Ames, Iowa Police have identifed 19-year-old Raven Nicole Gileau, an Iowa State U. sophomore in accounting, as the woman believed to have been struck by a train early Sunday morning.

Gileau was leaving a bar in Campustown with a friend and presumably headed home when she took shelter under the railroad bridge near Ontario Avenue and 13th Street, said Ames Police Cmdr. Mike Brennan, said. She had been drinking.

“She got to the point where she couldn’t walk anymore,” Brennan said.

According to weather.com there were thunderstorms and wind gusts Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

Gileau, who was wearing shorts at the time of her disappearance stayed under the bridge while her friend went to retrieve a vehicle.

“Her friend said, ‘stay there out of the rain and the cold’ he said he’d go get a car,” Brennan said. However, when he returned with a friend, Gileau was no longer there.

Ames police received a missing persons report at 3:19 a.m. from Gileau’s roommate in building 52 of Frederikson Court according to police records.

The record was later changed to read ‘death investigation’ after police found Gileau on the tracks.

While they were searching for her Brennan said the Ames police department got a call from Union Pacific saying that one of the engineers had seen something next to the tracks.

Mark Davis, director of corporate relations and media for Iowa with Union Pacific, said it isn’t out of ordinary for engineers to call the town they are going through when they see something out of the ordinary.

Davis said Union Pacific got a call around 5:15 a.m. asking them to stop train traffic through the area after they had found someone on the tracks.

He said there were 6 trains that went through the area in the early morning and they are looking at each of the trains to determine whether or not any of them had been involved in the incident.

Davis said about 90% of its trains now have camera’s mounted on them and the tapes were being reviewed to determine which train was involved in the incident.

Two girls were rushed to the hospital after being struck by a car on the campus of West Chester University Tuesday evening.

The girls, Shaneka Joy Gillard, 20, and Angela Stewart, 19, were walking in the crosswalk in front of Sykes.

The accident occurred around 8:45 p.m. in the 100 block of W. Rosedale Ave. in West Chester.

According to police, the two victims were struck in front of the university’s student union building. It is still unconfirmed as to whether the victims were students.

One victim was airlifted to the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with serious injuries. The second person was taken to a local hospital with unknown injuries.

According to investigators, the driver of the striking vehicle stopped at the scene.

The driver, identified as Ann Hayes, 51, of New Providence, Lancaster County, reportedly told police that she momentarily looked away from the road and did not see the pedestrians.

Hayes was reportedly “not aware of this area and bent down” while driving, West Goshen Police Capt. Joseph Gleason said.

The 100 block of W. Rosedale Ave. was blocked off for most of the night, as the scene was investigated.

No further information about the accident has been released to the public at this time, although investigations are still taking place.

“As teenagers, we have a broader creative imagination to come up with seemingly impossible alternatives for sustainability.”

Senior Sekou Kamara of West Philadelphia High School made no qualms about his group’s so-far success in the National X Prize competition when he spoke to Saint Joseph’s University last Tuesday.

Peers Darmell Bailey, Alexis Bland, and Justin Clarke are only four of 20 students from West Philadelphia High School and Philadelphia’s Automotive Academy participating in the national $10 million contest to build a car with 100 mpg, costing $20,000 or less.

Having first received recognition for an electric go-cart at a local science fair almost 11 years ago, the team has since made it to the first, second, and third and final round of the contest.

They have also surpassed universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and are the only remaining high school team left in the competition.

So what are these creative alternatives that not even one of the top ranking technological universities could come up with?  In addition to a lighter engine—taken from a Harley Davidson—and regenerative breaking, the cars are equipped with IM phosphate batteries, biobeutenol fuel tests, custom axels, stream line body reconstruction and two pound batteries.

With these and other energy saving parts, the team has made a Ford Focus hybrid and a GTM hybrid (recently featured at the Philly Car Show), thus proving that sustainable cars come in all shapes, sizes and luxuries.

The Automotive Academy students have received national recognition in Philadelphia’s Daily News, on the Today Show and through college presentations across the country. Yet despite the stardom, the team still faces serious obstacles.

“We have raised almost $300,000 from state and private grants,” said West Philly leader, mentor, and St. Joe’s alum Kathleen Radebaugh, ’08.  “We are currently $40,000 in debt and estimate that it will cost $250,000 total to stay in the competition.”

Even at a school whose annual spending per student is less than $12,000, the cash prize is not the main goal for the West Philadelphia students.

“We are looking forward to something new in the world of high school education: project-based learning,” said Kamara.  “We have had a taste of it this year and want this hands-on motivation for all high school students.”

If they were to win, Hybrid Team X would use the $10 million to build a school with plentiful resources to continue this kind of interactive learning. It would be there for students who want to be a part of something outside the classroom.

All that’s left for in order for the students to win is building their car, finalizing their business plan, and turning in their application by next spring.  No biggie.  If magazine Popular Mechanics is any indicator of their chances, West Philadelphia is pegged to be in the top-ten contestants.

Radebaugh, who has worked, coached, and sweated alongside her students, is proud of their accomplishments and anxiously looks forward to the final stage.

More information and ways to donate to Hybrid X can be found at www.evxteam.org.

It’s always a scary moment when the terrifying yet humorous world as imagined by the twisted writers of South Park manifests into reality. It’s a bit frightening when the characters, whose actions reflect utter stupidity and ignorance, are capable of evoking tears of laughter, actualize into members of your community. Or when the skewed morals and absurd sense of justice portrayed on a TV screen for entertainment is mirrored in the laws beyond the realm of television.

If ultimately signed into law, the consequences of this legislation — both intended and unintended ­— targeting illegal immigrants, place this state in a dead heat with the fictitious South Park for the “Best Performance in Theater of the Absurd” award.

In South Park’s eighth season, an episode called “Goobacks” aired in which humans from the future come to South Park in search of jobs due to overpopulation and the terrible conditions of the future. The future people’s willingness to work for nearly nothing results in the loss of jobs for the present people of South Park. Men of the town congregate to express their concerns as best they can, which mostly amounts to slurred repetition of “they took our jobs” and decide that the best solution to the problem is to participate in a homosexual orgy. Ridiculous? Yes. Inappropriate? Extremely. Accurate? Somewhat. Based on the law brewing in Arizona, it seems that the best answer to illegal immigration is, in fact, to screw each other.

The measure, awaiting the signature of Gov. Jan Brewer, R-Ariz., would require that police determine someone’s immigration status should they suspect that person to be in the country illegally. In contrast, the current policy only allows officers to ask about someone’s immigration status if they are suspected in another crime. In effect, this law would encourage racial profiling and waste of scarce resources.

Provisions of this bill allow citizens to sue government agencies should they hamper enforcement of immigration laws and would make hiring illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transporting them illegal.

Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor, D-Phoenix, worried that such legislation would create disarray by generating suspicion amid neighbors. Such concerns are supported by the alleged problems emerging in Winslow, Ariz., due to the bill, as reported in the Los Angeles Times.

The members of the small community of Winslow are torn in response to the measure. While some feel uncomfortable with the idea of seeing their neighbors deported, others plan to aid in the search, report suspected undocumented residents to the authorities and screw their neighbors.

Winslow resident Marie Lamar, 81, said that she plans to partake in the latter and “complain to the City Council if the law is not enforced.”

“Political correctness is a disease like typhoid and malaria,” Lamar said. “Until we are all law-abiding citizens, the system will never work.”

While Mesa Republican and sponsor of the bill Sen. Russell Pearce said the measure would enable police to arresting violent criminals, Winslow City Attorney Dale Patton Jr. disagrees.

“I’ve practiced law for 30 years, and I’ve seen real criminals,” he said. “But most of these people are not criminals. For the most part, they are good, clean, hardworking people who just want to earn a living for their families.”

Meet restaurant manager Leoncio, 39. He asked that his full name not be used because of his lack of papers — but not for a lack of effort. According to Leoncio, he has been struggling to acquire legal status for nine years.

“I hate being illegal,” he said. “If I am arrested and deported, my wife and five children, who are citizens, will go on welfare and food stamps. Is that really what people want?”

Yes, Leoncio, that is precisely what this bill implies. It essentially reads, “Screw you. Screw your wife and children, and, while we’re at it, screw ourselves by putting more people on welfare that don’t need to be.”

As the saying goes, screw others as you would like to be screwed.

Former Mayor Allan Affeldf maintains that the cost of enforcing this law will extinguish the fiery bill.

“I predict the City Council will declare, ‘Of course, we will implement the law — when we have the resources to do so,’” he said. “Give city officials the rational choice between chasing undocumented people or property crimes, and they will choose the latter.”

Here’s hoping that we screwed the economy enough to keep us from screwing the illegal immigrants along with our collective conscience as a nation.

Though extensive illegal immigration calls for restrictive actions, there must be a compromise between current legislation and legalizing racial profiling and encouraging informants, a tactic more reminiscent of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia than modern America, ideally.

Perhaps the only rational question that requires answering when real life legislation mirrors South Park is: What would Eric Cartman do?

With that in mind, screw you guys, I’m going home.

— Rachel Leavitt is a U. Arizona sophomore.

To the incredulity of our Canadian friends, the two party political system really works swimmingly. It just so happens that half the country loves money and hates Mexicans and the other half loves philanthropy and hates everything else. Our haughty liberal heads might burst, however, if we try to reconcile our hatred for “Frankenfoods” and big agri-business with our desire to feed the world, because one might indeed be the answer to the other.

“Frankenfoods” is the favorite invective for genetically modified (GM) crops. As explained by former Science and Technology Advisor Nina Nina Fedoroff in an August 2008 interview by the New York Times, “Genetic modification is the basis of all evolution.” Scientific tools and breeding have been used to select for certain traits in food throughout the 20th century. However, she says “now we’ve invented techniques that introduce just one gene without disturbing the rest, and some people think that’s terrible.”

She is right about that. Everywhere you look, food conspiracy theories abound. The Organic Consumers Association is calling for a moratorium on GM organisms, claiming that “by virtue of their ‘superior’ genes, some genetically engineered plants and animals will inevitably run amok.”

OCA also believes that Monsanto, the premier agricultural biotechnology corporation, has diabolical aspirations to create herbicide resistant plants in order to boost sales of even stronger herbicides. Supposedly, they are also planning to release “Terminator Technology, that will render seeds infertile and force hundreds of millions of farmers to purchase evermore expensive GM seeds.”

It’s possible. It’s also possible that once developers of photovoltaic technology monopolize the energy grid, they will boost sales by blocking out half of the sun.

The truth is that biotechnology currently gives us almost all of our corn, cotton and soybeans. The insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant crops have increased productivity and sustainability and are found on 300 million acres in 25 counties, according to an article by Fedoroff, published this month in Science. She also points out that thus far, the world has been consuming these foods without incident.

Americans have largely met our food production needs, and we have the body-mass indexes to prove it. Thanks to agricultural science, this is accomplished with only 2 percent of the population living on farms. This is in stark contrast to African countries, where, according to the book “Starved for Science” by Robert Paarlberg, two-thirds of all people are farmers and one-third are not even able to meet their own nutritional needs.

The moral and intellectual dissonance presented by the modern scenario of farming and simultaneously starving is overwhelming.

Paarlberg argues that our wealth, as consumers, affords us the luxury to complain about methods of food production and to take our business elsewhere. Revolting against factory-farmed animals and genetically engineered plants is fine, but, as our interest in agricultural science wanes, so does our interest in helping less fortunate countries.

As Paarlberg points out, “U.S. foreign assistance to agricultural science in Africa has fallen by 75 percent in the past two decades.” To make matters worse, countries all over Asia, Central America and Africa have adopted the American and European “imperialism of rich tastes” and enacted the same stifling legal regulations.

The idea of building super organisms by installing one plant’s promoter into another’s chromosomal DNA is certainly to be taken seriously and handled carefully. But with a crop yield one-tenth as high as America’s, Africa has an entirely different set of problems, and neither excessive chemical use nor the ‘un-coolness’ of mass produced veggies ranks among them.

— Andrew Busch is a U. Arizona graduate student.

Big, splashy Hollywood films succeed or fail based on their characters. We’ve been taught to react with a certain distance to all the CGI, the explosions, the quirky 10-years-out-of-date dialogue.

But a good cast of likable people with likeable personalities still keeps us engaged with the plot. “The Losers” has this in spades, and manages to sneak a neat little tale of morality during war in there, too.

Our tale follows the titular gang of military black ops dudes, the Losers. They’re all the kind of slightly zany and energetic people that wouldn’t be slightly useful in a real war, but that just frees them up to act out their drama onscreen.

Team leader Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his troops botch an operation when the guy in charge, known only by his voice on the radio and the name “Max,” orders a move so horrific that the team cuts loose and swears revenge.

There’s great chemistry between the Losers, even if all of them seem to be oddly familiar representations of more A-list talent like Clive Owen and Johnny Depp. They’re men who do bad things but only if the reasons are truly good, and seeing a villain willing to murder for profit try to shut them down sparks a chase across the globe to bring justice.

The film is beautifully shot and well directed, keeping the narrative lively and giving each scene a concrete visual and emotional basis. It’s colorful and fast, like a film based on a comic should be.

The film veers into the ridiculous with aplomb, but never pulls over and blatantly winks into the camera. It trusts the audience and knows you’ve come to see a film where men jump away as explosions rocket out behind them.

And there’s political commentary here, to be sure. Max (Jason Patric) is smarmy and cruel, a little bit racist and representative of everything excessive about American foreign policy. He struts across the screen in immaculate white suits like he was borrowed from an ’80s action movie and the American flag pin on his lapel glints in the sun. One hand constantly sports a glove to cover a deep, bloody wound that won’t heal.

The set pieces are gorgeous and the film presents action with enough shaky-cam to feel gritty but not enough to induce the usual dry heaves. You never lose track of the characters in relation to the fight, however, and you’re always sure why the fight is happening in the first place.

Some jokes that fall flat, and to a certain degree I wish the film had pushed some of the darker elements to earn an R rating.

On the whole, however, “The Losers” is an adventure film that can still make us revel in the exotica of far-off lands. More importantly, it manages to be a film that can serve as a reminder to some of the unpleasantness our actions have inflicted on those out of sight and mind.

For a weekend movie, “The Losers” hits its mark.

Brandon Graham made it clear in February at the NFL Combine that his goal was to be a top-10 pick in the NFL Draft.

Well, he almost got there.

The Philadelphia Eagles traded up 11 spots to the No. 13 overall pick, giving up two third-round picks in the process, to draft the former U. Michigan defensive end in the first round on Thursday night.

Graham was a star for the Wolverines, and one of the few bright spots for the team in 2009. He posted 26.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks in his senior year.

Now, Graham is going to have high expectations placed in Philadelphia, as he will probably be expected to play defensive end, not outside linebacker as many had speculated he would play in the NFL, in the Eagles’ blitz-happy 4-3 defense.

Rumblings from draft evaluators was that a knock on Graham was his lack of ideal height and size at the position.

But director of college football scouting for ESPN Scouts Inc. Todd McShay thinks Graham has the skill set to overcome those challenges.

“Leverage and hands,” McShay said at the NFL Combine in February. “He does a good job of staying low not letting offensive linemen get into his body as much. And he does a great job of getting offensive linemen’s hands off, swim moves, rips, clubs, all those different techniques. He has a lot in his bag he pulls out in terms of pass rush moves and just ways to disengage, and I think that really helps him.”

Graham faced the possibility of being drafted by an NFL team that plays a 3-4 defense, in which case he would most likely play outside linebacker. But that is not the case with Philadelphia, and Graham will be right where he became comfortable at at Michigan — defensive end.

The Eagles finished 12th in the NFL in defensive yardage and 19th in scoring defense allowing over 21 points per game in 2009.

Graham adds another pass-rusher to Philadelphia’s arsenal to throw at the likes of division-rival quarterbacks Eli Manning, Tony Romo and Donovan McNabb.

“He’s one of those guys, he’s got wonderful explosion and burst and so he was a natural,” Graham’s former coach Lloyd Carr said in February. “As I look at him, I’ve had a lot of people call me from the NFL, as I look at him, he can be a 4-3 defensive end. But there’s no doubt in my mind that he can also be a stand up linebacker, because he’s very athletic, very quick. So I don’t know what’s going to happen to him. But he gives any defensive coordinator incredible flexibility.”

Any time Graham’s name comes up, talk of his relentless motor soon follows. It helped Graham stand out on disappointing teams during his junior and senior years at Michigan.

“It starts with the effort,” McShay said. “From the first play to the last play, he’s just nonstop. He really is. And I think he’s technically sound. And he’s the one guy who’s in the position he should be, doing the right things and all that. I just think really the effort and the toughness are what will impress scouts the most.”

With his new home in Philadelphia, Graham is reunited with former Wolverine teammates Jason Avant and Marlin Jackson.

The Eagles made Graham the first defensive end selected in the 2010 NFL Draft on Thursday night. They are hoping he can add to their 44 sacks last season — Graham had 29.5 career sacks in 28 starts while at Michigan.

What remains clear, however, is that Graham’s going to give Philadelphia everything he’s got.

“Even though I’m 6-1, or whatever size I am, I’ve got the heart to go out there and compete with everybody any size, it don’t matter,” Graham said at the Combine. “Because between those lines it doesn’t matter, it’s all about mentality.”

After 15 seasons with John Markell as coach, the Ohio State U. men’s hockey team has a new man at the helm.

Mark Osiecki, a former assistant with U. Wisconsin, was hired as the eighth coach in team history on Saturday.

Osiecki served the past six seasons as the top assistant to Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves, and helped lead the team to the 2006 NCAA Championship and the NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship game in 2010.

“It’s never easy to make a coaching change,” said associate athletic director Chris Schneider. “But it was time to make an appropriate change and there is excitement for a new beginning.”

Osiecki said he was excited when he learned Saturday that he had been hired.
“When the job opened, the Wisconsin athletic department told me to look into it and had good things to say about the Ohio State athletic department,” he said.

Schneider said he was looking for a coach that could bring some sustained success to the hockey program.

“We expect our programs to be competing regularly in the NCAA,” Schneider said.

Osiecki gave credit to the previous regime for helping to build some of the tradition around the program, but says it’s his staff’s job to continue the tradition.

“Our job is to make our players better young men in their lives,” Osiecki said. “But we also hope to see many of these players continue to play hockey after Ohio State.”

Osiecki was the recruiting coordinator at Wisconsin and handled the defensive responsibilities.

Some of the players Osiecki worked with during his time as an assistant coach that have moved on to the NHL include San Jose Sharks center Joe Pavelski and Chicago Blackhawks forward Adam Burish.

Osiecki has earned a reputation as being intense and working hard to get the most out of his players, a quality the OSU athletic department was working to find for the position.

“We were looking for somebody who can believe in the direction we want to go, and take it to a level of consistent competition,” Schneider said.

Osiecki said he knows several of the players from recruiting trips, including Peter Boyd and Sergio Somma, but will have to take some time to evaluate the roster before the 2010-2011 season starts.

“The locker room is filled with good players and I look forward to building on the tradition of the coaches who have come before me,” Osiecki said.

Despite the departures of forward Zac Dalpe and center Hunter Bishop to NHL entry-level contracts, Schneider believes the team still has plenty of talent for the upcoming season.

“We have a very talented team in place, even without Zac Dalpe,” Schneider said.

It didn’t take long for Osiecki to grasp OSU’s rivalry with Michigan.

“Anytime you face Michigan, it’s a lot of fun,” Osiecki said. “It’s our job to make sure we’re prepared for that.”

Hole fans from the band’s heyday might be disappointed. That’s not to say the album is bad. In fact, those who disliked the group’s 90’s albums might want to give “Nobody’s Daughter” a shot because the difference is dramatic.

Whether it was her several stints in rehab in the 12 years since the band released an album or maybe just because she’s now 45 years old, vocalist Courtney Love opted to switch musical gears. Most of the album is strongly acoustic, a change in pace from Hole’s previous grungy punk approach. Original guitarist Eric Erlandson did not return, allowing for the new dynamic. Bassist Melissa Auf der Maur returns however.

For the most part, the approach works. Love’s voice is as raw as ever and conveys the same angst-driven appeal, merely with different instrumental backing. The tracks “Someone Else’s Bed” and “Pacific Coast Highway” feel heartfelt and inspire empathy in the listener.

The biggest disappointment is the album’s first single, “Skinny Little Bitch.” It is one of the few tracks molded in Hole’s former image, and its crass approach clashes with the album’s mature themes. However, the track “Loser Dust” gets back to Hole’s punk roots without the high school theatrics.

Overall, Love transitions into the new style nicely. It should help alter her recent public image as a floozy has-been.

“South Park” has long been the arbiter of no-holds-barred comedic satire. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have successfully managed to make fun of everyone and everything, from PETA to “Jesus and friends,” and their 200th episode is no exception.

To mark the occasion, they did what they do best: Poke fun at things widely regarded as off-limits, specifically the censorship of Muhammad.

And, to no one’s surprise, they have received death threats from a New York-based Islamic supremacist group, Muslim Revolution, for their carefully censored depiction of Muhammad behind a black censor bar, wearing a bear mascot suit and inside a U-Haul truck.

The group’s message read: “We have to warn Matt (Stone) and Trey (Parker) that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

The assassination of Van Gogh for his critical film on women in Islam, along with the numerous threats to anyone who depicts the prophet Muhammad, has made making fun of Muhammad an unofficial exception to free speech.

An exception that Stone and Parker mean to break, and an exception that needs to be broken.

“South Park” has always been successful at pushing the limits of what is considered acceptable, and by bravely tackling the issue of the censorship of Muhammad, has helped expose the inconsistencies of free speech necessary for a truly democratic society.

Unfortunately, Comedy Central bleeped out the entire ending of the show, which, according to Stone and Parker, didn’t even mention Muhammad.

The statement issued on their website read: “In the 14 years we’ve been doing “South Park” we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We’ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we’ll see what happens to it.”

If companies like Comedy Central bow to the threats of religious extremists, then the slippery slope of what free speech entails will only worsen.

We need to remember that the battle over free speech is not over, and that violent extremist groups, no matter the religion or cause, should not be catered to, or free speech will carry a price.