Bowling Green State University ScholarWorks@BGSU BG News (Student Newspaper) University Publications 3-4-2004 The BG News March 4, 2004 Bowling Green State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news Recommended Citation Bowling Green State University, "The BG News March 4, 2004" (2004). BG News (Student Newspaper). 7250. https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news/7250 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at ScholarWorks@BGSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in BG News (Student Newspaper) by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@BGSU. Bowling Green State University March 4, 2004 MAC BASKETBALL: FEW SHOWERS HIGH50ILOW43 Check out our sports special section; PAGE 11 www.bgnews.com NEWSA daily independent student press VOLUME 98 ISSUE 109 Running With the In a world of large HO corporations and Dogs SAME SEX LICENSE: Christine Tanner expresses excitement after national chains, finally receiving a lesbian marriage license in 1998. Madhatter Music appreciate the type of service Co. has to work they find at Madhatter. harder to reach out "I like the atmosphere at Madhatter because it's not like Portland allows to customers. going into a Best Buy or Circuit By Eric Hann City," Dave Mercler. a student at PULSE WRITER the University said. "I don't feel like I am bum-barded by sales gay marriages Providing items thai larger ixflple who arc only interested in music stores and national chains By Rukmini CallimacN riages have met with fierce oppo- don't carry and sporting a per- commission when I go into THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Madhatter. 1 feel so comfortable sition and calls for a constitution- sonal atmosphere is what busi- PORTDXND, Ore. — A new al amendment banning the nesses like Madhatter Music Co. when I go to Madhatter it is the only place I shop." front in die battle over same-sex unions. have to rely on these days to marriage opened yesterday in In I'lirtland. more than 150 gay keep their doors open. With the help of a couple of l*ortland. where county officials couples lined up to get marriage While Madhatter owner Jim friends, Cummer has been able issued cln/rns of licenses to gay licenses alter Mullnomah County Cummer feels the store sells a to work at his dream job for couples after deciding thai officials decided it would be good amount of records every- almost the past four years. Oregon law allowed the unions. unconstitutional to deny them. day, he has noticed more inde- Technically is the only employ- New York's attorney general, Among those getting licenses pendent record stores going out ee at Madhatter, but he has two meanwhile, said gay weddings in was Christine Tanner, who won a of business every day. friends that help run the store that stale are illegal, even though landmark Oregon court ruling in The closing of Boogie Records, when he has to go to the bank or he personally would like to see 1998 ordering state and local gov- located in Toledo, is still fresh in take a day off. the law changed. I lis opinion did ernments to offer benefits to their his mind. For those that help out, it's an not deter a second mayor in the employees' same-sex partners. honor—and like a trip home. state from announcing not only "There are only so many big " It has been the last three years that he would conduct gay mar- that the music retail business has "Once you've been around a events in peoples lives — birth, place for so long it is like your riages, but that he intends to marriage and death," said Tanner, collapsed." he said. "This isn't the marry his own same-sex partner. who his raised two children with business to go into right now." Mayors and county officials in her partner of 19 years. "It's a big But Cummer doesn't let clos- MADHATTER, PAGE 2 four states have allowed gay mar- deal. For us. this is symbolic" ings like these scare him—he's riages, including thousands in Gov. led Kulongoski said he still dedicated to running his Tom Ginti BG News San Francisco, which started the store the old-fasioned way., wedding march Feb. 12. The mar- MARRIAGES, PAGE 2 "Larger chain stores don't MAD ABOUT ATMOSPHERE: come into my thinking when Madhatter Music Co., 143 E. running the store," he said. Wooster St., displays hundreds Madhatter was originally ' of posters and boasts a shop- owned and run by Billy Hanway ping personal experience. who was in a popular local band called Madhatter. This is where the name and Federal officials logo for the store came from because it was already a recog- nized name in town. Hanway ease limits on wanted to open a store that fea- tured local and underground bands. Originally Cummer planned to same-sex schools buy a record store in Columbus, but when Hanway saw how seri- WASHINGTON (AP) — Public cates say it shows better student ous Cummer was about owning schools are about to get broad achievement and attendance a store of his own, he decided to new freedom to teach boys and and fewer discipline problems. sell Madhatter to him. girls separately, perhaps the Critics say there is no clear evi- Cummer was the first cus- biggest shakeup to coed class- dence, and that single-sex learn- tomer when Madhatter opened rooms in three decades. ing doesn't gel students ready for up in July of 1988, and has The Education Department an integrated world. enjoyed running it since he took plans to change its enforcement Only about 91 of91,000 public over in July of 2000. of Tide LX, the landmark anti-dis- schools offer a form of same-sex Between (lie smell of incense crimination law, to make it easier education now, including The in the air and the posters cover- for districts to create single-sex Philadelphia High School for ing the walls many customers classes and schools. Girls, which sends almost all of its realize this isn't your typical The move would give local graduates to college. record store. school leaders discretion to While opponents predict the The store has been able to stay expand choices for parents, new federal plan will be a big in business for so many years whether that means a math class, blow IO equal education oppor- because of the many customers a grade level or an entire school tunity; department officials say that have become regulars. designed for one gender. there will be no easing of protec- According to these, they U.S. research on single-sex tion against sexual discrimina- schooling is limited, but advo- tion. The determination of how an arson begins by a firefighter By Matthew Hoiner going into a fire looking for the cause of "I had this mail slot," McKenzie said. his investigation routine. He looks for If I'm really convinced that a section THE BG SEWS the fire." "It came in through that into a little odd spills that may denote that acceler- of the floor has a chemical in it. I'll pull a I IIC investigators have the difficult The fire fighters begin by putting the whicker basket I had. A nice, little, pleas- ants were present, or thai other sub- sample of that out and send it down to job of finding the cause of a fire and scene back together to find out where ant whicker basket." stances were used as trailers and moved the State Fire Marshall Lib and let diem determining if it was intentionally set or the fire came from and what caused it to Investigators look for anything out of the fire throughout the structure. test it, get a testing result back on it. That if the cause was accidental. spread. the ordinary that may have caused the "We don't just look on a pile of debris, rules out if there's any accelerants in "In fire extinguishing we're more con- "We look at a fire from the least burnt fire to move into another area we scrape it down, we clean it out," there, or if there were— !f they were cerned with life, safety and the health of area and work |our| way to the most Instone and his crew checked out the Instone said. "We move things out of the untraccable." both the civilians and the firefighters," burned area," Instone said. bum pattern. Darker areas denote more way, we clean it all down, we wash the According to the State Fire Marshall said Captain Mike Instone, a fireman Dave McKenzie who runs McKenzie intense heat and a longer burning time. floors down with a hose real good, put with 24 years experience. "We're not Builders, knows all too well that arson "Is there an obvious little spill?," the stuff back the way we found it, and going into a fire looking for arson. We're happens without warning. Instone asked, beginning to go through rebuild the scene. ARSON,PAGE 2 FOUR-DAY FORECAST FRI™ SATURDAY MONDAY The four-day forecast is taken /j^1' Windy High: 64" *^ Partly High: 48' jam Snow High: 46" from weather.com > - Low: 33" Cloudv low: 34* low. 27" FOR ALL THE NEWS VISIT WWW.BGNEWS.COM 2 Thursday. March 4.2004 WWW.BGNEWS.COM New services aid in staying competitive in BG MAOHATTER. FROM PAGE 1 home," said record store is a 12- disc listening center.