Water main break floods Mount Vernon
A water main broke early Sunday morning and flooded the Mount Vernon neighborhood, filling the streets with water and debris, disturbing surrounding businesses and causing considerable damage.
Police responded by blocking off whole sections of Monument Street, Calvert Street, Madison Street and Read Street.
The Office of Emergency Management set up a command post to coordinate action carried out by the Department of Public Works and the fire department.
Vehicles were towed to clear the area for debris removal and emergency repairs. City workers shut off several valves to keep water from flowing through the broken pipe.
The water main break occurred in the middle of the 100 block of E. Madison and caused the loss of water in the surrounding two to three blocks.
The break also caused 22 commercial establishments to lose power. Power was restored in the afternoon.
The water caused damage in the basement of the St. Ignatius church and the sub-basement of the State Highway Administration office, both of which are on N. Calvert Street.
Also, the force of the break damaged a nearby 50-foot stretch of asphalt.
Mass at St. Ignatius was cancelled, as well as performances at Centerstage.
However, a previously scheduled fundraising auction continued despite the lack of available parking space in the vicinity.
Repairs are said to begin soon, according to the Department of Public Works.
The break was most likely caused by recent fluctuating temperatures, which caused the contraction and warping of metal.
JuicyCampus Web site shuts down due to economic woes
JuicyCampus.com, the infamous college gossip site that fueled rumors about students at universities across the country, has been forced to shut down due to the economic crisis.
Creator Matt Ivester, who has been harshly criticized for allowing the popular site to become an unmediated rumor mill, said in a press release that the current financial constraints have cut down on the ad revenue and capital funding that had been keeping JuicyCampus afloat.
"Unfortunately, even with great traffic and strong user loyalty, a business can't survive and grow without a steady stream of revenue to support it," Ivester wrote in the press release.
"JuicyCampus's exponential growth outpaced our ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn."
Ivester initially created JuicyCampus in order to provide college students with a universal forum for discussion, a place where anonymous posters could share information about professors, classes and social life, among other things.
However, Ivester's hands-off approach to managing the site resulted in thousands of posts titled everything from "Hottest Freshman Girls" to "Biggest Sluts," which often attacked specific students and spread malicious rumors across campuses.
Hopkins students were participants in JuicyCampus's forums, along with students from dozens of other colleges.
Last semester, several students found themselves victims of harmful slander and ridicule put forth by their anonymous peers.
Many college students will herald JuicyCampus's removal from the Internet, although Ivester refuses to acknowledge the site's detrimental effect on the collegiate world.
"While there are parts of JuicyCampus that none of us will miss, it has also been a place for the fun, lighthearted gossip of college life," Ivester wrote in the press release.
"I hope that is how it is remembered."
JuicyCampus officially shut down on last Thursday.
JuicyCampus's Hopkins-based counterpart, JHU Confessions, continues to stay afloat in the realm of Internet gossip.
However, JHU GuestNet and the Hopkins wireless service have banned the JHU Confessions Web site.
This censorship means that Hopkins students, when on campus, can only access the rumor Web site when plugged in to an ethernet cable or alternative private wireless service.
U. Maryland maintains controversial affirmative action
University of Maryland College Park decided to maintain its much debated affirmative action policy to further increase diversity on campus, following a recent study based upon the negative effects of eliminating affirmative action.
The study was "Diversity and Affirmative Action in Higher Education," and it was published in the Journal of Public Economic Theory in August.
The study contended that the elimination of the affirmative action would result in a 35 percent decrease in the population of minority students at universities.
Although University of Maryland is located between two cities with large black populations, surrounded by a growing Latino population, getting minority students to attend the institution has been very hard.
This is because of the history University of Maryland has regarding race, according to various University administrators.
Therefore, despite the long faced criticism regarding affirmative action policies, which are regarded as advantageous for minority students, University of Maryland will continue their policy of affirmative action.
This is mostly for the purpose of maintaining their achievement in increasing diversity and minority student success.
As of now, it is unclear as to which universities will follow suit.
Traditionally, Hopkins has not had a history of practicing affirmative action.
Police officer questioned in attempted murder trial
At an attempted murder trial, the defense attorney for a man charged with shooting a Baltimore police officer turned the tables, grilling the officer for shooting the suspect 10 times and questioning why the suspect's DNA was not found on the weapon.
Officer Jared Fried had been on plainclothes patrol near Poplar Grove in the Rosemount area with his partner at about 10:45 p.m. on April 9, when they heard shots fired and saw people running from the area.
Fried testified that he saw a man clutching a weapon and gave chase.
Fried encountered Holton in an alley.
Fried said that Holton fired one shot and that he could see the flash of the muzzle in the dark.
He fired back his .40-caliber semiautomatic Glock handgun, shooting Holton twice in the body, until he felt Holton was no longer a threat.
Defense attorney, Ivan Bates, emphasized the number of shots Fried fired.
He also pointed out inconsistencies in Fried's statements to police investigators and questioned as to whether Fried had received special treatment.
Assistant State's Attorney Roya Hanna acknowledged that Holton's gun jammed when he fired at Fried.
However, she said that the act of attempting to fire the gun shots that Holton intended to harm Fried and to evade capture.
Holton had previous drug and weapon convictions and was on probation at the time of the shooting.
She said that the "police did everything correctly in this situation."
