Sunday, September 29, 2024

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Editorials

COMMENTARY

Government needs to raise revenue

Since January, we have heard almost weekly about Michigan's budget deficit and the ways our government is trying to fix it. The state is facing a roughly combined $2.5 billion deficit.

COMMENTARY

Mentally ill should not possess guns

When it comes to issues like gun control and carrying firearms, it's safest to take a moderate standpoint with room for compromise. General statements like "no one should carry a gun" and "everyone should carry a gun" lack both balance and reason.

COMMENTARY

Art funding freezes sadly necessary

As Gov. Jennifer Granholm is stopped at every turn in her efforts to fight Michigan's budget deficit, it seems any program receiving state funds is fair game. Next up on the chopping block? The arts. On April 18, 200 people showed up at the Capitol Building in Lansing to protest Granholm's executive directive to freeze $7.5 million in grants promised to arts and cultural organizations.

COMMENTARY

Protest victimized Minuteman leader

It's all just a little bit of history repeating. In an event that somewhat mirrored the Dec. 1, 2006, Tom Tancredo debacle, protesters crashed a presentation put on by Chris Simcox, co-founder and president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps at Conrad Hall on Thursday. Much like Tancredo, Simcox was there to speak out against illegal immigration.

COMMENTARY

Rising costs make college exclusive

As post-collegiate debt skyrockets, book prices rise exponentially and tuition rates grow with unchecked abandon, the makeup of those attending college is changing. They are getting richer. According to UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, today's college freshmen are wealthier than they've been in the past 35 years.

COMMENTARY

U.N. must act immediately in Darfur

After four years of conflict, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has finally dropped his objections to international assistance in Darfur. Darfur has been in contest since 2003 after rebels began attacking government targets.

COMMENTARY

City should set homeless guidelines

The issue of whether to ban homeless people from East Lansing parking structures has been simmering on the City Council's plate for the past six months. During this time, the council has been gathering information and public opinion regarding the topic.

COMMENTARY

iPods for K-12 students unnecessary

When addressing the actions of Michigan's legislature, one has to sometimes step back and just wonder how any of these people got elected. Case in point: Michigan finds itself facing a debt — which comes to roughly $644 million for the current fiscal year alone, for those of you keeping track at home — and rather than the two parties working together to come up with a solution to the mounting crisis, each side just keeps wasting time. The latest example?

COMMENTARY

Mich. shouldn't have official language

To help alleviate the state's budget deficit, Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, has introduced a bill to declare English as Michigan's official language. The designation, according to Hoogendyk, would save the state millions of dollars currently allocated to translating governmental documents from departments such as the Secretary of State. The state currently is facing a combined $3 billion deficit. While Gov.

COMMENTARY

Do not renew No Child Left Behind

Like some kind of ill-conceived, legislative zombie, No Child Left Behind is back on the plate, and it refuses to die. Pressed by both the president and the legislators who supported it the first time around (oh, Teddy Kennedy — what were you thinking?), No Child Left Behind is now being considered for renewal in Congress. It's time to break out the shotguns (to stick with the zombie analogy) and destroy this thing before it can do any more damage. When it was initially conceived in 2001, it seemed like a good idea: Pass a law that requires schools to be held accountable for educating their students.

COMMENTARY

Ruling should spur new auto standard

In a long overdue decision that will greatly impact the future of the automotive industry, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the Environmental Protection Agency has the ability to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under its authority. The 5-4 decision on April 2 aims to correct negligence by the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, of regulation of carbon dioxide emissions and provides one of the first governmental actions toward recognizing global warming. It would follow from its moniker that the EPA would be the nation's leader in promoting the movement away from dangerously high carbon emissions. But this has not been the case.

COMMENTARY

Spartans earned NCAA championship

We did it. The Spartan hockey team, overcoming everything from rampant illness, losing captain Drew Miller to the NHL and a myriad of other setbacks, bested Boston College in the 2007 NCAA national championship game. Much like they had been during the season, in the beginning of the game, the Spartans were the underdogs.

COMMENTARY

Graduation speaker not recognizable

To conclude their undergraduate career, students now know who will speak at their commencement ceremony on May 4 — Jaime Escalante. Escalante, a high school math teacher whose story became famous after the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," was chosen as the speaker. He became nationally renowned after his students at Garfield High School, an inner-city school in eastern Los Angeles, ranked at the top of national calculus testing.