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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
United States First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
THURSDAY,OCTOBER 8,2009
McCoy: Healthy habits now make for healthy life later
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--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
People who live on ramen aren't grown up enough to get married.
Okay girls, if you are going to wear tights as pants, check them for holes first please.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
Sometimes I drive my bus away just to see you chase after me.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
To my girlfriend: Do you wanna hear a joke? Our relationship.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
I feel like we're experiencing the cankle version of seasons changing: straight from summer to winter with no transition in between.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
I feel like everything is snow balling towards fall break, but in the end I just hope it turns into a snowman
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
I love the smell of weed at night!
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
I got to know: What is the attraction to FarmVille? My addiction is the FFA.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
Explain to me how we can get a game at 6 p.m. when we play at Colorado, but we get 11:30 a.m. for our homecoming.
When I come to a fork in the road I pick it up.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
You know how there's the "easy" button? I would be a bigger fan of the "restart" button if they had one.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
FarmVille is slowly but surely consuming my free time, one harvest at a time.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
Watching Tim Tebow get destroyed by that guy from UK never gets old.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
As a big fan of KU basketball, I would like to encourage you to take whatever dirty knowledge you have and shove it under your hat.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
My ex boyfriend really creeps me out. I don't know what else to do. I completely ignore him, I've changed my locks, I've stopped going to my favorite bar, and now I've blocked him on FB. Hopefully he'll stop harrassing me.
--deficit in 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson has suggested a tobacco tax to generate new revenue. This could be an effective way to close the budget shortfall and encourage many Kansans to live healthier lives.
There is nothing quite as terrible as having a pimple on your ass.
Yo, Markieff Morris, I know you just caused a KU basketball scandal and I'm a let you finish, but Tyshawn Taylor had one of the best KU basketball scandals of all time!
EDITORIAL BOARD
Raising Kansas tobacco tax could increase health, decrease deficit
With Kansas potentially facing another budget deficit in 2010. Gov
Photo illumination by Wetest White/KAARSH SANLE PHOTOHOUSE
"Governor Parkinson has said that he supports a meaningful statewide smoking ban," said Beth Martino, press secretary for Governor Parkinson. "He also has said that if we are facing a bleak budget picture, a cigarette tax is something for the state to carefully evaluate."
Currently the tobacco tax in Kansas rests at 79 cents — well below the national average of $1.34. Kansas has the 35th lowest tax in the nation. The last time Kansas
the nation. The last time
raised the tobacco tax was in 2002, when the tax
increased from 24 cents to 79 cents. According to
state budget reports, the tax added $81 million to
state revenue.
However, bringing in revenue would not be the only potential gain from a tobacco tax.
Cigarette companies and other critics often say that tobacco taxes decrease state revenue by forcing too many smokers to quit. Though it's true revenue from the 2002 tax hike has dropped by 26 percent during the last eight years, it is still bringing in double the revenue it did before the increase.
Every state that has increased tobacco taxes has seen an increase in revenue, according to the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
"If it gets too expensive I'd definitely have to quit," Jacob Holliday, Lawrence freshman, said.
from multiple cigarette companies confirms the simple fact that higher tobacco taxes means fewer people smoking.
Internal documents from tobacco
lawsuits posted on tobaccorefreaks.org
"A high cigarette price, more than any other cigarette attribute, has
KANSAN'S
OPINION
the most dramatic impact on the share of the quitting population." Philip Morris executive. Claude Schwab recorded in an internal business
A frequent criticism of tobacco taxes is that the taxes are regressive and hurt low-income smokers more, which is an argument that ignores the obvious.
document.
"There is nothing more regressive than the economically disadvantaged having to bear all of the health problems caused by smoking," said Mary Jayne Hellebust, executive director of Tobacco Free Kansas.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, low-income smokers are also more likely to quit than higher-income smokers when tobacco taxes are raised.
Critics also say a problem this tax might face comes from Missouri, which has the second lowest tobacco tax in the nation at only 17 cents
a pack.
Though it's true some smokers already cross the border for cheaper cigarettes and more almost certainly will if the tax is raised, it is still a fact that no state has ever seen revenue drop when increasing tobacco taxes, even when accounting for cross border smuggling.
Missouri's tax may also be partly to blame for the state having the fourth highest percentage of smokers, which isn't a model Kansas should be trying to follow.
Raising the tobacco tax in Kansas would be a win-win situation: a smaller deficit and healthier citizens. Students and the community should contact the governor's office to show support for this new proposal.
Clayton Ashley for The Kansan Editorial Board
MUSIC
CONTACT THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE WITH YOUR SUPPORT
Gov. Mark Parkinson at
785-296-3232
www.governor.ks.gov/
comments
BEN COLDHAM
Lost art of album making
You may be saying to yourself that buying CDs from the store is still perfectly possible, and indeed this does still happen daily. Even so, the concept of the tangible hip-hop album has been discarded for the most part in today's world where music is demanded instantaneously and quantity is valued over quality.
I remember a simpler time when listening to hip-hop was more of a deliberate experience than it is today. One would embark on an excursion to the store, buy a rapper's CD — or cassette tape for the veterans out there — return home and listen to the album the whole way through, track by track.
The Internet now rules the hip-hop world, equipping fans with a seemingly infinite stream of original and remixed material. Because of the emergence of online file sharing, mixtapes have dominated the hip-hop landscape in recent years since they are free and easy to download. A mixtape is a sort of mini album that may involve the artist rhyming over pre-existing beats, rhyming over exclusively original production or a combination of the two.
Mixtapes have been blowing up
The unfortunate result of the mixtape invasion has been a steady dilution of talent and truly good music in the hip-hop pool. Many artists seem to be so concerned with the amount of material they release that they have forgotten about taking the necessary time to craft an actual album, one that's original in content and consistent in quality.
for years now, with every rapper from Lil Wayne to that guy at your local barbershop releasing tapes in an attempt to maximize the exposure to their music.
Though there have been plenty of respectable mixtapes released over the Internet, many consist of a few good songs padded with about 18 tracks of filler material. It often seems that artists get lazy and are so eager to release the one or two good tracks they have that they crank out a dozen mediocre songs
in an effort to get the tape out as soon as possible. More and more artists seem unwilling to dedicate the time and effort to compose and perfect a marquee album these days. As a result the production of genuine hip-hop albums has tragically become somewhat of a lost art.
The Internet is clearly here to stay. This is a good thing for hip-hop as its music and culture will only spread with its help. What we have lost with the rise of the Internet is the ritual of actually buying an album and experiencing it independently as its own unique brand of hip-hop rather than just a bunch more songs on our iTunes.
That, my fellow hip-hop heads, is our loss.
Coldham is a Chicago senior in journalism.
CHECK'EM OUT
HOT TRACK: "Hyyerr" by Kid Cudi
HOT TRACK: Hyyerr by Kid Cud
GOOD, MIXTAPE: "The Check-
point" by Lee Bannon
CLASSIC ALBUM: "Black Star"
by Mos Def & Talib Kweli
CULTURE
Going noodles for opening restaurant
It is 7:45 on a Tuesday night and I am hunting for a meal in the directory of Lawrence restaurants. I see plenty of pizza options, plenty of expensive restaurants where I would have to pay $12 for a grilled cheese and a couple of Chinese options that tempt me, but my laziness keeps me in my cushioned couch.
At this point, I could keep up my four-night streak of pizza, or I could opt for my other overly dialed number in my phone and call Jimmy John's. However, in the near future I will have a new option for my also under nourished wallet and my stomach begging for a new protein to digest.
A Noodles & Company is opening on the corner of Eighth and Massachusetts streets. I have enjoyed Noodles & Company since I was a seventh grader and could get the cheesiest macaroni and cheese I had ever seen at a "fast food" restaurant. The opening of a Noodles & Company in Lawrence is not only going to be a taste-of-home for me, it will benefit the entire population of
I then start to salivate, dreaming of when I could drive to the flagship Noodles & Company in Denver, just five minutes from my house. My mind takes my stomach hostage and flashes images of melty macaroni and cheese, chewy noodles entangling themselves in Pad Thai sauce and comforting curry soup with steam warming my eyelids. I only then snap out of this fantasy and come to my starving reality: I live in Lawrence and there is no Noodles & Company in sight.
As happy as I am to see this restaurant finally make it to Lawrence, I am also sorry to see the locally owned Palace Cards & Gifts being replaced by it. I am a huge supporter of everything locally owned and hate to see corporate America take out another chunk of Lawrence's originality. If only Noodles & Company could have been built on top of the card shop, a strategy I think downtown businesses need to consider in order to supply the demands of Lawrence's growing population.
and other especially the students.
This restaurant will offer a healthier alternative than other fast food places. For one, all of the dishes contain more than a grain, dairy and meat product, which is all most pizzas have. Noodles & Company offers dishes for people watching everything in their diet, from calories and fats to sodium and carbs. In fact, they have 16 dishes with 400 calories or less.
There are more positives than negatives in this addition to the Lawrence dining scene and Noodles & Company will satisfy all those looking for a quick, tasty bite downtown.
Roesler is a Denver junior in journalism.
Lawrence, especially the students.
Recycling economics
BLOG: GREEN MY GUY
While talking about the strange things found in recycling bins (bras and coffee mugs), Austin suddenly asks, "Why don't you take number five plastic?" He was frustrated that he had so diligently washed out a cottage cheese container only to find that Wal-Mart wouldn't accept it.
At the Wal-Mart Recycling Center a few weeks ago, my boyfriend Austin and I chatted up one of the employees there.
The employee explained that it all came down to the green: money. Regrettably, there's been an addition to the interconnected trio (reduce, reuse and recycle): recession. As the demand for new products decreases, the demand for recyclables also decreases. For many materials, particularly plastic, it is simply cheaper to produce more rather than recycle. And as with all businesses, no demand means no money — which invariably means no point.
Wal-Mart, which is in contract with Midwest recycling tycoon Deffenbaugh Industries, only recycles number-one and number-two plastic (water bottles, milk jugs, shampoo bottles) because it's more economical.
I called Chris Scafe of Sunflower Curbside Recycling for more insider information on the green behind this green trade. He explained to me that because number-one and number-two plastic have a higher demand, it
The reason? The green doesn't justify the green. The city is actually saving money throwing our trash into the Hamm Sanitary Landfill — not only because the landfill has such a low tipping cost (the cost to dump trash), but also because recycling is losing its monetary incentives. Yet at a time when more and more people are recycling, it is important that the city provide an accessible service to meet the demand and to encourage more recycling.
Though the economy influences the eco-friendly, recycling is still incredibly important for minimizing the amount of trash on Earth. The most encouraging part of writing this post came when I asked Chris Scafe how he would feel if the city did implement a citywide curbside service and put Sunflower Curbside out of business.
After this, Austin and I began to wonder why the City of Lawrence doesn't provide a citywide curbside recycling program.
is more profitable to spend the effort and money on collecting, storing and transporting these plastics rather than number-five plastics (yogurt containers).
"I got into the recycling for the environment, not the money," Scafe said. "I'd be more than happy to see Lawrence have a citywide recycling service."
Jane Chen is a junior from Olathe.
Her sustainability blog can be read at
greenmegyu.wordpress.com
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Brenna Hawley, Jasmin Sainsh, Jennifer P. Hawley, Callin Thornburgh and Michael Holtz.
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