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Show AboutUs OurView Editor in Chief Arie Kirk Voice your concerns about valley issues News Editor Rachel A. Christensen Assistant News Editor Greg Boyles Features Editor Courtnie Packer D o you think our roads could have less potholes, our community a little safer and our schools better funded? Are you tired of nobody listening to your opinion? Do you want to change Cache Valley for the better? You finally have a chance to get involved. This week an Envision Cache Valley workshop will be held at Utah State University, providing community members the opportunity to get involved with projects that will improve life in the valley. The workshop will be Wednesday, April 8 in the TSC Ballroom from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. So you're a student wondering how this really affects you? Well, if you have ever received a parking ticket after leaving your car out on a snowy road, or used the Cache Valley bus system to get around town, you must be there, in more ways than just these, you will be affected by the events of this workshop. Whether you are a student or resident, you have an obligation to be a part of the improvement planning of Cache Valley. When members of the community meet with planning officials in a setting poised to improve the quality of life, voices will be ; heard, r ^ But this will not be a forum for public grievances. The goal of the coalition is to improve the quality of life and plan for future growth, not to give away handouts or listen to whiners. Students and residents should understand that without proper planning of zoning, infrastructure, water usage and other issues,^ a community cannot thrive. Members of the community must become involved with the decisions regarding public schools, land use, infrastructure and so on. This is your chance. Now is the time. These types of meeting don't come often. You should count yourself lucky, as it is often the unfortunate tendency of governments to make plans without much regard for the opinions and values of community members. We can all admit that Main Street is no expressway around quitting time and there are more than a dozen other issues in Cache Valley that need to be addressed. If you can't make it to the meeting, go online to www.envisioncachevalley.com and take the survey. More information on the Envision Utah is available from their Web site at www. envisionutah.org. <: . ; _ _ „ . Community members who do not get involved or do not speak up on issues have no right to complain when the outcome is contrary to their wishes. The future of our community, state and nation will most likely turn out to be less than satisfactory if you don't speak up now. Obama should ^ pass out gift cards I am not buying enough stuff. 1 know this partly because President Barack Obama keeps telling me that. Although, oddly, his method for getting me to shop is to give trillions of dollars to insurance and banking corporations. I'm not an economist, but I'm pretty sure it's more efficient to send us all a bunch of gift cards. If there's one thing I learned from working long hours on a sitcom, it's that no one is angry while drinking a free latte. But the main reason I know I'm not buying enough stuff is that everything is free. I don't pay for newspapers, TV shows, music, software, video calls, encyclopedias, dictionaries, e-mail, calendars, GPS service, social networking, pornography or cookbooks. The only person who started a business this decade that actually asked people for money was Rod Blagojevich. V v The bafance between advertising and purchases"" is way out of whack. I must see 10Q times as many ads each day as I did 10 years ago, but I spend half as much time buying stuff, t h e economy might have sunk because we were buying too much, but it also was because we can get away with buying so little., And because when we did buy stuff, we paid with* credit cards. Which are like anti-gift cards. ( > When I ran my advertising/purchases imbalance* theory by Hal Varian, the chief economist at Gqogle,* and a University of California, Berkeley, economic^ professor, he agreed With me, noting that neW sucf cessful companies are not ad-based. "It is interesting USee CHEAP, page 13 ~~ T~T ii' 4 Assistant Features Editor Amanda Mears Sports Editor Tim Olsen Assistant Sports Editor Paul Kelley Copy Editor Lisa Christensen Forum Lett e PS express my two concerns about the USU ponds near my house. First, I'm very concerned about the wildlife To the editor: living at the ponds. All of the heavy construction My name is Weston is disrupting the natuBarnett.. I'm a fourth ral habitat. Me and my grader at Columbia friends went down to the Elementary in Kaysville, pond and found some Utah. I'm a 10 year old living turtles and one boy who loyes Utah State dead duck. A few days University (go Aggies!). I later, I saw a big crane am planning on attend- right where the turtles ing your school when I were living. I am scared grow up. that al! of the construcI'm writing to you to tion is killing the wildlife. Natural habitats in danger Letters to the editor • A public forum Second is the amount of litter in this beautiful place. There is trash everywhere. We saw a bottle of Lysol and a sandal, we saw someone dumping their Coke on a tree. Me and my fellow Scouts are planning a service project to clean up the ponds. I am hoping you'll address the issue of over-construction near the wildlife. Photo Editor Cameron Peterson Assistant Photo Editor Tyler Larson Editorial Board Arie Kirk Rachel A. Christensen Courtnie Packer Tim Olsen Amanda Mears Lisa Christensen About letters • Letters should be limited to 350 words. Weston Barnett • All letters may be shortened, edited or rejected for reasons of good taste, redundancy or volume of i s I a m i @ a g g i e m a i I. u s u.^ similar letters. edu. Salons from around • Letters must be topic oriented. They the valley have donated may not be directed their time to come cut toward individuals. hair and there are already more than 20 individuAny letter directed als who have committed to a specific indito donating their hair. vidual may be edited Speakers will include or not printed. Joyce Albrecht so come • No anonymous on over to the TSC on letters will be pubThursday and, if you can't lished. Writers must donate hair, support sign all letters and those who are making include a phone such a huge decision to number or e-mail help others. address as well as a Service Week will be student identificaan awesome opportunity to continue to serve our tion number (none campus and community. of which is pubCheck out the schedule lished). Letters will and take a few minutes not be printed without of your day to come out this verification. help out. • Letters representing We have all sorts of groups — or more activities, from minithan one individual golf and sorting par— must have a sinties, to Extreme Room gular representative Makeovers and the movie clearly stated, with "Super Size Me." . .Come on out and let's , all necessary identifido some service. Go cation information. Aggies! • Writers must wait 21 days before subThis column mitting successive was writletters — no excepten by tions. Brett Healy, • Letters can be hand ASUSU's delivered or mailed service to The Statesman vice presiin the TSC, Room dent. 105, ore-mailed to statesman@cc.usu. edu,.or click on www.utahstatesman. com for more letter guidelines and a box to submit letters. Year of service continuing R. Christensen Service Center and the Service Council, I would like to first thank the students of Aggie Nation who have donated so much service this past year. Together, we have accounted for more than 20,000 hours of service and have had close to 3,000 volunteers. We started the year off with a record-setting Blood Battle victory over the school down south, collecting 1,435 units of blood. In November and December, we participated in Penny Wars and Stuff-a-Bus, collecting more than $10,000 and 22,000 pounds of food. All of this provided Christmas: for hundreds of children in the Cache Valley. ;; We have tutored in elementary and middle schools, mentored children of all ages, been translators at parentteacher conferences, cheered and coached our Special Olympic athletes to victory, partied with the elderly and raised awareness about poverty in all parts of the world. There is a certain spirit of service that exists on our campus.and it has really : shined this year. But the success of the year are far from over. April 6-11 is Service Week and our theme this year is "Rising to the Challenge." The theme reflects one of the major goals of this week, to raise money for the non-profit organization, Mali Rising. AH of the money collected will be used to build a school in Mali, a country in Africa. So look for places to donate, every little bit helps. Also during Service Week, we have been challenged by Weber State to a blood battle. So stick out those arms and help us claim victory once again. Service Week also gives rise to our first annual Aggielocks hair donetion event Thursday, April 9. Ageielocks is a campaign dedicated to... encobrage students of USU and the community to grow, cut and donate their hair (roughly 8-10 inches) to the Wigs for KidsandPantene Beautiful Lengths Organizations for the victims of cancer in the nation. If you are interested in donating your hair, contact Jamila McFarland, jam. Online poll Do you think the manner in which the recent Athletics Fee was approved was fairly done? No, the information on the ballot and some of the polling locations were unfairly presented. Yes. All students had a chance to vote. Visit us on the Web at www.utahstatesman, com to cast your vote. .? V |