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Posted: 9/21/07

R&B duped by minimum wage "news"

When I read the Sept. 20 story headlined "Minimum wage study discovers downside," I thought I smelled a rat.

Sure enough, the entity that put out this news release was created by a lobbyist for the hotel, restaurant, alcohol and tobacco industries. The name of the entity, Employment Policies Institute, was deliberately selected to cause confusion between it and the older - and reputable - Economic Policy Institute.

The Employment Policies Institute has one purpose: to keep wages low for the benefit of the clients of the lobbyist who created it. See www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Employment_Policies_Institute for further information. I urge all journalists to check the Source Watch Web site before running a story that purports to be "news."

ANN PUCKETT
Director of the Law Library, Professor of Law
Athens

Non-profit group smells of agenda

I'm writing concerning the Sept. 20 article "Minimum wage study discovers downside." The author writes the article as if the organization presenting the findings is non-partisan and has no agenda. Just because it is a nonprofit research group doesn't mean they don't have an agenda. Do a bit more sniffing around to find out which way the group leans, who funds their research, so us, the readers, can be presented with a "fair and balanced" report. That did not happen in this article.

BEN CLARK
Graduate Student, Batavia, Ill.
Public Administration

Campus no place for hunting gear

In response to Mr. Hall's Sept. 20 letter on the apparent conspiracy here at University to get rid of our guns, please stop taking life so seriously. I'm a huge proponent of the Second Amendment and I was bummed when I was told I couldn't keep my paintball stuff on campus, but it's not that big of a deal.

Think of all the alcohol floating around this campus. Do you think that having firearms or any other weapon around here would be a good thing? As for hunting, most people probably go hunting with family and good friends as it is a tradition. Leave your rifles and shotguns with them.

And what about all the companies, stores, high schools and other places that won't let you have weapons while on their premises? They must be trying to get rid of our Second Amendment rights, too. Darn you, Toys'R'Us.

You bring up the idea that when this right is taken away others are soon to follow, but who is taking the right away? No one said you couldn't have a firearm. You just can't carry them or store them on campus. Think of the University as a big business - because more or less, it is.

Most businesses won't let employees or visitors carry weapons while on the property. That's all the University is doing. Allowing firearms, whether you like it or not, is a liability. Again, I really am a proponent of the second amendment, but please be reasonable.

ADAM SPAULDING
Alumnus,
Jacksonville, Fla.
Microbiology

Weapons policy letter 'hysterical'

I assume that Mr. Hall's Sept. 20 letter ("Univ. weapons policy hinders tradition") was intended as a joke, but in case it wasn't: What exactly do you intend to hunt on campus - squirrels? Research animals?

Would you do this just around the Forestry building, or would the whole campus get the pleasure of seeing your firearms regularly?

Further, the arrests policy may be newly enforced, but guns have been illegal on college campuses for a very long time. Your paranoia about more rights being "stripped away" is unfounded and hysterical.

HANNAH ROSE
Johnson
Senior, Decatur
Spanish