Tempe Police reported the following incidents Sunday:
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A 31-year-old transient man was arrested Thursday morning on the 900 block of East Spence Avenue on suspicion of burglary, police reported.
An investigation revealed the man was observed by a witness and a surveillance camera breaking into a vehicle, according to a police report.
He reportedly ran from police and was later found hiding in the area, police reported.
A search found he was in possession of burglary tools, according to a report.
He was transported to Tempe City Jail on one count of third-degree burglary and one count of possession of burglary tools, police reported.
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A 24-year-old Phoenix man was arrested early Thursday morning at South McAllister Avenue and East University Drive on suspicion of possession of marijuana, police reported.
The man was contacted at a vehicle stop as the passenger of the vehicle, according to a police report.
A search of the vehicle found him to be in possession of marijuana, police reported.
He admitted to ownership of the marijuana, according to a report.
The man was booked and released pending the charge of possession of marijuana, police reported.
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A 43-year-old Phoenix man was arrested Wednesday on the 1800 block of North 38th Place in Phoenix on suspicion of trafficking stolen property, police reported.
On four separate accounts the man reportedly pawned items that he had stolen from his ex-girlfriend’s residence, according to a police report.
The transactions were captured on camera and the pawn slips have the man’s fingerprints on them, police reported.
The total value of the jewelry was $3,800 and included gold, diamonds and other gems, according to a report.
The man stole the items by using a house key given to him while the victim was out of town, police reported.
On Tuesday and Wednesday all but two of the items were recovered from pawnshops and the victim was able to identify the items as belonging to her, according to a report.
The man was detained on Wednesday and denied taking and pawning the items, police reported.
He also said he did not know anything about the situation, according to a report.
When he was confronted with the stolen items he said he was done talking, police reported.
He was charged with four counts of first-degree trafficking stolen property and one count of theft, according to a report.
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A 27-year-old Tempe man was arrested early Wednesday morning on the 500 block of West Baseline Road on suspicion of possession of marijuana, police reported.
The man was contacted at a vehicle stop and was found to be driving on a suspended driver’s license, according to a police report.
An inventory search of the vehicle after it was towed revealed two clear bags containing marijuana, police reported.
The man admitted to ownership of the marijuana, according to a report.
He was transported to Tempe City Jail on one count possession of marijuana, police reported.
Reports compiled by Nathan Meacham. Reach the reporter at nathan.meacham@asu.edu.
Derek Quizon
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tempe City Councilman Ben Arredondo, who announced last week he will run for the state Legislature in 2010, said education, immigration enforcement and abortion were among the most important issues dr
Tempe City Councilman Ben Arredondo, who announced last week he will run for the state Legislature in 2010, said education, immigration enforcement and abortion were among the most important issues driving his decision to switch from the Republican to the Democratic party.
Arredondo, who spoke at a Friday meeting of the Tempe campus Young Democrats, shocked members of his own party Tuesday when he announced he was switching parties and running for a state House of Representatives seat which will be vacated when Rep. David Schapira, D-Tempe, runs for the state Senate in 2010.
Arredondo said the Republican Party is moving too far away from the center, alienating moderate members of the party in the process.
“If you’re a Republican, you’d better be really to the right,” Arredondo said. “The tent they claim they want to get bigger is really getting smaller.”
The councilman said he made the decision after talking with members of both parties and deciding he was more in line with Democrats philosophically. The former schoolteacher said education is particularly important to him and criticized large-scale cuts to the state’s K-12 and university systems, which he said could keep people and businesses from moving into the state.
“[Businesses] want to know, ‘What are you doing in education? How many people are you graduating?’” Arredondo said.
Also present at the Young Democrats meeting was state Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe, who will run alongside Arredondo for District 17’s two seats in the House of Representatives in 2010. Ableser said the experience and name recognition Arredondo brings to the party is crucial to keeping Democrats in office after the retirement of Sen. Meg Burton Cahill, D-Tempe.
“If [politics] was comparable to sports, this would be one of the biggest free agent signings in our history,” Ableser said. “I am thrilled that Councilman Arredondo will be running alongside me.”
Brian Kaufman, chairman of the District 17 Republican Party, criticized Arredondo’s decision as impractical — Arredondo will not have enough sway as a member of the Democratic minority to secure more funding for the universities, Kaufman said in a phone interview.
“They don’t really have a seat at the table for the budget,” Kaufman said. “There’s no way for the Democratic representatives to really pull for their district and [secure] funding.”
Young Democrats member Erica Pederson said Arredondo may have more influence with Republican legislators as a former member of the party, something that could have been useful in the negotiations surrounding the fiscal year 2010 budget.
“Having been a Republican, I think he can use his ties to create more bipartisanship in the state House,” Pederson said.
Arredondo said he also hopes to foster bipartisanship in a Legislature that has been completely divided by this year’s budget debate.
“Here are the R’s, here’s the D’s, and over there is the governor,” Arredondo said. “When are they going to communicate with each other? … They ought to come to a room like this and say, ‘Don’t leave until we get this settled.’”
Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu.
Jessica Testa
Friday, November 20, 2009
Renowned photographer Joel Meyerowitz delivered the Flinn Foundation Centennial Lecture Thursday night on the Tempe campus, giving the ASU community a “Look Behind the Lens.”
Renowned photographer Joel Meyerowitz delivered the Flinn Foundation Centennial Lecture Thursday night on the Tempe campus, giving the ASU community a “Look Behind the Lens.”
Meyerowitz, who spoke about his near 50-year career in a dynamic, unpredictable field, was invited by Barrett, the Honors College as the school’s 19th annual Centennial Lecturer.
In an interview, Meyerowitz said he hoped his lecture would make photography less of a mystery to those unfamiliar with the art.
Meyerowitz said today’s widespread access to professional camera equipment has made photography more accessible but less careful.
“[People] don’t make photographs that are necessarily as smart as they are,” he said. “Most people are much more interesting and complex than mere pointing.”
During a walk around campus Wednesday, Meyerowitz shared what he called the key to intelligent photography with a class of 12 honors students.
Photographers can realize new potential by moving effectively and observantly through space, he said.
“We’re navigating our way through traffic, through people, around pillars and palm trees,” he said as the group walked around campus. “We can use that same capacity for sight in a much more engaged and playful way.
“There’s a capability for making a richer, more relationship-oriented photograph.”
Meyerowitz reached his career landmark when he became the only photographer granted access by the city of New York to photograph Ground Zero following 9/11.
Battling the city for access to the rubble turned him from a quiet, private citizen to an active social participant, he said, affecting his life more than his career.
“It was a big turning point for me as a person,” Meyerowitz said. “I stood up against the bureaucracy of New York City and pushed it aside. I said no, we need a record, and I’m going to make that record, and no one is going to stop me.”
Now, Meyerowitz said he is focusing more on socially conscious photography, as opposed to his technique-oriented work preceding 9/11. He recently finished a project documenting endangered wildlife in New York.
Meyerowitz said his next project will examine renewable energy sources. Meyerowitz is currently looking for funding for the project, which will bring together a team of young photographers to document America’s energy potential in photographs.
“We talk about it all the time as a nation, and we don’t really do anything about sustainable energy,” he said.
This new passion for socially conscious photography can be traced to his documentation of 9/11, Meyerowitz said.
“[The experience] made me want to be more socially useful as an artist,” he said. “It’s the motivation for me now.”
Photography senior Jacque Donaldson said she found Meyerowitz’s acute focus on social awareness particularly moving.
Donaldson’s own work discusses themes of war and childhood fantasy, she said, drawing inspiration from work like Meyerowitz’s.
“Lectures like these are important,” Donaldson said. “What I get from here, I can apply to what I’m learning and doing in my work. You get new ideas and you get new concepts.”
Reach the reporter at jessica.testa@asu.edu
Nicole Gilbert
Friday, November 20, 2009
Hundreds of students lined up outside the ASU Campus Health Service Building on the Tempe campus Thursday to receive one of 10,000 available swine flu vaccinations for $10.
Hundreds of students lined up outside the ASU Campus Health Service Building on the Tempe campus Thursday to receive one of 10,000 available swine flu vaccinations for $10.
Health Services did not run out of vaccines Thursday and is currently determining how to distribute those remaining.
Nearly 2,400 vaccines were distributed Wednesday and Thursday on the Tempe campus alone. Figures for West, Polytechnic and the Downtown campuses were not immediately available.
Vaccine recipients gathered outside a makeshift clinic, filled out a brief medical history form and were handed either a pink or blue slip.
Those given blue slips had an underlying condition like asthma, diabetes or heart disease, or lived or worked with young children. They were given traditional vaccines.
Students and others with no underlying conditions or contact with young children were given a pink slip, which qualified them for a nasal spray vaccine.
ASU spokeswoman Julie Newberg said though there are no definite numbers on campus swine flu cases, health officials are tracking trends.
“This is a relatively mild flu,” she said. “We’re encouraging independent departments to distribute hand sanitizers. We’re currently working to get permanent [dispensers installed on campus].”
Electrical engineering graduate student Wei Xu said he decided to get the vaccine when he found out it was free with his student health insurance.
“I’m an international graduate student, and if I got sick, my family overseas [in China] would worry,” he said.
Xu said he works on research as a graduate student and that getting sick could jeopardize his ability to perform well — or at all — at his job.
The potential for missing school and work was a common reason students decided to get vaccinated this week.
Sustainability freshman Emily Rosen said she was worried about getting sick so close to finals week.
“Living in the school housing, I know I’m going to be in contact with a lot of people who are sick,” she said.
The process was quick and only cost her $10, Rosen said, but she was surprised to get a nasal spray instead of a vaccination.
It’s important for students in a university setting to be vaccinated, she said.
Kinesiology freshman Michael Goodin agreed.
“The ventilation in the dorms is not as good,” he said. “You’re more likely to get sick [there].”
Goodin said his girlfriend recently contracted swine flu so he decided to get vaccinated in fear of getting it himself.
“I noticed a lot more kids are becoming sick,” he said.
Special education freshman Emily Clonts said she decided to get the vaccine after talking with her mother about it.
“I think getting sick with finals would be difficult,” she said.
Being in such close proximity with other students on a daily basis, Clonts said she felt at risk of getting swine flu.
“It spreads so easily,” she said. “If everyone got the vaccine, we wouldn’t have to worry.”
Reach the reporter at ndgilber@asu.edu
Salvador Rodriguez
Friday, November 20, 2009
Students should consider companies’ business ethics when searching for jobs, the head of one of the world’s largest accounting firms said at a speaker series hosted by the W. P.
Students should consider companies’ business ethics when searching for jobs, the head of one of the world’s largest accounting firms said at a speaker series hosted by the W. P. Carey School of Business Thursday afternoon.
“When people make a decision about the company they’re going to start their career with … I think it’s fair to ask about their commitment to good ethics,” said Sharon Allen, chairman of the board for accounting firm Deloitte LLP.
Allen said companies with good ethics see a return on their investments by attracting more talent.
After the recession, businesses lost Americans’ trust, which raises the importance of practicing ethical business behavior, Allen said.
“Through our decisions and actions, it’s up to business leaders and future business leaders to make things right,” she said.
Allen, who was recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world in August, said one way to recover the trust of the general population is by being greedy — about ethical behavior.
“Being greedy can sometimes be perceived as wanting too much … but in our view, you need to be greedy when it comes to good ethical behavior because we have a long ways to go to regain the trust that we have lost over the last few years,” she said.
A business can practice better ethics by working closely with clients, Allen said.
“When a business is close to clients, it’s far easier to see how business decisions affect the people that make business possible,” she said. “We form relationships built on trust and sustained on good business values.”
Business leaders can ensure their employees make ethical decisions by setting an example, Allen said.
“Corporate culture has a powerful effect on the norms and behavior of their employees,” she said. “It’s up to business leaders to address the influences that shape ethical decision making.”
W. P. Carey School of Business Dean Robert Mittelstaedt said one of the most important decisions his students make when beginning their careers is choosing the companies they’ll work for.
“Trying to sort out whether it’s an ethical company or not may have a lot to do with you casting your future in a sense,” he said. “When somebody looks at your resume and sees that you 10 years ago worked for a company which has just recently been convicted for fraud or insider trading, they’re going to have a different opinion of you.”
Mittelstaedt said businesses that operate unethically eventually get caught.
“One way or another, their customers figure it out or the law figures it out,” he said. “In the long run, ethics in business is the only answer.”
Finance sophomore Samiah Khan said it’s important for big businesses to have an ethical standard.
“I know that a lot of companies are really cutthroat — in the business field, it’s like that a lot,” she said. “It’s good to hear that ethics and character count for something.”
Reach the reporter at salvador.rodriguez@asu.edu
Michelle Parks
Friday, November 20, 2009
A black sign read, “Gabriela Alejandra Albornoz, age 16 — stabbed repeatedly, gang raped by two teenagers, Date of Death: December 2007.”
A black sign read, “Gabriela Alejandra Albornoz, age 16 — stabbed repeatedly, gang raped by two teenagers, Date of Death: December 2007.”
Another read, “Fedra, thrown from a building into an alleyway and run down by a car, Date of Death: July 2007.”
Fedra and Albornoz’s stories were just a few of the 21 displayed on the north stage of the Memorial Union as part of Transgender Day of Remembrance, an event hosted Thursday by ASU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Coalition.
Sarah Murray, a creative writing sophomore and administrator for the LGBTQ coalition, said the event was designed to educate people about violence against transgender individuals, but also served as a way to remember and honor victims of hate crimes against transgender people.
“We’re commemorating all of those who have been victims of transgender hate crimes and have died as a result of that violence,” Murray said.
“Our goal, while it is awareness, is most[ly] to remember our dead,” she said. “To remember those who have died and say that we’re not forgetting them … So it’s a way to say, ‘We’re not forgetting you, you were very real, you had a life, you lived, you loved, you laughed and we remember you.’ ”
The LGBTQ members donned black clothing in respect for the dead victims of hate crimes but distributed white armbands and black ribbons to passing students.
“The white is a contrast to that black; it’s symbol of hope and support,” Murray said.
The signs were an effective way to convey the message to ASU students, she said.
“If people see the result of transgender violence, then they may come to understand just how tragic it is,” Murray said.
The signs were enough to draw the attention of several students, including Krystle Middleton, elementary and special education senior, who said she was drawn to the display, but many other students might not be impacted by the event and require something more dramatic to have a real impact on them.
“You have one picture for each person who passed away with the date clearly on it, just recently too. I think this is a good way to represent that,” Middleton said.
Murray said many people are unaware of what it means to be transgender and answered questions about transgenders.
“Transgender has to do with someone’s gender identity,” Murray said. “It’s mostly when a person feels that their body does not reflect who they are.”
Most of people’s misunderstanding of transgenders comes from the media, she said.
“Very often in the news, people that are victims are not reported as trans[gender]. Their pronouns — he versus she —are misused,” Murray said. “And they are commonly referred to as gay, and some transgender people are gay but some of them aren’t. Actually, the vast majority of trans people are straight.”
Emma Corman, a women and gender studies senior and executive board member of LGBTQ coalition, said part of the negative attitude toward transgender individuals is due to people’s fear of breaking socially-set boundaries.
“A person who can become a woman from a male body is kind of scary, right? I mean, it’s breaking that binary of male and female, that you have to be one or the other and you’re born that way,” Corman said.
“People like to keep you … in your own little box. A lot of people feel uncomfortable challenging their own gender and their own masculinity or femininity and transgender people really do challenge that; just by their existence, trans people challenge the masculine- feminine binary.”
Corman said this was an important event for LGBTQ to be involved with because the transgender members are often underrepresented.
“Transgender people are often invisible because a trans man or a trans woman might look like they are cross dressing or be perceived as gay or lesbian, not trans,” Corman said.
Murray added that even within the LGBTQ community, transgenders can sometimes be overlooked, and through this event, members attempted to acknowledge the group’s transgender members.
“We call it ‘visiblizing’ the “T” in the LGBTQ, because a lot of [the] time it’s overshadowed by the other letters,” Murray said.
Fred Hiller, 39, was on campus and stopped to read the signs detailing the violence against transgender individuals.
Hiller said he personally connected with the message about hate crimes against transgenders because of his personal experiences as someone who participated in victimizing gay individuals.
“Through high school I hung out with a group of people that was basically violent in nature, and somehow that violence ended up being turned toward gays, and I never felt any kind of particular feeling one way or the other, but in a couple of different instances [I] was with this group of friends and we portrayed acts of violence toward gays,” he said.
A year later, he said he was unexpectedly confronted by a former victim.
“Through a strange series of events, a year or two after these events took place, I was at a dinner party and sat down at the dinner table with a group of individuals in the jewelry industry, and probably three-quarters of the table of 16 people or so was gay, and about halfway through our main course, one of the people at the table recognized me as someone who had attacked him a year earlier,” Hiller said.
After the dinner party, Hiller said the man contacted him and the two got together to have lunch.
“It was a pretty odd situation, to go and sit down and have a meal with someone that you had portrayed an act of violence on, for no reason,” he said, adding that he walked away from that lunch with a new understanding of the implications of his past actions.
“I had a conversation with that person, and I don’t want to say they changed my views because I never really had any kind of negative opinion … but sitting down and having that conversation and that meal with that person really enlightened me about what I was doing,” Hiller said. “I had no idea what I was doing. I was following my friends, or my so-called friends.”
Ignorance was mostly to blame, he said, for the common negative feeling toward people who are transgender.
“It’s part of basic human nature. People dislike what they don’t understand or know about,” Hiller said.
Reach the reporter at michelle.parks@asu.edu
Nathan Meacham
Friday, November 20, 2009
Tempe Police reported
the following incidents Thursday:
Tempe Police reported
the following incidents Thursday:
- A 58-year-old Tempe man was arrested Tuesday on the 200 block of East Baseline Road after a search revealed a warrant for his arrest, police reported.
The man was contacted after he matched the description of a man who had caused a disturbance inside a business, according to a police report.
He was found to have an outstanding Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office warrant, police reported.
He was transported to Tempe City Jail, booked and held to see a judge, according to a report.
- An 18-year-old Coolidge man was arrested late Monday night on the 11400 block of North McGee Road on suspicion of possession of narcotic drugs, police reported.
After being contacted, the man was found to be in possession of a usable amount of a substance believed to be marijuana, according to a police report.
Police also found a black substance in his pocket believed to be heroin, police reported.
He was transported to Tempe City Jail on one count of possession of marijuana and one count of possession of narcotic drugs, according to a report.
- A 22-year-old Gilbert man was arrested early Sunday morning on the 400 block of South Mill Avenue on suspicion of disorderly conduct, police reported.
The man was reportedly involved in a physical fight on the street, according to a police report.
When he was arrested, he dropped a plastic bag on the sidewalk that contained a white powder substance believed to be cocaine, police reported.
During a search he was also found to be in possession of a suspended driver’s license, according to a report.
He was transported to Tempe City Jail on one count of disorderly conduct, one count of possession of narcotic drugs and one count of possession of a suspended driver’s license, police reported.
- A 26-year-old Gilbert man was arrested on Nov. 13 on the 100 block of West University Drive on suspicion of possession of narcotic drugs, police reported.
The man was contacted in his vehicle while he was reportedly injecting heroin into his left arm with a syringe, according to a police report.
Police also found an empty syringe in the back seat of the truck, police reported.
He was transported to Tempe City Jail on one count of possession of narcotic drugs and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a report.
- A 28-year-old Scottsdale man and a 25-year-old Scottsdale woman were arrested on Nov. 13 on the 1800 block of East Rio Salado Parkway on suspicion of possession of narcotic drugs, police reported.
The two were contacted in a parking lot while they were reportedly in the process of lighting up heroin, according to a police report.
The man admitted to smoking the heroin, police reported.
Both were transported to Tempe City Jail on one count of possession of narcotic drugs, and the woman was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a report.
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