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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 2005)
Expert investigates Spokane mayor's computer THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SPOKANE — Photos and docu ments from a gay Web site that are on Spokane Mayor James E. West’s City Hall computer were put there deliber ately, a computer expert said. The affidavit from Josiah P. Roloff of Global CompuSearch LLC, refuted West’s contention that much of the material was automatically placed on his computer while he surfed Web sites like Gay.com. In an affidavit filed Friday in Spokane County Superior Court, Roloff said an index of West’s computer files provided to The Spokesman-Review newspaper included a history file showing 56 visits tojthe Gay.com site. “The history file shows heavy us age and visits to the Gay.com site by the computer user,” Roloff’s affi davit said, “including some visits re quiring the user to enter a user name and password.” Gay.com requires that personal profiles be “consciously selected” by the computer user, Roloff said. “The Gay.com site will not dis play personal profiles and the im ages included on the profiles absent the computer user’s affirmative choice to view a certain profile,” according to the affidavit. Roloff is working with lawyers for The Spokesman-Review newspaper, which since May 6 has been seeking access to the records on West’s taxpay er-provided computer as part of its in vestigation into whether he abused his office by offering young gay men pub lic appointments and jobs in exchange for sex. Roloff’s affidavit appeared to conflict with assertions by West’s lawyers and a city attorney that approximately 1,800 photos and documents, many of young gay men, were inadvertently downloaded to West’s computer. West faces a Dec. 6 recall battle over the abuse of office allegations. West, a longtime Republican state senator and opponent of gay rights, has acknowledged that he was a clos eted homosexual, but has denied breaking any laws. In a high-profile public records bat tle, he is trying to keep the public from seeing some of the files on his laptop computer, saying in a sworn affidavit that they contain material that would be “highly offensive” to citizens. After hearing oral arguments on Oct. 12, Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard Miller is expected to rule later this month whether West’s computer files should be released. Lawyers for West said Friday the mayor has already admitted he visited Gay.com. “This appears to be part of an ongo ing effort by The Spokesman-Review to keep the West story alive until the recall election occurs,” West’s lawyers said. The lawyers also wondered whether Roloff’s company was the “forensic en tity” the newspaper hired to identify West’s activities on the gay Web site. “This raises the issue as to Mr. Roloff’s disinterest and objectivity,” said lawyers Bill Etter, Susan Tropp mann and Carl Oreskovich in a written statement. Newspaper attorney Duane Swinton said Roloff was not the computer ex pert the newspaper hired to pose as a teen-age boy during online chats that eventually snared West. Roloff based his affidavit on his familiarity from other computer forensic cases with Gay.com, the source of many of the disputed files on West’s computer. He disputed the conclusions in a Sept. 22,2005, letter from a city lawyer to Spokesman-Review attorney Duane Swinton about how the images got on West’s city computer. In that letter, Milton Rowland said he’d discussed West’s computer with the city’s information systems director and the documents “were almost cer tainly placed on Mayor West’s comput er without his knowledge, and likely without his having even visited all the Web pages represented.” That’s not accurate, Roloff said in his affidavit. If images from Gay.com are con tained in West’s Internet cache file, this means the computer user “affir matively viewed the images by clicking on profiles displayed by Gay.com,” he said. Troppmann told Judge Miller that West didn’t deliberately download material from gay Web sites to his city computer. “These are Internet cache files — in formation on your computer you don’t put there,” TYoppmann said at the Oct. 12 hearing in Ritzville. “There are hundreds of people’s identities at stake here some of them are local.” Lynch: Believes 'Peace-Creating Experts' aid in obtaining world peace Continued from page 1 introduced him to the technique. Lynch said in an interview with the Emerald that he has never tried anoth er form of meditation, and while other meditation techniques focus on con templation and concentration, tran scendental meditation allows the per son to experience a wholeness because it goes beyond the surface. Oregon has six transcendental med itation training centers throughout the state, in Seaside, Salem, Lake Oswego, McMinnville and two in Portland. Training for the technique is a $2,500 four-day course. Lynch is founder of the David Lynch Foundation, a non-profit or ganization dedicated to conscious ness-based education and world peace and one that strives to pro vide students with the opportunity to learn the meditation technique. Lynch said things get better when people know themselves and the calmness of life. The meditation technique was started by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1958 and was a household name by the 1970s. The technique claims to be neither a religion nor a philosophy, which allows it to be learned and practiced by people from all walks of life without conflicting with personal beliefs, according to the official tran scendental meditation Web site. Peg Rees, associate director of the University’s Physical Activities and Recreational Services (PARS), said the great benefits of meditation are indisputable, but that PARS could no longer offer meditation classes specifically. The University stopped teaching meditation classes after spring term 2005. “Every yoga class we offer has some meditation,” Rees said, adding that it’s a valuable discipline. “We just couldn’t justify offering it as a stand-alone course.” Rees said there is no physical bal ance, movement or strengths in volved to evaluate a student’s progress in meditation. PARS is offering a Yoga/Mediation class next term at the Student Recre ation Center that will be firmly rooted in meditation practices. Jude Kehoe, a licensed practical Public Presentations by candidates for Sr. Vice President and Provost All candidates will speak on "Challenges and Opportunities for American Research Universities During the Next Decade" Question and Answer period following presentation. Thursday, November 10 4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. — Browsing Room Second candidate: Linda P. Brady, Dean and Professor of Political Science College of Humanities and Social Sciences, North Carolina State University 5:15 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. — Gerlinger Lounge Informal interaction Monday, November 21 4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. — Gerlinger Lounge Third candidate: Name to be released one week prior to presentation 023667 Faculty are invited to an Academic Forum with the candidates in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art lecture room. Friday, November 11 — 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. — Linda P. Brady Tuesday, November 22 — 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. — Candidate 3 Accommodations for people with disabilities will be provided if requested in advance. Please call (541) 346-3039. nurse and certified healing touch prac titioner, teaches a six-week meditation class at the University Health Center that is free to staff and students. “I’m teaching a lot of different techniques,” Kehoe said. “All are ori ented towards clearing the mind and focusing your mind on breathing.” Lynch cited Maharishi’s prediction that with a large enough group of transcendental meditation program trained “Peace-Creating Experts,” world peace can be achieved. Harmony will spread through a population if a number of people equal to the square root of 1 percent of the population practices transcen dental meditation, Lynch said. Applying that equation to the world, 8,000 “Peace-Creating Experts” are needed to bring coher ence and peace to the whole world, Lynch said. According to the TM Program Web site, more than 600 studies have been conducted on the TM technique showing that Maharishi’s program is “by far the most effective remedy for the ills of modern life. ” “We need money — a wealthy well-wisher who says, ‘I’m going to back this thing’,” Lynch said-. If $1 billion were put into a savings ac count, the interest alone would sus tain consciousness-based education, Lynch said. Contact the people, culture, faith reporter at bmcclenahan@dailyemerald. com Don’t Talk With Strangers By C. Wilsey It’s a warning we’ve heard since child hood: strangers are dangerous. But now that you're in college and seeking the perfect internship or career-track position, the rules have changed. You need to talk with strangers and a lot of them- to find a job. The Career Fair is designed to help you do just that. It’s great place to connect with people about your dreams, goals and pro fessional future. This year, the UO Career C'en ter has gathered representatives from more than 70 companies and organi zations for the November ] 0 event. But you don’t want to go in unpre pared. This afternoon’s Career Suc cess Seminar. “How to Make the Career Fair Work for You,” can help you prepare for conversations with these potential employers. The 90 minute workshop begins at 4:00 p.m. today in the EMU Alsea Room. Re search strategies, appropriate dress, This Thursday’s Career Fair will offer you the opportunity to talk with representatives from more than 70 companies and organizations. Do you know what you’ll say? what to bring, one-minute introduc tions, and important questions to ask employers will be covered. You will also learn about techniques such as: the walkabout; lineage mileage; the key to the treasure room; last ing impressions; and the critical last step. Knowing the format of the Fair ahead of time will ease any anxiety you might have about entering a room filled with dozens of com panies for which you might want to work. Preparation, planning and practice are the keys to making the Career Fair work for you. Your only ‘*job” at the Career Fair is to explore potential career paths, meet company representa tives, and learn how your collegiate experience might contribute to the goals and missions of the organiza tions present. You can make that process easier by attending today’s workshop and learning techniques that will help you talk more easily with company representatives. ess Career Succ How to Make the Career Fair Work for You TODAY, November 8 4:00-5:30 p.m. in the EMU Alsea Room
