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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 2001)
www.dailyemerald.com Wednesday An independent newspaper Making their mark The Oregon wrestling team is No. 10 after taking on top competition over the break. PAGE 7 Money matters The Programs Finance Committee doles out an 11 percent increase from last year’s budget. PAGE 3 January 10,2001 Volume 102, Issue 70 Weather TODAY high 50, low 37 Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon r"**; Tom Patterson Emerald Some residents at the University Commons have been less than impressed by available amenities, swimming pool or no. Tenants face complex issues Students who had dreamt of living the high life were disappointe d with a dose of reality By Beata Mostafavi Oregon Daily Emerald With its freshly painted exterior, swimming pool, hot tub and gymnasi um, the University Commons was ad vertised as a four-star student housing option when it first opened in fall 1999. But according to some of last year’s tenants, the apartment complex didn’t live up to its image — and despite new management, tenants said some of the problems are not completely gone. Previous residents have complained about problems ranging from “unfin ished” apartments to curious fees and claim the complex’s management rarely responded to these matters efficiently. But the current manager, Pam Bryant, said she and her staff are completely new and most of last year’s problems are no longer present. The previous management team that tenants com plained about left for “personal rea sons,” according to Bryant. Off to a bad start Because of its brand-new status and promise to offer appealing features not many other complexes did such as Turn to Commons, page 3 Chavez rescinds bid amid legal questions By Laura Meckler The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Linda Chavez withdrew her bid to be secretary of labor Tuesday, saying that controversy over an il legal immigrant who once lived with her had become a dis traction for President-elect Bush. She called herself a victim of “search-and-destroy” politics. Chavez told a news conference the decision to bow out just a week after being named was entirely her own. But three Re publican officials involved said she reluctantly stepped aside under pressure from Bush’s political team, who made it clear their willingness to fight for her nomination had waned amid questions about her credibility. Chavez allowed that she should have been more candid about the circumstances surrounding Marta Mercado, the Guatemalan woman who lived with her for about two years in the early 1990s. But she said it was “the politics of person al destruction” that brought down her nomination. “So long as the game in Washington is a game of search and-destroy, I think we will have very few people who are willing to do what I did, which was to put myself through this in order to serve,” she said. “What has happened over the last few days is quite typical of what happens in Washington, D.C.” Over the weekend, questions arose about whether Chavez had paid Mercado for the jobs she did around the house and whether she knew Mercado was in the country illegally. “I think I always knew that she was here illegally,” Chavez said Tuesday. “I don’t check green cards when I see a woman who is battered and who has no place to live and nothing to eat and no way to get on her feet.” But as recently as Sunday, Bush aides said, she had told them she did not know Mercado’s legal status until after she moved out, and they repeated that to reporters. Mercado, meanwhile, was saying publicly that Chavez did in fact know. Asked whether she told Bush aides the full story, Chavez said she did eventually: “I did not volunteer it in our very first conversation.” Chavez began her news conference with testimonials from people who said that she had helped them at various times in their lives. She said she had had difficult times during her childhood and there were always people there to help. “And I vowed to myself that, no matter what happened to me in my life, that I would be there for other people,” she said. She described Mercado as a woman “who came from a very Turn to Chavez, page 6 CC So long as the game in Washing ton is a game of search-and destroy, I think we will have very few people who are willing to do what I did, which was to put myself through this in order to serve. Linda Chavez Nominee for Secretary of Labor Cost increase shocks businesses into conserving electricity In the face of a possible energy cost increase, big businesses look to keep costs low Inside pages EWEB asked the University to run on generated power over the winter break By Lindsay Buchele Oregon Daily Emerald Though homeowners can do basic things in the wake of EWEB’s immi nent rate hike to conserve energy, large production companies and smaller businesses will have to adjust their business practices significantly to cov er increasing energy costs. The Eugene Chamber of Commerce will soon address the issues surround ing the energy shortage that has gripped the northwest, said Terry Con nolly, director of government affairs. “This crisis is becoming a huge issue for high consumers of energy,” Con nolly said. Energy consumers, such as paper production company Weyerhauser, are dependent on large amounts of energy for production processes, and EWEB is scheduled to vote on hiking energy rates in March. “EWEB has kept prices very low for us [in the past],” Weyerhauser spokes woman Lisa VanWinkle said. With the unavoidable increase in prices, however, companies like Wey erhauser will need to assess what their company can do to handle the price increase. Weyerhauser produces some of its own power using steam generation in its paper production process. The company also uses other forms of pow er, such as natural gas and oil. “We can keep our costs low as long as we keep using wood chips and pro duce our own energy,” VanWinkle said. Another big energy consumer, Sa cred Heart Medical Center, spends $2 million a year on utilities, including • • • * Turn-to Increase, page 6 Laura Smit Emerald Sacred Heart Medical Center is one of the many public institutions that will be heavily affected by the increase of electric rates. Its electric system, like this air conditioning pump, consumes a ma jor amount of power.
