Money may buy power in politics, but when two elected officials are involved, at least there is a chance their elections reflect public opinion.
| Flickr / Tracy O |
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Aug 25, 2011 |
| Last Update: | Aug 25, 2011 |
In an attempt to better understand who is financing our university, The Horn recently filed an open records request with UT to obtain information about recent, major donations it has received. For legal reasons, this request was denied. But it did get us thinking: How come?
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Aug 10, 2011 |
| Last Update: | Aug 10, 2011 |
As reported by the Washington Post earlier this week, real-estate executive and UT Board of Regents Chairman Gene Powell is really pumped up about Gov. Perry running for president. Powell, who has given nearly $114,000 to Perry over the years, is now actively raising money from others for Perry’s presidential campaign.
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| Waytao Shing |
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Jul 21, 2011 |
| Last Update: | Jul 21, 2011 |
Earlier this week the Statesman posted a report written by the University of Texas Police Department that assessed the department’s response to last year’s shooting. While the internal review was mostly positive (as it probably should be), it did highlight some oversights made as UTPD tried to contain the chaos on campus that day.
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When the order was given to officers to “clear” a few of the surrounding buildings, some assisting officers from other agencies interpreted that as an order to evacuate the entire building. However, this was intended as an instruction to secure the building from any other armed individuals.
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| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Jun 23, 2011 |
| Last Update: | Jun 23, 2011 |
Late last week, a U.S. appeals court voted 9-7 to not hear the Fisher v. Texas case around race-based college admissions here at UT Austin. Despite failing to get their day before the appeals court, some sources close to the case have indicated that the plaintiffs will likely file a petition to make their arguments before the Supreme Court. But, as you hopefully learned in GOV 301, the Court takes only a small fraction of the cases it is presented with.
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Jun 15, 2011 |
| Last Update: | Jun 18, 2011 |
The Chronicle of Higher Education unveiled a sleek interactive map earlier this week that measured how educated each state’s lawmakers were. While Texas is far behind the rest of the nation in virtually every major education metric – including the percentage of the population with a college degree – our state’s legislators are regular academics compared to those in other states.
| Professor Sarah Weddington | Photo used courtesy of Hirsch Lecture Series |
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | May 19, 2011 |
| Last Update: | Jun 18, 2011 |
Earlier this week, news broke that Sarah Weddington, a UT professor who is perhaps best known for her lead role in successfully arguing Roe v. Wade, will not be laid off after all. Regardless of where you come down on the merits of this controversial case, UT students should celebrate the fact that their University retained one of its most popular and talented professors.
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Oct 4, 2010 |
| Last Update: | Jun 6, 2011 |
First off, I would like to commend UTPD, APD, UT President Bill Powers and the rest of those who were in leadership positions and were called to respond to Tuesday’s events. They truly did a commendable job securing the situation and keeping the UT community informed through their extensive communications network.
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Oct 4, 2010 |
| Last Update: | Jun 6, 2011 |
After teasing fans with mysterious ads in the Austin Chronicle and on billboards and posters around town, Austin City Limits officially released one of their most impressive line-ups in recent memory midnight Monday night.
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Oct 4, 2010 |
| Last Update: | Jun 6, 2011 |
Some new developments in the effort to save the Cactus Cafe:
First off, Friends of the Cactus Cafe, the grassroots campaign attempting to save the venue, has released their 25-page proposal, which they turned in to VP of Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez' office last week.
After a death in the family, Gonzalez had to postpone announcing the decision from its original April 30 date. As to when he will make his final suggestions, Gonzalez won't admit to anything more concrete than "in a few days".
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Oct 4, 2010 |
| Last Update: | Jun 6, 2011 |
We've seen two out-of-the-blue developments regarding the Cactus Cafe in the past 24 hours:
First off, with Cactus enthusiasts eagerly anticipating hearing the official recommendation at the Union board of directors meeting this Friday, VP Juan Gonzalez announced that he would be unable to attend because of a death in the family.
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Oct 4, 2010 |
| Last Update: | Jun 6, 2011 |
After the fiasco that was last year's Student Government elections (a.k.a Zesty"-gate), the fact that the Election Supervisory Board needed reforming was made loud and clear. There were simply no explicit rules on the books aimed at keeping the necessary distance between the board and Student Government. And as a result, two influential student leaders – one who was specifically charged with ensuring a fair election – were unapologetically campaigning for a presidential candidate (that is, until they were caught).
| Author: | Josh Haney |
| Category: | |
| Published: | Oct 4, 2010 |
| Last Update: | Jun 6, 2011 |
Reporters from various local and national media outlets seemed to be bending over backwards to warn readers that the actions of Joseph Stack were not those of a terrorist.
The Statesman's headlines throughout the day avoided dropping the "t-word" and instead focused on his anger: "Target of Anger," "Note posted by man linked to plane crash shows anger at IRS," "Man angry at IRS crashes plane into building."