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THE INDEPENDENT DAILY NEWSPAPER FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COMMUNITY SINCE 1868 The Daily Iowan WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2006 WWW.DAILYIOWAN.COM 50¢ UI senior Brian McManus is losing his sight to a host of degenerative and incurable ailments. This is the story of one 24-year-old’s exceptional and ongoing struggle — in a world that grows dimmer by the day. Laura Schmitt/The Daily Iowan Brian McManus checks the temperature on his stove while cooking ground beef for pasta. He memorized the temperature settings but checks with his magnifying glass to make sure. McManus usually prepares a few meals a week that he can eat over several meals. CHECK OUT LAURA SCHMITT’S PHOTO SLIDESHOW AT DAILYIOWAN.COM. BY GRANT SCHULTE • THE DAILY IOWAN rian McManus is haunted by the sun. In many respects, Brian’s day-to-day life reflects the searched their heritage for blindness have found no Outdoors, the UI senior finds refuge challenges faced by visually impaired students — trace of serious eye problems. behind gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses, finding a job, a home, a place in the world — and what His mother — two months pregnant, around the hiding his eyes from a light too painful experts say is an especially daunting jump from col- time a fetus’ eyes form — was rear-ended on an east- to imagine and too dangerous to ignore. lege life into the work force. Nearly 50,000 Iowans west tollway outside Chicago, his father recalls. So when his shades go missing one after- statewide qualify as visually impaired — 20/80 vision Nothing seemed amiss after their first son’s birth noon after lunch at Micky’s Irish Pub, he with the greatest possible correction eyeglasses can on May 27, 1982. But during a checkup when Brian worries. Clouds loom overhead, thick as offer — and 12,000 are legally blind, according to the was 3 months old, the family pediatrician noticed Bsoup, with a chill in the air and no hint of brightness. From Iowa Department for the Blind. Nationwide, 1.3 mil- something wrong with Brian’s eyes. the white Dodge Neon parked atop the Tower Place ramp, lion Americans are legally blind, and 12 million are “We were shocked,” recalls his father, Mike.“We rain feels inevitable. But Brian isn’t convinced. visually impaired — a number expected to double by couldn’t believe it.” “Can I go back and look for them?” he asks his driv- 2020 as the baby boomers age. From a distance, Brian’s eyes appear normal. Up er. “If the sun comes out, I’m in trouble.” Brian, with his small, ever-twitching eyes, is among the close, they fidget, straining to complete a puzzle of Brian is legally blind — one of only 17 students youngest. He is a grade-school outcast classmates punched jumbled imagery. In hundreds of eye exams over a campuswide with a severe visual impairment, accord- and called “retard,” a high-school wrestling champion who lifetime, doctors discovered a legion of ailments ing to recent UI statistics. Bright light on the 24-year- felt his way to a series of wins, a UI history major too shy to clouding his vision. old’s retinas feels like a chemical burn, he says, multi- flirt with girls but too proud to walk with a cane. He is a Anaridia, a genetic condition that prevents his iris plied by 1,000. A sudden burst — “a punch in the eye,” young man who stares his troubles in the face — as best he from developing properly, leaves him unable to regu- as he describes it — can send him into convulsions. late his light intake. The condition impairs his vision Light, to Brian and those like him, is a constant can — and says,with a laid-back shrug,“Such is life.” and renders him agonizingly sensitive to light. reminder of an eventual but permanent descent into darkness. His eyesight is failing. A host of incurable A GRIM PROGNOSIS Macular degeneration, a disease most common in degenerative diseases are stealing what remains of There is no proof that the car crash along a busy the elderly, breaks down the center of his retinas, his vision. Some day — tomorrow or in 20 years — stretch of interstate cost an unborn Brian causing blind spots and distorting his vision. the badly blurred world he sees will fade forever. McManus his sight. But family members who SEE MCMANUS, PAGE 7 HALF-STAFF FLAG FIELDING RAPTOR ATTENTION STAR The flag will be flown A pair of local ospreys who 86 30 C CAMPERS GAZING © Mostly cloudy band together get banded © at half-staff today in to partly The Hawkeye What’s the 68 20 C honor of Robert together. 2 cloudy, 20% field-hockey crew view going to chance of rain Payne, who passed is in charge of ‘FILTHY DIRTY’ be like for poor away on July 7th. He more than 100 Star Jones INDEX North Liberty’s new sewage- Arts was the UI director of campers honing Reynolds, 5 plant superintendent reports to now that she’s Classifieds 10 Business and Financial Crossword 6 their skills. 12 the town on the condition of unemployed? 5 Administration. Opinions 4 the facility. 3 Sports 12 2 - The Daily Iowan - Iowa City, Iowa - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 NEWS The Daily Iowan Volume 138 Issue 27 BREAKING NEWS STAFF Phone: (319) 335-6063 Publisher: E-mail: [email protected] William Casey. 335-5788 Fax: 335-6184 Editor: Aiding an osprey comeback Meghan Sims. .335-6030 CORRECTIONS Managing Editor: Call: 335-6030 ‘We are working to increase the population across the board.’ Margaret Poe. 335-5855 Policy: The Daily Iowan strives for Metro Editors: — Jodeane Cancilla, the director of the Macbride Raptor Project accuracy and fairness in the reporting Lee Hermiston. 335-6063 of news. If a report is wrong or mis- Mason Kerns. .335-6063 TAKE A JOURNEY WITH DI leading, a request for a correction or a Opinions Editor: at Mount Mercy College and clarification may be made. VIDEOGRAPHER AARON occasional Iowa Lakeside Lab- Laura Michaels. .335-5863 PREUSCH TO VISIT THE oratory ornithology professor. PUBLISHING INFO Sports Editor: Dan Parr. 335-5848 OSPREYS IN THEIR Bernstein cited habitat The Daily Iowan (USPS 143.360)is Tyson Wirth. 335-5848 NEST AT destruction and DDT applica- published by Student Publications Inc., E131 Adler Journalism Building, Iowa Arts Editor: DAILYIOWAN.COM. tion as a few of the reasons Charlie Moran . 335-5851 contributing to the decline. City, Iowa 52242-2004, daily except Saturdays, Sundays, legal and universi- Copy Chief: BY BRYCE BAUER DDT, one of the earliest chemi- Beau Elliot. .335-6030 ty holidays, and university vacations. THE DAILY IOWAN cal pesticides, was outlawed in Design Editor: Periodicals postage paid at the Iowa the United States in 1973 — in Brittany Volk. 335-6030 City Post Office under the Act of With a ratio of nearly 80 part because it appeared to Photo Editor: enthusiastic kids for each weaken birds’ egg shells. Congress of March 2, 1879. Laura Schmitt. .335-5852 osprey, the odds were clearly in “We’ve seen many fishing SUBSCRIPTIONS Web Editor: the children’s favor. species increase since DDT has Call: Pete Recker at 335-5783 Tony Phan. .335-5829 But throughout ample prod- been banned,” he said. E-mail: [email protected] Business Manager: ding from small fingers, the Cancilla agreed, calling Subscription rates: Debra Plath. .335-5786 steely eyed birds of prey habitat destruction “the Iowa City and Coralville: $20 for one Advertising Manager: remained unruffled Tuesday biggest concern, right now,” semester, $40 for two semesters, $10 Cathy Witt. .335-5794 during an excursion away from especially in South America, for summer session, $50 for full year. Classified Ads Manager: Out of town: $40 for one semester, Cristine Perry. .335-5784 their tree-top home. where the danger is also com- $80 for two semesters, $15 for summer Circulation Manager: “Mark and I thought they pounded by the use of session, $95 all year. Pete Recker. .335-5783 were cool and cute at the same industrial chemicals. time,” said Erik Duethman, Day Production Manager: “The rain forests have been Send address changes to: The Daily Heidi Owen. .335-5789 one of the young bird watchers very severely damaged. We’ve Iowan, 100 Adler Journalism Building, Night Production Manager: at Lake Macbride who looked lost a lot of trees in those Iowa City, Iowa 52242-2004. Bob Foley. .335-5789 on as two new ospreys joined areas, which, obviously, they those tagged by the Macbride need to perch in,” she said. Raptor Project. The endeavor “They are using a lot of chemi- hopes to foster a flourishing cals and pesticides that are LAST TANGO IN GABE’S osprey community by nurtur- washing into the waterways” ing and tracking new intro- where the birds find their food. ductions. Yet, even with careful feed- “We put aluminum bands ing and watchful conservation- around their ankles,” said ists’ eyes, life is not easy for an Jodeane Cancilla, the coordi- osprey. Cancilla said only nator for the project, which is around 25 percent of the young co-sponsored by UI birds in multi-chick nests sur- Recreational Services and vive, but the relocation efforts Kirkwood Community College. can increase that number. “So if they are found anywhere Lindsey Walters/The Daily Iowan “It increases the survivabili- else again, and those bands Jodeane Cancilla, the director of the Macbride Raptor Project, ty for the bird in the nest and can be identified, they can get places a young osprey into a bag held by Karen Thielman, a volun- the bird taken from the nest,” a whole history on the birds.” she said.