Penn State pledges $1.5M for sex-crimes groups

Penn State will donate $1.5 million in bowl proceeds to a pair of groups that work with sex-crime victims, a gesture aimed at healing the school’s battered image in the wake of child sex charges against a former assistant football coach, the Associated Press reports. University President Rod Erickson promised the donation the morning after he and other administrators faced pointed questions at a student-organized town hall forum. Erickson told the Associated Press in an interview Thursday that the Big Ten bowl revenue, which usually goes back to the athletic department, will go instead to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

“This presents an excellent opportunity for Penn State to raise the national visibility of this issue,” Erickson said. “Our students and fans are focused on a cause to play for, to cheer for.”

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Google exec: Online piracy bills in Congress wrong

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Wednesday that it would be a mistake for Congress to approve Hollywood-backed legislation meant to combat online piracy because it would be ineffective and could fundamentally alter the way the internet works, the Associated Press reports. Companion bills before the House and Senate would allow copyright holders to go to court to compel credit card companies and online advertising companies, including Google, to cut off websites dedicated to distributing pirated material. Prosecutors would be able to get court orders forcing search engines to drop the sites. The House’s Stop Online Piracy Act the Senate’s Protect IP Act are backed by the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which estimates the cost of online piracy at $135 million a year. Internet giants Google, Yahoo, Facebook have come out against the legislation…

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EU data protection reform to replace national laws

The European Union wants to replace a mishmash of national laws on data protection with one bloc-wide reform, updating laws put in place long before Facebook and other social networking sites even existed, the Associated Press reports. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Monday that social networks must become more open about how they operate. Under her proposals, businesses—including internet service providers—would have additional responsibilities, such as having to inform users of what data about them is being collected, for what purpose, and how it is stored. EU regulators have been concerned about how commercial online services use customers’ personal data to attract advertisers, saying they want to make sure that citizens’ internet privacy rights are respected…

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The other student loan problem: Too little debt

Jesse Yeh uses the University of California-Berkeley library instead of buying textbooks. He scrounges for free food at campus events and occasionally skips meals. He’s stopped exercising and sleeps five to six hours per night so he can take 21 credits–a course load so heavy he had to get special permission from a dean, the Associated Press reports. The only thing he won’t do: take out a student loan.

“I see a lot of my friends who took out student loans, then they graduated and because of the economy right now they still couldn’t find a job,” said the third-year student, whose parents both lost their jobs in 2009 and who grew up in the boom-and-bust town of Victorville, Calif., on a block with several houses in foreclosure. “The debt burden is really heavy on them.”

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Syracuse axes assistant basketball coach amid child molestation scandal

Bernie Fine was fired Sunday by Syracuse University after a third man accused the assistant basketball coach of molesting him nine years ago, the Associated Press reports.

“At the direction of Chancellor Cantor, Bernie Fine’s employment with Syracuse University has been terminated, effective immediately,” Kevin Quinn, the school’s senior vice president for public affairs, said in a statement. The 65-year-old Fine was in his 36th season at his alma mater. He had the longest active streak of consecutive seasons at one school among assistant coaches in Division I…

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Syracuse assistant basketball coach being investigated for child abuse

Just two weeks after Penn State was rocked by a child sex-abuse scandal, ESPN reported Thursday that police were investigating an assistant basketball coach at Syracuse University on allegations of child molestation, the Associated Press reports. Shortly afterward, Syracuse placed longtime assistant coach Bernie Fine on administrative leave “in light of the new allegations and the Syracuse City Police investigation,” the school said. Connellan told the newspaper that police received information on the case Thursday but would not say who provided the information. The university said it had conducted its own investigation and couldn’t find witnesses to corroborate the allegations…

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Occupy Berkeley protests focus on cuts to education

Police arrested 95 Occupy protesters and students Wednesday who stormed into a downtown San Francisco bank and shouted slogans as they tried to set up camp in the lobby, the Associated Press reports. The arrests came after about 100 demonstrators rushed into a Bank of America branch, chanting “money for schools and education, not for banks and corporations.”

Elsewhere, students and anti-Wall Street activists settled into a new encampment at the University of California, Berkeley, and visited the state Capitol to demand the restoration of funding for higher education. At Berkeley, police watched over about two dozen tents that were pitched Tuesday night on a student plaza despite a campus policy that forbids camping. Police warned that protesters could be arrested if they didn’t leave. Seth Weinberg, a 20-year-old cognitive science major, said he slept in a tent on Sproul Plaza to press the university to lobby for more public education funding…

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UNC Wilmington holds classes while gunman is at large

Classes were scheduled to proceed as usual Tuesday morning at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, as the search continued for a gunman who ran toward the campus after a holdup overnight, the Associated Press reports. Instructions for students to remain in secure locations that had been issued after the holdup shortly before midnight Monday were lifted at 5 a.m. Tuesday, school spokeswoman Dana Fischetti said. The suspect in the robbery of four people at a nearby fast food restaurant was still at large early Tuesday, but extra police officers were on campus as the search continued, Fischetti said. Students were free to move about the campus, but should be alert and report suspicious activity to police, she said…

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Naval Academy wasted $3.5M on short film contract

The U.S. Naval Academy wasted $3.5 million by improperly contracting for the production of a short film and six commercials, according to an audit by the Defense Department’s inspector general’s office released Thursday, the Associated Press reports. The military college also wrongly accepted more than $184,000 in gifts such as wine and fancy crystal from an alumnus between 2005 and 2007, as well as $343,208 in corporate sponsorship funds, the audit found. The audit says the academy may have circumvented Congress by using non-appropriated funds for the film and commercial contract, and that it needed a better system for making sure that monetary gifts didn’t come from prohibited sources such as entities doing business with the Navy…

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Dummy caught faking Ivy League credentials–again

A Delaware man convicted of fraud for faking his way into Harvard was ordered held without bail Wednesday after admitting he violated his probation by citing the university on a job resume, the Associated Press reports. Adam Wheeler, 25, was sentenced last year to 2 1/2 years in jail and 10 years on probation for identity fraud and other charges. The sentence was mostly suspended; Wheeler served just one month in jail while awaiting trial. Prosecutors said he got into Harvard by falsely claiming that he had attended the exclusive Phillips Academy prep school in Andover and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology…

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