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WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

Jermaine Gresham’s arthroscopic surgery will keep the star tight end out for the entire season. Find out the full details inside.PAGE 7

Read about the return of Mexican food favorite Pepe

Delgado’s in Life & Arts.PAGE 9

YOU CAN TRACK THE OKLAHOMA DAILY ON TWITTER FOR UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY. VISIT TWITTER.COM TO FOLLOW @OUDAILY.

CAMPUS BRIEFSCOUCH RESTAURANTS TO CELEBRATE RENOVATIONS

Thursday’sWeather

90°/68°owl.ou.edu

A ribbon cutting and dedica-tion of the newly renovated Couch Restaurants is scheduled for tonight.

Renova t i on s o f t he Couch Restaurants include new fl ooring, wall covering, seating, tables and a state-of-the-art media center with eight 52-inch fl at screens and more than a dozen 8-inch LCD screens.

Couch Restaurants now has 14 dif-ferent restaurant selections, includ-ing options for vegan/vegetarian and allergy-specifi c choices.

Guest speakers for the dedication include OU president David Boren, vice president for Student Affairs Clarke Stroud, director of Housing & Food Dave Annis and UOSA President Katie Fox.

Speakers will begin at 6 p.m. at Couch Restaurants, 333 Third St.

-Hannah Rieger/The Daily

LAST CHANCE TO PICK UP IDAHO STATE GAME TICKETS

Students who have not yet picked up or printed off their tickets for this Saturday’s football game against Idaho State need to do so by 5 p.m. today.

The athletic ticket offi ce is located on the east side of the stadium under the Asp Avenue parking garage and will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday for students to pick up their tickets.

Students need to bring their OU student ID in order to receive their ticket, said Kenneth Mossman, asso-ciate athletic director for communica-tions.

Students are encouraged to print off their tickets following the instruc-tions sent out via e-mail to student season ticket holders, Mossman said.

If you have questions regarding your ticket, call the athletic ticket offi ce at 325-2424.

Lighting upgrades and motion

sensor technology added

BREIA BRISSEYThe Oklahoma Daily

In an effort to increase sustainability and lower costs, OU’s Physical Plant has partnered with Johnson Controls, Inc. to upgrade sev-eral academic buildings on campus to better conserve energy. These renovations include everything from motion sensors for office lighting and vending machines to photoluminescent exit signs and low-flow toilets.

Amanda Hearn, Physical Plant spokeswoman, said after all the renovations are com-plete, the annual energy savings for upgrades will be equivalent to having more than 1,800 fewer cars in Norman.

“Reductions in utility costs and energy use from this proj-ect will continue to benefit the university for years to come,” Hearn stated in an e-mail.

These changes can be found everywhere from Copeland Hall and Sarkeys Energy Center to Bizzell Memorial Library and Cross Center. Hearn said the reason some buildings have seen these upgrades before others is because the technology required to make a cost-effective upgrade has already been reached in some newer buildings.

The entire project, which started with the replacement of electric powered exit signs to

photoluminescent ones, will be completed in phases during the next year and a half, Hearn said.

The current phase involves a variety of lighting upgrades. The wattage of some exte-rior lights around campus has been reduced by approximately 50 percent. Inside, upgrades include lower-wattage fluorescent bulbs and occupancy sensors to determine an area’s use. Hearn said if a room is no longer in use, the lights will automatically turn off.

Laura Knoll, membership director at KGOU, works on the third floor of Copeland

Hall. She said her motion sensor light was installed about a month ago.

“Sometimes the light turns off on me when I’m working,” she said. “But it’s worth it if [OU] can save some energy. It’s definitely a good thing.”

To minimize inconve-nience, most of the upgrades are being performed at night. Hearn also said Physical Plant is making a special effort to notify building occupants of any changes.

Chris Applegate, the presi-dent of the student-lead organization OUr Earth, said these changes are really important steps in making the university more green.

“While OU is behind on these initiatives we are really gearing up to really push these initiatives at a quicker rate,” he said. “I look forward to collaborating with OU to pursue these initiatives and creating awareness of these issues with the OU community.”

Buildings on campus becomingmore energy effi cient

Student Congress passes legislation, seeks recruits

THINK FAST DURING RAMADAN

40%

he return of vorite Pepe Life & Arts.

PAGE 9

Elements of Th unander’s past resurface years laterAlumnus accused of child

molestation and possession of

child pornography

PETER DAVISThe Oklahoma Daily

Eric Thunander stepped on campus for the first time in June 1999 as a football player. After years of dealing with mul-tiple forms of abuse, he wanted to change perceptions about hearing-impaired athletes.

In “Silent Thunder,” a book Thunander wrote in 2008, he claimed to have been emotionally, physically and sexually abused by his first stepfather. He had been forced to participate in child pornography and forced to clean up a homicide scene he claimed his stepfather had commit-ted. Coming to OU was supposed to be the new beginning he was hop-ing for.

Flash forward to a little more than 10 years later, and he is now being accused by the Cleveland County District Attorney’s of-fice of child molestation and possession of child pornography.

In the book, he detailed many of his own accounts of being abused. In one in-stance, he described a childhood exploi-tation with another young female child in vivid detail.

OU offered Thunander a chance at

redemption not just once, but twice. After a devastating hit during the 2000 OU-Texas game that would cause many problems throughout the season, he would learn in the offseason that his career as a defensive end was over.

According to his book, when Thunander returned home to Kansas City that sum-mer, he married and divorced in a short span of time. He eventually hit a new per-sonal low and attempted suicide.

Thunander reached out for help, con-tacting coach Brent Venables. Almost a week later, coach Bob Stoops called and offered Thunander a chance to return to school with his support.

“We’ll do anything for you, Eric,” Stoops said, according to Thunander’s book. “You are important to us. Anything I can do, I will do.” Thunander accepted Stoops’ offer and returned, graduating in 2007 with a

bachelor’s degree in communication.

He stayed in the area after graduation a n d b e g a n w o rk-ing on his book and doing motivational speaking. He also re-

searched the quality of education for deaf students in rural America and how to im-prove it out of personal interest.

In May 2008, he finished writing and publishing his book and it looked like Thunander was on the path to a better life.

MICHELLE GRAY/THE DAILY

(Left to Right) Holli Anne Bruce, linguistics senior, sits with Samirah Mohamad, University College freshman, after breaking their sunrise-to-sunset fast in honor of the Ramadan month of fasting. The Think Fast event took place in the Oklahoma Memorial Union Ballroom Tuesday evening.

Passed bills includes petition for

day off before OU-Texas game

RICKY MARANONThe Oklahoma Daily

Student Congress passed a bill Tuesday that asks for the Friday before OU-Texas weekend to be declared a school holiday.

The bill, known as the OU-Texas Act, asks Vice President and Provost Nancy Mergler to designate Friday, Oct. 16 as a day off from school.

“It is tradition for us to ask the provost for the day off,” said John Jennings, UOSA Student Congress Chair.

The bill was passed unanimously, and now waits for action by the Provost’s office.

Other legislation that was passed were ap-pointments of UOSA General Counsel for 2009-2010.

“We’re already off to a busy year,” UOSA General Counselor Mike J. Davis said.

Davis explained to members of Congress what the judicial branch of UOSA did and what they are already working on this semester.

The final bill approved Tuesday was a bill appointing members of Congress to indi-vidual committees that ana-lyze bills that are put before the Congress.

Student Congress has six committees to examine leg-islation before it is presented as legislation before the entire voting body.

Student Congress is also still attempting to fill vacancies left by the spring 2009 election by recruiting freshmen to open positions.

“We have recruited 15 freshmen so far and

the application deadline has not even passed yet,” said Spencer Pittman, UOSA Student Congress spokesman.

Pittman said the newly re-cruited freshmen are already being trained on procedure, writing laws and the by-laws of Student Congress, and there is a Congressional retreat next Sunday where new and old members will meet and discuss the fall 2009 and spring 2010 semesters.

“[The newly recruited mem-bers] are already learning what they need to know to be a member of Congress,” Pittman said. “We’d still like more people to sign up

though. It is not too late.”He said the deadline for freshmen to fill va-

cancies in the Student Congress is Sept. 16. Those that sign up will be appointed to the Congress after the deadline has passed.

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Jermaine Grearthroscopic will keep the end out for thseason. Findfull details inPAPAPAGEGEGE 77 7

TWITTER FOR UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY VISIT TWITTER COM TO FOLLOW @O

Who: Freshmen who want to be appointed to fi ll vacancies in the UOSA Student Congress

Where: The Conoco Student Leadership Center in the Oklahoma Memorial Union

When: Applications must be received by Sept. 16

FILLING VACANCIES

LOOKING FORWARD• Currently the Physical Plant is focusing on lighting upgrades and will focus on water con-servation next.

• New low-flow toilets will reduce water use from approx-imately six gallons per minute to 1.6 gallons per minute.

Source: Amanda Hearn, physical plant spokeswoman

Muslim Student Association hosts event to teach Islamic culture

NATASHA GOODELLThe Oklahoma Daily

Growing up in Bartlesville, University College freshman Samirah Mohamad was one of the few to wear a Muslim head scarf, called a hijab.

But since coming to OU, Mohamad has found herself surrounded by other Muslims and partici-pated in Tuesday evening’s Think Fast event.

“Coming here is almost a culture shock [being surrounded by so many Muslims],” Mohamad said, who was raised in the only Muslim family in Bartlesville.

Mohamad said she was surprised by the num-ber of people who attended the event, sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.

“[I like] the camaraderie of being around all these people and knowing we’re getting a good message across about Islam,” Mohamad said.

Think Fast is a campus event that was created by MSA to invite all students on campus to be a part of a day of fasting.

“I think, just like prayer, fasting is something that is a part of many faiths,” said Khadeeja Elyazgi, professional writing junior and MSA pub-lic relations officer. “It’s something that brings us together and allows us to learn more about each other through community.”

At the end of the day, all students were invited to attend Think Fast at 7 p.m. for a free dinner and a cultural learning experience about Ramadan

Eric Thunander met with members of the Cleveland County District Attorney’s offi ce Tuesday. Details of the meeting were not available at press time.

THUNANDER MEETS IN COURT

ELEMENTS CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

RAMADAN CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

Meredith Moriak, managing editordailynews@ou.edu • phone: 325-3666 • fax: 325-6051

2 Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Small fi re breaks out in Chemistry Building closetFire marshal to investigate cause

HAILEY BRANSONThe Oklahoma Daily

Dozens of students and faculty were dis-placed Tuesday morning as firefighters put out a small fire in the Chemistry Building on the southwest side of the North Oval.

The fire was located in a closet in room 326, Norman Deputy Fire Chief Jim Bailey said. Three fire engine companies and 15 firefighters were dispatched to the scene, he said.

A call about an alarm was received at about 10:16 a.m., and firefighters extinguished the fire in less than 10 minutes, Bailey said. Firefighters stayed in the building to clear smoke for at least an hour.

The cause of the fire and the amount of damage was unknown as of Tuesday

morning, Bailey said. OU Fire Marshal Kevin Leach will investigate.

Daniel Garrison, biochemistry senior, was in a physical chemistry lab in the building at the time the alarm sounded. He said every-one was evacuated, and students had to sit outside the building on the North Oval while firefighters were inside.

Garrison said he did not see or smell smoke as he left the building, but he knew people who did.

“Somebody said he smelled smoke when he went back in to get some crackers,” he said.

Garrison said he thought the fire was put out quickly because of the firefighters’ movement.

“The firefighters seem to be moving at a more leisurely pace,” he said. “They don’t seem too frantic.” NATASHA GOODELL/THE DAILY

Students wait outside the Chemistry Building on the North Oval Tuesday after a closet caught fire.

On Aug. 10 of this year, every-thing came crashing down.

According to court affida-vits filed in Cleveland County, Thunander confessed both ver-bally and in writing to the Norman Police Department to child mo-lestation after a monitored phone call between Thunander and the victim’s father. Thunander also claimed he downloaded child pornography from the file-sharing software Limewire, according to the affidavits.

Many calls and e-mails to local psychologists and to the Oklahoma City Police Department left questions unanswered due to the ongoing investigation into Thunander without full knowl-edge of him or his background.

Mark Chaffin, a professor in the department of pediatrics at the OU Health Sciences Center, offered some general insight into child abuse.

“Child abuse should not be

stereotyped,” he said. “Abused children are not ticking time bombs; that’s an old wives’ tale.”

In contrast to what Chaffin said, a study done by the Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study published in 2001 by Xlibris Corporation sug-gests that almost 47 percent of molested boys go on to become molesters later in life.

Harry Wright, psychology pro-fessor, said the effects of child abuse are complicated, but that the effects of abuse can cause fur-ther trauma.

“Our understanding of the psy-chological dynamic with child abuse is very murky,” he said. “We are still trying to find cognitively what’s going on. What are the dynamic processes that lead to this?”

Thunander was optimistic about his future; he had hoped he could change opinions.

“I will not succumb to the dark path,” he stated in the book. “I will not lose my mind. I will not be-come a statistic.”

and the Islamic faith.“Fasting is a lot about dealing with internal battles,”

Mohamad said. “It’s not about just being hungry or thirsty because you know you have that meal coming at 8 p.m., not everyone does.”

Mohamad, who has been fasting since Aug. 21, said she has become used to fasting and only recog-nizes times she is hungry occasionally throughout the day.

She said her first day of class was re-ally hard because she was walking to class in the heat

and was so thirsty, but she said it wasn’t unbearable.“You have to remember that it isn’t just about

yourself,” Mohamad said. “I have to motivate myself to keep pushing through.”

She said this is one of the months in the lunar cal-endar that fighting and wars are prohibited in the Islamic tradition.

During fasting, you can’t get angry with people, smoke, use foul language, eat, drink, be profane or have physical relations with the opposite sex, Mohamad said.

She said everyone tries to be a nice and caring per-son while fasting.

“By the time you break fast you’re starving and keep thinking about everything you can eat but then I can’t even finish half of my plate,” she said.

All the food that you do not eat while you are fast-ing makes the meal at the end of the day more mean-ingful, she said.

“Last year we went to Oliver Garden and that first taste of a breadstick was … wonderful,” Mohamad said.

Mohamad said a lot of people came to the Think Fast event because it had a lot of publicity.

“My friends and I were looking at the group and thought it would be a great way to get perspective about what they do, why they do it and how they do this,” said Colin Wilson, visual communication junior.

Wilson said he hopes to understand Muslims bet-ter through this and to be able to experience what it’s like to spend a day in their shoes.

“How do you love someone like God loves them if you don’t understand them?” Wilson said.

Wilson said fasting was very hard, as he saw all of the food on campus and smelled the food as he would pass by students coming from lunch, but he said he just remembered the people who go through this on a daily basis.

“Orphans go down the streets and they see the food and smell the food, but they don’t have the means to get it,” Wilson said. “And for us, it’s just like I’m missing lunch. But for them, they could possibly die.”

RamadanContinued from page 1

ElementsContinued from page 1

OUDAILY.COM

Watch a video from the Think Fast event.

LOG ONLINE TO READ NATASHA’S BLOG ABOUT FASTING FOR A DAY.

Dear OU Community,

The Murray-Case Sells Swim Complex is open and undergoing improvements!

The construc� on at the entryway is for the new roof being installed over the indoor pool. Due to complica� ons during construc� on, the project is taking longer than an� cipated. We are working as quickly as possible to complete the project. As with all roofi ng projects, comple� on dates are diffi cult to determine as they are o� en infl uenced by weather and underlying condi� ons that must be addressed before the new roof installa� on is completed.

Un� l construc� on is complete, the outdoor pool will remain open as long as the water temperatures are safe to do so. Because of the low overnight temperatures, the moderate day� me temperatures, rain, and the associated lowering of the pool water temperature, the pool will be closed for the safety of our swimmers when the water temperature falls below 75 degrees. The United States Search and Rescue Task Force es� mates that temperatures around and under 70 degrees to be “cold water,” the point at which, depending upon one’s physical composi� on, one’s body can experience severe physical strain, possibly producing cardiac arrest.

You may check the water temperature before arriving for a swim by calling 325-4837 or checking our website at recservices.ou.edu. Website temperature pos� ngs will be updated at approximately 5:45 am, 11 am, and 3 pm. Front Desk opera� ons will have updated water temperatures available every thirty minutes during hours of opera� on.

Should the pool close due to the water temperatures, members will receive a refund or a membership extension, based on their preference, for the swim � me lost.

The safety of our members is our primary concern. We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to the comple� on of the new roof.

Sincerely,

Amy M. DavenportDirector, Recrea� onal Services

TODAYCAREER SERVICES

Professional Dress for Men

and Women will be held from

10:30 to 11:20 a.m. and again

from 12:30 to 1:20 p.m. in the

Oklahoma Memorial Union.

Resume Writing 101 for arts and

sciences majors will be held from

3 to 3:30 p.m. in the Union.

CHRISTIANS ON CAMPUS

A Bible study will be held from

12:30 to 1:15 p.m. in the Union.

INTRAMURAL SPORTS

The Intramural Program will be look-

ing for more students to register for

the fl ag football season from 5 to 6

p.m. in the Huston Huffman Center.

CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST

Campus Crusade for Christ will

meet from 9 to 10 p.m. in the

Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

THURSDAYCAREER SERVICES

Resume Writing 101 for engineer-

ing majors will be held from

1:30 to 2 p.m. in the Union.

An Interviewing 101 work-

shop will be held from 1:30

to 2 p.m. in the Union.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND HISTORY OF SCIENCE

The Religious Studies and the

History of Science Department

will be hosting a series of pre-

sentations titled “An Evolving

Creation: A Personal Perspective

on Science and Faith” from

6:30 to 8 p.m. in Nielsen Hall.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 3

CAMPUS NOTES

The Daily has a long-standing commitment to serve readers by providing accurate coverage and analysis. Errors are corrected as they are identified. Readers should bring errors to the attention of the editorial board for further investi-gation.

Friday’s edition of The Daily incor-rectly stated U.S. Representative Tom Cole was a state representative.

OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCURACY

The following is a list of arrests and citations, not

convictions. Information is provided by the Norman

Police Department and the OUPD. All people listed

below are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

MUNICIPAL WARRANTTony Lavell Anderson, 20, Alameda Street, Monday

Theda Dawn Bennett, 40, 1708 Jennifer Circle, Monday

Benjamin Aaron Coats, 21, 1506 E. Lindsey Ave., Monday

Daniel Joseph Ellis, 26, Beaumont Street,

Sunday. Also, driving under suspension.

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCEMatthew Bernard Otten, 20, 100 Imhoff Road, Saturday

Matthew D. Glass, 20, 100 E. Boyd St., Saturday

Jon Whitson Dandridge, 26, 4608 E. Franklin

Road, Monday. Also, possession of marijuana.

Madalene Berniece Schmitt, 23, Castro Street, Monday

Joseph Edward McGarity, 44, 300 W. Boyd St., Friday

Brandon Thomas Powell, 30, 500 E. Boyd St.,

Friday. Also, transporting an open container

and driving without proof of insurance.

Jessie Raul Ochoa, 18, 500 E. Constitution St., Sunday

Zachary William Crawford, 23, 2700 S. Chautauqua

Ave., Monday. Also, possession of marijuana with

intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school.

PUBLIC INTOXICATIONJacob Kyle Boone, 21, 900 Asp Ave., Sunday.

Also, outraging public decency.

Eric Scott Bowen, 19, 300 E. Brooks St., Sunday.

Also, carrying a concealed weapon.

Christopher Mark Spurlock, 23, 200 W. Boyd St., Sunday

POSSESSION OF MARIJUANATracy Lajuan Heller, 40, 218 Beal St., Sunday

MINOR IN POSSESSION OF ALCOHOLBraden Scott Holden, 20, 1413 Peter Pan St., Sunday

POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA Brian Russell Kelley, 20, 1413 Peter Pan St., Sunday

PETTY LARCENYJonas Shane Williams, 35, 601 12th Ave. N.E., Monday

Michael Chad Woods, 28, 333 N. Interstate Drive E., Monday

DRIVING WITH A SUSPENDED/REVOKED LICENSETeresa Ann Bell, 49, 900 Block of Elm Avenue, Saturday

POLICE REPORTS

Waghelstein uses experience

to evaluate United States

JARED RADERThe Oklahoma Daily

The U.S. could look at past effec-tive counterinsurgency operations in Latin America to improve the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, f o r m e r U. S. A r my C o l . Jo h n Waghelstein told an audience of students Tuesday in Nielsen Hall.

Waghelstein, a professor emeritus at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. commanded the 7th Special Forces Group and the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, where he led 55 soldiers to defeat the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front insurgency during the Salvadoran Civil War of the 1980s.

Waghelstein said one of the key factors in U.S. failure to win coun-terinsurgency wars is its failure to do the right analysis of the situation.

“Our problem is not that we don’t know how to do this,” Waghelstein said. “We have a tendency to look at the last war we fought and say ‘OK, this is the way we won the last one, so it must work this time.’”

Waghelstein called this tendency “last battle syndrome.”

He noted the Vietnam War as an example of a counterinsurgency operation gone wrong.

He said the mentality of the U.S. Army was set to fight a “big war”

rather than a counterinsurgency. Waghelstein said the Vietnam War was unsuccessful because it was a long, drawn out war that was politi-cally divisive and resulted in major loss of life.

“American patience is not our strong suit,” Waghelstein said.

Waghelstein then compared his counterinsurgency operation in El Salvador with the operation in Vietnam. He said the reasons for his operation’s success in El Salvador were that his force conducted good analysis of the situation on the ground, kept constant pressure on the Salvadoran army for assistance and only 55 soldiers were needed to complete the job.

“The [Latin American] leftists tried to paint our operation as an-other Vietnam,” Waghelstein said. “Fifty-five soldiers is not another Vietnam.”

The 7th Special Forces Group trained the Salvadoran armed forc-es and threatened to pull out if the Salvadoran army did not perform, said Waghelstein.

“There is a tipping point where the less committed you are, the more leverage you have,” he said.

Waghelstein compared the cur-rent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the Vietnam War in terms of its length, how it has divided people on party lines and the growing loss of life.

While his operations in El Salvador were successful, Waghelstein said

they did not provide perfect solu-tions for the problems in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that a few elements could be ap-plied to the wars, such as having better analysis.

“If you’re going to fight these things, you better be prepared to address each one of the issues that are causing people to be pissed off in the first place,” Waghelstein said.

Waghelstein also drew on his experience training the military in

E l S a l v a d o r with current training op-erations of the foreign armies i n I r a q a n d Afghanistan.

“ T h e r e comes a point in which if a host country cannot do what it needs to do

on its own, I think we ought to cut bait,” Waghelstein said.

Former Army Col. discusses operations in El Salvador

JEREMY DICKIE/THE DAILY

John D. Waghelstein, adjunct professor from the U.S. Naval War College, lectures over the counter-insurgency in Nielson Hall Tuesday night.

“If you’re going to fi ght these things, you better be prepared to address each one of the issues that are causing people to be pissed off in the fi rst place.”

— FORMER U.S. ARMY COL. JOHN WAGHELSTEIN, ON U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN COUNTERINSURGENCY EFFORTS.

Along with professional writing, I am a religious studies major. Most people ask me if I’m working toward pastor-hood when I share this with them.

I then go into a speech I am quite used to giving: reli-gious studies is not seminary. In fact, it’s far from it.

S e m i n a r y , w h e re pastors go to learn, ap-proaches religion from a theological stand-point. Religious stud-ies is the academic study of religion.

Seminar y teaches p e o p l e m o re a b o u t

God specifically, while religious studies asks why people worship God and hold a text up as truth in the first place.

My endeavors in religious studies thus far have led me to the question: can someone be religious and still practice religious studies?

You see, religious studies requires the practitioner to approach religion from an objective, non-judgmental standard (even after the rest of our college classes have drilled into our heads that everything is hopelessly subjective).

Approaching various other religions from an objective, open-minded stance might be difficult for someone who has already built their worldview around strong faith-based claims, such as a strong Christian like me.

I am constantly tempted to subject the religions and worldviews I study to my own worldview.

So lately, I have asked myself, what in the world am I doing in the religious studies department? Here’s my honest answer.

I plan on sharing my faith with oth-ers throughout life, considering that is what my faith demands, and I want to be educated and well versed in the worldviews and religions I might en-counter through others as I am sharing my faith.

I am slightly apprehensive about sharing this reason among the religious studies crowd.

There is too much motive in it, con-sidering RELS students are supposed to learn to approach other religious systems objectively.

Furthermore, our objective study is supposed to lead us to appreciate other religions and eventually validate them.

Again, this idea is an object of ten-sion and a stumbling block for me.

I a m a C h r i s t i a n . M y f a i t h i s

monotheistic. I believe in one God and one God only. And again, I must ask myself, what in the world am I doing in the religious studies department?

Don’t misunderstand me; religious studies has taught me a lot and been very rewarding in many ways so far.

However, it is also a battlefield for me, and I sometimes wonder why I have thrown myself onto this battlefield.

And if I remain in the RELS depart-ment, which I will, then there is only one way I can answer the question I have posed.

Yes, one can have religion and be a student of RELS at the same time.

Deciding that my answer to the question is yes is a hurtle I have already jumped. The real battle is: How do I ex-plain my yes?

I hope the fact that I’m writing this column doesn’t cause you to think that I have an answer yet. I don’t. Religious scholars still struggle to answer this question every day.

Students and teachers in this com-munity know that the two choices one has are to leave their personal beliefs at the door or bring them into the room at their own discretion.

I have tried both and encountered both undesirable and desirable results at each turn.

For now, as I go on learning, I whole-heartedly accept the fact that I have a motive and a rhyme and reason for ev-erything, from brushing my teeth to ap-proaching religious studies.

I gladly learn about religion for the purpose of better understanding and approaching people who believe dif-ferently, but I won’t validate every sin-gle worldview or religion I encounter alongside or above my own for the sake of academia.

Perhaps others in the RELS commu-nity will accept my motives. Perhaps they won’t.

Hopefully, they will realize that I am simply another student in the depart-ment, trying to find a proper answer to the question of religion and religious studies.

I am simply a student, searching out the proper avenue for my motives and convictions as I am thrust head-on into a world that thinks and believes differ-ently than I do.

And along the road, if I finally find a brilliant answer to all I have struggled with here, I will surely let you know.

Jelani Sims is a professional writing and religious

studies junior.

I want to say something that doesn’t get mentioned enough in the “land of the free and the home of the Sooners.”

God bless America. I recently drove to San Antonio for my

brother’s graduation from Air Force Basic Training, and at no other point in my life (except for maybe the OU-Texas Tech game last year) have I felt the hair-raising, shoulder-shimmy-inducing chills of pride that I felt at the graduation parade.

Among the families watch-ing the parade, there were no divisions of color. Red and blue did not represent loca-tions along the political spectrum, but rather they stood as two of the three colors on the flag being saluted.

And black and white represented only the ink on the Constitution our service members pledged to uphold.

Everybody was nothing more, or noth-ing less, than a proud American.

The graduation ceremony I witnessed

was an excellent reminder that, despite all the doom and gloom showered upon us by the media and fellow citizens, we still live in the greatest nation in the world.

We certainly believed in that statement in grade school when we defended every rude or selfish act with the phrase, “It ’s a free country!” We said the pledge every day. We sang, “This Land is Your Land.”

Well that land, “from the Redwood Forests to the Gulf Stream Waters,” is still a pretty great place to live. The country is still based on “lib-erty and justice for all.” America is still

a “free country,” in the best sense of the term.

So add your favorite version of an American tune to your iPod and give it the recognition it deserves. Give a toast to America. High-five a random ROTC member. Do something once in a while to remind you how fortunate we are to live here.

The next t ime you hear “ The Star Spangled Banner,” think about it a little bit. Don’t let the National Anthem become

akin to the mean-ingless but oblig-ator y “How are you?” of our pass-ing greetings.

Instead, think about a friend or family member in the military. Or about the unlim-ited opportunities

you have to chase “the American Dream.” Think about how far the nation has

come, from slavery to having a black president. Or give the government a silent shout-out (Too many taxes, but still less than France. Good roads are nice. Thanks, gov.).

Take a minute to think about the re-pressed families stuck in a corrupt nation. Pray for the countries in Africa and cen-tral Asia that are destroyed by illness be-cause their people have no access to clean water.

Think about the children in the Middle East who are educated in Taliban recruit-ment schools.

I know I’m not saying anything you didn’t know before. You know all about why America is great, and you have likely known since elementary school.

But do you ever think about it any-more? Every once in a while, it’s nice to be reminded.

My brother’s graduation was that re-minder to me, and I hope that, however less inspirational it may be, this column will encourage you to give America the gratitude it deserves.

So when you hear the National Anthem at the next OU football game, if nothing else, think about how lucky you are just to be watching football.

And if you end the song with “Sooners,” consider the importance of the first 80 words in giving you the freedom to say whatever you want in the last.

Appreciate, and then celebrate.

TJ Moen is an industrial engineering junior.

OUR VIEW STAFF COLUMN

STAFF COLUMN

Will Holland, opinion editordailyopinion@ou.edu • phone: 325-7630 • fax: 325-6051

4 Wednesday, September 9, 2009

JELANI SIMS

TJMOEN

Jamie Hughes Editor-in-ChiefMeredith Moriak Managing EditorCharles Ward Assistant Managing EditorRicky Ly Night EditorWill Holland Opinion EditorMichelle Gray, Merrill Jones Photo Editors

LeighAnne Manwarren Senior Online EditorJacqueline Clews Multimedia EditorAnnelise Russell Sports EditorCassie Rhea Little Life & Arts EditorJudy Gibbs Robinson Editorial AdviserThad Baker Advertising Manager

The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum and OU’s independent student voice.Letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and should be fewer than 250 words, typed, double spaced and signed by the author(s). Letters will be cut to fit. Students must list their major and classification. OU staff and faculty must list their title. All letters must include a daytime phone number. Authors submitting letters in person must present photo identification. Submit letters Sunday through Thursday, in 160 Copeland Hall. Letters can also be submitted via e-mail to dailyopinion@ou.edu.

Guest columns are accepted at editor’s discretion.’Our View’ is the voice of The Oklahoma Daily. Editorial Board members are The Daily’s editorial staff. The board meets Sunday through Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in 160 Copeland Hall. Columnists’ and cartoonists’ opinions are not necessarily the opinions of The Daily Editorial Board.

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Instead, think about a friend or family member in the military. Or about the unlimited opportunities you have to chase “the American dream.”

America represents more than just the ‘home of the Sooners’

‘Can someone be religious and still practice religious studies?’

As a junior and a woman at OU, I am stunned at how OU Housing has handled my unique case involving my priority housing permit.

I have not lived on campus since my freshman year, but since I work late nights and early mornings in the dorms, I have felt that the safest parking option for me is to buy a priority housing permit.

Last year I bought a priority permit, and it was never brought into question, but since OU Parking and Transit made a mistake in giving unqualifi ed freshmen permits, mine has also been taken away. I went up the chain of command within OU Housing and was told that even though I work 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. shifts and a 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift, I will have to park in commuter lots and walk across the deserted campus, putting my own safety in jeopardy.

I am astonished that a university that values students would put a female student-employee in such a situation.

I have been repeatedly told by OU Parking and Transit - and it was published in The Daily - that the only qualifi cations to receive such a permit are that a “student must have lived in the residence halls for two semesters and completed 24 credit hours.” Under these criteria I should qualify.

It is a sad day for Oklahoma when the OU Housing offi ce failed to take my specifi c situation into consideration and have unoffi cially amended OU Parking and Transit’s policy.

Sarah HarpPolitical science and anthropology junior

EDITOR’S NOTE: For more information on the sales of priority parking permits, go to OUDaily.com to read the Sept. 2 news story, “Freshmen must exchange incorrect permits.”

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Green measures impressive, but more can always be done

Walk anywhere on campus and you will likely be able to see at least one person in your vicinity sporting a pair of Chacos. The colorful sandals have become a popular fashion statement, especially for those who support environmentally friendly measures or at least want to look like they do.

These days, going green is trendy. But re-member, it’s not a fad.

Green measures, like recycling and con-serving energy, are becoming increasingly important as our natural resources are being depleted at a growing rate.

And that’s why we’d like to take a mo-ment to commend OU administrators for the environmentally friendly, on-campus measures that have already been imple-mented (See page 1 for details).

These include the introduction of Green Week, double-sided printing in campus computer labs, electronic pay stubs for campus employees, an increased number of recycling bins and turned-off lights in soda machines on campus, among other green measures.

The efforts are substantially more visible on campus compared to just two years ago.

We realize the measures OU has taken to go green are not mandatory, and they take money (something that may be in short supply during the current recession) to implement.

But OU has taken those steps and in the process become a leader in the green move-ment. This is laudable to say the least. We sincerely hope OU keeps this up because, as we said before, going green is not a fad.

The administration cannot, however, do it alone. It takes work and sacrifices from everybody on campus. Start out small by making sure to turn out the light every time you leave your dorm room or apartment or by recycling soda bottles.

We realize it’s not always easy (we like the convenience of driving over walking to class, too), and nobody’s perfect (by put-ting out this publication each day we use a lot of paper).

But if everyone on campus follows OU’s lead, our university will truly become a force in the environmentally friendly movement.

Don’t know where to start? Recycle this paper when you’re done reading it.

CHICAGO — Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Tuesday that statements he made on secret FBI wiretap tapes were taken out of context by prosecutors and that he might try to call senators and a top White House official as witnesses at his racketeering and fraud trial to back his version of events.

Blagojevich told The A s s o c i at e d P re s s i n a phone interview that he might even try to subpoena President Barack Obama as a witness at his trial, but the court is unlikely to compel the president to testify.

The former governor, whose trial is scheduled to begin June 3, said he expects to be cleared of

charges that he tried to sell or trade Obama’s former Senate seat for campaign money or a high-paying job for his wife or himself.

“I will be vindicated because I haven’t done anything wrong,” Blagojevich said.

He said he sometimes stays awake and worries that justice — as he sees it — won’t

prevail and he will go to prison.“I think about it in the wee hours, in

the witching hour — I’m only human,” Blagojevich said. He described the ordeal he and his family have been going through since his arrest last December as “this nightmare.”

Blagojevich said he is not tempted to ask his attorneys to seek a plea deal that could cut years of any prison sentence.

“Never,” he said, raising his voice.The former governor spoke by phone from

New York, where he was promoting his book, “The Governor.” He started the day with an interview with WLS radio in Chicago and an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show.

According to prosecutors, the FBI secretly recorded Blagojevich last November saying he wanted something in exchange for the Senate seat.

“I’ve got this thing and it’s (deleted) gold-en, and uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for (deleted) nothing,” he is quoted as saying. He was later recorded saying “I want to make money” off the seat, prosecutors said.

As he argued in his book, Blagojevich said his words were taken out of context, and that

he was hoping to appoint Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the Senate seat in re-turn for a deal with her father, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

Under that plan, Michael Madigan would push a public works bill designed to create thousands of jobs and health care legislation through the state House, while guaranteeing there would be no tax increase for Illinois residents.

In exchange, his daughter would get the Senate seat.

In his book, Blagojevich said he told his chief of staff, John Harris, to start implement-ing the plan the day before his arrest.

He is expected to be a witness at Blagojevich’s trial. The former governor was asked if he thought Harris would support his story on cross-examination.

“If he tells the truth, that’s what hap-pened,” Blagojevich said.

Blagojevich said he might subpoena White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez to

back up his version of what happened.He said he discussed his plan with all of

them.Another possible witness he said would be

former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.Blagojevich said in his book that he was

surprised to find out that one of his chief fundraisers, Tony Rezko, was involved in corruption. Rezko has been convicted of tak-ing part in a $7 million payoff scheme and is now believed to be cooperating with federal prosecutors.

Blagojevich said his wife, Patti, was within the bounds of ethics to accept thousands of dollars in real estate commissions from Rezko because she supplied professional services and the relationship began before he became governor.

He also said that while another former chief of staff, Alonzo Monk, had been one of his closest friends for 30 years, Monk had never told him that he had received thou-sands of dollars from Rezko.

“If true, I’m shocked,” Blagojevich said.

–AP

Former Ill. governor states innocence in new book

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 5

MILWAUKEE — Police investigating a string of cold-case slayings identified their prime suspect after obtaining DNA from his toothbrush late last month, but investigators should have had a sample from him eight years earlier and before the last killing.

Police said Walter E. Ellis of Milwaukee was arrested Saturday after a state crime lab matched his DNA to samples taken from nine women killed between 1986 and 2007. Ellis was in prison from 1998 to 2001, which meant a state law mandating corrections of-ficials obtain DNA from prisoners with felony convictions should have applied to him.

But the state Department of Justice said it never received the sample, which would have been processed before the 2007 slaying ever happened. The state agency responsible for collecting such samples insists it did so.

“We have no record that we received a convicted-offender sample from Mr. Ellis,” said Justice Department spokesman Kevin St. John.

In some cases, a person’s sample yields an unusable profile, but the DOJ keeps records of those people to ensure proper follow-up. Ellis didn’t show up on that list either, St. John added.

Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections, which is responsible for obtaining samples, said it complied with the law.

“The only information we have is an indi-cation in our system that the specimen was collected on Feb. 4, 2001,” said John Dipko, a corrections spokesman. He said the sample would have been sent to the state crime lab, which is under the jurisdiction of the state DOJ.

Police Chief Edward Flynn said authorities couldn’t find Ellis’ DNA profile in a statewide database, forcing them to take the high-risk step of obtaining a sample directly by execut-ing a search warrant Aug. 29, even if doing so tipped off Ellis that police were investigating.

Authorities began to focus on Ellis, 49, after his name surfaced in connection with a number of unsolved homicides, Flynn said, but did not elaborate. Search warrant documents released Tuesday indicated Ellis was identified by the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, a national reposi-tory in which violent crimes are compared and analyzed by experts.

The warrant said authorities were seek-ing “possible ligatures” that could be used for strangulation. All nine women were strangled except one. Documents indicated police confiscated the toothbrush along with a metal chain, clothing, a pipe, an unknown white powder, cell phones and CDs.

The documents said Ellis was scheduled to meet with police Aug. 29 but didn’t show

up. He was captured Saturday after a strug-gle when an alert officer spotted his car at a motel, authorities said.

Ellis was charged in the deaths of two of the nine women, and more charges are ex-pected this week, prosecutors said. The state public defender’s office said Tuesday that no attorney had been assigned to him.

A message left with Flynn’s office Tuesday was not immediately returned.

Ellis served his previous prison sentence after pleading no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree reckless injury. He was re-leased from prison in 2001 and from state su-pervision in 2003, when corrections officials would have verified that his DNA sample was in the system, Dipko said.

Police said Ellis’ DNA was found on the bodies of nine women aged 16 to 41 who were killed on the city’s north side. Investigators believe eight of the women were prostitutes and one was a runaway.

Authorities previously have speculated that the person whose DNA they recovered on the runaway had sex with that girl but that someone else killed her. But Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm would not say Monday whether anyone else would be charged in the killings.

–AP

Police arrest suspect in Milwaukee serial killing case

ROD BLAGOJEVICH

AP PHOTO

An undated photo released by the Milwaukee County Jail shows Walter E. Ellis, 49, of Milwaukee. Ellis faces two counts of first-de-gree homicide in the killings of Joyce Mims, 41, and Ouithreaun Stokes, 28. Ellis is suspected in the killings of at least eight women over 21 years in Milwaukee, and has been charged in connection with two of the homicides.

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BENTON, Ill. — A 6-year-old boy whose mother is accused of hiding him in a crawl space for nearly two years whenever visitors arrived will remain in state custody while he gets counseling meant to eventu-ally reunite him with his father.

Franklin County Circuit Judge Kyle Vantrease turned away Michael Chekevdia’s request to take temporary custody of his son immediately, ruling Tuesday that Richard Chekevdia needs help to gradually process his “traumatic” ordeal.

Ricky and his mother, 30-year-old Shannon Wilfong, vanished in November 2007. They were found Friday hiding in a small crawl space in his grandmother’s two-story home in southern Illinois.

Vantrease scheduled a Nov. 23 hearing to resolve the custody issue, suggesting that by then the boy’s progress in counseling and efforts backed by state child-wel-fare workers to reunify him with his dad could be measured. Until then, the boy will remain with a relative of Michael Chekevdia’s in Marion.

The judge refused — with the state’s blessings — any access to him by his mother, who often sobbed during the 75-minute hear-ing and insisted she’d done nothing wrong.

“You’re making me sound bad.

It was not like that at all,” she inter-jected at one point.

Wilfong, 30, made her first court appearance earlier Tuesday on a felony abduction charge, telling a judge she planned to hire an at-torney. She remained jailed on $42,500 bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Sept. 23.

The grandmother, 51-year-old Diane Dobbs, is free on bond after being charged with aiding and abetting.

Dobbs has insisted Wilfong had little choice but to flee with the boy to protect him. “We were on our own and we had to do what we had to do and that was make sure our grandson was safe,” she told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday.

Michael Chekevdia has re-jected allegations of abuse, as did state child-welfare officials and the judge in court Tuesday. “I ab-solutely have no concerns about the father,” testified Jan McGraw, a state child-protection supervisor.

Chekevdia, a 48-year-old for-mer police officer who’s an Illinois Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, won temporary custody of his son shortly before the boy and his mother — Chekevdia’s former girlfriend — disappeared.

Chekevdia said he long sus-pected his son was being hidden

by Dobbs, although there were no signs of him when the home was searched with her consent. Wilfong was charged in December 2007 with abducting the boy, but couldn’t be found.

For much of the time since, Chekevdia said, the windows of Dobbs’ home were blocked off by drawn shades or other items.

Stacy Kinter, an Illinois State Police special agent, testified Tuesday that police who stormed Dobbs’ Elkville house with a search warrant Friday found Dobbs hast-ily trying to close the entry to the crawl space.

Inside the plywood-floored confines — roughly 5 feet by 12 feet and about the height of a washing machine, hidden behind a wall by a dresser — searchers found Wilfong and the boy, clad only in underwear and a T-shirt.

He appeared “very pale, like he’d not been in the sun,” Kinter said, reinforcing the boy’s claims that for virtually during all of his seclusion he was not allowed out-side. Moments after being found, Kinter said, the boy “seemed very excited to be playing in the grass and outside.”

Witnesses testified that there was no evidence that the boy at-tended school or got medical at-tention after the abduction.

Angela Anderson, an investi-gator for the state child-welfare agency, testified that a counselor who examined the boy briefly said he had a speech impediment, had limited reading skills and was “so-cially lacking, socially behind.”

“He referred to (his dad) as a monster,” Anderson said. “I can only speculate he’d heard that from the people he’d been around the past two years.”

–AP

6 Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Boy hidden behind wall remains in state custody

CHICAGO — Four former cemetery workers pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges accusing them of digging up bodies at a his-toric suburban Chicago graveyard in order to resell the burial plots.

During a brief hearing, attorneys for the four defen-dants entered the pleas. All four indicated that they un-derstood the charges against them. They are Carolyn Towns, 49, Keith Nicks, 45, and Terrence Nicks, 39 — all from Chicago, and all in custody. The fourth defen-dant, Maurice Dailey, 59, of Robbins, is out on bail.

Cook County Judge Frank Castiglione scheduled their next hearing for Sept. 25.

The four face several fel-ony charges, including des-ecration of human remains, conspiracy to dismember human bodies and theft. The most serious charge — dismembering a human body — carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in pris-on. Authorities have also said they made more than $300,000 reselling the plots.

Authorities raided Burr Oak Cemeter y in Alsip, which is the resting place of civil rights-era lynch-ing victim Emmett Till and other prominent African-Americans, in July.

The arrests made in-ternational headlines and prompted thousands of people to visit the historic black cemetery to try to de-termine if their loved ones were among those graves that were disturbed.

Authorities estimate that 300 graves were dug up. But they acknowledge they may never know how many graves were involved, saying that shoddy record-keeping and in some cases records that have literally disinte-grated make it impossible to say exactly how many corpses were dug up or the identities of all those whose remains were moved.

I n v e s t i g a t o r s f o u n d chunks of burial vaults, pieces of pine boxes that had been used as caskets de-cades ago, and even a skel-eton wearing a suit and tie inside an empty burial vault, with no casket in sight.

They have said they found evidence of corpses that were dug up and the plots resold, as well as caskets stacked on top of each other in the ground. Officials said they had found more than 1,100 human bones, some tossed on the ground and covered with dirt and others strewn amid overgrown weeks, be-fore they stopped searching early last month.

The former workers were slated to be arraigned last week, but that was delayed while a lawyer was appoint-ed for one defendant and as attorneys discussed objec-tions to various judges be-fore settling on Castiglione.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Castiglione said he saw no reason to recuse himself over his brother’s brief in-volvement in the case.

His brother, an assistant state’s attorney in Cook County, played a minor role at one hearing related to a civil lawsuit stemming from the case, the judge revealed Tuesday. He said they never discussed the case in detail and that his brother has since been taken off the case.

Castiglione invited attor-neys, however, to file motions if they wanted him removed. Thomas Needham, an at-torney for suspect Maurice Dailey, said he doesn’t plan on doing so. Other attorneys didn’t immediately address the matter.

A f t e r t h e h e a r i n g , Needham said that given the case involved multiple de-fendants and because there remained thousands of pages of documents defense attorneys needed to read, he didn’t expect the case to go to trial for about a year.

–AP

Suspects in cemetery desecration case plead not guilty to charges

AP PHOTO

In this July 31 file photo, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, front left, cleans off a burial vault after it was exhumed with another vault in the same grave at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. On Tuesday, four former cemetery workers pleaded not guilty to charges that accused them of digging up bodies to resell burial plots at the cemetery.

AP PHOTO

Before being taken into a sheriff’s squad car Tuesday, Shannon Wilfong, 30, responds to a reporter’s question. Wilfong is accused of hiding her 6-year-old son in a crawl space for nearly two years whenever visitors arrived.

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Annelise Russell, sports editordailysports@ou.edu • phone: 325-7630 • fax: 325-6051

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 7

Tomorrow, The Daily takes a look at OU freshman Landry Jones.

«FOOTBALLTomoDaily at OULand

«FOOT

JONO GRECOThe Oklahoma Daily

The No. 13 Sooners received more bad news Tuesday with the announcement that senior tight end Jermaine Gresham will miss the entire 2009 season.

The news comes 24 hours after head coach Bob Stoops announced the loss of Heisman winner and junior quarterback Sam Bradford for two to four weeks.

“Jermaine’s arthroscopic surgery went well for him in the long run,” Stoops said. “[Doctors] had to repair and stitch togeth-er some of the cartilage and carve parts around it.”

Stoops said the surgery requires five months of rehabilitation, which means t h e re w o u l d hav e b e e n n o h o p e f o r him to return for the end of OU’s Big 12 schedule.

“For his sake, the rest of the knee looks good, and this is something that heals re-ally well,” Stoops said. “It’s just unfortu-nate that he comes back and he’s not able to continue to participate. So we really feel for him.”

Gresham suffered the injury during practice Sept. 1, and it was announced later in the week he would be unable to play in the Sooners’ 14-13 loss to No. 9 Brigham Young University.

In Gresham’s absence, the tight end corps, which consisted of sophomores Trent Ratterree and James Hanna, caught one pass for 12 yards.

The catch by Ratterree, and came in the team’s final drive.

Ratterree dropped a pass later in the drive that would have given the Sooners enough yards to be within sophomore kicker Jimmy Stevens’ field goal range.

The rest of the team was notified about Gresham’s status this afternoon, and ju-nior defensive end Gerald McCoy said ev-eryone has been showing his support.

“I told him, ‘I’m going to carry you on

my shoulders. When I go out on that field you are going to come with me,’” McCoy said. “‘Just because you’re not out on that field, you’re still out there with us.’ I’m going to take him out there with me, and I have to stay motivated to keep him motivated.”

Over the past three seasons Gresham has become a staple in the Sooners’ offense.

He has caught 111 passes for 1,629 yards and 26 touchdowns during his Sooner tenure.

“It hurts to see that, as hard as he’s worked, as much as he’s done for this

program,” McCoy said. “Him being out for his senior season just hurts as a leader, as a team.”

S t o o p s s a i d s e n i o r c e n t e r B r o d y Eldridge received more reps in practice at tight end than he did last week, which leaves open the possibility of starting freshman Ben Habern at center Saturday against Idaho State.

“We’ve got to move forward and that changes the complexion of what we do a little bit, but we’ll work through that,” Stoops said. “We of course are disappoint-ed for Jermaine.”

Gresham sidelined for season FOOTBALL SOUNDBITES

OU junior defensive end Gerald McCoy talks about what it is like to lose an opening game and responds to criti-cism about the loss.

“Everybody is walking around like it was the end of the world that we lost the game. So what, we lose games, too. For me, I was like ‘look, come on guys why are you all down? People lose games, it hap-pens. You go out there, you work hard [but] we didn’t play smart enough.”

“You pouting and being all down about it isn’t going to fi x it. Man up, let’s get it fi xed this week, fi x our mistakes and come out and play better next week. Let’s win out, and then see what happens.”

ZACH BUTLER/THE DAILY

Jermaine Gresham, senior tight end, is tackled in last season’s game against Missouri Dec. 6, 2008.

8 Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Sooner trainer leads NCAA medical researchHead athletic trainer leads research team in sickle cell- related deaths for collegiate athletes

LUKE ATKINSONThe Oklahoma Daily

Dale Lloyd II, a running back from Rice University, is sprinting down the field during his team’s conditioning camp. The following morning he is dead and most don’t understand why.

Doctors later find he had the sickle cell trait and begin piecing together a puzzle that has unknowingly caused the death of several NCAA athletes. Following the 19-year-old’s death in 2006, the NCAA began imple-menting testing programs for athletes to take precau-tions against the mysterious killer.

Scott Anderson, head athletic trainer for the Sooners, is the co-chair of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association task force for sickle cell traits, and said the knowledge about sickle cell-related deaths is too little.

Anderson said athletes with sickle cell traits can have significant problems when they over exert themselves, which may lead to death.

“One of the consequences of exertional sickling is rhabdomyolysis,” Anderson said. “It’s the breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue. As it breaks down, it creates toxins. This can cause kidney failure, and can affect the heart and cause death.”

According to NATA’s task force, rhabdomyolysis is the rapid breakdown of muscles starved for blood. These muscles become starved for blood because sickled cells may become “logjammed” in blood vessels, causing players to slump to the ground from weak muscles.

NATA says this can be common in athletes who aren’t given an opportunity to rest during long conditioning exercises.

The task force said the harder and faster athletes work, the earlier and greater the sickling can become, which they believe explains the earlier collapse of col-lege football players rather than long-distance run-

ners.Anderson said these symptoms are not related to a disease players can contract. Instead, the traits are inherited.

“The trait is inherited, it’s not a disease,” Anderson said. “It can’t be prevented or cured. [Sickle cell trait] can even be beneficial because it protects you against malaria. It’s largely a benign condition.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, sickle cell is common in approximately one in 5,000 black in-dividuals, and is found in tropical and sub-tropical cul-tures where malaria is common.

NATA believes of the 136 sudden, non-traumatic sports deaths in high school and college over the past decade, five percent were from exertional sickling.

According to NCAA guidelines, athletes can be vol-untarily screened by blood tests to help their training staff take the proper precautions to ensure their safety. Anderson said his staff takes the same precautions in order to educate the players and coaching staff of any risks.

“We have a standard component screening, a medi-cal history questionnaire and physical examinations,” he said. “Most athletes, if they have sickle cell, are un-aware. As we gain the information through screening, we take precautions and educate the athlete, what it is or is not, what precautions they should take.”

Although players undergo heavier conditioning in practices than they would during a game, Anderson said there are still precautions being taken.

“Game time has a diminished risk [for sickling], there is a chance of rest and recovery,” he said. “A play lasts a few seconds then it’s over. We’ve seen some evidence in a game in running backs running a quick pace offense, like several running plays in a row with the same back. But the only real risk and setting for death are condi-tioning events.”

The NCAA Handbook states it hopes the research will help trainers further understand exertional sickling and reduce the number of deaths associated with sickle cell traits.Unforunately, it is too late for players like Dale Lloyd II, but the research and precautions taken by Anderson and his staff may someday save lives.

GRAPHIC PROVIDED

Merriman and Ware big surprises four years after coming out of the draft

The 2005 NFL draft, like any other draft, had an array of potentially outstanding

football players. Some panned out and some didn’t (Alex Smith, Adam Jones or Mike Williams).

The truth is this par-ticular draft included 21 future Pro Bowlers, and at least one Pro Bowler in every round. This draft c a n e v e n c l a i m t h re e Pro Bowlers that went undrafted.

Pretty impressive.But most notably this draft is where

a r g u a b l y t h e t w o best defensive play-ers in the game were c a l l e d v i a p o d i u m : o u t s i d e l i n e b a c k e r s Shawne Merriman and DeMarcus Ware.

T h e y w e re p i c k e d back-to-back as Ware went No. 11 to the Dallas Cowboys and Merriman went No. 12 to the San Diego Chargers.

Analysts and sports fans all over the na-tion were dumbfound that the Cowboys – after making a verbal commitment to Merriman – went with the player from the lesser known University of Troy.

I even remember telling my friend they will absolutely regret not drafting Merriman in a few years.

Well, those few years have passed and my opinion has completely switched.

Over the past four years Merriman has only started 38 – an average of 9.5 per season – games due to suspension or in-jury, while Ware has started all 16 games every season.

So during the time DeMarcus Ware is winning volunteer service awards and working harder to improve his game, Merriman is being accused of abusing Tila “Tequila” Nguyen, testing positive for steroids or ending a season on knee injury.

And the numbers reflect all of this. Merriman has totaled 189 tackles and

39.5 sacks compared to Ware’s 297 tackles and 53.5 sacks.

C o a c h W a d e Phllips said Ware is the best outside line-backer in the league a n d f e w w i l l a r g u e that statement.

Merriman, you like to be called “Lights Out”?

Keep up all these crazy off-the-field antics and your own career will be a once bright light that was blown out.

M.J. Casiano is a journalism junior.

FEATURE

COLUMN

MJCASIANO

NFL prospects are not always as impressive as they seem

AP PHOTO

Dallas Cowboys’ Demarcus Ware makes a tackle in a game against the Tennessee Titans Aug. 21.

I even remember telling my friend they will absolutely regret not drafting Merriman in a few years.

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009 9

Cassie Rhea Little, L&A editordailyent@ou.edu • phone: 325-5189 • fax: 325-6051 « LATE NIGHT EATING

Read about the Campus Corner restaurants extending hours for late night service in tomorrow’s Life & Arts section.

Hundreds of people showed up at Pepe Delgado’s doors Friday night for the reopening of one of

Norman’s most popular restau-rants. The lines t o o rd e r w e re long, but people waited around for over an hour just to order their favorite dishes. The overwhelm-ing support was s o g r e a t , t h e kitchen ran out

of prepped food and a sign was taped to the door telling people they were closed and out of food. While I stood in line and then sat down to wait for my food, the only thing on my mind was a feeling of

coming home. Pepe’s is a local legend among

those who crave its distinct flavors and unique take on Mexican food, but the real worth of this restau-rant is not measured in giant bur-ritos (might I suggest the “Thing”) or the quesadillas. The reason this restaurant has captured the hearts and stomachs of so many Normanites and those from the OU community is the warm, fami-ly-oriented atmosphere.

I have been going to Pepe’s since I was about five and for some reason going to this local restau-rant, also referred to as Emilio’s after the owner Emilio Salinas, became a constant in my life. I remember one of the first times I went to Pepe’s. At this time, the restaurant looked more like a dive

than a Norman staple. The booths were hard plastic, the chairs and tables resembled that of a poker match held in a neighbor’s garage and the bathroom was no larger than my childhood closet. There were only a couple people work-ing at any given time and paying by credit card was not an option.

Over time, the booths were updated to a finished wood, the bathroom was moved out of the tiny corner, and I graduated from the children’s menu. Despite all these changes, the quality of food and friends remained steadfast. When we were younger, Emilio would walk around the restaurant and chat with everyone, and most of the time he knew two-thirds of the people dining in that night. He would come up to our table with a

couple chocolate bars for my sister and me, while attempting to con-vince my younger sister that he was not as scary as he seemed.

If you ask any weekly regular of Pepe’s, they all have these special stories. I had my 16th birthday there and sometimes you can catch the OU chemistry department sit-ting down to lunch. People have even met and fell in love at the restaurant. When extended fam-ily comes into town, the first thing people do is take them to meet their Pepe’s family. After spend-ing so much time at the restaurant, there are certain people in town you know only because they are a Wednesday regular who you al-ways meet at the bar over a couple margaritas.

I was in Europe when I heard

the news that Pepe’s had closed this summer, and I was devas-tated. I had already planned my homecoming meal, and was rather distraught when I learned I would have to settle for something else. I had grown up in this campus cor-ner hangout, and it was hard to wait for the reopening and the changed building.

I was nervous Friday walking into the new building, fearing ev-erything I loved about Pepe’s was gone. Fortunately, the familiar faces had returned and that entic-ing aroma was filling the room. The reopening of this family joint was not only a chance to quell that craving for fish tacos and veggie nachos, but rather a chance for a homecoming. Annelise Russell is a journalism junior.

KYLE WESTThe Oklahoma Daily

Pepe Delgado’s re opened last Friday after being forced to close by the Oklahoma Tax Commission. The restaurant was closed July 17 for failure to comply with Oklahoma tax laws.

According to a notice on the door last July, the restaurant hadn’t paid its taxes in full and hadn’t renewed its licenses.

Restau ra nt O w ner Emil io Salinas said he regrets having to close the restaurant, but is now glad Pepe Delgado’s is reopened.

“It was a mistake and it’s been corrected and I’m going to move forward,” Salinas said.

Helen Wolney, president of the Campus Corner Merchants as-sociation, said the restaurant was packed all weekend.

“I saw a lot of regulars,” Wolney said. “I think some people who frequented there were really ex-cited that they were reopened.”

Wolney said Pepe Delgado’s has been on Campus Corner about 15 years.

“It’s a local favorite,” Wolney said. “It ’s a vital element of Campus Corner.”

Sarah Savage, history major se-nior, said she was sad when Pepe’s closed in the summer.

“I was gone two months this summer and I was sad when they were closed,” Savage said.

Savage said she frequented Pepe’s at least once a week last

year, and that she is excited they have reopened.

“They’re my favorite Mexican restaurant in Norman,” Savage said. “I figured they wouldn’t be open for several months.”

Pepe’s has moved next door to where Turquoise American Bistro used to be at 786 Asp Ave. Salinas, who also owned Turquoise, said there was not enough volume of customers to keep it open.

“Three days were only busy and the rest were slow,” Salinas said. “It was also a bit overpriced.”

Omar Goyzueta, petroleum en-gineering senior, said he was sad Turquoise was closing instead of Pepe’s because he enjoyed its food more.

“We have plenty of Tex Mex places around,” Goyzueta said.

“Turquoise had decent, healthy food and good wine specials.”

Despite the loss of Turquoise, Salinas described Pepe’s reopen-ing as one of the best experiences of his life.

“The response from the loyal customers was amazing,” Salinas said. “I didn’t know I had so many friends. It was probably the most wonderful experience I’ve had. I even got wine and flowers. It was crazy.”

Salinas said he wanted to thank Mike Webb and his family, who helped him reopen by renting out the building.

“The Webbs are the most won-derful people on the Corner,” Sailnas said. “I wouldn’t have re-opened without their help.”

Salinas said no changes were

made to the restaurant other than the building. He said the menu, artwork and general ambiance of the old Pepe Delgado’s are unchanged.

Pepe’s new location has a bar and loft in the same room. The original building had two rooms, one with a bar and the other being the restaurant.

Salinas said he is thankful for the community support and is glad that Pepe’s is an important part of Norman.

“I’m excited because I really found out I’m part of the com-munity and the support from the people of Norman was really big,” Salinas said. “I didn’t realize we were part of Norman. I think it’s so good and I want to thank Norman for the help they gave me.”

Mexican food favorite reopens its doors

PEPE’S RETURNS WITH SAME GREAT TASTE, ATMOSPHERE

ANNELISERUSSELL

LILLY CHAPA/THE DAILY

Pepe Delgado’s was filled with customers Tuesday night after the restaurant’s reopening last week. Pepe’s was closed earlier this year after failing to comply with Oklahoma tax laws but is now open.

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10 Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Humanity has been destroyed, machines have taken over the earth and the only hope for any kind of restoration is a band of nine

gunnysack robots. Anyone who’s seen the

trailer can attest to the fact that “9” looks much cooler than it sounds, but actually watching the film convinced me other-wise. This brief 79-minute movie somehow manages to seem too long with its re-petitive action, essentially repeating the same scene over and over.

Director Shane Acker expanded his Oscar-nominated 2005 short of the same name into this feature-length film, but now, it just feels like a short that goes on way past its welcome. The animation and atmosphere are creepy and impressive, but there’s still only about 11 minutes worth of story here.

When 9 (Elijah Wood) becomes sentient, he awakes to find a world ravaged by evil ma-chines. Eventually, he finds characters 1-8

scattered throughout the barren landscape, and together they discover the truth about the post-apocalyptic nightmare, where a scientist created an artificial brain meant to help humanity, but things turned evil quick-ly. The same scientist created the nine rag

dolls, and 9 believes it’s their destiny to fight the machines.

The characters’ names are simply num-bers, and it’s indicative of just how interest-ing these sock puppets are — each is given their own quality of bravery or inflexibility or

strength, but that’s about as far as character development goes.

The impressive voice cast — Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly and Jennifer Connelly all voice a gunnysack — is pretty much wasted on these flat characters.

The film’s main problem though, is the perpetual danger in which the characters find themselves. A giant robot will attack, they’ll try to escape, they’ll fight it, they’ll defeat it. Several minutes later, the process repeats.

The creature design is phenomenal and the heroes dispatch of the villains in some undeniably creative ways, but it’s only a mat-ter of time before the process becomes quite weary indeed.

It seems like there’s imagination burst-ing at the seams of “9,” but it gets lost in the shuffle of chase scene followed by mortal peril followed by chase scene. Perhaps the film was expanded beyond what its concept could bear. “9” hints toward greater things, but as it stands, it’s a strictly paint-by-num-bers affair.

Dusty Somers is a journalism senior.

PHOTO PROVIDED

A scene from Focus Features’ “9.” The film is playing at Harkins Theater in Bricktown today and will be in theaters everywhere on Friday.

DUSTYSOMERS

ANIMATED FILM STRETCHED THIN ON IDEAS

“ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS # 2” After the events in the first issue, this

one kicks off with Captain America chasing the Red Skull while Nick Fury explains the

truth behind this mysteri-ous adversary. Also in this book, we are introduced to Gregory Stark, Iron Man’s older brother.

After the dis-appointing “Ultimates 3” and “Ultimatum,” the original “Ultimates” writer Mark Millar is back and brings with him the same swagger and charisma the series had before it’s previ-

ous outing. One might have thought that all the good characters in the Marvel universe were expired in the “Ultimates” series but with the introduction of the Red Skull it’s clear that Millar was saving the best for last. Although this comic costs a little bit ($1) more than other ones it’s still one of best

books out there. Buy it! “KICK-ASS #7” Finally, five months after the last install-

ment, the seventh issue of “Kick- Ass” is re-leased. (SPOILER ALERT) When we last left our hero, he was set up by Red Mist, who was actually working for the mafia boss, Frank D’Amico. This issue begins at the same place where the first issue started: Kick-Ass getting tortured.

Although this book has a very long wait before its release, it’s worth the wait and serves as a cautionary tale for those of us that take our love for superheroes too lit-erally. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the past year, the “Kick-Ass” movie will be coming out sometime next year. After seeing footage from Comic-Con, I’m not too excited about it, but at least we’ve still got the comic book, which I have to say is very good.

Osi Aken’Ova is a film and video studies senior.

OSIAKEN’OVA

PHOTO PROVIDED

Captain America is back in comic book, “Ultimate Comics Avengers # 2.”

» The Daily’s Osi Aken’Ova takes a look at two

of this week’s most notable comic books.

VENICE, Italy — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is getting a movie star reception at the Venice Film Festival.

Chavez arrived Monday on the red carpet with director Oliver Stone for the premiere of the documentary “South of the Border.” Security outside the Casino venue was tight with armed military police checking bags.

Hundreds of admirers greeted the Venezuelan leader and some chanted “president, president.”

Chavez threw a flower into the crowd and touched his heart. At one point he took a photographer’s camera to snap a picture himself.

Stone says his new documentary “South of the Border” is meant to illustrate sweeping positive changes in South America in recent years and counter attacks against Chavez by the American media.

-AP

Chavez walks Venice Film Fest red carpet

PHOTO PROVIDED

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signs autographs.

The University of Oklahoma’s four greek councils are proud to

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& Sorority Student Life at (405) 325-6350.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 11

SEATTLE — Barring an instrumental performance of a Christian hymn at a high school graduation did not violate students’ First Amendment rights and was within the school superintendent's discretion, a divid-ed federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ de-cision in what Judge Richard C. Tallman de-scribed as “the legal labyrinth of a student's First Amendment rights” will be appealed to the Supreme Court, a lawyer said.

The case arose a year after a choral per-formance of the song “Up Above My Head” at the 2005 commencement for Henry M. Jackson High School in Everett, 25 miles north of Seattle. The song, with references to God, angels and heaven, drew complaints and protest letters to The Herald, the town's daily newspaper.

Administrators raised red flags when wind ensemble seniors, who had played Franz Biebl's uptempo 1964 rendering of “Ave Maria” without controversy at a winter concert, proposed a reprise at their gradua-tion in 2006.

School officials said the title alone iden-tified “Ave Maria” — Hail Mary in Latin — as religious and that graduation should be strictly secular.

One of the students, Kathryn Nurre, sued Everett Public Schools Superintendent Carol Whitehead, claiming unspecified damages from infringement of First Amendment rights, but U.S. District Judge Robert T. Lasnik in Seattle rejected that assertion in a summary judgment on Sept. 20, 2007.

Tallman and a second judge from the San Francisco-based appeals court, Robert R. Beezer, agreed with Lasnik across the board.

“When there is a captive audience at a graduation ceremony ... during which the demand for equal time is so great that comparable nonreligious works might not be presented, it is reasonable for a school

official to prohibit the performance of an obviously religious piece,” Tallman wrote.

The third member of the panel, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., concurred with the out-come. He agreed that the action was within the superintendent's discretion but argued that the students' First Amendment rights had been violated.

“If the majority's reasoning on this issue becomes widely adopted, the practical ef-fect will be for public school administra-tors to chill — or even kill — musical and artistic presentations by their students ... when those presentations contain any trace of religious inspiration” in a school setting, Smith wrote.

“Such unnecessary measures by school administrators will only foster the increas-ingly sterile and hypersensitive way in which students may express themselves ... and hasten the retrogression of our young into a nation of Philistines who have little or no understanding of our civic and cultural heritage,” he added.

Michael A. Patterson, a lawyer for the su-perintendent, said he was “delighted” by the ruling.

“We have always thought that she acted at all times with qualified immunity and that she did the right thing,” Patterson said.

John W. Whitehead, a lawyer who has been involved in the case against the school district from the start, said he would appeal to the Supreme Court to determine “how far schools can go in eradicating any kind of re-ligious influence.”

Compared with better known, more stately versions of “Ave Maria” dating from the Renaissance period, Biebl's rendering is “totally unrecognizable,” said Whitehead, who is not related to the superintendent and is president and founder of the Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal aid group. “You can't sing along with it.”

—AP

Court maintains ban on hymn at Wash. graduation

NEW YORK — Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined Sept. 11 family members and college professors on Tuesday at a hotel blocks f ro m t h e Wo r l d T ra d e Center site to unveil a plan to teach middle and high school students about the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The 9/11 curriculum, be-lieved to be the first compre-hensive educational plan focusing on the attacks, is expected to be tested this year at schools in New York City, California, New Jersey, Alabama, Indiana, Illinois and Kansas.

It was developed with the help of educators by the Brick, N.J.-based Sept. 11 Education Trust, and was based on primary sources, archival footage and more than 70 interviews with wit-nesses, family members of victims and politicians, including Giuliani and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a New York senator at the time of the attacks.

The curriculum is taught through videos, lessons and interactive exercises, includ-ing one that requires stu-dents to use Google Earth software to map global ter-rorist activity.

One of the main goals is to help students entering middle and high school, who may been too young to have strong memories

of the attacks, to develop a tangible connection to what happened.

“In a few years, we will be teaching students who were not even alive at the time of the attacks,” said Anthony Gardner, the ex-ecutive director of the Sept. 11 Education Trust.

The nonprofit group is run by victims’ families, survivors and rescue work-ers who worry that educa-tors don’t teach about the attacks because they don’t have the educational tools to do so.

Giuliani said that the cur-riculum can help students to think critically about the attacks as both a historical event and one that shapes the present, noting the con-tinued threat of terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“This is one of the criti-cal subjects on which young people should develop some ideas and thoughts. They’re going to have to live with this for quite some time,” he said. “It gives young people a framework in which to think about Sept. 11, all that it meant and all that it means to the present.”

For the professors who helped to develop the plan through the Taft Institute for Government at Queens College, creating that frame-work to understanding how

9/11 affects today’s policies was critical to the endeavor, and part of the challenge.

“The real trick is to get kids to see that it’s not just a dramatic event like 9/11 that connects them to these issues, it’s connected to their lives in the everyday, said Michael A. Krasner, a political scientist at Queens College. He said a range of viewpoints are reflected in the curriculum, including from Muslim scholars, to enrich the discussion.

T h e c u r r i c u l u m w a s designed so that teachers could tailor it to their own classrooms, but it gives an open-eyed view of 9/11, Gardner said.

“We’re not sugarcoating the event,” said Gardner, whose brother died in the World Trade Center. “We’ve included images that are challenging.”

Students and professors are invited to participate on a Web site developed around the curriculum, where they can share their own videos, lesson plans and discuss the questions raised in their classrooms.

The curriculum was tried out in 2008 at the River Dell Regional High School, a roughly 1,000-student high school in Oradell, N.J., about 20 miles north of Manhattan.

—AP

NEW PROGRAM WILL TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT SEPT. 11

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A decision by the University of Wyoming to name a new cen-ter for international students for former Vice President Dick Cheney is drawing criti-cism from people who say Cheney’s support for the Iraq war and harsh interrogation techniques should disqualify him from the distinction.

The former vice president and wife Lynne are expected to attend Thursday’s dedica-tion of the new Cheney International Center on the Laramie campus.

Protesters plan to be there, too.The center is funded in part with $3.2

million the Cheneys donated to the univer-sity in several installments while he was vice president.

The university’s decision to name the center after Cheney, a former Wyoming congressman, prompted a petition that col-lected more than 150 signatures. The peti-tion said polices of the Bush administration were “very controversial” and the name will affect how people perceive the center.

Cheney’s support for harsh interroga-tions — torture, some say — is one reason to oppose naming the center after him, said

Suzanne Pelican, who began circulating the petition a year ago.

Pelican also criticized the Bush adminis-tration’s “go it alone” strategy when several U.S. allies opposed the invasion of Iraq and didn’t participate in the war.

“We feel that by naming it the Cheney International Center, that the programs and UW can’t avoid being identified with that ideology and that approach to global poli-tics that the Bush-Cheney administration championed,” Pelican said Tuesday.

Pelican is an extension educator in the university’s College of Agriculture who plans to peacefully protest during the dedication.

A phone message left with Cheney’s as-sistant Lucy Tutwiler wasn’t immediately returned.

A state program matched the Cheneys’ $3.2 million gift with $3.2 million in state funding. The university spent $3 million to renovate and expand an existing building for the center.

A total of $3.4 million has been allocat-ed for scholarships for students to study overseas.

—AP

Protest brews over Cheney center

The Oklahoma Daily is responsible for one day’s incorrect advertising. If your ad appears incorrectly, or if you wish to cancel your ad call 325-2521, before the deadline for cancellation in the next issue. Errors not the fault of the advertiser will be adjusted. Refunds will not be issued for late cancellations.

The Oklahoma Dailywill not knowingly accept advertisements that discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religious preference, national origin or sexual orientation. Violations of this policy should be reported to The Oklahoma Daily Business Offi ce at 325-2521.

Help Wanted ads in The Oklahoma Daily are not to separate as to gender. Advertisers may not discriminate in employment ads based on race, color, religion or gender unless such qualifying factors are essential to a given position.

All ads are subject to acceptance by The Oklahoma Daily. Ad acceptance may be re-evaluated at any time.

POLICY

PLACE AN AD

Phone: 325-2521

E-Mail: classifi eds@ou.edu

Fax: 405-325-7517

Campus Address: COH 149A

RATES

Payment is required at the time the ad is placed. Credit cards, cash, money orders or local checks accepted.

Businesses may be eligible to apply for credit in a limited, local billing area. Please inquire with Business Offi ce at 325-2521.

rrs TM

PAYMENT

Line AdsThere is a 2 line minimumcharge; approximately 45characters per line, including spaces and punctuation.

Classifi ed Display,Classifi ed Card Ads orGame SponsorshipContact an Acct Executivefor details at 325-2521.

2 col (3.792 in) x 2 inchesSudoku ...........$760/monthBoggle ............$760/monthHoroscope .....$760/month

1 col (1.833 in) x 2.25 inchesCrossword .....$515/month(located just below the puzzle)

1 day ............. $4.25/line2 days ........... $2.50/line3-4 days........ $2.00/line5-9 days........ $1.50/line10-14 days.... $1.15/line15-19 days.... $1.00/line20-29 days.... $ .90/line30+ days.......$ .85/line

Line Ad ..................2 days priorPlace your line ad no later than 9:00 a.m. 2 days prior to publication date.

Display Ad ............2 days priorClassifi ed Display or Classifi ed Card AdPlace your display, classifi ed display or classifi ed card ads no later than 5:00 p.m. 2 days prior to publication date.

DEADLINES

Thad Baker, advertising managerclassifieds@ou.edu • phone: 325-2521 • fax: 325-7517

12 Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Employment

HELP WANTEDTUTORS WANTED!!!Available positions in the OU Athletics De-partment!!! Junior, Senior, Graduate, and Post-graduate applicants only!!! Hiring for Fall 2009. Call 325-8376 for more info!!!

ENGLISH TUTORS/WRITING CONSUL-TANTS WANTED!!!Available positions in the OU Athletics De-partment!!! Junior, Senior, Graduate, and Post-graduate applicants only!!! Hiring for Fall 2009. Call 325-8376 for more info!!!

CLASS MONITORS WANTED!!!Available positions in the OU Athletics De-partment!!! Junior, Senior, Graduate, and Post-graduate applicants only!!! Hiring for Fall 2009. Call 325-8453 for more info!!!

After school childcare needed Mon, Thurs, and every other Fri. $10/h. Some driving may be necessary.Contact amy-tyler@sbcglobal.net.

TUTORS WANTED!!!Available positions in the OU Athletics De-partment!!! Junior, Senior, Graduate, and Post-graduate applicants only!!! Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Kiowa!!! Hiring for Fall 2009. Call 325-0771 for more info!!!

P/T waitperson, delivery person & dish-washer needed. Orient Express 722 Asp. 364-2100.

Advertising, Business, Communication, Entrepreneurship, & Journalism majors wanted for expanding Travel Company in the area. To learn more call 918-332-6474

CAYMAN’S IN NORMAN - Full/PT sales position avail, to highly motivated self-starter w/great customer service skills. Apply in person, 2001 W Main St.

OU HOME GAMESCash paid daily, approx $75-$150/game

Call 210-666-5638 or 210-389-3692

STUDENTPAYOUTS.COMPaid survey takers needed in Norman100% FREE to join. Click on Surveys.

Movie Extras, Actors, Models Wanted - Up to $300/day! All Looks Needed! Call NOW 1-800-458-9303

$5,000-$45,000PAID EGG DONORS up to 9 donations,

+ Exps, non-smokers, Ages 19-29,SAT>1100/ACT>24/GPA>3.00

Contact: info@eggdonorcenter.com

Creative Kids - Norman taking applica-tions for FT or PT teachers. 2200 36th Ave NW, 701-1700

Bartending! Up to $300/day. No exp nec. Training provided. 1-800-965-6520 x133.

Housing RentalsJ

APTS. FURNISHED$400, bills paid, effi ciency LOFT apart-ments, downtown over Mister Robert Fur-niture, 109 E Main, fi re sprinkler, no pets, smoke-free. Inquire store offi ce.

Selling 1 year lease at The RESERVE. 1 bdr of a 4 bdr fl oorplan. $1000 incentive to take over the lease. Call 480-628-3426

Furnished 1 bdrm studio, utilities pd, quiet corner of Flood & Boyd. 329-2310.

1 bedroom near campus, $340/mo plus all utilities, $200/dep, no pets. Call 886-6709.

APTS. UNFURNISHEDFall Special! 1 BLK FROM OU, very nice 4 room apt, 800 sf, wood fl oors, 1012 S College, Apt 4, $300/mo. Call 360-2873 or 306-1970.

1 bdrm, $350 + bills1 bdrm, $400 + bills1 bdrm, $395 + bills

Smoke-free, no pets, 360-3850

Large 1 bd, dishwasher, disposal, large closets - $470 + elect. No deposit. 573-6731 or 314-0863, ask for Sonja

$99 1st Month / $99 Deposit$25 Off Monthly/6 mo Free gym

*some restrictions may apply.Pets Welcome! Large Floor Plans!Models open 8a-8p Everyday!Elite Properties - 360-6624 or

www.elite2900.com

CONDOS UNFURNISHED

4 bdrm, 4 bath condo for rent, great lo-

cation, close to OU, walk-in closets, w/d,

balcony, fi tness center, pool and hot tub,

$350/per bdrm. Call Jenni, 990-5122 or

jenni.grissom@yahoo.com.

MOVE-IN SPECIAL! 1 bedroom Notting-

ham Condo for rent, avail now. 417-861-

9439 or 308-8470.

1 bd/1ba $500 mo. Includes all kitchen appliances. No pets. Longburk Real Es-tate 732-7474.

NOTTINGHAM 2 bd, 2 bath, w/d, fi re-place, cfans, lg closets, no pets, covered parking, $650/mo. 360-4107.

HOUSES UNFURNISHED1109 E LIndsey - 2bd, 1ba, CH/A, dish-washer, stove, refrig, no pets, dep $500, rent $675914 Drake - 1 bd duplex, water & gas paid, no pets, ref req, dep $400, rent $475

329-1933

Cottage in the Forest!Small bdrm, work of art, all bills paid, in-ternet, cable TV, $640/mo. Walk to OU. 701-5931.

3 bed, 1530 Willowcliff Ct, $625 - 910 Quanah Parker, $625 - 1616 Rock Hollow, $675 - 800 Branchwood Ct, $700 - Call 360-2873 or 306-1970

Near OU, lg 3/4 bd, $875-$975/mo, 826 Jona Kay, 1711 Lancaster, 2326 Linden-wood. Call 360-0351, 517-2018.

The Doll House Cute 1 bdrm plus offi ce, $449, ride bike to OU. 701-5931.

TOWNHOUSES UNFURNISHED

307 POTOMAC - Lg townhouse NW Nor-man. Minutes from I-35 & mall. 2200 sqft, all appliances, smoke-free, 1 year lease, $1050/mo, 1/2 off September!www.gorentking.com, 801-2293

Taylor Ridge Townhomes2 Bdrm, 2.5 Bath, Fully Renovated

Townhomes near OU!Pets Welcome! • Call for current rates

and Move-in Specials!!!Taylor Ridge Townhomes

(405) 310-6599

Hunters Run / $99 Deposit$25 off / was $780 now $7552 Bed Townhouse, 2.5 Bath

Small Fenced Yd, Full sz W/D6 Mo Free Gym, 2 Car Garage

Elite Properties 360-6624www.elite2900.com

ROOMS FURNISHEDNEAR OU, privacy, $230, bills paid in-cludes cable, neat, clean, parking. Prefer male student. Call 329-0143.

Employment

HELP WANTED

Housing RentalsJ

CONDOS UNFURNISHED

Universal Crossword

HIT PARADE by Kevin Donovan

ACROSS 1 Jobs for

SEALs4 Hand-held

holers8 Purchase

new weapons

13 Pans’ partners

15 Repeated, it’s a Carrey flick

16 Provide with tools

17 Taj Mahal city

18 Drink often served in a bowl

20 Hung around

22 “Ned Kelly” actor Ledger

23 They’re up in the air

24 Terrible tot 25 Go ballistic 27 Puts up a

fuss 31 “Purple

___” (rock classic)

32 Riveted seat covers?

33 Line judge’s call

34 Prima donnas’ problems

35 Do the honors at Thanksgiving

36 Portion of the Ponderosa

37 Game pieces

38 It may be organized

39 Glance over 40 Triumphs 42 Shows the

ropes 44 Takes a look 45 “Barracuda”

band 46 More

competent 48 Challenges 51 Familiar

group of stars

53 Valuable deposit

54 Fred Berry on “What’s Happening!!”

55 School founded in 1701

56 Send out 57 Unit’s core

group 58 End of a

threat 59 They’re not

from around here

DOWN 1 Birthstone

of many Libras

2 Comics possum

3 Focus for fastballers

4 Batman’s man

5 They may get crossed

6 Shower with praise

7 ___ Lanka 8 Duplicates 9 Make a

comparison 10 “Travels

With My ___” (Gra-ham Greene)

11 Extravagantly endowed

12 Dashboard data, for short

14 They poke fun

19 Royal spot 21 Hot time in

Toulon 24 Face up to 25 Moe’s bro 26 Impatient 27 Salon styles 28 “Laugh-In”

line 29 Shroud site 30 Pipe parts 32 They have a

lot of bars 35 Old yellers 36 Ordinarily 38 Hot red

pepper

41 Sofa fabric 42 One

answering questions

43 Hard knock 45 Parts of

rolling landscapes

46 Surface measurement

47 Winter migrator

48 Negotiation ender

49 Make a change

50 Firms up 51 Middle Earth

meanie 52 Parting

word

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

Edited by Timothy E. Parker September 09, 2009

© 2009 Universal Press Syndicatewww.upuzzles.com

Previous Answers

1 7 4 22 4 6 1

6 1 38 3 5

4 18 7 2

8 3 15 9 1 23 9 5 4Instructions:Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

Previous Solution

Monday- Very EasyTuesday-EasyWednesday- EasyThursday- MediumFriday - Hard

9 2 5 3 1 4 8 6 76 4 8 2 7 9 1 5 31 3 7 6 5 8 9 4 23 1 4 5 9 2 7 8 68 6 2 7 4 1 3 9 55 7 9 8 6 3 4 2 14 8 6 1 2 7 5 3 92 9 1 4 3 5 6 7 87 5 3 9 8 6 2 1 4

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For men and women over 40, it might

be wise to look into your eyes. For more

information, visit checkyearly.com.

A public service message

from Vision Council of

America and AARP.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 13

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza students won't learn about the Holocaust this year.

A n g r y p r o t e s t s b y Palestinians have disrupted tentative plans to introduce information about the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews into the curriculum in U.N. schools.

The dispute touches on one of the largest psycho-logical barriers dividing Arabs and Jews: Arabs see the Holocaust as an excuse for Israel's creation, and Jews see Arab Holocaust de-nial as a rejection of Israel's right to exist.

The uproar has left the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which runs 221 of more than 600 primary and secondary schools in Gaza, caught between the territo-ry's Hamas leaders — some of them ardent Holocaust deniers — and outraged Jewish groups.

Some in Hamas accused the U.N. agency of trying to generate sympathy for Israel and conspiring against the Palestinians. In turn, Jewish activists demanded to know why the subject of the genocide wasn't part of the human rights syllabus in the first place.

“ N o w w e a r e b e i n g bashed from al l quar-ters,” the agency's chief in Gaza, John Ging, told The Associated Press.

The controversy erupted last week, after an um-brella group for Palestinian refugees in Gaza protested what it said were plans to teach eighth-graders in U.N. schools about the Holocaust.

U.N. officials denied they had such intentions for this school year and in-sisted they weren't scaling back in response to public pressure.

Regional agency chief Karen Abu Zayd suggest-ed information about the Holocaust could be in-cluded in later years, as part of lessons about the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UNWRA's Web site mentions gen-eral plans to include the Holocaust in lessons on the “historical context that gave rise to” that declaration.

A b u Z a y d s a i d t h e UNWRA field office in Gaza is still developing the cur-riculum, which would be presented to parents and others in the community before it is introduced. “It is very much a draft,” she said.

A U.N. employee involved in shaping the curriculum, who was not authorized to discuss the subject and

spoke on condition of ano-nymity, said that as recently as three months ago, the lessons had been under consideration for the 2009-10 human rights course.

U.N. officials said their schools in Gaza already have the most advanced human rights courses, and teaching the Holocaust would break new ground.

The subject is not taught in U.N.-run schools for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Nor is it taught in Palestinian government schools in the West Bank or Gaza. The backlash in Gaza has highlighted why.

Holocaust denial is still common in the Palestinian territories, with many ap-parently fearful that ac-knowledging the genocide would diminish recognition of their suffering or claims to an independent state. Such sentiments seem particu-larly strong among Gazans, who have had only limited access to the outside world since 2007, when Israel and Egypt imposed a border blockade in response to the violent Hamas takeover of the territory.

—AP

U.N. caught in Gaza dispute over study of Holocaust

AP PHOTO

A Palestinian child walks by a United Nations school in Gaza City Monday, Aug. 31, 2009. A senior Hamas official has branded the Holocaust a “lie” and slammed reported plans by the United Nations to teach Gaza students about the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Despite decreased demand for natural gas in the last year, Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said Tuesday he remains so convinced of the fuel’s future that he’s even converted his personal vehicle to run on it.

McClendon joined state and local lead-ers at the opening of a compressed natural gas filling station in northwest Oklahoma City and said he thinks that as more such stations open, more cities and companies — and eventually more individual vehicle owners — will make the move to CNG-powered vehicles.

McClendon’s Chevrolet Tahoe began running on CNG about nine months ago. He said Chesapeake, one of the nation’s largest independent natural gas producers, also is converting much of its fleet to use CNG.

“I have successfully made a statement about American independence” from oil, McClendon said. “I think one thing that is not yet appreciated in Washington is there is no other plan out there that will reduce

this country’s dependence on foreign oil.”Last summer, the natural gas industry

was riding high, with prices at more than $13 per 1,000 cubic feet and new reserves coming online. But the sluggish economy has hurt energy demand, leading to a glut of natural gas reserves in the U.S. In trad-ing Tuesday at the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas was at $2.807 per 1,000 cubic feet.

McClendon already had predicted the industry will have storage and pipeline is-sues during the coming months, which he said will force producers to curtail their ef-forts. That situation should “work itself out” over time, he said.

A long-term issue for the industry is increasing the market for its product. McClendon and others in the industry long have pushed natural gas both as an alterna-tive for coal to fuel power plants and as a vehicle fuel.

The industry has worked to persuade cit-ies, states and companies to buy or convert

existing vehicles — espe-cially of the heavy transport variety — to use CNG, a pro-posal highlighted by energy magnate T. Boone Pickens last year in his “Pickens Plan.”

Pickens has set a goal of converting 350,000 of the nation’s large cargo trucks from diesel to natural gas within the next five years.

“We think it makes sense to go where the market is. We have to convert fewer vehicles,” he said.

McClendon noted that Honda’s Civic GX is the only CNG mass-market vehicle now available for purchase in the U.S., although Ford and General Motors manufacture CNG ve-hicles for the foreign market. He acknowl-edged that part of the reason is a lack of

CNG infrastructure for fuel-ing those vehicles.

“We’re working on both things at the same time,” he said. “... When people find out that they can buy an American product that is cleaner and costs less than half the price of gasoline, they’re going to go, ‘Why haven’t I been able to do this?’”

E a r l i e r t h i s y e a r , Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry signed a bill authored by state House Speaker Chris Benge to establish incen-tives to increase the number of CNG vehicles and public access to filling stations. The one that opened Tuesday

will be run by OnCue Express, an Oklahoma fuel service retailer.

—AP

AP PHOTO

Aubrey McClendon speaks during the opening of a com-pressed natural gas filling sta-tion in Oklahoma City, Tuesday.

14 Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Chesapeake CEO convinced natural gas popularity will grow

STATE BRIEFS

RACING TRACK SALE CLOSER TO FRUITION

OKLAHOMA CITY — A subsid-iary of the Chickasaw Nation moved one step closer Tuesday to completing its purchase of Oklahoma’s largest horse rac-ing track, emerging as the winning bidder for Remington Park during an auction held in a New York law offi ce.

As expected, there was no new opposition to the $80.25 mi l l ion bid f rom Global Gaming Solutions RP LLC. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath still must approve the auction’s results during a hearing next week in Delaware and the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission would then have to approve the sale, but both steps are considered formalities.

While any roadblocks to the fi nal purchase are “fairly unlikely at this stage, it’s not over until it’s over,” said John Elliott, the CEO of Global Gaming Solutions. “Mentally, we’ve always had in our minds that when we get through this process it will be the end of November or December.”

Tuesday’s auction was part of the bankruptcy proceed-ings for the track’s current owner, Magna Entertainment Corp. The Canadian company, which is the largest horse track owner in the U.S., fi led for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection March 5, saying it has between $500 million and $1 billion in liabilities and more than $1 billion in assets.

Since September 2007, the Oklahoma City racetrack had been on a list of possible Magna Entertainment prop-erties that could be sold to relieve debt.

Elliott said he’s glad the pro-cess of buying Remington Park is almost fi nished.

“It’s been a long road,” he said. “In my case, it was lon-ger, because I tried to buy this track from Magna before this (bankruptcy) happened, start-ing in November of last year.”

PRISON WORKERS DISCIPLINED AFTER INMATE’S DEATH

McALESTER, Okla. — Two prison employees have been disciplined after an inmate was beaten to death after being placed in the same cell with a co-defendant he testi-fi ed against.

O n M a r c h 1 1 a t t h e Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, 23-year-old Paul Duran was placed in a cell with 33-year-old Jesse Dalton, his co-defendant in an Oklahoma City murder case. Duran was beaten to death and Dalton remains a suspect in the death.

After months of investiga-tion, Leroy Harris, a security manager working in the unit, was fired and unit manager Darrell Wilson was suspended without pay for fi ve days.

The men were notified of the punishment on Thursday, according to documents released from the Department of Corrections.

—AP