CKGeorghiou's posterous http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com Most recent posts at CKGeorghiou's posterous posterous.com Thu, 06 May 2010 15:13:00 -0700 Make Voting a Habit http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/make-voting-a-habit http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/make-voting-a-habit

“If you don’t help make the difference then the difference will not be made.”

Linda Chavez-Thompson Skyped in to the St. Mary’s University journalism class on May 4, 2010 to tell the students more about her campaign for lieutenant governor.

Chavez-Thompson grew up in the Lubbock area with her family and worked in the cotton fields alongside her father as a small child.

By the time that Chaves-Thompson reached the 9th grade, she found herself leaving school in order to help take care of her family. While away from school she became housekeeper and in her spare time Chavez-Thompson taught herself how to read and write in Spanish. This helped her later on in life by landing a job in the Constitution Laborer’s Union in Lubbock, Texas in 1967.

“As a labor lead, in 40 years I spend that time building peoples benefits, building their ability to provide for their family, to get good jobs, to get good salaries, to earn themselves a pension plan.” Says Chavez-Thompson.

After working in the labor union for 40 years, Chavez-Thompson has been elected to these positions: Secretary at the Constitution Laborer’s Union, Executive Vice-President of the National AFL-CIO, Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee, appointed to President Bill Clinton's Race Advisory Board, and the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

Then in 2004, Chavez-Thompson was awarded by the American Association of People with Disabilities with an award named after her - The Linda Chavez-Thompson Award - recognizing her life long commitment to those with disabilities and families within the labor movement.

Student Veronica Luna asks Chavez-Thompson if being a bilingual woman has had any major impact in her life or in her campaign. Chaves-Thompson says, “My bilingualism had benefited me because, my parents taught me the language, we learned it at home, but I have used it. I am currently president of an international confederation of unions in the western hemisphere; I right now represent an organization that represent 44 million workers, from the tip of South America to Canada and my ability to speak Spanish, has helped workers in all of these counties …”

This November, Texans will be able to vote for governor of the state if Texas and for lieutenant governor. Candidates for lieutenant governor are Linda Chavez-Thompson and David Dewhurst.

When asked about the immigration act in Arizona Chaves-Thompson says, “people who look like me are gonna be stopped and have to prove their citizenship, and where talking about some instances where Federal Judges who are mowing their lawns, people who serve on courts and their being asked by people who are walking by to mow their lawns, and this law does not address the real problem and that is what we need to have is a law at the federal government level that addresses itself to earn citizenship and it addresses itself to the exploitation of immigrant works because that is probably the highest problem that we have.”

Chavez-Thompson wants to find away to help the immigrants who are already here in America to stay in America and have a equal opportunity to live the American dream. Dewhurst led the Texas Senate in providing more than $60 million per year to enhance border security, and also wants to  hire additional law enforcement officers and invest in new border surveillance technology.Although Dewhurst address the problem of border control he does not give a detailed plan about what he will do for the immigrants that are already here in America. 

“I’ve always yearned for and literally craved an Education.” Says Chaves-Thompson when she leads into her discussion about the educational system.

 “When I began to see that our educational system wasn’t working and when people talked to me in the month of December of last year about running for lieutenant governor, I thought that if I could bring a message to Texas, If I could get people interested about what is wrong with the education system and about how we are not dedicating enough kind of monies that we need for our children’s education and what we could do to change that I answered yes.”

If elected lieutenant governor, Chavez-Thompson plans to create about two million new teaching jobs in the fields of math and science so that the younger generation are prepared to compete for the jobs of tomorrow. She is willing to tap the Rainy Day Fund in order to ensure that no teacher loses his or her job because of state budget shortages that maybe seen in the future.

Dewhurst on the other hand , plans to “increase educational standards, phase-out the TAKS test, provide merit pay for the best teachers and control the skyrocketing college tuition.

When St. Mary’s student Krista De La Rosa asks Chaves-Thompson what she meant by taking responsibly, Chavez-Thompson says that “the lieutenant governor gets to set the agenda for the Senate, the agenda for the Senate is for instance what will take up first as far as legislation, we have a budget deficit, we’re talking about $20 billion deficit for the state of Texas, and only half is covered by the Rainy Day Fund, and that’s a big problem, we are gonna have to figure out where the other $10 billion is gonna come from, the responsibility is what are we gonna set as our priority, I say education and no cuts in education.” 

Although both candidates differ in many areas, voters can see that each one puts education as a priority.

If either candidate is elected to the lieutenant governor position, their responsibilities will be to serve as presiding officer of the Senate, appoint the committees of the Senate, and to exercise the powers of the governor's office in case of the governor's death, resignation, removal from office, or absence from the state. To find out more informations about the candidates please visit their websites at  http://www.electchavezthompson.com/ or  http://www.daviddewhurst.com/

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Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:06:00 -0700 "The Perfect Storm" revision http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/the-perfect-storm-revision http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/the-perfect-storm-revision

Eyes widen, mouths drop and the buzzer sounds. St. Mary’s University students mourn the loss of the last Heartland Conference basketball game of the season.

Just moments after The University of Incarnate Word won the game in the final seconds of the game, the player who made winning shot, Kelcey Solomon, jumped up on to the stats table and then proceeded to yell out profane words to the students of St. Mary’s University.

For as long as any student can remember there has always been a rivalry between these two local colleges which students have been thriving on. For St. Mary’s University students nothing is bigger than a game against The University of Incarnate Word. From baseball to basketball and everything in between the must see games are the one where STMU plays UIW.

Although there have been a lot of losses, students and faculty say none will be as memorable as the loss again UIW on Saturday March 6, 2010.

Chief of Police, Paul F. Glowacki has been working for St.Mary’s University Police Department since 2001, and said that this is the first time he has seen that level of aggression from the University of Incarnate Word. "This last Heartland Conference game, just have all the makings of a perfect storm."

“Normally we never see a problem with UIW” said Glowaki “ Do we staff for those games? Yes we do. Did we bring in extra? Yes we did, But in all honesty, it’s just two cross town rival teams that play each other and the emotion is high.” 

According to NCAA regulations, the “competition is conducted in a non-discriminatory manner that engourages enthusiastic support within the confines of good sportsmanship and fosters a positive attitude among spectators and participants in support of their teams.” This means that NCAA games have regulations on conduct that are deemed appropriate.

Although there are conduct rules in any and all NCAA games, the league only penalizes for players who are ejected.  Therefore it is up to the coaches to discipline the players after the final buzzer has sounded. 

The Minnesota State University-Mankato, Athletics Director Kevin Buisman, developed a slogan to help fans remember the importance of respect, which he believe will help reduce the level of aggression that is found at the home games, and he hopes that by taking these actions everyone will be in a safe environment.

The universities slogan is “Help us Promote a Positive Game Environment and Don’t Cross the Line.” The university also painted a yellow line next to the side lines of the courts with the same solgan. This policy was adopted in April of 2010.

Former student and now admissions councilor for STMU, Christopher Cantu says that back in undergrad he has never experienced extreme levels of aggression from the University of Incarnate Word. Cantu worked for the basketball team as the team manager/trainer and says that the coaches at St. Mary’s University never tolerate un-sportsmanlike conduct from their players.

Cantu also says that “UPD did a great job at keeping the crowds under control at each game we played UIW, and especially at basketball games where they would escort them in and out of the basketball games to prevent incident from happing.”

The loss of the last Heartland Conference basketball game unexpected event will forever be an unfriendly memory to the STMU students, not only because it was a loss to UIW, but also because it was the worst way for UIW players to show sportsmen like conduct in the last game that they will ever play STMU in.

Former number one, America tennis player, Jim Courier once said “Sportsmanship for me is when a guy walks off the court and you can’t tell whether he has won or lost, when he carries himself with pride either way”

http://diicommunity.org/gameEnvironment/ideaDetail.aspx?intActID=1160

 

Video clip provided by Darlene Diaz

video3gpp952.3gp Watch on Posterous

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Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:33:00 -0700 The Perfect Storm http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/the-perfect-storm-14 http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/the-perfect-storm-14

Eyes widen, mouths drop and the buzzer sounds. St. Mary’s University students mourn the loss of the last Heartland conference game of the season.

Just moments after The University of Incarnate Word (UIW)  won the game in the final seconds of the game, the player that had made winning shot named Kelcey Solomon, jumped up on to the stats table and then proceeded to cuss out the students of St. Mary’s University (STMU).

For years there has been a rivalry between these two local colleges which students have been thriving on. For St. Mary’s University students nothing is bigger than a game against The University of Incarnate Word. From baseball to basketball and everything in between the must see games are the one where STMU plays UIW.

Although there has been a lot of losses, none will be as memorable as the loss again UIW on Saturday March 6, 2010.

Chief of Police, Paul F. Glowacki has been working for St.Mary’s University Police Department (UPD) since 2001, and he has reported that this is the first incident in his nine years of working at STMU where he has ever seen that level of aggression from The University of Incarnate Word.

Officer Glowacki states that “normally we never see a problem with UIW, do we staff for those games? Yes we do. Did we bring in extra? Yes we did, but in all honesty it’s just two cross town rival teams that play each other and the emotion is high.” 

According to NCAA regulations the “competition is conducted in a non-discriminatory manner that engourages enthusiastic support within the confines of good sportsmanship and fosters a positive attitude among spectators and participants in support of their teams.” This means that NCAA games have regulations on conduct that are deemed appropriate.

Although there are conduct rules in any and all NCAA games there are only penalties for players who are ejected out of the NCAA game.  Therefore it is up to the coaches to discipline the players after the buzzer has sounded.  

The Minnesota State University-Mankato has developed a slogan to help their fans remember the importance of respect, which they believe will help reduce the level of aggression that is found at the home games, and they  hopes that by taking these actions everyone will be in a safe environment.

The universities slogan is “Help us Promote a Positive Game Environment and Don’t Cross the Line” not only is this a slogan, but the university also has painted a yellow line next to the side lines of theirs courts that read the exact same thing.

Former student and now admissions councilor Christopher Cantu says that back in undergrad he has never experienced extreme levels of aggression from the University of Incarnate Word. Cantu had worked for the basketball team as the team manager/trainer and says that the coaches at St. Mary’s University never tolerate un-sportsmen like conduct from their players.

Cantu also says that “UPD did a great job at keeping the crowds under control at each game we played UIW, and especially at basketball games where they would escort them in and out of the basketball games to prevent incident from happing.”

This unexpected event left an unfriendly taste in the mouths of STMU students, not only because it was a loss to UIW, but also because it was the worst way for UIW players to show sportsmen like conduct in the last game that they will ever play STMU in.

“Sportsmanship for me is when a guy walks off the court and you can’t tell whether he has won or lost, when he carries himself with pride either way” – Jim Courier

 

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Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:36:00 -0700 The Perfect Storm http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/the-perfect-storm-13 http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/the-perfect-storm-13

 

Eyes widen, mouths drop and the buzzer sounds. St. Mary’s University students mourn the loss of the last Heartland conference game of the season.

Just moments after The University of Incarnate Word (UIW)  won the game in the final second, the player that had made winning shot, jumped up on to the stats table and then proceeded to cuss out the students of St. Mary’s University (STMU).

Chief of Police, Paul F. Glowacki has been working for St.Mary’s University Police Department (UPD) since 2001, and he has reported that this is the first incident in his nine years of working at STMU that he has ever seen that level of aggression from The University of Incarnate Word.

Officer Glowacki states that “normally we never see a problem with UIW, do we staff for those games? Yes we do. Did we bring in extra? Yes we did, but in all honesty it’s just two cross town rival teams that play each other and the emotion is high.”  

According to NCAA regulations the “competition is conducted in a non-discriminatory manner that engourages enthusiastic support within the confines of good sportsmanship and fosters a positive attitude among spectators and participants in support of their teams.” This means that NCAA games have regulations on conduct that are deemed appropriate.

Although there are conduct rules in any and all NCAA games there are only penalties for players who are ejected out of the NCAA game.

The Minnesota State University-Mankato has developed a slogan to help their fans remember the importance of respect, which they believe will help reduce the level of aggression that is found at the home games, and hopes that by taking these actions everyone will be in a safe environment.

The universities slogan is “Help us Promote a Positive Game Environment and Don’t Cross the Line not only is this a slogan but the university also has painted a yellow line next to the side lines of theirs courts that red the exact same thing.

Former student and now admissions councilor Christopher Cantu says that back in undergrad he has never experienced extreme levels of aggression from the University of Incarnate Word. Cantu had worked for the basketball team as the team manager/trainer and says that the coaches at St. Mary’s university never tolerate unsportsmen like conduct from their players.

Cantu also says that “UPD did a great job at keeping the crowds under control at each game we played UIW, and especially at basketball games where they would escort them in and out of the basketball games to prevent incident from happing.” 

 

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Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:00:00 -0700 Midterm Article http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/midterm-article http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/midterm-article

 

For my midterm article I will be writing about how St.Mary’s University and The University of the Incarnate Word have been long standing rivals with each other, and how this rivalry has been effecting students and school spirit here at St.Mary’s University.

I’ll be going around and interview St.Mary’s students, athletes and student who have taken a semester at The University of the Incarnate Word about their experiences with school rivalry. I will not only take pictures of each campus’ but also, some audio footage of each interview.

This story is loyalty is to citizens (students) and significant interesting and relevant to the student not only here at St.Mary’s University but also The University of the Incarnate Word. 

I’ll go to the UPD station to ask about whether or not they boost up security for UIW v. STMU games, the ResLife office, and the admissions office.  I’ll also interview older students and then more on to some alumni that have been active on campus this year.  I will also get interviews with commuter students who may also have attended UIW and ask them what is it like to be on the other side.  

Two open ended questions for each person I will interview are; do you believe this rivalry helps students with school spirit? And how do you feel about UWI/STMU to this day?

 

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Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:42:00 -0800 Chris Filoteo: An All American Man http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/chris-filoteo-an-all-american-man http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/chris-filoteo-an-all-american-man

 

Walking in to the Tuesday/Thursday journalism class in Treadway Hall there is a young man sitting by the door with flame tattoos going up his arms, tethered jeans, and a button down shirt writing in a notebook and not typing on a laptop computer like everyone else in class.

Students may not know him but they do know just by looking at him that he is more than likely the most interesting person in the room.  His appearance may throw others off just because of the tattoos, but the moment a conversation is started students find it hard to pull themselves away from the passion and excitement that he speaks with. This is Chris Filoteo and he one day dreams of being one of the best known Sports Editors.

In his free time Chris Filoteo will spend it either watching sports games or outside hunting and finish with family. He has two German Sheppards and a beautiful girlfriend named Viki Hampton. This all American man was born and raised in San Antonio Texas, and not only has a passion for sports, Spurs, and the outdoors, he also has a love for English-Communication Arts (EA).

Chris comes from a family of five where he is the oldest of three siblings and both his parents are retired police officers who had retired back in December of 2009. Chris is the first person in his family to pressure a career in writing, but they are than supportive in his decision to follow his dreams. He is of Italian decent, even though he has spent his whole life in san Antonio.

 At the age of ten-years-old Chris watched the third Spurs game of the season on his house hold television set and thought to himself “wow that the third game in a row where the Spurs had held their opponent under 100 point” then the next day he heard the local new caster repeat his exact thought, and it is that moment Chris knew he wanted to be a sports writer. It was the love of sports that became his reason to pursue English-Communication Arts and through that love did he flourish as a writer. There is not a single stat on the Spurs that he does not know about and is always the one that his friends go to for any and all Spurs information; But Chris not only love the Spurs he also love baseball and football (soccer) just as much.

After transferring into St. Mary’s University from San Antonio Community College, Chris took on the position as Sports Editor for the Rattler newspaper. There he learned how to closely edit and revise articles and grow as an editor. After graduation in May of 2011, Chris plans on moving to Atlanta, Georgia to write for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. There is where he wants to be able to write sports articles for the Atlanta Braves (his favorite baseball team). For Chris this would be the experience of a life time and the job of his dreams.

 

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Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:05:00 -0800 The Coffee Groundz http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/the-coffee-groundz http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/the-coffee-groundz

Coffee Goundz by alangham. (Picture provided by The Coffee Groundz Flickr Page)

Justine Martinez wakes up every day to make sure that others can wake up and smell the coffee.

The Coffee Groundz is located in beautiful mid-town Houston. Tucked between Bagby and McGowen, this little coffee shop is painted in beautiful neutral greens and browns. The walls are lined with coffee, wine and beer. There is an array of tables and chairs, along with two small lounges with sofas and a flat screen T.Vs in each of the rooms.

Justine Martinez has been working for The Coffee Groundz for the last 3 months and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else. “We get different types of crowds here, business men in the mornings, mom around the afternoon and college students around the evening hours. Students come from everywhere like the University of Houston, Rice University, and University of Houston Downtown.”

Here at The Coffee Groundz they offer not only coffee, but also sweets, sandwiches, paninis, wine, beer and gelato. However most college student come for the free WiFi and late hours that Coffee Groundz offers to their local community.

‘”I show up at six in the morning and I work till three or four in the afternoon, but I actually like waking up and coming to work. There is something about the people here that makes working here enjoyable.” Says Martinez as he grabs a blueberry scone from the pastry fridge.

This upcoming coffee shop has already been featured in The New York Times and in Forbes magazine and is rapidly becoming a household name in Houston. Inspired by Italian Coffee Shops, The Coffee Groundz will not only off you your fuel for the day, but also a work space that is like no other in town.

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Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:51:00 -0800 Hopes, Holes and Help for Students http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/hopes-holes-and-help-for-students http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/hopes-holes-and-help-for-students

President Barack Obama fought for education and equal opportunities for all American students last week as he gave the State of Union Address.

Although he had covered a wide range of subjects, he proposed an educational reform that will reform Grants and Loans for college students. He plans to increase Pell Grants and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college. Although this is an admiral idea, President Obama does not tell the American people how he plans to increase the Pell Grant, nor does he say where he plans to get the money for the $10,000 tax credit, which will be given to each American family.

Reforms such as these require a plan. A plan that the American people know about, and understand; for many students they fear that, without the proper arrangements, Obama’s plan to reform loans can easily fall through. 

 A Local student at St.Mary’s University, Paulina Hernandez (Political Science Major), showed her concern by stating, “If he chooses to give a tax credit, will $10,000 be given per family or per child? This is an issue because if it only applies to the family as a whole, then it doesn’t mean much to families with 3-5 children or more; it only seems like a good plan to families with 1-2 children, at most.  Furthermore, the Pell Grants varies, so how does he plan to increase it when it is not a set amount? Maybe instead of increasing the amount he should consider creating different criteria as to how to gualify for the Grant. In addition, the rule of only paying 10% on student loans is a great plan for those students with multiple loans, but again another question rises; is it only 10% on all the loans added together or on each loan separately? Ideally, this all sounds like the perfect plan, but there are many loop holes that he fails to address.”

Beautiful ideas, such as the ones President Obama presented, have given American students hope, but will this just be another empty promise? Or will he let action speak instead of words?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:47:41 -0800 Untitled http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/10960303 http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/10960303

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Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:21:00 -0800 The Wall http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/retaining-wall-failure http://ckgeorghiou.posterous.com/retaining-wall-failure

Professor Turner asks his Tuesday morning geology class “has there been geology in the news?” lucky for me I had just seen a story about how a local neighborhood had a retaining wall which collapsed over the weekend. I raise my hand and tell my professor about the news, only to be asked “well why do you think it happened?” only one single word popped into my mind at that moment. Erosion.

Later on I asked Professor Turner how can erosion cause so much damage. He states that “Clays are softer rocks, that can swell when they get wet, shrink when they dry out, and rocks can slip on top of them. This makes them a difficult rock on which to construct a firm foundation. In addition, it appears that the builders used fill materials to build up and level off the area. These fills should be compacted prior to construction to meet certain engineering requirements.” This led me to believe that maybe the developers of the neighborhood (Centrex Homes) had not obtained the permit to build the retaining wall.

Well in fact Centrex Homes did not obtain the permit, Centex Homes was required to get a permit for the 1,000-foot-long stone wall that would be used to hold up the hill where several homes were built, but because Centrex Homes did not apply for the permit, therefore they did not comply with the building regulation codes. So the area that they had been build up behind the retaining was never stable and this lead to the evacuation of about 25 homes after a landslide began on Sunday, but in today’s paper only 3 houses were determined to be unstable.

According to Costas Georghiou P.E. of Pierce Goodwin Alexander & Linville the failure could have been caused by “the foundation not being compacted properly, poor drainage behind the wall due to the lack of weep holes in the wall that would allow the water to filter through, and possible heavy loads on top of the wall during home construction”. He explained that without these weep holes water accumulates behind walls and increases horizontal pressure on the retaining wall. In addition, the excess water lubricates the soil particles which reduces their strength and contributes to the sliding of the whole slope. Even if they did get their permit the contractor should have known how to construct the wall properly, so that the last few days of heavy rain would have made the wall weak due to soil saturation.”

Every evacuated resident has been provided with accommodations, but as far as compensation for their homes and belongings; officials have not reported if there will be any yet.

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