Crimson White recruitment table back by popular demand! The Crimson White is looking to fill all positions for the 2008-09 school year. If you are interested, visit our table in the Ferguson Center today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Applications are also available online at www.cw.ua.edu through Friday. Contact 2008-09 Editor Corey Craft at [email protected] for more details. Opinions: Housing Creative Campus Critic’s Baseball loses 4 market needs help 7 Pick reviews ARDT 10 to UAB Thursday, April 3, 2008 Serving the University of Alabama since 1894 Vol. 114, Issue 108 Plan would remove state tax on groceries Appropriations Committee families start paying taxes. Alabama Arise, a coalition Grocery tax bill passes and the Senate Finance The sponsors, state Rep. community, civic and reli- Tax reform numbers committee and Taxation-Education John Knight of Montgomery gious groups have lobbied Committees approved con- and state Sen. Hank Sanders in favor of the plan. Chris ■ There is a 4 percent state sales tax on BY JESSICA ALEXANDER stitutional amendments of Selma, said the proposed Sanders, a policy analyst at groceries. Senior Staff Reporter Wednesday to remove the changes help low-income Arise Citizens’ Policy Project, state’s 4 percent sales tax on working families, but about said he hoped the tax plan ■ [email protected] ■ Tuscaloosa has a 9 percent tax on groceries. groceries. 20 percent of Alabama’s fam- would be successful. As the economy continues To make up for the lost rev- ilies would pay more taxes, “It would remove the 4 ■ If the bill to remove the grocery tax passed, to slow, the state Legislature enue, the proposed consti- according to the Associated percent tax,” Sanders said. is debating whether to cut tutional amendments would Press. “We also we want to raise the Tuscaloosa’s tax on groceries would be 5 or raise taxes. But after two remove the current state Currently Tuscaloosa has income tax threshold for fami- percent. committees voted to approve income tax deduction for fed- a 9 percent tax on grocer- lies of four to $20,000. These removing the grocery tax, the eral income taxes paid. The ies, but if this law went into steps have costs. We want to ■ $300 million was paid in grocery taxes last choice might be to cut taxes. legislation would also raise the effect, it would be reduced year. The House Government threshold at which Alabama to 5 percent. See TAXES, Page 2 Baking up a good time Pastor discusses Local bakery offers cake tasting, inspired song King’s legacy BY LAURA PITTS Senior Entertainment Reporter BY JOSH VEAZEY ■ [email protected] Contributing Writer It’s a busy day at Mary’s Cakes and Pastries. The phone is A former UA faculty member addressed poverty, war, ringing with new specialty cake orders. Anxious children press religion, controversial rhetoric and how they relate to the their faces against the clear glass that separates them from the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. Wednesday night. cookies, cakes and muffins they see. Bakery workers stir and Dorsey Odell Blake was the first chairman of the UA sift cake batter and carefully ooze icing onto cakes. African-American studies program and currently serves Though Mary’s Cakes and Pastries has only been open two as the pastor of the U.S.’s first interracial, interfaith con- years, owner Mary Cesar said the response from the Tuscaloosa gregation, The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in and Northport community has been good and is growing for San Francisco. He delivered a message entitled “40 Years the bakery located in historic downtown Northport at 412B after Dr. King: Wilderness or Promise Land?” 22nd Avenue, behind The Globe Restaurant. Blake said he heard King speak when he was a junior at “You have to love to bake and cook — and I mean really love Brown University. it — to have this as your career,” Cesar said. “I love being able “I sensed that this would be a memorable occasion,” he to tell people that I’m 50 years old, and I’m doing what I love to said. “But I had no idea that he would become an eternal do.” presence that would companion all of my earthly jour- Cesar’s enthusiasm, she said, has always remained consis- ney.” tent. Blake said when King entered the room, he felt an “I’ve always loved to bake,” Cesar said. “I would bake with “enveloping spirit which I had never felt before.” my mother as a child, and then I went off to college in France Blake said King’s greatest impact on him was to give and didn’t cook as much.” him the courage to be a conscientious objector to the war Cesar said she finally decided that if she was ever going to in Vietnam. cook or bake, she needed to do it before she got much older. “Because he said ‘no,’ my ‘no’ was given wings,” Blake “I knew I needed to re-start baking while I could still lift a said. bag of flour,” she said. While most people wanted King to talk only about rac- Cesar attended Culinard at Virginia College and opened up CW/ April Williams Mary Cesar, owner of Mary’s Cakes and Pastries, spreads a type of ism, Blake said his speech at Brown was about the war. Mary’s Cakes and Pastries after graduation. King became famous with breaking with most religious chocolate icing called ganache onto a cake. Mary’s Cakes has been See BAKING, Page 3 open for two years and is located in historic downtown Northport. See LECTURE, Page 3 ■ SGA ACCOUNTABILITY Groeschell worked to make financial affairs more receptive BY MARTHA GRAVLEE year,” he said. application for funds “I really wanted CCSO offered. Committee has continued Senior Staff Reporter Groeschell said he made is now easier and to make the SGA Groeschell said the only other programs that help stu- ■ [email protected] it easier for organizations faster. more accountable platform point he did not dents. to receive money from the Groeschell also so that students accomplish was an online “We have the emergency When Chip Groeschell ran Financial Affairs Committee, promised to make knew where their application for money from the student loan program,” he for vice president of financial which is comprised of repre- the SGA more money was going,” Financial Affairs Committee. said. “Students can come into affairs in 2007, he promised a sentatives from the SGA Senate accountable to stu- he said. “I talked about getting a the office and get a loan up to more approachable Financial and the Coordinating Council dents, and said he He also said the digital application for students $350 interest-free if they pay it Affairs Committee, with more of Student Organizations. kept that promise. Financial Affairs that did not get done,” he said. back within 30 days.” funds readily available for stu- “We allocate money to stu- “We’re getting Committee had “There’s a handwritten appli- “We’ve also continued to dent organizations. dent organizations. That’s money into the Chip Groeschell started work- cation still, and it’s working hold Capstone Market, which As his term comes to an end, a big part of my job. I just hands of students,” ing closely with well. is held every year,” he said. Groeshell, who was endorsed wanted to make that easier for he said. Coordinating Council for “When it came down to it, “Capstone Market is a fund- by The Crimson White, said groups,” he said. “It seems like Groeschell said students Student Organizations to bet- there didn’t seem to be much raiser for the SGA, and it turns he has accomplished most of we’re going to give out all of can track how money is ter serve student organizations of a need for it when I reevalu- the Ferguson Center into a what he lined out in his plat- the $120 thousand we’ve been being spent and given out on and to hold workshops to help ated it.” mall. Students can get their form. allocated. They came close to the SGA Web site, as well as students better understand Groeschell said, aside from Christmas shopping done, “I think we’ve done a accomplishing that last year.” see how much is in the SGA what services the Financial what he implemented during lot of great things this Groeschell said the accounts. Affairs Committee and his term, the Financial Affairs See SGA, Page 3 Today Thunderstorms. The Crimson White ■ Box 870170 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 Thunderstorms. Friday ■ Newsroom — 348-6144 Fax — 348-4116 ■ Advertising — 348-7845 79º/52º ■ Classifieds — 348-7355 ■ Letters, op-eds — [email protected] Saturday Clear. online ■ Press releases, announcements — news cw.ua.edu www.cw.ua.edu 77º/61º 70º/47º @ Thursday, April 3, 2008 ■ NEWS THE CRIMSON WHITE 2 CAMPUS Engineers place at conference the devices and test them. Students return from The canoe had to be built Tobrief submit a brief, e-mail [email protected] IN out of a special floatable mix- Florida with three trophies ture of concrete and compete BY MARTHA GRAVLEE in a race. ANNOUNCEMENTS Senior Staff Reporter “It floated and they placed,” ■ [email protected] Triche said. “They didn’t place Honors Week to be held April 14—18 in the top five, though.” On Friday and Saturday of The UA students fared bet- The University will recognize the scholarship and lead- last week, 30 UA engineer- ter in the steel bridge compe- ership of students and faculty members with 2008 Honors ing students participated in tition, which they had been Week activities on campus April 14 to 18.