Thousands of students are celebrating outside Beaver Canyon and in the HUB-Robeson Center after word broke late Sunday night that Osama bin Laden has been killed.

They have flooded Beaver Avenue, chanting “USA” and “F–k bin Laden,” singing patriotic songs and waving flags.

State College Police Department Chief Tom King said officers plan to let the large crowd “run its course” as it is not destructive.  Fire police from the Alpha Fire Company are on the scene to assist with crowd control. Many police officers are in the streets.

Shortly after midnight, fireworks appeared in the sky and a small fire was spotted near Quizno’s, 317 E. Beaver Ave.

Students draped themselves in American flags and about two hours after the news broke, the crowd has not dispersed.

Marcus Mullens (junior-finance) was dressed as Captain America, taking photographs with people in the crowd.

“It was meant to be,” he said of the costume. “I’m not not going to show up to my own party.”

Mullens said his costume was the most patriotic thing he could find.

“This was the best thing for those who lost families on 9/11,” he said. “America is No. 1.”

Nate Jacobs (sophomore-biology) had his photo taken with Mullens.

“I was at the Mifflin Streak before and I thought that was going to be the most exciting thing to happen tonight,” he said.

Wrapped in an American flag, Jake Arnold (junior-statistics) was studying for finals when “freedom called.”

“This is awesome, I love America, hate Osama,” Arnold said, outside Cedarbrook Apartments, 309 E. Beaver Ave. “This is America at its finest.”

Gary Burner (junior-finance) wore a cowboy hat and American flag shirt and said today should be a national holiday and that finals should be canceled so that students can celebrate.

Earlier tonight, words “Justice has been done” echoed throughout the HUB-Robeson Center before midnight Sunday as more than 150 students huddled around the projection screen, cheering as President Barack Obama took the podium.

Obama announced during his address to the nation, that Osama Bin Laden, leader of Al-Quaeda and architect of the attacks of September 11, 2001, was found and killed in Pakistan by United States personnel.

The announcement was made by the White House a little before 11 this evening, but President Barack Obama only spoke around 11:30. During his speech, Obama explained the operations it took to find and capture Bin Laden.

Obama said last August he was briefed to a possible lead in bin Laden, and where he was. After many months, and five meetings with the CIA said a White House senior Administrator, Obama had been told last week about bin Laden’s place of being.

Saturday, Obama said at his direction, the United States launched the operation against the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was killed in a fire fight, and the team was careful to avoid civilian casualties.

“I was shocked,” said Penn State student Loan Tran (junior-biobehavioral health). “When I saw it on the screen that Bin Laden was dead, I must have re-read it so many times. I cannot believe it’s true.”

In spite of looming finals and stressful days to come, the students in the HUB were far from studying as they erupted in cheers and claps during the brief address. “USA” chants could be heard outside from the crowd inhabiting the streets of Beaver Canyon, celebrating the victory for the U.S. military.

Obama began his address detailing the tragedies of the attacks of 9/11, recognizing the families of the victims, and then describing the efforts to find and kill the notorious terrorist – something he said, though, doesn’t mark the end.

“To the families: we have never forgotten your loss,” Obama said to the nation. “Let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed.”

Student Jason Alexandre said he was in awe of the news, and that the announcement was unexpected, but warmly welcomed.

“I was really excited when I heard the news, but it pretty much came out of nowhere. I didn’t even really know we were still looking for him,” Alexandre (junior-biology) said.

Jordan Pangelinan who looked upon in the HUB as well as the President delivered his speech, said the death of Bin Laden is a morale booster for the country, and that he hopes this provides closure for the families affected by the attacks

Pangelinan (sophomore-economics) said though that this isn’t the end of the War on Terror.

“This is a war situation, but I think because of the revolutions, this will make the Middle East stand up for themselves,” Pengelinan said.

Amongst the disbelief and shock though, the Penn State students huddled around the ten by ten screen still expressed their hopes for the changing future.

Alexandre said, “And now it’s finally time to think about bringing our troops home.”

Waving flags and cheering, students ran across campus Sunday night after learning 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces in Pakistan.

President Barack Obama informed the nation late Sunday night that he authorized an operation against the al-Qaida leader last week.

Upon hearing the news, Elias Ballew, a junior in history, went with his friends running around campus, wearing flags on their backs.

“It’s a proud moment — it’s a victory,” Ballew said. “To quote South Park, ‘If you don’t like your team, get out of the stadium.’ We’re cheering for our team.”

Kevin Young, a freshman in mechanical engineering and mathematics, said his girlfriend informed him of Obama’s press conference minutes before it aired.

“I was happy. The biggest catastrophe in American history has been settled … for now,” Young said, after watching the news in the Becton Hall lounge.

In a statement shortly after 11:35 p.m., Obama announced that “justice has been done.”

He said he was notified last week that bin Laden was hiding in a mansion in the Pakistan city of Abbottabad. After a firefight Sunday, U.S. forces killed bin Laden and took custody of his body.

Obama said no Americans were harmed in the firefight and the soldiers took measures to minimize civilian casualties.

“After nearly 10 years of service, struggle and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war,” Obama said. “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaida.”

However, Obama maintained “the cause of securing our country is not complete.”

“We must — and we will — remain vigilant at home and abroad,” the president said. “We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies.”

Privacy — in the good old days, it meant you didn’t have to let soldiers freeload in your own house. In 2011, it means that you take Apple to court for tracking your location without your consent via your smartphone.

Following the revelation that the iPhone was tracking users’ locations, Android users discovered last week that their phones were tracking their locations as well. Android users brought a lawsuit against Google, after a group of iPhone users had done the same. A little over a week ago, iPhone users found a location-tracking application in an unencrypted file in the backup directory of the iPhone 4. The data tracked the iPhone’s location using imprecise longitudes and latitudes. This discovery provoked a firestorm of debate with netizens as well as internationallawsuits over privacy violations.

In an attempt to clear up the controversy, Apple released a Q&A about the location-tracking device stating that it was not, in fact, collecting users’ location data, but rather crowd-sourcing Wi-Fi hotspots. The fact that the phone has been shown to collect over a year’s data is a bug in the system that will be fixed in later updates, the company said.

Many iPhone owners in the NYU community seem satisfied with this explanation.
“I really don’t think it matters,” CAS junior Vivian Xia said. “If they are just using it to help users get better Wi-Fi, that’s fine.”

Meanwhile, Aneline Amalathas, who currently owns a iPhone 3, said that it is suspicious that Apple should react so drastically to complaints from irate customers.

“I think it’s a little fishy that they would decide to roll out an update just because something like this was discovered,” she said. “I mean, what do you need a year’s data for? And isn’t that a pretty big bug in the system if you really don’t need that much data? I personally don’t think that I’m worth paying attention to in the grand scheme of things.”

Stern IT Professor Aninyda Ghose, meanwhile, said that debates about violations of privacy are irrelevant in the digital age.

“My own personal opinion is that we have near zero privacy anyway in today’s world,” he said. “Just be aware of this, and move on. In other words, to me, online privacy is just a seven-letter word.”

Nearly 30 years ago, it came to Brent Hample in a dream.

Hample, who was a University sophomore at the time, recalls that the vivid dream involved Jesus, foreigners, food and himself, which he believed was a call for him to go to India. The only problem was that he did not know when the opportunity would arise.

That opportunity came nearly six years later when he left Eugene to go to India as a part of the child sponsorship program at Central Lutheran Church. For Hample, those six weeks in India changed his life, and he worked vigorously for the next two decades to help people in need in India.

In 1994, Hample’s efforts finally culminated in the creation of India Partners, a Eugene-based non-profit Christian grassroots organization that provides several “self-help” programs to impoverished people in India, such as primary school, fishing initiatives and health care provisions.

With offices in India, Portland, Eugene and Washington state, Hample, the CEO and president of India Partners, said the company has given nearly $3 million to numerous programs and initiatives in India. To add to these initiatives, the company began to provide microfinance loans — relatively small loans that typically range from $25 to $1,000 — to Indian fishermen after their boats were destroyed by the massive 2004 tsunami and earthquake. More than half a decade later, Hample estimates India Partners has provided nearly 50,000 people with loans — a company record of nearly $400,000 alone was given out last year.

However, with help from the University’s Microfinance Initiative, Hample is hopeful the company can expand its microfinance initiatives to more people in India.

“It seemed like the perfect fit,” Elizabeth Aldrich, the club’s vice president said in an email. “India Partners has such a wide variety of projects that it can be difficult for them to have specialized knowledge in every one of them, and our club thought we could provide some of that specialized knowledge to help develop a project we saw as valuable.”

Aldrich explained that India Partners has a rather unique business model, because it partners with organizations that are native to India to help them develop and implement projects rather than handling every aspect of their projects themselves.

“A lot of organizations that do projects abroad face one of two challenges: Either they work from a great distance, which doesn’t allow them to get their hands into a project and know that what they’re doing is really helping anyone, or they do the opposite and go to the country and do the projects themselves, in which case their projects often have unintended consequences because their understanding of the local cultural can never be as great as a local resident’s,” Aldrich said.

“The model which India Partners operates with allows them to overcome, at least a little bit, those two problems because they hand the reigns of the project over to an organization that understands the complexities of the local culture without completely giving up oversight on the project.”

Nevertheless, organizations such as India Partners face significant challenges in a country that has been victimized by the type of financial model that was implemented to help its citizens. Lamia Karim, a University associate professor of anthropology and the associate director for the Center for the Study of Women in Society, said microfinance loans were lauded as the “magic bullet for alleviating poverty for women” in countries such as India nearly a decade ago. Despite the high return rates that Karim said were marketed around 98 percent, she explained that these loans had very strict loan conditions. Unlike typical loans, microfinance loans have high interest rates and shorter maturity dates.

Karim said women were particularly easier targets for banks because they were largely confined to the domestic space. Because many people spent the money on other essentials, such as food and other necessities rather than entrepreneurial ventures, Karim said many of the women who borrowed money were unable to pay the money back.

“Microfinance does not help poor people,” Karim said. “In rare instances, it moves people from poverty. You need to create producers and not consumers and ‘entrepreneurs.’ Women who stay within the patriarchal home have their money usually used by their husbands and sons. However, women who have marketable skills can be helped, provided the institution is willing to invest in ensuring market access for them and trains them. Most microfinance institutions are unwilling to invest in human development.”

However, Hample said there is a big difference between what many of the commercial banks are doing and what India Partners is doing as a non-profit agency. Unlike many of the banks that offer small loans at high interest rates with increased pressure to pay back the money, India Partners creates “self-help” groups in addition to lending out money so that people can learn how to start up a business and encourage each other to repay those loans, even though Hample said there is no obligation to do so.

An example of this is an agency-run, one-to-two-year tailoring program in which young women and widows learn how to use foot-powered sewing machines so they are able to make clothes and sell them for their own profit. Upon graduation from the program, Hample said these women receive a free sewing machine and are able to use the skills they have learned to sustain themselves.

Hample said these skills are especially important in a country that has a 63.8 percent literacy rate and the second largest population in the world, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

“In villages, especially, where we do a lot of our work, the literacy rate is a lot lower,” Hample said. “We’ve always put an emphasis on teaching them how to get involved in new projects like these. Most people don’t have to read and write, so they have to learn things through speaking and talking to one another.”

Karim also agreed and said non-profit Christian organizations may be better at giving loans because they operate from a charitable perspective rather than viewing people as a means to generate profit.

“A Christian charity is in all likelihood less coercive than the market-driven microfinance institutions in loan recovery,” Karim said. “After all, they work within a charitable ethos.”

About 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, an EF-5 tornado ripped through Tuscaloosa, Ala., leaving many residents homeless and destroying businesses on McFarland Boulevard and 15th Street.

“There were people stuck under debris and yelling for help,” University of Alabama student Adam Melton said. “We went over and helped as many as we could. It’s just, everything has been completely demolished. The houses are gone, the business are gone. It’s something that I’ll never be able to forget.”

The University reported no structural damage campus.  Most damage occurred southeast of campus.

As of Thursday evening, 37 were confirmed dead in Tuscaloosa, while the death count of the entire state of Alabama has increased to 204, with nearly 100 more in surrounding areas. The University confirmed two of the deaths were students.

President Barack Obama has declared a state of emergency in Alabama. Obama plans to visit Tuscaloosa on Friday.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said Wednesday that search and rescue was the city’s main priority, which was why cleaning up the damage has yet to begin.

“We are in an urgent phase of search and rescue,” Maddox said. “This going to be a very, very long process. The amount of damage that is done is beyond a nightmare.”

Much of the city remains without power or cable as of Thursday evening while rescue efforts take first priority.

Gas stations inside the city with power were swamped with traffic Wednesday night and Thursday. As of Thursday afternoon, few gas stations still had fuel left.

Soon after the tornado hit on Wednesday, the University converted the Student Recreation Center into a refuge for students who needed a safe place to stay overnight.

On Thursday, the Student Rec Center also became an information center the University encouraged students or parents to contact for answers about the status of loved ones.

The University canceled school for the semester. For each class, students can choose to take exams at a later date or accept their current grade without a final. The University’s May graduation commencement, originally scheduled for May 7, has been postponed to August 6.

“These steps are being taken to allow students impacted by the storms to return to their homes while recovery efforts continue in the Tuscaloosa area,” a UA press release said.

It’s no secret that with finals week comes sleep deprivation, last-minute cramming and, above all, the stress associated with the pressure to do well. With finals week soon upon us, thousands of UConn students will spend hours holed up in Homer Babbidge Library with their textbooks, pulling those infamous all-nighters and consuming superfluous amounts of caffeine. But while these study tactics may prove to be successful for some students, and while it is no doubt important to perform well on your exams, it is even more important to take care of yourself first.

The stress of final exams can take a toll on both your mind and body. During the next week, many students will be sleeping less than they normally would and eating protein bars and Monster drinks in substitution of real meals. Between those 15-page papers and two-hour cumulative exams, it can be challenging to find time to squeeze in the work you need to do, much less keep your eyes open to actually take the exam.

But to avoid going into burnout mode before your exams even begin, try to put your health first before getting that “A.” Acing exams are guaranteed to boost your GPA and earn you a desirable grade in your class, but potentially compromising your well being in order to achieve this doesn’t make it worth it.

It may sound redundant, but just because it is finals week, don’t sacrifice what may seem trivial, such as eating healthily or going to the gym. One hour spent at the gym each day, will not cost you 10 points on your final in the long run and your brain functions much better on real meals as opposed to five cups of coffee. Force yourself to take breaks. Take a 10-minute walk outside, flip through a magazine, cook a meal or go grab a drink at Starbucks. Go to the library not just to pour over PowerPoints, but relieve some stress by taking advantage of the therapy dogs. Get an actual full night’s worth of sleep—you owe it to yourself. No matter how difficult you anticipate your final to be, pulling an all-nighter may just end up making you feel more sluggish in the morning. If you stay organized and prioritize the tasks you need to accomplish, forcing your brain to perform while functioning on no sleep probably won’t be necessary.

Approaching your finals in a healthy state of mind is the first step in performing well. Good luck on your finals Huskies and have a great summer!

A year ago, Cam Newton was the relatively unknown quarterback at a junior college in Texas, but after a record-breaking season at Auburn, he was selected as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft Thursday night.

Newton was signed by the Carolina Panthers at a ceremony held at Radio City Music Hall that started with boos as commissioner Robert Goodell walked onto the stage.

This pick marked the third straight year a quarterback went first in the draft.

The Panthers finished the 2010 season 2–14 with four quarterbacks in rotation and two of those rookies.

Newton said in an ESPN interview he was shocked to be selected as the No. 1 pick and felt blessed the Panther organization showed faith in him.

“I can’t wait to get to my new hometown of Charlotte,” Newton said. “I need to get to work. I’ve heard so many people say it, and you’re hearing it straight form the horse’s mouth. It’s time to get to work now.”

Newton might not get the chance to get to work if the NFL wins an appeal to reinstate a lockout that was lifted Monday night, 45 days after it began.

Former Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley was also taken in the first round, being selected by the Detroit Lions in the 13th pick.

The Lions finished last season 6–10 and ranked 24th in the NFL for rushing yards allowed per game.

Fairley led Auburn’s championship defense, finishing the season with 24 tackles for loss and 11.5 quarterback sacks.

Imagine driving a low powered go-kart across more than 3,000 miles of the most dangerous roads on the planet.

This is how UCF graduate Cedric Dahl describes the charity rickshaw race he is participating in to help raise awareness of the human trafficking problem across India.

“The choices ranged from golf to making the world a wee bit better … so I thought I’d take a crack at the latter,” said Dahl, describing how he went from a job with Microsoft at the ripe age of 28 to riding a rickshaw across India.

While searching for charitable adventures he met Chris Keller, a study-abroad student at Mannheim University and pre-med student at San Diego State, who introduced him to the idea of “charity adventuring” and informed Dahl about the Rickshaw Rally.

The race began April 17 at 10 a.m. Dahl joined with Keller and documentarian Daniel Gonzales. They began their journey in the town of Cochin.

They will be traveling 3,300 miles from Cochin deep into the northeast city of Meghalaya.

An auto rickshaw seats one person comfortably, generates seven horsepower and has a top speed of around 33 mph.

When asked by organizers to choose a team name, one of the boys yelled out “Rabbit Foot” in hopes of bringing them some luck.

Altogether there are 72 teams in the charity adventure from all parts of the world.

“It seems our shared madness knows no limits and doesn’t discriminate by race or region,” Dahl said.

As soon as the boys took off they immediately got lost. They quickly realized how insane driving in India really is.

Dahl describes the driving rules in India as people going forward as fast as they can while simply trying to not kill each other. They were run off the road several times before realizing it was normal.

After six days and near-death experiences virtually occurring hourly, Dahl and his team no longer get adrenaline rushes right before oncoming traffic almost kills them.

So why do it?

Because it’s for a cause. These three adventurers are trying to raise awareness of human trafficking and are doing so by raising funds. So far after six days and traveling 1,056 miles, they have raised $1,254.

Human trafficking victimizes more children in India than anywhere else in the world, according to rickshawadventure.com.

Dahl feels that there is no point of life without freedom, which human trafficking steals from individuals.

Although human trafficking is illegal in the country, enforcement is extremely weak due to the limitations of the country’s judicial system. This has resulted in substantial trafficking in woman and children within India and its borders.

Dahl and his team are making sure to raise the awareness of this growing issue by informing everyone about their cause.

Dahl graduated from UCF in 2007 with a BSBA in Management of Information Systems. He was possessed to live out his dreams while he was still young and capable and began to do so in the Rickshaw Rally.

“Our core values are people, freedom and creativity. The human trafficking problem affects people and their freedom. Our team is using a bit of creativity to help people gain their freedom. So this problem touches on all three of our core values,” Dahl said.

Help fight human trafficking by visiting rickshawadventure.com, which allows individuals to make a pledge and donate funds, which go directly to the International Justice Mission to combat slavery and forced prostitution. Together they have raised more than $45 million.

Two state legislators and a Columbus-based political action committee have filed legal challenges to end the JobsOhio board created Feb. 18 when House Bill 1 (HB 1) was signed into law.

The suit contends that HB 1 violates seven sections of the Ohio Constitution.

“It’s a very slippery slope when the state constitution is ignored for political expediency,” said Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio.org.

The challenge, filed by Rothenberg as well as Democratic Sen. Mike Skindell, of Lakewood, and Democratic Rep. Dennis Murray, of Sandusky, contends that HB 1 violates the state’s constitution because it confers corporate powers to the state and would leave the state liable to incur any debt if the board fails.

HB 1 also places Kasich as the head of the nine-member board of directors for a corporation, which is another violation of the state constitution, Rothenberg said.

The legislation allocates $1 million from the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) for the board’s “initial transition and startup costs,” according to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, which said the state’s budget for fiscal year 2011 will not be affected.

Under the new legislation, JobsOhio will also overtake several ODOD functions to be specified after a six-month evaluation period.

The bill was one of the hallmarks of Kasich’s gubernatorial campaign last year and drew the ire of several Democratic legislators.

However, the bill passed in February with bi-partisan support. Among the supporters was state Senate Democratic leader

Capri Cafaro.

“This is about upholding Ohio’s constitution and nothing else,” Rothenberg said, iterating the challenge is not

politically motivated.

Normally, challenges begin at the local trial court level and continue, if appealed, to the state Supreme Court. However, the suit began at Ohio’s Supreme Court, an unprecedented path for such challenges to state legislation.

Rothenberg said the language of the law — which went into effect immediately rather than the usual 90 days — forces all challenges to begin at the highest level.

“There is no precedent for filing this type of challenge,” Rothenberg said.

Rothenberg added there is a chance the Supreme Court could invalidate the action and send it to the local level at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

Rob Nichols, spokesman for Kasich, said the challenges have no merit.

“Legislative and Judicial precedent exists for private entities being entrusted by the state to perform a public service,” Nichols said.

Local Republican Rep. Bob Mecklenborg of Green Township, voted in favor of the bill, while Democratic Reps. Connie Pillich Blue Ash and Denise Driehaus Delhi voted against.

The challenge is currently awaiting a ruling from the Ohio Supreme Court.

Though Thursday marks the last day that members of a union representing academic student employees throughout the UC system can vote in the union’s tri-annual statewide leadership election, which many assert is the most contested in the union’s history, there has been concern that policies are not in place to ensure a fair election free from vote-tampering.

Members of the United Auto Workers Local 2865 – a union representing nearly 12,000 graduate students, readers and tutors – began voting Tuesday in the election. While an elections committee determined voting protocols before the election began, there has been growing concern that the policies are insufficient to protect against vote-tampering and fraud, according to Adam Hefty, the elections committee member from UC Santa Cruz.

According to Hefty, the elections committee agreed to protocol with “few serious protections against tampering,” despite the fact that the union is facing what he said is the most contested election it has ever experienced, with two candidate slates and most campus, and all executive leadership, positions contested.

“There are lots of members that have been coming to the polls and voting, and their votes will certainly be counted, but the election protocol, or lack of protocol, does give me pause,” he said. “We’ll have to see what happens in the next couple of days before a final judgment can be made.”

In a blog post, Hefty detailed some of the concerns, which included whether student identification must be shown at polling locations, how and where ballot boxes will be stored overnight and how ballots will eventually be counted.

However, Erik Tollerud, a UC Irvine graduate student and elections committee alternate, said he is confident that the policies the committee decided on will enable the union to have a fair election.

“I’m completely confident that the procedure we’ve decided on democratically as a committee will make it clear that if tampering was to happen, the procedures will make it clear, and then those issues can be addressed,” Tollerud said.

While there is debate regarding whether or not election policies were adequate to protect against vote-tampering, both Tollerud and Hefty agreed that some of the concern going into this election stems from the union’s highly contentious contract ratification vote late last semester and allegations by some that the policies enacted there were not sufficient to protect against possible vote-tampering.

While there is contention regarding election policies that were not approved, the policies that are in place do help ensure transparency in the election, said Megan Wachspress, a campus graduate student and head steward for the union at UC Berkeley.

According to Wachspress, the elections policies that were in place to protect against fraud in the election involve checking voter names against roll sheets and a two-envelope balloting system.

Lizzy Mattiuzzi, a UC Berkeley graduate student and elections committee chair alternate, said despite concerns raised regarding certain election policies, she is confident in the policies that are in place and is hopeful regarding the outcome of the election.

“Overall, I’m pretty confident that despite the fact that on the election committee we were outnumbered on certain procedures and policies we proposed, I have confidence in the process that we’re putting out,” Mattiuzzi said. “I’m confident in the process, even though I wasn’t happy with every decision by the elections committee.”