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Show ALSO INSIDE Opinion columnists Sam Knuth and Jackson Hannon debate what role religion should play in public education » 5 Red Rocks prepared to attack the season after a rough yet successful opener » 6 4L Monday, January 13, 2014 THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE www.dailyutahchronicle.com 01111111 The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice Since 1890 .- ittflilliimiiiiiiiItiiiiiiilielliiiiiiiiiiiii i Ti ls 0 HOust OF RrPRrStNTATIVE5 ill) WO TT 50pp0rt tt;e, Ts 1 ::- 101,4 aticCi t1 -1-01 c i -, u ice , q1 3. h-f- OF All iiopie, +0 i llIiiii, i _ __ Soy I Do , 191 rl: jiasi wr Le°a" ASST. NEWS EDITOR istaccjeCk 611°e°. 2— : PHOTO COURTESY OF SHERYLL LYNNE PHOTOGRAPHY Supporters of same-sex marriage in Utah gather inside the state Capitol on Friday to ask Gov. Gary Herbert to stop an appeal on District Judge Robert J. Shelby's decision to strike down Utah's Amendment 3, which barred same-sex marriage. POLITICS Feds honor same-sex unions Anna Drysdale NEWS EDITOR U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. confirmed on Friday that the federal government will honor same-sex marriages that were performed in Utah before the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay on District Judge Robert J. Shelby's decision. Holder said in a video announcement released Friday that the marriages will be recognized as lawful and that the couples will be eligible for federal benefits, regardless of Gov. Gary Herbert's previous decision to refuse to recognize the marriages within the state which has now been rescinded. "These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds," Holder said in the announcement. He added that the Department of Justice is working to give all couples in same-sex marriages full rights and benefits "as quickly and as smoothly as possible." This comes in recognition of the Supreme Court's ruling in United States v. Windsor in June 2013, "holding that Americans in same-sex marriages are entitled to equal protection and equal treatment under the law." Clifford Rosky, professor of law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law and president of Equality Utah, expressed his happiness at the Attorney General's announcement Friday afternoon. "We are thrilled that the federal government will recognize these marriages," he said. The governor's office had previously issued a memo to cabinet members on Tuesday, Jan. 7, ordering them not to recognize the marriages. That memo has now been voided by a second memo released Friday, Jan. ro that stated Holder's announcement was "no surprise" and the state will comply with federal laws. Holder said that while the Supreme Court's administrative decision to send See MARRIAGE page 3 HINCKLEY INSTITUTE OF POLITICS Lee aims to cut higher ed costs Anna Drysdale NEWS EDITOR BRENT UBERTY/The Daily Utah Chronicle Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) speaks to students Friday afternoon on "Boston to Philadelphia: A Journey from Protesting the Government We Don't Want to the Government We Do" in the Hinkley Caucus room. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said on Friday that he wants to tear up the "iron triangle" controlling higher education in the United States. The senator spoke at the Hinckley Institute of Politics after announcing a bill in Washington on Jan. 9 that would open up the accreditation system for higher education. If passed, the Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act will expand opportunities across the low-income demographic and middle class. Lee said the already costly expenses of higher education are rising because of the efforts of bureau- crats, institutions of higher learning and those who accredit the offices of higher education. His proposed bill would allow institutions, those not presently accredited, to apply to receive government funding. He hopes this will extend authorized avenues of higher learning to students from all backgrounds. "We want to give the states an option of establishing their own accrediting systems," Lee said. States would work with the Secretary of Education to establish their own system, designating who has the power to accredit and including basic criteria that instituSee LEE page 3 ASUU Hawkins wants more student involvement Nathan Turner STAFF WRITER A change was made to the Government Relations board over the break — Lisa Hawkins took over as the director of the board after serving for a semester as an ASUU Supreme Court justice. Hawkins said that when the opportunity to become Government Relations director arose, she couldn't turn it down. "I really think it is so important for students — really any citizen — to be engaged in their local government. I think people can make more of a difference than they think they can," Hawkins said. She said that one of her main goals is to work on the UREP program that started up last semester. The program connects students with similar advocacy issues. The students then work together to create initiatives and civic engagement throughout the community. She said that she would like to start holding training sessions for any student group or individual that wants to learn See ASUU page 3 Sperm swap snafu linked to Ut. clinic, Tex. family Courtney Tanner ea t_als *lei ere Vol. 123 1 No. 701 ©2014 COLE TAN/The Daily Utah Chronicle Lisa Hawkins, ASUU's new director of Government Relations, poses for a photo in the ASUU office. Pamela Branum has always told her daughter that God has a plan for their lives, but her family maxim was set to collide with another: "Honesty is the best policy." It took just one phone call for Branum to explain to her daughter Annie who her biological father was. Branum did not hesitate to dial the numbers. She did not pause when she heard "Hello?" on the other line. She simply told the truth. Annie's biological father was a convicted felon in a kidnapping • THOMAS LIPPERT case. And he is dead. His name was Thomas Lippert and he was not supposed to be Annie's father. For Branum, it may have been God's plan, but it was definitely not hers. Discovering the switch In 1990, Branum and her husband John were visiting a fertility clinic associated with the U because they were having problems conceiving. They had attempted artificial insemination several times using John's sperm. On the second attempt, Branum lost the pregnancy. She and John vowed to try once more, and were met with success on the third try. They had Annie in May 1992. But what Branum did not know is that Lippert, an employee at the sperm bank from 1986 to 1995, had allegedly switched his sperm with John's. This knowledge came in April 2013, 21 years later. "I was really kind of devastated, just for my daughter's sake," Branum said. Branum, now a San Antonio resident, discovered the mishap after an interest in genealogy led her to map her family tree. She sought DNA testing for herself, and later convinced her husband and daughter to do the same through 23andMe, one of the three major genealogy databases that include AncestryDNA (owned by Ancestry.com) and Family Tree DNA. When Branum received her husband's results she remembered being "on pins and needles." It had taken Branum a lot of persistence to get John to finally agree to the testing. Once she opened the results, she had to wade through the usual disclaimers. "You just don't click on it and it gives you all this information," Branum said. "It's kind of warning you, but of course you never expect any of those things to apply to you." The results showed a 5o percent match between Branum and Annie, as expected, but when Annie and John were compared the data indicated a zero percent match. Branum remembered saying at the time, "I'm really sorry that I did this. What have I done?" Branum's first suspicions were that John's sperm sample had been accidently switched with another couples' at the clinic. They contacted CeCe Moore, a professional genetic genealogist, in search of answers. "We had no idea they were going to find something like this," Moore said. Branum had first come in contact with Moore through her blog "Your Genetic Genealogist," where Moore first reported the incident on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Moore suggested that Annie test her DNA at the two other databases — AncestryDNA and Family Tree DNA — to find a paternal family match. Moore using this developing branch of genealogy to help adoptees find their biological parents, but did not expect something as "bizarre" as this. Lippert comes into the picture Lippert's first cousin led to a positive match with Annie on Ancestry.com . Branum contacted her and received a phone call a month later. Wanting the truth to be accurately unmasked, the cousin explained Lippert's connection to the fertility clinic and his harrowing record to Branum. Lippert, a former assistant professor of business law at Southwest Minnesota State University, according to the college's 2007 newsletter, had conspired with SMSU student Harold Ross Tenneson to kidnap a female student from Purdue University on Feb. 19, 1975. Lippert was arrested on March 13 and plead guilty to the charges on Oct. 1. He served two years in jail out of a six-year sentence. According to a 1975 archived issue of People, Lippert allegedly subjected his victim to a "love experiment" wherein Lippert shocked the student in an attempt to force her fall in love with him. "I just hated who he was and that he had done that," Branum said. His widow, Jean Lippert, met her husband in Minnesota while he was in jail. She said he used to deny the kidnapping and said the student willingly went with him. The two were married in 1979 and moved to Utah See CRIME page 4 |