Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 165, NO. 47 | Thursday October 30, 2008
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
7 · Lifestyle
11 · Classifieds
13 · Sudoku
16 · Sports
Comeback Kid: Mickey
Rourke’s new film mirrors his
life. PAGE 4
Joe’s A Go: McKnight
expected to see more carries
Saturday. PAGE 16
By danielle nisimov
Daily Trojan
As the 2008 election draws near,
USC students along with many oth-er
California residents are turning
increasingly to mail-in ballots for
time efficiency and convenience.
Marcia Ventura, spokeswoman
for the Los Angeles registrar-record-er,
said the number of mail-in ballot
requests has greatly increased since
the last election.
“The number of persons who
have requested a vote-by-mail bal-lots
is close to a million,” she said.
“In 2004, at the same time before
the election, we had like 752,000 re-quests.”
Some USC students said even
though they live near Los Angeles,
voting by mail is much more con-venient
than traveling home on
Election Day.
Gabriel Fuhrman, a sophomore
majoring in computer engineering
and computer science from Topanga,
Calif., said he is voting by mail be-cause
he is too busy with classes to
drive to his designated polling loca-tion
on Election Day.
“Because my Tuesday [is] incred-ibly
busy having class from nine
o’clock in the morning until eight
at night, [it makes] voting in person
difficult,” he said.
While many counties tout mail-in
voting as a way to cast a bal-lot
quickly and conveniently, Los
Angeles County forgos the public-ity
because mail-in and early vot-ing
numbers are already so high,
Ventura said.
“We don’t promote it as readily
as do other counties,” she said. “We
are the largest voting jurisdiction in
the United States currently. We have
record breaking numbers for voters
who are coming into either vote by
mail or vote early.”
But the lack of advertising puts
some busy USC students at a dis-advantage.
Daryl Addison, a soph-omore
majoring in aerospace engi-neering
and permanent resident of
Los Angeles, said he was unaware he
had the option to apply for a mail-in
ballot.
“I didn’t really have any knowl-edge
of how to vote by mail, so I’m
going to just go to a branch,” he
said. Voting by mail differs from ab-sentee
voting because voters don’t
have to provide a reason for wanting
to vote away from their permanent
residence.
Some voters who vote with an ab-sentee
ballot are those currently re-siding
outside the United States or
active members of the U.S. Armed
Forces, Merchant Marine, Public
Health Service, National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration
and their family members.
Voting by mail offers voters con-venience
and a chance to avoid long
Students mail it in to
avoid long poll lines
Nearly half of Los Angeles
County has turned to the mail-in
ballot for the 2008 election.
| see ballots, page 6 |
By lia hardin
Daily Trojan
For USC students active in politics, the war in Iraq
and this year’s credit crisis have been hot-button is-sues
throughout the campaign season. But one issue
that has loomed large in recent elections hasn’t come
up since the primary: stem cell research.
And it isn’t just at USC. The normally charged topic
has been missing from campus discourse as well as the
national dialogue, where other issues have overshad-owed
major advances in stem cell technology during
the last few years.
“The issue hasn’t really come up very much in the
course of our campaign here on campus primarily
because it hasn’t come up very much between John
McCain and Senator Obama,” said Bret VandenBos,
president of the USC chapter of Students for Barack
Obama.
But while the presidential candidates have been
focused on other things, advances in research have
changed the way stem cells are perceived in the aca-demic
community.
According to Donald B. Kohn, a USC professor of
pediatrics and microbiology at USC’s Keck School of
Medicine, scientists in Japan began working to devel-op
a method for transforming “everyday cells,” such as
skin cells, into the equivalent of embryonic cells.
That work has been largely successful, and clinical
trials have begun that include these reprogrammed
cells.
Off the campaign trail, stem cell research progresses
The candidates have largely ignored the issue,
but it’s seen major advances in recent years.
| see research, page 6 |
The Los Angeles Public Health Department sponsored “Boo the Flu” to give free flu shots to the Trojan com-munity
in Alumni Park on Wednesday afternoon. There are 30,000 to 40,000 flu-related deaths each year.
Pins and Needles
Gary Fung | Daily Trojan
Nathaniel Gonzalez | Daily Trojan
Cell · USC professors say the field of stem cell research has moved forward by leaps and
bounds, but the issue has been largely ignored on the campaign trail.
By lia hardin
Daily Trojan
Train enthusiast and UC
Berkeley mechanical engineering
student Ian Leighton wants to
turn public transportation in his
hometown of San Francisco into
a science — with a little help from
a friend at USC.
This summer, Leighton teamed
up with USC sophomore David
Hodge to create a trip planner
that brings the Bay Area Rapid
Transit schedule to the palm of
your hand — if you’re an iPhone
user. Hodge, a USC engineering
student who grew up in Marin
County near San Francisco, spent
much of the summer develop-ing
the code for a program called
iBART, a trip planner for the on-the-
go, iPhone toting crowd in
’SC student
helps start
iPhone app
The application helps San
Francisco residents navigate
the city’s public transportation.
| see iphone, page 3 |
5
Days Until
Election
COUNTDOWN