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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2005)
Hikers and runners enjoy Spencer Butte | 5 GON An independent newspaper www. da ilyemerald. com Since 1900 \ Volume 106, Issue 117 | Wednesday, March 9, 2005 Programs Finance Committee Court rules on 'viewpoint neutrality' Eden Cortez and Mason Quiroz were removed from their positions for showing bias at a budget hearing BY PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Two members of the commit tee that allocates student money who made controversial state ments at a Feb. 1 budget hearing for the Oregon Commentator have been booted from the com mittee because they “acted in willful defiance of viewpoint neu trality,” the ASUO Constitution Court ruled on Monday. The judgment removes former Programs Finance Committee members Eden Cortez, Dan Kieffer and Mason Quiroz from the committee, although Kieffer resigned last month. The decision removes Quiroz from the PFC and Cortez from the PFC and the ASUO Student Senate. The ruling came in response to a petition filed by Commentator Publisher Dan Atkinson on Feb. 7. Cortez says he will appeal the decision by the end of the week, saying the court acted improperly by basing its ruling on a quote he claims he did not say during the meeting. Chief Justice Randy Derrick, writing for the court, stated Cortez said, “Of course we can look at content in determining a group’s value. Otherwise this job could be done by robots.” Derrick also said in the deci sion: “This statement clearly demonstrates that Cortez was considering content in his analy sis of the Oregon Commentator outside of the bounds set by view point neutrality.” But Cortez said he has reviewed minutes from the meeting and can verify that he did not make the statement. He said an audience member made the statement. “That’s a false statement to be making,” he said. “To quote me on something (they) assume I said ... that’s just giving wrong in formation from the Oregon Com mentator’s part to the Con Court.” Atkinson told the Emerald that the statement is “not an exact quote,” but that Cortez said some thing to that effect. He said he spec ified in the petition that he wasn’t quoting Cortez’s exact words. “I was just trying to recall my own experiences of the hearing,” he said. He added that he didn’t think the accuracy of the statement af fected the court’s overall ruling. “I don’t know that the court PFC, page 4 A SCHOLASTIC SMASH Tim Bobosky | Photographer (Above) Journalism majors Ashley Cooites, left, and Desi McCormick, center, pre-education major Jenny Wicker sham and (right) anthropology major Gavin Walker do nate to the Start Making a Reader Today program at Delta Sigma Phi’s car-smashing event near East 13th Av enue and University Street on Tuesday afternoon. Community searches for transportation BY ADAM CHERRY NEWS REPORTER Members of the University com munity scrambled to find alterna tive means of transportation 1\ies day, as the Lane Transit District strike rolled into its second day. Bus drivers voted to strike Sun day following 10 contentious months of contract negotiations between Amalgamated Transit Union District 757, which repre sents the drivers, and LTD. The strike has completely suspended bus services in Lane County. LTD surveys indicate that more than 10 percent of University stu dents ride the bus on a daily basis. The ASUO and Department of Public Safety worked to provide transportation options, and is of fering free parking at Autzen Sta dium. The University also accept ed an offer from PeaceHealth to allow students, faculty and staff to ride a private shuttle from Lane County Fairgrounds to Sacred Heart Medical Center. Beyond those two alternatives, DPS encouraged biking or walking to campus, options which were further supported by Monday and Tuesday's fair weather. “Weather impacts transporta tion even under normal times,” said Rand Stamm, DPS parking and transportation manager. DPS has received no complaints of specific incidents or clashes be tween University members and picketers, Stamm said. Students are, most likely, driving and park ing near campus, then walking the rest of the way. “You’re probably seeing a lot more vehicles parking out into the neighborhood,” he said. Stamm added that there aren’t many options for transportation. “We have to be creative,” he said. The ASUO hasn’t taken a posi tion on the strike; ASUO officers indicated that the student govern ment wanted to avoid the appear ance of strike breaking. ASUO President Adam Petkun said the ASUO will try to stay above the fray. Petkun defined Tim Bobosky | Photographer Buses sit unused in the Lane Transit District’s bus depot at 3500 17th <We. in Glenwood. strike-breaking as a large-scale effort to provide an alternative and equivalent source of trans portation,” something the ASUO cannot afford. “We’re trying to ed ucate students on what is avail able,” said Nathan Strauss, the ASUO public relations director. Strauss added that the Assault Prevention Shuttle is a transporta tion option as well. APS runs from 6 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Strauss added that the ASUO incurred no costs in connection with the strike other than print ing costs for fliers. Some members of the campus community simply need the bus es. Angee Langenberg, who works at the University Book store Duck Stop coffee shop, said she lives about 40 minutes away from the University. “I’m not really sure what I’m going to do, to be honest, if it LTD, page 8 Inspectors divulge area health code violations Campus Sub Shop received the highest score, 99 out of 100, of the eateries near the University BY EVA SYLWESTER NEWS REPORTER The square block just west of campus, bound by East 13th Avenue, East 12th Avenue, Alder Street and Kincaid Street, is home to several restaurants students frequent. The Lane County Environmental Health Department inspects all restaurants in the county, including these restau rants, to ensure health codes are followed and writes semi-annual food service inspection re ports for each restaurant. According to Lane County’s food safety rules, if a restaurant obtains a sanitation score of less than 70 out of 100 points upon an unannounced com plete inspection, the operator or person in charge is notified that the restaurant will be closed if the score of another inspection conducted within the next 30 days is not at least 70. “We try to afford people the opportunity to correct things, and if they’re not willing to work at it, they’re going to be closed,” Lane County Environmental Health Department sanitarian Scott Kruger said. “But if people find out they’re going to be closed, they usually correct things and keep them corrected.” Kruger described restaurant closure as a last resort. “It’s not fun for them, and it’s not fun for us, either, so if we don’t have to go down that road, we won’t,” he said. Points are deducted from a restaurant’s score for violations, which are divided into two cate gories: critical and non-critical. Restaurants deter mined to have critical violations, which pose di rect threats to customer safety, are re-inspected within 14 days of the original inspection. If the vi olations are not corrected upon re-inspection, the restaurant may be closed. Common critical violations found at Univer sity-area restaurants included not keeping foods above 140 or below 41 degrees Fahrenheit and storing raw meat above ready-to-eat foods. China Blue Inn received a score of 80 on its last evaluation in November 2004. Because it had critical violations, including storing food at room temperature and storing raw meat and eggs above vegetables, Kruger came back for two more inspections until the problems were deemed corrected. “He said we put something on (the) wrong plate,” China Blue Inn manager Li Tsui said, de scribing the inspection. However, Tsui added that the inspector gave detailed, written instructions on how to correct the violations. “We follow everything,” Tsui said. “Right now, we do everything right.” Maple Garden Restaurant received the lowest score in the neighborhood, 72 out of 100 points. According to the November 2004 food service in spection report, the restaurant lost points for stor ing food at improper temperatures, holding chopped, cooked meats for longer than 24 hours and not date-labeling the meats, storing raw meats above ready-to-eat foods and storing knives with food debris, in addition to assorted non-critical violations. The violations were pro nounced resolved after two follow-up visits by Kruger. As of press time, Maple Garden Restau rant could not be reached for comment. Non-critical violations are not likely to immedi ately endanger the health of customers, but can detract from the restaurant’s general sanitary SANITATION, page 8