■ Better Business Bureau has the dirt on local auto shops. Page 3
■ John Henry’s and other businesses will change locations. Page 5
Foster-ed out
UCLA star DeShaun Foster, the Pac-10's leading rusher, will sit out Saturday’s
game against Oregon after being suspended. Page 9
Thursday, November 8,2001
Since 1 900
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103,Issue 53
Oregon defends physician-assisted suicide law
■The state’s congressional
representatives condemn
Ashcroft’s action
By Brook Reinhard
Oregon Daily Emerald
Oregon Attorney General Hardy
Myers filed a petition in U.S Dis
trict Court today for an injunction
against the new stance On Oregon’s
assisted suicide law taken by the
Bush administration.
The action comes hot on the
heels of Attorney General John
Ashcroft’s memo released Tuesday
that effectively overturns the only
assisted suicide law in the nation.
The law allows doctors to prescribe
a deadly dose of pain medication to
patients who are suffering from a
terminal illness, but the Attorney
General’s new stance prohibits doc
tors from prescribing federally con
trolled medication in lethal doses.
In addition, the Drug Enforcement
Agency is directed to determine if
doctors are violating this prohibi
tion. The memo does not outline
how the DEA will carry this out.
“We’ve filed a temporary re
straining order that will allow
physicians in the state to continue
following state law,” said Kevin
Neely, spokesman for Myers. He
added the case may go all the way
to the Supreme Court. “We will
seek to resolve this at the highest
level we can.”
Congressional representatives
from Oregon unanimously con
demned Ashcroft’s decision.
“I wish that the administration
would focus on the security of all
Americans at this critical time,
rather than picking a fight with
Oregonians on such a divisive is
sue,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer,
D-Portland.
Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Salem,
also voiced concerns about the tim
ing of the ruling.
“The Justice Department has
more important duties than turning
doctors who abide by state law into
criminals,” Hooley said.
Barring court action, the new
memo will go into effect as soon as
it’s published in the Federal Regis
ter, said Pete Sheppard, Oregon’s
deputy attorney general.
A hearing on a temporary injunc
tion is scheduled for 2 p.m. today.
“At this point we are advising
Turn to Assisted suicide, page 8
NO FINISH LINE IN SIGHT
■ Eugene runner Marla Runyan,
legally blind because of a genetic
disease, has become one of the
fastest women in the world
By Jen West
Oregon Daily Emerald
When Marla Runyan ran
the 1,500-meter race in
the 2000 Olympic
games in Sydney, she
saw only a blur of color fly by her.
She could hear the pack move behind
her as she pulled out in front, and —
in a sudden burst of speed — each
runner sprinted toward the finish
line.
Those four minutes of Runyan’s life
depended on four years of training.
She crossed the finish line, but when
she stopped running, the images did
not dissolve back into a clear picture.
The world couldn’t come back into
focus, because Runyan is legally
blind.
Runyan, 31, became the first legal
ly blind person to compete on the
U.S. Olympic team. Her eighth-place
ranking for the 1,500 meter was the
highest achieved by an American
woman in the event’s history.
“When you run as fast as I do,
things tend to be a blur anyway,”
Runyan said in her newly released
autobiography, “No Finish Line: My
Life As I See It.”
To be considered legally blind, an
individual must have a visual acuity
of worse than 20/200 in his or her bet
ter eye even while using eyeglasses,
Turn to Runyan, page 8
Courtesy photo
In 1996, Marla
Runyan
qualified for the
Olympic trials
and broke the
American
record in the
heptathlon 800.
In 2000,she
became the first
legally blind
person to
compete on the
U.S. Olympic
team, and she
is training for
the 2004
Olympics.
Board delays
decision on
tobacco ban
■Tobacco sales remain a burning
question as EMU Board considers
student opinion; financial impact
of possible ban at Erb Essentials
By Diane Huber
Oregon Daily Emerald
After much heated discussion and
several motions to end debate, EMU
board members concluded Wednes
day’s board meeting undecided about
the sale of tobacco in the Erb Essen
tials store. But members voted to
leave the issue on the table until the
board can review information of oth
er Pacific-10 schools that have
banned tobacco sales.
The issue arose after biology Profes
sor V. Pat Lombardi raised concerns
that selling tobacco at the University
conflicts with its mission and endan
gers students’ health. But the profit
from tobacco sales is allocated to stu
dent groups on campus, and some
board members worry that this money
would be tough to do without. At the
board meeting two weeks ago, members
decided to hold off on a decision until
they knew whether students on campus
support selling tobacco.
By the end of Wednesday’s meeting,
some board members were tired of the
issue and ready to make a decision to
sell or not to sell, while others still had
many unanswered questions and
Turn to Tobacco ban, page 8
University to offer new class on post-Sept. 11 issues, concerns
■ Professor Anita Weiss created
the class in response to student
interest following the attacks
By John Liebhardt
Oregon Daily Emerald
The events of Sept. 11 have
stirred an intense curiosity among
students nationwide that has
spilled over into numerous teach
ins and lectures at the University.
The international studies depart
ment announced they will offer a
full-term course on the issues sur
rounding Sept. 11 to further quench
that thirst for knowledge.
The one-credit class, “In the Wake
of September 11th: Issues and Con
cerns,” will be offered next term in
an attempt to study “issues concern
ing the U.S. relationship with the Is
lamic world and challenges within
the Islamic world,” Anita Weiss, an
international studies professor, said.
Weiss said she put together the
class to teach students about a large
and complex set of issues.
“I think most Americans know so
little about the part of the world in
which we are currently engaged in a
military encounter,” she said.
Weiss said she will rely on a few
outside speakers to give the class a
more global scope. The class will
cover political and economic issues
in the Middle East.
Universities across the state with
long-standing courses on the Mid
dle East and terrorism are also see
ing a great jump in interest in these
topics post-Sept. 11.
Gary Perlstein, a professor of ad
ministration of justice at Portland
State University has seen the de
mand for his class on terrorism grow
so much that he offered a second sec
tion. He tries to make his class, “Per
spectives on Terrorism,” a historic
and theoretical discussion of terror
ism, “but this year there is a lot more
discussion on Afghanistan. ”
PSU is also home to the nation’s
first federally funded undergradu
ate program for Arabic language and
area studies. The international stud
ies program’s Middle East Studies
Center, created in 1961, offers nu
merous courses in Middle East cul
ture and politics.
At Oregon State University,
Jonathan Katz has also seen in
creased enrollments in his “Islamic
Civilization” courses. Katz, an asso
ciate professor of history at OSU,
will teach a session at Weiss’ class
next term.
John Liebhardt is the higher education editor
for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be
reached at iohnliebhardtOdailyemerald.com.