Kulongoski meets with students
Jessica Richelderfer Emerald
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Kulongoski talks with students at lunch Tuesday afternoon in the EMU Fishbowl. He sat
with a small group of students for about an hour, answering questions about various policy issues, including forests, the
environment and the state's education budget woes.
News Briefs
Consumer confidence
outlook fairly bleak’
Consumer confidence plunged to
a nine-year low Tuesday, casting
more gloom on the already uncer
tain holiday retail season.
“Without the likelihood of a pickup
in consumer spending, an already
weak economic recovery could weak
en further,” said Lynn Franco of the
Conference Board, the New York
based business group that conducts
the monthly confidence survey. Fran
co called the outlook “fairly bleak.”
The decline marked the fourth
consecutive weakening of the Con
ference Board’s confidence index.
The index now stands at 79.4, down
from 93.7 in September and well be
low its post-Sept. 11 low of 85.5.
The last time the index fell this far
was in November 1993, when it
stood at 71.9.
Yet for all the buildup about the con
fidence survey as an important real
time signal about fourth-quarter eco
nomic conditions, Wall Street seemed
to shrug off the results. Major stock in
dexes fell early on the news, then ral
lied late to a narrowly mixed finish.
Economists said the survey de
tected consumers’ worries about a
sluggish economic recovery, the
prospect of war with Iraq and con
tinuing fears over terrorism.
—Angela Shah, The Dallas
Morning News (KRT)
Fed may consider cut to
interest rates
WASHINGTON — A sagging con
sumer confidence report Tuesday
looks to be the first in a series of disap
pointing economic releases that could
shake Wall Street and push the Federal
Reserve to cut interest rates next week.
A consumer confidence index
plunged to 79.4 this month, according
to a monthly survey of 5,000 house
holds by the Conference Board. The
focus now turns to Friday, when ana
lysts expect more bad news in reports
on unemployment and manufactur
ing. If they’re right, the data from this
week and last week would confirm a
weakening economic recovery.
The dilemma facing the Fed will
be whether to cut interest rates to
try to stave off a possible recession
or to do nothing and assume the
economy is strong enough to bounce
back on its own.
„ — Ken Moritsugu, Knight
Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
Brazil’s president-elect
tries to calm markets
SAO PAULO, Brazil — President
elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on
Tuesday named a close aide who is
widely liked by Brazilian and foreign
investors to head his transition
team, a move intended to calm the
nervous financial markets.
The transition team leader will be
Antonio Palocci, a doctor and former
mayor of Ribierao Preto in Sao Paulo
state. Palocci coordinated da Silva’s
campaign platform, moving the vet
eran leftist toward the political cen
ter with more moderate positions.
“He’s been one of the key mem
bers of a team of advisers, which has
been giving a very positive spin to
markets,” said Christopher Garman,
a political analyst in Sao Paulo.
During the presidential campaign,
Brazil’s currency lost about 70 percent
of its value against the dollar on in
vestors’ fears that da Silva, the Work
ers’ Party candidate, would lead Brazil
away from free-market economic re
forms if he became president.
Palocci said da Silva would main
tain broad economic policies such as
low inflation and balanced budgets.
He also promised that Brazil would
not follow Argentina’s ruinous exam
ple of defaulting on government debt.
— Kevin G. Hall, Knight Ridder
Newspapers (KRT)
I WHAT TO DO IF YOUR PARTY
STARTS TO GET OUT OF CONTROL
1. Call the police yourself if uninvited guests disrupt your party or if your guests won't pay
attention to your requests to behave and obey the law. Call before things get too out of control.
Police will view your trying to keep things under control as a preventive measure.
2. Respond positively if a police officer comes to your house. The officer is most likely responding
to a complaint. Make sure the person interacting with the police officer at the front door is sober
and able to be responsive to their requests. Do as much as possible to comply with what the
police are asking you to do. Enlist the help of your friends and housemates.
3. Interfering with a police officer makes a bad situation worse. Do not physically resist the officer
under any circumstance. Use common sense and cooperate. Don't throw bottles at or near police
officers. If you have committed a crime and a police officer asks you to identify yourself, you need
to do so. Always tell a police officer your name if asked. Giving a false name is a separate
offense and will likely escalate what might have been a citation into a trip to jail.
4. Understand that you can be arrested. A police officer may take someone into custody for any
violation of law that carries a potential jail penalty. This includes most state criminal laws and
many city ordinances. For some violations, an officer may detain you while verifying your identity
and issuing a citation.
5. When a police officer asks you to clear an area, leave right away. If you stay around after the
warning to watch what's happening, you may be cited for interfering with a police officer. If
police warn that they are going to use tear gas, you need to get as far away as fast as you can.
Brought to you by: Office of Student Life, ASUO, and Eugene Police Department
3