THE DAILY TEXANwww.dailytexanonline.comServing the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900Monday, August 3, 2009

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Meet ‘the triplets’

By Bobby LongoriaDaily Texan Staff

State Comptroller Susan Combs announced that the Texas Tomorrow Fund, which allowed parents to prepay their children’s tuition at a rate reflective of its current cost, is nearly broke.

The fund created in 1995 under comptroller John Sharp. After his term, it was closed to enrollment in 2003. Combs announced Friday that the fund may run out of money somewhere between 2015 and 2017.

Comptroller spokesman Allen Spelce said the fund still has 119,000 active contracts. He estimates the shortfall will be about $1.87 billion to $2 bil-lion by 2030.

“It’s important for people to know that if they are enrolled in [the fund] that the state is going to back the plan and their plan is good,” Spelce said. “If you are in the plan, you are in the plan.”

He said the lack of funds is a result of the state leg-islature deregulating tuition costs in 2003, which in-creased tuition over the last few years.

Sharp spokesman Kelly Ferow said the fund was set up under the assumption that lawmakers would con-tinue to control college tuition rates and that the dereg-ulation of tuition jeopardized the financial analysis.

He said Combs put together a panel of outside ex-perts to review the fund to fix any existing problems, but everyone knew the problem was deregulation.

“Some of [the experts] are the owners of pri-vate for-profit businesses that offer tuition plans. They were direct competitors of [the fund],” Fer-ow said. “They always resented it since the mo-ment Sharp proposed it because it is government competing with them. When government gets into something, it increases the competition and the price goes down.”

Ferow said the panel shut the fund down, which resulted in no new revenue to pay the existing con-tracts. In order to make the fund viable again, he said a moratorium would need to be put into place and enrollment in the fund initiated.

College paymentfund may go broke

By Bobby LongoriaDaily Texan Staff

Waller Creek will soon be given a new opportunity to attract Austin citi-zens when a flood water control tunnel is constructed and a redevelopment plan is implemented.

A bicycle tour led by the Waller Creek Citizen Advisory Committee showcased the debilitating aspects of the creek and provided an opportunity for citi-zens to question the plan Saturday. The city seeks to redevelop the creek into a sprawling community center with a new hike and bike trail, business attractions and neighborhood developments.

Committee member Jeb Boyt said once the flood water control tunnel is built it will provide a great opportunity for the area to become a thriving community venue.

“The main thing we are doing now through the [plan] that the committee is

overseeing is to see what those surface improvements and changes are going to be like,” Boyt said. “It’s pretty clear peo-ple want improved pedestrian and bicycle connections throughout the district — the question is how are we going to do it.”

Jana McCann, ROMA Austin’s associ-ate project manager of the district plan, said rivers and waters are amazing in their ability to unite people.

“[The plan] will look at both creek im-provements, trail improvements, re-veg-etation — kind of restoring the ecological integrity of the creek,” McCann said. “As well as how should new development respect and address the creek. What would the rules be for developing in and around this creek-side environment?”

She said a plan will be finalized by 2010 and the tunnel’s construction is an-ticipated to begin the same year with

Austin plans Waller Creek revival

By Erin MulvaneyDaily Texan Staff

Once a world-class Level 1 trauma cen-ter, the emergency room at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston re-mained closed for almost a year after Hur-ricane Ike devastated the hospital, leaving health care in the city and surrounding ar-eas in a vulnerable state.

On Saturday morning, however, the tone in the lonely wing of Galveston’s only hos-pital changed as the doors were opened for the first time in 11 months. The emergen-cy facility has not technically returned to its former Level 1 status, but is well-equipped and as fully functional as it once was, said UTMB spokeswoman Marsha Canright.

“When those helicopters start coming in and the ambulances are rolling back up, we will be ready to take care of the people that live in Galveston and people offshore,” Canright said. “UTMB is back.”

She said the newly opened facility is capable of doing everything that a Lev-

el 1 trauma center is able to do, but it may take a few months to get certification. The American College of Surgeons designates a hospital a Level 1 trauma center when it can provide care to patients with any lev-el of injury, conducts research and offers an educational program.

Since Hurricane Ike devastated the Tex-as Coast on September 13, 2008, UTMB laid off 3,000 employees, reduced its number of hospital beds by half and closed the trauma facility, which treated critical care patients. In order to re-open the emergency center, the facility needed a new blood bank, a pharmacy, radiology equipment, addition-al high-tech level equipment and more staff members.

“What many people don’t understand is an emergency center is not just a room,” Canright said. “It’s not possible to rebuild all those things, and purchase new equip-ment in just a few months’ time.”

She said after the storm, there were ques-tions about UTMB’s financial future and

it was not certain that the medical branch would remain on the island. Kurt Salmon Associates, an Atlanta health care consult-ing firm, released a report in February sug-gesting that UTMB move from Galveston to League City, located 20 miles from the is-land, but the UT System Board of Regents voted in March to keep the branch on the island.

“No one here is a psychic,” she said. “When you are talking about an emergen-cy department, you have to have the best of everything available to deliver the best possible emergency care.”

Canright said that before Ike, the emer-gency room had 590 beds with the capac-ity to expand, but the newly opened fa-cility has 370. Because of a staffing short-age, UTMB outsourced to EM Care, a group of emergency physicians who will act as the emergency room physicians un-til UTMB has more time to hire in-house

By Ben WermundDaily Texan Staff

With a battle brewing over the Texas State Board of Educa-tion’s potential to emphasize the importance of the Bible and the Christian faith in American his-tory classes, American Civil Lib-erties Union members are ex-pressing deep concern.

“On every single front, Texas is the least progressive state I’ve

ever lived in and the biggest is-sue I see here is this insidious business of slipping it into the schools where we have vulner-able minds and peer pressure to boot,” said ACLU member Rus-sell La Claire. “I am deeply con-cerned about that.”

The Texas affiliate of the ACLU held their annual meet-ing Saturday, focusing on reli-gious freedom in Texas in light of recent changes made to the science curriculum by the board of education, as well as potential social studies changes.

In March, the board voted to

allow creationist revisions of sci-ence course material, by alter-ing language in the curriculum that indicated the “sufficiency and insufficiency” of evolution-ist theories. The ACLU testified against the measure.

“It’s the climate in Texas that makes us very interested in [re-ligion],” said Dotty Griffith, the ACLU of Texas’ public educa-tion director. “We are always against any initiative of govern-ment-imposed religion. We’re all in favor of teaching about re-ligion, but we are not in favor of proselytizing or promoting one

religion over another.”Griffith said she is sure the

ACLU will also testify against the potential social studies changes.

Last month, the board appoint-ed six experts to review the social studies curriculum. Three of the appointed reviewers suggested the emphasis on Christianity. One of them, David Barton, is a for-mer vice chair of the state Repub-lican Party and founder of Wall-Builders, a group that promotes Christianity in American histo-

By Pierre BertrandDaily Texan Staff

Lawyers are preparing for the pending trial of two gunmen who turned themselves in for the non-life threatening shooting of eight people outside Spiro’s nightclub in May.

Ken Fesler, the attorney repre-senting brothers LeBaaron and Brandon Hutchinson, said he does not know how he intends to defend his two clients, saying the court proceedings are still in the discovery phase.

In a court appearance Friday morning, Fesler requested more time to gather information regard-ing the May 29 incident, and Judge Wilford Flowers rescheduled the next court appearance for Sept. 16.

“I was given this case a couple weeks ago, so I don’t know [all the facts] except what was written in the paper,” Fesler said.

The brothers each face eight counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and have been in Travis County jail since early June.

Fesler said there are still a few more witnesses he needs to in-terview before he can assess the strength of his case.

“There is a lot of discovery in this case,” Fesler said. “There are a lot of witnesses, and there are a lot of victim interviews. You know there are two sides to every case. Every-thing that everyone has been hear-ing is one sided.”

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Photos by Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff

Above, Attendees of Waller Creek Bike Ride get ready for the bike tour at the Mexican American Cultural Center Plaza on Saturday morning. Below, Jeb Boyt and Chris Riley provide information about the Waller Creek Greenbelt to the crowd that came to join the bike tour.

UTMB reopens doors to Galveston

Karina Jacques | Daily Texan Staff

Hiram Sasser, director of litigation at Liberty Legal Institute, speaks at the ACLU meeting on Saturday.

ACLU expresses concern over creationism in schools

Accused Spiro’s gunmen prepare defense for trial

Flood control tunnel to aid park’s transformation to community center

WALLER continues on page 5FUND continues on page 2

UTMB continues on page 2 TRIAL continues on page 5

ACLU continues on page 2

Religious freedom, civil rights and curriculum discussed at conference

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Road work near campus should end in time for football season

Austin Energy will perform an upgrade to an electrical conduit on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which will cause lane closures end-ing Aug. 16.

The upgrades will require lane closures on MLK between Congress Avenue and Rio Grande Street. Lane closures will include switching two-way traffic onto one side of the road, leaving one lane open on both sides of the road at all times.

“The work involves upgrading underground power cables,” said

Carlos Cordova, spokesman for Austin Energy. “These particular ca-bles feed the Drag and parts of the University, so it is very important.”

The work will be performed from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on week-days and 7:00 am to 7:00 pm on the weekends.

“We are hoping to avoid rush hour traffic in the morning and at 4:00 pm,” Cordova said.

The project was originally sched-uled to take place only on the week-ends, but was changed in order to finish the project before UT is back in session and football season be-gins. “We are always looking to up-grade our facilities to insure reliabil-ity,” Cordova said.

— Brittany Wisch

A construction worker fell on Sunday from the roof of the House of Tu-tors building in West Campus.

At roughly 3 p.m. Sunday, emergency crews responded to the fall at the corner of 24th and Peal Streets. A team of four workers was installing a new roof on the business when the man fell.

Witnesses said the man, whose identity is not being released, fell from the second story roof onto his head. The man was taken to a local hospi-

tal and his condition is unknown at this time.Robby Johnson, a construction worker who was on the roof when the man

fell, said he did not know how the incident happened.Johnson said the man was working on a lower awning when he fell.“I just came in and saw him knocked out cold,” Johnson said.Police said an investigation is underway.

— Pierre Bertrand

Tamir Kalifa | Daily Texan Staff

Officer Castillo of the Austin Police Department speaks on the telephone outside the scene of the accident at the corner of 24th and Pearl Streets.

Worker injured in West Campus

State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said that after deregu-lation, tuition has increased about 250 percent and universities are not aware of the consequences.

“Universities are not sensitive to the high cost of tuition and the bur-den that it places on families, espe-cially middle class families,” Hino-josa said. “We are pricing middle

class families out of college.”Arturo Ballesteros, a Hinojosa

spokesman, said the senator voted against deregulation in 2003 and filed a bill last year to cap tuition according to the consumer price index. But the bill did not pass.

“There was also a provision in the bill which would make stu-dent fees subject to an election by the student body,” Ballesteros said. “It looked to restore some

sort of control of those fees to the students who would ultimately pay them.”

He said universities were rais-ing fees once they were no longer able to raise tuition and that stu-dents were paying the price.

Hinojosa said the responsibili-ty of the legislature is to provide universities with the necessary funds to make education afford-able. He said he will continue to

push for a compromise bill.“Education is an issue of a qual-

ity of life, an educated workforce and competition in the world economy,” Hinojosa said. “[The fund] is broke. The state is not making up the difference. The dif-ference in cost is being made up by the universities, and the way they are making up the difference is by raising tuition rates for oth-er students.”

emergency room doctors. To run the facility, there must be two doctors in-house at all times.

“We wanted to open as quick-ly as possible,” Canright said. “It would have added too much time onto our ability to reopen if we didn’t use a contract agency for physicians.”

Although the staff layoffs were a huge blow to the medi-cal branch, hirings have slowly increased. Much of the emergen-cy room staff, in particular, were lost. The nurses, technicians, ra-diologists and those in the triage departments have already been

hired or rehired. She said without the emergen-

cy center, Galveston’s health care was vulnerable. The closure of the trauma center led to increased emergency room traffic at Main-land Medical Center in Texas City, Houston’s Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center and Clear Lake Regional Medical Center.

“UTMB was there for the un-expected,” Canright said. “Of the 60,000 emergencies that happen in this area in a year, that many had to go to the other Level 1 trauma centers. That is a huge number to absorb.”

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said the opening of the

emergency center is a good sign for the recovery of the city.

“As mayor, I breathe a collective sigh of relief for all Galvestonians and our city’s many visitors,” Thomas said. “Galveston will be a safer place to live in and to vis-it now that our completely staffed emergency room is restored.”

There are massive plans to fur-ther restore the medical branch to its former glory, Canright said. Restoration plans include a new research building, a new hospital tower and a new research labora-tory. There are also plans to re-es-tablish an emergency physician residency program that had just begun before the storm hit.

ry; another is the Rev. Peter Mar-shall; and the third is Daniel Dreisbach, a professor of public affairs at American University.

Terri Burke, ACLU Texas di-rector, said the experts are ques-tionable.

“Our biggest concern, frank-ly, is the process by which they make these de-terminations,” B u r k e s a i d . “Where do these experts come from? Who are these experts? Somebody who has been the co-chair of the state Republi-can Party is, in my opinion, not an expert on history.”

Susan Herman, the ACLU na-tional president, assured mem-bers in her keynote speech Satur-

day that Texas is not the only state in the U.S. concerning the union.

“As I’ve been meeting people over the last couple days, with typ-ical Texas pride, people have been telling me that you have the worst

civil liberties vio-lations in Texas,” Herman said. “But you have some competition.”

She listed a se-ries of cases the ACLU has taken on in states rang-ing from Arkan-sas to Michigan and said that, even with the election of President Ba-rack Obama, the ACLU sti l l has work to do.

“Can the ACLU close up shop? Maybe put a nice b a n n e r a c r o s s the door saying ‘Mission Accom-

plished,’” Herman asked as the audience that erupted in laughter and negative shouts. “We need the ACLU to keep pushing.”

From page 1

UTMB: Hospital reopening key for island health care

From page 1

From page 1

FUND: Rapid tuition increases responsible for Tomorrow’s troubles

ACLU: Texas group focused on claimed civil rights violations

NEWS BRIEFLY

‘‘Can the ACLU close up shop? Maybe put a nice banner across the door saying ‘Mission Accomplished.’ We need the ACLU to

keep pushing.”

— Susan Herman ACLU national president

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Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jillian SheridanManaging Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stephen KellerAssociate Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David R. HenryAssociate Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jeremy Burchard, Roberto CervantesNews Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Erin MulvaneyAssociate News Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Audrey Campbell, Francisco Marin Senior Reporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pierre Bertrand, Hudson Lockett, Ben WermundCopy Desk Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ben LankfordAssociate Copy Desk Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Austen SofhauserDesign Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thu VoSenior Designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Olivia Hinton, Colby White, Janie ShawPhoto Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Caleb MillerAssociate Photo Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jordan SmothermonSenior Photographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jackie Gilles, Karina Jacques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mary Kang, May-Ying LamLife&Arts Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leigh PattersonAssociate Life&Arts Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Brad BarrySenior Life&Arts Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Lingwall, Ana McKenzie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alex Regnery, Robert RichSports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Austin TalbertAssociate Sports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Michael SherfieldSenior Sports Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Will Anderson, Chris TavarezComics Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carolyn CalabreseWeb Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Erik ReynaMultimedia Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rachael SchroederAssociate Multimedia Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Gamache

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Reporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bobby Longoria, Brittany WischPhotographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tamir KalifaCopy Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heath Cleveland, Nolan HicksColumnists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rebecca Counts, David PlayerSports Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Matt HohnerLife&Arts Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mark Lopez, Emily Royall, Courtney SevenerComics Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gabe Alvarez, Michael Bowman, Amelia Giller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeremy Johnson, Nakyung Kim

The Daily Texan (USPS 146-440), a student newspaper at The University of Texas at Austin, is published by Texas Student Media, 2500 Whitis Ave., Austin, TX 78705. The Daily Texan is published daily except Saturday, Sunday, federal holidays

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THE DAILY TEXAN

WORLD&NATIONwww.dailytexanonline.comMonday, August 3, 2009

3

Queer Israelis rally after two die in youth center shooting

TEL AVIV, Israel — Reeling from the worst attack ever aimed at gay youth in Israel, members of the country’s gay community and their supporters rallied Sun-day in the heart of Tel Aviv a day after a masked gunman killed two people at a center for gay youth and escaped.

As protesters with rainbow flags mourned the victims and condemned the homophobic sen-timent assumed to be behind the attack, police hunted for the as-sailant throughout a city that has long prided itself on a live-and-let-live attitude and a thriving gay community.

“I fear that if the man who did this is not found, the consequenc-es to the gay community might be far-reaching. They might live in fear,” said Arnon Hirsch, a 47-year-old lawyer who was one of several hundred people who took part in the protest near the center attacked Saturday night.

Hirsch said he is openly gay and does not intend to act differ-ently now. “I have no intention of giving in to terror,” he said. “I’m not going to hide anywhere.”

Outside the center, a bouquet of flowers rested on the curb near bar-ricades erected by police and a sign reading, “Stop Homophobia.”

A masked man entered the center for gay teens in downtown Tel Aviv late Saturday night, pulled out a pistol and opened fire, according to Micky Rosen-feld, a police spokesman. The shooter then fled the scene on foot, Rosenfeld said.

The dead were identified as a 26-year-old man who was a coun-selor at the center and a 17-year-old girl. Eleven people were wounded, four of them critically.

The youth at the club “go there because it is a refuge of sorts for them,” songwriter and gay ac-tivist Rona Keinan wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronot. “The very thought that a person might en-ter that protected space and sim-ply open fire at them is shocking. I just want to cry.”

— The Associated Press

By Donna Abu-NasrThe Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Does Islam frown on nose jobs? Chem-ical peels? How about breast im-plants?

One of the clerics with the an-swers is Sheik Mohammed al-Nu-jaimi, and Saudi women flock to him for guidance about going un-der the knife. The results may not see much light of day in a king-dom where women cover up from head to toe, yet cosmetic surgery is booming.

Religion covers every facet of life in Saudi Arabia, including plastic surgery. Al-Nujaimi draws his guidelines from the consensus that was reached three years ago when clergymen and plastic sur-geons met in Riyadh to determine whether cosmetic procedures vio-late the Islamic tenet against tam-pering God’s creation.

The verdict was that it’s halal (sanctioned) to augment unusual-ly small breasts, fix features that are causing a person grief, or reverse damage from an accident. But un-dergoing an unsafe procedure or changing the shape of a “perfect nose” just to resemble a singer or actress is haram (forbidden).

“I get calls from many, many women asking about cosmetic pro-cedures,” said al-Nujaimi told The Associated Press in an interview. “The presentations we got from the doctors made me better equipped to give them guidance.”

In recent years, plastic sur-gery centers with gleaming fa-cades have sprung up on streets in Riyadh, the capital. Their front-page newspaper ads promise la-ser treatments, hair implants and liposuction.

From rarities only 10 years ago, the centers now number 35 and are “saturating the Saudi mar-ket,” Ahmed al-Otaibi, a Saudi skin specialist, was quoted as say-ing in the Al-Hayat newspaper.

Al-Otaibi cited a study accord-ing to which liposuction, breast

augmentations and nose jobs are the most popular among women, while men go for hair implants and nose jobs.

Saudi women see nothing un-usual about undergoing plastic surgery and then covering it up in robes and veils.

Sarah, an unmarried, 28-year-old professional woman, pointed out in an interview that under-neath their robes, women go in for designer clothes and trendy haircuts to be flaunted at wom-en’s gatherings, shown to their husbands and exposed on trips abroad.

“We attend a lot of private oc-casions, and we also travel,” said Sarah, who declined to give her full name to protect her privacy.

She said she is contemplating having 22 surgeries, including a breast lift, padding her rear and reversing her down-turned lips into a smile.

She also wants the lips of Leba-nese singer Haifa Wehbe, and less flare to her nostrils, though so far her plastic surgeon has refused to do the nose because he doesn’t think it needs altering.

Ayman al-Sheikh, a Saudi doc-tor who spent almost 14 years in

the U.S., most of them at Har-vard, said demand in Saudi Ara-bia is in line with increased glob-al demand. But what he sees more of in the Arab world, in-cluding Saudi Arabia, is a cus-tomers for procedures that en-hance the face to the point where it no longer looks natural.

The trend is being set by en-tertainers whose pouty lips, chiseled midriffs and enhanced breasts are seen on TV across the Arab world.

Not all customers seek reli-gious sanction, and not all sur-geons abide by the clerics’ guide-

lines, so a woman is apt to pick a surgeon depending on how lib-eral he is.

“People are overdone by design or by mistake,” al-Sheikh, 43, told the AP. “If something is done on a famous figure it becomes iconic in our world even if it doesn’t look esthetically appealing.”

He said when he returned to the kingdom four years ago, pa-tients initially came with requests for one performer’s nose or an-other’s cheeks, but that stopped after word spread he was a con-servative who believes “every face has its own features.”

Hassan Amma | Associated Press

A young woman has her face treated with lightening creams by a doctor at a clinic in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi clerics say it’s OK to have the procedures if they are safe, are done to reverse damage from an accident or to fix a body part or feature that is causing grief to a person.

Plastic surgery takes off in Saudi Arabia

NATION BRIEFLY

WORLD BRIEFLY

Hawaii ups fines in push to protect sensitive coral colonies

HONOLULU — Wrecking coral will cost you in Hawaii.

A Maui tour company is paying the state nearly $400,000 for dam-aging more than 1,200 coral colo-nies when one of its boats sank at Molokini, a pristine reef and pop-ular diving spot. Another tour op-erator faces penalties for wrecking coral when it illegally dropped an

anchor on a Maui reef.The state plans to sue the U.S.

Navy to seek compensation for cor-al ruined when a guided missile cruiser the length of two football fields ran aground near Pearl Har-bor in February.

The fines began issuing fines two years ago as part of its efforts to punish those who damage a re-source critical to Hawaii’s frag-ile environment and tourism, the state’s No. 1 industry.

“People are going to have to be more careful out here, because it if keeps getting damaged, we’re go-

ing to lose it,” said Laura Thielen, chairwoman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, which decides how much to fine.”

Hawaii is home to 84 percent of all coral under U.S. jurisdiction. About 15 percent of U.S. coral is in state waters surrounding the main Hawaiian islands from Niihau to the Big Island. Another 69 percent is in the Northwestern Hawaiian Is-lands — a stretch of mostly unin-habited atolls President George W. Bush made a national marine mon-ument in 2006.

— The Associated Press

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Monday, August 3, 2009 OPINION4THE DAILY TEXAN

GALLERY

Editor-in-Chief: Jillian SheridanPhone: (512) 232-2212E-mail: editor@dailytexanonline.comAssociate Editors: Jeremy Burchard Roberto Cervantes

Education for immigrants

By Dave PlayerDaily Texan Columnist

THE FIRING LINE

By Mahala GuevaraDaily Texan Columnist

An entitled generation

Please recycle this copy of The Daily Texan by placing it in a recycling bin or back in the burnt-or-ange stand where you found it.

SUBMIT A FIRING LINEE-mail your Firing Lines to firingline@dailytexanon-

line.com. The Texan reserves the right to edit for brevi-ty, clarity and liability. In a Firing Line, specify the ar-ticle you are responding to, and keep your response under 350 words. Unsigned Firing Lines will not be printed.

LEGALESEOpinions expressed in The Daily Texan are those

of the editor, the editorial board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily those of the UT ad-ministration, the Board of Regents or the Texas Stu-dent Media Board of Operating Trustees. All Texan editorials are written by the Editorial Board, which is listed in the top right corner of this page.

RECYCLE!

By Rebecca CountsDaily Texan Columnist

Planning for a future where the success of

immigrants — legal or illegal — is intimately tied to the success of Texas is a better

policy.

VIEWPOINT

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott recently released an opinion stating that Texas may be in violation of federal immigration statues for al-lowing illegal immigrants to access resident tu-ition rates, according to the Attorney General’s Web site.

The opinion cited the Illegal Immigration Re-form and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which prevents states from granting “post sec-ondary education benefit[s]” to someone who is not lawfully present in the U.S. unless they provide the same benefit to residents of other states. Abbot pointed out that the key terms in immigra-tion law — such as “post sec-ondary education benefit” — have never been defined. No administrative guidelines ex-ist, and the only judicial de-cision on this question comes from a University of Cali-fornia case that is currently pending review by that state’s supreme court.

Abbot’s decision, however, did not comment on the desir-ability of the resident-tuition policy for illegal immigrants, who receive resident tuition because the resident (and his or her family) has been help-ing pay for the Texas educa-tion system through taxation for the requisite number of years. Leaving aside xenopho-bic arguments, this is clearly an issue of cost to the state.

A 2006 report by the Texas Comptroller ’s Of-fice sheds some light on this question. In fall 2004, 3,792 students that were classified as non-citizens were receiving resident tuition rates at state institutions for higher learning. Of course, not all of these students were in the country illegally.

A number of statutes exist that allow for-eign students to fulfill the residency require-ments for in-state tuition. For example, the chil-dren of ambassadors and diplomats and their

employees pay in-state tuition.The total cost to educate these students, ac-

cording to the Comptroller ’s Office, was $11.2 million. Education was the largest of every cate-gory measured as a cost from illegal immigrants by the Comptroller.

While the Comptroller’s report found that the overall impact of illegal immigration was boon to the Texas economy, it did not address the ben-efits to the state from educating illegal immi-grants. As college-educated workers, these stu-dents have undoubtably improved their earn-ing potentials. This translates into more spend-

ing and, therefore, more tax dol-lars for the state.

One objection that arises from this interpretation is the ques-tion of whether, even as res-idents for the requisite num-ber of years, illegal immigrants pay in enough to justify giving them discounted tuition. States are unable to collect income tax-es from illegal workers who do not report income. But Texas relies heavily on consumption taxes and is therefore likely to capture tax revenue from work-ers who do not report income.

The final issue, of course, is politics. In a June 9 article in The Economist, it was predicted that even without immigration, His-panics would become the larg-est demographic group in Tex-as by 2034. Punishing illegal im-migrants for “taking white peo-ple’s jobs” will cease to be po-litically feasible as more of the

electorate are recent immigrants themselves. Planning for a future where the success of im-

migrants — legal or illegal — is intimately tied to the success of Texas is a better policy.

The Texas Legislature should not deny resident tuition to non-citizen residents of Texas, even if those residents originally immigrated illegally. It makes better sense to cultivate a population of educated, skilled workers than to deny the best and brightest of our illegal immigrant population an opportunity to lift themselves from poverty.

Counts is a plan II honors, history and business honors senior

Daniel Earnest’s firing line, “A problem with pro-choice” in response to Mary Lingwall’s column “Who is choosing pro-life?” is a perfect example of the kind of utterly useless vitriol coming from the conservative movement. It has no other purpose than to caricature and demonize liberals. Earnest doesn’t come with an argument or even any “cor-rections.” Instead, he comes with ad homonyms and red herrings. On that note, here’s a couple tips and suggestions for him:

Don’t follow up an ad homonym depicting your adversary as ignorant with a paragraph about Sarah Palin. That just doesn’t work, and it makes you look like an idiot.

Rhetorical Question: All of the Founding Fathers were slave owners and clearly racists. Does that mean we should burn the Constitution? Try to avoid red herrings designed for no other purpose but vilification.

Attempting to co-opt the term “feminist” (a lens that is heavily influenced by relativism and sub-jectivity) is absolutely hilarious. Not surprisingly, I heard Sarah Palin trying to refer to herself as one the other day. Classic conservative “thinker.”

Finally, after reading your past Texan columns, having you refer to Lingwall as “radical” couldn’t be more ironic. That is to say, conservatism — in its current form of “birthers,” creation “science” and the like — seem to have a penchant for wanting to be something they’re not (e.g. “feminist,” fiscally responsible, truthful and victims) and claim not to be what they are (radical).

— Kenneth Wills

UT Alum

In a 2007 article in the The Dallas Observer, reporter Andrea Grimes profiled an archetype common in Dallas — the “$30,000 millionaire.” Defined as individuals living a luxurious life-style on a low level of personal income, Grimes describes the 30k millionaire as having a “dis-tinctive behavioral pattern of spending more money than they make in an attempt to appear wealthy and desirable.”

With an emphasis on expensive clothes, fine dining and high-profile nightlife, the lifestyle of the 30k millionaire is fixated on the image of desperate individuals trying to validate them-selves through consumerism. Such individuals can be found peacocking around trendy neigh-borhood hot spots in leased luxury cars and de-signer clothes in an attempt to convey their ficti-tious wealth to passersby. The concept is simple: If you don’t have it, fake it.

There is, of course, a flip-side to the 30k mil-lionaire’s opulence. Most notably, it cannot be sustained. Practitioners routinely lease, rent and buy on credit in an effort to maintain their im-age. When their bills finally catch up to them, the offending parties are left grasping at air.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, Grimes wrote, the average credit score is 667, which is 25 points below the national average. But, the true issue at hand is ingrained far deep-er into the national psyche than Dallas yuppies overpaying for bottle service.

Without question, we live in a materialistic so-ciety. Our economy relies solely on our consum-erism to fuel the capitalist machine. Some have even argued that it is our patriotic duty to con-sume, which in turn strengths our economy and our national security.

Unfortunately, an inevitable by-product of that need to consume is a gross affliction with mate-rial wealth and status, those same primal forces that drive the 30k millionaires to live above their means. But they are not the only ones doing so.

It is no secret that our economy is hurting, and has been for several quarters now. Before the crisis, banks bundled mortgages together into securities which could be traded much like any other commodity. As long as home own-ers made mortgage payments, the bundled se-curities would generate their expected revenue.

With low interest rates, loans and credit were easy to obtain for Americans looking to buy houses. However, reality eventually caught up. As some home owners began to default on their mortgages, the value of those mortgage-backed bundles began to plummet — creating a domino effect that has brought down banks and other fi-nancial institutions.

While the burst of the housing bubble has rip-pled across the globe, many experts point to a root cause: Americans who took out loans for houses they couldn’t afford. Prospective home owners acted the way a 30k millionaire does to-ward a pair of designer jeans or $12 martini.

Anecdotes of 30k millionaires can be especial-ly useful to college students about to embark into the world as autonomous adults. While some of our peers already manage to support themselves while attending school (and bravo to that group), many of us do not hold down full-time jobs. Instead, most of us are subsidized by an outside party, usually our generous parents.

There are a wide variety of social pressures pushing our demographic to consume. Adver-tising departments target young people as one of the demographics most likely to spend liberal-ly. Since the Baby Boomer’s came of age, young-er generations continue to be inundated with messages of consumerism through television shows like MTV’s “Cribs” or musicians rapping about brand name clothing and other “swag.” Society’s view of college life as a time for relax-ation before the shackles of adulthood lends it-self to a carefree lifestyle often detached from fiscal responsibility.

Student life around campus certainly pro-vides amble opportunities to indulge expensive tastes. The newest crop of apartment complexes in West Campus tout themselves as luxury units, complete with granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. And any reveler on 6th Street will tell you how quickly a round of drinks can empty a wallet.

It’s easy to become accustomed to the perks of our college years. But the danger lies in form-ing a sense of entitlement or an addiction to con-sumption during our time at UT. There’s a good chance your lifestyle is going to take a hit as soon as you leave the Forty Acres. Just try not to take the economy down with you.

Player is a plan II honors junior

SUBMIT A GUEST COLUMNThe Daily Texan welcomes guest columns. E-mail

your column to editor@dailytexanonline.com. A column should be between 500 and 800 words. Guest colum-nists are limited to two columns per month. The Tex-an reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity and liability.

GALLERY

Last June, as the health care reform debate was heating up, The New Yorker pub-lished a much-talked about feature examining the health care system in McAllen, Tex-as, which is located at the southernmost tip of the state. Juxtaposing the exorbitant cost of health care in McAllen with the poor quality of care that plagues the area, the mag-azine explored who really controls the hospitals’ purse strings.

Gawande’s reporting revealed a disparity in the number of medical procedures pa-tients undergo in McAllen hospitals compared to other Texas hospitals. A doctor in McAllen, for example, would advise a patient to get a slew of medical tests before treating the patient. In other parts of the state, that same patient with the same symp-toms wouldn’t be subjected to all the exams, his reporting indicated.

In a disturbing twist, The New York Times reported last week that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee collected nearly $500,000 at a March 30th reception in McAllen. The bulk of those funds came from doctors and others affiliated with a single hospital in the city — Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, a physician-owned hospital.

That the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas is a Democratic stronghold in the nation and state is no surprise, and neither is the extent these physicians will go to main-tain the fractured status quo. But damning inferences can be made that, after reading all the information that has surfaced this summer, the doctors who control the price tags of health care at that particular hospital do so with dollar bills in their eyes. Af-ter all, the doctors are virtual stake holders, and when the hospital turns a profit, so do the doctors.

The questions surrounding physician-owned hospitals are not new and the answers are not easy. The most serious concern about this type of health care set-up has been that doctors will put their bottom lines above the welfare of their patients.

Overuse of medical tests is as abusive and damaging to the credibility of the medical field and, more importantly, to the public’s health as are misdiagnoses. While reform-ing health care remains on the minds of Americans, lowering costs while maintaining quality has already proven to be a formidable challenge.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee must not pander to physician-owned hospitals because of the contributions of those who benefit from their abuses. Representatives shouldn’t neglect to address health care challenges because of power-ful lobbying or discouraging news.

— Roberto Cervantes for the editorial board

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RECYCLE

Gin and tonic and red roses

Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff

Tobatha Wilson, dressed up as Mithra from Final Fantasy XI, and marketing graduate Juan Portillo, dressed up as Katamari Prince, wait as the winner of the costume contest is being announced at Game Over Videogames on Friday afternoon.

completion in 2014. Austin City Council member

Chris Riley said the creek will con-nect the University community to the East Riverside neighborhood and will provide an easy means of travel on UT football game days.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if you could just hop on your bike and easily come ride up Waller Creek right to campus?” Riley said. “Do we really want those students to get on [In-terstate Highway 35] everyday as they go to class or if there are stu-dents who would rather get some exercise on their way in — why not make that opportunity available?”

Evolution of Waller CreekWaller Creek has evolved with

Austin since the city was first laid out in 1839. In 1883, UT opened and the creek served as its eastern bor-der. Until the second half of the 20th century, the creek was bordered by neighborhoods, but it has always been susceptible to flood waters be-cause it lies in a 100-year floodplain.

When the UT Board of Regents decided to bulldoze areas of the creek to expand Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, students chained themselves to trees in pro-test during the Waller Creek riot in 1969. The creek’s trail was con-structed as part of Austin’s bicen-tennial gift to the nation in 1976.

City Council approved the cre-ation of the Waller Creek Tunnel Project in June 1998, in an effort to redistribute flood waters from Wa-terloo Park to Lady Bird Lake in an underground tunnel bypassing the urban area above. But evolving de-velopment plans and lack of fund-ing delayed the tunnel’s creation.

A tax increment financing zone was approved in June 2007, which would redistribute tax revenue to fund the creation of the tun-nel. This led to the creation of the Waller Creek Citizen Advisory Committee in May 2007.

A notice to proceed with the tun-nel’s design was issued in Octo-ber 2007, and most recently in Feb-ruary 2009 the city authorized the ROMA Design Group to begin the Waller Creek District Master Plan, which will work to identify a com-munity vision for the area.

As part of the redevelopment, improvements will be made along Red River and Sabine streets to bet-ter accommodate bikers.

Greg Anderson, UT urban stud-ies graduate, volunteers for a quar-terly Waller Creek cleanup. He said he has no car, lives downtown and said the less commuting citizens have to do, the better.

“The more densely we can build downtown, the less farms we have to pave over, the less forests we have to raise for our own sustain-able urban growth,” Anderson said. “You give people more paths just for bikes and you are definite-ly going to have a better turnout, a more biking community.”

Impact on businessAustin resident Oliver Franklin,

who was a student at UT during the creek’s 1976 redevelopment, said he is concerned about the impact that redevelopment has had and may continue to have on the city.

“I have always been worried that the bigger Austin gets, the lower the aggregate awareness of Austin history,” Franklin said. “The more people that come in, the less peo-ple per capita that know anything about what made Austin, Austin.”

A common question raised by bikers on the Waller Creek tour was how the redevelopment may affect the existing music venues along the creek.

Mohawk owner James Moody said leases expire in 2014, around the time the redevelopment will be fin-ished. This will raise property values and thus, will raise rents as well.

He said the city needs to be aware of Austin’s character and needs to put in place parameters to ensure the survival of local businesses.

“The music district was there and has been there so it’s the neigh-borhood,” Moody said. “It’s not like music is moving into this proj-ect — music is already there.”

Riley said it is not the redevelop-ment’s intention to drive business out. Rather, he said the music scene downtown is an essential aspect of Austin that must be maintained.

“If you can just solve [the creek’s decay] and make it a live-ly appearing place you will have a whole new audience for those venues,” Riley said.

The attorney said he knew his clients were not tested for any trace of firearm gunpow-der residue, and the handguns used in the shooting were not found. He also said there is no video surveillance around the night club that can confirm the brothers’ presence.

The owners of Spiro’s have since closed their doors, vol-untarily relinquishing their lease and alcohol license due to mounting public disapproval shortly after the incident. Neigh-bors said the night club had been a source of trouble and a hub of crime in the area.

According to police reports, there were more police respons-es to the club itself than there were to entire city blocks just next to the club.

“We had over 140 calls, at least, at the time we booked them,” said Senior Police Officer Veneza Aguinaga, Austin Police Depart-ment spokeswoman.

From January 2008 to June 30 2009, police responded to 519 calls at Spiro’s club. For the entire 800 block of Red River Street, which includes Stubbs Barbeque, police regis-tered 439 calls.

Laurence Nuwash, an assis-tant manager who used to work at Spiro’s when it closed, said he

does not believe the club caused anymore problems than others in the area.

“I’ve worked there for sev-en years and personally never had any issues there,” Nuwash said, who now works for a com-puter company. “The people who do cause problems, we do eject them from the club into the street where we have no control over them.”

Nuwash said simply being on the street sometimes causes fights to erupt.

“APD is not always there, so the fights mostly happen on the streets, so when there is a fight they blame it on Spiro’s,” he said.

The night of May 29, Nuwash

said the Hutchinson brothers missed their 10:00 p.m. perfor-mance and demanded they be put on stage at 2:00 a.m. An ar-gument ensued with the club’s promoter and the brothers left peacefully. He said they came back moments later and shot eight people.

For some in the downtown community, the closing and refur-bishment of the club is welcome.

“I am reluctant to comment due to knee-jerk reactions from ignorant court of public opin-ion,” said Bill Corsello, the gen-eral manager of Emo’s, a neigh-boring establishment. “I’m glad they are gone and believe my staff and customers are safer.”

WALLER: Redevelopment plan may affect business

From page 1

UTMB: Hospital reopening key for island health care

From page 1

TRIAL: Neighbors say Spiro’s was a magnet for crime

5A CLASS

Sports Editor: Austin TalbertE-mail: sports@dailytexanonline.comPhone: (512) 232-2210www.dailytexanonline.comSPORTS

THE DAILY TEXAN

6Monday, August 3, 2009

By Chris TavarezDaily Texan Columnist

They have the Big 12’s best re-ceiver. They have the conference’s leading rusher back from 2008. They lay claim to one of the na-tion’s best quarterbacks.

And they may very well win the Big 12 this year.

Yes, Oklahoma State could throw a wrench into the sys-tem and knock off both Tex-as and Oklahoma to take the Big 12 South, and then cruise through the conference cham-pionship game in Arlington.

State’s conference schedule in-cludes road games at Texas A&M, Baylor, Iowa State and a trip to their in-state rival’s house. Those first three games should be cake walks for an OSU team that is ex-pected to break the top-10 in most pre-season polls.

The biggest hurdle in their conference road schedule is ob-viously the Bedlam game against the Sooners. While it certain-ly will be a tough one, it won’t be impossible. And a look at the 2008 season will show why.

After the OU and Missouri games, and sandwiched be-fore the Texas Tech game, Texas had to face off against the sixth-ranked Cowboys in Austin. The game was a nail biter for the Horns as it came down to the fi-nal pass of the game before the Horns knew they had the victory locked up. And that was with a relatively young team at the skill positions — receiver Dez Bryant and running back Kendall Hunt-er were both freshmen. Add an-other year of experience to that team, and they should be able to take down the Sooners in Nor-man — something they couldn’t do with the Horns last year.

Now for their home games in the Big 12, the Cowboys play host to Mizzou, Texas, Texas Tech and Colorado. Again, all should be relatively easy wins for Oklaho-ma State, except for Texas.

The Longhorns always man-age to find a way to squeak out a win in Stillwater. In 2007, Tex-as came back from a 21-point fourth quarter deficit to win 38-35. In 2005, Vince Young led the Horns back from a 19-point hole en route to a 47-28 win and a na-tional championship.

On the personnel side, Zac Robinson is a versatile quarter-back who can chunk the ball and beat you on your feet. If the pock-et ever breaks down, or the Big 12 decides to play defense and all receivers are covered, leave it to Robinson to turn in some positive yardage. And when he’s teamed up with Hunter, the duo makes a dangerous option threat.

That’s the other piece of the puzzle — in a conference that is dominated through the air, State does their job to bring back the Big 12’s reputation of three yards and a cloud of dust. Hunter should be even more dominant after a full year of experience, and his pres-ence will really open up the pass-ing game for Robinson to air it out to the early Biletnikoff favor-ite, Dez Bryant.

The Lufkin, Texas native racked up 87 catches for nearly 1,500 yards and 19 touchdowns in his sophomore season. He provides a down-field threat that can also tear it up in the middle and will kill secondaries in the red zone in jump ball situations.

But the thing that will set this team apart is its defense. Head coach Mike Gundy brought Bill Young in from Miami to be the defensive coordinator. Young, an OSU alumnus came from Miami, whose defense ranked in the top 30 last year, which will be a big upgrade from the Cowboys’ 93rd ranked defense in 2008.

If Oklahoma State can stay healthy — injuries helped lead to the bowl loss to Oregon to end last season — play defense like Young can coach it, and learn from their mistakes in their breakout year in ‘08, the Cow-boys will take the Big 12 South and beat their northern foes in Cowboys Stadium for their first ever Big 12 Championship.

By Austin TalbertDaily Texan Staff

The big three. The triplets. Quarterback, running back, wide receiver. Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin. A night-mare for opposing defenses.

Oklahoma State hopes their big three — quarterback Zac Robinson, running back Ken-dall Hunter and receiver Dez Bryant — add up to a first place atop the big three in the Big 12 South this season.

Tough Texas Tech was apart of the big three-way tie atop the Big 12 South last season, the Cowboys figure to ride their trio of offensive standouts to a strong finish this year. But somewhere in the equation to win a share of the Big 12 South title, the Cowboys must find a way to beat either Oklaho-ma or Texas — something they haven’t done since coach Mike Gundy took over the Oklaho-ma State program.

The last time triplets talk took over Stillwater, Gundy was the Cowboy’s quarterback, the run-ning back was Barry Sanders, and the receiver, Hartley Dykes, rounded out the Cowboy’s of-fensive triumvirate.

“We’re very excited about our group of triplets,” Gundy said.

Hunter may not be Sanders, but he was the Big 12’s lead-ing rusher last season, averag-ing 119.6 yards a game and out rushing his nearest competi-tor by nearly 30 yards a game. In his short two-season career, Hunter has made his name as a quick, explosive back averag-ing 6.5 yards-per-carry.

“It’s hard to compare any-body to Barry Sanders,” Gun-dy said. “Kendall Hunter is very good. It’s hard to get any-body in the country like him. But a future hall of famer is dif-ficult to compare to.”

At receiver, Dez Bryant was dominant in 2008, catching 87 passes for 1480 yards and av-eraging 17 yards per reception. His 19 touchdown receptions last season ranked him second in the nation.

And he doesn’t limit his ex-plosive speed to receiver, Bry-ant is also a special teams wiz, returning two punts for touch-downs last season while rank-ing third in the nation in aver-age yards per return.

“Hartley Dykes, Don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone like him at this level,” Gundy said. “Dez Bryant is special, tremen-dous strength, great hands, great leaping ability. Fearless. Great competitor.”

And while Gundy may not take Robinson’s favorite target over his favorite, he has zero doubt about who is the better quarterback.

“The quarterback spot, I’m

not sure there’s much of a com-parison. If I could go back and recruit, I’d recruit Zac Rob-inson, and I wouldn’t recruit Mike Gundy,” Gundy said. “His ability to make a play running the football is tremen-dous. His durability, much big-ger and stronger.”

The only thing holding the three back is the Cowboys’ much maligned defense. But Gundy is working to improve that, hiring Bill Young to take over the defense. Young, a Oklahoma State graduate, made his name coordinating defenses at Ohio State, Oklaho-ma and USC.

“We’ve got a number of players on the offensive side of the ball that everybody’s aware of, that we’re really ex-cited about what they’ll do this fall,” Gundy said, “Even more so on the defensive side of the ball. Our new coordinator Bill Young and our defensive play-ers Andre Sexton and Perrish Cox and Derek Burton and Pat Lavine and those guys are ex-cited to improve defensively and play better football.”

If Oklahoma State can win at

home — eight of their 12 games are at T. Boone Pickens Stadium — the triplets might nab a BCS bowl berth. But in a loaded divi-sion, it won’t be as easy as 1, 2, 3.

“Unfortunately, we’re one of the few teams that can be in the top ten in most polls across the country and be third in our divi-sion,” Gundy said.

Team name: Oklahoma State Cowboys Head coach: Mike GundyConference: Big 122008 record: 9-4

Key Players:Zac Robinson —

Senior — QB2008: 3,064 yards passing, 25 touchdowns passing, 166.84 ratingThis talented signal call-er can run the option with Kendall Hunter, or find and hit the speedy Dez Bryant on the run.

Kendall Hunter — Junior — RB2008: 1555 yards rushing, 17 touchdowns, 6.5 yards-per-carryThe Big 12’s best running back uses explosive speed to break open games.

Game to watch: Sept. 5 v. Georgia in Stillwater, Okla. (ABC)

The word on Oklahoma State: The triplets are good, but the question again is their defense. Will it be good enough to finally stop Oklahoma and Texas’ dominance of the Big 12 South?

No. 7

Competitive conference will be huge hurdle for Gundy to overcome

Potent offensive attack paves way for Cowboys’ encouraging season

Oklahoma State looks to crack the Big 12 South

Ryan Propes | Daily Texan Staff

Hooker Big 12 Athlete of the Year

Texas volleyball and track and field star Destinee Hooker was awarded the 2008-09 Big 12 Confer-ence Female Athlete of the Year.

Hooker is the eleventh Longhorn to receive the honor.

“This is such a great blessing to be named Big 12 Athlete of the Year. It is a little bit of a shock because of the other females in the league that were also nominated and are equal-ly deserving of the honor,” Hook-er said. “I couldn’t have done this without both of my coaching staffs, my parents and my teammates.”

Standing at an intimidating 6’4,

Hooker is one of the premier ath-letes in the country.

Dominating the volleyball floor, Hooker received All-Big 12 First Team honors. She was also a finalist for Volleyball Honda Award, hon-oring the nation’s top volleyball player. She swept the indoor and outdoor high jump titles and has helped all three athletic programs to record top five finishes in their respective sport. The last Long-horns to receive the award were Cat Osterman and Vince Young in 2005-06.

— Matt Hohner

Chris Kominczak | Daily Texan Staff

Destinee Hooker has rose to the occasion in volleyball and track and field, leading her team teams to a Big 12 Championship in each sport.

By Michael SherfieldDaily Texan Staff

For more than a decade, the Baylor Bears have been in football hibernation.

With only 13 Big 12 conference wins in school history and an average finish of last place in the South division, the Bears may as well have slept through the past 13 years of conference play. But under the direction of head coach Art Briles, now with a year in Waco under his belt, Baylor is showing signs of waking from its slumber.

On the scoreboard, the gains are mod-est. Two conference wins and a 4-8 record last year, a minor improvement from the 3-9 overall and 0-8 conference record in 2007. But beyond those Baylor-like numbers hid performances that saw the Bears play Big 12 North champion Missouri to within a field goal, while threatening to silence the tie-breaker conundrum when holding a 28-14 third quarter lead over Texas Tech in the last game of the regular season.

A few blowouts amid a stacked Big 12 South and difficult non-conference sched-ule aside, Baylor became a respectable foot-ball team.

“People are going to approach us differ-ently on the other side, in other staff rooms and on other practice fields because they’re going to come into Baylor with a different mindset than they did a year ago,” Briles said at last week’s Big 12 Media Day. “We understand we’re going to have to rise up and be better in all facets of the game, not only physically, to deal with the charges that are going to come our way.”

For the first time in a long time, the buzz of expectation is circling Waco and Floyd Casey Stadium. And much of that expec-tation rests on the shoulders of a sopho-more, the explosive Robert Griffin, whose legs and arm seemed to will the Bears far-ther than they thought they could possibly go last season.

The quarterback broke records left and right, most notably going 209 passes before

throwing his first interception in the ninth game of his career, an NCAA record, while accounting for two thirds of the Bears’ 46 touchdowns.

But while there is no doubting Griffin’s play making talent, questions arise for his teammates, especially as the Bears lost the nation’s premier blocker, left tackle Jason Smith, who was selected No.2 overall in the NFL Draft.

“What you have to do to fill those voids is the other guys on the offensive line — the guards, the center, our other tackle — those guys have got to be better,” Briles said. “They’ve got to rise up and take care of business, and they have to play better than what they played a year ago because when they’re leaning, No. 72 ain’t there to lean on.”

Instead, the Bears might find themselves leaning on Griffin, who might have more re-sponsibility than any other sophomore in the country.

“Can one person do it alone?” Briles said. “Generally no, but they can help lead the charge. Everyone’s got to have a great sup-porting cast.”

And with another year in the loaded Big 12 South, the depth and talent that these new Bears posses will be tested weekly against the newfound expectations of success.

“It’s hard to get your foot in the door, they play hard to get in the Big 12 South,” Briles said with a laugh. “The tough part is chang-ing atmospheres and memories. Texas and Oklahoma have good memories when you need to stop someone on 4th and 2.”

Briles’ Bears wake up, climb out of Big 12 basement

Associated Press

Baylor’s Robert Griffin has lifted the spirits of his teammates, fans and Bruiser the Bear.

Associated Press

Above, Oklahoma State’s Dez Bryant soars above a Troy State defender to snatch a reception in game last season. Below, The Cowboys’ Zac Robinson will aim to prove himself amongst the highly talented class of quarterbacks in the Big 12 Conference.

6A SPTS

7A COMICS

LIFE&ARTSMonday, August 3, 2009 7

By Mark LopezDaily Texan Staff

Since its formation in 2003, Glasvegas has been combining the dark attitude of 80’s New Wave re-vivalists like The Jesus and Mary Chain with the types of noise-rock manifestos made famous by bands like My Bloody Valentine.

Though the group has only re-leased one proper album, 2008’s Glasvegas, the Scottish band has al-ready made a name for itself among alternative rock listeners. Thanks to the production assistance of Rich Costey — who has worked with other dark, stylish acts like Franz Ferdinand and Interpol — the al-bum’s first two singles, “Daddy’s Gone” and “Geraldine” have re-ceived heaps of critical acclaim.

The band was also awarded the 2008 Philip Hall Radar Award by NME Magazine for being the most promising new band last year. With

this hype, the music of Glasvegas has been reaching larger audiences, culminating in a late-night appear-ance on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.”

This growing circle of influence includes an Austin date, so if you’re interested in seeing a band that comes with a brooding ambience and the shadowy air of decades past, now is the chance. Even if Glasvegas turns out to not be your thing, you’ll at least be inspired to go home and pull out your old Joy Division records afterward.

WHO: Glasvegas with Ida Maria

WHERE: Emo’s, outside

WHEN: Doors open at 9 p.m., show starts at 10 p.m.

TICKETS: $13 advance, $15 at the door

By Emily RoyallDaily Texan Staff

Last Saturday, Austin saw its first Cupcake Smackdown, a fam-ily and pet event held at the One-2One bar that celebrated the tiny treats and locals who bake them.

The event was organized by local food blogger Jennie Chen and benefitted the Wine & Food Foundation of Texas. The smackdown featured blind tast-ing contests of both professional and amateur cupcake creations, judged by a number of local chefs and foodies, as well as cupcake-eating contests for both humans and their pooches.

More than 1,000 people attend-ed, many more than the moder-ately-sized One2One bar could reasonably hold. Any original expectations of a garden par-ty-like ambiance with individ-uals clad in pastel colors hold-

ing Pomeranian puppies were shed upon seeing the crowded red and black brick interior lit by neon beer signs.

The procedures were a bit confusing in the dark. Over a number of twaddling heads, a woman announcer yelled out the start of inaudible events that attendees strained on tippy toes to hear. Downstairs, individu-al cupcakes awaiting judgment lined the bar railing, like sugary prisoners awaiting execution in a cupcake penitentiary.

And precisely at the point where we all began to question the necessity of our presence, a woman entered the room, car-rying a radiant white box of be-jeweled pastries.

“Try a cupcake?” she asked.This is what we were here for:

The comforting, saturating sweet-ness that can only come from the

miniature delicacies. This was what the Cupcake Smackdown was all about.

Soon, white boxes sprout-ed up everywhere and all the grievances of intrusive dogs and poor lighting vanished as many, many cupcakes were eat-en. Traditional ones, cute ones, some that may even be called avant-garde tickled taste buds — my favorite flavor was green tea with tapioca bubbles.

Cupcake entries were judged in four classes: amateur, store-front, catered and best overall. Each participant provided a va-nilla, chocolate and “baker ’s choice” cupcake to be tasted by the five judges. Cupcakes were evaluated according to flavor, texture and aroma.

Surprisingly, two out of these three winners, Amy Blodgett (Best Chocolate Overall) and

Blake Howard (Best Vanil-la Overall), were from the am-ateur baking class. The single “catered” winner was The Cup-cake Bar, a local cupcake cater-ing company, which proudly took home the Baker’s Choice award.

Human cupcake eating con-tests were a marvel as well — congratulations to Chris Floyd, who proved capable of eating 13 cupcakes in 2 minutes.

In the end, all the tribulations of atmosphere were worth the free cupcakes. Despite the dis-mal location, participants in the event seemed to possess a gen-uine love of cupcakes and were in high spirits.

Cupcake Smackdown offi-cials have yet to announce the date of the next showdown but if you decide to go, wear pants and get there early.

Yesterday’s solution

3 9 42 8 4 3 1 6 1 6 5 8 37 6 48 4 2 1 65 2 8 9 3 1 9 3 8

5 4 3 7 6 9 2 8 17 1 6 2 5 8 3 9 49 8 2 4 3 1 7 6 53 5 8 1 4 2 6 7 91 9 7 6 8 5 4 2 36 2 4 3 9 7 5 1 84 3 1 8 7 6 9 5 28 6 5 9 2 4 1 3 72 7 9 5 1 3 8 4 6

Glasvegas comes to Emo’sCupcake Smackdown perks ears and peaks interest

7A COMICS

Life&Arts Editor: Leigh PattersonE-mail: lifeandarts@dailytexanonline.comPhone: (512) 232-2209www.dailytexanonline.comLIFE&ARTS

THE DAILY TEXAN

8Monday, August 3, 2009

Name: Address:Coffee Shop Report Card

C An eight-ounce Caramel Layered Latte, made with vanilla syrup,

steamed milk, espresso and topped with foam and caramel sauce, was

essentially a Starbucks Caramel Macchiato. With a hint of caramel

sauce in every sip, it was a good beverage for those who enjoy a little

sweetness. It tasted okay, but was pretty average and not made with

enough foam.

Pretty cheap: eight-ounce lattes are $2.70, regular coffees and teas

from $1.35-2.55. They also have daily specials and punch cards for fre-

quent customers offering discounts (Mondays are double punch days).

Austin Brevita is an outdoor trailer, so it’s not a good spot to go to

if you want to camp out and study or enjoy a coffee shop atmosphere.

There are two wooden tables and benches located in the lot where the

trailer is, but that’s about it for seating. The traffic from South Lamar

Boulevard buzzes by the entire time, so it should be more of a grab and

go place, which is perfect because there is a drive-thru.

The syrup selection is something to note because they offer some ob-

scure flavors like Toasted Marshmallow, Irish Cream and Kiwi. They

also have some sugar-free sauces like chocolate and caramel for those

who enjoy mochas but don’t want all the sugar.

— Courtney Sevener

Austin Brevita1219 S. Lamar

Price

Selection

Ambiance

Grade

AGrade

CGrade

AGrade

BOverall Grade:

Taste

By Leigh PattersonDaily Texan Staff

Whether it’s a sleep-deprived UT student or fast-walking downtown office employee, Austini-tes love coffee, a claim made evident by the pleth-ora of coffee shops — both chain and indepen-dently-owned — that line nearly every street corner in the Capitol City.

In the last few months, even more coffee houses have joined the ranks — notably, Austin Brevi-ta, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Kick Butt Coffee. The three rep-resent the range of options locals have when reaching for their morning cup: Austin Brevita, from its location on South Lamar

Boulevard, is served out of a tiny trailer with out-door picnic bench seating for its patrons. On the oth-er hand, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is a Los An-geles-based chain that has been in existence since the ‘60s. The Austin location marks the Coffee Bean’s first shop in Texas. Kick Butt Coffee, from its new location in the Triangle, is a locally-owned coffeehouse (with an exceptionally cheesy name) that serves cold glass-

es of beer alongside its java offerings.Here’s the breakdown of what

we thought of each new coffee shop.

Brewed without benefit, new co� ee shops graded

Ariel Min | Daily Texan Staff

Kick Butt Coffee serves up pricy alcohol-infused coffee creations.

Name:

Coffee Shop Report Card

An eight-ounce Caramel Layered Latte, made with vanilla syrup,

steamed milk, espresso and topped with foam and caramel sauce, was

essentially a Starbucks Caramel Macchiato. With a hint of caramel

sauce in every sip, it was a good beverage for those who enjoy a little

sweetness. It tasted okay, but was pretty average and not made with

enough foam.

Taste

dently-owned — that line nearly every street corner in the Capitol City.

In the last few months, even more coffee houses have joined the ranks — notably, Austin Brevi-ta, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Kick Butt Coffee. The three rep-resent the range of options locals have when reaching for their morning cup: Austin Brevita, from its location on South Lamar

in the Triangle, is a locally-owned coffeehouse (with an exceptionally cheesy name) that serves cold glass-

es of beer alongside its java offerings.Here’s the breakdown of what

we thought of each new coffee shop.

Kick Butt Coffee serves up pricy alcohol-infused coffee creations.

Name:

Address:

Coffee Shop Report Card

B

The vanilla latte was delicious, with a perfect foam-to-coffee ratio

and just the right amount of sweetness. The iced coffee, on the oth-

er hand, was foul — diluted and bland, it tasted like it had been sit-

ting out all day.

Specialty coffee drinks are actually really expensive: a “Kick Butt”

sized (large) Mint Mocha is $5 with tax and a small iced coffee is more

than $2.

With both indoor and outdoor seating, Kick Butt Coffee could func-

tion as either an evening locale for hanging out with friends or as a

study spot (plus, they have the obligatory Wi-Fi). However, for both

of these options, it seems like there aren’t that many tables — it would

probably fill up fast.

From food to beer, does this place even need coffee? From break-

fast “Frakkin Frittatas” (eggs served with various toppings on bagels

or croissants) to Mocha Martinis (Stoli Vanil, Chocolate Liquor and

Kahlua), Kick Butt’s menu is awesome. This would double as a good

spot for lunch and dinner rather than just a coffeehouse. Beyond food,

though, the selection of actual coffees and specialty javas is quite small

for having the word “coffee” in the title of the place. — Leigh Patterson

Kick Butt Coffee

The TrianglePrice

Selection

Ambiance

Grade

CGrade

BGrade

A-

B-

Grade

Overall Grade:

Taste

AGrade

AGrade

Name: Address:

Coffee Shop Report CardCoffee Bean and Tea Leaf

221 S. Lamar

BGrade

BGrade

BGrade

B+

Taste An iced double espresso, which they call an iced coffee, was served

in a nice pilsner-style glass with a handle. The espresso itself was de-

licious — not over-roasted and smooth as silk. The Jasmine Dragon

Phoenix Pearl hot tea was strong, nutty and delicious. It proved just as

tasty when poured over ice later that day.

Pretty standard for chain coffee houses: a small iced coffee is $2.10

and a hot tea is $1.95. Specialty drinks start at about $2.50.

Everything about the store itself screams “corporate” — from the pre-

rehearsed upsales (“Can I offer you a pastry with that?”) to the almost

limitless displays of merchandise. But, there’s just enough of the local

vibe to satiate even the most staunchly independent drinker. The mu-

sic, though obviously a corporate mixtape, is hip and groovy. Gorgeous

photographs of our fair city adorn the walls, and there’s tons of warm

light, snappy Wi-fi and a mature patronage.

There’s an overwhelming variety of teas to choose from, but the cof-

fee selection was lacking. But, there’s a nice variety of locally-baked

scones, muffins and cookies was available.

— Fransico Marin

Price

Ambiance

Selection

Overall Grade:

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