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Show Wedding Info: Send tlie dood News to office@statesman.usu.eau StatesmanCampus N e w s Page 4 Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008 ASUSU Senate and Council meetings Academic Senate agenda Meeting Agenda for Monday Sept. 8 GRADY BRIMLEY says his final remarks before the end of Tuesday's Can an idea be brilliant meeting. TYLER LARSON photo Executive Council agenda 1. Welcome: President Jennings 2. Accept Minutes 3. Public Forum 4. Senator Updates: 5. Advisor Updates: A. Meetings with Jimmy Moore B. Pink Sheet Training—Stephanie Baldwin 6. Information Items A. AOF Meeting immediately following this meeting a. College of Science b. College of Agriculture B. Deans Luncheon Nov. 5th C. Grad Senators Information D. Please Review Charters 7. Discussion Items A. Student Code Changes B. Book of Semester 8. Adjourn Meeting Agenda for Tuesday, Sept. 9 1. Welcome: President Brimley 2. Accept Minutes 3. Public Forum 4. Council Updates 5. Advisor Updates 6. Information Items 7. Bookstore Donation Training: Vice President Russell 8. Discussion Items 9. Adjourn JONATHAN KIDD speaks at the ASUSU meeting, Tuesday, TYLER LARSON photo a no-brainer Stimulus checks boost child support • same time? A+ACCOUIMT'r^ FREE checking FREE ATMs And much more... + Free Aggie blanket and $10 Chili's gift card!* BOSTON (AP)-Deadbeat dads and moms around the country are discovering that their economic stimulus checks from Washington intended to encourage the purchase of TVs, cars and other goods - are being intercepted and funneled toward the support of their children. Treasury Department figures obtained by The Associated Press show that more than 1.4 million of the checks have been seized since the payments began last spring, and a total of $831 million has been collected by child support agencies nationwide. Cheryl Hayes, a 32-yearold paralegal student from Auburn, Mass., said her exhusband owes about $30,000 in support for their three children, and she hopes to see some of that via his stimulus check. Hayes said that while she knows the stimulus checks were intended to encourage people to head down to the local Wal-Mart, Best Buy or Home Depot, in the case of deadbeat parents, their children's well-being should come first. "The stimulus check is something at least they can get to help live off of," Hayes said. "It should go to the children because the children are the ones that would need it." The parents who are owed child support won't immediately see the money. And in some cases they may not receive it at all. The intercepted checks in Massachusetts, for example, are deposited with the state and held for 180 days to allow the parent to file an appeal. If the appeal is denied, the money is turned over to the parent who has custody - in most cases, the mother -unless she has been on public assistance, in which case the funds can go back to the state and federal government to reimburse the taxpayers. Some states hold the funds longer, others for less time. In California, $97.9 million was collected via 152,877 diverted checks, while Texas brought in $80.3 million from 132,144 payments. Rhode Island saw a $1.9 million boost from 3,465 diverted checks. Massachusetts took in $11.2 million, Tennessee $24.4 million. "It's been a very nice bonus for our children in need of support," said Mike Adams, assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services. "We've been very pleased with the amount of money we've been able to collect." The stimulus program proposed by President Bush and approved by Congress provided $600 checks for most individuals and $1,200 for couples filing jointly, with a $300 per-child credit added on. States submit the names and Social Security numbers of deadbeat parents to the IRS, which crosschecks those names against the lists of taxpayers receiving stimulus checks. The IRS then sends the deadbeat parents' checks straight to state child support agencies. The diverted ones are just a fraction of the more than 112 million stimulus checks issued as of the start of July. So far, the IRS has dispensed checks totaling $92 billion. It will continue processing tax returns and issuing stimulus checks for much of the year. Ned Holstein, founder of Fathers and Families, a Bostonbased organization that supports the rights of fathers, said the seizing of economic stimulus checks ignores the fact that most fathers who owe child support are earning little. "We're trying to support very poor people, the mothers and children, from the pocketbooks of other very poor people," he said. "There are those who are just downright avoiding their child support payments, but there are many more who just can't make their payments." 'For accounts opened before 9/30/OB Former Nation ofIslam leader dies USU Charter CREDIT UNION we're with you! 753-4080 iisuccuiorg CAMPUS - LOGAN - SMITHFIELD • PROVIDENCE • BRIGHAM CITY NCUA Now ON SALE 2008-09 SEASON Student must present: • Current school schedule • Photo (0 CHICAGO (AP)-Imam W.D. Mohammed, who succeeded his father as leader of the Nation of Islam but abandoned its teachings of black supremacy and moved thousands of its followers into mainstream Islam, died Tuesday. He was 74. Mohammed died at his home in Markham, 111., according to a family statement issued late Tuesday by his nephew, Sultan Muhammad. Details of his beaver m o u n t a i n Sale applies to High School Students also! Those under 18 must have parent sign release. This Price Valid Through October Please Call 435-563-5677 to make an appointment to purchase your pass. 1351 East 700 North Logan www.skithebeav.com death were not immediately released. "We ask that you pray for our father and leader," the statement said. The Cook County Medical Examiner said 74-year-old Wallace Mohammed was pronounced dead Tuesday. Mohammed went by both Warith Deen Mohammed and Wallace Muhammad. An autopsy was planned for Wednesday. "Obviously, it's a great loss for the entire Muslim community " said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan, where Mohammed led a convention last month. "He was encouraging his followers to accept the best of their humanity and to extend the moral and ethical values of Islam to the general American public." When Mohammed's father, Elijah Muhammad, died in 1975, his son was named leader of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam, which promoted self-reliance and black supremacy, a belief that mainstream Muslims consider heretical. Mohammed quickly abandoned that teaching and led the Nation toward orthodox Islam, emphasizing the faith's message of racial tolerance. He had been a friend of Malcolm X, who abandoned the Nation to embrace mainstream Islam before he was assassinated in 1965. Minister Louis Farrakhan, who broke with Mohammed over the move to orthodox Islam, separately revived the old Nation of Islam. Farrakhan and Mohammed reconciled in 2000 through meetings and a joint public appearance at a Friday prayer in Chicago. Still, Mohammed remained critical of many Nation of Islam leaders. "The time for those leaders who had that hate rhetoric has come and passed - and they know it," Mohammed said in an interview last year in Little Rock, Ark. "For the last 10 years or more, they've just been selling wolf tickets to the white race and having fun while they collect money and have fancy lifestyles." The Nation of Islam didn't immediately return telephone messages seeking comment. Born in 1933 in the Detroit area, Mohammed was the seventh of eight children. He was interested in Islam from an early age, said Lawrence Mamiya, a religion professor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. "He was a great AfricanAmerican Muslim leader who opened up Islam to the wider American public" Mamiya said. In 1990, Mohammed was the first Muslim to open the U.S. Senate with prayer. "His intrinsic intelligence and high academic acumen made him wise, but his kind heart and charitable character is what made him so beloved," Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., who is Muslim, said in a statement Tuesday. "I extend my sympathies to his family and friends as they mourn his passing." No one knows the size of Mohammed's movement, which was decentralized with many leaders and many entities, including The Mosque Cares. However, the number of his followers is believed to be in the tens of thousands. The movement included not only mosques nationwide, but many business projects, which reflected the continued emphasis on black economic self-reliance that had been part of the Nation of Islam's mission. The movement's decentralization makes it unclear who will succeed Mohammed. Jimmy Jones, a Muslim chaplain and religion professor at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., joined Mohammed's movement in 1979, during the transition toward orthodox Islam. "He asked the believers to stop reading and learning what his father had taught and start listening to him," Jones said after learning of Mohammed's death from a movement leader. Mohammed changed his name several times from his birth name, Wallace Muhammad, to Warith Deen Muhammad and W.D. Mohammed. Jones said the renaming partly reflected the imam's struggle to maintain a triple identity: Muslim, African-American and American. |