Alan Liu | Student Life

Students and members of the community stage a counter-protest to Westboro Baptist Church on Monday outside Clayton High School.

The counter-protesters, including a number of Washington University students, held signs, sang songs and chanted messages of support to protest the five-member picketing efforts of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan.

Westboro Baptist Church is nationally known for its extreme picketing techniques and strong stance against homosexuality.

Though administrators at Clayton High School are not sure why the group chose to target the school, principal Louise Losos said that the school’s visible Gay-Straight Alliance might have been a contributing factor.

“We don’t know for certain because they aren’t always as forthcoming as perhaps we would like,” Losos said. “[However,] they were in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl, so I think we were on their radar and on their way home.”

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church did not return phone calls or emails on Wednesday.

Alan Liu | Student Life

Seniors Brad Valtman and Micajah Dudley are some of the Washington University students at the counter protest.

The school, working with the Clayton Police Department, set up space both for the Westboro Baptist Church members’ to protest and for the community members to counter-protest.

“We worked with our student leaders to create a positive counter-demonstration…celebrating who we are as a school and celebrating our students,” Losos said.

Washington University students learned about the counter-protest through Facebook as well as through department and club emails.

University students cited a desire to support the students of Clayton High School as reason for getting involved in the direct action.

“It shows unity and just support for the Gay-Straight Alliance,” freshman Rachel Hoffman said. “[I heard about it from] a girl from Clayton High School. It inspired me to come, how much passion she had for the event.”

Other students cited their dislike for the Westboro Baptist Church as reason for getting involved.

“[The Westboro cause] is definitely something that I’m very, very opposed to. I wanted to come out for the students of this community because I want to show them that majority of Americans don’t hold this opinion,” freshman Ryan Hoffman said.

“I wanted to get involved in a protest because I’ve never done it, and this seemed like a great cause to show support for because [Westboro Baptist Church is] also just so delusional,” senior Brad Valtman said.

Students also said that the potential effects of the negative messages pushed them to get involved in a positive counter-protest.

“These are kids just trying to go to school. To say such hateful and hurtful things to a group of youth…that’s one of my biggest problems with it,” junior Micajah Dudley said.

“It seems like it’s spurned by hate on their side. It felt like it was important that we just come to just support…younger people who go to school here who might be directly affected. To have people in the community come to show support can prevent a lot of damage,” junior Will Rogers said.

Losos said that the counter-protest gave a positive spin to the Westboro protest.

“I think the students felt very good about what they had created and the response they got. We’re not going to let [the protest] disrupt our day,” Losos said. “[There was an] outpouring of love from all angles. I think the kids felt really good about Monday morning.”

Olivier Douliery | Abaca Press | MCT

An inside Acela Express car is seen Washington, D.C., July 11, 2011. Amtrak has struggled for survival nearly every year since its first trains rolled out on May 1, 1971.

The railroad, which is currently under construction, should be complete sometime in 2014, according to officials involved in the project.

Planners said the project is especially significant for Washington University students, as a large portion of them call Chicago and its surrounding areas home.

They hope the train, which should travel at a maximum of 110 miles per hour, will help promote cooperation between the two cities.

In June 2009, following President Barack Obama’s call for improved high-speed rail travel nationwide, the Federal Railroad Administration launched the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Program as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In January of the following year, Illinois was chosen as one of the states that would benefit from the project, and was allocated $1.2 billion in federal funding to introduce high-speed rail service by 2014.

Students have been a focus of the planning process.

“Students are the one of the important markets we want to reach with this project,” said Miriam Gutierrez, section chief of Rail Program Planning at the Illinois Department of Transportation. “This generation is big on trains, and there will be Amtrak student discounts.”

Gutierrez said that the project managers are currently working out ticket prices that are reasonable but will still help pay for new features the trains will offer passengers, such as Wi-Fi access and improved food services.

“Right now we’re trying to figure out how much we can raise ticket prices so that we won’t lose ridership,” Gutierrez said. “But they won’t go up super high, just because it’s so easy to jump on a plane instead.”

Washington University students who live in the Chicago area are currently faced with the decision between a 60-minute flight and a 5 1/2 hour train ride.

Sophomore Neha Nair said the high-speed rail will make traveling between school and home easier for her.

“I would definitely use the train for busy times like Thanksgiving” Nair said. “In order to get a reasonably priced flight, you have to book it really far in advance, which can be difficult to do early in the semester.”

“If I didn’t have my car and the tickets were cheap enough, I’d definitely take the train, especially since I’d be able to avoid the airport hassle” junior Claire Chaney said.

Gutierrez added that the project managers have to take the environmental impacts of the construction into account. The Illinois Department of Transportation worked with the Federal Railroad Administration to submit an Environmental Impact Statement for the project. Public meetings will be held over the remainder of the year to review the environmental clearance document and ensure that it will be environmentally safe to build a second railroad track through the St. Louis-Chicago corridor.

The legislation passed by the city’s board of aldermen on Wednesday entitles monogamous partners, regardless of sexual orientation, to the same rights as married couples at all city-owned facilities.

To be eligible, couples must be 18 or older and have lived in Clayton for six months. Partners must also be mentally competent, monogamous, not related to each other and committed to staying together.

The process involves going to the city clerk’s office, signing an affidavit and paying the $50 registry fee. A similar registry has already been in place in University City, Olivette and St. Louis.

Some local LGBT groups have expressed support for the change, though City Clerk June Waters noted that as of Friday afternoon, no one had actually come to her office to be added to the list.

“I wasn’t expecting people to come show up the next day, [but] I think people will come when they have the time,” she said. “I just assume that people will come in as soon as they get a chance to.”

Sophomore Vinita Chaudhry, co-president of Pride Alliance, said while that type of legislation may be beneficial, it typically does not go far enough to create equal rights for all couples.

“It’s good to hear about civil unions and domestic partnership registries [that] allow for legal rights that married couples get legally, but it’s still not the same,” she said. “It’s having all the rights of legal marriage (that matters).”

She doubts the registry will actually affect people at the University.

“Unless people are graduating and planning to stay in this area and they want rights with whoever they’re with…I’m not sure it would affect students much,” she said.

Junior Jenea Nixon, the group’s other co-president said that while she disagrees with the institution of marriage as a whole, she thinks such laws may be a helpful and realistic way to achieve equal rights for LGBT individuals.

“I personally don’t believe in the idea of marriage because it’s an exclusive design that only exists to give certain people rights and [others] not,” she said. “[But] I think it would just be easier to give people marriage than just to take it away completely, especially when children are involved.”

Waters said the legislation stemmed from a change to the city’s housing code last November, which prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Then they wanted to expand it to offer Clayton residents the opportunity to formalize their domestic partnership and to have that status recognized [by all] civil facilities dependent on family status, for example family memberships.”

The board of alderman’s vote on Wednesday was unanimous.

“The board was very supportive,” Waters said. “[It] was very in favor of getting this on the agenda and not dragging it out.”

Ameren Missouri has spent years pursuing plans to construct a coal ash landfill on the floodplain of the Missouri River. And despite continued efforts by a non-profit group with numerous student members to fight the plans, Ameren’s project is moving forward.

At the end of October, Franklin County commissioners passed an amendment allowing Ameren to advance its plans to construct the facility.

Members of the anti-construction Labadie Environmental Organization (LEO) said that despite the setback, they are continuing to fight the construction, which they say could bring significant environmental and economic risks to their community.

“It’s just a high risk area, building a coal ash landfill on a floodplain,” junior Zach Blustein, one of the students helping LEO through the School of Law’s Environmental Clinic, said. “There’s the potential for groundwater contamination. Also, the site chosen is actually under standing water during certain points in the year.”

The Franklin Country Presiding Commissioner, John Griesheimer, declined to comment on the decision to pass the amendment.

It was the first of many permits that the company needs to acquire in order to build the landfill. It still needs construction, operating and floodplain permits from the state, as well as a wetlands permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The clinic has been working with LEO since 2009 to provide legal support and representation for the group.

“We’ll take scientific jargon and put it into simpler terms so that others can understand,” Blustein said. “We can also help explain legal matters.”

Coal ash contains harmful chemicals like arsenic and mercury that have been linked to cancer and other serious health problems. When not stored properly, these chemicals can leach into groundwater and drinking water sources, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Blustein also said that because the facility is located above a confluence, much of the drinking water in St. Louis could be affected if the site became flooded.

Ameren has said it needs a new ash pond because the power plant’s old landfills are almost full. The company has assured the public that the facility will meet federal standards and that the material will be protected by multiple liners and a berm, or a raised shelf, three feet higher than the level that floodwater reached in 1993. They also have stated that the coal ash will be stored dry, a safer method than storing it wet.

Many LEO members doubt Ameren’s claims, pointing out flaws with the company’s current Labadie waste facilities. These include two leaks in the ash ponds that began seeping in 1992, one of which has recently been filled. Two more leaks were discovered by the Department of Natural Resources in September.

No tests have been carried out in the area to detect contamination of groundwater or drinking water by the state or by Ameren, a reflection of Missouri’s loose testing restrictions—some of the lowest in the country according in an Earthjustice study published in August.

LEO has gained over 2,000 signatures for its petition against the facility and filled auditoriums with over 500 people at public hearings to discuss Ameren’s proposal.

“In the course of two years, I think we’ve changed a lot of minds,” said Patricia Schuba, president of the organization. “We’ve opened up the discussion about toxins in the environment and mobilized the community.”

Schuba said that there are various reasons that people oppose the landfill, but two major concerns are health and economic risks.

“The heavy metals and carcinogens in the drinking water concern us, because this is right over the groundwater for the region, and also the local impact of reduced property values and reduced development in the area,” she said.

The clinic works with several other grassroots organizations, almost all of them non-profits.

“The clinic’s been an amazing resource for a small, grassroots, non-profit group fighting a very large issue that impacts us all,” Schuba said.

Despite the passing of the land amendment allowing Ameren to advance its plans to construct the facility, the LEO plans to continue fighting.

“We’re exhausting every possibility. There are many more steps and layers, and we’ll be there, present and fighting the decision,” Schuba said.

Ameren hopes to begin construction of the facility in 2012 and have it operating by the fall of 2013 or 2014.

Courtesy of MO.GOV

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, D-Mo., has announced that she will not be running for re-election in 2012.

Carnahan, sister of Rep. Russ Carnahan, and daughter of former senators Mel and Jean Carnahan, was elected to the post in 2004 and re-elected in 2008. She ran for the United States Senate in 2010 but lost to republican Roy Blunt by 14 points.

Although the Secretary of State position does not have term limits, Carnahan decided to return to working in the private sector. In a statement released on her website, she cited her father’s work outside of state politics as an inspiration for her stepping down.

“I watched as my father…served on church boards, the local school board and helped the Red Cross and countless other causes—every day committed to helping a neighbor and making the community better. Dad always thought his experience as a private citizen helped make him a more effective public servant and a better governor,” she said in the statement.

Carnahan said that while she has chosen not to run for re-election, she is proud of her accomplishments—which, she noted, include digitizing Missouri’s historical resources, protecting voter rights, helping victims recover $10 billion in consumer fraud and reducing red tape for small businesses.

Junior Sherveen Mashayekhi, president of the College Democrats, said he had hoped Carnahan would run again, given her political history.

“We are disappointed with her decision not to run, because she is a candidate we have supported in the past,” Mashayekhi said. “We are sure that she will throw her hat back into public office eventually.”

Mashayekhi added that holding onto all state democrat seats is especially important in light of the Republican Party’s national gains in the 2010 midterm elections. He said that the College Democrats plan on supporting every democrat who runs in 2012—especially Carnahan’s brother Russ, who narrowly won re-election over Ed Martin 2010.

“We have supported Russ Carnahan in the past and really like his stance on a lot of issues,” Mashayekhi said. “We are looking to see what he does, especially after the gerrymandering of the district.”

Mashayekhi offered his opinion on which candidate the College Democrats would support.

“We will be supporting the democratic candidates that end up running, and we will support any candidate that reaches out to us for support,” he said.

While Robin Carnahan may not be on the 2012 ballot, she ended her statement by saying that she plans to continue being involved.

“I plan to stay engaged and involved,” Carnahan said in the statement. “For me, that could include running for elected office again, but it will certainly mean speaking out and working hard for the values we share and the candidates who stand up for them.”

According to University City Manager Lehman Walker, an increase in law enforcement officials on the Loop beginning last spring has yielded positive results.

“We’ve increased police presence and surveillance in the Loop, and we were working with the Loop special business district and with Washington University to ensure that the Loop remains an active entertainment center, and we’re very happy with our success,” Walker said.

Behavioral issues on the Loop have included excessive noise, littering and other disruptive activity, leading many vendors on the Loop, as well as University City residents, to voice complaints.

A particular incident in April left one police officer injured after trying to disband a group of 50 to 100 rowdy youth.

The University City Council recently voted against Bill 9112, which proposed tighter restrictions on loitering.

The bill, which would make it illegal to “stand, loiter or walk upon any public sidewalk or street so as to obstruct or unreasonably interfere with the use thereof,” was criticized for vague wording that would make enforcement difficult and too subjective.

According to Walker, there is no revised legislation being currently pursued to address this issue.

“We decided it wasn’t necessary to proceed because we were seeing more responsible behavior,” he said.

A curfew of 9 p.m. for youth under the age of 16 is already in place.

Some students say that they have noticed the increased security measures in place on the Loop and appreciate the changes.

Peter Walker, a junior who has lived near the street both this and last year, has noticed the changes.

“I didn’t really experience any violence or gangs of roving youth, but there is definitely an increased security presence on the Loop, like cops just wandering the streets and talking to people and stuff,” he said. “They’ve definitely beefed it up a notch. I’m not sure whether or not it affects us as much, but they’re certainly doing something.”

Peter Walker says that, while he does feel safe near his residence, he feels even safer when he is directly on the Loop.

Sophomore Moira Killoran, a pole-vaulter, often has to walk alone to the Loop for practice. She said the increased security along with the University’s new blue lights has made her feel safer during her walks.

“I’ve definitely noticed that the path walking over there is a lot nicer with all the blue lights and wider sidewalks and it feels a lot more comfortable,” Killoran said.

Lehman Walker is optimistic that the positive behavioral trend in months following the incidents this spring will continue now that students have returned to school.

“We’re hoping that everyone who comes to the University City Loop continues to enjoy themselves and behave in a responsible manner,” he said.

According to University City Manager Lehman Walker, the city is considering these changes due to an increased amount of disorderly conduct that has been taking place on the Loop recently.

“Over the past couple of weekends there have been large numbers of disorderly youth in the University City Loop and we want to ensure that it is a safe environment,” Walker said.

He also says that University City is planning on enforcing its disorderly conduct ordinances more strictly. The police may do this by handing out court summonses to first time offenders rather than issuing preliminary warnings.

These proposed changes follow an incident on the Loop last weekend where a police officer was injured after trying to break up a group of 50 to 100 rowdy youths. Although one man was arrested, he was not affiliated with Washington University.

The changes will not have a significant impact on University students.

Walker says that it is common for people walking on the Loop to accost restaurant patrons and steal their silverware. Business owners and community members hope that the modifications to the current system regulating such actions will discourage people from behaving in a disorderly manner on the Loop.

There is currently a curfew in place that prohibits people aged 16 and under from being on the Loop after 9 p.m.

Walker says that the curfew may be changed to a later hour, and that the city is considering raising the age that the curfew affects.

Walker says that the changes will be a precautionary measure more than anything else.

“There are very few incidents, but we are trying to nip it in the bud,” Walker said. “The Loop is a safe environment and we just want to ensure that we don’t have any problems.”

Walker says that the changes will not affect students unless they are being disorderly on the Loop.

Students support the proposed changes if they help to stop the disturbances on the Loop.

“If people are being jerks, they [the police] have to do what they have to do,” junior Rachel London said.

The changes are still under consideration, and will be finalized at a later date.

Order of events

July 2010

• Registered as a University College student and received a WU ID Card.

Aug. 29, 2010

• Spent time at a Washington University fraternity

Sept. 6, 2010

• Robbed two Washington University students at the corner of Lindell and Big Bend
• Sexually assaulted an UMSL student
• Arrested at his home

Jeremiah McMillon, the man accused of robbing two Washington University students last fall, will be put on trial in February 2012.

KSDK reported Tuesday that McMillon is being charged with 10 felonies, including forcible rape, attempted rape and kidnapping. He is also a potential suspect for a separate sexual assault, among other crimes.

McMillon was originally arrested in September for the sexual assault of a University of Missouri—St. Louis student. Since then, the University City Police Department has pressed additional charges for the armed robbery of two Washington University students at the corner of Big Bend and Lindell boulevards.

Student Life reported last fall that McMillon had acquired a Washington University ID card after applying to be a University College student. While he had never actually enrolled in a class, the ID card allowed him access to Olin Library and classroom buildings.

McMillon was on probation for a 2007 burglary conviction when this recent string of crimes took place.

Courtesy of Loop Special Business District

Joe Edwards

Courtesy of Loop Special Business District

Jessica Bueler

The man behind the Delmar Loop revitalization is stepping down from his job as chairman of the board of the Loop Special Business District.

Joe Edwards, the owner of Blueberry Hill, the Pin-Up Bowl, the Tivoli Theatre, the Pageant and the Moonrise Hotel publicly announced his resignation last week.

Jessica Bueler, owner of HSB Tobacconist, officially replaced him at the board’s monthly meeting Tuesday.

As Edwards steps down, Bueler hopes to carry on his legacy. She plans to increase the Loop’s use of social media. The board is already revamping the Loop’s website and encouraging businesses to branch out to Facebook and YouTube.

“It’s such an inexpensive way to directly communicate with people who want to know what’s going on,” Bueler said.

Edwards decided to step down to focus his efforts on bringing a trolley to connect the Loop to the Forest Park MetroLink stops sometime in 2012. He will remain on the board.

After opening Blueberry Hill in 1972, Edwards led the revitalization effort that transformed the Loop from a spot to avoid into a hotspot for students and locals.

Washington University students are known for patronizing the Loop more than the rest of neighboring St. Louis.

“I live on Wash. Ave., so I go there pretty frequently—at least a couple times a week,” senior Caroline Fehr said. “That’s a lot more than I go to other places in St. Louis because I can walk there.”

The Delmar Loop was named one of 10 “Great Streets” by the American Planning Association in 2007.

Bueler hopes to continue improving the street, aiming to extend the Loop past its current bounds.

“What a lot of people don’t know is that the Loop actually goes to DeBaliviere. A couple years ago, they thought it stopped at Skinker [Boulevard], and then Joe [Edwards] went ahead and developed the Moonrise Hotel,” Bueler said. “My goal is to help develop the Loop down farther, because in the initial charter, it actually goes from the Lion Gate in University City all the way to DeBaliviere Avenue. One of the things I’m focusing on is to help create more opportunities for businesses moving eastward down Delmar.”

The board is working with the University’s Office of Government and Community Relations to realize this vision by devising a strategy for the future Loop development.

“Wash. U. is currently underwriting the study for the Loop to help figure out what businesses we need,” Bueler said. “Sixteen or 17 people planned proposals, and we’ve narrowed it down to three. We’re in the process of narrowing it down from those three.”

The board is also looking into lengthening next year’s Ice Carnival to two days and involving the entire street with the celebration.

They are also designing bike racks that fall under the Great Rivers Greenway District—an initiative to improve St. Louis through ecologically friendly projects.

The racks will be site specific; the plan is for one to sit in front of Blick Art Materials that will look like an art palette, and for others to emulate coffee mugs and stars from the Walk of Fame.

The Loop is also beginning to plan the Explore the Loop day for the University’s next incoming class.

“I think everything is going to run the same as it always has. Joe is a great mentor to me; we work hand in hand on everything,” Bueler said. “Really, I can only aspire to be as great a leader as he is.”

The Washington University Law School’s Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic is representing the Labadie Environmental Organization (LEO) in its fight against construction of the landfill by Ameren, the primary electricity supplier in the region.

Students are also involved through groups like Green Action and have been lobbying, turning out to public hearings, petitioning and giving testimony against the landfill.

The landfill would collect coal ash from Ameren’s Labadie plant. Experts fear that the coal ash could enter the water supply if there is heavy flooding, since the landfill is slated to be built on a flood plain.

A 2010 report by Earth and Planetary Sciences professor Robert Criss found that there have been frequent heavy floods in the lower portion of the Missouri River, where the landfill has been proposed, since 1929.

“They are concerned that it is not a safe site to place this waste and that it would have a detrimental effect on their community,” said Maxine Lipiles, co-director of the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic and Senior Lecturer in the law school.

Ameren has plans to prevent this water contamination and argues that the coal ash landfill would not cause any environmental damage.

The company plans to build a wall around the landfill to prevent flood water—up to three feet more than resulted from the 1993 floods—from coming in contact with the coal ash.

Mike Menne, Ameren’s Vice President of Environmental Services, said that using the landfill would actually be better than the current system of wet storage, in which the company dumps coal residue into ash ponds where the coal ash sinks to the bottom.

“We consider the design of the new facility to be state of the art,” Menne said. “This facility is far more protective of public health and the environment. It is an improvement.”

According to Menne, wet storage poses a greater risk than the coal ash landfill, in which the coal ash would be compressed into a concrete-like material, difficult for floodwater to wash away.

“We don’t think there is the potential for this to get downstream, but even if there is, there would be no risk to the drinking water supplies,” Menne said.

He says that the new landfill will meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements.

Senior and former Green Action President Peter Murrey said he was impressed by the involvement of the student body and the law school in this issue.

“I think it’s a really good thing that members of the law school are getting involved [in] this. It also speaks measures of the integrity of the student body that we’re concerned with the health of the region and that we’re not just concerned with what is cheapest or what is easiest for Wash. U.,” said Murrey.

According to Murrey, the landfill controversy should be a sign that the University should change its energy habits.

“As a university that is dependent on coal, we are in many ways responsible for this landfill being put in, so Wash. U. needs to seriously evaluate our energy choices because if we continue to rely on coal, things like Labadie will only continue to happen,” he said.

Franklin County, where the landfill would be located, does not currently permit landfills. Before Ameren can build the landfill, it will need the county to change its zoning requirements.

If such an ordinance is passed, Ameren hopes to open the landfill in 2014.

Ameren is a major gas and electricity provider for Missouri and Illinois.