Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ED BOARD: STUDENTS NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO BUDGET CUTS
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2009
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I wake up and watch "Emeril." Is that weird?
So, I just walked outside to go to class and saw my neighbors getting a squirrel. They plan to eat it later. Weird.
OK, just because I wear a beanie with none of my hair showing doesn't mean I have cancer. Stop staring.
Dear girl on the bus. You said the word "like" 54 times from when I started counting. That's, like, really annoying.
--gum.
Do you miss the commercials from last year? The Pizza Street commercial, or the one that started out: Do you ever feel like Kansas is being launched at?
I love how in the GSP cafeteria girls stare each other down.
Like, shit guys, it's a buffet. I'm not going to eat all the pizza.
Like you're going to eat it
To all my fellow males who use bathrooms. Why don't you flush when you're done? Do you enjoy the smell of stale piss for some reason?
Seeing the Kansas-Missouri replay four times on SportsCenter this morning made me kind of hope that there was somebody in Missouri doing the same thing.
There is a mobile hot tub on Mass. Street that totally trumps the party bus.
--state's minimum wage from its current level of $2.65 to the federal rate of $7.25 per hour. The
I deleted 10 friends on Facebook for a free Whopper. It was worth it.
The forecast for the week is making me smile all day.
Speaking of periods, last week my girlfriend made me go buy her tampons so that she wouldn't have to miss the game. This relationship is getting a little one-sided.
I think I've discovered the secret to juggling multiple airfriends
Building an anatomically correct snowman is not a crime
PAGE 7A
EDITORIAL BOARD
Minimum wage should rise with cost of living
On Feb.20, the Kansas Senate approved a bill that would raise the
legislation is pending approval in the House, where it will likely be passed, as it should be. This is a positive development for the state of Kansas, but the effect
of this law will be more symbolic than anything else. We believe that the state government needs to go further and put in place a minimum wage that is connected to the annual increases in cost of living, a policy that is more economically efficient and provides more benefits to workers than the current trend of large and intermittent jumps in the minimum wage.
KANSAN'S
OPINION
of work, and full-time students, who can be paid 85 percent of the minimum wage. The only employees covered by the state but not the federal law are those who work for firms with less than $500,000
At a paltry $2.65 per hour, the state's current minimum wage is the lowest in the nation, although five states have no minimum wage. The new legislation would raise it to federal levels in January of 2010. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2007, the last year on record, there were 20,000 Kansans working below the federal minimum wage. Exempted workers included tipped employees, employees of small farms, seasonal workers, teenagers, who can be paid $4.25 per hour for the first 90 days
in annual revenue that don't engage in interstate commerce. Ultimately, this is a very small number of people.
covered by the state minimum wage is under the federal law anyway", said Sen. Dick Kelsey (R Goddard). "The practical thing to do is adjust the state law so that we don't get criticized for something that doesn't matter"
"Everyone who is
But that belies the symbolic value of this bill. "It sends a message to the people of the state of Kansas that we have as much respect for their work as the federal government," said Sen. Laura Kelly (D-Topeka).
The law passed the Kansas Senate with the support of many Republicans, like Kelsey, who are willing to support the increase to avoid future criticism. The law will likely pass the House for the same reason.
This largely symbolic increase, however, does not go far enough. We argue that Kansas should adopt a policy that would index the minimum wage to the cost of living.
TO CONTACT:
FOOD
CONTACT
**WHO:** Rep. Barbara
Ballard at: 785-296-7697 or
barbara.ballard@house.
ks.gov
**OR:** Sen. Marci Francisco
at: 785-842-6402 or
marci.francisco@senate.
ks.gov
something that many other states, including Florida, Missouri and Montana, have already done. Such a change would benefit workers because it prevents de facto cuts in income that occur when the flat minimum wage rate is eaten up by inflation. Furthermore, the large jumps in the minimum wage mandated by the federal government every decade or so are more costly to employers than a steady, predictable increase.
"This incremental increase is less costly than large jumps in the minimum wage," said Ron Caldwell, a professor of labor economics at the University.
The increase in the state minimum wage will have a largely symbolic impact, but it is nevertheless an important step in the right direction for the state of Kansas.
Dan Thompson for The Kansan Editorial Board
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansans entitled to know what's floating in their milk
What's in a label? Milk with or without "additive free" printed on the carton is still the same milk, right? At least that's what proponents of a bill being discussed in the Kansas House Agriculture Committee seem to think.
The bill, which has been debated since November, strives to outlaw labeling artificial growth-hormone-free milk as such. The proposal would protect dairies that use controversial substances such as bovine growth hormone (BGH) to elevate milk production while withholding important information from consumers.
Of course, there's a good reason BGH-free milk producers want to distinguish themselves from their conventional counterparts.
According to the Center for Food Safety, the majority of cows treated with BGH suffer from debilitating health problems such as lameness, reproductive problems, and, most importantly, a 25 percent increase in udder infections. Diseased udders, the source of your delicious unlabeled milk. Mmm.
To treat the infections caused by BGH, farmers have to pump their cows full of additional antibiotics, residues of which end up in the milk. This, of course, helps further the problem of antibiotic
Finally, BGH has been linked to an elevation in the levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor-1. Studies have shown that this hormone is passed on to the consumer and has been linked to increased growth of breast, prostate and colon cancer.
resistance among people.
The FDA supports the use of BGH, but essentially no one else does. Since 2000, the European Union has made sales of BGH illegal, and it is not approved for use in Canada, Japan, Australia or New Zealand.
The reason BGH is still legal in the United States is not because we know its secret goodness. More likely, it is because of the incredible power of Monsanto, the agricultural biotechnology corporation that produces BGH under the brand name Polsilac.
Monsanto has done quite a job of pushing its products and silencing opposing voices, most notoriously in the case of two journalists in Tampa, Fla., who lost their jobs after refusing Monsanto's request to alter a
Whether because of consumer advocacy groups' fear-mongering, as Monsanto claims, or from genuine concern about the safety of BGH, the USDA reports that since the introduction of BGH, organic milk has become the fastest growing segment of the organic market. Consumer demands have prompted companies such as Starbucks to use only BGH-free dairy products.
Here's the best part, though. Despite several states being targeted by Monsanto's laped advocacy group, AFACT, Kansas is the only state that is still fighting over this ridiculous policy. Everyone else wants to know what is in their milk. In other words, Kansas is as backwards as you think. (You can have that bumper sticker slogan on the house.)
negative report on BGH.
Regardless of the controversy about BGH, consumers have a right to know as much as possible about the contents of their food. This is especially true in cases where controversial practices and products are used. By passing this legislation, the Agriculture Committee decides for Kansas consumers whether to take a risk on BGH milk and thwarts the efforts of dairies that refuse to use such a harmful product.
McConnell is a Dallas junior in English.
POLITICS
Republicans hastily casting hopes on Louisiana governor
Last year, Gov Kathleen Sebelius gave the Democratic response!
Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union address. The year before that, the respondent was Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. Neither governor's response was considered compelling. This year was the Republican's turn to deliver a response. They chose Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. He did not fare any better.
Jindal's speech was criticized as stilted and dull. Many of his supporters rushed to his defense by saying he is more in his element when speaking live and not in front of a teleprompter. Several political analysts have raised the question about what effect his poor presentation following President Obama's speech might have on his rumored aspirations for higher national recognition.
I'm just going to say outright that I don't think a mediocre response to a presidential address is going to kill Jindal's possible aspirations to greater national prominence. He's in his early 30s, so he has a lot of time to make up for one bad night. And the kind of attention he's garnered since being elected governor of Louisiana isn't going to dissipate that easily.
What is concerning is the brief period of panic that arose when Jindal didn't deliver some kind of masterful rebuke to President Obama's Address to Congress. It brought to light a serious problem with all the momentum Jindal has gained since becoming governor. As Republicans watched Barack Obama quickly rise to prominence in the Democratic Party, they obviously saw that it would behoove them to have an equivalent, and Bobby Jindal appeared to be their answer. He is young, he is (usually) a good public speaker, and he may very well have the ability to galvanize the Republican Party the same way Obama did
LIBERAL
LOUDMOUTH
BEN COHEN
to the Democats. He just may be able to sell his beliefs as exciting, as the wave of the future, even though they are essentially in line with the party, much in the way Obama did.
Jindal's less-than-stellar performance put cracks in that theory. The GOP, desperate to repair the damage done to its image by the legacy of the Bush administration, has placed much of its hope in Bobby Jindal. A straw poll taken at a recent convention of the Conservative Political Action Committee, as reported by CNN, had Jindal coming in a close second to Mitt Romney as the choice for GOP presidential candidate in 2012. Jindal certainly has time to improve his reputation.
If he can't, however, the GOP is in trouble. It has hedged its bets on a popularly-anointed golden child without knowing much about his actual leadership style, or whether he can translate his success in Louisiana to a national level. I understand the GOP's optimism, after seeing somebody from the rival party pull off essentially the same thing, but Obama's popularity before he was the Democratic candidate was far more organic than jindal's. He certainly had help gaining national attention (you aren't a keynote speaker at your party's national convention because you're a nice guy), but it took time for him to be heralded as the face of the Democratic Party. The Republicans seem to be forcing the mantle on Jindal too hastily, which will only hurt them in the long run
Cohen is a Topeka senior in political science.
Let's pay students to recycle textbooks
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Twice every school year, KU students bring thousands of textbooks to the KU Bookstore or Jayhawk Bookstore hoping to sell them back for money. The students receive just a fraction of what they originally purchased the book for just four months ago, or they aren't able to resell it at all. Left with a book they have no use for, more often than not they toss it in the nearest garbage can. Garbage can — not recycling bin. Yes, there are recycling bins present at both of the mentioned bookstores but most students either don't see them or simply don't care.
Students not only throw out these useless books but also hang onto ones that the bookstore offers to buy back at minuscule price, hoping to get a better offer elsewhere. But these books will also end up in a garbage can after the students realize they will be unable to sell them back anywhere.
This is an interesting practice
for a University that stresses environmental-friendly actions and a country in which you can't go a full day without hearing the phrase "going green." Wouldn't it be logical to offer a small amount for these out-of-date books to get them out of garbage cans and into recycling bins?
It's frustrating to hear constant harping on the environment when small changes such as this cannot be made. The University needs to open its eyes and realize how many trees it could save by offering a few bucks for textbooks and recycling them. True, students should take the initiative and recycle themselves, but this isn't realistic. College students are lazy. Why take a minute to recycle a textbook when you could chug a beer, watch more TV or add onto your nap? Yes, it's a shame, but it's the truth and this University along with others across the nation aren't doing anything to change it.
Andrew Doughty is a sophomore from St. Paul, Minn.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansai Editorial Board are Brenna Hawley, Tara Smith, Mary Sorrick, Kelsey Hayes and Dan Thompson.