■ MARATHON
Continued from page 1
''j.
performances by McFly and the
Inflatables. The event will also be
catered. Students and community
members are welcome to come at any
time during the event to support the
dancers and the local children’s
hospital. Registration for the Marathon
continues until the day of the event.
Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital is
in Columbia and serves children of all ages
with a range of medical problems. More
than 82,000 children are treated every
year, including 27,000 children in the
emergency room. Money raised by Dance
Marathon will stay completely local.
Dance Marathon first came to USC
in 1998. Now in its seventh year,
Dance Marathon has raised more than
$280,000 — $72,000 last year alone.
Black said there is no way to tell how
much money will be raised until the
closing ceremony.
“You bite your nails until the very
end. I don’t want to jinx anything by
guessing. You just do the best you can
do,” he said.
The theme for this year’s Marathon
is “Join the Legacy.” Dance Marathon
began in 1972 at Penn State to support
its local children’s hospital. The
program has spread to universities all
over the country and is endorsed by
Children’s Miracle Network. These
hospitals annually provide more than
$2.5 billion of charitable health care to
children.
He also mentioned that it was
“rewarding to see a smile on a child’s
face,” and he still keeps in touch with the
children and families he met last year.
Registration will continue through
the day of the event for any last-minute
participants. All students and
community members are encouraged
to participate. For more information,
call 777-5780 or visit
www.sa.sc.edu/dancemarathon.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu
Senate votes to limit class-action lawsuits
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The Senate
approved a measure Thursday to help
shield businesses from major class action
lawsuits like the ones that have been
brought against tobacco companies,
giving President Bush the first legislative
victory of his second term.
Under the legislation, long sought by
big business, large multistate class action
lawsuits could no longer be heard in small
state courts. Such courts have handed out
multimillion-dollar verdicts.
Instead, the cases would be heard by
federal judges, who have not proven as
open to those type of lawsuits.
The Senate passed the bill 72-26, and
it now goes to the House.
Bush called the bill a strong step
forward.
“Our country depends on a fair legal
system that protects people who have been
harmed without encouraging junk
lawsuits that undermine confidence in our
courts while hurting our economy,” Bush
said in a statement released in
Pennsylvania where he was promoting his
Social Security proposals.
Thomas Donohue, president of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said, “Now
it’s time for the House to finish the job
and take back our civil justice system from
plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking jackpot justice.”
But Todd A. Smith, president of the
Association of Trial Lawyers of America,
said, “Every American’s legal rights are
diminished by this anti-consumer
legislation.” The association said
insurance, tobacco, drug, chemical and
other companies had financed the push to
get the legislation through the Senate.
Bush and other bill supporters — who
have pushed for the legislation for almost
six years — say it is needed because greedy
lawyers have taken advantage of the state
system by filing frivolous lawsuits in state
courts where they know they can get big
verdicts.
Senators who back the bill say that
lawyers make more money from such
cases than do the actual victims, and that
lawyers sometimes threaten companies
with class action lawsuits just to get quick
financial settlements. Regular people, they
assure, will not lose their day in court.
Opponents say Bush and other bill
supporters are trying to help businesses
escape proper judgments for their
wrongdoing — and also to hurt the trial
lawyers who litigate the cases, some of
whom are big Democratic contributors.
“Are there bad lawyers that bring
meridess cases? Sure there are, and we
should crack down on them,” said Senate
Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada,
a former trial lawyer. “But this bill is not
about punishing bad lawyers. It is about
hurung consumers and helping
corporations avoid liability for
misconduct.”
The bill’s aim “is to make sure when
companies are called on the carpet, when
they are involved in a class action
litigation, they’re in a court, in a
courthouse with a judge where the
companies have a fair shake, where the
odds, the decks aren’t stacked against
them,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.
Changing the legal system —
including class action lawsuits, medical
malpractice lawsuits and asbestos injury
lawsuits — has been a priority of Bush
and the business community.
“The reason why this bill is the highest
priority of the Bush administration and the
Republican leadership in Congress is
because of one simple fact: Class action
suits moved from state courts to federal |
court are less likely to go forward, to be
tried, and they are less likely to reach a
verdict where someone wins or loses,” said
Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin,
D-Ill. And if the plaintiffs win, businesses
are “less likely to pay a reasonable amount
of money in federal court than in state
court.”
The GOP-controlled Senate struck a
deal with the House saying if senators
passed the bill unchanged, representatives
would approve the bill as-is and send it to
the White House to be signed into law.
Senators fought off several
Democratic amendments, including
changes that would have blocked federal
judges from throwing out complicated
multistate class action lawsuits or would
have exempted state attorneys general
actions and civil rights cases from the
bill’s provisions. |
■ HOPEFULS
Continued from page 1
education transfer student Victoria
Moore wants to start a “buddy”
acquaintance program that will help
other transfer students assimilate to
campus life.
“When I got here, I was
overwhelmed,” Moore, who transferred
from USC-Salkhehatchie, said.
The new buddy acquaintance
program, Moore said, would cost no
new money for the university, but would
include upperclassmen who want to
volunteer.
Moore said she was also interested in
starting programs for students to learn
management of time, money and work
schedules. She said monies from SG can
go to various student causes.
“There are some good ideas that I
just want to see the public at USC have,”
Moore said.
Equal distribution of funds, Moore
said, would be a priority during her
term, and she would earn it for students.
“I could say that I would lower
tuition and make more parking spaces,
but I can’t do that right now,” Moore
said. “I can say though, that I am willing
to help.”
Tommy Preston
Second-year political science student
Tommy Preston has served as an SG
senator for the past two years. He said
experience is what differentiates him
from his opponents1.
“I have seen how the system works,
its problems and how to fix them,”
Preston said.
The Arts and Sciences senator served
as chairman of the minority affairs
committee in SG and as the lobbying
and legislative affairs director for the
S.C. State Student Association. He was
elected to that statewide position in
October.
“One big issue is advocacy, and as the
lobbying and legislative affairs director
for SCSSA, it will give students a voice
for financial matters,” Preston said.
As treasurer, Preston said he would
help student organizations financially by
creating a new office of comptrollers. He
said the comptrollers would work
directly with some student organizations
to help with financing.
“This would make sure we work with
them the entire semester,” Preston said,
“instead of the once-a-semester treasurer
workshops that are in place now.”
Preston said the campaigning he has
done for the past two years has helped
him realize what students want.
“I know how to work within the i
organization,” Preston said. “I have
lobbied the finance committee, all of
the senate and occasionally the
president.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gatnecockneivs@givm.se. edu
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The sky
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y limn for
hoanh care
professionals
College of Health Professions information sessions
• Learn about MUSC • Receive detailed admissions information
• Get acquainted with the various professions and the faculty
• Attend a program-specific breakout session for one of the following:
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MIISC Campus-Charleston, SO
February 23
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6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
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Room 225
Corner of Courtenay and Doughty Streets
March 18
RSVP by 3/17/05
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Harper Student
Center Auditorium
Comer of Courtenay and Doughty Streets
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