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News.....1-4Metro........5-6Sports...7-8Editorial..10Opinion...11Today........12

weekend winners

The mens tennis team

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this weekend

Sports, 7Open the taps

Roba Dole gets liense

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beers

Metro, 5beyOnd gOOd and evil

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onservative voies need to

have a pae on amps

Opinions, 11

inside

DailyHeraldthe Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 5 | Tuesday, January 27, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

S

bb by Matthew klebanOffStaffWriter

Beore taking the oath o oce this

month, President Barack Obama

received a letter urging him to in-

crease scientic research unding

as part o his proposed economic

stimulus package.

The letter was endorsed by Presi-

dent Ruth Simmons and the heads

o 18 other universities, as well as a

host o other scientic leaders.

Institutions o higher education

oer the promise o opportunity

through education, innovation andadvancements in knowledge, par-

ticularly during the most challeng-

ing o economic times, Simmons

said in a statement issued through

a spokesperson. It is thereore, es-

sential, that any stimulus package

include unds to support these ac-

tivities, rom increased student aid

to robust investments in university

based science research.

According to the signatories,

unding or research is an ideal

economic stimulus because it cre-

ates jobs, can be spent immediately

and represents an investment in the

national inrastructure, which is vital

to the countrys uture.

While some might argue that

the current economic crisis should

push such plans into the uture,

the letter states, we believe, to the

contrary, that the stimulus package

provides a vital opportunity to begin

rebuilding American science.

The letter-writing eort was led

by Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, pro-

essor o physiology and psychiatry

at Columbia Universitys College o

Physicians and Surgeons, according

to a Columbia press release.The writers claim the health and

vitality o the American scientic

enterprise is seriously threatened,

as ederal unding or non-deense

research has allen every year since

2004.

I think its very important that

Brown and President Simmons be

advocating or this increased unding

or research because its something

very important or our country,

Vice President or Research Clyde

S - by sarah husk

SeniorStaffWriter

This semester, students may nd

themselves a little stuck wher-

ever theyre already living, that is.

While the coming o the spring

semester oten means more vacant

rooms and increased opportunities

or students to switch residences,

room changes this semester are

harder to come by.

Last alls housing crunch, which

saw students placed in convertedkitchens and lounges, is respon-

sible or the current semesters rela-

tively tight housing situation, said

Richard Bova, senior associate dean

o residential lie. Last semesters

overcrowding, he said, was due to

the combination o an over-enrolled

reshman class and ewer students

taking leaves o absence.

This semester, theres no

crunch, Bova said. We just dont

have maximum amounts o fex-

ibility.

The space in on-campus hous-

ing is simply a matter o infows

and outfows, Bova said. During thespring, the total number o students

taking leaves o absence, studying

abroad or otherwise not living on

campus tends to be greater than the

total number o mid-year transer

students and students returning

to campus.

This net outfow o students be-

tween the all and spring semes-

ters generally means that there are

more vacancies in residence halls

during the spring.

According to Bova, there are

ewer students living on campus

this semester than last semester,

but the dierence isnt enough tocounterbalance the residual eects

o an overcrowded all.

At the beginning o the all se-

mester, the housing crunch trans-

lated into the temporary conversion

o many common areas so that they

could house the surplus o students.

While many o these temporary

spaces have been vacated and

their occupants placed in perma-

nent housing, Associate Director o

Residential Lie Natalie Basil said

the Oce o Residential Lie is still

nishing the process o converting

all common areas back.

Were still very committed to

U: bby COlin Chazen

SeniorStaffWriter

Tam Tran GS did not vote on Elec-

tion Day.

Though she volunteered or the

Obama campaign and ollowed the

presidential race enthusiastically,

she avoided her colleagues ques-

tions about visiting the polls that

day.

It would have taken too long

to explain why I didnt vote, she

said.

Tran rst arrived in the United

States at age six and holds a degree

rom the University o Caliornia

at Los Angeles in American litera-

ture and culture but in the eyes

o the government, she is not an

American. She is an undocumented

immigrant.

Fearing political persecution,

Trans ather and aunt fed Viet-

nam by boat beore Tran was born.

Her ather was later rescued by

the German Navy and her aunt by

the American Navy. Tran and her

younger brother Thien were born in

Germany, but moved to the United

States when they were children.

The amily believed that Trans

aunt, who received legal status in

the Unites States ater being res-

cued by the Navy, could sponsor

them. They applied or political asy-

lum, but were denied in 1997. In

2001, an immigration board ound

that her amily could not return to

Vietnam or ear o persecution and

continued onpage 2

continued onpage 2

continued onpage 2

Kim Pere / Herad

Tam Tran GS wants ndomentedstdents to get in-state tition.

T S.Cby JOanna wOhlMuth

Metro editor

Plans to open a Chipotle Mexican Grill

on Thayer Street ell through last all

when a Rhode Island Superior Court

judge determined that zoning permits

had been granted to the restaurant

improperly, according to court docu-

ments obtained by The Herald.

The Providence Zoning Board o

Review approved Chipotles plan to

open a restaurant at the corner o Eu-

clid Avenue and Thayer, but appeals

were led by two property owners

Stonehenge Partners, LLC, which

owns Johnny Rockets, and G. Dale

Dulgarian, who owns the Avon Cinema

and Andreas Restaurant properties

among others questioning the valid-

ity o the Zoning Boards decisions.

The judge ruled that the board

should not have granted Chipotle

permission to have an outdoor seat-

ing area in ront o the restaurant be-

cause such seating violates ordinances

requiring that the new building not beset back rom the sidewalk.

Chipotle, a restaurant known or

the size o its burritos and its use o nat-

ural ingredients, decided not to pursue

urther development on the 2 Euclid

Ave. location, said David Shwaery, who

owns the property and is president o

the Thayer Street District Manage-

ment Authority.

Now I have to nd a company

that is willing to rent (the property)

that is o equal quality that respects

the street, the University and the resi-

dents, Shwaery said. I thought we

ound the right company when we

had Chipotle, but apparently that didntsatisy everyone.

Special permission rom the Zoning

Board was also required or Chipo-

tle to open on Thayer due to a lack

o on-site parking, since Providence

zoning ordinances demand that res-

taurants have one parking space or

every our seats. The lack o parking

was a major objection made by resi-

dents and business owners concerned

about overcrowding, said Will Touret,

president o the College Hill Neigh-

borhood Association. But ultimately

the Superior Court judge decided that

sucient parking was provided by the

restaurants plan.

Ensuring that new dining and retail

establishments meet zoning regula-

tions remains an ongoing concern o

Thayer Street property owners and

East Side residents, Dulgarian said.

Zoning is supposed to be the tool o

intelligent land use.

cl EARAN cE SAl E

Kim Pere / Herad

The ompany that owns the Providene Plae mall has deided

to se the propert to hep pa off a $27-biion debt.

See Metro, page 5

feature

MetrO

8/14/2019 January 27, 2009 Issue

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sudoku

Stephen DeLucia, President

Michael Bechek, Vice President

Jonathan Spector, Treasurer

Alexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Mondaythrough Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once duringCommencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown DailyHerald, Inc. POSTMASTERplease send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Provi-dence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Oces are locatedat 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail [email protected] Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

eo po: 401.351.3372 | b po: 401.351.3260

DailyHeraldthe Brown

TuESDAy, JANuARy 27, 2009THE BROWN DAIly HERAlDPAGE 2

CUS wS If ore ndomented how do o beome a ega adt? Tam Tran GS, an ndomented immigrant

ordered them deported to Germany.

But when her amily tried to apply orGerman visas, they were denied.

Because they have nowhere to be

sent, Trans amily members have a

pseudo-legal status that allows them

to hold work permits and Social Se-

curity. Though she is unable to vote,

Tran has not been araid to involve

hersel in political activities. I always

elt really sae, she said. I have no-

where to be deported to.

Last semester, Tran and several

undergraduate students ormed the

Brown Immigrants Rights Coalition

to speak out about immigrants rights

issues and the challenges aced by

undocumented students.A lot o these kids are now grown

up. Theyre teenagers like me, and

they are sort o in limbo, said VyVy

Trinh 11, co-ounder o the group,

whose parents also immigrated rom

Vietnam. Ive seen how arbitrary

U.S. immigration policy is, depend-

ing on the year or even the month

in which youve come.

Under the current system, the

legal status o thousands o other

undocumented youth are tied to

their parents cases, and ew paths

to citizenship exist or them. Theres

no orm or them to ll out or line to

stand in, Tran said.

Many young adults are not evenaected by their legal status until

they become adults, according to

Tran. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled

in Plyler v. Doe in 1982 that undocu-

mented immigrants have a right to

public education rom kindergarten

through 12th grade. An estimated

65,000 illegal immigrants graduate

rom U.S. high schools every year,

according to the Urban Institute.

But i youre undocumented,

Tran said, how do you become a

legal adult?

Following high school graduation,Tran was able to pursue a college

education thanks to a Caliornia law

that grants in-state tuition to any stu-

dent who graduates rom a state high

school, regardless o the students

immigration status. BIRC plans to

lobby or similar legislation in Rhode

Island and encourage students to ap-

ply to private universities that have

an easier time oering nancial aid

to undocumented students, said Ga-

briela Camargo 11, another member

o BIRC.

Universities like Brown oer

very attractive nancial aid pack-

ages that are oten perect or un-documented immigrants who are not

eligible or ederal grants or loans,

Camargo said. Without equal ac-

cess to education, youre creating a

subclass o people that have no way

o getting out o their situation and

no way o nding employers that can

sponsor them.

BIRC members also hope to

serve as a support group or undocu-

mented immigrants who might not

be aware o the options available to

them, or that other students ace

similar challenges. It was at UCLA

that Tran rst began to meet other

undocumented students conronting

similar challenges, she said.Growing up, I didnt know any-

body, Tran said. This isnt some-

thing that people just talk about.

While an undergrad, Tran be-

came a vocal advocate or citizenship

reorm ater joining an on-campus

support group or undocumented

students, and getting involved in

the Caliornia Dream Network, a

statewide association o college or-

ganizations dedicated to immigration

reorm. In 2007 she testied beore

the House immigration subcommit-

tee in support o the DREAM Act,which would provide the children

o illegal immigrants with a path to

citizenship i they earn a high school

degree and complete two years o

college or military service.

For the rst time it gives some-

one the opportunity to earn their

citizenship, Tran said. You grow

up being told that i you work hard,

you can succeed. A lot o undocu-

mented students parents told them

that i they worked hard and got

good grades, they would become

citizens.

The bill ailed, but Tran said she

remained hopeul that it may one daypass, especially now that President

Barack Obama, a supporter o the

act, is in oce.

Tran continues to advocate

or immigration reorm at Brown,

where she is a graduate student in

the Department o American Civiliza-

tion. She and other BIRC members

want to see the University provide

inormation to undocumented youth

about how to apply to Brown with-

out a Social Security Number, Trinh

said.

Its the idea o what it means to

be an American, Tran said. Are you

American i you were born here, but

spent your entire lie outside o thecountry? Are you more o an Ameri-

can i you have a Ph.D. in American

culture?

Though Tran said she consid-

ers hersel a citizen o the world,

she still thinks about the rights that

come with a U.S. citizens passport. I

spend a lot o time looking at Google

Maps, she said. I look at places I

cant go to right now.

having common areas and kitchen

spaces in our dorms, Basil said.

We havent orgotten that.

In addition to vacating students

rom all temporary housing, ResLie

was also aced with the task o plac-

ing returning students, as well as

40 mid-year transer students, into

residence halls.

Basil praised students return-

ing to campus or doing a really

great job planning. She said many

students were pulled in to a suite,

which makes the move back onto

campus smoother because students

can anticipate where and with whom

they will be living.

For mid-year transers, the hous-

ing assignment works somewhat

dierently. Questionnaires about

living habits, which are used or both

incoming rst-year and transer stu-

dents in the all, are not part o the

process mid-year, primarily because

there are ewer rooms available and

student requests cannot always be

met, Bova said.

Instead, incoming and returning

students who have not been pulled

into a room or a suite may give their

preerence or living in a particular

area on campus and may indicate

what type o room they would pre-er.

Basil said ResLie tries to place

students together based on semester

standing and, as oten as possible,

tries to clump transer students to-

gether.

Our goal, Basil said, is to help

(transer students) transition to the

University be successul.

As students adjust to their new

living situations, Bova said, ResLie

is waiting or the nal dust to settle

beore it will be able to accommodate

most room change requests.

We had beds or everyone, Ba-

sil said, adding that while students

may not initially be happy with their

housing assignments, ResLie en-

courages them to give themselves a

chance to settle in and give their

new spaces a try.

Included in this group o students

who will have to wait until at least

next week or news on whether they

will be granted a room change are

many students who requested a

room change at the end o last se-

mester.

Kara Lindquist 11, currently liv-

ing in a double in Sears House, went

to ResLie last semester hoping to

switch rooms at the beginning o

this semester.

Though her request has not yetbeen granted, Lindquist said she

thought the sta were pretty up-

ront about the act that housing is

tight this semester, and were very

courteous and helpul.

According to Bova, Lindquists

reaction is not atypical, and the

number o student complaints about

their housing placements has not

increased rom past years. Bova said

ResLie has actually dealt with ewer

unhappy students this semester.

Around the rst week in Febru-

ary, Basil said, ResLie will have a

better idea o the available rooms on

campus and will begin contacting

students who still wish to move out

o their current rooms. Lindquist

said she was told shed have 48

hours to accept or decline the new

housing assignment.

Bova also said that while most

students who had requested a

room change were inormed that

they would have to wait, there have

been spaces available or students

who needed more immediate room

changes.

But or students like Lindquist,

whose situations are not so dire, its

going to be a waiting game. Were

crossing our ngers, Lindquist

said.

U continued frompage 1

continued frompage 1

;

Briant said.

According to Briant, i the

stimulus packaged were to include

increased unding or science, gov-

ernment agencies would augment

support or research institutions,

which could, in turn, lead to more

jobs.

Brown will have to compete

to get those unds, but i we win

the competition, so to speak,

sponsored research unding will

come in here, and rom that we

can begin to create jobs locally,

Briant said.The letters signatories claim

that the National Institutes o

Health could spend up to $5 bil-

lion immediately on approved but

ununded proposals rom 2008,

as well as another $5 billion to

maintain higher unding rates in

2009.

It is our belie that such an in-

vestment is not only critical to the

long-term health o our economy,

said Columbia President Lee Bol-

linger in the press release, it will

ensure that America remains at the

oreront o scientic research.

S

Jo t h!

Info sessions at 195 Ange St.(between Brook and Thaer):

Mo, f. 2 @ 8 .m.

t, f. 5 @ 8 .m.s, f. 8 @ 8 .m.

Reporting, photograph, bsiness,design, opinions and more!


8/14/2019 January 27, 2009 Issue

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CUS wSTuESDAy, JANuARy 27, 2009 THE BROWN DAIly HERAlD PAGE 3

It ooks eas, bt ata its not so eas.

Ha li GS, moear bioogist

U.- wb by COlin Chazen

SeniorStaffWriter

Students exhausted rom typing in Web ad-

dresses and tired o viewing Brown-specic

Internet content one site at a time have one

more way to access all their inormation in

one place.

A new site, CampusLIVE at Brown, pro-

vides weather eeds, Facebook, Gmail, news-

paper headlines and links to commonly used

Web sites on a single page. Launched Sunday

night at campuslive.com/brown by the Am-

herst, Mass.-based company, the site made

Brown the latest campus with a page on the

Web site.

Launched a year and a hal ago by two

University o Massachusetts at Amherst stu-

dents and staed primarily by their riends,

CampusLIVE now has personalized pages

at about 60 colleges across the country, said

Ryan Durkin, director o business develop-

ment. Business Week ranked the companys

ounders the No. 3 best entrepreneurs under

25 last year.

Were dominating in New England, Dur-

kin said. We started out with only UMass

and over the past year weve added about 55

campuses. We want to be over 100 in the next

ew months.

The companys revenue comes primarily

rom university and athletics departments that

advertise on their campuss page, Durkin said.

Restaurant menus and other unique content is

uploaded by interns and campus representa-

tives who work or the company in exchange

or course credit at some Universities.

The ounders inspiration or the site came

when they were students themselves. All their

riends were browsing the Internet all day or

resources, Durkin said. Why not just put it

all together?

The company decided to produce a page

or Brown ater about 30 students requested an

edition, Durkin said. The page includes links

to The Herald, The Brown Noser, Banner, My-

Courses and other popular Web sites. Though

ew Brunonians know about the site now, close

to 60 percent o students at UMass use it as

their home page, according to Durkin.

3-D by suzannah weiss

ContributingWriter

Brown researchers have discovered

the three-dimensional structure o

a protein they believe is involved in

the onset o cancer and could help

in the uture development o cancer

treatments.

The new insights about the

enzymatic protein, called TIGAR,

were published in the Journal o

Biological Chemistry this month

by Assistant Proessor o Biology

Gerwald Jogl and Hua Li GS.

Jogl and Li have conducted can-

cer cell research together since

2006, having read the rst workpublished about TIGARs role in

regulating cell energy production

in the scientic journal Cell, Jogl

said.

TIGAR, controlled by an anti-

growth protein called p53, works

to repair damaged cells, protect non-

cancerous cells and prevent cancer

rom occurring. Its probably one

o the good guys, Jogl said.

The researchers were interested

in determining whether TIGARs

role in suppressing cancerous cells

on the cellular level would withstand

a more in depth examination on the

molecular level, Jogl said.

The structure o these enzymeswas unknown, said Li, who is study-

ing structural biology and biochem-

istry. Finding the structure looks

easy, but actually its not so easy, he

added. We tried many things.

The researchers examined TI-

GAR enzymes o human, rat, mouse

and sh genes, which they cloned

and crystallized using an X-ray sys-

tem to study each one, Li said.

The atomic structure o TIGAR

was a little dierent than expected,

Jogl said. Though it veried the al-

ready established role o the protein,

the research also suggested other

possible unctions o this relativelyunexplored territory.

The result o their experiments

with TIGAR raises questions o

whether there areother things it

does in the cell that we dont knowyet, Jogl said.

Jogl and Li said they plan to con-

tinue their research on this subject

to search or urther insights about

cancers origins and possible treat-

ments.

Knowing how TIGAR works

could help scientists nd ways to

modulate the activity o the en-

zyme and to detect cancer in an

earlier stage, said Kimberly Mowry,

a Brown proessor o biology who

researches cell polarity.

The ideal application o these

ndings would be to determine

what prevents TIGAR rom unc-tioning eectively and subsequently,

stop the cancer beore it becomes

cancer, Jogl said. He added that it

would also be useul to learn what

each individual can do to acilitate

the natural cell repair process that

involves TIGAR.

The more we understand about

these protection mechanisms, the

easier it will be to understand when a

cell becomes cancerous, he said.

This discoverys most signicant

role is to add small knowledge to

uture research, Li said, adding that

it is impossible to know the impact

o his and Jogls ndings until more

research is done.Even so, these researchers

achievement certainly adds to the

reputation o Brown as a research

university, Proessor o Medical

Science Edward Hawrot said.

Im glad its getting the attention

it deserves, Mowry said.

Jogl said he hopes his research

will be helpul in the ght against

cancer. Im very happy, he said,

that this knowledge that was cre-

ated here is potentially helpul to

other researchers and doctors.

Jogl and Lis investigations were

unded by the National Institutes

o Healths Centers o BiomedicalResearch Excellence, part o an $11

million grant to the University in

2006.

B, I by unikOra yang

Contributing Writer

One small step or Brown, one

giant leap or mankind.

NASA has chosen a team o

geologists rom Brown and the

Massachusetts Institute o Tech-

nology to participate in the Lunar

Science Institute, an organization

created to support and extend its

lunar science programs, research

and education.

Carle Pieters, proessor o geo-

logical sciences and the teams prin-

cipal investigator, said the project

will study the moon to understand

the evolution o the solar system,

illuminate the geological process-

es at work on Earth and train the

next generation o lunar scientists.

NASA will provide the institute with

over $1 million per year in unding

or the next our years.

Browns joint proposal with MIT,

The Moon as Cornerstone to theTerrestrial Planets: The Formative

Years, was one o seven selected

rom 33 proposals by academic in-

stitutions, nonprot research insti-

tutes and private companies.

The Lunar Institute comes at a

time o increasing prominence or

Earths closest celestial neighbor.

Ater the Apollo program in the

early 1970s, NASAs ocus shited

to exploring other planets.

But recently, the exploration o

the moon is having a renaissance,Pieters said.

This return to lunar studies is

signicant because the moon is

one o the ew bodies that preserves

the evolution o the early solar sys-

tem, said Michael Wyatt, assistant

proessor o geological sciences

and deputy principal investigator.

The moons well-preserved geol-

ogy can reveal the development o

rocky planets like the Earth, and

their earliest histories, he said.

Brown and MIT will be investi-

gating the moon rom its surace

to its interior. The Brown team will

ocus on the moons surace, whilethe MIT group will study its core.

One person doesnt have the

expertise to understand the moon

as a whole rom the upper sur-

ace all the way to the core o the

moon, Wyatt said. The institute

makes it more easible or every-

body to come together.

The Brown-MIT team was

orged out o the incestuous rela-

tionship shared by the two schools

geological studies departments,

Pieters said. Geologists at bothschools have worked together on

many projects, classes and lecture

series. One o the major themes

o the proposal, which included

10 Brown researchers, six MIT

researchers and ve others, was

multidisciplinary collaboration.

Browns proposal also refected

its emphasis on training uture sci-

entists and lunar researchers. In

the uture, the University might

host a summer consortium or plan-

etary researchers rom NASA and

other academic institutions.

It is an exciting time to study

the moon, Wyatt said. We doknow a lot about the moon, but (the

project) will redene the moon. It

will be a whole new moon.

cortes of NASA

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etroThe Brown Dai Herad

TuESDAy, JANuARy 27, 2009 | PAGE 5

Its not ike its going to be gone.

Jason Goreik 12, on the Providene Pae Ma

b

by anne speyerContributingWriter

Providence homeowners are ac-

ing o against utilities company

National Grid over the installation

o gas meters on the exteriors o

local homes.

While National Grid insists that

the new meters are necessary,

even or homes already equipped

with interior gas readers, neigh-

borhood associations citywide are

ghting or the right o property

owners to reuse the installation

o new meters.Pressure rom the Fox Point

and West Broadway Neighbor-

hood Associations, in addition to

support rom local leaders led the

City Council to pass an ordinance

requiring utility companies such

as National Grid to obtain writ-

ten consent rom property owners

beore installing exterior meters.

The ordinance, which went into

eect in December, gives the

Providence Housing Court the

jurisdiction to ne companies that

ail to do so.

National Grid has appealed to

the Rhode Island Public Utilities

Commission and is awaiting ac-tion, David Graves, the companys

spokesman, said, adding that ac-

cess to the sidewalks outside o

private homes has previously

been available to National Grid

and is a par t o the basic customer

contract.

National Grid is replacing the

current gas lines with new ones,

which contain gas at a pressure up

to ninety-nine pounds per square

inch.

You obviously cant put that

amount o pressure in the home,

so we want to put the meter

outside along with a regulator,

Graves said.

Residents are opposed to the

installations or a number o rea-

sons.

Every gas supply is stepped

down (reduced in pressure) by a

gas regulator, so the high-pres-

sure gas comes to the regulator

and its stepped down so it can

serve all o our appliances, said

Jessica Jennings, a West Broad-

way Neighborhood Associationboard member. The regulator

needs to be outside. Everything

ater that the meters can

be inside.

Ian Barnacle, a local real estate

agent, agreed.

The historic commission is up

in arms ... or aesthetic reason,

he said. My other concern is or

saety. Whos to say that someone

wont crash a car into the side o

a house with an outdoor gas me-

ter?

Jennings is less worried about

the saety o the new meters. The

biggest problem people have with

this is that theyre not being con-sulted at all. ... People want to par-

ticipate in this process and that is

what they are eeling robbed o,

thats where people are eeling

a sense o inringement on their

rights.

But Graves said the company

has done nothing wrong. Weve

never replaced a meter without

direct discussion with the prop-

by sydney eMber

SeniorStaffWriter

Whether to catch a movie or to

do some dorm room shopping,

Brown students head to Providence

Place Mall. But perhaps many are

unaware that the owner o the mall,

General Growth Properties, Inc.,

has decided to sell the property tohelp pay o the companys $27 bil-

lion debt. The mall is being sold by

the New York oce o U.K.-based

property consultant rm Savills.

An ownership change would not

aect the retailers who rent space

in the mall a welcome relie giv-

en the countrys di cult economic

situation the Providence Journal

reported Jan. 13. The companys

spokesperson also told the Journal

that shoppers should only expect

to see small changes in the print on

some signs inside the mall.

Most o the mall employees con-

tacted by The Herald were unaware

that the property was up or sale.

Representatives o the company

did not return multiple requests

or comment.

The mall has perormed well

despite the economic downturn,

according to recent sales tax data.

It generated $13,981,625 in sales

taxes or Rhode Island in 2007, arecord or the state, according to

the Journal.

Despite the malls success,

there is little chance it will sell

soon in this economy due to a lack

o able buyers, Joel Bloomer, a se-

nior equity analyst at investment

research rm Morningstar, told

the Journal.

The company owns over 200 re-

gional shopping malls in 44 states

across the country and 24,000 re-

tail stores on the commercial prop-

erties, according to its Web site.

It has owned Providence Place,

which opened in 1999, since Au-

gust 2004.

In order to help lessen the com-

panys debt, its lenders agreed to

extend their deadlines to repay

$900 million in loans on two Las Ve-

gas properties, the company said

in a statement recently. But it still

aces the prospect o bankruptcy

i it cannot repay its debts.One Brown student interviewed

by The Herald said he was skepti-

cal o the malls appeal despite as-

sertions o retail robustness.

Who would buy the mall? said

Ryan Kaplan 12. I was in there

today, and it was empty all day.

I honestly dont know how they

make money.

Another student said a change

in mall ownership was unlikely to

aect him.

It makes no dierence to me,

said Jason Gorelick 12. Its not

like its going to be gone.

b D q by heeyOung Min

Contributing Writer

The Providence Board o Licenses

granted Roba Dolce a limited liquor

license last Thursday ater denying

the cae a license last year. The de-

cision was met with approval by the

caes owner and some East Siders,

including the University.

A limited liquor license typically

stipulates that the liquor-selling

establishment must shut its doorsby midnight or 1 a.m., and restricts

the kinds o alcohol to be served.

In the past, the University has

strongly opposed decisions to

grant liquor licenses to business-

es on Thayer Street, said Darrell

Brown, the Universitys director

o state and community relations.

But this time around, Brown said

the University was satised by the

decision to grant a limited, rather

than a ull, license.

Brown said the board hearing

was open and air, calling the de-

Kim Pere / Herad

Providene Pae Ma, owned b Genera Growth Properties, In. sine Agst 2004, is p for sae.

Enie Hong / Herad

Patrons wi soon be abe to b aohoi beverages from Roba Doe onThaer Street, whih was granted a imited iqor iense ast week.

continued onpage 6

continued onpage 6

8/14/2019 January 27, 2009 Issue

6/12

FRIDAy, JANuARy 23, 2009THE BROWN DAIly HERAlDPAGE 6

The universit does not operate in a vam when deaing with iqor ienses. Darre Brown, diretor of ommnit reations

erty owner so that theyre aware o

why were doing what were doing,

he said.

Like Barnacle, Graves also in-

voked the public saety argument,

but to argue or outdoor gas meters.

In case o a re, or example, Graves

said the gas service must be turned

o beore reghters can access

the building, and placing the meters

outside would be more ecient.I the ordinance were repealed,

Jennings said the West Broadway

Neighborhood Association would

push or regulatory legislation at

the state level. Were kind o look-

ing around, saying, How are we

going to be protected at the end o

the day? she said. Its a classic

David and Goliath story.


b , G

cision to grant a limited license a

win or the University.

The University does not oper-

ate in a vacuum when dealing with

liquor licenses, he sa id. We work

cooperatively with the community

and other businesses.

Will Touret, president o the

College Hill Neighborhood As-

sociation, said the earlier closing

time dictated by the limited license

could allow or less o an adverse

impact on the community.

No one was more pleased with

the decision than Roba Dolces

owner, Nino DeMartino, who said

he hopes that serving alcohol will

bring more customers to the cae.

The day beore the decision was

released, DeMartino predicted

that the restaurant might go out

o business i it were not grantedthe license.

As DeMartino awaited the

boards decision, he said he would

love a limited liquor license,

even preerring it to a ull license

because he wanted to maintain a

distinction between his cae and

local bars.

Roba Dolce hopes to oer an ex-

tensive line o Italian dessert wines

and beers, DeMartino said. Details

regarding possible limitations on

the types o alcohol served will be

worked out by this Friday.

Alcohol drinks will have very

reasonable pricing or the commu-nity, DeMartino said. Most o the

restaurants on Thayer have more

o a bar/lounge atmosphere. Our

goal is to have an ambiance where

people can enjoy their gelato with

some alcohol in moderation.


L b D,

SN OW Pl AcE l IKE HOME

Kim Pere / Herad

Tnnes were dg throgh arge snow pies on the Main Green.

oo

cc

8/14/2019 January 27, 2009 Issue

7/12

SportsuesdayTuESDAy, JANuARy 27, 2009 | Page 7

The Brown Dai Herad

ww

kOver winter break, I went to see

the movie The Wrestler, and as

I watched Mickey Rourke portray

Randy The

Ram Robin-

son, an aging

proessional

wrestler, it got me thinking. First, I

realized that I had ound the perect

Halloween costume or next year, as

my riends will attest to my love o

blond glamor wigs. But secondly, it

occurred to me that i I were asked

to name a single current proes-sional wrestling star, I would draw

a blank.

Now, I was never a wrestling an

by any means, but in the 90s, I was

certainly aware o the stars o the

wrestling world, like Hulk Hogan,

Duane The Rock Johnson and

Stone Cold Steve Austin. Todays

proessional wrestling scene seems

to have lost any o its mainstream

appeal, or a variety o reasons. Over

the last decade, Americans have de-

veloped a taste or greater authen-

ticity in their television programs,

with an explosion o reality TV and

laugh-track-less sitcoms. Meanwhile,

increasingly popular mixed martialarts organizations, particularly the Ul-

timate Fighting Championship, have

lled the niche o no-holds-barred

ghting, eliminating the theatrics

and planned stunts that characterize

proessional wrestling matches.

The ront page o the World Wres-

tling Entertainment SmackDown

Web site eatures a promo or Royal

Rumble, which comes in the wake

o a WWE championship match in

which Je Hardy, who was compet-

ing or the title, was knocked out. By

a metal chair. By his brother, Matt

Hardy, a ellow wrestler, who was not

competing in the match. Pure sportat its nest, indeed.

The worst part is that the match

that the WWE is advertising is only

available on Pay Per View. The WWE

is digging its own grave i it expects

to keep a signicant paying an base

on the basis o absurd stunts, while

other sports, like mixed martial arts

and even ootball, oer action just

as extreme, minus the shenanigans,

which greatly detract rom the real-

ness that draws so many people to

sports.

Even more conusing was the

WWEs decision last July to tailor

its PPV events to a TV-PG rating,

rather than TV-14, in what the orga-

nization described in a statement as

an eort to make its product more

amily riendly. It seems that wres-

tling is struggling to nd an identity,

and though, according to its Web

site, the WWE still attracts 15 mil-

lion viewers weekly, the sport will

decline i it ails to maintain any aura

o uniqueness. Currently, though,

the no-holds-barred ghting style is

no longer limited to wrestling, and a

need to suit TV-PG parameters has

the potential to lessen the entertain-

ment value o the sports theatrics.

. kby erin frauenhOfer

SportS StaffWriter

The mens tennis team was un-

stoppable over the weekend,

demolishing Davidson College,Boston University, SUNY-Bualo

and Lehigh University in a pair o

doubleheaders.

On Saturday, the Bears won all

o their doubles and singles match-

es to sweep Davidson and BU, 7-0

and 5-0, respectively. The Bears

were equally dominant in their 5-0

and 6-1 victories over Lehigh and

Bualo the next day.

We really came together this

weekend, Jonathan Pearlman 11

said.

Although the Bears stumbled

against Boston College last week,

Head Coach Jay Harris said that

the loss infuenced the teams men-

tality in a positive way.

One o the biggest things we

learned rom that tough loss to Bos-

ton was the type o attitude we have

to bring to the table, he said. Our

results showed that were starting

to develop that more.

The Bears kicked o their

weekend play by taking on David-

son, who beat them 6-1 last year.

But this time, the Bears were in

charge, breezing by the Wildcats

with three wins at doubles to se-

cure the doubles point.

The Bears then collected six

singles victories, all in straight sets.

Pearlman led the way at rst sin-

gles with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Walker

Lyons. At second and third singles,

captain Chris Lee 09 and Skate

Gorham 10 deeated their oppo-

nents by identical scores o 6-1, 7-5.

Meanwhile, captain Noah Gardner

09 triumphed over Calum Gee 6-3,

7-6 at ourth singles, and Kendrick

Au 11 took a 6-3, 6-2 victory over

Arie Heter at th singles. Andrew

Yazmer 12 played at the sixth sin-

gles spot, where he overwhelmed

Carter Braxton, 6-1, 6-1.

Last year, Davidson beat us 6-1,

so to beat them 7-0 speaks volumes

to what these guys are capable o

doing, Harris said.

Later that evening, the Bears

competed in the rst-ever Rock N

Roll & College Tennis match. The

matchs shorter ormat eatured

only one doubles match and our

singles matches, and the ree pizza

and nonstop rock and roll music

attracted a larger crowd o ans

than normally attend.

The Rock N Roll match was

wild, Gorham said, who was com-

peting in the Pizzitola Center or

the rst time. It was really excit-

ing or me.

According to Gorham, he

enjoyed the louder atmosphere

because tennis is such a mental

game, you have to almost battle

the quiet. So having music gets

people more energetic. Id like to

do it again.

The Bears blew by the Terriers

with straight set wins at singles. At

rst singles, Pearlman dominated

Bill Kring to notch a 6-2, 6-2 victory.

At second singles, captain Sam Gar-

land 09 deeated Tim Sichler by a

score o 6-0, 6-4.

Sam really brings that competi-

w. bB by niCOle stOCk

SportS StaffWriter

The womens basketball team (3-

13, 1-1 Ivy) went into the weekend

looking to extend a two-game win-

ning streak on

Friday, but in-

stead suered

a loss, 71-37,

when the Bears hosted Yale (8-8,

1-1 Ivy).

The Bulldogs came out strong,

looking to avenge their 64-62 lossat home to Brown the previous

weekend. Brown was able to

match Yales energy and pace at

the beginning o the game, but as

the irst hal continued, Bruno was

unable to contain the Bulldogs

oensive attack. Eight minutes

into the game, Yale went up 11-9

and never relinquished that lead

or the rest o the contest. The

Bulldogs extended their lead to

15 by haltime despite a strong

eort rom Sadiea Williams 11,

who tried to keep the Bears within

striking distance. Williams had

three rebounds and seven o herteam-high 12 points in the irst

hal.

Our team has been work-

ing really hard at getting each

other open to score and getting

good ball movement to open up

the loor, Williams said. Against

Yale, Brown made the extra pass

and stretched out the deense to

allow not only me, but others, to

score.

Brown inished o the irst hal

shooting 22.6 percent rom the

ield. Going into the second hal,

the Bears looked to overcome

their shooting slump by pressur-

ing the ball, orcing more turn-

overs and creating better shot

opportunities.We needed to up the pressure

in the second hal and come out

o the poor shooting irst hal,

said Head Coach Jean Burr. We

werent putting enough pressure

on the ball.

The Bears could not get an o-

ensive low going in the second

hal as they continued to struggle

rom the ield. The ball would not

all or Brown as they shot just

20 percent rom the ield in the

second hal, while Yale continued

to convert opportunities at the o-

ensive end, inishing the game at

41.7 percent rom the ield.Yale also had several second-

chance opportunities on the o-

ensive side o the ball as they

grabbed 15 oensive rebounds

in a game where the Bears were

out-rebounded 47-32. Burr attrib-

uted this in part to questionable

calls by the oicials and an overlytimid mindset or Brown in what

quickly became a very aggres-

sive game.

The Bulldogs were very physi-

cal with us and the oicials were

letting it go and we didnt handle

it well. We werent able to get into

our presses or control the tempo,

Burr said. Because we werent

scoring, we needed to get into a

more oensive low. We needed

to attack the basket. Yale was very

physical and we retreated a little

bit.

The strong physical play by

the Bulldogs orced Brown into28 turnovers on the night and the

Bears were unable to consistently

get high-percentage shot oppor-

tunities. Turnovers have been a

thorn in the side o the Bears all

season long.

Turnovers have been plagu-

ing us. Against Yale we had toomany turnovers, and its incred-

ibly hard to win a game with that

many turnovers, Williams said.

We need to play one opponent.

Against Yale, we were playing two:

them and us. We need to stop the

turnovers and get more rebounds.

Those are controllable things and

I think that they are very attain-

able.

The Bears will look to get back

in the winning column this week-

end when they host Ivy League

opponents Cornell (5-9, 1-1 Ivy)

and Columbia (8-8, 1-1 Ivy).

I eel that we come in with lotso experience. We can score, we

have balance and we are devel-

oped as a team and ready to go.

We must keep the ight and hustle

and ocus, Burr said.

Jstin coeman / Herad

Sadiea Wiiams 11 sored near a third of the Bears points in their oss.

bj aSports Editor

continued onpage 8continued onpage 8

yaebo

7137

8/14/2019 January 27, 2009 Issue

8/12

TuESDAy, JANuARy 27, 2009THE BROWN DAIly HERAlDPAGE 8

Sportsuesday We showed or tre seves. Skate Gorham 10, mens tennis paer

tive edge, Harris said.

Charlie Posner 11 and Au also

had easy wins at third and ourth

singles by respective scores o 6-2,

6-1 and 6-2, 6-2.

Gardner and Gorham represent-

ed Brown in the doubles match,

where they trounced Charles Wein-

stein and Je Chudaco, 8-2.

The next day, the Bears disman-

tled what Harris called a very, very

good Bualo team. Ater the teams

split the rst two doubles matches,

Lee and Au pulled through at third

doubles with a 9-8 win that clinchedthe doubles point.

According to Pearlman, the

momentum rom that victory pro-

pelled the Bears throughout the

rest o the match. Pearlman again

gave a strong perormance at rst

singles, where he deeated Marcelo

Mazzetto, 6-3, 6-2.

At second singles, Lee dropped

the rst set, 7-6, to Kirill Kolomytes

but rebounded to take the second

set, 6-4. Although Lee then lost the

superbreaker that was played in

place o a third set, Gorham said, I

really think (Lee) would have won

the match had it been played out.

Gorham powered by Alex Ka-linin at third singles by a score o

6-1, 6-3, while Gardner, Yazmer and

Posner also had straight-set wins toround out the singles matches.

The Bears ended their weekend

by decimating Lehigh, once again

winning the doubles match and all

o the singles matches.

We played our teams in 30

hours, so to beat Lehigh 5-0 really

showed that these guys are starting

to develop that edge, Harris said.

At rst singles, Pearlman routed

Troy List, 6-2, 6-1.

I played very well, Pearlman

said. I only lost my serve once or

twice in all o the matches I played,

and I was also returning very well.

I played very aggressively.Gardner was dominant at sec-

ond singles, earning a 6-1, 6-4 win

over Colin Laey. At third singles,

Au deeated Edgars Rauza 6-2, 6-4,

while at ourth singles, Yazmer

triumphed over Chris Collins by a

score o 7-6, 6-0.

Overall, it was a really good

weekend, Gorham said. It was

a really welcome turnaround. We

showed a lot o character rebound-

ing rom the loss to BC. We showed

our true selves.

Next weekend, the Bears will

travel to New Haven to compete in

the Yale Invitational.

Were looking orward to test-ing ourselves a little more, Harris

said.

. b


Its going to be awully tough or

organizations like the WWE tomaintain popularity i their business

models become heavily dependent

on PPV events.

Boxing, too, appears to have su-

ered a decline in mainstream ap-

peal, in large part due to the lack o

cooperation between the our major

boxing organizations. While the title

o Heavyweight Champion used to

be a label associated with larger-

than-lie stars like Muhammad Ali

and George Foreman, the our box-

ing organizations currently recog-

nize three dierent heavyweight

champions, and those three boxers

can hardly be called celebrities. I

mean, I certainly couldnt envision

a grill marketed by Nikolay Valuev(the World Boxing Association

champion) to be all that popular a

consumer product.

On Saturday, Shane Mosley

deeated Antonio Margarito at the

Staples Center in Los Angeles or

the world welterweight title, in ront

o a crowd outside o only 20,000

which ESPN boxing analyst Dan Ra-

phael nevertheless cited as evidence

that the dopes who insist boxing is

dead have no clue.

Raphael is right, in a sense, in

that boxing still has a core o ex-

tremely dedicated ans. Despite this

core o ans, boxing has damaged

its widespread appeal, putting too

many championship ghts on PPV,alienating all those except anatics

rom enjoying the sport.

America loves violence and dra-

ma, and at their best, wrestling and

boxing can deliver those elements

as well as any sport. Those sports,

though, are demanding more com-

mitment and more money out o

ans at a time when both sports

have started to lose their individual

niches in the athletic world.

Benj Asher 10 is going to go

start a fight with someone.

0: ww

aMy shipley

theWaShington poSt

CLEVELAND The questions

usually begin now, a year out rom

the Winter Olympics: Which o the

United States top emale gure

skaters is most likely to win the

gold medal?

This year, the question is di-

erent: Do the U.S. women have

hopes o winning any medal?

The U.S. Figure Skating Cham-pionships, which ended here Sun-

day, oered urther evidence that

the U.S. womens program is mired

in its deepest drought in at least

14 years and possibly several

decades with the Olympics in

Vancouver, B.C., just over a year

away.

We just dont have that star,

said skating coach Robin Wagner,

who led Sarah Hughes to her 2002

Olympic gold medal. Were so

used to having the queen o gure

skating in our country.

Figure skating is arguably

the most popular o the WinterOlympic sports; certainly it draws

the largest television audiences.

It usually provides both ans and

advertisers with the ace o the

U.S. Winter Olympic team think

Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill,

Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan

and Tara Lipinski. And it gives the

United States not a power in

many winter sports a boost in

the medal table. In the past three

Olympics, American women won

ve o the nine medals available in

the individual event.

This years U.S. champion is

21-year-old Alissa Czisny, who

won the title here Saturday nightdespite alling on one jump and hit-

ting just three triple jumps rather

than the customary ve or six in

her long program. The other top

nishers, silver-medal winner Ra-

chael Flatt, 16, and bronze-medal

winner Caroline Zhang, 15, have

never won a senior event o any

sort.

Among the reasons or the ap-

parent decline, skating insiders

say, are the new judging system

introduced in 2004 that has shited

the emphasis rom artistry to tech-

nique; the rise o skatings popular-

ity in Asia since the 1998 Winter

Games in Nagano, Japan; and the

departures in 2006 o Michelle

Kwan and Sasha Cohen, who won

15 Olympic and world champion-

ship medals between them.

Its an extraordinary situ-

ation, said 1984 Olympic gold

medal winner Scott Hamilton, now

a commentator or NBC. Unusual

circumstances are producing ex-

traordinary results.

The world championships in

Los Angeles in March will providea pivotal test or Czisny and Flatt.

Should neither nish in the top

three, the U.S. women will have

ailed to win a medal at three

straight world championships or

the rst time since 1964 which

came ater the entire gure skat-

ing team had been killed in a plane

crash on the way to the 1961 world

championships.

Czisnys and Flatts perormanc-

es will also determine whether U.S.

women are allowed to enter a maxi-

mum three skaters in next years

Olympic eld. I their combined

nish does not equal 13th or bet-ter (such as a sixth and seventh

place), the United States will only

be allowed to send two women to

Vancouver. That has happened

only once since 1924.

Its obviously a very critical

event or us in terms o who gets to

the Olympics, said Wagner, who

also coached Cohen, who won a

silver medal at the 2006 Games in

Turin, Italy. All o us are keeping

our ngers crossed.

In recent years, Japan has made

the biggest rise in womens skat-

ing, winning seven world cham-

pionship medals since 2002 ater

winning just our in the previous

95 years. Shizuka Arakawa won

the 2006 Olympic gold; Mao Asada

won the 2008 world championship

gold; and Miki Ando won it the year

beore when Asada nished sec-

ond. Meantime, South Koreas Kim

Yu-Nahas won two straight world

championship bronze medals.

I dont really think its quite

as much that the American ladies

are deteriorating as much as other

countries have gotten a great deal

better, said longtime U.S. coach

John Nicks, who has coached

Cohen, Fleming and Yamaguchi.

Except rom (1992 Olympic sil-

ver medal winner) Midori Ito a

ew years ago, we didnt have any

threat in skating rom Japan or

Asia.

Its not as i the United States

isnt producing young stars. At the

2006 world championships, Kim-

mie Meissner o Bel Air, Md., won

the world title at just 16, but she

has not excelled in any interna-

tional events since and pulled out

o this years U.S. championships

because o an injury. Last years

surprising U.S. champion, then-

14-year-old Mirai Nagasu, blamed

changes rom puberty and her re-

sponse in part or her th-place

nish this year.

Some igure skating insid-

ers say the new judging system,

which was adopted just beore the

decline, might be contributing.

Because the system emphasizes

technique over pure artistry, they

say, the United States has lost one

o its historically greatest assets

in the sport. Also, they say, pre-

pubescent skaters who can best

execute dicult spins and jumpswith their small, lean bodies are

best suited to accruing high tech-

nical marks.

In the old system, judges

gave skaters just two marks on a

6.0 scale immediately ater they

skated; the new system relies on

judges casting element-by-element

evaluations o each skaters pro-

gram that are merged into one nal

point total.

In the United States, we have

emphasized crowd appeal, the ar-

tistic side o it, everybody being

unique and having a real sense

o showmanship, Hamilton said.

That doesnt seem to be as valued

as in the past.

Even so, Wagner and Nicks said

they believed a young skater could

yet emerge to produce a medal

or the United States at the next

Games. The rst step will be the

world championships in March,

and with the Olympic slots at stake,

the pressure already is on.

Winning a medal is very im-

portant, said Richard Callaghan,

who coaches Meissner and once

coached Arakawa. But I think

the three spots or the Olympics

is equally important. We need to

get a orce back in there.

U.S. . k

by dawn C. ChMielewski

LoSangeLeStiMeS

Netfix, the movies-by-mail service,

has shown little sign o the economic

slowdown thats nailed other com-panies this earnings season. But it

attributed its ourth-quarter jump in

revenue, prot and subscribers to a

surprising actor: the surging popu-

larity o its online video-streaming

service.

On Monday, Netfix said it added

718,000 subscribers in the ourth

quarter, ar more than analysts had ex-

pected, bringing its subscriber base to

nearly 9.4 million. Netfix expects the

number to reach 10.6 million within

the next three months, even as other

parts o the entertainment business

contract because o the recession.

Its very clear that streaming is

energizing our growth, said NetfixChie Executive Reed Hastings during

a call Monday with analysts.

Hastings said the companys

streaming business was propelled

by connection with devices rom LG

Electronics, Samsung and Microsot

that oer Netfixs Watch Instantly

service. Subscribers can use the ser-

vice to stream any o about 12,000

television shows and movies without

waiting or the DVD to arrive. The

company substantially increased

its investment in streaming video

and plans to do the same in 2009, he

said.

We plan to spend as much money

as we can with the studios, licensingas much content as we can and we

are already one o the studios largest

Internet revenue sources, Hastings

said. Our spending is limited only by

what content is available at reason-

able costs.

DVDs remain the core o the com-

panys business, and Netfix doesnt

expect that market to peak until at

least 2013.

But Netfix is betting that its u-

ture relies on delivering its streaming

service to television and its paying

device makers marketing money to

promote Netfix.

Hastings expressed condence

that Netfix can thrive, even as on-

line services such as Hulu rely on

advertising to provide TV shows and

movies ree to viewers, and Amazon.

com and Apple oer movie downloads

or purchase or rental.

Netfix reported revenue o $359.6

million, up 19 percent rom a year ago.

Net income rose 45 percent to $22.7

million, or 38 cents a share, compared

with net income o $15.7 million, or 23

cents a share, a year ago.

L f


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8/14/2019 January 27, 2009 Issue

9/12

world & ationThe Brown Dai Herad


b

by Mary JOrdan

theWaShingtonpoSt

LONDON Icelands coalition gov-

ernment collapsed Monday, the rst

government to all as a direct result o

the global economic turmoil.

Prime Minister Geir Haarde said

he and his cabinet would resign im-

mediately. As personal savings have

been wiped out and joblessness soars,

Icelanders once among the worlds

wealthiest people - have taken to

the streets in protest, banging pots

and pans and throwing eggs and toiletpaper at Haarde and other parliamen-

tary leaders.

Protests have mounted throughout

Europe, where the political backlash to

the crisis is growing. In Ireland, Brit-

ain, Spain and other countries where

bankruptcies and home oreclosures

are rising, polls show approval ratings

o leaders are sinking. In Eastern Eu-

rope and Greece, where there is less

o a government saety net, protesters

have spilled onto the streets by the

thousands. Last months collapse o

the Belgian government, which had

been wrestling with long-standing

conficts, was also hastened by the

banking crisis, analysts said.Perhaps nowhere has the eco-

nomic crash been more spectacular

than Iceland, an island o 300,000 on

the edge o the Arctic Circle. Last all,

its largest banks went bust and the

value o its currency plummeted. In

recent days, protests intensied as

no leader took responsibility or the

crash, prompting police to use tear gas

or the rst time in hal a century.

People elt that the government

was playing the violin while the Ti-

tanic was sinking, said best-selling

Icelandic author Andri Sn r Magnason

in a phone interview rom Reykjavik.

Everybody who has a loan is paying

20 percent interest, and even those

who own modest homes nd their

salaries cannot cover what is owed,

he said.

Haarde announced Friday that

he would call early elections and said

he would step down. He cited health

reasons and said doctors were treating

him or cancer.

But ahead o those planned elec-

tions, Haardes Independence Partycould not come to terms with the So-

cial Democrats, its main partner in the

two-year-old coalition that was sched-

uled to stay in power until 2011.

The Social Democrats have called

or the ring o the central bank gov-

ernor and or closer ties with Europe.

The nation hadpurposeully sought

to stay outside the European Union

but now many believe that i Iceland

had the euro as its currency instead

o the krona, this crisis would not be

so severe.

Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Gisla-

dottir, head o the Social Democratic

Alliance Party, is expected to start talks

immediately with smaller parties in anattempt to orm a new government

that would rule until the new election.

She has been receiving treatment or a

brain tumor and said she hersel does

not want to be prime minister.

Iceland is certainly leading the way

o the social protests and the political

allouts, said Simon Johnson, ormer

chie economist at the International

Monetary Fund and senior ellow at

the Peterson Institute or International

Economics in Washington.

- w by MiChael d. shear

theWaShingtonpoSt

WASHINGTON The computer

Help Line guy at the White House

seemed a bit harried Monday a-

ternoon.

Shortly ater the workweek be-

gan, the tech-savvy Obama admin-

istration was hit with a mysterious

server outage that shut down all

incoming and outgoing e-mail or

more than eight hours, orcing aides

to resort to old-ashioned phone calls

and ace-to-ace conversation.

Were getting a ew calls, the

worker deadpanned ater answering

phone calls rom e-mail-starved em-

ployees at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.How is it possible that the e-mail

system or the White House could

go down that long?, a caller asked.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs had

just apologized on live television or

the lack o any e-mail contact.

We still dont know, the Help

Line guy said, adding that two e-mail

servers had been rebooted but that

two others remained mysteriously

down, with no immediate explana-

tion.

He then abruptly put the caller on

hold, returning momentarily to say

that he was no longer authorized to

answer questions.

The e-mail disruption added com-

munications insult to technological

injury.

Obama aides had just switched

over rom their now-deunct transi-

tion accounts over the weekendand

were handing out their spiy new

government e-mail addresses when

the outage hit.

There was no indication that the

outage caused any sort o national

calamity. President Obama still man-

aged to give ormer Sen. George

Mitchell, D-Maine, a ormal send-

o to the Middle East and to swear

in Timothy Geithner as Treasurysecretary.

But several administration o-

cials said that business had ground

to a halt because o the disruption

and that they were earing the

deluge o messages that would come

when service was restored. One per-

son, speaking on the condition o

anonymity, said the disruption was

made worse by the act that people

were still nding their way around

the West Wing and the Old Execu-

tive Oce Building and were relying

heavily on e-mail to communicate

with their new colleagues.

White House sta members al-ready were rustrated by the some-

what archaic technology they dis-

covered when they took over their

oces.

Starting about 10 a.m. and lasting

well into the evening Monday, most

White House aides did not receive a

single e-mail. Not on their computers.

Not on their BlackBerrys. Instead o

the constant ping and buzz o new

messages, there was just an eerie

silence.

Its absolutely ridiculous, one

aide umed as the outage dragged

into its eighth hour. This is the

reakin West Wing.

The result was a weirdly old-ash-ioned kind o day at the White House.

Instead o BlackBerrys, everyone

used cellphones a decidedly 1990s

technology that used to serve as the

principal means o communication in

Washington political circles.

Pink while-you-were-out pads

popped up on the desks o White

House press assistants, who were

suddenly unable to eld the furry

o questions they normally get rom

reporters.

I havent had a less stressul day

in ve years, Gibbs joked, pointing

at the BlackBerry on his desk andnoting that it would make a good

coaster. The president can have

my BlackBerry as ar as Im con-

cerned.

Katie Lillie, director o White

House press advance, is respon-

sible or herding the press corps

rom place to place. Normally, her

BlackBerry relentlessly lls with

questions and complaints.

You know, its good, she said as

she led a group o reporters to the

Cabinet Room, where Obama and

Secretary o State Hillary Rodham

Clinton were meeting.

People who are worried aboutstu? I dont know about it, she

said.

Josh Earnest, another press assis-

tant, said he had met a lot o people

Monday because he could no longer

rely on the relatively impersonal e-

mail system to communicate.

Its very old-ashioned, he

said.

So how does a modern White

House run without e-mail?

The press oce could not send

releases, transcripts or memos to its

growing list o reporters across the

country. Instead, it simply handed

out photocopies to the reporters

gathered in the White House brie-ing room.

Its like the old days, where you

guys are running to the pay phone to

call your papers, said press assistant

Tommy Vietor.

At 5:30 p.m., Vietors voice

boomed over the loudspeaker in the

White House brieng room, inorm-

ing those present that the transcript

o the presidents comments with

Clinton were ready. The transcripts

normally go out by e-mail.

I

by paul riChter

LoS angeLeS tiMeS

WASHINGTON - President Ba-

rack Obama dispatched his special

Middle East envoy on an inaugural

peacemaking trip Monday, declar-

ing that George J. Mitchell would

speak or the White House in a

search or progress, not just photo-

ops.

Obamas public appearance with

Mitchell, a ormer Democratic Sen-

ate majority leader rom Maine, and

Secretary o State Hillary Rodham

Clinton at the White House was his

second in ve days and placed an

emphasis on peacemaking eorts,

which come at a time when analysts

rate the chances or Arab-Israeli

peace as the worst in decades.

Now, understand that Senator

Mitchell is going to be ully em-

powered by me and ully empow-

ered by Secretary Clinton, Obama

said. So when he speaks, he will

be speaking or us.

Some analysts have warned

that i the administration puts its

prestige on the line and the current

cease-re between Israel and the

militant group Hamas collapses,

it could be an early black mark or

the Obama team.

Daniel Levy, a ormer Israeli

peace negotiator, said the an-

nouncement was intended to stress

that Mitchell is speaking or Obama

and to push back against anyone

critical o the appointment.

Sending Mitchell to the region

also allows Obama to take action

without getting bogged down in

the details.

He can say, George is on it,

Levy said.

During his campaign, Obama

promised to work or peace early

in his presidency. The furry o

action in his rst week in oce

also addresses criticism that, as

president-elect, he was detached

rom the Gaza Strip ghting.

The cause o peace in the Mid-

dle East is important to the United

States and our national interests,

Obama said. Its important to me

personally. It is impor tant to Arabs

and Jews. It is important to Chris-

tians, and Muslims, and Jews all

around the world.

Mitchell, who was appointed

Thursday, let Monday or an

eight-day trip to the Middle East

and Europe. He will stop in Egypt,

Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Saudi

Arabia, Paris, London and possibly

elsewhere.

Obama hopes Mitchell can iden-

tiy ways to solidiy the cease-re,

ensure Israels security, also ensure

that Palestinians in Gaza are able to

get the basic necessities they need

and that they can see a pathway

toward long-term development that

will be so critical in order or us to

achieve a lasting peace.

The administrations peace push

has been welcomed by many liber-

als but has stirred unease among

conservative supporters o Israel,

who ear that the plans or even-

handedness means that Israel will

come under new pressure.

K, - by hOward kurtz

theWaShingtonpoSt

WASHINGTON Bill Kristol and

the New York Times parted company

Monday, one year ater he began

writing a weekly opinion column that

became a high-prole target or his

detractors on the let.

But the conservative commenta-

tor, who edits the Weekly Standard

and appears on Fox News, wont lack

or media exposure. He will write

a monthly column and occasional

pieces or The Washington Post, as

he did beore joining the Times.

Post Editorial Page Editor Fred

Hiatt called Kristol very smart

and very plugged in, saying Kris-

tol would be an infuential voice in

the coming debate over redening

the Republican Party. It seems to

me there were a lot o Times read-

ers who elt the Times shouldnt

hire someone who supported the

Iraq war, said Hiatt, adding that he

wants a diverse range o opinions

on his page.

The Times hired Kristol or a one-

year run during the 2008 campaign,

and Editorial Page Editor Andrew

Rosenthal told his paper that the

arrangement was ending by mutual

agreement. Rosenthal would not

say whether the Times plans to hire

another conservative. Kristol, who

did not return calls Monday, told

Portolio.com in November that he

was ambivalent about continuing,

noting that the weekly column was

a lot o work and I have a lot o

things going on.

Even some journalists sympa-

thetic to Kristol say his Times writ-

ing was oten predictable and not his

best work, and noted that he had to

correct three actual errors.

Kristols earlier punditry or The

Post was also controversial. In July

2007, he wrote in the papers Out-

look section that George W. Bushs

presidency will probably be a suc-

cessul one. He also said the Iraq

war could be won and that military

progress on the ground in Iraq in the

past ew months has been greater

than even surge proponents like me

expected.

Thanks

for

reading

8/14/2019 January 27, 2009 Issue

10/12

ditorial & LettersPage 10 | TuESDAy, JANuARy 27, 2009

The Brown Daily Herald

C H R I S J E S U L E E

B S b

C O R R E C T I O N S P O L I C Y

The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate inormation possible. Correc-

tions may be submitted up to seven calendar days ater publication.

C O M M E N T A R Y P O L I C Y

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A D V E R T I S I N G P O L I C Y

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Last week, The Herald reported that Associate Provost and Director o

Institutional Diversity Brenda Allen will be leaving Brown to become theprovost at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. With Allens

upcoming departure, administrators should re-evaluate Browns strategies

or promoting diversity among students, sta and aculty. The administration

deserves credit or making substantial progress on that issue, especially

since the establishment o the Oce o Institutional Diversity in 2003. Over

the last six years, Brown has seen a 40-percent increase in minority aculty

and a 31-percent increase in emale aculty. The number o under-represented

minority students grew by over 21 percent.

These statistics, though encouraging, are not ully inormative. Diversity

in the broadest sense is harder to measure. By increasing its proportion o

students and aculty rom targeted groups, the University hopes to expose

the community to a broad range o perspectives, views and outlooks. These

ultimate aims deserve special attention.

The University should maintain its commitment to diversity despite recent

economic developments. We hope Allens successor at the OID will also ocus

on increasing the presence and visibility o community members with variedpolitical ideologies. Unortunately, these objectives may prove expensive in

some cases and impractical in others. Financial diculties may delay certain

initiatives such as need-blind admission or transer and international students.

Plans to recruit students based on their political viewpoints would be uneasible,

morally questionable and most likely counterproductive.

For now, Brown can take a relatively cheap and simple step to attract a more

politically diverse pool o applicants. Every year, many prospective students

pass through the Brown Bookstore with parents in tow. As o this semester,

visitors and their parents will be able to discuss the tour, the campus and the

New Curriculum over coee at the Bookstores brand new cae. Unortunately,

some amilies may not nd the atmosphere welcoming. We imagine that a ew

conservative amilies might be dismayed by the cups with a Blue State Coee

logo on one side and a suggestive slogan (Drink Liberally) on the other.

While we dont object to the Bookstores decision to contract with Blue

State Coee, we expect that the cae an important part o Browns public

image to be less overtly political. Previously, Blue State Coee planned to

tone down its message at the new branch by not selling the anti-Bush mer-chandise available at its other Thayer Street location. Though the message

on the cups is more subtle, we hope it is a temporary xture.

Editorials are written by The Heralds editorial page board. Send comments to

[email protected].

lettersto the editors

editorial

so s w Mitra Anoshiravani, coin chazen, Een cshing, Sdne Ember,

laren Fedor, Nioe Friedman, Britta Greene, Sarah Hsk, Brian Mastroianni, Hannah

Moser, Ben Shrekinger, caroine Sedano, Meissa Shbe, Anne Simons, Sara Snshine,

staff wt Znaira chodhar, lesie Primak, christian Marte, Aexandra umer,

laren Pishe, Same Bker, Anne Deggeman, Nioe Dnga, cameron lee, Seth

Mote, Ka Wikes, Jiana Friend, Ke Maahan, Jotsna Mr, chris Dff

so s w Peter cipparone, Nioe Stok

b s Maximiian Barrows, Thanases Pestis, Aen MGonagi, Ben Xiong, Bonnie

Kim, cath li, core Shwartz, Evan Smortin, Hadar Tagn, Jakie Godman, Jin chao,

Kenneth So, lndse yess, Margaret Watson, Matthew Brrows, Mara lnh, Misha Desai,

Stassia chzhkova, Webber X, Wiiam Shweitzer

d s Jessia Kirshner, Joanna lee, Maxwe Rosero

poo s Aex DePaoi, Qinn Savit, Meara Sharma, Min W

Co eo Rafae chaiken, Een cshing, yonhn Kim, Frederi l, laren Fedor,

Madeeine Rosenberg, Ke Maahan, Jennifer Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Jordan Mainzer,

Janine lopez, lis Sois, Aeet Brinn, Rahe Starr, Riva Shah, Jason ym, Simon liebing,

Geoffre Ki, Anna Joraveva

w do Jihan chao, Greg Edmiston

Marlee Bruning, Dsn

Kathryn Delaney , Kelly Mallahan, Madeleine Rosenberg, Cpy eds

Colin Chazen, Emmy Liss, Melissa Shube, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Nh eds

thebrowndailyherald

b hmh loso lemm lg t

M vgo MJo womC kJ sbj aa bcax Mok woo

Chris Jesu Lee

Stephen Lichenstein

Eunice Hong

Kim PerleyJustin Coleman

gphcs edgphcs ed

Ph edPh ed

Sps Ph ed

Graphics & photos

BuSiNeSS

Kathryn Delaney

Seth MotelMarlee Bruning

Jessica Calihan

Anna Migliaccio

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Neal Poole

ProDuCtioN

Cpy Dsk ChfCpy Dsk Chf

Dsn edDsn ed

ass. Dsn edass. Dsn ed

Wb ed

eDitorialArts & ctre EditorArts & ctre Editor

Featres EditorFeatres Editor

Higher Ed Editor

Higher Ed EditorMetro EditorMetro EditorNews EditorNews Editor

Sports EditorSports Editor

Asst. Sports EditorAsst. Sports Editor

editor-in-chief

s dlc

senior editors

rc aC Csco lo

associate editors

n Jf k

Mc soco

ManaGinG editors

Mc bcC fo

oPiNioNSSarah Rosenthal opnns ed

editorial paGe board

James Shapiro

Nick Bakshi

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Meha Verghese

ed P edBd bBd bBd bBd b

General ManaGers

ax hJo sco

office ManaGer

s r

directors

e dsC k,p Mk ko

ManaGers

k wk bax CC so

Ss DcSs DcSs Dc

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unvsy Ssrc Ss

PoSt- magaziNe

Arthur Matuszewski

Kelly McKowenednChfednChf

U. shouldnt worry too much about rankingsto eo:

I read with dismay your editorial on Browns rela-

tively poor rankings (The rank and the rate, Jan. 26),

which retted that low rankings in U.S. News & World

Report would drive away prospective international stu-

dents. Theres surely a better way to convey our excel-

lence to the world than through such pseudo-scientic

metrics, which ignore Browns intangible assets such

as the New Curriculum.

Ideally, Brown should aim to attract international

students who are motivated by a love o learning, not

those whose goal is simply to become Harvard girls.

Furthermore, its incumbent upon prospective stu-

dents to learn about the universities to which they areapplying. Applicants who know nothing about Brown

except its ranking should probably not be admitted in

the rst place.

Finally, suggesting a campaign to boost applicant

volume with the aim o rejecting more students,

and thus lowering acceptance rates seems petty and

supercial. Brown should ocus on providing a quality

liberal arts education, not playing the rankings game.

sm bo 09.5

Jan. 26

Jo t h!

Info sessions at 195 Ange St.(between Brook and Thaer):

Mo, f 2 @ 8 .m.t, f 5 @ 8 .m.s, f 8 @ 8 .m.

Reporting, photograph, bsiness,design, opinions and more!

8/14/2019 January 27, 2009 Issue

11/12


pinionsThe Brown Dai Herad

Matt Taibbi, a let-wing political consultant or

Real Time with Bill Maher and a writer or

Rolling Stone Magazine, is one o these young,

cynical, deceptively knowledgeable guys we

liberals love.

At a time where Keith Olbermann and Bill

OReilly have become trusted and popular

television journalists, Taibbi makes his points

without excessive ire and without raising his

voice, pointing out idiocy and hypocrisy withrestraint and tact.

While many journalists choose to cover the

horse race rom the comort o newsrooms,

Taibbi unctions less as a journalist and more a

mere witness a man who traversed the nation

and then assessed where our country was ater

seeing it rsthand.

In perhaps his most poignant piece or Roll-

ing Stone, an Oct. 30 article entitled The Death

o a Red State, Taibbi contends that since the

presidency o John F. Kennedy, the GOP won

the battle o cultural preerences. Thus, the

GOP took poor, white working-class voters (the

base established by FDR) away rom Democrats,

leaving the party with an identity crisis.

However, Democrats have recently morphed

into a party championed by women, minori-ties and homosexuals, a coalition built rom the

ground up due to the vision o a white America to

which conservatives cling. European countries,

seen swooning or Obama during his version oEurotrip, got it right away why choose the

pallid, awkward, reckless, all-or-nothing John

McCain, the embodiment o American arro-

gance, when you could have the cool, skinny,

biracial guy whose rallies look, as Taibbi put

it, like a college discussion group? What the

Obama victory arms is that in a social war

between an accepting, multicultural party and

an intolerant, monolithic one, Democrats come

ou

Documents

January 27, 2009 Issue