Vote “No Sweat”
Posted on 07. Feb, 2010 by Travis Pillow in From the Editors
The question of whether or not the University of Florida should join the Worker Rights Consortium, which helps ensure that licensed athletic apparel is not made in sweatshops, will be on the ballot during Student Government elections, Feb. 23-24. As if the Reitz Union Fee isn’t reason enough to show up and vote, this non-binding [...]
Same old, same old?
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Jessica Newman in From the Editors
My colleague, Travis Pillow, recently posted a response to a letter written to the Alligator by Josh Niederreiter, which referred to the Unite Party already having its executive slate filled before it started taking interviews for the position.
Travis’ response: “He’s referring, of course, to a system of succession that predates the Unite Party, in which students [...]
The Price We Pay
Posted on 27. Jan, 2010 by Travis Pillow in From the Editors
An interesting letter from a long-time Student Government gadfly appeared in this morning’s Alligator:
Alligator, I’ve got a wager for you. I find it hilarious the Unite Party says it will be “conducting interviews” to determine its executive candidates. It’s common knowledge they have already chosen Marcus Dixon to run for vice president and Virlany Taboada [...]
Dirty Coal: Colbert Does it Again
Posted on 22. Jan, 2010 by Fine Print Staff in From the Editors
Fox News doesn’t acknowledge environmental harm is a bad thing. CNN can only cover celebrities and politics-as-a-spectator sport. NBC is owned by GE, the world’s largest producer of coal-burning power plants. Nobody in “serious television” is in a position to give an issue like mountaintop removal the attention it deserves. Enter Fox News doesn’t acknowledge environmental harm is a bad thing. CNN can only cover celebrities and politics-as-a-spectator sport. NBC is owned by GE, the world’s largest producer of coal-burning power plants. Nobody in “serious television” is in a position to give an issue like mountaintop removal the attention it deserves. Enter Colbert, who starts with the premise that his show is entertainment, and then brings in someone like Margaret Palmer, lead author of a recent study published in the journal Science that calls for an end to the harmful practice. The result makes for excellent television.
Helping Haiti
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by Lydia Fiser in From the Editors
The U.S. added another human rights abuse to its record chronicled in the New York Times today. In an article titled, Homeless Haitians Told Not to Flee to U.S., the Times explains how different branches of the U.S. military are working together to prevent any displaced Haitians from finding their way to the U.S. for help [...]
Singing About Newspaper Woes
Posted on 17. Jan, 2010 by Jessica Newman in From the Editors
This video performance from a Canadian newspaper staff is more quirky than pointed. The quartet works for The Globe and Mail, a weekly national newspaper printed in Toronto. Like print media everywhere, they’re struggling to keep their heads above water in the face of the endless possibilities of the Internet. In the video, they touch [...]
Yes We Can, Afghanistan?
Posted on 03. Dec, 2009 by Travis Pillow in From the Editors
By now the fallout from Obama’s Afghanistan speech is starting to settle. But I haven’t. I still don’t know what our president is thinking, sending tens of thousands more Americans to kill untold Afghanis. I’m not sure what for, and neither is Karl Rove. But he likes what he sees – which is yet another [...]
Join the Demand for Farmworker’s Rights
Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by Lydia Fiser in From the Editors
The Student/Farmworker Alliance, Gainesville Students for a Democratic Society and Human Rights Awareness on Campus are working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to demand a one cent increase per pound of tomatoes picked by farmworkers in South Florida.
Tomorrow, Monday, Nov. 23, join others who are concerned about the living and working conditions of the [...]
Why We Can Stop Sweatshops
Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by Travis Pillow in From the Editors
This morning the front page of the New York Times’ business section proclaimed a hard-won victory for United Students Against Sweatshops – the national group that started the Worker Rights Consortium, which I described in my letter to Tim Tebow in our most recent issue.
Russell Athletic, a major maker of licensed collegiate apparel, reached an [...]
House Health Care Plan Commits to Big Business
Posted on 11. Nov, 2009 by Lydia Fiser in From the Editors
The New York Times called the House of Representative’s passing of the Affordable Health Care for America Act a “landmark” in achieving affordable universal health care.
While the Act may be a landmark, it’s not in the sense that the New York Times claims. Instead, it’s a landmark statement of who our government is committed to.
The [...]
