to fail, reportedly roused the conservative audience to their feet several times.

"We can take this country back," Limbaugh told them. "All we need is to nominate the right candidate."

Limbaugh actually came on stage 15 minutes early and spoke an hour over his allotted time of 20 minutes. If you've heard him on the radio before, you can understand why. The guy could talk for days and days on end.

He began by defining what being a conservative means.

"We conservatives have not done a good enough job of just laying out basically who we are, because we make the mistake of assuming that people know. What they know is largely incorrect, based on the way we're portrayed in pop culture, in the drive-by media, by the Democrat party."

"We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We believe that the preamble of the Constitution contains an inarguable truth, that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty freedom - and the pursuit of happiness."

In his speech, Limbaugh accused President Barack Obama of inspiring fear in Americans in order to push a "big government" agenda.

"He wants people in fear, angst and crisis, fearing the worst each and every day because that clears the decks for President Obama and his pals to come in with the answers, which are abject failures historically shown and demonstrated," Limbaugh said. "Doesn't matter. They'll have control of it when it's all over. And that's what they want."

"They see these inequalities, these inequities that capitalism produces. How do they try to fix it? Do they try to elevate those at the bottom? No, they try to tear down the people at the top."

Limbaugh went on to praise Obama as a gifted politician but said he's disappointed those talents are not being used to motivate the American people - instead, he said, it's just the opposite.

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Schwarzenegger's Anti-Video Game Law Nullified

Adam Kirchner — 2009-02-21T17:14:00+00:00

Filed under: National News, Pop Culture, Towson University

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for the state of California ruled on Friday that legislation restricting the sale of violent video games violates the First and Fourteenth amendment rights of free speech and equal protection.

Three judges reviewed the case, Video Software Dealers Association v. Schwarzenegger, et al., and invalidated Civil Code 1746-1746.5, which California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had signed into law (formerly AB 1179) on October 7, 2005.

Code 1746 had prohibited the sale of a violent video game (refer to the code for the definition) to a minor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.

The appeals court, however, upheld that video games "are a form of expression protected by the First Amendment" and that "minors are entitled to a significant measure of the First Amendment protection," referencing Interactive Digital Software Association v. St. Louis (2003) and Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (1975).

The decision also found that "when the government seeks to restrict speech 'it must demonstrate that the recited harms are real, not merely conjectural, and that the regulation will in fact alleviate these harms in a direct and material way,'" citing Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (1994).

One might remember Gov. Schwarzenegger's career, prior to his term in office, as a Hollywood movie star where he portrayed a sword-wielding "barbarian," a "commando," a mercenary fighting a headhunting alien, and a time-travelling cybernetic organism programmed with an expertise in "terminating" humans (in three films), among other roles.

Et tu, you big brute?

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Bush Hits Speech Circuit; First Stop -- Canada?

Tony Romm — 2009-02-13T12:27:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, News, American University

Twenty-three days after leaving office, former President George W. Bush has decided to take his first lap around the lecture circuit, beginning with an appearance in Canada next month, The Dallas Morning News reported Friday morning.

According to the Associated Press, the event -- a luncheon in Calgary, Alberta sponsored by local businesses, financial analysts, a law firm and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce -- is closed to the public; organizers have either already invited or expect only 1,500 Canadians to attend. The topic, according to the Dallas Morning News, is "a conversation with George W. Bush," a speech in which he is expected to "'share his thoughts on his eight momentous years in the Oval Office'." It is still unclear whether Bush will follow in his predecessors' footsteps and be paid for the engagement.

Unfortunately for the previous president, it is equally unclear how a Canadian audience will receive his message. In 2004, an Associated Press/Ipsos poll reported that 64 percent of Canadian respondents had an unfavorable opinion of the Bush presidency. That strain on U.S.-Canadian relations continued long into 2006, growing so powerful, reported The New York Times, that Canadian politicians leveraged their relationship with the former U.S. president during their own legislative contest.

In 2008, BBC pollsters further revealed that Canadians -- and the citizens of 16 other countries -- expected America's then-unnamed next president to markedly improve bilateral relations (and hoped that the new executive would be President Barack Obama). Presumably, those poll predictions have panned out: AFP reported the day before Obama's inauguration that his approval rating among Canadians had topped 80 percent. Meanwhile, Bush -- at least domestically -- exited the White House with the lowest approval rating of any president since Richard Nixon, and -- somewhat speculatively -- faced similarly low poll numbers abroad.

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Blogging Not Recognized as Journalism

Tony Romm — 2009-02-12T00:03:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, News, Media, American University

For the second time in two years, lawmakers have introduced a controversial bill that would provide qualified protection to journalists facing federal subpoenas to disclose their sources.

The Free Flow of Information Act of 2009, revealed on Wednesday by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN), returns at the beckoning of journalists who have long criticized the federal government for the absence of any source protections. Under current law, reporters are at the mercy of federal grand juries and civil proceedings; when formally requested, they must share their evidence or risk being held in contempt of court. The proposed law, by contrast, would mimic similar state "shield laws" and create a federal "reporter's privilege, with exceptions for national security, terrorism, the prevention of bodily harm, and eyewitness testimony from a crime scene," according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The new bill, however, is not without its vocal opposition.

Still at issue in the perennial shield law debate is who, exactly, qualifies as a "journalist." According to the new bill, which is identical to the previous Free Flow of Information Act, the phrase "covered persons" includes anyone "who regularly gathers, prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports, or publishes news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain..." That definition, lawyers indicated last year, does not include bloggers, many of whom only casually contribute content to their communities or frequently do so without "substantial" -- if any -- pay.

Regardless of their professional or profit motives, bloggers have faced extensive legal challenges over the past two years -- albeit at the state level where some shield protections already exist. In Virginia, for example, blogger Kathleen Seidal was served a state subpoena in 2008 as part of a personal injury lawsuit, one that required her to submit documents that included traffic data. Elsewhere, in Tennessee, local blogger Thaddeus Matthews fought Memphis lawyers over whether they could subpoena him for refusing to reveal his source in an ongoing police investigation. And in California, 24-year-old Josh Wolf was jailed for refusing to relinquish tapes identifying lawbreaking protesters at a Group of 8 summit in 2006. He spent 228 days behind bars.

Yet, not everyone agrees these state squabbles justify the addition of a "blogger provision" in the federal shield law. Despite the organization's previous support for bloggers fighting federal and state subpoenas, the Society of Professional Journalists issued a press release on Wednesday that included no mention of such a revision. "Today, we are asking you to join the fight to improve and protect journalism. Please contact your representative and voice your support for this measure that is essential to upholding a free and independent press," wrote James Aeikins, SPJ's president.

But bloggers' vociferous criticisms have not gone unheard: In 2007, the Senate anticipated this debate over who constitutes a "journalist" and rewrote its version of the bill to eliminate the "substantial portion/gain" condition. However, the chamber never voted on the bill; it died at the end of the previous Congressional session and has only been reintroduced in the House.

Since then, President Barack Obama has expressed vague interest in a federal shield law, a clear departure from his predecessor, who threatened to veto any such law in 2008. Still, it remains unclear whether President Obama supports the House bill in its present state -- and more importantly, whether House members have any interest in advancing it to the president's desk this year.

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Census Bureau to Report to White House?

Tony Romm — 2009-02-05T18:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, News, Odd News, American University

After a number of minority groups expressed concern that Commerce Secretary-designate Judd Gregg would "downsize census outreach efforts," President Barack Obama decided Thursday to altogether bypass the Commerce Department and force the Census Bureau to report directly to the White House, according to Congressional Quarterly.

At issue is Gregg's prior disposition toward the constitutionally-mandated, decennial census. As a three-term GOP senator from New Hampshire, Gregg frequently supported cuts in the bureau's funding, even opposing President Bill Clinton's appeals for emergency money in 1999. In both instances, Democrats lambasted Gregg, alleging that his efforts would have complicated the counting process, especially in traditionally under-reported minority neighborhoods at risk of being subsumed into larger congressional districts.

Although Gregg has yet to defend his positions in cabinet confirmation hearings, the Obama administration hoped to preempt any political fallout on Thursday by releasing scant details of its revised census plan. Speculation, however, does exist: According to Politico and a second CQ dispatch, the revised census hierarchy would permit Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, the former chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to "h andle Census Bureau matters," though to what extent remains unclear.

Buoyed by such uncertainty, House Republicans immediately condemned the Obama administration for politicizing the census.

In a joint letter to the White House on Thursday, Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Ca.) and Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) criticized the president's plan to circumvent the Commerce Department. According to the two members, any proximal relationship between the political wing of the White House and the Census Bureau "severely jeopardiz[es] the fairness and accuracy" of a count that determines how much a congressional district will grow or shrink, how many representatives each state is afforded -- and thus -- how many electoral votes each state receives.

As of Thursday evening, neither the Obama administration nor Gregg's office had addressed the matter on record.

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Obama Warns of Long Road Ahead, While Students Get Desperate

Kaitlynn Riely — 2009-02-02T08:34:00+00:00

Filed under: Featured Stories, On Campus, National News, The Economy

The mantra of change during the 2008 election was so strong, and so frequent, that I think I forgot simply putting Barack Obama behind the desk of the Oval Office would not automatically turn the economy around.

Change [will] come. Maybe.

Obama gave a weekly address Saturday that was more mope than hope.

"Americans know that our economic recovery will take years -- not months," he said, according to a White House transcript of the speech.

He said the economy is probably going to get worse before it gets better. But it's pretty bad already, he admitted.

"Yesterday, we learned that our economy shrank by nearly 4 percent from October through December. That decline was the largest in over a quarter century, and it underscores the seriousness of the economic crisis that my administration found when we took office.

"Already the slowdown has cost us tens of thousands of jobs in January alone," he said.

It's the economy's affect on jobs that has college students worried, especially seniors, as May approaches.

Last week I went to a career fair at Notre Dame. There were more than 130 companies represented (many of which weren't even hiring at present), but far, far more students searching for jobs or internships. At one point, my friend turned to me and told me she could smell the desperation in the room. Another friend asked me if I thought it was just an urban legend that people get jobs from job fairs.

Will job fairs themselves soon become urban legends? Or worse, will we end up like the poor saps in CareerBuilder.com's hilarious Super Bowl ad?

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Obama to GOP: 'I Won, I'm The President'

Joshua Chaney — 2009-01-25T17:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, News, Muskingum College

Republicans wanting to play nice with the Democratic majority and the Obama administration will need to quit listening to Rush Limbaugh, Obama said, and get used to the new sheriff in town.

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," Obama told GOP leaders whom he had invited to the White House. Obama set up the meeting to discuss his planned nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

"One prong of the Great Unifier's plan is to isolate elected Republicans from their voters and supporters by making the argument about me and not about his plan," Limbaugh told the National Review's Byron York in response. "He is hoping that these Republicans will also publicly denounce me and thus marginalize me."

"To make the argument about me instead of his plan makes sense from his perspective," Limbaugh continued. "Obama's plan would buy votes for the Democrat Party, in the same way FDR's New Deal established majority power for 50 years of Democrat rule, and it would also simultaneously seriously damage any hope of future tax cuts. It would allow a majority of American voters to guarantee no taxes for themselves going forward. It would burden the private sector and put the public sector in permanent and firm control of the economy."

The full text of Limbaugh's response can be found here.

Obama went on to arrogantly claim that he essentially planned to ram his plan through without bipartisan support, nearly saying if anyone disagrees with him then they are going against some heavenly mandate. Let there be no doubt - he's the boss.

"I won," he told GOP leaders. "I'm the president."

The divisive comments come after years of campaigning on a promise to end partisan bickering and unite the country. GOP leaders have complained the legislation that included his stimulus package was drafted without the input Obama had promised to allow them.

The "flip-flops" haven't stopped there.

Stringent ethics rules, particularly targeting the so-called "revolving door" involving lobbyists, also have become part of what Transition Co-chair John Podesta described as "the strictest and most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history."

During the campaign, Obama criticized Sen. John McCain for using lobbyists in high-ranking positions on his campaign. Obama himself promised no lobbyists would be a part of his administration - "They won't find a job in my White House." Yet, Mr. Obama's nominee for deputy secretary of defense, William Lynn, has been a lobbyist for the defense contractor Raytheon, and his nominee for deputy secretary of health and human services, William V. Corr, lobbied for stricter tobacco regulations as an official with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Obama also promised more transparency during the campaign and yet refused to allow television cameras to film him re-doing the botched swearing-in and also from signing the executive order reversing the Bush abortion funding ban on aid agencies abroad to avoid criticism from pro-life groups. The latter didn't slip under the radar of the Vatican, however, as one Vatican official called Obama "arrogant" for doing it.

After signing the order, Obama released a statement promising to "reach out to those on all sides of this issue to achieve the goal of reducing unintended pregnancies."

"It is time we end the politicization of this issue," he added quite ironically.

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Inauguration Week Not Without Bush Bashing

Joshua Chaney — 2009-01-20T20:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, Breaking News, National News, News, Muskingum College

A day meant to be one of renewal and unity did not go without a final word from Bush-bashers.

A part of the crowd on the west side of the capitol mocked President George W. Bush, chanting "Nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, good-bye" as he took to the inaugural stage next to his outgoing vice-president, The Hill reported Tuesday.

Left-leaning groups made several special efforts to get parting shots at Bush with several failed attempts to hold rallies. One group, AfterDowningStreet.org, planned to throw shoes at the outgoing president Monday.

Throwing shoes isn't even enough anymore nor is the fact that Bush isn't even president anymore.

A coalition of activist groups planned an event called "Yes We Can Arrest Bush," in front of the FBI Building. The group is a part of a somewhat more serious effort to get now-President Obama to prosecute Bush and members of his administration for what they characterize as war crimes.

New York Times' Paul Krugman recently called for an inquest into the charges against the president. If we don't have one, it gives credit to the belief that those in power are above the law, he said.

"I'm sorry," Krugman wrote in his Times' column last week, "but if we don't have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years - and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama's remarks to mean that we won't - this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don't face any consequences if they abuse they're power."

The big party wasn't without its witty Hollywood celebrities as well. Denzel Washington, Usher and Oprah were on hand for the swearing-in. Known more for his role in major movies than his political prowess, Samuel L. Jackson added "We're part of the world community again," in an on-air interview with Access Hollywood.

Columnist Robert Shrum called the tendency of democrats to anticipate setback as a result of a "stolen" election in 2000 and close defeat in 2004 "Battered Liberal Syndrome," in his column today.

Currently, democrats are anticipating the "devaluation of last November's victory, a scenario in which progressive policy is undermined and Democratic dreams are once again deferred," Shrum said.

It almost seems the only thing deferred is the whole "unity" thing we've been talking about for months.

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The First Limo's Slick, But It's Still No KITT

Adam Kirchner — 2009-01-19T22:08:00+00:00

Filed under: National News, Pop Culture, Towson University

Part of the grandeur and spectacle of Tuesday's inauguration for Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, will be the official debut of the new presidential limousine. The commander-in-chief's official ground transport is traditionally rotated out and upgraded at the beginning of each four-year term.

The 2009 First Limo, code-named "Stagecoach", is built around a modified GM truck chassis, encased in inches of military-grade composite capable of stopping armor-piercing rounds and grenades, as well as ballistic-proof tinted windows, drives on run-flat tires, carries a wireless data uplink, and houses a sealed A/C impervious to chemical weapons assault. And what would the Executive whip be without footing for Secret Service agents to hop on for the ride?

Despite being the slickest anti-assault vehicle on the planet, though, there's plenty of room for improvement when the 2013 model comes out. Mr. President, I submit for your consideration some of the specifications of KITT from Knight Rider:

Voice Stress Analyzer: say you're driving with Medvedev and Sarkozy and you aren't sure if they're lying. KITT's got you covered.

A snarky, egotistical artificial intelligence: not only can it take over at the wheel when the driver is otherwise occupied (or absent at the helm, altogether), trading words with KITT will help you warm up for the "gotcha" media's press conference questions.

Auto-deflatable and reinflatable tires: run-flat has nothing on these.

Flame thrower and tear gas launcher: because you never know when you might need them if a rally gets out of hand.

Two words: Turbo Boost!

Surveillance Mode: see who's hiding in buildings along the parade route. Watching you, watching me, watching you 'cause you're watching me...

Microwave Jammer: on second thought, the C.I.A. probably has this covered.

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Simple Addition Won't Save The Pell Grant

Tony Romm — 2009-01-19T00:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, Money, News, The Economy, American University

Assuredly, somewhere, students rejoiced at lawmakers' announcement on Thursday that they intend to enlarge the Pell Grant, a need-based gift aid program, by $500 next academic year. House Democrats, who introduced the increase as part of their upcoming (and hotly contested) $850 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also hope to pair the bigger grant with equally sizable increases in education infrastructure funding and tax credits.

Assuming the bill passes untouched by Senate skeptics, it'll constitute a symbolic victory for the higher education community, which has historically pined for more Pell Grant funding.

Unfortunately, it will be a small, unhelpful victory at that. Long plagued by diminishing purchasing power, the Pell Grant currently covers about 33 percent of an eligible student's cost of attendance at a four-year public college or university -- less than half of what the grant initially covered when it was introduced in 1972. Predictably, an additional $500 per annum, no matter how well-intentioned, does not address the decades throughout which Congress did not increase Pell awards in tandem with inflation.

A simple calculation sufficiently illustrates why: If the National Education Association's (NEA) public school cost of attendance estimates for 2009 are correct, the proposed expanded Pell Grant -- $5,321 for those students who qualify for the maximum -- would still only account for 34 percent of state college students' yearly bills, a meager one-point increase that will cost the government $16 billion to implement. And that figure assumes tuition only rises 6 percent next academic year; for those students bracing for even larger tuition hikes, the Pell Grant might possess even less power.Then again, that's why solving the Pell Grant's shortcomings is not a matter of simple addition. Unlike Stafford Loans, which pay for themselves with fixed interest rates, the federal grant program has no auxiliary funding mechanism; the government can't reinvest graduates' payments because there is nothing to be repaid. But that, after all, is the paradox of gift-based financial assistance: Although the grant lessens the burden on low-income families (for transparency's sake, mine included), it does so at the detriment of the federal budget, usually to the tune of more than $15 billion a year. In other words, every expansion of the grant program -- in either the amount of Americans it serves or the money it provides -- deepens the debt and diminishes the government's ability to provide those funds in the future. Worse, it leaves higher education's more intractable financial crises -- the loan market and the tuition hikes, among other issues -- totally untouched.

Whether President-elect Barack Obama possesses enough political capital to address the Pell Grant's structural inadequacies remains unclear; to do so in a solvent, effective manner, he must either raise taxes or cut other programs, neither of which seems particularly appealing during a period of economic decline. Until then, however, college students can only celebrate marginal increases with lukewarm enthusiasm. Solving the Pell Grant's problems isn't a matter of simple addition, but living with its effects just might be.

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Hope Sold Here

Adam Kirchner — 2009-01-17T19:16:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, National News, Local, Towson University

President-elect Barack Obama addressed a crowd of 40,000 assembled outside of Baltimore's City Hall Saturday afternoon on his train trip from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. In anticipation of his inauguration on Tuesday, Obama is following the same path that Abraham Lincoln took by train to his inauguration, seven score and eight years ago in 1861.

Although Obama's speech lasted only 15 minutes, the crowd of Baltimoreans had waited at the plaza for over three hours for the opportunity to see him in person, and to take digital photographs and videos. During the speech that so many had waited to hear, a woman in the crowd to the left of the president-elect shouted "We love you, Obama." Without hesitancy, the 44th President of the United States interrupted his speech, turned to her direction and said in earnest "I love you back." 40,000 Baltimoreans gushed, all at once.

Obama was joined onstage by First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Second Lady Jill Biden.

During the three-hour wait in 20-degree weather the crowd of Baltimoreans was entertained twice by a personal trainer who tried to lead them in exercises. The curiosity that is the Baltimore sports fan base booed the Orioles' mascot off the stage, but later in the afternoon shouted "O" during the singing of the National Anthem, as they do at Camden Yards.

In the last hour before Obama made his way from Baltimore's Penn Station down to City Hall, the Morgan State University Choir sang gospel songs to the crowd for 30 minutes, twice as long as the awaited speech, beginning with "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing", which was adopted in 1919 by the NAACP as the "Negro National Anthem."

Representative Elijah Cummings and Governor Martin O'Malley, both prominent Democratic Maryland politicians, followed the choir appearing onstage together, each giving brief speeches to the crowd while additional snipers became visible on the surrounding rooftops. Police helicopters circled in the air around the plaza and a conspicuous black Chinook flew across the East Baltimore skyline. The only known incident of the afternoon was a call through the PA system to reunite a lost child with her parents.

Before the crowd was allowed to enter through street-side metal detectors into the secured plaza, the tens of thousands of onlookers snaked in a dense line along the sidewalk around six blocks of closed streets, down toward the Inner Harbor, where jumbo screens displayed the events for the thousands who could not enter. Many had been waiting since before noon to hear the speech scheduled for 4:15 p.m.

Although the speech was formally announced only days ago, dozens of vendors paraded from one end of the line to the other, selling Obama-themed hats, buttons, posters, calendars, and T-shirts. One man made his way through the crowd, hawking "Obama Oil," which was met with laughter on the chilly sidewalk. Hand warmers were five dollars for a pair.

The most telling hawker stopped and posed for a pedestrian photographer, beaming with impromptu popularity yet seemingly unaware of how apropos he was at the moment. He was selling posters with the simple promise used often during Obama's campaign: Hope, designed by Obey's Shepard Fairey. As the vendor posed in the middle of East Redwood Street, the display in his hand read "Hope Sold Here."Representative Elijah Cummings and Governor Martin O'Malley, both prominent Democratic Maryland politicians, followed the choir appearing onstage together, each giving brief speeches to the crowd while additional snipers became visible on the surrounding rooftops. Police helicopters circled in the air around the plaza and a conspicuous black Chinook flew across the East Baltimore skyline. The only known incident of the afternoon was a call through the PA system to reunite a lost child with her parents.

Before the crowd was allowed to enter through street-side metal detectors into the secured plaza, the tens of thousands of onlookers snaked in a dense line along the sidewalk around six blocks of closed streets, down toward the Inner Harbor, where jumbo screens displayed the events for the thousands who could not enter. Many had been waiting since before noon to hear the speech scheduled for 4:15 p.m.

Although the speech was formally announced only days ago, dozens of vendors paraded from one end of the line to the other, selling Obama-themed hats, buttons, posters, calendars, and T-shirts. One man made his way through the crowd, hawking "Obama Oil," which was met with laughter on the chilly sidewalk. Hand warmers were five dollars for a pair.

The most telling hawker stopped and posed for a pedestrian photographer, beaming with impromptu popularity yet seemingly unaware of how apropos he was at the moment. He was selling posters with the simple promise used often during Obama's campaign: Hope, designed by Obey's Shepard Fairey. As the vendor posed in the middle of East Redwood Street, the display in his hand read "Hope Sold Here."

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2009 Trend Watch: Forced Vacation

Joshua Chaney — 2009-01-15T16:56:00+00:00

Filed under: National News, Media, The Economy, Muskingum College

As if journalism students needed another reminder of the increasingly dismal state of the U.S. newspaper industry, media giant Gannett Co. announced today that it will force a majority of its more than 40,000 employees to take an unpaid week off.

Employees must take a week off sometime within the first quarter, and if they refuse they'll possibly lose their jobs.

"After much consideration, we decided a furlough program would be the fairest and least intrusive way to meet these fiscal challenges in the first quarter, which is traditionally the lightest time of the year," Gannett Chief Executive Craig Dubow said in a staff memo. "We sincerely hope this minimizes the need for any layoffs going forward."

USA Today, the largest of 85 daily, U.S. newspapers owned by Gannett, also announced freezes on all wages for one year.

The announcement adds to an increasing number of cuts, bankruptcies and layoffs at newspapers and publishers around the country.
The Tribune Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, filed bankruptcy in early December, and the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News plan to stop their home delivery most days of the week and slim down their print editions.

The trend surely creates some concern for graduating seniors looking to get a job as a journalist.

Perhaps having accurately predicted the future, former Chicago Sun-Times Sports Columnist Jay Mariotti resigned from his post, citing just those reasons back in late August, saying he didn't "want to go down with" the competing Chicago newspapers.

The future of his business, Mariotti said, "sadly is not in newspapers."

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