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.
TEL: (814) 899-6488
FAX: (814) 899-6019
The Behrend Beacon
4701 College Drive
Erie, PA 16563
Room 10H
If you have a news story for
the Beacat or want to sub
mit feedback, e-mail us:
editor: editor@psu.edu
news: cisso6o@psu.edu
opinion: opinion@ psu.edu
sports: sports@ psu.edu
culture: culture@ psu.edu
website: editor@psu.edu
photos:
photoeditor@psu.edu
advertising and business:
behrendbeaconads
(a grnail.com
mien
mixer
used
as
Pan*a
spade'
pact
27 awed
sored
des
studs
,~F,,
.~~ .
.~ 3' .
.:~ a
`•.~;.A: