Local National News BEHREND BEACON 4 September 10, 2010 www.thebehrendbeacon.com LOCAL NEWS ERIE The Tall Ships Erie festival began on Thursday, opening with the Parade of Sail. U.S. Brig Niagara has passed through the channel and into Presque Isle Bay. Presque Isle ranger Dan Powell estimated that 5,000 people crowded around the North Pier for the view of the tall ships in the channel to Presque Isle Bay. Powell said onlookers began setting up lawn chairs as early as noon. An additional 5,000 people assembled near the Perry Monument to watch the pa rade. Locals can take walking tours of the ships, which are gathered north of Presque Isle State Park During the week of Aug. 30-Sept. 5 Gamblers bet $49.8 million on slot ma chines at Presque Isle Downs & Casino. The amount they won back was $45.1 million. These figures are from the Pennsylvania Gaming Con trol Board reported. Gamblers' losses amounted to nearly $4 mil lion, after subtracting $728,533 in promotional free plays. Of this gross revenue, $2.2 million went to the state and $l.B million was casino profit. From Aug. 31-Sept. 6 2009, gamblers wagered $44.9 mil lion. The amount won back by them was $4l million. The one-week record for slots wagers was $57 million, set during the week of July 5-11. f'n7.TEriip A Crawford County girl, has become the current top vote-getter in a recent online contest sponsored by Discov ery Girls Magazine. Calista Pierce, 10, of Guys Mills, is one of the 30 finalists in the magazine's Role Model Contest. The top 10 finalists, will he featured in the maga zine. In 2006, Calista organized her own charity, Calista Cares, to benefit Special Olympics of Crawford County. She has since raised $8,177 for her charity. She's raised an additional $1,334 for the Make-A-Wish Foun dation of Western Pennsylva nia and Southern West Virginia. Mercyhurst College College renovates old apartments JENNIFER MCCURDY stall writer, ,11ercyhtirst Merciad After many student com plaints, Mercyhurst Colleges Highland Square Apartments have a new look this fall. Summer renovations to the apartment buildings located at the top of Briggs and Lewis I Av enues included replacement of carpets, repairs to kitchens, re placement of all windows with energy-efficient glass, and new paint on building interiors. For the first time ever, the college used colored paint for . upperclassmen housing. Sev- eral apartments feature one wall painted with a bright color, which "adds interest," ac cording to Assistant Vice Pres- ident of Student Life Laura Zirkle. The repairs also contribute to the green initiatives of Mer cyhurst College. Last year, stu dents complained of snow coming in through cracks in the windows. The new energy efficient windows will reduce heating while keeping precipi tation outdoors. Last year, numerous High land Square residents com plained about dismal housing conditions within the first few 1. Iran to release detained hiker Iran has announced that it plans to release one of three detained American hikers on Saturday. Sarah Shourd, 31, was arrested along with two other American hikers last July when they crossed the border from Iraq's Kurdistan region into Iran. The hikers say that the border crossing was unintentional, while Iran's government has accused them of espionage, entering the country illegally, and having links to U.S. intelligence. Shourd is a teacher and a writer who grew up in Los Angeles, Cali fornia, but moved to Damascus after graduating from college to live with Shane Bauer, another one of the captured hikers. Pastor "suspends" Quran CONNOR SATTELY editor-in-chief Florida Pastor Terry Jones has "suspended" an event in which he planned to burn large amounts of the Quran, he told reporters Thursday. Jones, the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Cen ter, said that the suspension came upon a promise that the proposed Islamic mosque and community cen ter in New York would be moved away from Ground Zero. However, the organizers behind the center say that they have never spoken to anyone that has met with Pastor Jones. Jones then claimed that the Imam with whom he had spoken had "clearly, clearly lied to us." "We cancelled the event based on his word," Jones said Thursday. "He is now New windows with energyefficient glass decorate the renovated apartment buildings. weeks of classes. This year, by contrast, no students have filed complaints. The living conditions of the four buildings, constructed shortly after World War 11, al ways fell short of other student housing options. S t u - dents and college officials have been concerned about the Highland Square Apartments for several years. "The Merciad's been a big help," Zirkle said. The newspa- World News L]m ~0. 2. EU condemns France deportation One of the legislative bodies of the European Union (EU) is sued a resolution demanding strong action against France's controversial deportation pol icy of Roma (Gypsies). The resolution, passed by a vote of 337 for and 736 against, "expressed its deep concern at the measures taken by the French authorites and other member states' authorities tar geting Roma and Travellers and providing for their expul sion." The deportation policy is championed by French Presi dent Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government claimed that illegal Roma camps were "sources of illegal trafficking, of pro foundly shocking living stan dards, of exploitation of children for begging, or prosti tution, and crime." going around saying that he did not say that. It is ab solutely not true. I have sev eral witnesses that were there in the room. He re peated it there that the Imam n New York said they would "So as of right now, we have just placed a temporary hold on our planned event." Campus Connection A brief look at what's up on the campuses of Erie's other colleges per closely followed the situa tion last year when students protested worsening condi tions and the college consid ered razing the apartments altogether. 'We hope that students will feel they've been heard," Tobin said. The college plans to con tinue renovations next year, but no specific plans have been released. 3. South Sudan in dependence "in evitable" A referendum for independ ence for Southern Sudan is "in evitable," said U.S. Secretary State Hilary Clinton, and what could be a "ticking time bomb." The vote, scheduled for Jan uary, was part of a 2005 con flict-ending agreement between the two war-torn halves of the central African country. However, succession for southern Sudan could create more problems. Oil revenues would be unevenly distributed, and much of the area is ex tremely underdeveloped. Barack Obama is set to at tend a special UN meeting on the future of Sudan on Sept. 24. move the mosque." adding "...as of right now, we have just placed a temporary hold on our planned event." Imam Muhammad Musri, Terry Jones Pastor, Dove World Outreach Center who spoke with Pastor Jones, sail that his words Gannon Ihiliorsity system cost angers students PA . ABBY BADACH editopin-chief, Gannon Knight One year, four surveys and nearly $12,000 later, Gannon University's Student Govern ment Association has both in stalled and turned on a new, expensive speaker system at Gannon - but not without re sistance from students. The project began in sum mer 2009 with an estimated cost of $5,000, said Tom Panighetti, SGA president and a senior political science major - but the price tag went up when student government members suggested that the system be upgraded from a music-playing system to a multipurpose one. *We've already spent the money,* Panighetti said, "So we're just trying to make the best use of it for the future - that it's not intrusive into stu dents' lives and to make sure it is a calming area of cam pus.* When SGA held the vote to increase funding for the speaker project last spring, Panighetti said eight students attended the Students' Voice portion of the meeting to ex- lIW c, .. 4. China-japan re lations strain Relations between China and Japan have strained fol lowing the seizure of a Chi nese fishing boat on Tuesday. The Chinese boat struck two Japanese patrol boats Tuesday in waters claimed by both countries. The Japanese sus pect that the incident was de liberate, while the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called Japan's handling of the incident "absurd, illegal, and invalid." The Japanese Coast Guard, however, said that the boat's captain had been repeatedly directed to leave the area. At the crux of the issue is a set of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea which Japan, China, and Taiwan each claim. burning had been "stretched." He claimed that he had only agreed to contact the leaders of the Islamic center with Jones on Saturday. He said he had assured the pastor that he "personally believed the mosque should not be there." He offered his own influence in the battle to move it, he said, but never promised to move the build ing. The Quran event is planned for the 9th anniver sary of the attacks on Sep tember 11. Pastor Jones has labeled the day "Interna tional Burn a Quran Day." The event has caused an international uproar, elicit ing responses from foreign leaders, such as President Barack Obama, and religious figures across the world. The event remains sus pended, though there is a chance that it will be rein stated by Saturday. press their opinions - one stu dent in favor and seven op- "That's more people than we've had tat Students' Voice) alm9st the whole year," he said. SGA passed the motion to increase funding for the proj ect with a majority vote. The current system, pur chased from local company ..113 Pro Sound, includes micrO phones, outdoor inputs for the BEACON ONLINE The Beacon website, the behrendbeacon.com, is your online source for campus news. Constantly updated with new and breaking news sto ries, the website will feature immediate coverage of events as well as an archive of past articles in the Bea con. We also offer a Twitter ac count, gbehrendbeacon, which will be used to let stu dents know of breaking news happening at the col lege: notification of impor tant events about to begin, police reports at the cam pus, or developments not yet released to students by the college. The site also offers an RSS feed, links to Erie resources, and Behrend students' blogs. FACT OF THE WEEK Did You Know? Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation. www.funny2.com CONTACT US Our offices are located in the bottom floor of the Reed building, office 10H, down the hall from the mailroom. 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