KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2010 / NEWS
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Dalton Gomez/KANSAN
Peixiang Li, a senior from Beijing, China, is a trumpet player who has played as a special guest in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. During the summer, Li placed second in the International Trumpet Guild Conference. The International Trumpet Guild is the largest organization for trumpet professionals.
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feel pleased with the result. He always felt he could do better. Steven Sharp, a fellow member of the Kansas University Trumpet Ensemble, and a senior from St. Louis, said it takes hours of listening to the material and practicing the fundamentals to hone a person's trumpet skills.
"You can tell he puts in the work." Sharp said.
Taught by members of the Chinese army band in middle school and high school, Li hasn't put down a trumpet since he was 11 years old. He began playing the Chinese national anthem and other songs before following a mentor to a music conservatory in China to
study. When he found out that his mentor was changing his focus from what Li wanted to do, he sent a e-mail to Leising to see if he could come study under him.
Now, over halfway through the fall semester, Li says everything is back to normal. The experience he gained has given him some added confidence, as you can tell as he looks you in the eye as he speaks. He now plays the principle position for the KU Wind Ensemble, one of the University's top performing groups.
Leisring said he was actually happy for Li's winning second instead of first. He said the competition is meant to be practice for
Orchestral Auditions, which can be just as full of pressure as what Li experienced in Australia. If he would've placed first, Li wouldn't be able to enter the competition again in 2011, but now Li definitely plans on entering it again. The competition will be held in Minneapolis.
Li plans to play in an orchestra when he graduates. He said it doesn't matter if it is here in the United States or in China. He just wants to continue to create the music that has already taken him all over the world.
Edited by David Cawthon
Californians vote against pot-legalizing proposition
NATIONAL
LOS ANGELES — It seemed an easy sell in California: The state that gave us medical marijuana would allow pot for recreation.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
pot laws?
A day after voters rejected Proposition 19, marijuana advocates wondered how they failed in trendsetting, liberal California.
Then came the ads, newspaper editorials and politicians, warning of a world where stoned drivers would crash school buses, nurses would show up at work high and employers would be helpless to fire drug-addled workers.
Was it the fear of the unknown?
An older electorate more likely to oppose pot? Voters reluctant to go any further than they already had with the nation's most lax
Whatever the reason, activists vowed Wednesday to push on in California, as well as in states that rejected other pot measures Tuesday.
"Social change doesn't happen overnight," said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for Repeal of Marijuana Laws.
In South Dakota, voters rejected for the second time a medical marijuana measure — a step first taken by California in 1996 and by 13 other states since. Oregon voters refused to expand their medical marijuana program to create a network of state-licensed nonprofit dispensaries.
and older to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana, failed 54 to 46 percent. An Associated Press analysis of exit and pre-election polls found voters opposed Prop 19 regardless of race, gender, income or education level.
Preliminary election returns showed Prop 19 winning in 11 of 58 counties, with the strongest support in San Francisco and Santa Cruz.
But in a sign of what a tough sell it was, Prop 19 lost in the state's vaunted marijuana-growing region known as the "Emerald Triangle" of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties.
The California initiative, which would have allowed adults age 21
Many in the region feared the system would be taken over by corporations or would undercut a cornerstone of the local economy.
The Kansan earns top website award
CAMPUS
"We had to meet over at the ECM." Crank said. "It really nice to have a place where we could all get together and just talk and hang out."
that there is a lot they can do to help obtain equal rights for people of all sexual orientations."
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of Queers and Allies said. "At a time when it wasn't safe to be a gay person; a lot of people took a lot of risks to make this group happen."
The University Daily Kansan's website, Kansan.com, was named one of the best college media websites in the country last week. The Associated Collegiate Press awarded the site its highest honor, the Pacemaker, at its annual conference in Louisville, Kent., Oct. 30. Kansan.com was one of 11 sites given the award, out of nearly 300 candidates, according to the ACP. The contest was judged by a panel of professionals who"noted that the most successful sites displayed excellence in multimedia story telling, writing and editing, site design, in-depth and complete coverage, interactivity, and graphics and photography," a Pacemaker press release read.
When the group first began to meet, Rich Crank, a Lawrence resident, recalls how they weren't even allowed to meet on campus.
During the judgement period last spring Lauren Cunningham, 2009 graduate, was managing editor for Kansan.com; Haley Jones, 2009 graduate, was Web editor; and Stephen Montemayor, a senior from Mission, was editor-in-chief. David Cawthon, a senior from Lenexa, is the current Kansan.com managing editor. Abbey Strusz, a senior from Republic, Mo., is Web editor and Alex Garrison, a senior from Kansas City, Kan., is editor-in-chief.
"In 40 years I'd like people in the group to have a conversation about what they no longer have to do." Albin said. "Things like, do you remember when we couldn't get married? Do you remember when there was a time when we didn't feel safe? It's a continuous fight but it is getting better."
Eventually, Queers and Allies
won the right to meet on campus after the same students who formed the group took the University to court.
Edited by Tim Dwyer
"Here they were, students with no money and they were taking KU to court," Albin said. "It takes a lot to do that."
Today, Quers and Allies has established itself as a major organization on campus. While members of the group acknowledge that LGBT rights have come a long way since the 70's, they still feel
Kansan.com also won the online Pacemaker in 2007 and 2008.
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Boehr said he thought college students were attracted to the drink for three reasons: it's cheap, it's potent and it tastes good.
Alex Garrison
A can of Four Loko is about $2.50.
"It gives you a lot of bang for your buck" he said.
Amanda Allison, a senior from Prairie Village, said she thought people could get "carried away and forget how strong it is" because the drink is deceiving.
"You feel like you're drinking pop" she said. "So it's easy."
Allison said she started buying Four Loko in August because it reminded her of a similar drink called Sparks, which contains 6 percent alcohol — a lower percentage than Four Loko.
"It doesn't take that much to get you drunk." Allison said.
But that could be a problem.
HEALTH
Jenny McKee, health educator at the Wellness Resource Center at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said she heard of Four Loko in spring 2009. The drink was becoming popular in other areas in the nation, but hadn't made it to
Mixing caffeine and alcohol isn't a new concept. From vodka Red Bulls to rum and Cokes, the two have coincided for some time.
In June 2008, the Journals of American College Health released a report stating 26 percent of college students reported drinking alcohol and energy drinks together
Kansas yet, she said.
McKee said the combination of alcohol and caffeine could be dangerous. The two substances are essentially opposites.
Alcohol is a depressant. Caffeine is a stimulant.
Alcohol slows down bodily functions like heart rate and breathing. Caffeine increases heart rate and alertness. The combination could potentially be heart-stopping, McKee said.
The mix of alcohol and caffeine could also lead to a "delayed drunk."
"Anytime you layer drugs,there's definitely going to be a reaction in your body," she said.
McKee said the caffeine content could mask the potency of the alcohol, causing people to drink more.
"There's a lot of concern about whether combining these two is a good idea."
The combination can also be dangerous because caffeine and alcohol are both diuretics, she said. A diuretic is a drug that causes increased urination, which could lead to consumers becoming dehydrated more quickly.
Emily Gnefnow, a junior from Wichita, said she learned about Four Loko on Facebook.
She said that she's not going to try Four Loko because she has heard how dangerous the drink can be.
"I can drink other things, not get sick, and still have fun," she said.
STEVEN SCHMIDT vice president of public policy for NABCA
THE BAN
Four Loko and other caffeinated alcoholic beverages are receiving attention from lawmakers around the country.
EMILY GNEFNOW junior
ranged from 0.12 percent to 0.35 percent.
In a recent Associated Press article, Schmidt, vice press
In October, nine students at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash., and 23 students at Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J. went to the hospital after consuming Four Loko drinks. Their blood alcohol level
dent of public policy for the National Alcoholic Beverage Control Association, said the caffeine and alcohol combination is causing worry. "There's a lot of concern about whether
combining these two is a good idea" Schmidt said.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board sent letters to alcohol distributors in the state asking them to remove alcoholic energy drinks from their shelves, according to a recent article in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Lawmakers in the states of Washington and New York City are working to ban the drink.
Oregon Partnerships, a group that promotes alcohol awareness in Oregon, also wants Four Loko off the shelves. According to a press release,"Oregon Partnership is urging the Food and Drug Administration to ban all alcoholic energy drinks."The press release states that the group feels the drink is targeted toward minors.
Several calls to the Kansas Alcoholic Beverage Control were not answered.
Last November, the FDA sent letters to 30 companies that manufacture beverages containing a mixture alcohol and caffeine. The FDA asked for proof that the companies' drinks were safe, according to an FDA press release. The FDA is still conducting a safety review.
But Four Loko isn't the only beverage that's being scrutinized.
— Edited by Kelsey Nill