“Big footsteps to walk in,” is the task that Chancellor Kofi Lomotey has in front of him according to Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Clayton at Friday’s board meeting.

With enrollment increasing at Southern-New Orleans and projected growth at Southern-Shreveport, SUBR is the only campus throughout the system failing to make progress. Some board members attribute this drop in enrollment at the system’s fl agship school to its leadership.

According to media reports, SUBR’s fall enrollment is 300 students less than the enrollment this time a year ago. Lomotey pointed to statewide budget cuts to higher education, along with concerns from potential students about tougher admission

standards as the reason for the four-percent dip.

“I must express my absolute disgust in the fact that you (Lomotey) have been here three years sir and we have seen no improvement in this one particular area,” said board member Pat McGee. “Without students, we cannot survive. Whenever I engage young African American kids I ask them if they have considered Southern and it’s amazing how many college aged kids say no.”

Even though Lomotey and his team have come up with partnership deals with schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, many board members feel that this just isn’t enough. However, Clayton felt that with the limited amount of fi nancial resources entitled to him, Lomotey is doing the best he can do for the campus.

“We don’t have any money.

Money just isn’t fl owing the way it used to fl ow,” said Clayton. “We have to look at the big picture here, we have to start from the top, and we have start giving and giving and raising money to help support these

campuses. So there isn’t one person we can point the fi nger to in this situation.”

Southern decided against tightening admission standards this fall at the last minute. Lomotey said those increases

will go into effect next fall instead to give high school students and their parents more time to prepare.

Fewer employees in fi nancial aid, admissions and recruiting offi ces also have hurt, he said.

INSIDE CAMPUS BRIEFS...............2 NEWS.............................3

S O U T H E R N U N I V E R S I T Y , B A T O N R O U G E , L A .

STATE & NATION................4 SPORTS......................5

PARTLY CLOUDYHIGH 92° | 70° LOW

A & E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6VIEWPOINTS......................7

By norman j. Dotson jr.diGest editor-iN-cHieF

sUBr chancellor Kofi Lomotey took some heat during Friday’s sU Board of supervisors meeting as the board discussed sUBr’s 300-student enrollment drop.

DiGest file photo

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010WWW.SOUTHERNDIGEST.COM VOL. 56, ISSUE 6

estABLished in 1928

NEWS

Who got gov’t Gulf work? Contracts doled out to groups pG. 3

SPORTS

Weevils “boll” over jaguarsUAM throttles Southern. pG. 5

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

West, swift live up to hypeLady Gaga wins 8 VMAs. pG. 6

SU chancellor grilled over drop

HOUMA, La. — The adminis-trator of the $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill said Monday he might waive the current requirement that wages earned from helping out in the cleanup be subtracted from people’s spill claims.

Doing so would be a key concession following strong criticism from residents about the claims process.

Meanwhile Monday, BP crews resumed drilling the fi nal 50 feet of a relief well meant to allow them to permanently seal the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico. John Wright, who’s leading drilling efforts aboard the Development Driller III vessel, told The Associated Press in an e-mail that the operation had resumed. BP said crews started drilling at 1:40 p.m. CDT.

BP and the government have said it would take about four days from the time crews started

drilling again to intersect the blown-out well. Once the relief well intersects the blown-out well, crews will pump in mud and cement to permanently seal the well.

At the town hall meeting in Houma, La., fund czar Kenneth Feinberg told hundreds of people who packed a convention center that he is reconsidering the requirement that cleanup wages be subtracted from claims. He said he understands the loud concerns raised by people who are still hurting.

“I’m taking it under advisement,” Feinberg said. “The last time I said, no way, I’m deducting it. Now, it’s open for discussion.”

The April 20 rig explosion killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP PLC’s undersea well into the Gulf of Mexico. The fl ow of crude was fi rst stopped by a cap placed atop the well in mid-July.

Glenn Poche, a 61-year-old shrimper from Lafi tte, La., said

after the town hall meeting with Feinberg that he felt like he had more questions than answers about why he only received a $600 emergency payment for six months. He said he was making thousands each month from his business before the waters he worked in were shut down because of the spill.

“He gave me $3.30 a day to live on,” Poche said. “I can’t pay my bills.”

Like other people at the forum, Poche said he believes it is unfair for claims evaluators to give payments based on 2009 wages when shrimp prices were lower last year than they have been in 2010. Feinberg told those gathered that several types of fi nancial documents could be used to show income, not just 2009 tax returns.

Feinberg also said he would consider giving people in certain situations a supplemental payment after their emergency payment. Currently, people are getting an emergency payment and then, down the road, a lump-

sum fi nal payment. The fi nal payment requires recipients agree not to sue BP.

“I will come back again and again to face the music, hear the criticisms, listen to the concerns,” Feinberg said.

One after another, shrimpers, boat workers and other victims came up to a microphone and yelled their demands at Feinberg. Some cursed. Others shouted insults.

Their concerns included the slow payment process, the fact that some people in similar situations are receiving vastly different payments and the bureaucracy they have to go through to get their money.

Feinberg said the fund has paid out $150 million since he took over processing claims three weeks ago. Before that, BP was in charge of paying out claims, and it paid nearly $400 million.

Feinberg said his team hoped to fi nish processing remaining emergency payments in the next 30 days.

As of Monday, there were roughly 12,000 claims for emergency payments that have proper documentation that have yet to be paid, Feinberg said. Another 12,000 unpaid claims have inadequate documents. Five hundred claims fi led are ineligible for money from the fund because they deal with impact from the oil drilling moratorium, while roughly 1,000 claims appear to be fraudulent, Feinberg said.

“I am doing the best I can,” Feinberg said, as the crowd grew louder. “And if the best is not good enough, I am sorry.”

Later, when Feinberg said there were many people who still wanted to ask questions and he had only 10 minutes left to address them, one woman, in tears, shouted: “We have the rest of our lives.”

Feinberg told The Associated Press after the event that within the next week to 10 days, Gulf residents will have another key question answered: How much he is earning for his services.

BP claim czar considers making key concessionBy harry r. WeBerassociated press writer

a student empowerment series to teach college students to take the lead on tobacco and secondhand smoke policy change on their campus.

The event will be Saturday, Sept. 18 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the SUBR Ag Center.

honDa campUs all-star challenGe

Applications are now available for students to participate in the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge’s campus tournament.

The tournament will be held Wednesday, Sept. 29 at the Smith-Brown Memorial Union.

The deadline for applications is Monday, Sept. 27. For more information, call 225.771.4845.

maDDen 11 ps3 toUrnamentThe Smith-Brown

Memorial Union Recreational Area will hold a Madden NFL 11 for Playstation 3 tournament Wednesday, Sept. 29 at Lacumba’s Play Pen. Registration will be from Wednesday, Sept. 15, until Friday, Sept. 24. The registration fee is $5.

pinKie GorDon lane poetry contest

All Southern University students are invited to create and submit original poetry on the subject of their choice.

Each entrant can submit no more than three poems of no more than 35 lines for each poem. Content cannot be vulgar, offensive or contain profanity.

Poems can be submitted via e-mail to pinkieglane@cox.net or online at www.lib.subr.edu. All poems must be submitted by Oct. 1.

Winners will be chosen by judges and published in the upcoming anthology. Winners will participate in a Nov. 12 reading at 2 p.m. at Southern University.

THE SOUTHERN DIGEST 4 - DAY WEATHER OUTLOOK

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15 SATURDAY, SEPT. 18THURSDAY, SEPT. 16 FRIDAY, SEPT. 17

HI - 91° / LO - 73° 30% CHANCE OF RAIN

mostlycloUDy

HI - 92° / LO - 72° 10% CHANCE OF RAIN

partlycloUDy

isolateDt-storms

isolateDt-stormsHI - 91°/ LO - 73° 30% CHANCE OF RAIN

Page 2 - Tuesday, September 14, 2010

CAMPUS BRIEFSwww.southerndigest.com

Page 2HI - 90° / LO - 72° 20% CHANCE OF RAIN

CLASSIFIEDthe southern diGest is not responsible for the contents, promises, nor statements made in any classified and reserve the right to reject any ad request with explanation. No classified ads will be accepted or processed over the telephone and must accept the type font sizes of the diGest.

aLL cLassiFied MUst Be paid iN adVaNce BY casHiers cHecK or MoNeY order. No persoNaL cHecKs accepted. students must have proper id and phone numbers to get student advertising rates.

rates do not apply to students who are representatives & employees of the company. in the event an error is made in a classified ad, immediate claims and notice must be given within 15 days. the diGest is only responsible for oNe replacement or run in the next publication. classified are due oNe weeK prior to run date.

paid classified can be ordered by contacting the student Media advertising Manager at 225.771.5833.

PAGE 2 / CAMPUS BRIEFSall submissions must be received by 3 p.m. each Friday for Tuesday’s Issue and by 3 p.m. each wednesday for Friday’s Issue.

paGe 2 is only available to officially registered campus organizations, southern University departments. all briefs should include a date, time, contact name & number.

submit announcements to:the southern diGest - suite 1064

Harris Hall, attn: paGe 2

CORRECTIONSFact and accuracy is our goal and our job. as the voice of the southern University student body we are committed to ensuring to most fair, truthful and accurate accounts of our work. in the event of an error we will make all corrections on page 2.

Bring corrections to the southern diGest office located in suite 1064, Harris Hall.

issN: 1540-7276. copyright 2008 by the southern University office of student Media services. the southern diGest is written, edited and published by members of the student body at southern University and a&M college.

all articles, photographs and graphics are property of the southern diGest and its contents may not be reproduced or republished without the written permission from the editor in chief and director of student Media services. the southern diGest is published twice-weekly (tuesday & Friday) with a run count of 6,000 copies per issue during the southern University - Baton rouge campus fall, spring semesters.

the paper is free to students, staff, faculty and general public every tuesday & Friday morning on the sUBr campus. the southern diGest student offices are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday - Friday. the offices are located on the first floor of t.H. Harris Hall, suite 1064.

the southern diGest is the official student newspaper of southern University and a&M college located in Baton rouge, Louisiana. articles, features, opinions, speak out and editorials do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the administration and its policies. signed articles, feedback, commentaries and features do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors, staff or student body.

PUBLICATION ASSOCIATIONSthe southern diGest is a member of the Black college communications association (Bcca), National association of Black Journalists (NaBJ), University - wire Network (U-wire), associated collegiate press (acp), college Media advisers association (cMa), society of professional Journalist (spJ), Full member of the associated press (ap) and the Louisiana press association (Lpa).

ADVERTISER MEMBERSHIPSthe southern diGest subscribes to the american passage, alloy M+M, 360 Youth, Zim2papers, all campus Media, ruxton Group and college publishers on-Line services.

STUDENT MEDIA OFFICEwww.subr.edu/studentmedia

director - tBaassistant director - tBapublications asst. - Fredrick Batisteadvertising Mgr. - camelia Jackson

CONTACTS (area code 225)advertising office - 771.5833diGest Newsroom - 771.2231student Media services- 771.5812the Jaguar Yearbook - 771.2231YearBooK Newsroom - 771.5829eGo Magazine Newsroom - 771.5829southern University and a&M college at Baton rouge is accredited by the commission on colleges of the southern association of colleges and schools, 1866 southern Lane, decatur, Georgia 30033-4097, telephone (404) 679-4500, website: www.sacscoc.org.

MISSION STATEMENTthe mission of southern University and a&M college, an Historically Black, 1890 land-grant institution, is to provide opportunities for a diverse student population to achieve a high-quality, global educational experience, to engage in scholarly, research, and creative activities, and to give meaningful public service to the community, the state, the nation, and the world so that southern University graduates are competent, informed, and productive citizens. website: www.subr.edu.

The Office of Student Media is a Division of Student Affairs.

FALL 2010 DIGEST STAFF

PAGE 2 ANNOUNCEMENTS & PAID CLASSIFIED INFO

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFNorman J. dotson Jr.

MANAGING EDITORMary davis

COPY EDITORSerica s. Johnson

PHOTO EDITORapril Buffington

LAYOUT EDITORdarrius Harrison

OPINIONS EDITORBreanna paul

A&E EDITORBilly washington

DIGEST STAFF WRITERSMorris dillarderin Fulbright

patrick Gallowaysamantha smith

evan taylor

DIGEST PHOTOGRAPHERSdwayne Grant

robert Florida Jr.trevor Jamespolite stewart

PROOFREADERdarryl J. edwards

SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY sUite 1064 – t.H.Harris HaLL

p.o. BoX 10180 – BatoN roUGe, La 70813225.771.2231 pHoNe / 225.771.5840 FaX

www.soUtHerNdiGest.coM

Marsh of Johnson & Johnson presenting.

liVeteXt sUBscription coDe DistriBUtion

The LiveText subscription codes are available to first-time freshmen and first-time transfer students. Code distribution will take place in the Title III Computer Lab, located in Room 155 of W.W. Stewart Hall during the following dates and first letter of the student’s last name:

•Today: 9 a.m.-noon (M-S); 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (T-Z)

•Wednesday: 9 a.m.-noon (T-Z); 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (M-S)

•Thursday: 9 a.m.-noon (G-L); 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (A-F)

•Friday: 9 a.m.-3 p.m.; all alphabets (A-Z)

If there are any LiveText questions, contact Ronnie L. Foster at 225.771.2394 or e-mail ronnie_foster@subr.edu.

BooK presentationJonathan Roberts will be

giving a presentation on his book “History of Charity Hospitals in Louisiana” Thursday, Sept. 16 from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. at John B. Cade Library. For more information, contact the SU Bookstore at 225.771.4330.

stUDent leaDership DeVelopment series

KicKoffThe Louisiana Tobacco-

Free College Initiative and Fresh Campus present

coach Huston Williams at 225.771.4024 or go to Room 133 in the A.W. Mumford Field House.

carDs of thanKsThe family of the late

Kevin Lamar “Dean” Jefferson wishes to thank everyone who attended the recent funeral services, and expresses their sincere appreciation for the support they received from family, friends and the community.

The Jefferson family extends its gratitude to the faculty and staff of Southern University, and to all who have given their time and sympathies during this time of bereavement.

career DeVelopment WorKshops

Southern University’s Business and Industry Cluster invites all students to attend its Fall 2010 Development Workshops. The workshops will take place during Career Week today. The topics include the following:

•Corporate Ettiquette: 10 a.m.-11 a.m. at Stewart Hall’s Lawless Auditorium; Effie Durst of Dow Chemical presenting

•Interviewing Tips: 11 a.m.-noon at Room 222 T.T. Allain; Stephen Pierre of Dow Chemical presenting

•Successful Resume Tips: 1 p.m.-2 p.m. at Lawless Auditorium; Kenneth Heyward of Johnson & Johnson presenting

•P.I.E. (Performance, Image, Exposure): 2 p.m.-3 p.m. at Lawless Auditorium; Danny

minorities in aGricUltUre, natUral resoUrces anD

relateD sciencesMinorities in Agriculture,

Natural Resources and Related Sciences is currently accepting membership applications for Fall 2010 and Spring 2011.

Science major? Agriculture major? Family and consumer science major? We want you. Apply now at Fisher Hall, Room 102. Ask about our annual national conference.

For more information, contact Allison Johnson at 225.771.3660.

Union stUDent GoVerninG BoarD

As a student enrolled in Southern University, you are eligible to join the Smith-Brown Memorial Union Student Governing Board. As a board member, you will be able to vote, hold office and exercise your ability to and host events at the union. There are no chapter dues or operation expenses.

We invite you to come by and meet our staff, and give valuable information on the boards duties. If you have further questions about the governing board, please feel free to contact either Vanessa Toussant or Andrew Jackson at 225.771.2608 or stop by Room 210 or 213 in the union.

sU men’s Golf teamThe Southern University

men’s golf team will be holding tryouts. For more information, contact

For more information call 225.771.5833 or mail your subscription payment of $40 to: The Southern Digest Subscriptions, PO Box 10180, Baton Rouge, LA 70813. Business, cashiers checks and money orders accepted only. No personal checks or credit card orders accepted. Make all payments to The Southern Digest.

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Campus BriefsTODAY

SEPTEMBER 16

SEPTEMBER 18

SEPTEMBER 29

OCTOBER 1

WASHINGTON — The fede-ral government hired a New Orleans man for $18,000 to appraise whether news stories about its actions in the Gulf oil spill were positive or negative for the Obama administration, which was keenly sensitive to comparisons between its response and former President George W. Bush’s much-maligned reaction to Hurricane Katrina.

The government also spent $10,000 for just over three minutes of video showing a routine offshore rig inspection for news organizations but couldn’t say whether any ran the footage. And it awarded a $216,625 no-bid contract for a survey of seabirds to an environmental group that has criticized what it calls the “extreme anti-conservation record” of Sarah Palin, a possible 2012 rival to President Barack Obama.

The contracts were among hundreds reviewed by The Associated Press as the government begins to provide an early glimpse at federal spending since the Gulf disaster in April. While most of the contracts don’t raise alarms, some could provide ammunition for critics of government waste.

The administration has released details of about $134 million in contracts, a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars it has spent so far. BP has reimbursed the U.S. $390 million, company spokesman Tom Mueller said. The government sent BP a new invoice for $128.5 million last week.

The White House is still deciding whether it will bill BP for spill-related trips by Obama and his wife, Michelle, to the Gulf, including the president’s flights aboard Air Force One, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars each.

The contracts the government has disclosed so far include at least $5.8 million for helicopter

services, $3.2 million for hotel rooms, $1.4 million for boat charters, $33,000 for oil-measuring devices aboard ships, $441,621 for cellular and satellite phone services, $25,087 for toilets, $23,217 for laundry services and $109,735 for refrigerators and freezers.

Yet the government’s new contracting data includes errors and vague entries that make it difficult to identify wasteful spending. It spent $52,000 on a boat charter described merely as “marine charter for things,” with no further explanation. A separate $90,000 contract for a single 70-pound anchor is listed incorrectly; the contractor told the AP it actually supplied hundreds of anchors.

A White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, declined to comment on the contracts.

Among all the contracts, perhaps none is more striking than the Coast Guard’s decision to pay $9,000 per month for two months to John Brooks Rice of New Orleans, an on-call worker for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, under a no-bid contract to monitor media coverage from late May through July.

Rice told the AP that he compiled print and video news stories and offered his subjective appraisal of the tone of the coverage. “From reading and watching the media I would create reports,” he said. “I reported either positive coverage, negative coverage, misinformation coverage.”

The Coast Guard provided the AP with a copy of two of Rice’s printouts of news stories but didn’t respond to a request for copies of his reports rating the tone of news stories. Rice said he had already deleted them. The AP requested copies of all Rice’s reports under the Freedom of Information Act but hasn’t received them.

The Coast Guard expects BP to reimburse the $18,000, Coast Guard spokesman Capt. Ron LaBrec said.

The Coast Guard said it didn’t

ask for competitive bids because it urgently needed the work done. In the newly released federal data, the government didn’t disclose Rice’s name, instead misidentifying him as “miscellaneous foreign contractors.”

Such contracts have caused problems for the government in the past. The Obama administration abandoned a $1.5 million contract in August 2009 with a public relations firm, Washington-based Rendon Group, that assessed work by journalists for the Defense Department before embedding them with troops in Afghanistan. And the Clinton administration in 1995 ordered Energy Department officials to cancel a $46,500 contract with a consulting company, Carma International, that ranked reporters who covered the agency, a practice that the White House concluded was “unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Rice said he wasn’t on duty for FEMA or drawing a government salary when he worked for the Coast Guard. He monitored news coverage for FEMA during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and a former FEMA co-worker recommended him for the Coast Guard contract, he said.

The head of a public relations firm in Baton Rouge, La., John T. Rice of Common Sense Communications, questioned

the wisdom of the government spending $18,000 to track coverage of the spill, particularly in the Internet age when stories can be monitored easily online.

“In our neck of the woods, if you can land a $2,000 to $4,000 retainer with somebody, that would be considered really good,” said Rice, who isn’t related to the Rice hired by the Coast Guard. Rice said an $18,000 contract could also include focus groups and a marketing plan, not just tracking and evaluating coverage.

Under another federal contract, the Interior Department hired videographer Bob Boccaccio of Boccaccio Productions in Baton Rouge to shoot video of inspectors aboard an offshore drilling rig to distribute to news organizations. Boccaccio confirmed he was hired but declined to provide details.

The Interior Department said it hired Boccaccio amid concerns about safety, scheduling and permitting after network camera crews asked to accompany inspectors offshore to film them. The contract authorized payment of up to $15,000; Boccaccio, who traveled to the rig with the government inspector, billed the government $10,000. The AP typically pays a one-person crew about $1,000 per day.

The government said it hasn’t decided yet whether to ask BP to pay for it.

The government’s contracts include at least $6 million for studies to gauge the spill’s effects on wildlife.

Contractors include a group whose political arm endorsed Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign and ran ads in several swing states against then-Republican vice presidential candidate Palin. The group, Defenders of Wildlife, received a $216,625 noncompetitive contract from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a seabird survey in the BP spill area.

Both Defenders of Wildlife and its political arm, the Defenders Action Fund, have criticized Palin, a former Alaska governor, for supporting use of low-flying airplanes to hunt wolves and other wildlife in winter.

Defenders of Wildlife also has been urging Discovery Communications to drop plans for “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” a reality TV series, and wants sponsors and viewers to boycott it. The Interior Department said the Fish and Wildlife Service hired the group to survey the effects of oil on ocean birds because its chief scientist, Chris Haney, is respected and experienced in bird research. It said BP approved the scientist’s selection.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - Page 3

NEWSwww.southerndigest.com

By sharon theimerassociated press writer

www.southerndigest.comget online @

in this photo taken sept. 2, 2010, from left, employees deidre Jackson, Keith Marron, Jane white, Jim Ketchum, owner of andree’s wine, cheese & things in Fairhope, ala., and Lori Utley stand in front of the restaurant and store. Ketchum said army contracts helped him make up for business his restaurant lost due to the poor economy and tourism lost to the oil spill.

photo By michelle rolls-thomas/ap photo

A look at who got gov’t Gulf work

NEW YORK — It may be two blocks from ground zero, but the site of a proposed mosque and Islamic center shouldn’t been seen as sacrosanct in a neighborhood that also harbors a strip club and a betting parlor, the cleric leading the effort said Monday.

Making an ardent case for the compatibility of Islam and American values, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf reiterated that he was searching for a solution to the furor the project has created. But he left unanswered exactly

what he had in mind.If anything, Rauf only

deepened the questions around the project’s future, telling an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank that he was “exploring all options” — but declining to specify them — and underscoring what he saw as the importance of a location that would draw attention to his message of promulgating moderate Islam. And while opponents of the project see it as insulting the memories of the thousands killed by Muslim extremists in the 2001 terrorist attacks, Rauf said he didn’t see it as sacred memorial space.

“It’s absolutely disingenuous, as many have said, that that block is hallowed ground,” Rauf said, noting the nearby exotic dance and betting businesses. “So let’s clarify that misperception.”

The proposed Islamic center has become a flashpoint for worldwide debate about Islam’s place in America nine years after the Sept. 11 attacks. Controversy has colored the fall campaign season and cast a a shadow on this past weekend’s commemoration of the attacks, with supporters and opponents of the mosque project both holding rallies nearby.

Rauf says a project meant to

foster understanding has become unduly mired in conflict and what he describes as misconceptions of a fundamental clash between Islamic and American values. The Kuwait-born imam used his own life story as an example, saying that his own faith had been shaped by the sense of choosing one’s identity that American society provided, compared with the predominantly Muslim society from which he emigrated in 1965.

“I’m a devout Muslim ... and I’m also a proud American citizen,” said Rauf, noting that he was naturalized in 1979 and has a niece serving in the U.S. Army. “I vote in elections. I pay

taxes. I pledge allegiance to the flag. And I’m a Giants fan.”

He said Monday that the Islamic center’s organizers were surprised by the uproar and might not have pursued it had they known what was coming.

“The events of these past few weeks have really saddened me to my very core,” he said, lamenting that the project had been misunderstood, clouded by stereotypes, and “exploited” by some to push personal or political agendas.

But he declined to detail any strategy for quieting the clamor — or say whether that might include moving the project.

By jennifer peltzassociated press writer

Page 4 - Tuesday, September 14, 2010

STATE & NATIONwww.southerndigest.com

Imam says NYC mosque site is not ‘hallowed ground’

Two games into the season, and the Southern University football team can already forget the preseason talk of a “self-assured” undefeated season.

Saturday night was head coach Stump Mitchell’s home debut. As for his team, their second consecutive performance dominated, not by a powerhouse offense, a stout defense or game-changing special teams, but by mistakes, missed tackles and disappointment.

After the game Mitchell disguised his frustration with a bottle of water.

“Tonight, offensively, we we’re not able to do anything,” said Mitchell. “We knew they were going to score.... we had to score offensively, and when we had the opportunities, we didn’t.”

Scott Buisson threw for 164 yards, and ran for 101 yards and Divison II Arkansas-Monticello out gained SU 371 to 117 in total offense in a 31-7 non-conference win.

SU (1-1) became the second team in Southwestern Athletic Conference history, to face UAM (1-1) in a non-conference contest. Since 1970, UAM has a 14-4 series lead over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Unlike SU’s nationally

televised season opener, Saturday’s game was no fourth quarter rally.

It was the 24-point fi rst half defi cit a crowd of 14,637 witnessed, that would determine their team’s fate of a 12-0 season.

“I was really pleased with the turnout of the fans,” said Mitchell. “I was not pleased at how we played, that’s part of the game. So now all we can do is turn the table and get ready for our next game.”

It proved to be costly for SU.The Boll Weevils scored early

with a two-yard touchdown run 10:23 remaining. Jywin Ceasar returned a punt for a 94-yard touchdown to put his team ahead 14-0.

From there, UAM blocked an SU fi eld goal try, setting the their offense up for four-play, 38-yard drive fi nished with a one yard score by running back Nakita Myles.

After the game, safety Jason House felt the game was a total “let down”.

“I’m extremely disappointed, “ House said. “We should’ve did way better than we did. “I would never expect for us to come out and play the way we played tonight.”

Trailing 24-0 at halftime, SU took possession of the ball from inside the 10-yard line, after

UAM attempted to convert a fourth down with an incomplete pass by their punter.

In scoring position, Gary Hollimon scored from six yard out, cutting into the defi cit 24-7.

The Boll Weevils got the ball once more, marching down the fi eld with an 11-play touchdown

drive with 1:23 remaining in the third quarter.

In the second half, UAM dominated, piling up 337 yards in the third quarter.

After UAM seemed to grab control at 31-7, Bussion watched the remainder of the game from the sideline with 7:40 remaining

in the game.The Boll Weevils outrushed

SU 207, -22.Sophomore quarterback

Jeremiah McGinty the game late in the fi rst quarter (shoulder injury). He was replaced by freshman Dray Joseph.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - Page 5

SPORTSwww.southerndigest.com

southern’s Delwin williams tries to stop arkansas-monticello’s quaterback scott Buisson at southern’s home opener on saturday. uam stunned the Jaguars 31-7 in su’s home opener.

PHoTo By aPril BuffingTon/digesT

By morris dillardDiGest spOrts writer

Jags “Boll”ed over

Page 6 - Tuesday, September 14, 2010

arts & entertainmentwww.southerndigest.com

By nekesa mumBi moodyap music writer

Kanye performs at the mtV Video music awards on sunday in Los angeles. PHoTo By maTT sayles/aP PHoTo

He derided himself as a jerk; she told him he wasn’t as bad as his misdeeds. He gave a sarcastic ode to his boorish behavior; she sang of an opportunity to grow from a very public stumble.

Both Kanye West and Taylor Swift took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday and addressed a matter from last year’s VMAs that had refused to die. Their separate but equally emotional performances seemed to provide resolution to the incident, while overshadowing the show’s other moments, including Lady Gaga’s eight VMA wins.

This year’s Swift-West drama was a sequel to 2009’s unscripted debacle in which West interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech to proclaim that her trophy should have gone to Beyonce. The incident left Swift with hurt feelings, but West was the one who was seriously damaged from an intense backlash that took both a personal and professional toll.

As this year’s VMAs drew closer, the buzz of a possible Swift-West showdown grew

daily. Both were nominated for awards (which they lost), both were expected to perform and each has an album coming out this fall.

West increased the potential of fireworks with a recent rant on Twitter in which he again apologized to Swift and talked about how he had suffered emotionally and economically. Then on Saturday, The Associated Press learned that Swift would be singing a song about last year’s most talked-about moment.

But instead of skewering West in song as Swift has done to others, she offered an olive branch with her song “Innocent,” written earlier this year and due to appear on her new album: “Every one of us has messed up, too. ... I hope you remember today is never too late to be brand new.”

The 20-year-old’s poignant and powerful ode — which was introduced with a video montage that referenced last year’s ceremony — sympathized with West’s difficult time in the spotlight and his own admissions that his ego has often gotten in his way.

“Thirty-two and still growing up

now; who you are is not what you did,” she sang seriously and softly, adding: “You’re still an innocent.”

West’s song, which was preceded by scattered boos from the audience, didn’t seem to address last year’s incident, but talked about the obnoxious behavior that has too often overshadowed his musical talent.

“I always find something wrong; you’ve been putting up with my (expletive) for too long,” he sang, before launching into an unprintable chorus, which included the line: “Let’s have a

toast to scumbags.”With all that pathos, no other

celebrities could really compete. Still, Lady Gaga tried — as the most outrageously dressed — and that’s saying something, given Katy Perry’s barely there outfit and Ke$ha’s garbage bag-dress.

Gaga accepted her video of the year award with an outfit sure to anger PETA: a dress and chapeau made of what seemed to be cuts of raw beef, including a meat purse. It was one of her three zany outfits of the evening. She arrived in a spectacular

outfit by the late Alexander McQueen: a Victorian-inspired gown and a Mohawk feather headdress atop a long white wig, with monstrous stilettos that made her look like she was on stilts. Later, she changed into a black dress so overflowing she needed help to get onstage to accept one of her trophies.

Cher — an over-the-top diva from a different era — gave Gaga her best-video award and noted she had been raising eyebrows when Lady Gaga “was still Baby Gaga.”

Swift, West live up to hype

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Privacy or Policy: Where Does It End?The Recording Industry Association of

America filed suit against peer-to-peer, file-sharing company LimeWire in June. A trial is set for Jan. 18, which if the RIAA wins, it will strike a serious blow in the continuing fight for privacy rights in America.

The concepts of privacy rights and individual liberty, so tacitly etched into the Constitution, makes possible, that anyone might be virtuous while simultaneously maintaining a reasonable degree of privacy.

Today, these very same principles have turned on us, biting the hands of those that drafted them.

The RIAA oversees and promotes the vitality of 13 major music labels. They remained legally quiet up until the Internet provided a way for file sharing entities such as Napster, Kazaa, LimeWire and FrostWire to topple album sales.

In December 1999, the RIAA began its hunt for copyright infringers with the file sharing company Napster. Piracy, as it was described by the RIAA, “would curtail album sale revenues,” and lead to the demise of the music industry; a slippery slope, indeed.

This statement would become the base for some 30,000 subpoenas issued by the RIAA to P2P distributors, Internet service providers and individuals between 2003 and 2008 — even though a 2002 survey conducted by the Forrester Research Group revealed “that digital music downloads were not to blame for an alleged decrease in album sales.” Nevertheless, with the courts on its side, the RIAA forced Napster to adopt legal file-sharing practices.

The RIAA has shamelessly pursued individuals, which include the most unlikely suspects. Jamie Thomas-Rassett, a Minnesota single mother of two, was the first person to be convicted by a court of claims brought forth by the RIAA. In the first ruling of this case made by a lower court, Thomas-Rassett was ordered to pay $1.92 million. This settlement was reduced to $54,000 after a successful appeal in a federal court ($2250 per song).

Rulings in favor of the RIAA could result in awards up to $150,000 per song,

per individual. However, many of these cases quickly settled for much smaller amount -- just tens of thousands.

The “strong-arming” didn’t stop there. Jesse Jordan, who at the time was a student at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, was also targeted by the RIAA but settled out of court for a mere $17,500.

Cases like Jordan’s kicked off a new RIAA campaign in 2007, the College Deterrence Program, which targets college students who use illegal file-sharing programs. That year subpoenas were issued to 400 students at 13 schools and letters warning of the legal implications of file sharing were sent to college presidents across the country.

With no success the RIAA’s individual “witch-hunt” came to an end in 2008, but its attempts to thwart file sharing services continue.

As of late, the RIAA has tried to persuade some of America’s largest Internet service providers to join its effort to end copyright infringement on intellectual properties.

The proposed ‘graduated response’ system would implement a three-strike rule for individuals who download music illegally. After a person is caught trying to download music illegally for the third time, their Internet services would be discontinued. The RIAA has seen little cooperation from U.S. Internet service providers for fear that such ironclad restrictions would drive customers away.

As if the RIAA’s apathy for individual privacy rights couldn’t sink any lower, the organization hit an unprecedented mark in 2007. An Arizona judge ruled in favor of a paranoid claim made by RIAA lawyer Ira Schwartz that copying music from a purchased album to a personal computer is also piracy.

“Our goal is not to be vindictive or punitive,” Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, said in a 2003 statement. “It is simply to get peer-to-peer users to stop offering music that does not belong to them.”

Sherman’s notions would have been sound if the unsuccessful campaign to teach hard lessons to the most politically and economically inept among us hadn’t resulted in numerous frivolous

settlements, which cost American taxpayers millions during the litigation process and produced less than desirable results for record companies.

What’s worse, the RIAA’s greedy lawyers should have known the outrageous claims the organization sought would eventually be thrown out by federal courts.

The law is the law and yes, piracy is illegal. However, if someone purchases a CD, copies it onto a personal computer and decides to share it with a friend or two, or more, it does not make them make them a criminal, or at least not one of great concern.

Furthermore, just because something is a law doesn’t make it a textbook example of positive law. Piracy is an example of such laws.

The RIAA continues to cook up more legally grounded moneymaking schemes to rip away individual privacy rights to boost album sales. A sad attempt considering iTunes attracts thousands of signed and unsigned artists annually. Not to mention that during the last decade the RIAA’s combined revenue has decreased by almost half according to its website, a sure sign of the rise of digital downloads, legal or not.

A 2004 Pew Research survey found that 1 in 6 Americans use P2P file sharing services; a number that continues to grow. With those numbers, boycotting the RIAA is not only the answer, but it may not even be necessary with technological innovations casting compact discs into extinction.

If that isn’t enough of a deterrent for the RIAA, “during the week ended May 30, the U.S. music industry sold a total of 4.98 million albums, the lowest number in decades,” according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Capitalism and privacy rights tend not to mesh in this country. Lobbyist groups like the RIAA that use capitalism and a crippled legal system to their advantage may be singing to a different tune now that Americans are getting rid of their CD players.

———Jason Lawrence writes for The Famuan, the

Florida A&M University student newspaper, which originally published this article.

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