Press Club announces Best of Southeastern winners

The event T-shirt from the 2010 Southeast Journalism conference, which was hosted at Soutehastern Louisiana University. - Photo by Megan Mosher

The Press Club has announced the results of the third annual Best of Southeastern journalism competition, in which twelve communication students and five communication organizations placed in nineteen individual categories.

The Best of Southeastern competition is the Southeastern Louisiana University Department of Languages and Communication and the Press Club’s qualifying competition for the Southeast Journalism Conference.

Student Jazz Combo offers rousing performance

Jonathan Blount, David Gambino, Josh Pardue, Josh Olsen and Wesley Mannino perform Justin Pardue's original piece "Fuuuuuunk!" during the jazz combo Tuesday night. - Photo by Megan Mosher

The all-student jazz combo brought down the house with their rousing performance of original student songs Tuesday night in Southeastern’s Pottle auditorium.

Performing numbers written by students Corey Reeves, Josh Olsen, Jonathan Blount and Justin Pardue, the 10 music majors took turns thrilling the audience of about 100 with slow, sweet jazz and exciting them with rousing brassy pieces.

Longtime activist speaks on immigration myths, reform

Ann Williams Cass, a longtime Texas activist, discusses the myths of immigration.

Longtime Texas activist and executive director of Proyecto Azteca, Ann Williams Cass countered 11 myths about immigration and explained the benefits of immigration reform during her lecture as part of the 6th annual Social Justice Speaker Series.

Cass nullified popular immigration myths such as immigrants not paying taxes, only coming to the U.S. to take welfare, jobs and opportunities, sending all their money to their home country and their refusal to learn English or become Americans.

Voter registration requirements under fire

Voter registration is reserved as a right of the individual states. As such, it varies from state to state, and voter registration requirements are not the same in Louisiana as they are in Arizona or even Mississippi.

Dr. Peter Petrakis, a Southeastern Louisiana University political science professor, said historically voter registration has been left up to the states rather than the federal government.

“Nothing but words” characterizes early U.S., British relations

Dr. Craig Saucier delivers a lecture on the relationship between the United Stated and Great Britain in the 1920s and 1930s. - Photo by Megan Mosher

With myth-busting style, Dr. Craig Saucier dispelled the notion that the United States and Great Britain have shared a special cooperative relationship for time immemorial in his Fanfare lecture, “Mything in Action: The Fantasy of the Special Relationship.”

Saucier, a Southeastern Louisiana University history instructor, noted Wednesday, that it has long been assumed the strong alliance formed between the U.S. and Britain during World War II was a climax of a gradual and inevitable development of friendship. This assumption has been based on the countries’ common language, mutual commitment to democracy and a constitutional government as well as similar commitments to economic objectives such as free trade and capitalism. However, the long history of friendship is simply non-existent, said Saucier.