Women's basketball star Banham has successful knee surgery

carmitz@mndaily.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:02:33 +0000

Top Gophers women's basketball player Rachel Banham had successful surgery for patellar tendonitis earlier this week, the team announced Tuesday.

Patellar tendonitis is a painful, nagging knee injury that's common in athletes.

"We collectively decided that performing the surgery during the summer was the best choice in making sure Rachel will be at 100 percent for her junior year," head coach Pam Borton said in a release.

Banham averaged 20.7 points and made First Team All-Big Ten to lead the Gophers during a disappointing 2012-13 season. Minnesota entered the year with NCAA tournament hopes, but it missed the tournament and lost in the first round of the second-tier National Invitation Tournament.

Banham and Borton enter next season with a better roster on paper and more high expectations.

Upon Further Review

Breakdown: University 2014 tuition rates

jbitters@mndaily.com — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:27:48 +0000

By: Janice Bitters

Tuition has been frozen for some students at the University of Minnesota next year, but not for all.

Below is part of President Eric Kaler's 2014-15 Operating Budget, which outlines tuition rates for all programs at the University's Twin Cities campus in the coming year.

Some of the biggest increases have been highlighted.

To read more on various cost-of-attendance increases next year, student and administrator reactions, as well as information on President Kaler's performance review for his second year in office, check out the Board of Regents recap in the Daily both in print and online.

University of Minnesota Twin Cities FY14 Tuition by Janice Bitters

The Newsstand

Windle and Snelten sign with major league clubs

jfrederick@mndaily.com — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:59:41 +0000

By: Jace Frederick

Former Gophers pitchers Tom Windle and DJ Snelten are officially professionals.

The duo both signed contracts with their respective major league clubs last week, according to reports.

Windle, the Gophers ace and the 56th overall pick in the 2013 Major League Baseball draft, signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $986,500, the Star Tribune reported.

Snelten, a ninth-round selection of the San Francisco Giants, signed for $140,900, Baseball America's Jim Callis said on his Twitter account.

Both pitchers recently completed their junior seasons with the Gophers and finished with a combined 11-6 record while leading the Gophers to a 13-8 mark in Big Ten play.

Upon Further Review

DNA sequences can identify research subjects

eryan@mndaily.com — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:43:49 +0000

By: Elizabeth Ryan

DNA sequences published online in research documents can cause privacy problems for people who participated in the studies, the New York Times reported Sunday.

It had been accepted as common knowledge among researchers that DNA sequences of participants in genetic studies published in research could not identify the people who participated. However, recently questions have surfaced about how true this is.

Earlier this year, a researcher at the Massachusets Institute of Technology found research subjects by randomly searching DNA sequences from a database along with the state where they lived and their ages. He identified five different study participants, as well as 50 of their relatives.

Researchers throughout the country have suggested a licensing program for scientists before being allowed access to genetic databases to avoid future problems.

In the next few years, the amount of genetic data scientists collect is expected to increase drastically, making it important to close gaps in provacy problems before bigger databases are created.

The Newsstand

Board of Teaching denies Teach for America group waiver, again.

jbitters@mndaily.com — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 08:46:14 +0000

By: Janice Bitters

The Minnesota Board of Teaching denied Teach for America's request for a group waiver -- an agreement that would make it easier for corp members to enter Minnesota classrooms in the fall -- for the second time Friday.

The waiver would have allowed TFA to secure temporary licenses for all corp members entering Minnesota classrooms all at once. Now, each school who chooses to hire a TFA member will need to work with the Board of Teaching individually before they can begin teaching.

TFA made it's first request for the waiver in May, which was denied due to questions Minnesota Board of Teaching members had, including ones about attrition rates of teachers in the program and their placement in high-need schools, according to Karen Balmer, executive director for the Minnesota Board of Teaching.

TFA corps members apply for hard-to-staff positions, serving schools with predominantly low-income students and students of color, TFA said in a press release Friday.

Balmer said in an interview earlier this month she hoped to see more data addressing the board's questions from TFA in its revised request, which was heard and denied again Friday.

In the past year, TFA has recieved sharp criticism from several groups, including Education Minnesota, a teacher's union and advocacy group.

Tom Dooher, president of Education Minnesota said the five week training program TFA offers for new members is not enough for those entering classrooms.

"We believe that teaching is a very complex profession that takes both arts and science," he said in an interview earlier this month. "We just want to make sure that anyone who becomes and educator in the state of Minnesota meets the high standards we have set for those who are going to teach."

But Crystal Brakke, executive director for TFA in the Twin Cities, said TFA prepares their members adequately.

After the standard five-week training TFA offers, corp members are also enrolled in a teacher licensing program at Hamline University, and are paired with TFA mentors who have taught in classrooms, she said in an interview earlier this month.

The Hamline University program allows corp members to take classes and earn their permanent Minnesota teaching license over two years while simultaneously teaching Minnesota K-12 students.

Brakke said though she is confident schools will still hire TFA corp members without the waiver, she's concerned about the additional work each school would have to do.

“Moving forward, we will work with our school partners as they try to pursue individual licenses for our teachers," TFA said in a press release Friday. "Unfortunately, today’s decision limits the diversity and breadth of the talent pool principals can easily access as they make strategic decisions about what is needed to expand educational opportunities for their students and school communities.”

This is the first year the Board of Teaching has denied TFA's group waiver request since the organization began operating in Minnesota in 2009.

Earlier this month, 43 new TFA members settled into Comstock Hall for a week of training, several of whom are recent graduates of the University of Minnesota. The group later flew to Idaho for the remainder of their five-week TFA training before returning to Minnesota to teach.

Read more on this topic in a recently-published Daily article here.

The Newsstand

Nazi SS commander accused of war crimes living in MPLS

mfarhang@mndaily.com — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:12:56 +0000

By: Kia Farhang

A Nazi officer accused of war crimes has been living in Minnesota for more than 60 years after lying to American immigration officials to enter the country, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Michael Karkoc, a Minneapolis resident, may face deportation and prosecution regarding allegations that he was the top commander when his company burned villages filled with women and children during World War II.

The evidence includes Nazi SS files implicating Karkoc’s unit in a 1944 suppression of Polish troops known as the Warsaw Uprising and records confirming his membership in two SS-linked divisions. Polish and German officials have said they will investigate and consider prosecuting Karkoc, 94, for the crimes committed under his command.

Another German lieutenant was convicted in 2009 of murder based on evidence that placed him as the top commander during a massacre in Italy.

The Newsstand

Human genes can't be patented, Supreme Court rules

mfarhang@mndaily.com — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:35:47 +0000

By: Kia Farhang

Individual human genes are products of nature and can’t be patented, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The unanimous ruling marked a major victory for advocates who expressed concerns over the possibility of biotechnology companies profiting from human genetic material.

Challenges to assertions made by Myriad Genetics Inc. brought the case all the way to the nation’s highest court. Myriad claimed it could patent the DNA it isolated from the human body to develop a breast cancer test, the Associated Press reported.

In the past, the Supreme Court has ruled that natural occurrences are not patentable.

Myriad won a partial victory — in his majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas granted the company the right to patent synthetically created DNA.

The Newsstand

Unions to appeal layoffs before Regents meet

hcolwell@mndaily.com — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:08:20 +0000

By: Hailey Colwell

Before the Board of Regents meets Friday morning to vote on the University of Minnesota’s 2014 operating budget, representatives from the University’s clerical and technical workers’ unions will gather outside of McNamara Alumni Center to appeal recent layoffs.

In late May, the University’s Office of Information Technology laid off 25 employees, citing workload reductions and changes in the information technology industry.

“This isn’t the IT industry. This is the University of Minnesota,” said Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME 3800, which represents University clerical workers.

The unions filed grievances against the layoffs, asking the University to re-evaluate them and the way they were carried out. They objected to OIT’s reasoning that the layoffs occurred because of a diminishing workload, arguing the cut jobs were in fact understaffed.

The layoffs were carried out fairly and followed the Office of Human Resources and the University’s policies, according to OIT officials.

The Newsstand

Baseball: Soule signs with the Saints

jfrederick@mndaily.com — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:45:24 +0000

By: Jace Frederick

Former Gophers relief pitcher Billy Soule has signed with the St. Paul Saints.

Soule recently finished his senior season at Minnesota. He recorded nine saves and a 2.67 earned run average in 2013.

The Saints (14-11) currently sit atop the North Division standings by .5 games in the American Association of Independent Baseball.

Upon Further Review

The Flobots at Cabooze today

sdoar — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:01:21 +0000

By: Spencer Doar

Alternative rap/rock group the Flobots are playing Cabooze Thursday. Hailing from Denver, the Flobots probably ring a bell because of their ‘07/‘08 hit “Handlebars,” an ode to bicycle adeptness characterized by a vivacious horn and plunking guitar intro off of their well-received debut album “Fight with Tools.” Their following two albums in 2010 and 2012 did not strike the same chord as “Tools,” making me wonder yet again how a band deals with “that one song” in their canon, the one they need to play every gig or else the crowd will be disappointed. (I equally wonder how “Handlebars” hasn’t been taken as an alt-bike anthem…)

The upside is it will draw a crowd, and the Flobots feature the awesome effect of hip-hop influenced lyricism accompanied by live instrumentation.

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