rllir li nil ill illi -1 ruled homicide J A coroner finds unusually high levels of drugs I Kjg. >®S; j in the singer's body | NATION, Page 2. J Ticket exchange begins By Caitlin Sellers COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER For Nick Taro, the new card-based football ticket system means not paying $l2O for the Illinois game this year. Taro (sophomore-engineering) attended every game last year, even though he didn’t get season tickets. But he consis tently paid more than face value for the experience. “I’m glad it’s now on the card,” he said. “It was a lot easier to get tickets. The people who actually want to go to the games were able to get tickets.” The new online Student Ticket Exchange and “My Penn State Student Ticket Manager" Web sites launch today and are designed to help students like Taro enjoy football games for a fair price. “It’s really us working with the students to help curb the exorbitant scalping prices that have been going on,” said Greg Myford, Penn State’s associate athletic director. While he could provide no current estimate on the traffic volume he expects the site to experience, Myford said the system is prepared to deal with at least as many visitors as See TICKETS. Page 2. Sean Hill (junior-communications) looks at a campus map outside of Thomas Building on Monday afternoon, the first day of classes. He was among thousands of students finding their new classes on campus. Police investigating lewd incidents Police seek a masked man who has masturbated in front of women in dorm hallways. By Kevin Cirilli and Peter Panepinto COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITERS Penn State police are searching for the masked man they say indecently exposed himself three times this month in East Halls. The reports have been virtually the same: A female student notifies authori ties that a masked man is masturbating in the hallway, Penn State Police Capt. Bill Moerschbacher said. The man is described as college-aged with light skin and dark hair. Area businesses see sales uptick during move-in weekend By Caitlin Cullerot COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER For State College businesses, Christmas comes in August even during a recession. The town’s stores saw a rush of students return and felt the effects of thousands in search of hangers, shelves, lamps and more. Officials at Target, 315 Colonnade Blvd., and Wal-Mart. 1665 N. Atherton St, said “back to school" sales were up this year but could not specify exact gains. “[Move-in weekend] is our biggest weekend for sales,” said Joe Eckels, store team leader at Moerschbacher said. The three incidents occurred in Brumbaugh and Holmes Halls between Aug. 10 and Friday, police said. Two of the incidents happened Aug. 14 and Aug. 21, but police could not confirm the date of the third incident. Police have increased security in East Halls and are actively investigating the situation, Moerschbacher said “We really want to get this person before he continues or tries something else,” he said. But while police have increased secu rity to patrol East Halls, some students said they hadn't even heard of the inci dent. Brumbaugh Hall resident Amy Lewis (freshman-elementary education) didn’t know about the incidents before, but she Target. “It's bigger than our Christmas season." State College stores adopted several strategies to handle the influx of customers this weekend as thousands of students returned to Penn State. Eckels said he decided to run a shuttle between his store and the campus for the first time in State College. The shuttle service, which ran hourly between 12 p.m. and 9 p.m., may become a year-round ameni ty, he said. “The students were very appre ciative of the free ride,” Eckels said. “The first day was slow, but Glass bottles now prohibited at Beaver Stadium tailgates By Samantha Kramer COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER As part of a new safety policy for the 2009 football season, glass bottles will not be permitted on any grassy tailgat ing areas outside Beaver Stadium dur ing game days. The regulation was made by the ath letic department to ensure the safety of children and anyone in the grassy areas where fans tailgate. Glass has also become a safety haz ard for the environment and animals living in the area, said Steve Shelow, the last two days we had pretty full busloads.” The store also hired between 40 and 50 staff members to help with the weekend rush, Eckels said. At Wal-Mart, supervisors pulled employees from other stores to help manage the crowds, co-man ager Justin Swinehart said. The State College store is one of the top three “back-to-college" stores within the company nationwide, he said. Likewise, the local Best Buy began hiring staff for the holiday season a full month and a half before other Best Buy stores in order to have more employees director of University Police. University Police will be helping enforce the new rule, he said. “I absolutely think it’s a good deci sion,” Shelow said. “There are personal safety risks to our agricultural research and the animals we care about in our environment.” The policy is one of many that the department has recently begun enforc ing over the past few years, including the ban of alcohol consumption during the game, a policy enacted in 2006. But some students think the rule is See BOTTLES, Page 2. said she will be more careful when navi gating the dormitory from now on. “It makes me so uneasy to walk around the halls by myself." Lewis said. “It’s weird." Another Brumbaugh Hall resident, Alyson Gabel (freshman-journalism), said she feels unsafe because she lives in supplemental housing, where there are four ways to enter her room. Moerschbacher repeatedly stated that those with information regarding any of the incidents should notify police. “A lot of times, someone may think they don’t have important information,” he said. "But it might be the clue we’re looking for." To e-mail reporters: kncso63@psu.edu, pppsol7@psu.edu Pugh Street bars ready Bar employees say Tony’s Big Easy will reopen today, just one day after a Commonwealth judge reinstated an appeal for the bar’s liquor license. Tony’s is owned by Sammark Inc., which got its temporary liquor license back as a result of Judge Dan Pellegrini’s decision filed Monday, Tony’s employee Daren “DJ Remedy” Donofrio said. “It’ll be like business as usual,” Donofrio said. Sammark which also owns Lulu’s Night Spot and Candy Bar and Lounge was granted a temporary liquor license while it appealed the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s (PLCB) 2008 decision not to renew its liquor license, according to court documents. Scheduling for the other two bars has not yet been determined, Donofrio said. The bars, all located at 1291/2 S. Pugh St., lost the temporary license July 17 after their previous attorney, Francis X. O’Brien, failed to file a legal brief on time, according to court documents. But O’Brien testified in court that he missed the deadline because of a family emergency, an excuse Pellegrini ruled acceptable in his court order. Pellegrini ruled that O’Brien offered a “reason able explanation” as to why he did not file on time, writing it was therefore acceptable “to excuse the late filing,” according to the opin ion. available to help over the week end, said Travis Powell, opera tions manager at Best Buy. Powell declined to disclose financial infor mation for the 1650 N. Atherton St. location. Another issue stores encoun tered was keeping their shelves stocked. Some stores pulled items from other locations when they ran out. “We've been doing this now for a while, but with Circuit City gone it made it a little more difficult,” Powell said. “We do our best to try to meet everyone’s needs.” Eckels said his Target stocked triple the amount of products they Change in Exchani This football season, a new card-based online system aims to improve student ticket exchanges. to reopen By Kevin Cirllli COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Sammark’s struggles July 9, 2008: The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) does not renew Sammark’s liquor License, so Sammark appeals the decision and is granted a temporary license. July 14: Commonwealth Judge Dan Pellegrini dismisses the appeal and terminates the tem porary license because Sammark’s former attorney, Francis X. O’Brien, misses the dead line to file a legal brief. July 20: Sammark hires attorneys Karen Muir and Robert Hoffman and asks Pellegrini to reopen the appeal. Aug. 18-19: O'Brien testifies that a family emergency affected his ability to file on time. Aug. 24: Judge rules Sammark’s appeal may continue in court. usually cany, particularly organi zational items and furniture. “We do our best to make sure we have enough of everything, but we always run out of odd things,” Eckels said. “This year we ran out of door stops.” Wal-Mart began ordering sup plies for move-in weekend at the end of June, Swinehart said. The recently remodeled store features wider aisles, which helped with the crowds, he said. “We did slightly better than last year, which is great given the economy we’re in,” Eckels said. To e-mail reporter: cmcs2l7@psu.edu Megan Yanchitis/Collegiar See BARS, Page 2.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers