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The Daily NorthwesternDAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM Find us online @thedailynuWednesday, January 21, 2015
SPORTS BasketballCan the Wildcats find hope in
defeat? » PAGE 8
Local brewers weigh in on sustainability panel » PAGE 2
High 34 Low 26
OPINION YaminUS must improve
accessibility » PAGE 4
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881 INSIDE Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Opinion 4 | Classifieds & Puzzles 6 | Sports 8
NU SENIORS:3 DAYS LEFT
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Photographers will be hereuntil January 24, 2015
Signups available soon at: www.OurYear.com
NU Code: 87150 questions? email: [email protected] site: www.NUsyllabus.com
PHOTOGRAPHERS WILL BE IN NORRIS FOR A LIMITED TIME. Several poses will be taken – in your own clothes and with cap and gown. Your choice will be available for purchase. All senior portraits must be taken by Prestige Portraits/Life Touch. $10 sitting fee required.
2015 Syllabus YearbookNorthwestern University
F CUS
By OLIVIA EXSTRUMdaily senior staffer @olivesocean
With 32,090 total applications for admission to the Class of 2019, Northwestern has received 4.7
percent fewer applications than it did last year.
Regular decision applications totaled 29,297. Although they were due Jan. 1, applications continued to “trickle in” for the following few weeks, said Mike Mills, associate provost for University enrollment.
Mills said applications from African-American, Hispanic and international students have increased, while applications from Asian-American and Caucasian stu-dents have decreased. In addition,
Regular decision apps decline
By JULIA JACOBSthe daily northwestern @juliarebeccaj
Before the new Republican-dom-inated Congress, President Barack Obama focused on solving income inequality and easing partisan grid-lock during Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
The president asserted his goal to increase the security of working fami-lies by introducing initiatives to make community college free and using tax money to fund childcare for low-income families. While touting an economy with the strongest growth in 11 years, the president ushered in a new year with values of “middle class economics” at its core.
“At this moment — with a grow-ing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, and booming energy production — we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth,” Obama said. “It’s now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next 15 years, and for decades to come.”
In his speech Obama proposed raising taxes on large corporations and using the savings from those capital gains tax hikes to build infrastructure.
“We need a tax code that helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy, and we can achieve that together,” Obama said.
The president said he supported raising the minimum wage and pass-ing a law to ensure that women are paid equally to men. He also said he plans to help states adopt their own
laws introducing mandatory paid sick leave.
In the wake of hacks by North Korea on Sony Pictures, Obama recommended Congress pass legis-lation to combat the growing threat of cybersecurity attacks.
“If we don’t act, we’ll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable,” Obama said. “If we do, we can con-tinue to protect the technologies that have unleashed untold opportunities for people around the globe.”
On the foreign policy front, the
president underscored the U.S.’s soli-darity with victims of recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan and France, while calling on Congress to pass a reso-lution to authorize the use of force against the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.
Quentin Heilbroner, president of Northwestern’s College Democrats, said he thought this State of the Union address had a strength that none of Obama’s previous ones had.
“I think the proposal for free com-munity college would be an absolute revolution for our work force,” Heil-broner said. “We are slowly falling behind other industrialized coun-tries… when it comes to getting our kids to college. If he can pull that off… I think that it would have huge,
Daily file photo by Sean Su
ALL ABOARD A train arrives at the Foster Street CTA station. The Evanston Police Department will increase patrol officers at eight mass transit stations, including the Foster Street stop.
Obama talks income inequality in SOTU
Evanston police step up patrol at transit stations
The Evanston Police Department will be increasing patrol officers at eight mass transit stations because of alerts from the state department, Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan said.
The state department sent alerts to EPD advising officers to use caution.
There have been no specific or imminent threats and the depart-ment is not responding to anything in particular, Dugan said.
However, because mass transit areas in other areas have been tar-gets for violent activity in the past, EPD wants to have a presence at stations as a result of the alerts, he
said.Patrol will increase at the CTA
stops at Howard, Main, Dempster, Davis, Foster and Central, Noyes and South Boulevard, he said.
“You turn on any news station and you see … talks about terror-ist attacks on people and on law enforcement,” Dugan said. “There’s just a feeling going on … so we’re just trying to be out there and vis-ible and step up our presence there for that reason.”
Recently, there was a robbery off of the Purple Line’s Main Street stop.
A couple of women stole from another woman at the stop.
The increased patrol could also help deter future robberies like this so they do not turn into a pattern, he said.
— Stephanie Kelly
» See ADMISSIONS, page 6
“None of the things
he’s asking Congress to pass are going to pass, and
he knows that.Sam Houskeeper,
Politics and Policy editor
Tota
l App
licat
ions
Years
30000
30500
31000
31500
32000
32500
33000
33500
20152014201320122011
30,975
32,065
32,772
33,200
32,090
Total Applications and Acceptance Rates
18% 15% 13.9% 13% ??
Acceptance Rates
» See SOTU, page 6
Around Town
Setting therecord straight
In Tuesday’s print edition, the story “Olah thrives, but Cats fall short at buzzer” misstated the day of the week on which the game between Northwestern and Michigan was played. It took place on Saturday.
A photo caption with the story “Poor second half buries Cats,” also in Tuesday’s print edition, misidentified the player in the photo. It is Lauren Douglas.
The Daily regrets the errors.
Resident threatened with gun, robbedAn 18-year-old Evanston resident was
robbed of his cellphone and wallet Sunday morning.
Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan said two males approached the resident at 8 a.m. near the intersection of Emerson Street and Leland Avenue. The suspects said they had a gun and took the Evanston resident’s Verizon cellphone and wallet containing $25.
The two men didn’t display a gun during the encounter, Dugan said.
None of the subjects involved in the encounter appear to be Northwestern
students, Dugan added.
Man caught during attempted burglary
Evanston police arrested an Evanston resi-dent Tuesday in connection with burglary to a vehicle.
The man was observed checking the han-dles of car doors by a caller at about 12:15 a.m. in the area of Crain Street and Elmwood Avenue. Police responded within two min-utes, Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan said.
When officers arrived, they observed a vehicle with its driver’s side door open and a man inside going through the vehicle’s con-tents, Dugan said in a news release.
After seeing the officers, the man attempted to flee but was apprehended after about half a block. He later admitted to trying to remove property from the vehicle, police said.
Nothing was taken from the vehicle and there were no signs of forced entry to the car door, Dugan said. The car was likely unlocked, Dugan said.
The man was brought to a Skokie court after his arrest and will appear in court in Skokie in the coming weeks. He is charged with burglary to vehicle, a class 2 felony.
Although the man’s record indicates he was once convicted for burglary, police were unable to elaborate further.
— Hal Jin
By TORI LATHAMthe daily northwestern @latham_tori
Staff from four local breweries spoke at a panel discussion Tuesday night about the intersection of brewing and sustainability.
Citizens’ Greener Evanston, Farmhouse Evan-ston, NU Sustainable Food Talks and Sketchbook Brewing Company sponsored the event, which is part of six different events NU Food Talks will hold throughout the year, said Tiffany Leighton Ozmina, the administrative coordinator at the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute at North-western. The event was held at Farmhouse, 703 Church St., and about 40 people attended.
The discussion featured brewers from Smylie Brothers Brewing Company, Temperance Beer Company, Peckish Pig and Sketchbook, all of which are based in Evanston.
“I think it’s really cool how well these guys know each other and how even though it osten-sibly seems like they’re vying for the very similar market share in Evanston, they’re very collegial and very collaborative,” Rory Nicholson, a mem-ber of the board of directors for CGE and the host
of the event told The Daily.The brewers touched on a variety of topics
throughout the night with an emphasis on the sustainable practices they employ.
“The very nature of our business was wrapped around the idea of sustainability,” Sketchbook’s Shawn Decker said. “We’re self-distributing, we’re selling to the neighborhoods that require very little transportation and everything is in small batches and small amounts, so it’s very fresh.”
Decker also said all of Sketchbook’s containers are reusable and recyclable, which cuts down on waste, a big issue all the breweries faced.
Another source of waste the brewers touched on was that of spent grain, which they cannot use once it has gone through the brewing process.
“There is so much in there that it shouldn’t be trash,” Sketchbook’s Cesar Marron said. “We as brewers have a lot of challenges getting rid of that because it’s expensive for someone to come get it, it’s expensive for us to drive it where there are farms that will take it.”
Several of the brewers said they found alter-native ways to use the grain. Peckish Pig’s Tom Fogarty said he gives the grain to bakeries or works with Eagle Scouts so they can use it for projects. Smylie Brothers’ Mike Smylie said he
sells his grain as a way to feed animals.“We have a farmer who buys our grain,” Smylie
said. “We buy hogs from them and the majority of our grain feeds those hogs that end up on the plates in our restaurant. I just think it’s a great circle.”
While all of the brewers celebrated the more elaborate practices they employ, they also high-lighted the importance of the little things they do to stay environmentally friendly.
“We do things like set the boiler on a timer so it’s not running all the time, which is easy,” Temperance’s Josh Gilbert said. “We also just got our big cooler, where the kegs and the hops and the yeast are, an energy-efficient device which is cool.”
Although the brewers all said they do as much as they can to stay sustainable, they empha-sized how individuals can make the biggest differences.
“I think so much of sustainability is in each person’s way of living,” Marron said. “It’s so easy for us in the United States to buy stuff or drive somewhere. There’s so much on each individual person to change their ways of doing things.”
Local brewers weigh in on sustainability panel
Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer
SMILE! Mike Smylie, owner of Smylie Brothers Brewing Company, addresses the crowd at a panel discussion on sustainability and brewing. Five Evanston brewers gathered for the event, which touched on the social and economic issues that contribute to a business’ sustainability practices.
Police Blotter
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On CampusWe are hoping that when people think of a need to finance legal fees, they automatically think of Funded Justice.
— Alan Savage, Funded Justice founder
“ ” Alumnus, attorney create startup for legal fees Page 5
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 3
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2015 Syllabus YearbookNorthwestern University
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Editor paved way for Daily womenBy OLIVIA EXSTRUMdaily senior staffer @olivesocean
During her journalism and teaching careers, Lois Claus (Medill ’46) was known as “just a stereotypical Mrs. Claus, a little white-haired lady with the twinkle in her eyes.”
“Journalism was always her entire life,” said Claus’ daughter, Nancy Claus. “She was always concerned she wasn’t doing a good job, but she always was.”
Claus, 89, died Jan. 10 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. A memorial service was held on the island on Jan. 15.
During her time at Northwestern, Claus
served as one of the first female editors-in-chief (then known as managing editors) of The Daily Northwestern. She was also active in her sorority, Chi Omega. While attending the University, Claus would frequently write letters home detailing her experiences with her sorority, The Daily and other activities she was involved in, Nancy Claus said.
One letter described an incident where, after the University decided to raise tuition, students skipped their classes to gather at The Rock and protest.
“The Daily, of course, is in the thick of it,” Claus wrote. “It’s hard to be radical one way or the other if you don’t have all the facts.”
Nancy Claus attributed the burgeoning female leadership at The Daily starting in the mid-1940s to the fact that many male students went off to fight in World War II.
Lois Claus was born in Indianapolis in 1925. After attending NU, Claus received a teaching degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1963.
Claus taught high school English and jour-nalism in Indiana for 27 years.
Even after retiring from teaching, her daughter said, Claus was committed to journalism.
She spent two years copy editing at a news-paper in South Bend, Indiana, and worked as a freelance writer and editor after moving to Hilton Head Island.
Nancy Claus said the family has received an “outpouring of support” from those who knew Claus.
“Her Facebook page has a lot of people say-ing ‘The reason I got into teaching or journal-ism was because of her influence,’” she said. “It was very heartwarming. … Everyone has come up to me and said my mother was the one who took them under her wing.”
Marty Steffens attended college with Nancy Claus and said she got to know Lois Claus over the course of 40 years. Steffens recalled an instance where, after learning of a book
Steffens had written, Claus immediately pur-chased it.
“She bought it, and she wanted to keep current,” Steffens, a journalism professor at the University of Missouri, said, “And this was just a few years ago. She wanted to keep track of what was current in the journalism community.”
Nancy Claus said even during the last years of her life, Claus remembered and supported the NU community.
“What a great woman she was, what a great teacher she was,” she said. “She had an impact on a lot of people.”
Source: Nancy Claus
CLAUS REMEMBERED After graduating from Medill in 1946, Claus received a teaching degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1963. She taught high school English and journalism in Indiana for 27 years.
Source: Nancy Claus
LEADING LADY Lois Claus, one of The Daily’s first top female editors, led the paper during World War II, when many male students were serving in the armed forces. Claus, 89, died Jan. 10.
The Daily NorthwesternVolume 134, Issue 59
Editor in ChiefCiara McCarhty
Managing EditorsSophia Bollag Jeanne Kuang
Opinion Editors Bob HayesAngela Lin
Assistant Opinion Editor Naib Mian
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Join the online conversation at www.dailynorthwestern.comOPINION
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 PAGE 4
Everyone should care about space technology
Resources for accessibility in US must be improved
In the past few days, reports of a $1 bil-lion investment by Google Inc. and Fidelity Investments in Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been making headlines. According to these reports, Google is planning to make this investment specifically for a project that will use satellites launched around the world to beam Internet to the ground.
The possibilities of such a project are quite extensive. Ranging from connecting people in rural areas to the Internet to offering new ways of speeding up Internet connections in large metropolises and anything in between, this idea can be revolutionary. However farfetched this project may seem, the truth is that we do have the technology to be able to implement it today.
Unfortunately, public interest in space exploration seems to have subsided.
When Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012, I was ecstatic. It wasn’t the first time a capable machine had been put on Mars, but it was a great achievement nonetheless – it’s never easy to put something on another planet, especially the way NASA did it with Curiosity: The rover was lowered to the ground from 60 feet above by a “sky crane,” after slowing down from an entry speed of 13,000 mph.
Unfortunately, that excitement after the landing was confined to a few friends and me. I remember telling people minutes after the landing what had happened, how amaz-ing this achievement was, and all I got was, “Yeah, that’s cool,” or “We’ve done that before, so what?” I’m not even American and I was proud of NASA that day. Why weren’t other people?
Right now, the only thing that can explain the subsided interest of people to space research and exploration is the fact that peo-ple do not understand the implications of it.
The SpaceX project is a very specific exam-ple of how research in space technology can directly affect completely unrelated people.
But in addition to that, there’s also the case of spinoff technologies.
Spinoff technologies are products and discoveries made directly because of research done in space-related research fields. Any-thing from developing astronaut suits to insulation for the space station to emergency fire extinguishing systems aboard a launched space vehicle create technologies that could be used here on Earth in so many other ways.
There are a lot of examples: Engine research of a new fuel injection system directly influenced the creation of a new fire extinguishing hose that uses less than 15 times amount of water to extinguish fires six times faster. Memory foam was a direct result of crash cushioning systems research in the ’60s. Aircraft anti-icing technology, better tires, widespread use of solar cells person-ally and industrially – these are all results of research in space technology.
These spinoff technologies are all extremely influential on people around the world. They have directly contributed to bettering the lives of people on Earth. Then again, this is just an argument I would use to convince you about the benefits of space research. Even though space research improves the lives of people everywhere, that’s not why I think it should be pursued.
Curiosity is one of the most human quali-ties. Yes, everyone does have basic needs they need to fulfill, like food, water and shelter. However, once those concerns are taken care of, curiosity comes into play. People live by asking and answering questions.
Space is the place of the ultimate questions: What’s out there? How did we get here? Are we alone? Can we go anywhere else?
There’s only one way to answer these questions: by researching and exploring the universe. The Earth might be where all we know has taken place, but ultimately it is a tiny speck of dust in the cosmos. In the search for the answers to our ultimate questions, we have to look beyond Earth and try to research and explore the realities around us.
Yoni Pinto is a Weinberg sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you want to respond publicly to this column, send a letter to the editor to [email protected].
“American Sniper” tells the story of Chris Kyle, the most lethal Navy SEAL sniper in American his-tory. Although the film presents American patrio-tism in a compelling way, it fails to reflect the enor-mous damage on the Iraqi population. A 2013 BBC article cites a report estimating 461,000 war-related Iraqi deaths starting from the American invasion in 2003 through mid-2011. In other words: Killing 461,000 people is equivalent to wiping out around 79 percent of Wyoming or all of the residents of the Atlanta or Miami city propers. This is a true, overlooked reflection of the violence in Iraq dur-ing the war. Could there be a more peaceful way of creating a democratic Iraq through better strategic decisions?
There were three main reasons for America’s invasion of Iraq: bringing democracy and peace, eliminating weapons of mass destruction and addressing the al-Qaida presence in Iraq. Yes, during the war they have eliminated key people from al-Qaida, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, though the terrorist organization still has a heavy presence in the Middle East. It appears the United States has succeeded in preventing WMD creation, which means they have eliminated a future threat. They also made the first step in bringing peace and democracy by beating Saddam Hussein’s army and ousting him. By the end of the first war in 2003, we could say that America was on the right track toward creating a peaceful Iraq. However, the orders given by Paul Bremer, the administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, led to the creation of militaristic insurgencies, which caused the incredible violence in Iraq.
CPA’s first order was to disestablish the Ba’ath Party, Iraq’s leading political party before the war under Saddam Hussein’s rule. Under this order, all party officials were removed from their positions. Iraqi citizens were especially upset at the removal of Ba’ath officials, as the party had significant influence among Sunnis in Iraq.
I believe this sowed the first seeds of insurgency because a party that had this much of an influence could very well have formed the insurgence groups — Sunni militia fighting against American soldiers — after being ousted in order to get revenge on the
Americans. It might also have affected other Iraqis who stayed neutral during this process and turned them to join the insurgency groups.
Additionally, Ba’ath Party officials could have helped Bremer in forming a new government. They have experience in running the country and Iraqi politics, whereas Brenner does not. They could have used their influence to decrease the post-war ten-sion and eradicate violence. CPA Order Number One could have played out much more smoothly if the members who strongly disagreed with CPA were removed from power while the reasonable ones were spared. Both parties could have compro-mised for the betterment of Iraq on the way to cre-ating a sovereign state. After the order, CPA was the only entity that could govern Iraq, but it had neither the political power nor the influence to reach out to every part of the country, a problem that created the perfect environment for the insurgency armies to gain power and fight against American soldiers.
CPA’s second order was the dissolution of enti-ties, specifically the Iraqi military forces. These Iraqis had just come out from a war with the United States. They were angry and leaderless. The soldiers could very well have thought disbanding the army was for weakening Iraq, the country they had risked their lives for. They had too much pride to submit to the rule of American generals, so they revolted. Many of the soldiers from the Iraqi army joined the insurgency forces. The Iraqi soldiers were trained well, and they probably knew how to fight against the American army because they did it before. Dis-mantling of the Iraqi army resulted in an increase in the soldier quality of the insurgency forces, which gave them the power to fight against the U.S. army and actually come close to beating them.
By giving these two orders, CPA created its own enemy. The insurgency forces might have been much less powerful if the Iraqi army was contained in some way, or they might not have existed if CPA had come to an agreement with Ba’ath party in order to influence them to stop revolting. If the insurgency forces were eliminated before they were even formed, the state of Iraq could have been established without all of this violence. In the end, many lives could have been spared, and we could confidently say the United States had accomplished its mission.
Burak Sekerci is a McCormick sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].
Seven months ago I pumped gas by myself for the very first time. In my home state of New Jersey, self-service stations are illegal, and the law requires certified gas attendants to pump drivers’ gas. Since I’ve never had to leave the car at a gas station, it never really occurred to me how difficult it may be for people with disabilities to pump gas on their own.
But what about those stickers with the interna-tional symbol of accessibility posted at stations? Although the stickers are present for legal reasons, in reality they can serve no purpose. Showing that the gas station accommodates people with disabilities doesn’t actually guarantee that a woman in a wheel-chair, for example, will be able to pump her own gas. The existence of a sticker does not mean any action by the station actually takes place. Moreover, the
signs simply mean the station can accommodate a disability, but not necessarily all of them.
It wasn’t until I took Paul Arntson’s commu-nication studies class, Community Integration of Labeled People, that I first began to notice the mean-inglessness associated with the blue international symbol of disability access posted in public places. If there is one thing I learned from Arntson’s course, it is that there is great room for improvement when it comes to assisting the disabled community, and it is up to us as millennials to make a change.
A class field trip to Inclusion Solutions, a com-pany founded by Patrick Hughes, further showed how prevalent an issue the lack of disability aware-ness is. In a discussion with our class, Hughes shared anecdotes illustrating the numerous difficulties people with disabilities encounter in public places, including gas stations, fast food restaurants and voting poll locations. Hughes’ company works to eliminate these problems by providing businesses with alert systems, intercoms and various other mechanisms made to accommodate those with disabilities.
Despite the efforts from people like Hughes,
the disabled community still struggles to have easy access to basic public needs. Hughes mentioned Paul Tobin, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair who drove from his home state of New York to New Jersey every time he needed to fill up his tank. For Tobin, pumping gas on his own would require up to 30 minutes. Not to mention during this time he would be blocking at least one pump from other customers. When it is easier to drive a farther dis-tance and pay the state toll than to pump gas on his own in his home state, clearly something needs to be done.
The regulations and procedures for assisting people with disabilities at gas stations vary from state to state. By enforcing a more consistent and accommodating law across all 50 states, the disabled community could run into fewer problems when trying to access the services at gas stations. Turning the stickers with international symbols of accessibil-ity from meaningless symbols into effective practices of assistance is just one way to make the lives of people with disabilities easier.
Similar difficulties have occurred at drive-thrus of fast food restaurants. People with disabilities often
run into issues when, for example, a deaf person can’t use the drive-thru to order food. There have been lawsuits where people with disabilities sue fast food restaurants for unequal access to its services. Companies settle these Americans with Disabilities Act cases by training employees or posting more stickers. The issue with these lawsuits is that their solutions and money are only temporary. These recurring cycles of lawsuits and settlements won’t solve the problem — change that actually fixes the problem will.
Laws are capable of creating change. Whether or not those laws are effective is the real question. While the legal system may have the intentions of helping the disabled community, the laws can sometimes cause more harm than good. Take note of these legal holes and think of ways to patch them up. One day, you may just be the catalyst for effective change the disabled community needs.
Jennifer Yamin is a Communication junior. She can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].
YONIPINTODAILY COLUMNIST
BURAKSEKERCIDAILY COLUMNIST
JENNIFERYAMINDAILY COLUMNIST
Could the Iraq War have ended with less violence?
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 5
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Attorney, NU alumnus create startup for legal feesBy PETER KOTECKIthe daily northwestern @peterkotecki
Funded Justice to sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
“We help people raise funds using crowds just for legal fees only,” Savage said.
Before creating Funded Justice, Helfand’s law firm tried to solve a problem that plagued lawyers for years, Savage said. People would walk into a law office and have a good case, but they would not have the money to hire an attorney.
Helfand said that during his career as an attorney, he met many good people who couldn’t afford legal help. He decided crowdfunding was the right approach to give people a fair shot.
“You might not know one person who has
$2,000 to help you with your legal fees, but you probably know 100 people who could give you $20 to help you with the legal cost,” Savage said.
Savage said Helfand came up with the idea of crowdfunding while reading a book by Christo-pher Isaac “Biz” Stone, co-founder of Twitter.
Helfand said he has always been impressed with the quality of NU students and sought a partner through the Kellogg School of Management.
Helfand said Savage stood out to him after a process of resume submissions and interviews. They began talking in August 2014, and were able to create a website and finish the necessary programming for it by December, Savage said.
Funded Justice is using a very different approach than businessmen used years ago, Savage said.
“We quickly develop a product and iterate over that product until we find the perfect prod-uct market fit,” he said.
Helfand said the startup is going well. He said
it is interesting that Funded Justice has influ-enced people nationally. Since it was founded in Chicago, Helfand expected the majority of people
using the startup to be from Illinois, he said.Although there is interest from Illinois resi-
dents, clients from all over the country have found out about Funded Justice, largely through word of mouth and social media, Helfand said.
Helfand and Savage are happy with the met-rics they are seeing so far, Savage said.
“Any startup is a constant test of hypotheses and exposure to the market,” he said. Savage said Funded Justice is currently going through this process.
“We are hoping that when people think of a need to finance legal fees, they automatically think of Funded Justice,” Savage said about the company’s long term goals. He said he believes Funded Justice can carve a niche and maintain it well in the future.
San Francisco Bay: Number of dead birds climbs to 100; 300 rescued
WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—The environmental toll from the mystery goo in San Francisco Bay climbed Tuesday to 100 dead seabirds and 300 that were saved as wildlife officials tried to zero in on identifying the toxic stuff and who may have spilled it.
The death count doubled from the previous day while volunteers continued to comb the shoreline Tuesday.
The 50 birds rescued Tuesday was 20 percent higher than the previous day—an indication that odds of finding coated birds still alive is waning.
The sticky goop, which has not yet been identi-fied, is preventing seabirds from flying and keep-ing themselves warm, leaving them vulnerable to freezing.
“Every day that goes by makes it harder for them to survive hypothermia,” said Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Depart-ment of Fish and Wildlife.
Coated birds have been found along the shore-line near the San Leandro marina, the Hayward Regional Shoreline and parts of Alameda.
Hughan said state wildlife workers hope to soon identify the material by analyzing the substance in a lab and performing necropsies on the birds.
Petroleum, however, has been ruled out.“The labs are going full-bore” after being closed
for the long holiday weekend, Hughan said. “We hope for the results soon, but you can’t rush science.”
If the responsible party is identified, state offi-cials and perhaps other branches of government would consider criminal fines and civil penalties if the material was illegally dumped. The penalty for polluting the bay varies with the volume spilled and its effect. Owners of the cargo ship Cosco Busan paid $44 million in damages and cleanup costs for a 53,000-gallon bunker oil spill in 2007 that killed an estimated 6,849 birds and fouled miles of shoreline.
Rescue center workers have suggested a poly-mer used in ship’s fuel is a possible culprit, but the state officials say it’s premature to speculate.
Meanwhile, volunteers from the International Bird Rescue Center in Fairfield continued walking along the shoreline Tuesday in search of dead or ailing ducks and other seabirds.
Mark Russell, a center wildlife biologist, said it has become harder to find coated birds still alive and many have died.
There also were fewer volunteers available Tuesday to look for ailing birds because many had to return to jobs after the long holiday weekend,
Russell said. Eight volunteers were in the field Tuesday morning.
State fish and wildlife workers responded to the goo Friday and Saturday, but devoted fewer resources when it was determined the material was not an oil spill, which would have automati-cally triggered funding for cleanup and rescue.
“The rescue is falling mainly to the center and its volunteers,” Russell said.
Hughan confirmed there are less government resources for the search and rescue because the goo is not oil.
Complicating the effort, volunteers need to be trained because untrained searchers can harm coated birds or drive them back into the water where they cannot be helped, he said.
— Denis Cuff (Contra Costa Times/TNS)
Microsoft buys text analysis startup Equivio
SEATTLE — Microsoft seems to like something about Israeli data-analysis startups.
The company announced Tuesday that it has acquired text-analysis firm Equivio, a few months after buying cloud security machine-learning startup Aorato.
Equivio’s algorithms sift through documents
and emails to group related documents and iden-tify which ones might trigger a company’s confi-dentiality provisions or other legal labels. With email and computers facilitating an explosion in the amount of documents companies and govern-ments produce, sorting through those can quickly turn into a task that requires many hours of work by humans.
The Rosh HaAyin-based company, which on its website also lists an office in Rockville, Md., says its clients include the U.S. Justice Depart-ment and auditing and consulting giants KPMG and Deloitte.
The companies didn’t disclose the terms of the deal, but The Wall Street Journal reported in Octo-ber that Microsoft had signed a letter of intent to buy Equivio for about $200 million.
Rajesh Jha, corporate vice president with Out-look and Office for Microsoft, says Equivio’s tech-nology will be integrated into Office 365, the web-based version of the productivity software suite.
“Businesses and governments around the world generate enormous volumes of data every day,” Jha wrote in a blog post. “Sifting through that data to find what is relevant to a legal or compliance matter is costly and time consuming.”
— Matt Day (The Seattle Times/TNS)
National News
“We are hoping that
when people think of a need to finance legal fees, they automatically think
of Funded Justice.Alan Savage,
Funded Justice founder
6 NEWS | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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he said, there appears to have been a drop in applications from students with lower test scores. He added that if the number of appli-cations decreases, it’s preferable to have that decrease in students with lower scores.
Mills said because nearly half of the early decision pool received early admis-sion, it’s “uncertain” if the acceptance rate for regular decision appli-cants will change.
“We admitted a lot of students (in the early decision pool) because the quality was so ter-rific,” Mills said. “We’ve got more deposited students at this point than we had last year, but I’m not certain if it means we’ll need to take more regular decision students.”
Last year, the overall acceptance rate was 13 percent, and the regular decision rate was between 8 and 9 percent, Mills said. He said students would be notified of their acceptance during the third week of March.
AdmissionsFrom page 1
huge long-term benefits to the economy.”Heilbroner said he thinks if Obama can work
with the new Con-gress, which now has a Republican majority, to pass the proposals he outlined in the address, they will be successful in reaching their goals. But Sam Houskeeper, editor of Politics and Policy, a non-partisan NU student publication, is skeptical that the ini-tiatives will pass.
“None of the things he’s asking Congress to pass are going to pass and he knows that,” Houskeeper said. “It’s just a political game.”
However, toward the end of his address Obama urged unification, challenging Congress to break out of “tired old patterns” of parti-san politics and compromise on issues such as women’s healthcare access and immigration.
SOTUFrom page 1
Bill would allow concealed weapons on college campuses
ALBANY — New York State would pay the first two years of college loans for about 7,100 college graduates earning up to $50,000 a year under a Cuomo administration proposal.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Get On Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program would cover just a fraction of the 199,000 graduates of two- and four-year public and private colleges in New York State each year. Graduates could participate in the $41.7 million state program if they are enrolled in the federal Pay as You Earn Program, which reduces the costs of loan payments to eligible students.
“We have a crisis in this country of kids coming out of college — high debt and low wages,” Cuomo said Monday. “The cost of education has skyrock-eted and the job market in some cases has plum-meted, and that disconnect is affecting an entire generation.”
Cuomo’s idea was greeted by higher education advocates as an important step in reducing the rap-idly rising cost of a college education. The measure requires legislative approval.
When fully implemented beginning in the 2019-20 academic year, more than 24,000 gradu-ates in New York would be eligible each year, Cuomo officials said Monday.
Here’s how it would work: A New York graduate with $20,000 in student loan debt making $35,000 a year would face an annual debt of $2,554 in a typical 10-year student loan. The federal program could cut that cost to $1,225 a year. The state program would eliminate that payment completely for the first two years.
A federal report says the average New York gradu-ate faces more than $27,000 in student loan debt.
A state official said Monday that every resident who graduates from a college in New York, stays in New York earning $50,000 or less, qualifies for the federal program and applies for the state program would receive the benefit.
— Michael Gormley (Newsday/TNS)
Skepticism, hope greet President’s community college plan
President Barack Obama’s proposal to make two years of community college free for all Americans has been embraced by many college-access advo-cates, but skeptics are challenging the scope and practicality of the plan.
The big questions are how to pay for the initia-tive, which is estimated will cost about $60 billion over the next 10 years, and whether the Republican-controlled Congress would even consider it.
As part of his State of the Union wish list, the president is proposing that federal and state gov-ernment together cover two years of community
college tuition for all students who make steady progress toward completion and maintain a 2.5 grade point average.
“It’s something that we can accomplish and it’s something that will train our workforce so we can compete with anybody in the world,” said Mr. Obama in a video before unveiling the plan in Ten-nessee on Jan. 9.
Even if it doesn’t pass, the strategy of releasing a big idea that’s short on details ahead of this week’s speech to Congress has generated buzz about the need for postsecondary education. It’s difficult to assess the proposal’s chances until more is known about the specifics of funding when the budget is released Feb. 2, but many are buoyed just by the issue getting attention.
“There are two ways to see success here. One would be the White House gets more or less a bill that they want passed. That’s probably difficult,” said Ben Miller, a senior policy analyst with the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. “The other would be raising the profile of programs and ideas like this and getting other states to do this on their own.”
Sharing the CostCalled America’s College Promise, the president’s
plan is inspired by somewhat similar programs in Tennessee and Chicago. It calls for the federal government to pay for 75 percent of community college tuition (about $3,800 a year for full-time stu-dents) and states that opt in would pay the remain-ing 25 percent. The administration estimates the program could assist 9 million community college students.
Unlike the Tennessee Promise model of a “last-dollar scholarship,” the president’s plan would give students money in addition to federal Pell Grant aid, which currently covers about $5,700 a year for the lowest-income students who qualify. Mr. Miller believes the most important aspect of the proposal is that it attempts to formalize the notion of a shared funding responsibility between the federal and state governments, because he believes the lack of one has been a driver of college affordability problems.
Underwriting tuition for all students could help bolster attendance at community colleges, where enrollment has shrunk recently following a surge during the economic recession, said David Baime, the senior vice president for government relations and policy analysis at the American Association of Community Colleges in Washington.
“When you look at how much our students have to work, if they had a significant drop in tuition...you would see more students able to persist and complete,” said Mr. Baime.
As for the likelihood of the idea becoming a reality, Mr. Baime initially said the proposal will face “tough sledding” in Congress. But because of the intense interest following the announcement of what is now being called one of president’s “signa-ture proposals,” he said some version of the initiative could be adopted.
— Caralee J. Adams (Education Week/TNS)
State proposal would pay some college loan debt
A bill allowing concealed weapons on college campus in Florida may have a shot at becoming law.
House Bill 4005, sponsored by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, received support Tuesday from the House of Representatives’ Criminal Justice Subcom-mittee. Republicans on the committee supported it, while the Democratic minority opposed it.
The legislation would authorize those with valid permits to carry guns on public colleges and uni-versities. Permit holders must be a least 21, unless they’re in the military, and must not have felonies or drug-related convictions.
Supporters say the law is needed in the wake of campus shootings such as the one in November at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Three stu-dents were injured before police shot and killed the gunman.
“What I’m trying to do is prevent further loss of life by giving God-fearing and law-abiding citi-zens who have gone through background checks the ability to defend themselves and their families,” Steube said.
But opponents are fired up as well, telling law-makers that guns don’t belong on college campuses, which are full of young people and alcohol.
“Universities are a place where students go to expand their knowledge, not to constantly live in fear,” Jake Elpern, a member of the FSU College Democrats, told the lawmakers. “I urge you to vote against this and keep our colleges and universities safe.”
Many faculty members have also expressed concerns. FSU’s faculty union voted to oppose the measure, arguing that in a dangerous situation, it might be difficult for police to know who the aggres-sor is.
“When you’re discussing student grades or prog-ress, the conversations can get very out of hand,” said Brian Lupiani, a retired faculty member at FSU. “If someone comes in carrying a loaded weapon, the only way I could see to defend myself is to carry a loaded gun in my hand the entire time we’re talking. You’re just adding too much fuel to a possible fire.”
Law enforcement officers at most colleges oppose allowing guns anywhere on campus, saying it increases the likelihood the guns will be used or stolen. Their opposition helped defeat a similar bill in 2011.
Supporters of the bill dispute the notion that gun-free policies keep people safe.
“Violent perpetrators do not follow your rules,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala. “You can put out as many gun-free rules as you want. They don’t care. That what they’re looking for.”
Under current law, students or employees with a concealed weapon permit can only bring a stun gun or a nonlethal electric weapon. The device cannot fire a dart or projectile.
— Scott Travis (Sun Sentinel/TNS)
National News
“We
admitted a lot of students (in the
early decision pool) because
the quality was so terrific.Mike Mills,
associate provost for University
enrollment
“If we don’t act, we’ll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable.President Barack Obama
UNUSUAL GROUND FLOOR OPPORTUNITY!OPEN TO ALL NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS AND FACULTY
Standards that Measure SolutionsGlobal Warming Solutions Project
Can We Make The World a Better Place? Every day terrible stories about things that should not be happening in a civilized world are reported. Similar stories — including persistent wars, massacres, poverty, political and economic instability, employment issues, wealth inequalities, environmental problems, and violent crime — have been occurring for thousands of years. There are literally mil-lions of people working on projects to improve the world. Yet no one believes these terrible stories will stop occurring any time soon. Why is this true? Is something missing from all the efforts being made to make the world a better place?
Well, actually, yes. Something very basic is missing. We have standard tools to measure almost everything in life. We have standards to measure academic progress, standards to measure economic conditions, standards to measure weather events. But what standards exist that can evaluate ideas that solve complex 21st century problems and motivate people to implement them. It is easy to pro-pose ideas but incredibly hard to evaluate, fund, and implement practical solutions.
A methodology has been proposed to peel away the complexities surrounding this task. It divides the solution process into distinct phases, steps, and tasks with results that can be graded. But this methodology is based on observation and logic, not research.
This project will begin the process of validating the methodology by using it to evaluate potential solutions to mitigate the global warming problem. Expertise in many areas are needed.
INFORMATION SESSIONS WILL BE HELD ON FRIDAY, January 30, 2015 and THURSDAY February 5, 2015 at noon at the Orrington Hotel, Evanston. Food will be provided.
Go to www.phase7.org for detailed project information or to register to attend. Based on the book "Standards That Measure Solutions: A Guide to Solving 21st Century Problems", by David L. Paul.
www.phase7.org
SPORTSWednesday, January 21, 2015 @DailyNU_Sports
ON DECK ON THE RECORDMen’s BasketballOhio State at NU, 6 p.m. Thursday
It’s really about my belief in wanting to make a difference. ... Right now I have a huge task at hand. — Katrina Adams, U.S.T.A. President
JAN. 22
Can Cats find hope in moral victories?By KEVIN CASEY and JESSE KRAMERdaily senior staffers @KevinCasey19, @Jesse_Kramer
Kevin Casey: Why NU’s close losses are an encouraging sign
It’s tough to gauge what coach Chris Collins really believes on this subject. He’s clearly into winning on the scoreboard and stated in his postgame interview at Michi-gan State — a brutal overtime loss — that he is “not in this for moral victories.”
Yet, he’s expressed great pride in his team after each defeat in this recent trio, which doesn’t exactly mesh with a win-or-bust mental-ity. And in the same Michigan State interview, Collins also stated that the Wildcats “won the game,” when they in fact lost the contest — the definition of touting a moral victory.
But this contradiction is not a chance to criticize Collins. Actu-ally it’s the right stance for him to take.
If this were a potential NCAA tournament-caliber team coming along after years and years in a spe-cific coach’s system (i.e. Bill Car-mody’s 2011-2012 squad), moral victories would certainly no longer matter. Nobody’s going to accept the “close enough” mantra when a coach has already used his fair share of time.
But that is not the case with Col-lins. This is the longtime Dukie’s second year at the NU helm, and, in all honesty, it feels like his first with the old regime’s players falling away and the athletes Collins pre-fers finally taking the court.
We all know this is a rebuild through and through, and the expectation of an NCAA Tour-nament run is at least a year off. What’s of importance in 2014-2015 is to see that this freshman-heavy squad can be respectable in the Big Ten. And they’ve proven that to be the case so far. The Cats may be 1-4 in conference play, but they’ve
shown they can hang with almost any Big Ten squad.
A 1-4 record that included four blowout losses would be much more troubling.
But why should we be OK with losses? Because these close calls now mean NU is in line to capture more victories in the future. It’s not so much that this team will “learn how to win,” rather that a more experienced squad in future years will simply be a better team.
And with this baseline group being a competitor in the Big Ten already rather than a conference punching bag, that means future improvement might net that elusive tournament appearance after all.
Jesse Kramer: Moral victories are simply not enough
Northwestern has a history with close losses. It’s not just the three straight close losses this month.
Since the 2008-09 season, which is when NU effectively became more than just the Big Ten’s doormat, the program is 1-9 in conference games that went into overtime.
The Wildcats are also 14-16 in Big Ten regulation games decided by 5 points or fewer during that time.
Last year was a rare exception where the Cats felt what it’s like to be on the winning side of several close games.
Part of this program’s reputation under former coach Bill Carmody was that it could get close but never finish, whether that meant losing a single game on a buzzer-beater or over a season falling a few wins short of earning a NCAA Tourna-ment berth.
Coach Chris Collins is trying to change the culture at NU.
In the end, Bryant McIntosh’s miss at the end of NU’s loss to Michigan does not change how the team competed on the road for the first 39 minutes and 59 seconds. In that sense, a moral victory can exist.
But the fact that the Cats needed
McIntosh to make a game-tying basket on the final possession after leading in the second half shows they missed an opportunity to steal a conference road game.
If Collins is going to succeed in changing the culture at NU, the Cats have to become a team that
capitalizes on opportunities for victories instead of blowing them away.
Only real victories, not moral ones, will achieve that goal.
[email protected] [email protected]
By KEVIN CASEYdaily senior staffer @KevinCasey19
For Katrina Adams, discovering ten-nis at all was unexpected.
“I had a middle-class background (growing up) because my parents were both teachers,” Adams said. “But I lived in a community where tennis wasn’t even thought of. I grew up on the West Side of Chicago, a predominantly black commu-nity, and it was about school and educa-tion and advancing ourselves.”
Yet this month, Adams was ushered in as the chairman, chief executive and president of the United States Tennis Association, the country’s governing body in the sport. The 46-year-old, a former Northwestern tennis player, is the youngest to head the organization. She is also the first African-American and first former professional player to hold the position.
“If you asked me (in her college days) if I thought that this was in her future, I wouldn’t have been able to say yes,” said Sandy Stap Clifton, a former NU women’s tennis coach. “But it doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Adams concurred with her ex-col-lege coach, saying she had no inclina-tion of one day becoming the leader of the U.S.T.A. when she joined the board back in 2005.
Clifton lured Adams to NU in 1986, following the latter’s stellar high school career that included two individual state titles in Illinois. While the team was a Big
Ten juggernaut, Clifton said it was part luck — the cold weather and 30 to 45 minute drive each way to practice weren’t exactly enticing factors — and part locale — Adams could go to school near home — that allowed this star recruit to come
to Evanston.Adams added that her childhood
affinity for the Cats and the school’s strong communications program also played a role.
And what a fruitful decision it was. Adams quickly acclimated, earning two first-team All-American honors at NU and winning the NCAA doubles cham-pionship in 1987 there as well.
She also had confidence in spades, said Diane Donnelly Stone, Adams’ doubles partner at NU.
“We kind of kept each other in check,” Stone said. “She was a lot more outwardly confident than I was. She kept saying, ‘When we win NCAAs,’ and I was like ‘If we win NCAAs.’”
Adams said she felt she instilled that no-lose mentality and a sense of bravado into Stone, and her success didn’t stop there. Adams left NU after two years to pursue a professional tennis career, a move she didn’t see as especially risky because she knew her game and there was no glaring lack of money at that level.
The college-to-professional jump is not the easiest, but Adams succeeded with flying colors. A doubles staple in the professional ranks, Adams captured 20 Women’s Tennis Association doubles titles between 1988 and 1999.
Following her retirement from the sport, Adams contemplated starting her own foundation in Chicago when a cou-ple of friends on the board of the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program — a-not-for-profit that introduces low-income inner city children to tennis — asked her if she would be interested in
joining the group.Adams said she thought about it and
realized she could come to an established foundation and better it. She became the organization’s executive director, a post she still holds today.
The serious time commitment of her new position at the U.S.T.A. is already apparent to Adams, who said she has meetings in California, at the Austra-lian Open and at the Fed Cup in the next three weeks.
“With the U.S.T.A. the biggest thing is putting in the time because this is a non-paying position,” Stone said.
Adams also has clear goals. Her main objectives for her term are to get children more involved in the game and get a His-panic population that is disengaged from tennis at all levels interested in the sport. Adams is already engaging a task force that will look into the ways the U.S.T.A. can attract these Hispanic communities to the sport.
Adams said she is cognizant of what it means to be the first African-American head of the U.S.T.A. But for a woman who has a long, varied career consistently marked by success, nailing her new role is the focus.
“I happen to be African-American, and that brings a lot more notoriety to me being in that position right now,” she said. “But it’s really about my belief in wanting to make a difference and the guidance and leadership that I have to be able to instill in others. Right now I have a huge task at hand.”
Source: Katrina Adams
ONCE A CAT... Katrina Adams, pictured during her time at Northwestern, returns a shot. The former Wildcat standout was named president of the U.S.T.A.
Former Wildcat named UTSA president
Men’s Basketball
Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer
MISSED OPPORTUNITY Bryant McIntosh drives past a defender. The freshman point guard became the face of Northwestern’s frustration after missing a potential game-tying shot against Michigan.
Five games into Northwestern’s con-ference schedule it’s difficult to tell what kind of team the Wildcats are, but that’s not a bad thing.
Last year NU’s identity was obvious. In his first year as coach, Chris Collins turned an inherited roster into the best defensive unit he could. The Cats didn’t score many points, but they suffocated the opposition by grinding the pace of the game to a halt and playing frenzied defense.
It’s a strategy that led to memorable upset wins over Illinois and Wisconsin, but also one that created disappoint-ments like a 59-32 dud in NU’s senior night against Penn State.
The Cats finished last season 14-19, and standing at 10-8 this year they’re on pace to meet preseason expectations. But NU’s journey from 2014-2015 has been anything but predictable.
Collins understandably changed tact this season with his first recruiting class under his belt. Having players he person-ally brought in enabled Collins to design his own system around them, and more importantly an injection of offensive talent allowed a departure from Collins’ defense-oriented scheme.
At least, that was the theory. The end result has been far murkier this season.
NU opened conference play with a low-scoring 51-47 victory over Rutgers, a game that fits in perfectly with last years’ results. But that was immediately erased by a blowout loss to Wisconsin in which the Cats looked lost on both ends of the court.
Those games were followed by a pair of surprisingly competent offensive per-formances in close losses against Michi-gan State and Illinois. Most recently, NU dropped a 56-54 heartbreaker to Michi-gan despite junior center Alex Olah scoring a game-high 22 points.
The only constant through all this fluctuation has been freshman point guard Bryant McIntosh, the Cats’ rising star who can’t seem to rise fast enough. He’s tied for the team lead in scoring with 11.9 points per game, and despite having just 4 points against the Wolverines he had the ball in his hands for the game-tying shot.
Everything around McIntosh has been in flux while Collins searches for that elusive winning strategy. Olah in particular has drawn criticism for his up-and-down play, with his offensive out-burst moderated by low-scoring flat-lines against the Badgers and Spartans.
Junior guard Tre Demps continues to be Tre Demps, caught in a strange purga-tory where a player shooting 38 percent from the floor and 29 percent from beyond the arc can still be considered a team’s best offensive threat.
Supporting characters: freshman for-ward Vic Law, sophomore forward San-jay Lumpkin and senior guard JerShon Cobb have each had their moments in the spotlight, but all have failed to emerge as consistent threats.
This is McIntosh’s team, and unlike most parents, Collins seems totally confident with a teenager behind the wheel. By forgoing any specific ideology and handing the reigns to his best player, Collins has more latitude to experiment with the rest of his roster.
The lack of an identity combined with a freshman point guard means plenty of growing pains for NU, but that’s not something to lament for a rebuilding team.
BOBBYPILLOTEDAILY SPORTS@BOBBYPILLOTE
Without identity, NU adrift but not lost
