KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4. 2010 / NEWS
3A
Speaking of Spain
Tanner Grubbs/KANSAN
Tyler Reynolds, a senior from Austin, Texas, speaks to Laura Ablan, a peer advisor for the Office of Study Abroad, about studying in Barcelona Wednesday afternoon at the Study Abroad Fair in the Kansas Union lobby. Reynolds, who speaks Spanish, spent last summer in Barcelona for vacation, but said he would like to return again this year for academic purposes.
Obama's aunt fights deportation
POLITICS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, plans to make a second bid for political asylum as she goes before an immigration judge Thursday to argue that she should be allowed to stay in the United States.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — President Barack Obama's aunt, a Kenya native who once cared for his siblings, defied a deportation order in 2004 and became a political liability for her famous nephew, she is preparing to make her case in federal Immigration Court that she be allowed to stay in the United States.
Zeituni Onyango, 57, is expecting to make her second bid for political asylum Thursday before an immigration judge in Boston and could potentially argue that her relationship to the president would make her a political target in Kenya's unstable political climate.
"She wants to stay in this country so bad," said Mike Rogers, a spokesman for her attorney.
Onyango moved to the United States in 2000 and first applied for asylum in 2002. Her request was rejected and she was ordered to deport in 2004, but she did not leave the country and continued to live in public housing in Boston.
Her status as an illegal immigrant was revealed just days before Obama was elected in November 2008. Obama said he did not know his aunt was living here illegally and believes laws covering the situation should be followed. A judge later agreed to suspend her deportation order and reopen her asylum case.
People who seek asylum must show that they face persecution in their homeland on the basis of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group. Onyango's immigration attorney, Margaret Wong of Cleveland, said last year that her client first applied for asylum "due to violence in Kenya," but she did not reveal what grounds she has cited in her renewed bid for asylum. The East African nation is fractured by cycles of electoral violence every five years.
Onyango did not return telephone calls seeking comment this week. But in an interview in November, she said she did not tell Obama she was in the country illegally and never asked him to intervene. She also said she has exiled herself from Obama
and his family because she didn't want to become political fodder for his foes.
"Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all." Onyango told The Associated Press at the time.
During the "merits hearing" Thursday, Onyango and her lawyers will get the opportunity to present her reasons for seeking asylum. The Department of Homeland Security acts as a prosecutor at such hearings.
Wong's spokesman, Mike Rogers, would not discuss the immigration hearing, which is closed to the public at Onyango's request. But he said Onyango hopes she will be allowed to stay in the United States and believes "she will prevail once people get the whole story."
Onyango, the half-sister of Obama's late father, helped care
for the president's half-brothers and sister while living with Barack Obama Sr. in Kenya.
She now lives in a small apartment in a subsidized public housing complex for seniors and the disabled. She said in November that she is learning to walk again after being paralyzed for more than three months because of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder.
Asylum cases are difficult to win, said immigration attorney Hanish Ali.
"The burden is really on the asylum seeker, who has to prove a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries. Often, that's hard to do." Ali said.
Ali said she is unsure what effect Onyango's status as Obama's aunt will have on her asylum bid, but said: "It can't hurt."
Mischevious chicken finds a new home
ODD NEWS
GLENDALE, Calif. — A black chicken that spent two months dodging cars, coyotes and captors at a busy Glendale intersection is a sitting duck no more. Berna Arnold and her 8-year-old son said they used fishing nets to catch the elusive hen and move her to their Simi Valley home, where she is living with a horse, a bearded dragon, lizards and three other chickens.
Pasadena Humane Society animal control officers tried at least seven times in the last two months to catch the bird, which they considered a traffic hazard. A spokeswoman said the hen always flew into the trees or ran into traffic and officers would have to back off. The bird was named Lucky.
Island Expressway. An alert sheriff's deputy on Long Island became suspicious when he saw the "passenger" wearing sunglasses and using the visor. The only problem: The sky was overcast.
ISLANDIA, N.Y. — The tipop was the sunglasses. A New Yorker faces a $135 traffic fine for using a mannequin as her plus-one in the high-occupancy lane of the Long
Mannequin makes perfect passenger
Associated Press
When he stopped the vehicle, he found the mannequin, fully dressed with a long dark wig, blazer, shirt and scarf.
749-0055 • 704 Mass. • rudyspizzeria.com
HEALTH
Men advised to receive HPV vaccine at Watkins
BY ROBERT ALTMAN
raltman@kansan.com
"We certainly see a lot of guys that come in with bumps that end up being warts," said Dr. Robert Brown, a physician at Watkins. "For some people, genital warts can be a huge burden. Sometimes they're fairly prominent, can be pretty frustrating and hard to get rid of, and that can create a big emotional burden as well."
Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccination, has been recommended to young women since 2006 because women are at a greater risk of developing cancer from the infection. But the vaccine was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for men as well, and it is available at Watkins Memorial Health Center.
Gardasil protects against four types of HPV — two that are the most common causes of cervical cancer and could increase
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and is responsible for most cases of genital warts.
the risk for penile, anal, oral and throat cancers, and two that predominantly cause genital warts. What scares doctors, he said, is that HPV can often be passed among sexual partners for years without any symptoms at all, and it is often overlooked by men because they have a smaller risk of developing cancer from the infection.
"It's something that men should think about in terms of responsibility," Brown said. "This will protect them from getting something that could be passed to future girlfriends or wives, things that could actually both increase risk of cervical cancer and genital warts."
Because many insurance companies cover the vaccine, the shots should cost almost nothing for most college students.
"I definitely think people should get it," said Gianni Secchi, a senior from Dallas. "If it's practically free, then I don't know why anyone wouldn't get it."
COST: The vaccine is fully covered by most insurance companies, and is free for those with no insurance who meet certain requirements.
WHERE: Watkins Memorial Health Center
THREE SHOTS FOR HEALTH
WHAT: HPV vaccine for both women and men
WHY: To guard against genital warts and certain caners
The vaccine is administered in three shots that are usually about $150 each. Merck, the company that makes Gardasil, has also set up programs that ensure patients won't pay more than $40 if their
insurance offers only partial coverage and that provides free shots for people without health insurance who are older than 19 and meet financial guidelines.
Brown said that students aren't often as worried about cancer that develops later in life and hoped that the more immediate risks of warts would persuade men to get the vaccine.
Edited by Allyson Shaw
SHORE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
After nailing the accents, the players focused on dressing the part. They wore the infamous "hair poof," along with heavy makeup to get the overly spray tanned look sported by the "jersey shore" crew
And they had a good time doing it.
"Plus we used up an entire can of hairspray."
"My favorite part of it was definitely getting ready to go out," said Jeannene Francia, a sophomore defender who played "Snooki."
The players were concerned the parody would fall flat with the layRock audience, but it received a great response from the crowd.
"Honestly, we were really scared that none of the athletes would think it was funny," Miramontez said.
Even though the skit did not place in the top three of the JayRock
competition, it clearly has become a success on YouTube. And, in case the team still had any doubt, the players have been getting the ultimate sign of approval.
"The athletes come up to us whenever they see us on campus now just so they can call us by our Jersey Shore names," Francia said.
— Edited by Kate Larrabee
THE UDK'S GUIDO GLOSSARY
Blowout: A men's guido hairstyle made by applying lots of hair gel; usually takes at least half an hour to properly apply
As members of the news staff have watched nearly every episode of "Jersey Shore," we compiled a quick glossary:
Creatures: A term sometimes used by guidos to describe women
Creep: A way to flirt with women; used in both positive and negative connotations
GTL: Gym, Tanning, Laundry
Fist-pumping: A guido's choice way to dance; just as simple as it sounds
Guido/Guidette:
Grenade: A less-than-attractive woman that a guido's wingman should flirt with so that the guido can flirt with her more attractive friend
Guido/Guidette:
on which cast member you ask, the guido/guidette identity consists of family, hair gel, tanning, lots of interaction with the opposite sex, drinking, steroid-enhanced muscles, revealing outfits and lots of dancing
Juicehead: A man whose muscles are ridiculously big, usually performance-enhanced
Poof: A guidette's hairstyle that consists of tall hair in the
front; it's still unclear why this is attractive to men
Pounding it out:
Having sex
The Situation: Cast member Mike Sorrentino, who loves his abs so much he gave them (along with himself) this nickname