Daily Eastern News: January 29, 2014 Eastern Illinois University
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Eastern Illinois University The Keep January 2014 1-29-2014 Daily Eastern News: January 29, 2014 Eastern Illinois University Follow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/den_2014_jan Recommended Citation Eastern Illinois University, "Daily Eastern News: January 29, 2014" (2014). January. 12. http://thekeep.eiu.edu/den_2014_jan/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the 2014 at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in January by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STAT ATTACK CINEMA SETBACKS Check out this week in The Will Rogers Theatre faces water sports by the numbers, main break, flooding, funding issues. featuring women’s and Page 3 men’s basketball, track and field and tennis. Page 7 WWW.DAILYEASTERNNEWS.COM HE DT ailyEastErnnEws Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014 “TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” VOL. 98 | NO. 89 Public-sector unions sue over pension-reform By Bob Galuski The plaintiffs named in the lawsuit include dreds of thousands of current and retired State e AFL-CIO, Illinois Federations of Teach- Managing Editor | @BobGaluski more than 20 retired and active public workers employees and teachers and breach the trust that ers, AFSCME Council 31, SEIU Local 73, Il- in Illinois. all Illinois citizens place in them,” the lawsuit linois Education Association and others are In an attempt to have December’s pension- e lawsuit was led as a response to the pen- states. among unions involved with the lawsuit. reform law declared unconstitutional, public- sion-reform law, and it states it is to correct a The lawsuit claims the new pension-reform e Eastern chapter of University Profession- sector unions filed a lawsuit against Gov. Pat failure of duty by the Governor and the General law, which will supposedly lighten the $100 bil- als of Illinois has been directly involved with the Quinn, other constitutional ocers and state re- Assembly of the State of Illinois – to uphold the lion Illinois pension crisis, is on unconstitution- pension changes. In December, the chapter or- tirement systems and their boards. Illinois Constitution. al grounds. ganized a letter-writing campaign that resulted e announcement came Tuesday, the day be- “In failing to fulll that duty, the Governor e suit was led in Sangamon County Cir- in around 700 postcards protesting the pension fore Quinn’s State of the State address. and General Assembly unlawfully harm hun- cuit Court. changes. PENSION, page 5 Obama maps out new year Cooking mishap sets o smoke alarm By Bob Galuski Managing Editor | @BobGaluski Editor’s Note: e broadcast of the State of the Union address was viewed via live stream at white- house.gov. President Barack Obama heralded to a “breakthrough year” for America during his State of the Union address Tuesday, specically in terms of using executive force to work around Congress. Obama spoke about using his executive or- ders on a slew of issues during his speech – such as minimum wage and tax code reform. “In the coming weeks, I will issue an Execu- tive Order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally-funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour – because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty,” Obama said. e minimum wage hike is a response to the federal minimum wage being worth 20 percent less than when Ronald Reagan rst stepped into oce, Obama said. Retirement and saving for retirement came at the tail end of his portion on minimum wage. “Today, most workers don’t have a pension. A Social Security check often isn’t enough on its own,” he said. “And while the stock market has doubled over the last ve years, that doesn’t help folks who don’t have 401ks.” Obama said he would be directing the Trea- JASON HOWELL | THE DAILY EASTERN NEWS sury to create a new way for Americans to start The Charleston Fire Department responded to an activated smoke alarm at Andrews Hall on Tuesday evening. Callers reported smoke emanating their own retirement savings, what he calls from the third oor and all occupants of the building were required to evvacuate. A sweep of the oor yielded no re. Minutes later, reghters MyRA. reported that a “cooking mishap” was the cause for the smoke and all residents were permitted to re-enter the building. Eastern’s residence hall are required to have two designated re marshals on each oor, who are responsible for notifying each room on the oor of an activated smoke OBAMA, page 5 alarm. Any person who does not evacuate a building with an activated smoke alarm on Eastern’s campus is susceptible to a $50 minimum ne. Eastern receives historic donation from professor’s estate By Jarad Jarmon opment. Ward wished only to have his name on the spire others to think about what they can do for Associate News Editor | @JJarmonReporter Robert Martin, the vice president for univer- scholarships given out. their university,” Perry said. sity advancement, said this will allow the endow- Martin said this gift will be especially helpful Martin said he hopes this encourages more Eastern receives gifts periodically from inter- ment to last forever. e money will need to sit in recruiting new students to the counseling and gifts as well, but he has seen the most gifts given ested parties and, in some cases, faculty. e uni- for a year though in order to have enough interest student development department. during the EIU: Expect Greatness campaign. He versity has just received a record-breaking gift do- to provide scholarships to students. “It makes the program a lot more attractive be- said massive donations spawn limited interest in nation of $3.68 million. In a year when interest is accumulated, the cause it will be signicant nancial assistance for philanthropy. Paul Ward, a former educational psycholo- scholarship committee will then split up the academically qualied students,” Martin said. Perry said he will be mentioned during cere- gy professor, donated this gift to Eastern, mak- money to give to students. Despite the fact he taught at a couple of other monies when the scholarships will be given out to ing it the largest gift received in university histo- “It is the gift that keeps on giving,” Martin schools across the nation, Ward retired and con- make sure people know the late Ward and what ry topping a $3 million donation Jane Tarble, the said. tributed to Eastern, which Martin said was very he did for Eastern. daughter of the founder of Snap-On tools, con- Martin said when he found out he was pleas- interesting. “Faculty are so dedicated to teaching and stu tributed. antly surprised. Ward’s plan to contribute the “He really loved it here, he loved his students like that during their lifetime and making a dif- e money was put into an endowment, ac- money was set before he died June 13, 2011, but and he wanted to make a dierence,” Martin said. ference in children’s lives,” Martin said. “He took cording to Ward’s bequest. The money will be his estate had to be settled. Settling someone’s es- President Bill Perry said he expects this to en- his contribution beyond the grave.” taken from the interest from the endowment to tate can take a while, Martin added. courage donation, especially with philanthropy of then be given out through scholarships for stu- “A state that large takes time to settle,” Mar- this size. Jarad Jarmon can be reached at dents majoring in counseling and student devel- tin said. “Anytime anyone makes such a gift, it does in- 581-2812 or [email protected]. 2 THE DAILY EASTERN NEWS | NEWS Local weather Will Rogers Theatre’s water main bursts TODAY THURSDAY By Michael Spencer City Editor | @tmskeeper The Will Rogers Theatre suffered a broken water main last week that ood- ed the basement and added another Partly Sunny Chance of snow item to the list of repairs the facility will High: 26° High: 33° need before it is up and running again. Katie and James Troccoli bought the Low: 18° Low: 22° building, which is on the national reg- For more weather visit castle.eiu.edu/weather. ister and the list of the ten most endan- gered historical sites in Illinois, in 2011 after it was shut down by AMC Enter- tainment, Inc. in the summer of 2010. The Daily Since then, the restoration process has been beleaguered by a host of prob- easTern news lems. “Tell the truth and don’t be afraid.” In September 2013, e Daily East- The Daily Eastern News ern News reported the repairs were un- 1802 Buzzard Hall derway, but then an appraisal of the Eastern Illinois University electrical equipment in the building set Charleston, IL 61920 the repairs back as the Troccolis must 217-581-2812 217-581-2923 (fax) find $15,000 dollars before they can move forward. Additionally, Katie Troccoli said the News Sta Advertising Sta Editor in Chief Account Executive tax increment nancing that is available Dominic Renzetti Rachel Eversole-Jones for historical sites around the Charles- [email protected] Managing Editor Faculty Advisers ton Square couldn’t be obtained. TIF Bob Galuski Editorial Adviser is a tax subsidy for funding repairs to DENmanaging@gmail. Lola Burnham com Photo Adviser buildings through the local govern- Associate News Editor Brian Poulter ment. Jarad Jarmon DENNews.com Adviser DENnewsdesk@gmail. Bryan Murley In the meantime, the project is at com Publisher a standstill and no estimate has been Opinions Editor John Ryan Kyle Daubs Business Manager made as to the cost of repairing the [email protected] Betsy Jewell ooded basement.