february 11, 2014 online edition
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INSIDE: page designed and edited by BISHOP [email protected], 2 | SPORTS, 3 | OPINION, 4 | LIFE!, 6
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014 | VOL. 117 NO. 77 | MARSHALL UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER | marshallparthenon.com
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See FACILITIES | Page 5
Canada surges into first, US drops to fourth place
Medal standings, Feb. 10
Total
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2. Netherlands
3. Norway
4. United States 5. Germany
6. Russia
7. Austria 8. France 9. Poland Switzerland
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2014 Winter Olympics
276439MARSHALL CAREER SERVICES
By BRAXTON CRISPTHE PARTHENON
In the 21st century world of major college athletics, teams are playing in more extravagant venues each year. The Carrier Classic was the height of venue madness, with NCAA Men’s Basketball games played in the open elements on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Marshall University did not play in any of the Carrier Clas-sic games, but the Thundering Herd has been working hard to improve the quality of the facil-ities the Herd calls home.
In the four years since Mar-shall Athletic Director Mike Hamrick came to Marshall from UNLV, $42,210,112.22 has been spent to improve the facilities of Marshall University, according to figures provided by Hamrick. Of that, $33 million came from donations to the Vi-sion Campaign, and another $1,189,048.43 was funded by
the state. A contract renego-tiation with IMG College, which is Marshall Athletics media rights holder, meant another $3 million in the Herd’s pocket, meaning only $5,021,063.79 was paid directly out of the ath-letics budget.
Hamrick said the money is being spent to make the Herd’s athletic facilities better be-cause the improvements need to be made.
“Our facilities were in des-perate need of renovation, modernization and upgrading,” Hamrick said.
Hamrick said the Herd’s fa-cilities should provide the best possible quality for student athletes to both practice and compete.
“Our whole goal on these fa-cility improvements is to make sure our student athletes have adequate, safe and quality fa-cilities to practice and compete in,” Hamrick said.
Not only are the upgraded facilities going to benefit the current student athletes, they will help the future athletes of Marshall as well.
Hamrick said having the construction projects going on right now helps the future athletes during the recruiting process, even before they en-roll at Marshall.
“Once you get recruits in here and show them the fa-cilities, not pictures, which we have, but now they can see what is coming out of the ground, I think it makes a huge difference in your recruiting,” Hamrick said.
Building and renovating stadiums and arenas is not in-expensive, but Hamrick was able to make the improvements happen without draining the Herd’s budget. Part of that was through a renegotiation with IMG College, who holds the media rights for Marshall
athletics. In the renegotiation, Hamrick was able to get $3 mil-lion to use on installing two new scoreboards at Joan C. Ed-wards Stadium, as well as add LED ribbon signs and install new lights to the Cam Hender-son Center.
“The Henderson Center was a dungeon four years ago,” Ham-rick said. “The lights were bad, the PA system could not be heard in half of the building and it was so hot that you couldn’t do anything.”
The lights and signage were part of the $3 million from IMG, while the PA system installed was an additional $405,000 and the air system was part of a state funded project.
Hamrick did not just help the football and basketball teams though. Through the Vision Campaign, Marshall soccer now has a new stadium. The indoor practice facility, sports medicine translational research center and
student athlete academic center will be available to all athletic teams of Marshall University.
Hamrick said that while foot-ball may be the big name team that will use the indoor practice facility, track and field, baseball, softball and men’s and women’s golf will have the ability to prac-tice there as well.
“With the new netting sys-tem, softball and baseball could practice in there,” Hamrick said. “With the netting system we’re going to put in there, you can hit golf balls where you can see where they go for the first hun-dred yards.”
Hamrick said that in June 2012, the Henderson Center and Gullickson Hall weight room got a new floor put in it, and last fall work began on repairing and re-placing the surface of the Brian David Fox Tennis Center, which cost a combined $188,850.
“You’re never done with fa-cilities,” Hamrick said. “Facilities
get old, they get outdated. So you have to continue to keep your eyes down the road for what you need for your student athletes.”
Fans who have made their way to the Henderson Center recently may have noticed the new playing surface that was put in last September. The same will happen to Joan C. Edwards Stadium, as there will be a new turf field installed in the home of Marshall football after the conclusion of the upcoming spring practice period for the Herd’s men of the gridiron.
The one venue that Marshall doesn’t currently have in Hun-tington is a baseball stadium. A ballpark may be on its way though, as last week, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams vowed to have a baseball stadium built by the time his term in office ends in January 2017.
Athletic department continues to expand facilities
HOME IMPROVEMENT
By JESSICA STARKEYTHE PARTHENON
Appalachian Power is partnering with Marshall University to lighten up the perimeters of campus.
Twenty-one new street-lights will be installed on Fifth Avenue, Third Avenue, Hal Greer Boulevard, 14th Street and 15th Street.
In addition to the new streetlights, all existing street-light bulbs will be upgraded from 250 watts to 400 watts. The city’s street division has also trimmed back several trees and removed three trees that were obstructing lights at night in some areas.
Communications Director for the City of Huntington,
Bryan Chambers, said they have been brainstorming this project for a while and re-ally want to improve existing areas.
“There was a lot of thought that went into the areas that needed improvement,” Chambers said. “It’s not just about identifying the weak spots it’s improving the exist-ing areas and upgrading the lighting to a higher wattage.”
This project started last summer when Mayor Steve Williams’ administration, Marshall University officials and representatives of Appa-lachian Power discussed how to improve lighting in the vi-cinity of Marshall’s campus. A walking tour was completed
to identify the exact areas that needed attention.
Williams said he is con-cerned about the students and faculty on Marshall’s campus, and he wants to make sure they feel safe at night.
“As a result of meetings through the past year, I was consistently hearing concerns about safety and lighting,” Williams said. “It’s critically important to us to ensure students, faculty and staff in the evening feel as safe on the perimeters of campus as they do in the middle of campus.”
Junior at Marshall, Monica Winkfield, said she hopes the lighting will be improved af-ter this project. She has also
noticed several lights turn off on their own.
“I’ve noticed that some of the street lights go off at a cer-tain time,” Winkfield said. “It makes me feel unsafe. If there are not streetlights we can’t look out our window and see what’s going on, and that’s a problem.”
The streetlight project is predicted to cost approxi-mately $31,000. The city of Huntington and Marshall Uni-versity will share the costs. Appalachian power estimated the upgrades will cost an ad-ditional $25 to $30 a month in electricity costs.
Jessica Starkey can be contacted at [email protected].
Let there be light :Appalachian Power joins Huntington, Marshall in plan to brighten campus
PHOTOS BY BRAXTON CRISP | THE PARTHENON
Construction continues on the indoor practice facility Monday (above right) while improvements have already been made to the Cam Henderson Center (left) and the Joan C. Edwards Stadium scoreboard (below right).
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page designed and edited by REBECCA STEPHENS | [email protected]
See LAWSUIT | Page 5
By MEGAN OSBORNETHE PARTHENON
This week the temperatures are expected to be above freez-ing with a chance of snow and rainy mixtures, according to the National Oceanic and Atmo-spheric Administration.
Monday was sunny with a high near 24 and a low around 10 during the night.
According to NOAA, Tuesday is expected to be sunny with a high of 27 and breezy, and a low of 20 at night with no chance of precipitation.
Wednesday will come with a small chance of snow in the afternoon and a rainy mix in the evening, but the sky will be partly sunny. Temperatures are expected to reach 36 dur-ing the day. Wednesday night will bring some snow and a low of 26.
NOAA reported the possibil-ity of hazardous weather from Wednesday into Thursday morning, due to a southern storm system. If the system does not stay too far south, sig-nificant snow is a possibility over the central Appalachians, which could cause delays.
Thursday will be sun with a high of 43 and cloudy and a low of 29 at night.
There is a chance of rain and snow Friday along with a high near 42 and a low of 25 at night.
Saturday has a 30 percent chance of rain and snow, with a high of 40 during the day. Pre-cipitation will continue into the night with a low of 27.
Sunday is expected to be partly sunny with a high near 42.
Megan Osborne can be contacted at [email protected].
More snow expected along with above-freezing temps
By KEVIN G. HALLMCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU (MCT)
A public advocacy group filed a legal challenge Mon-day to block implementation of a record $13 billion civil settlement between Attorney General Eric Holder and Wall Street powerhouse JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The group, Better Markets, argued that reaching a settle-ment 300 times the nearest similar settlement without any sort of judicial review amounted to a power grab by the executive branch and Holder.
“It reads the separation of powers right out of the Con-stitution,” Better Markets President Dennis Kelleher said at a news conference. Kelleher is a former top Dem-ocratic lawyer in the Senate and a onetime securities liti-gator at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Holder negotiated pri-vately with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to reach the November deal, in which Wall Street’s top bank did not admit guilt and simply agreed to a statement of facts. The privately brokered deal, said Kelleher, put on ice plans by
federal prosecutors in Sac-ramento, Calif., to seek an injunction against JPMorgan Chase.
“This case really stands out, let’s face it, for the power grab,” Kelleher said.
The settlement did not preclude criminal charges brought against JPMorgan Chase employees or those in companies it acquired. But since the 2008 financial crisis, there have been few prosecu-tions of high-level Wall Street executives.
Specifically, Monday’s legal filing asks the U.S. Dis-trict Court for the District
of Columbia to impose an injunction halting the settle-ment with JPMorgan Chase from going forward. It calls the settlement unconsti-tutional and also alleges it violates the Administrative Procedures Act and more importantly the Financial In-stitutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989.
That latter, known as FIR-REA, is the tool the Justice Department frequently uses to settle lawsuits with Wall Street. If a court were to rule
Lawsuit challenges Justice Department action on Wall Street
KEVIN G. HALL | MCT
Dennis Kelleher, president of the advocacy group Better Markets announces a lawsuit seeking to block a record government settlement with JP Morgan Chase, Monday.
MCT CAMPUS
By KEVIN G. HALLMCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU (MCT)
Economists and the stock market shrugged off the second consecutive dismal jobs report Friday, attributing it to tem-porary factors and expressing confidence in underlying eco-nomic strength.
Mainstream economists had expected January payrolls to grow by 175,000, so January’s 113,000 reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics constituted a second straight big miss. Friday’s report also revised up Decem-ber’s poor 74,000 jobs number by just 1,000 positions, suggest-ing the weak showing wasn’t a fluke. The unemployment rate decreased to 6.6 percent.
Bad weather got the blame for a weak January, and economists seemed to think the economy is stronger than the labor market suggests.
“The impact of the bad weather is clearest in retail, educational services, local government and transportation,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, told McClatchy. “The job market will get back on track once more normal weather returns. Nothing fundamental has changed in the economy to suggest that the job market has throttled back.”
The stock market seemed to agree. Stocks opened up and stayed there all day. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 165.55 points to 15,794.08. The S&P 500 gained 23.59 points
to 1,797.02, and the NASDAQ fin-ished up 68.74 points to 4,125.86.
On Capitol Hill, however, Re-publicans were quick to pounce on the bad jobs numbers.
“The American people con-tinue to ask, ‘Where are the jobs?’ and the president clearly has no answers,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Eco-nomic Advisers, did not blame cold weather.
“I don’t think weather had a lot to do with the January jobs report,” he said on CNBC, noting he put more weight on Califor-nia’s brutal drought than the cold spell. “I don’t think it was a partic-ularly big part of the story in the jobs numbers this month.”
In his White House blog, Fur-man focused on the longer view.
“Private sector job growth was revised up for November (to 272,000) and December (to 89,000) so that over the past 12 months, private employment has risen by 2.3 million, or an average of 191,000 per month,” he said.
Two straight soft months on hiring prompted questions of whether the Federal Reserve un-der new chair Janet Yellen might take a pause after tapering back on controversial bond purchases in both January and February. Yellen goes before Congress on Tuesday, the first time since tak-ing the helm on Feb. 1.
“We expect Fed Chair Yellen to stay the course at her testimony next week, reiterating her view
that the economy is healing, al-lowing for a measured pace of tapering,” said Michelle Meyer, a top economist at Bank of Amer-ica Merrill Lynch.
The sluggish hiring in Decem-ber and January came at a pace that, if continued, would be well below what’s needed to keep up with new entrants into the work-force and bring down the jobless rate.
Yet the unemployment rate dipped a tenth of a percentage point in January.
“The best news in the report is that unemployment declined again, and this time it happened because of more jobs and not a weaker labor force,” said Zandi, noting the labor force partici-pation rate actually inched up slightly. “The expiration of the un-employment insurance program (in December) does not appear to have had much of an impact in January.”
That’s a reference to the loss of benefits for about a third of the long-term unemployed. A bill to extend these benefits anew fell one Senate vote short of clearing a procedural hurdle Thursday on Republican opposition. If ben-efits aren’t extended, he said, it will show up in the labor force numbers later in the spring.
The number of long-term un-employed in January stood at 3.6 million, or about 35.8 percent of all the unemployed. That number fell by 1.1 million since January 2012, the Labor Department said.
Jobs market doesn’t weather the weather in January
By PATRICK MAYSAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS (MCT)
The showdown at Apple Inc.’s One Infinite Loop has ended in a draw.
After six months of trying to force the company to spend $50 billion on buying back its own stock, activist investor Carl Icahn is dropping his campaign, apparently satisfied that the company’s recent decision to re-purchase $14 billion worth of its shares was good enough for now.
In a letter to Apple sharehold-ers published Monday, Icahn said his decision to stand down was prompted by the Cuper-tino company’s recent buyback as well as a recommendation against his effort from an influ-ential firm that gives advice to big shareholders. A day earlier, Institutional Shareholder Ser-vices had said the Icahn proposal would “micromanage” Apple’s capital allocation process, and recommended shareholders re-ject Icahn’s plan to shake loose more of Apple’s cash.
“We see no reason to persist with our nonbinding proposal, especially when the company is already so close to fulfilling our requested repurchase target,” Icahn wrote.
The move, at least for now, ends a very public scrimmage be-tween Icahn and Apple’s board over how the company plans to use its massive war chest of $160 billion in cash.
Apple investors responded by nudging shares up 1.8 percent Monday.
An Apple representative de-clined to comment.
Icahn, who owns roughly $4 billion in Apple shares, has seen his investment pop nearly 14 percent since he launched his campaign last August. Some observers felt Icahn was over-reaching in trying to force Apple’s hand.
“As I’ve said all along, ev-eryone thought Carl was off his rocker for asking such a ri-diculous number,” said analyst Laurence Balter with Oracle Investment Research, referring to Icahn’s $50 billion buyback target. “At the same time, in a very legal and logical way, he has used social and traditional media to get what he wants. Carl has done what he’s been doing the past 40 years, which is shaking up boards and man-agement and getting them to start thinking about their shareholders.
“I think he wanted to see how far he could take this thing,” Bal-ter said, “and now it’s over.”
The move ends a campaign by Icahn that began Aug. 13, when he tweeted about the huge chunk of Apple stock he had bought, pushing the share price up 5 percent by the end of the day. Although the company had said a year earlier that it intended to spend $100 billion on dividends and stock buybacks, Icahn said the company was still underval-ued, asking Apple at one point for a $150 billion share buyback.
After publicly pushing CEO Tim Cook for months with tweets and letters, Icahn is now appar-ently suggesting the company is on the right track, writing in his note that because of “Cook’s confirmed plan to launch new products in new categories this year (in addition to an exciting product road map with respect to new products in existing cate-gories), we are extremely excited about Apple’s future.”
Icahn gives up push for Apple stock
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page designed and edited by WILL VANCE | [email protected]
See SAM | Page 5
By BARBARA BERRETTMCCLATCHY FOREIGN STAFF (MCT)
As North American neigh-bors, Canada and the United States generally enjoy a good relationship, but in women’s ice hockey, that friendship ends at the Zamboni door.
The U.S.-Canada rivalry might be the strongest in Olym-pic sports, men’s or women’s.
The two adversaries are by far the best in the world, so dominant in their sport that at the last Olympics, many observ-ers worried about the future of women’s hockey if other na-tions didn’t step up their game. Countries such as Finland, Switzerland, Russia and Ger-many have improved, but for now, those teams appear to be little more than warm-ups.
On Wednesday, the powers face off in preliminary play of the Olympic hockey tournament. They bring a history of competi-tion, respect — and, recently, a pair of fist-slinging brawls.
“Once you get on the ice, there’s no friends on that team. You’re playing Canada,” said Anne Schleper, a defenseman for Team USA.
Canadian forward Jayna
Hefford, who has four Olym-pic medals, offered a bit of a backhanded compliment to her opponents: “You want to play the best, and next to us, the Americans are it.”
Lou Vairo, coach of the 1984 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team, called the clash one of the fiercest in hockey.
“It’s a very fierce rivalry,” he said. “Jeez, as far as I can remember, all of the deciding big games have basically been decided in overtime or shoot-outs. That’s how close it is. And I think it’s that close again this time.”
In many cases, the North American players are just bigger. At its opening game Sat-urday, Canada towered over its Swiss opponents. The Swiss has three players at least 5-foot-8. Canada has 12.
The Swiss players were scrappy, darting among their opponents and slinging elbows, but Canada won 5-0.
Team USA, meanwhile, routed Switzerland 9-0 on Monday. (And the Swiss are among the most improved in recent years.)
That was after the United States took on rising star
In women’s hockey, US-Canada rivalry has become border brawl
CHUCK MYERS | MCT
Switzerland forward Phoebe Stanz (88) battles to control the puck against USA forward Amanda Kessel (28) in the third period of a Winter Olympics women's hockey game at Shayba Arena the in Sochi, Russia Monday. The USA defeated Switzerland, 9-0.
CHUCK MYERS | MCT
Canada forward Jayna Hefford (16) celebrates with teammates following her goal against Finland in the third period of a Winter Olympics women's hockey game at Shayba Arena in Sochi, Russia Monday. Finland forward Riikka Valila (13) skates past the happy Canadian players. Canada defeated Finland, 3-0.
Finland in a weekend match that saw the Yanks score less than a minute into the game against Noora Raty, one of the world’s best goalies, eventually winning 3-1.
Raty held off Canada un-til deep into the third period
Monday. The Finns lost 3-0.Indeed, it is goalkeeping that
has been the key to helping other nations begin to lift their play against the dominating North Americans, said Katey Stone, coach of the U.S. wom-en’s team. A good goalie allows
the defense to support offen-sive play and score goals, she said, rather than always teeter-ing back on its heels.
Vairo thinks another team could rise up and shock the two North American hockey powers, much in the way the 1980 U.S. men’s team shocked the world at Lake Placid. He pointed to the Russians as po-tential spoilers.
“The Russian girls don’t have pressure on them, and if they can sneak in and win a gold medal, they will be heroines forever,” he said. “They scare me.”
The North American an-tagonism goes back to 1998 in Nagano, Japan; women’s ice hockey debuted as a medal event, and the U.S. won the gold. The Canadians didn’t like those results, and they’ve been atop the podium every Winter Olympics since.
Over the past few months, the rivals have played a seven-game stretch of matches leading up to Sochi. Canada took the first three; then the U.S. won four in a row.
Two of those games saw tus-sles break out into full-fledged fights — common in men’s ice hockey but a rare sight in the women’s game. Schleper said that in both cases, the Ameri-cans were sticking up for their teammates, “which I think is appropriate.”
In the first brawl in October, the Americans — including Schleper — rushed in swing-ing after a teammate knocked down the Canadian goalie and was shoved into the boards in retaliation.
Another melee in December forced nearly every player on the ice into the teams’ respec-tive penalty boxes.
Mark Johnson, who coached the USA team in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, said the women won’t likely toss punches this Wednesday. There’s too much at stake, he said, and they won’t want to risk a penalty that allows the other team a power play.
“We have to stay disciplined during the whole game,” agreed Lauriane Rougeau, a defense-man for Canada.
Unlike in the men’s game, the women on both teams also feel
a significant responsibility to serve as role models to girls in Canada, the United States and around the world.
The pressure is there. Mo-nique Allain, a 48-year-old principal at an elementary school in New Brunswick who volunteers with Canadian hockey at the Olympics, grew up playing on boys’ teams. Now, she said, “we have role models who have pushed boundaries. They kept pushing and pushing and pushing.”
She likes what the women are teaching kids in her school.
“We definitely take that to heart,” said veteran USA goalie Jessie Vetter. “Being a confident girl, a confident woman is huge and something I hope they take away from seeing us play — maybe not the best role model with those last couple of games against Canada where we had fights, but still you can be physi-cal and go at ’em and at the same time you leave it on the ice.”
Jim Afremow, a sports psy-chologist and author of “The Champion’s Mind,” has worked with Olympians and said that in Sochi, the players will have to underreact to anything they consider untoward.
“Rivals are kind of like your best friend and your worst en-emy at the same time,” he said. Teams push each other to be their best, he said, but emo-tions can get out of hand.
The challenge is “to leave the past in the past.”
But that can be hard. The vet-erans on Team USA remember the 2010 Olympics in Vancou-ver, when they lost to Canada 2-0 in the gold-medal match before a thicket of maple-leaf fans.
“It burns in your heart every single day,” said Meghan Duggan, a forward and USA team captain. “You remind yourself and your teammates that you don’t ever want to feel that way again.”
The teams know each other so well that come Wednesday, they’ll understand what to ex-pect, Hefford said. “It comes down to executing.”
And this first showdown, of course, isn’t the most important one in this Winter Olympics. That game comes in just over a week, on Feb. 20, for the gold.
By DAVE HYDESUN SENTINEL (MCT)
After the brave announcement … after the big headline ... after the initial blast of reaction … after the natural social and cultural debate … after the hand-wring-ing over draft status … after all this and months of more coming, here’s the funda-mental question over Michael Sam:
Can an NFL team handle an openly gay player as well as the University of Missouri did?
And, to extend that, can we?The best college teams provide an edu-
cation on how to act in the real world for players. But for the past year Missouri was more real than any place in sports. It was a football biosphere of leadership and re-spect that every pro team should model.
Last August, Sam announced to his Mis-souri teammates he was gay as loudly as he did to the world Sunday night. Surely some Missouri players, coaches and ad-ministrative staff wrestled with Sam’s announcement. It would be naive to be-lieve otherwise.
But no teammate “outed” him. No coach or administrator questioned him as far as he said. Nor did any media outlet report what was the loudest of rumors — even I heard whispers of it a month ago — until Sam decided it was time.
In other words, give yourself a hand, Missouri. You’re the role model. You acted maturely. You dealt responsibly for
the past six months with an issue that is considered the final frontier of dramatic sports stories.
And look what happened. Missouri’s football season wasn’t torn apart by the “distraction” of Sam. Quite the opposite, in fact. It had its best year in decades. It went 12-2.
Sam wasn’t just a part of that. He was on the marquee. He was a team captain. He was named the Southeastern Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Year. And only then did he decide to go public with his orientation, because it would affect him and not his team.
All across the public sports world to-day, he is applauded in the same manner former NBA player Jason Collins was. This is why Sam isn’t Jackie Robinson II. Toler-ance is expected, diversity understood. Prejudice remains a vice, like smoking, that won’t disappear. It can be discussed, though. And in the discussing change rolls in slowly.
In Sochi, where there are anti-gay laws, the U.S. Olympic team responded by in-cluding three famous athletes who are gay in its delegation. The German team wore rainbow team coats at the Opening Cer-emony to express themselves.
This is the general climate Sam arrives in. Some bad. A lot of good. And it’s inter-esting how we had it all backward. Most of us expected some star athlete to announce himself as gay — or “admit he was gay,” as
a TV reporter said, proving again we have miles to go.
But sports change often bubbles from below. The run-pass option offense that is the rage of the NFL today wasn’t con-ceived by some pro coach. It came from the college game, which got it from the high school game, which spawned it from seven-on-seven teams.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that a player out of college took it upon himself to announce himself while entering the pros. Not everyone will accept him. That’s to be expected. Nor will every team want him.
“I think he would not be accepted as much as we think he would be accepted,” New Orleans Saints linebacker and former UM star Jonathan Vilma said last week on the NFL Network when asked a gen-eral question about any gay athlete in the locker room.
This will be part of the healthy exchange that’s coming. And the question is whether America can be Missouri. Can we under-stand there will be differences but still maintain a level of respect?
“I’ve never really understood the big deal about knowing someone’s sexual preference,” Dolphins cornerback Brent Grimes tweeted Monday. “I don’t care.”
A fan, Ryan Dahn, tweeted back: “but other gay athletes care. And athletes
Can America act like Missouri did?COLUMN
Opinion4
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By TOMMY D. G. FERRELLCOLUMNIST
I appreciate the importance of Greek life here at Marshall University. While I am not a member of a fraternity myself, I have had the pleasure of having many friends, class-mates and colleagues who are each a part of a fraternity or sorority. I often talk about the great sense of community at Marshall, something that attracted me to the institu-tion, and our students in Greek life represent that best.
Clearly in defiance of that pro-societal notion, however, is hazing. The practice is abusive, it denigrates Greek communities and it brings unmitigated harm upon all of the values a fraternity or sorority may seek to install in the first place. In short, it’s a spe-cial kind of stupid.
A judge issued arrest warrants and pros-ecutors charges on Feb. 6 for 11 University of Georgia students with criminal hazing. The police told Fox 5 Atlanta that members of UGA’s chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi had been beating pledges as part of a hazing process for the fraternity before the student affairs office there reported it to police. Nine
of the 11 have been arrested, and the uni-versity will also be initiating a disciplinary investigation.
I am proud that our institution’s stance on hazing is quite clear. As anyone can find on the website for the Marshall University Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, the university and that office each ‘has a “No-Tolerance” ap-proach to hazing.’ I stand wholeheartedly for this approach, and I firmly believe that the key to eliminating a great deal of the most unwanted behavior in society begins with a total culture of non-acceptance of such. But one wonders if this hardline view held by the university is enough.
The same person who found Marshall’s zero-tolerance statement can head over to the UGA website and find a similar univer-sity policy outlining what constitutes hazing and clearly marking that it is “against state, federal, and local law.” They have a reporting tool online, quite similar to Marshall’s, and even a hazing hotline phone number where such incidences can be reported. Marshall has not been free of harassment questions amongst the fraternities and sororities; just last year, a lengthy civil complaint from a
former Marshall student against the national organization and local chapter of a sorority and six of her former sisters was settled in a state court.
The best remedy for these problems, both at UGA and to prevent them here at Marshall, is commitment from our frater-nities and sororities themselves to actively oppose harassment and hazing within the organizations. I have seen that commitment from several of our Greek organizations, and I hope to see the vocal expression of that sentiment grow louder. Nothing is more important to the Marshall family than com-munity, and nothing is more harmful to community than violence—from outside or within, by words or actions.
If you belong to one of our many fraterni-ties and sororities, stand up and speak out (or continue to do so) and lead your chap-ter in the same direction. Show current and incoming students, as well as the overall Huntington community, that harassment and those who perpetrate it have no place on the campus of Marshall University.
Tommy D. G. Ferrell can be contacted at [email protected].
Fraternities, sororities must stand firm against hazing
Euthanized giraffe could have been sparedAfter living a healthy life at Copenhagen
Zoo for two years, Marius, an adorable young giraffe with unfortunate bloodlines was euthanized Sunday by staff of the Dan-ish zoo.
The animal was lured to a piece of bread and shot in the head with a bolt gun to avoid contamination of his meat by lethal injection. His body was then autopsied in front of an audience that included curious children. Pieces of the carcass were fed to the zoo’s carnivores.
The zoo claimed it had no choice but to euthanize the giraffe because of interna-tional breeding program bylaws prohibiting inbreeding.
It had no choice? Relocation was a choice.
Several zoos offered to take in the doomed giraffe including the U.K.’s York-shire Wildlife Park.
Copenhagen Zoo countered, however, that transfer was not an option as it would cause inbreeding, and the European As-sociation of Zoos and Aquaria (of which Copenhagen is a member) could not en-sure its standards were met in another environment.
Because the EAZA could not take the time to further look into transfer options and find a good home for Marius, the giraffe was slaughtered. In no way was this a vi-able alternative. There was a home for him somewhere, and the EAZA should have fur-ther explored its options until it found one.
Sterilization was a choice.
The zoo could have chosen to give Marius contraceptives, keeping him from repro-ducing animals of the same genetic line.
“If we just sterilize him, he will take up space for more genetically valuable gi-raffes,” said Bengt Holst, scientific director at the zoo.
So rather than keep the animal from breeding, the zoo shot and killed him.
What happens when another calf is born of the same line? Will the zoo choose to execute a second and third healthy animal for the sake of controlling population and genetics?
This is not a problem that is going to go away for Copenhagen Zoo. It’s not about sci-ence or emotions, it’s about a lack of effort to find a logical alternative to the problem.
By DAN K. THOMASSONMCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE (MCT)
The recent brief dust up (let’s hope it’s brief) over Assistant Sec-retary of State Victoria Nuland’s use of the F- word as an epithet aimed at the European Union does highlight the dramatic change of culture in women in public life, including the highest ranks of the government.
While this is a scene that al-ways has been dominated by men, more and more women are breaking through the vaunted glass ceiling to assume important roles in public and corporate af-fairs. In the process, however, the traditional reserve in language and attitude when women are present is slipping away. A major reason is women themselves who beginning in the 1960s became comfortable with the “good old boy” profanity laced language of the all-male board room. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
When I was a kid, the use of what we considered the ultimate pejorative, at least, was a big time social blunder that could chill a gathering quicker than finding a rat at the bottom of the punch bowl. I remember being harassed by a female high school classmate as I struggled up a hill with a bas-ket of goodies. About half-way up, I made clear that she should go commit and impossible biological act and was instantly pounced on by every other girl present. It took some time to win forgiveness.
Even in the 1970s I recall a story related by a colleague who said he had been unexpectedly invited to an exclusive party filled with “beautiful people.” When he told a blue story, there was utter silence. You know, one of those “I wish I were anywhere else” moments. Suddenly, a cool blonde, dripping in diamonds and holding one of those ornamental cigarette hold-ers from another era, capped his embarrassment. “Profanity, young man,” she said, “is the crutch of an inarticulate M…..F…..” The other guests laughed heartily.
We all know what happened — hippies, the “summer of love,” Vietnam, and liberation of both
men and women from their moth-er’s and grandmother’s Victorian restrictions all of it exacerbated by the lowering of language of the movies and cable TV. We were free to speak our minds in the most vivid terms even if it included leaning heavily without restraint on the “crutch” words that by the way everyone knew, including the girls, when we were children.
The Vietnam protesters, in-cluding shockingly some female members of dedicated religious groups, used the F-bomb un-sparingly and that permissibility drifted over to politics. Women generally in that category so far have resisted the use of profanity in public.
Do you remember the Nixon “locker room” language heard on the Watergate tapes?
What many women say in pri-vate is another matter often even in banter with men. But nothing escapes attention for long and thus Victoria Nuland’s comment in private to the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine quickly became viral.
No one knows that better than Hillary Clinton, whose initial days as first lady produced a series of tales about not only her free use of barnyard language in abusive fashion to underlings including those who were assigned to pro-tect the president and his family has been well documented. Ar-kansas voters apparently had been quite aware of her salty lan-guage. In one case after arriving in Washington, her salty upbraiding of those on the protective detail forced the then director of the Se-cret Service to launch a complaint with the president. The official was appointed to head another Treasury Department agency.
Will voters consider this pen-chant for the invective serious enough not to support Clinton if she runs for the presidency in 2016? They probably will not. Her qualifications as a candidate are unmistakable. Her reputation for not being an easy boss might not hurt either. Some of the best presi-dents have been difficult masters.
Is this freedom of expression becoming? Not really. But it is a fact of the new culture.
For better or for worse, women reach foul-language equality
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014 MARSHALLPARTHENON.COM| |5
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Hamrick said he and the Mayor have talked nu-merous times about the baseball stadium, which Williams said would be built and owned by the City of Huntington, but Mar-shall and a potential Minor League team would be lease holders.
Other projects the Herd has embarked on to improve facilities include new locker rooms for the tennis, track and field, and swim and dive teams, plus covered batting cages and pitching areas for Marshall softball. The Herd also improved the wir-ing within Joan C. Edwards Stadium to be more ac-commodating to television crews who broadcast Mar-shall football games, and added four new suites and a new elevator to the press box of the stadium.
Marshall athletics may have fallen behind in terms of the quality of athletic facilities, but Hamrick has made it a priority to bring Marshall up to the stan-dards set by other schools not only in Conference USA, but by teams across the country.
Braxton Crisp can be contacted at [email protected].
FACILITIESContinued from Page 1
against the attorney general, it could discourage future use of FIRREA to reach settlements.
Neither the Justice Depart-ment nor JPMorgan Chase chose to address the Better Markets action.
“We’ll decline comment,” said Joseph Evangelisti, a JPMorgan Chase spokesman. Justice De-partment officials did not return calls for comment.
One prominent legal expert called the Better Markets effort a long shot.
“While Better Markets is a well-intentioned and aggressive
advocate for investors, I do not believe there is any basis or sup-port in law for their position,” said John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia Univer-sity in New York and a frequent witness before Congress. “The executive branch can settle dis-putes with a third party without seeking court approval.”
LAWSUITContinued from Page 2
“coming out” are letting other gay athletes know “it’s ok to ad-mit this.”
Dolphins receiver Brian Hart-line tweeted: “Our point is, why do you feel you have to tell peo-ple … regardless.”
That’s a conversational lane now. There will be more. Sports, ultimately, is a meritocracy. Tim Tebow, for all his religion, is out of football because he couldn’t throw a football. Riley Cooper,
for his racial epithet mistake, continues on because he can catch a football.
Can Sam play at the NFL level? That’s a legitimate ques-tion. Some teams won’t draft him, because they don’t think his talent is worth the trou-ble. Beyond that, some teams shouldn’t draft him. The Dol-phins saga involving Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito will be Exhibit A.
“When you have a locker-room atmosphere like that, when peo-ple are verbally destructive to
one another and call (it) fun. … I think there’s a fine line there,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said on the radio Monday.
Pinkel drills four teaching points to his players: 1) Be hon-est; 2) No drugs; 3) Be respectful of women; 4) Be respectful of the diversity of people.
Missouri wasn’t an incubator of the real world last football season. It was the real world. The question moving forward is whether a world full of adults acts as responsibly as college kids did.
SAMContinued from Page 3
SERGEI L. LOIKO | LOS ANGELES TIMES | MCT
Akhshtyr, Russia, resident Lyubov Mulyar considers herself a hostage of the Olympic Games.
By SERGEI L. LOKOLOS ANGELES TIMES
The road to the Olympic Games has been rocky for the 360 or so residents of tiny Akhshtyr, an an-cient village not far from Sochi.
It also has been long, rutted and piled with construction debris.
Once a paradise surrounded by woods, ravines and trout streams, Akhshtyr has acquired a gigantic limestone pit and daily truck trips that have covered the village with layers of limestone dust _ all part of the massive construction proj-ect that has transformed much of the Sochi area, for better and for worse. But what has people most upset are the police and security agents who have prevented them from making their usual 10-min-ute trip to a bus stop.
A few weeks ago, authorities erected a checkpoint prohibiting residents, either on foot or in ve-hicles, from getting to the road that lies a few hundred yards away. It is the main road linking the Olym-pic mountain cluster at Krasnaya Polyana with the Olympic village in Sochi.
That left one way out: a seven-mile winding road heaped in spots with construction waste and piles of gravel.
"They told us this measure is necessary to prevent possible sabotage along the main Olym-pic route," said Ilya Zamesin, a 35-year-old farmer and local activist. "A majority of the local population are elderly people and they aren't capable of walking seven miles to get staples _ food, medicine and water."
Many of the pre-Olympics
headaches have eased in Sochi as frantic last-minute preparations were completed and some of the bugs that marred the run-up to the Games were fixed. The Olympic venues have mostly been getting high marks from athletes and spectators. Despite fears of ter-rorism, Russia's vaunted security apparatus so far seems to have things under control.
In Sochi, where quiet streets are being patrolled by police and Cos-sacks in black woolen hats, locals complained that the promised hordes of tourists were relatively meager.
"We were told we will be deal-ing with thousands of foreigners; we even studied English for two weeks," complained Nodar Ba-grandzh, a 50-year-old taxi driver. "Where are all these crowds? We sit for hours without work. Our local residents are hiding out somewhere, and the promised for-eign visitors and fans never came."
Moreover, residents said, many of the places where they usually shop have closed for the Games because of security-imposed limits on what suppliers could bring into the area. Popular farmers markets have been among the casualties.
Stepan Shvets, a 65-year-old watchman, used to work at the now-empty Areda farmers market in a Sochi suburb and still lives in a cabin at the deserted market site.
"Thousands of Sochi residents would buy fresh local vegetables and meats at our market every Thursday through Sunday," he said, "and now they have to buy much more expensive imported foods at supermarkets. No one
told me if the market will reopen, but I am staying here with my guard dogs just in case."
Locals do, of course, have once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch the Olympic Games up close. But there's grumbling about that too.
"Given all security precautions and travel time _ time in lines to get into mountain cluster gondo-las, for instance _ local residents need about three to four hours to get to a sports venue and as much to get back to town," said Oleg Ru-bezhansky, editor in chief of the local Mestnaya newspaper and television network. Anyway, he said, many Sochi residents have left for the duration of the Games, especially those who don't have proper papers to be there.
Russian culture is perhaps not best known for bubbly cheerfulness, and some of the grousing might be chalked up to a national reluctance to see the glass half full. But in Akhshtyr, people can't fill their glasses at all: Heavy trucks carrying lime-stone to Olympic construction sites destroyed the village's only two springs, which sat close to the road. Villagers had relied on them for their water.
"I can't risk taking my goats down the (nearby) gorge to the stream, and I no longer have any water for them to drink in my yard basin," said Lubov Mulyar, 76, who lives in a hut with her dog and a dozen goats. "The police no lon-ger let me go to the bus stop out of concern that I may blow up their new railway. So I am stuck here, and my water and medicines have run out already."
Village near Sochi despoiled by Winter Olympics
By MICHAEL DOYLEMCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU
Same-sex married couples nationwide now will receive many more of the same legal protections and benefits en-joyed by other couples, under new Justice Department poli-cies formally unveiled Monday.
From prison visitations to joint bankruptcy filings and beyond, the new Justice De-partment policies extend a host of federal benefits to same-sex couples even in those states that prohibit such marriages.
"It is the department's policy to recognize lawful same-sex marriages as broadly as possi-ble, to ensure equal treatment for all members of society re-gardless of sexual orientation," Attorney General Eric Holder wrote.
The four-page policy memorandum made public Monday fleshed out an earlier announcement Holder offered Saturday at a Human Rights Campaign gala event in New York City. The policies mark the latest Obama administration move on the issue since the Supreme Court last June struck down a part of the Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited same-sex couples from receiv-ing federal benefits.
Previously, the administra-tion had announced same-sex couples could obtain veterans benefits and file joint tax re-turns, among other measures. With the new policy guidance,
Justice Department officials made clear that they will inter-pret "spouse" and "marriage" in myriad federal laws to apply equally to same-sex couples. The policy memo essentially enumerates many of the spe-cific consequences that flow from the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling.
Same-sex couples, for in-stance, will be covered by the legal privilege against testify-ing against a spouse. Inmates will be allowed same-sex spou-sal visits and potentially could secure compassionate release to care for a sick spouse. Death benefits and educational bene-fits will be available to same-sex spouses of slain public safety officers, and compensation for radiation exposure and other conditions may be paid to same-sex spouses.
"In every courthouse, in ev-ery proceeding, and in every place where a member of the Department of Justice stands on behalf of the United States, they will strive to ensure that same-sex marriages receive the same privileges, protec-tions and rights as opposite-sex marriages under federal law," Holder told the Human Rights Campaign audience.
In some cases, moreover, the equal treatment could facilitate prosecutions. The Justice De-partment, for instance, noted Monday that the federal statute making it a felony to enter into marriage for purposes of evad-ing immigration law can now
be applied to sham same-sex marriages as well.
In a similar vein, the Jus-tice Department said the law against threatening a "family member" of a federal official will now apply to same-sex spouses.
"This is just the latest in a series of moves by the Obama administration, and in particu-lar the Department of Justice, to undermine the authority and sovereignty of the states to make their own determina-tions regulating the institution of marriage," Brian Brown, president of the National Orga-nization for Marriage, said in a statement.
Thirty-three states currently ban same-sex marriage, either through statute or through a provision in the state's consti-tution. The question of whether such provisions violate the U.S. Constitution's equal-protection guarantee has not yet reached the Supreme Court, but eventu-ally it will.
In April, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will consider a challenge to Utah's ban on same-sex marriage; a week later, the appellate court will consider a separate challenge to Oklahoma's pro-hibition. Challenges have been levied against other states, in-cluding one in Virginia heard by a trial judge last week. The Virginia case stood out because the state's newly elected Dem-ocratic attorney general opted to stop defending the state's
Justice Department now includes same-sex couples in host of legal protections
6Life!TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014 | | MARSHALLPARTHENON.COM*
page designed and edited by CODI MOHR | [email protected]
of HuntingtonHumansBy EMILY RICE | THE PARTHENON
"My mom, five, almost six years ago now, was
a surrogate and had twin baby
girls for a family in Israel. When they were born, the first time that we went to visit
them, they had a little apartment just
to be here when the children were born, before they
could go back to Israel, and we were all in their house just sitting
there talking. The grandma of one of the little girls
that my mom had just had, gave us a hug and a kiss
before she left, and just told us
how thankful she was that we could
give her grand-children because
her family, her son, couldn’t have
babies, so my mom gave them the babies that
they could have never had."
iTUNES TOP 10 SONGS
1. "Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J)" by Katy Perry2. "Happy (from Despicable Me 2)" by Pharrell Williams3. "Let Her Go" by Passenger4. "Say Something" by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera5. "The Man" by Aloe Blacc6. "Pompeii" by Bastille7.. "Timber (feat. Ke$ha)" by Pitbull8. "All of Me" by John Legend9. "Team" by Lorde10. "Let it Go" by Idina Menzel
iTUNES TOP 10 ALBUMS
1. "Frozen (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" by Various Artists2. "Love, Marriage & Divorce" by Toni Braxton & Babyface3. "After the Disco" by Broken Bells4. "NOW That's What I Call Music, Vol. 49" by Various Artists5. "Salute (Deluxe Edition) by Little Mix6. "Pure Heroine" by Lorde7. "The Outsiders" by Eric Church8. "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" by Bruno Mars9. "Bad Self Portraits" by Lake Street Drive10. "Pure Heroine" (Extended)" by Lorde
TODAY IN THE LIFE!
HOW TO BE FAMOUS
By AMY KAUFMANLOS ANGELES TIMES (MCT)
All the pieces connected for “The Lego Movie” at the box office this weekend, as the 3-D animated release far exceeded industry expec-tations to post the biggest opening of the year.
The family film premiered with a robust $69.1 million, according to an estimate from distribu-tor Warner Bros., after pre-release audience surveys heading into the weekend indicated the picture would open at about $50 million.
Meanwhile, George Clooney’s latest di-rectorial effort, the World War II tale “The Monuments Men,” had a respectable premiere weekend of $22.7 million. The only other film debuting nationwide this weekend, the teen fantasy “Vampire Academy,” showed no signs of life, with a dismal $4.1 opening.
Before “The Lego Movie” hit theaters, it was clear that the film was resonating with critics: The picture had a 95 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But moviegoers loved it too, assigning it an average grade of A, according to market-research firm CinemaScore.
With word-of-mouth, the movie could end up grossing close to $200 million — especially given that the next family film, Disney’s “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” isn’t due until March. “The Lego Movie” opening surpasses “Ride Along,” which broke January box office records by taking in about $48 million on the four-day Martin Luther King Day weekend last month.
The “Lego” success is a major win for Warner Bros., which isn’t a huge player in animation. The studio said it financed the film for about $60 million, a sum considered cheap for a
genre in which movies cost upward of $150 million to produce. Warner’s hasn’t released an animated film since 2011, when its “Happy Feet Two” ended with a lackluster $64 million domestically.
The strong performance of “The Lego Movie” all but guaranteed a sequel — one that could even prove competitive enough to open in the summer or holiday season, said Dan Fellman, the studio’s president of domestic distribution.
“Animation is a big part of our business, and as a market leader in the industry we should be in that footprint,” he said. “The Lego brand is cherished all over the world, and you’ll see a lot more from us down the road.”
Written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller — creators of the “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” franchise — “The Lego Movie” was made with cooperation from the world’s second-biggest toy company. The film follows an upbeat construction worker (voiced by Chris Pratt) who is whisked away from his humdrum job by a nonconformist (Elizabeth Banks) for an adventure.
Filmgoers over age 18 constituted 59 per-cent of the audience, indicating that “The Lego Movie” successfully drew adults as well as children.
Meanwhile, an older crowd settled in for “The Monuments Men.” About 75 percent of the audi-ence for the Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox co-production was older than 35, about equally split between men and women. The film earned a B-plus CinemaScore and will need to generate strong buzz if it is to make up for its $70 million budget.
‘Lego Movie’ posts biggest opening of year Shia LaBeouf refuses to stay out of the spotlight de-spite recent claims made on Twitter by the actor that he was “retiring from all public life.” Rather than fading into insignificance, the 27-year-old acted out, wearing a paper bag on his head to the premiere of his film “Nymphoma-niac, Volume 1” Sunday at the 64th Berlinale In-ternational Film Festival. LaBeouf posed for photog-raphers on the red carpet with the bag covering his entire head, the words “I am not famous anymore” written across it, a phrase he has been repeatedly tweeting since Jan. 13.
Some people just have that innate thing
that allows them to express themselves
in a way the majority can follow. That's when you're
affecting culture. — PHARRELL WILLIAMS
A GLIMPSE INTO THE LIVES OF THE CITY'S STRANGERS