Over 11,000 nurses from five U. California medical centers — including the U. California-San Diego medical centers — will strike on June 10 to protest unsafe nurse-to-patient ratios, the National Nurses United announced last Friday.

“One of the things we’ve been asking is that the [nurse-to-patient] ratio should be maintained at all times,” UCSD Medical Center – Hillcrest registered nurse Janice Webb said. “We’re asking for break-relief nurses. That’s a nurse that comes in and watches your patient while you’re on break.”

The protest, slated to be the largest nurse strike in U.S. history, will also include an additional 14,000 nurses from California and Minnesota, totaling 25,000 participants.

California law requires hospitals to maintain at least one nurse for every three to five patients, depending on the care the patients receive. The union said it wants to mandate stronger enforcement of these laws and establish safe ratios at all times.

According to Webb, the medical centers do not have enough nurses to attend the patients.

“We’ve been having meetings with hospitals that say they already have charge nurses, but realistically they can’t maintain the ratio on breaks,” she said. “A lot of times when the charge nurses [or nurses who supervise] watch, there are still more nurses needed — just someone to help out.”

However, in an online statement, the UC Office of the President contended that such a strike is without legitimate cause.

“The university considers this action unlawful, a violation of good-faith bargaining requirements and a clear violation of the parties’ contract,” UCOP said in their statement.

The strike will also attempt to secure the nurses’ retirement benefits to make sure neither politicians nor the health industry can easily rescind them.

“The other thing we’re concerned about is the pension and our health benefits,” Webb said. “Things are getting expensive now, and they’re trying to look at ways to cut costs. That’s going to affect people, and we want the ability to negotiate with them when they decide.”

According to Webb, the California Nurses Association recently presented UC medical centers with a resolution to the problem before resorting to a state-wide strike.

“We didn’t come up with a cookie-cutter program,” Webb said. “We made a recommendation based on each unit, what type of patients they have. We actually had a well thought out plan, and we’d like to give it a try and enter a contract so that way we’d actually be able to enforce the plan.”

Webb said that the UC medical centers would benefit if more nurses were brought in to care for patients.

“There are all these issues they’re having at all hospitals in California, such as patients falling,” Webb said. “Break nurses can help out with that kind of stuff — the little things that kind of fall through the cracks when people are on breaks.”

She added that improving the nurse-to-patient ratio is a necessity in order to maintain quality care in the medical centers.

“People deserve more time to take a deep breath,” Webb said. “You can’t really work that well if you’re not going to have enough time to gather your thoughts, especially in this difficult field of work. You need it to give the patients the good care they deserve.”

UCSD Health System spokesperson Kimberly Edwards claims the medical centers do not know what actions they will take in response to the strike.

“It’s too early in the process for speculation, financial or otherwise,” she said.

As a sophomore moving off campus, Western Washington U. senior Maddie Ohrt rented from Bellingham’s Painless Property Management at its University Heights complex on the corner of Bill McDonald Parkway and 21st Street. During winter, she and her three roommates received a letter from their landlord asking them to turn down their heat because it was costing too much.

“It was January and February, [heat is] included in our rent, it’s part of our contract, and we’re going to use it,” Ohrt said. “That’s kind of ridiculous to request in January.”

Later, upon entering the ground-floor bedroom of Ohrt’s former roommate, Western alumna Katherine Collins, she found the screen broken and a knife resting on the windowsill. Despite requests for a new one, the damaged screen was never replaced. No one was harmed and nothing had been stolen, but Ohrt said she could understand why her roommate felt unsafe.

Problems like these with her property management company dissuaded her from renting with it again.

“They just didn’t seem to care all that much about the students,” she said.

Ohrt said that between the heat, the broken screen and an unclear cleaning fee deducted from her deposit, she would hesitate before recommending the company to other students.

Ohrt’s apartment complex, University Heights, is located close to campus, a convenience that allows landlords to continually raise the rent, she said.

“It’s just difficult to find someplace to live and then have [the rent] increase,” she said. “It discouraged me from signing another lease. [Rent is] going up $60. It’s not worth it.”

State authorizes inspection programs
A state law passed in March regarding licensing and inspection policies for residential rental properties will take effect June 10. Senate Bill 6459 provides city governments the right to require a certificate of inspection as a condition of property management companies receiving a license as a business.

The House Bill Report summarized public testimony by representatives of housing organizations, among others, that emphasized the ability licensing and inspection will have to resolve substandard housing. According to the report, speakers of the opposition, including representatives from the cities of Pasco, Tukwila and Seattle, expressed the lack of flexibility licensing laws would provide for individual cities to adopt their own programs for unique housing situations, according to the report.

On June 1, the Seattle City Council approved its own legislation on licensing and inspection. By passing it before June 10, the council was able to sidestep restrictions of the bill. This will allow the city to establish programs better-tailored to it, according to the text of the ordinance.

Following discussions in 2003, 2004, 2008 and as recently as December 2009, the Bellingham City Council will continue to consider the possibility of implementing these programs in Bellingham. Concerns about noise and housing quality, among others things, are prompting the council to revisit options for licensing and inspection in Bellingham.

At a May 24 council committee meeting, Mark Gardner, the legislative policy analyst for the city council, presented options for rental housing licensing in Bellingham.

During the public comment period, several landlords spoke in opposition to the potential programs, citing the rising costs for them and their renters alike.

“We have to wonder why all rental property owners should be punished for the sins of a few bad apples,” said Cal Leenstra, an agent for John L. Scott Real Estate in Bellingham. “Adopting this new draconian law, with new levels of bureaucracy and costs, seems unwarranted and ill-advised.”

Joan Sova, broker and president of Bellingham’s Son-Rise Property Management, Inc., pointed out that avenues exist for renters and neighbors to address problems.

A hypothetical scenario in Gardner’s report proposed licensing fees for landlords at $36 for single-family rental residences and $30 for all others, which would go toward costs for inspection. These costs would ultimately trickle down to the renter through increases in rent, Leenstra said.

Without question the tenant would pay for these increases to offset the cost, said Jeff Solomon, an attorney at Bellingham’s Belcher Swanson Law Firm, PLLC.

Dick Conoboy, a resident of the Samish neighborhood, also spoke at the May 24 council meeting. Under the pseudonym “The Zonemaven,” Conoboy maintains a blog that has been following the licensing discussion. In a recent post, he commented on Gardner’s hypothetical scenario that could add a $3 fee to each single-family home rental.

“The price of a large mocha coffee per month is hardly an unacceptable amount, given the prospect of increased health and safety protections that a licensing and inspection program would bring,” he wrote. “The Zonemaven’s question to the students is: ‘How valuable is your well-being?’”

After discussion at both the committee and regular city council meetings, the council voted to schedule a committee meeting at a later date in order to further discuss the topic.

“They can sit and talk about what this will look like until the cows come home,” Conoboy said.

Act requires tenants’ grievances to be addressed
With so many landlords in the Bellingham rental market, it can be hard to separate the quality ones.

“It’s like taking a bucket of bad apples and dumping it with a bucket of good,” said Bellingham City Councilmember Gene Knutson at the May 24 meeting. “It’s all mixed up.”

Dave Hansen, a broker for Lakeway Realty Property Management for more than 30 years, said about one-third to a half of his tenants are students.

“The biggest gripes that students have [are] not getting repairs done fast enough by an owner,” Hansen said. “I’m not particularly saying us, but any owners.”

One of the most common of these repairs is burst pipes, he said.

Washington State’s Landlord-Tenant Act dictates that certain repairs must be done within a specific amount of time. For instance, landlords are obligated to restore hot or cold water, heat or electricity within 24 hours of being notified. They don’t necessarily have to be completed within that time, though, Hansen said. He said his contractors can respond to and evaluate what needs to be done, but some cannot be finished because, for example, a part has to be ordered.

“Repairs are just a phone call away,” Hansen said.

Property management receptionist decries former employer
Western senior Melody Freeman related her experience working for Lakeway as an assistant secretary from September 2008 to January 2009. Although she never rented from the company, Freeman observed the practices of the employees and their impact on tenants, she said.

“I saw all these different situations and all these other people, and that’s when I was done,” she said. “Every day, there was a huge crisis, and I found myself crying every night because of the stress.”

Freeman’s day-to-day work included answering phone calls, writing letters to tenants and posting advertisements on Craigslist.org.  Almost a month into her job, Freeman found that her duties expanded beyond what she was initially hired for, she said.

Soon, she said, she was expected to deal with angry tenants who refused to speak to anyone but the landlord.

Maintenance problems such as a tenant’s overflowing toilet were put on to her, only to get filed away and ignored, she said.

“And I know that, because I filed them,” Freeman said. “I’d just shake my head and put them in the file. I was so tired of getting in trouble for things that weren’t my fault.”

Washington state’s Landlord-Tenant Act prohibits withholding rent for any reason, but tenants would threaten it, demanding that their problems be taken care of. Most of them had the right to, Freeman said.

She granted that emergency maintenance issues such as a burst pipe that would cause damage to the residence were taken care of immediately. Likewise, tenants’ threats to sue would also trigger a prompt response.

“They were nice until you signed the lease,” she said. “Then, they grow horns.”

Students are not the only ones at risk
Steve Swan, Western’s vice president for University Relations, said he suffered because of the practices of one of those bad apples.

When he moved into his sub-leased house a year and a half ago, Swan said, he knew it would require a good deal of cleaning.

“When we moved out, the place couldn’t have been any cleaner,” he said. “It was immaculate.”

Despite assurances from the property manager that the deposit would be returned, Swan did not receive any of the roughly $1,200 deposit until four months later. Only after Swan’s realtor made contact with the company and threatened to get an attorney did he finally receive half of his deposit back, he said.

Western senior Lucas Hall has been following the rental licensing debate since attending a student-hosted forum designed to have tenants, landlords and community members discuss the possibilities together.

“[Rental companies’] bottom line is money,” he said. “For you to assume any different is naïve.”

As the state’s licensing law takes effect and the city council continues to debate it, landlords and tenants alike agree there are ways to prevent disputes.

“I think it’s like anything else in life. Read what you have up front,” Swan said. “Take time and have as best an understanding of what you are signing as you can. Ask tough questions.”
Hansen agreed.

“I see when people come in and read [the lease],” he said, “that’s a sign they’re going to be a pretty good tenant.”

As a leader of the Socialist Youth in Valparaiso, Chile, Guillermo “Willie” Lopez was considered a threat to the newly instated Pinochet government and was taken and tortured on the first day of the 1973 military coup.

He survived three years of torture and imprisonment in the concentration camps and prisons in Chile during the Pinochet government, where he was brutally beaten during interrogations, subjected to waterboarding and shocked with electrodes.

Lopez will give a presentation about survival of the regime at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 4, at Western Washington U. He will speak about the events that led to the dictatorship and his struggles against it.

He will also discuss his 13-year exile from Chile that prompted him to share his experiences with others to gain support in demanding justice from the government.

According to the Hinchey Report, which discloses the United States’ CIA activities in Chile throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the CIA was aware of a military coup plot in Chile and did not try to stop it.

Lopez was 22 years old on Sept. 11, 1973, when Augusto Pinochet staged that coup against democratically elected President Salvador Allende. Lopez was imprisoned in concentration camps, interrogation headquarters and prisons for three years. He was then forced into exile for the next 13 years.

Lopez said that on the first day of the coup, the police took him to their headquarters in Valparaiso, Chile. After days of torture, violence and constant questioning, Lopez was sent to the public prison and then to the Isla Riesco concentration camp.

Lopez said interrogators attached electrodes to his mouth and genitals, sending electrical currents through his body.

According to the Valech Report, which describes cases of torture and civil rights abuses under the Pinochet government, thousands of others were also tortured like Lopez. He said many people had bones broken and cigarettes burned into their skin.

Lopez said that Chilean marines ran Isla Riesco as a clandestine underground operation with horrific conditions, malicious beatings and a system of forced manual labor. The only bathrooms were latrines, and to bathe, there was one tank of water for all 400 prisoners. Lopez said disobedience of any kind resulted in a savage beating.

“In there, you always lived in uncertainty and fear of what would happen,” Lopez said.

Lopez was later sent to the Chacabuco concentration camp, which he said held about 1,500 prisoners. After another four months, Pinochet began transferring some of the detainees, including Lopez, to public prisons. For the next two years,

Lopez was incarcerated in the Valparaiso prison until he was expelled from the country in 1976.

“Lopez was an advocate for social justice before he was imprisoned and tortured,” said Marie Marchand, executive director of the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center.  “He is still an advocate. He teaches us that the flame of the human spirit cannot be extinguished when it is on the side of justice. There is a wrong side of history and a right side of history. In order to be counted on the right side, we must act on behalf of justice.”

Upon his release, Lopez’s left kidney was failing, and at a mere 90 pounds, he was extremely frail. He was also psychologically tormented by his experiences.

“But I always had faith and hope that I would get out,” Lopez said.

In 2003, then-President of Chile Ricardo Lagos commissioned the Valech Report to document the cases of torture and civil rights abuses under the Pinochet government. More than 27,000 victims testified for the report. However, these testimonies were classified as confidential by the Chilean government and will be sealed for 50 years.

Lopez said there is still a lot of secrecy within the government about the abuses during Pinochet’s dictatorship, and that this creates a lot of controversy.

Lopez said sealing the testimonies hinders torture victims from attaining justice because it makes the evidence harder to access.

Lopez said he feels he has not gotten justice for the crimes committed against him and would like further acknowledgment for his torture and imprisonment, as well as having the testimonies made available to the public. Lopez currently has a pending lawsuit against the Chilean government, and is a co-director of both Anexpp and Unexpp, two

Chilean organizations that aid former political prisoners and prisoners of war.

“There’s a lot we’re not told,” said Kirsten Drickey, visiting assistant professor of Spanish at Western.

The United States accepted Lopez as an exile in 1976. However, this forced him to leave his parents and sisters behind in Chile. Lopez said he had conflicting emotions about going to the United States. He said he was grateful he had an escape from the Pinochet government, but at the same time, was angry that the United States knew of the coup but did nothing to stop it.

“But the people of the United States have big hearts,” Lopez said.

Lopez was forbidden to return to Chile, where his family still lived, for the next 13 years. Lopez said he was heartbroken from not being able to see his mother.

“I wanted to get out alive for my mom, because I didn’t want her to suffer,” Lopez said. “For her, I survived.”

Lopez said he hopes that by spreading awareness to the public about Chile’s violent history, he can help the human rights abuses during the Pinochet government be recognized on a grand scale.

“Solidarity, justice, peace,” Lopez said. “Those are beautiful qualities.”

Sheila Dashtestani is a junior and a Human Services major at Western. She is an intern at the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center.

The Republican battle to replace Bob Riley in the Governor’s Mansion took another turn Tuesday night following the uncertain results of the GOP’s primary election.

After counting the votes in a political contest that drew mocking attention from the national press, GOP voters still do not know who will be facing Bradley Byrne in the July 13 GOP runoff.

Byrne, a former two-year college chancellor, led the pack of Republican gubernatorial candidates, receiving 28 percent of the vote. Greenville businessman Tim James and Tuscaloosa physician Robert Bentley both brought in 25 percent of the Republican primary vote.
With 99 percent of Alabama’s precincts reporting, Bentley held a narrow 140-vote lead over James. According to Alabama election laws, an official recount must take place if a statewide election is determined by less than 1 percent of the vote, and Bentley and James were separated by 0.1 percent. Most election night commentators said they believed the recount  would be completed by June 8.
Byrne, who led Tuesday’s primary election, remained ahead in the polls throughout much of the campaign.

His success throughout the governor’s race made him a target for well-funded attacks. In one of the twists of the campaign, the Alabama Education Association and its teachers’ union was linked to a series of attack ads that criticized Byrne for supporting the teaching of evolution.

However, Byrne said it was partisan bias and not evolution that was responsible for the union’s attacks.

“The AEA is headed by two leaders of the Democratic Party,” he said. “They did not want me to win because I’m the strongest Republican against Ron Sparks.”

Byrne struck a defiant tone Tuesday after his strong performance with primary voters.

“I fought with them when I was chairman of the two-year college system to remove corruption from that system, and they know that if I get into office as governor then I will continue to fight to improve education and fight corruption.”

Byrne also remained consistent in his belief that evolution should continue to be taught in public educational institutions.

“Evolution is the most widely accepted scientific explanation for the origin of life,” he said. “That does not mean that people are not free to bring their own understanding of origins of life which may come from their faith or other scientific theories in to play. But certainly we should be teaching evolution as the main scientific theory behind the origin of life.”

Coming in first place and avoiding the recount will give Byrne an advantage in the runoff election, he said.

“It sends a signal to a lot of different people, who may have voted for another candidate that didn’t make it, that a lot of people support me or support the principles on which I stand,” he said. “I think it will help us attract more people to our position in the runoff.”
Byrne also said he doesn’t care whether he faces Bentley or James in the Republican runoff.

“It really doesn’t matter to me. I know both of them. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. We’re sitting here working on our campaign for the runoff,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s not going to change our message at all. It may change a tactic here and there, but it’s not going to have a major impact on our campaign.”

Bentley, who left his District 63 seat in the state legislature to run for governor, was the surprise of the night, overcoming a substantial fundraising disadvantage and name recognition concerns. The Tuscaloosa legislator credited his strong performance to positive campaigning and his opponents fighting one another.

Bentley ran a campaign focused on unemployment and promised that, if elected, he would serve without pay until Alabama reaches full employment.

James, the son of former Alabama Governor Fob James, also had a strong resurgence in recent months, despite poorer performance in earlier polls.

James gained national media attention for a television advertisement on the subject of driver’s license testing. In the ad, James says that if he is governor, driver’s tests will be given in English only.

The ads struck a nerve across Alabama, and drew contemptuous rebukes from national media outlets such as The New York Times. Still, the controversial ads energized a campaign that may still make the GOP runoff.

For three weeks in May, about 50 freshman and sophomore University Fellows participated in the Black Belt Experience, developing community relationships and aiding an often forgotten rural town.

“[The program] aims to introduce the members of the University Fellows Experience to the necessity of forming partnerships to achieve common goals in a community,” said Gina Miller, Black Belt Experience coordinator.

By meeting with educators, chamber of commerce members and citizens of Marion, and by conducting research of the area, the group organized various projects to benefit the city.

Fourteen projects were organized, with two to seven students working on each one, Miller said. The projects, some of which are still ongoing, ranged from reading programs and arts in the local schools to providing small loans to new businesses.

During their first week of the, students strengthened their knowledge of the region by traveling to the surrounding areas, including Gee’s Bend, Cahaba, Selma and Livingston.

“Being from Birmingham, I really didn’t know small town life at all,” said Jake Appelbaum, a junior majoring in marketing.

“I think some of us were a little apprehensive,” he said. “Just small worries: ‘Maybe they won’t be fully open to our ideas because we’re outsiders,’ but [our worries] were all proved wrong within the first week of being there.”

Appelbaum, along with a few other classmates, beautified Marion’s cemetery and created its database, simplifying the process of locating specific graves. Appelbaum said the idea for the project came after talking with the people of Marion and seeing an interest in restoring the cemetery.

The group and its faculty emphasized the need to get to know the community and listen to the citizens and their needs.

“Something that we were told was that we couldn’t come in on a white horse with our own ideas. You have to be received by the community before you can change anything,” said David Bailey, a sophomore majoring in finance and entrepreneurship.

Bailey said he collaborated with a friend on a micro-finance project. The project, which was started outside of the Black Belt Experience, looks to give small business loans to individuals that do not meet loan qualifications set by banks.

“Our goal is to prove microfinance works in the South,” Bailey said. “A good example of how limited [loans are] is that we met with one lady who wants to open a thrift store. All she needs is $2,500, she’s had her business plan for three years, but can’t get a loan.”

Appelbaum emphasized that, though the Black Belt is overlooked, it is a part of Alabama with a rich culture and history.

“A big thing you always hear about the Black Belt is its stats; obesity, health, corrupt leadership,” he said. “But when you go and meet the people there, you experience the love they have for their community and each other, and that love is unparalleled to past experiences I’ve had in my life.”

Miller said one of the reasons Marion was chosen as the base for the Black Belt Experience was its proximity to campus. Being only an hour away from Tuscaloosa, students can visit to maintain the connections they made during May.

Many of the students plan to go back to Marion to sing karaoke and visit the town they so closely bonded with, Miller said.

“The vision of the Black Belt Experience is to continually build relationships with Marion citizens,” she said. “We want to be a presence in the Marion community for years to come.

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks sent political shockwaves across the state and country with his victory over U.S. Rep. Artur Davis to earn the Democratic nomination in Alabama’s upcoming gubernatorial election.

Tuesday’s victory capped a large comeback for the underdog Agriculture Commissioner. At one time Sparks badly trailed an opponent who has long been hailed as one of the South’s rising political stars.

Leaders of the Alabama Democratic Party had reportedly been so concerned with Sparks’ viability that they spent a great deal of effort seeking out stronger candidates.

Tuesday night, however, Sparks racked up 62 percent of the Democratic primary vote to Davis’ 38 percent.

Sparks said the results were not a big surprise.

“I don’t know that it’s particularly an upset,” he said. “I know if you listen to the pundits and the bogus polls then you might consider it an upset, but we’ve considered all along that we had a good shot at winning this campaign.”

“You always have a feel when you’re traveling the state of Alabama,” he said. “We felt good about the campaign. Probably not by this margin, but when we started seeing some of the trends, we felt very comfortable.”

Congressman Davis was widely considered to be the favorite heading into election night.

“This is not the speech I had planned to give tonight,” he offered in his concession.

Davis’ campaign had garnered a great deal of attention from both local and national media. But his downfall with Democratic voters may have been in November 2009, when he was the only black congressman to vote against President Barack Obama’s health care reform package.

Sparks pointed to Davis’ health care vote as a factor in the campaign.

“It certainly played a role,” Sparks said. “I don’t know how big of a role, but there were a number of people in that district that I heard from that it was an important issue.”

Also complicating Davis’ pathway to victory in Alabama’s Democratic primary was his decision to shun endorsements from major black political groups.

Those groups, including the Alabama Democratic Conference and Alabama New South Coalition, endorsed Sparks instead.

Regardless, Sparks said he does not believe race played any role in the Democratic primary.

“There is really no place for race in a campaign, and we certainly didn’t do anything in our campaign to inject race into it,” he said. “There certainly were some folks that tried, but we just kept focused and kept moving forward.”

Sparks ran on the main issue of legalizing gambling in Alabama, stressing that legalizing, taxing and regulating gambling would significantly aid many of Alabama’s needs, from medical care funding to improving schools.

Sparks also said he has no problem using a wedge issue, like gambling, in the general election.

“I don’t think any time you give the people of Alabama an opportunity to have a voice on a critical issue you could go wrong,” he said.

“People need to understand that we’re broke. The money that Barack Obama has sent to Alabama, the $2 billion, is gone. If we don’t find a revenue stream to come into this state, then education is going to be in trouble, Medicaid is going to be in trouble.

“Gambling in this state has been legal for many years, the problem with this particular issue is that we haven’t taxed it, we haven’t regulated it and we don’t have a gaming commission.”

Sparks credits telephone campaigning for overcoming the huge fundraising disparity between himself and Davis and looks to rely heavily on the tactic for the general election.

“We were relentless,” he said. “It’s something I don’t particularly like to do, but we have to do it, because it’s part of the process, and people started buying into our campaign. Fortunately we were able to raise enough money to get our message out, and we are appreciative of that. That is what we’ve got to do now, go back to the phone and start asking people to invest in our campaign.”

Sparks will face Robert Bentley, Bradley Byrne or Tim James in the Gubernatorial general election November 2.

After the spring semester, the University of Alabama’s Give-N-Go program collected a record of 35,040 pounds of donated items for Hannah Homes across Tuscaloosa, Shelby and Jefferson counties, providing basic necessities to women and children of domestic violence, according to a UA news release.

Through the program, students could donate unwanted items at any of the 16 locations set up near residential communities in the last weeks of spring classes, the news release also stated.

Sponsored by the Community Service Center and Housing and Residential Communities, the Give-N-Go program began in 2006 and has grown every year, said Joshua Burford, the Community Service Center’s coordinator of freshman outreach.

“We have made some great partnerships over the years and have been able to help a lot of people in Tuscaloosa in need,” he said. “The program has been such a success, housing and the community service center are in talks of having a second Give-N-Go donation during the summer term.”

Kyle Holt, a junior majoring in business who works as a desk assistant at the Ridgecrest South Residential Community, said the process went smoothly.

“It is extremely beneficial to students moving out because it allows them to rid themselves of their unwanted items, while still providing for the less fortunate,” he said.

Noomi Grootens, a sophomore majoring in public relations who donated from Tutwiler Hall, said she feels it was a success, though some things could be changed.

“Although I donated, I wasn’t really sure where my items were going,” she said. “I think that students should be made more aware of the donation process and that it’s going to needy families in the community, and maybe then our donations can increase even more.”

Kathy Porter, a representative from the Hannah Home, said the donations are always beneficial and a great thing to have.

“We provide counseling, shelter and even transportation to families in need; here at the Hannah Home, our main goal is to assist families of domestic violence in starting over, and with these donations, the first step is made a little bit easier.”

There was a time I thought all skinheads were racists. Because of popular media, and no one telling me otherwise, I associated the white power movement and neo-Nazis with skinheads.

I have since started educating myself about the truth — after being clued-in by some friends.

I delved into literature, read what I could find about skinhead culture and quickly discovered that my thoughts differed from reality. While the white power movement definitely does exist, and their hatred permeates everything they touch, there was also a separate, documented tradition that I found in the book “The Spirit of 69” that had nothing to do with white power, and everything to do with being a skinhead.

“The Spirit of 69” opened my eyes to a culture entrenched in the working class, with a strong sense of community and that listened to Oi!, reggae, ska and soul music. There was aggression to be sure, but getting rowdy with friends is something I understand. I realized there was something going on I previously had no idea about, and I needed to talk to skinheads to learn more.

I was afforded the opportunity to talk to an individual who has been a traditional skinhead for two decades. He asked to be referred to as “Jimmy P.”

I pressed the issue of racism in our talk, I needed my previous ideas associating skinheads with racism to be obliterated in order for new ideas to replace the old.

Jimmy P. has invested a lot emotionally in what it means to be a traditional skinhead. I was surprised when he articulated his thoughts on those that claim skinhead yet are part of the white power movement with grace and poignancy.

“To embrace and to truly love traditional skinhead and publicly be white power? That’s like telling your birth mother you’re adopted — you can’t. I don’t know how you’d reconcile it.

“I don’t have a problem with people until they impose their values on mine. If white power people want to express themselves and openly parade and do whatever, that’s OK,” he said. “But they can’t hijack our title. They can’t hijack our image. I don’t give them the courtesy or the respect of calling them skinheads.”

The most important aspect of being a skinhead is the tight-knit community. In fact, the brother/sisterhood formed amongst skinheads is one I find close to the ties found among military personal that have served together. They’re part of a group that is vastly misunderstood, and being part of a group like that requires sacrifice of the self. Whether it’s adhering to community standards or dealing with how the media misconstrues what it means to be a skinhead, being a skinhead is a serious decision that requires members to constantly be conscientious of their affiliation.

That’s not to say all skinheads get along. Jimmy P. said something that explained it aptly, “One of our brothers said it best, he said: ‘You’ll find brothers where ever you go, they just aren’t your brothers.’”

When I asked another traditional skinhead local to Des Moines — who wishes to remain anonymous — what being a skinhead meant, they said, “When you boil it down, it’s a working class subculture that has a higher level of pride and loyalty than most groups or subcultures do.”

I think that pairs with Jimmy P.’s idea that being a skinhead is, in a large part, “Fun, fashion, dancing, and friends.” That phrase paints a pretty good picture of what it means to be a skinhead.

The evolution of my opinion on skinheads is pretty remarkable. I went from the status quo of buying into what media was selling, “All skinheads are violent racists,” to understanding that the opposite is true. Are there racists that claim skinhead? Yes, and they allow blind hatred to overwhelm the strong tradition that is completely opposite of what they are doing.

What really troubles me though, is how I ever started out at ignorance from square one. I thought I was smarter than that, better than that. I thought I didn’t need to just believe what I was told. I let myself down. This is your chance to, better than believing what media shoves down your throat, reject a monolithic view that has no basis in reality.

Although Florida is home to sandy beaches and sunny weather, every year the state may play host to an unwelcomed visitor — hurricanes. And according to scientists, this year’s season is expected to be the most active in more than a century.

Over the past century, hurricane season, which officially began Tuesday and will end Nov. 30, has meant a 52 percent probability that at least one major hurricane will land on the U.S. coast.

However, researchers at Colorado State U. have issued a report that boosts chances to 76 percent — labeling the season “active to extremely active,” according to standards set by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

According to NOAA, there is a 70 percent chance that 14 to 23 named storms with winds of at least 39 mph, 8 to 14 hurricanes with winds of at least 74 mph and 3 to 7 major hurricanes with winds of at least 111 mph, will cross the Atlantic basin this season.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a hurricane warning is issued when winds reach at least 74 mph and are expected to touch land within 24 hours.

Jennifer Collins, an assistant professor of geography at USF and president of the West Central Florida American Meteorological Society (AMS), said this increase in activity could be the result of a rise in oceanic temperatures, which she said are warmer than usual in the tropical Atlantic.

Collins, whose research on the inactive 2009 hurricane season will be published in the National Weather Association’s “Weather Digest,” said the predictions indicate that we have moved out of the El Niño phase, which kept activity down with strong wind conditions during the latter half of the year.

“The strong wind shear in an El Niño … would inhibit strong formation of hurricanes,” Collins said. She said wind shear is an atmospheric change in the speed or direction of wind.

“Instead we are in neutral conditions in the tropical Pacific and La Niña conditions are becoming increasingly likely, making it less likely that wind shear will tear storms apart,” she said.

According to NOAA, La Niña is associated with cooler than normal water temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean.

To prepare for impending hurricanes, program director of Traffic Operations and Safety at the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) Pei-Sung Lin said students should first know which evacuation zone they are located in.

Evacuation zone maps of Florida are available on the Hillsborough County website under the hurricane information tab. USF is in evacuation zone 11.

Lin said students should pay attention to evacuation routes when traveling on interstate highways. A counter flow, or one-way flow of traffic on the highways, can be implemented for smoother evacuations.

To assist students on campus, the USF Division of Public Safety created a five-day plan to prepare for an oncoming hurricane, which was updated in June 2009 and made available on the USF website.

A “Continuity of Operations Plan” (COOP) was also established to get the University up and running after a hurricane passes through.

“We’ve got strong capability of recovery and sustainability after a storm through COOP,” said University deputy of police J.D. Withrow. “We have enough fuel on hand to run generators for two weeks.”

Withrow said that if USF gets hit, the Sun Dome, the hospital and the Police Department each have generators.

In the event that USF loses power, “one of the key things we’d want to get restored … is the Internet,” said assistant Vice President of Public Safety Alana Ennis. “If there was debris, we’d want to clean that up, too.”

Withrow said hurricanes are much easier to prepare for than natural disasters like tornadoes because of their slow-moving nature.

“If we’re anywhere in the cone of uncertainty, we’re prepared,” he said. “Each day, we have specific actions in which we’re involved.”

University Police suspend all campus activities two days before a hurricane is expected to affect campus. However, Withrow said campus couldn’t be shut down completely because of residential students who may have nowhere else to go.

“For international students or anyone else who resides on campus and cannot leave, one section of Pizzo Elementary School is opened (as a shelter),” Withrow said.