Attorney General Roy Cooper of North Carolina announced today that he is dropping all of the remaining charges against three former Duke students accused of sexually assaulting a stripper more than a year ago.
About 25 University of Montana students staged a "dance-in" in their president's office yesterday. The intrusion, meant to protest the school's purchases of apparel made in sweatshops, lasted approximately five minutes, the Montana Kaimin reports. "This isn't OK," an assistant to the president told the dancing students, who had gathered in the administrative offices at 9 a.m. "I'd like you all to go back to the lobby." They ignored her and kept dancing, even through a loud alarm, until campus safety arrived to escort them out, the Kaimin reports.
Why has the University of Nevada-Reno's baseball team, which is about two-thirds of the way through its season, hit only seven home runs this year in its home stadium, compared with 70 plus per season in years past? Gary Powers, the team's coach, says science can explain the decline: When artificial turf replaced natural grass before last season, there was a drop in the amount of oxygen in the air in the stadium, making home runs less likely. An actual scientist doesn't buy that explanation. "Any effect on the atmosphere from grass compared to artificial turf is going to be infinitesimally small," Vince Catalano, a chemistry professor at the University of Nevada-Reno, tells the Sagebrush. "It's a great excuse, but I would probably guess that home runs are down because the pitching is getting better."
The homegrown marijuana industry is booming –both in the United States and Great Britain. U.S. seizures of pot cultivated in homes have doubled in the past three years, jumping to over 400,000 plants in 2006, according to the latest figures from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
AP - MSNBC said Wednesday it will drop its simulcast of the "Imus in the Morning" radio program, responding to growing outrage about the radio host's racial slur against the Rutgers women's basketball team.
AP - A stubborn Senate voted Wednesday to ease restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, ignoring President Bush's threat of a second veto on legislation designed to lead to new medical treatments.
AP - The Duke lacrosse rape case finally collapsed Wednesday, with North Carolina's top prosecutor saying the three athletes were railroaded by a district attorney who ignored increasingly flimsy evidence in a "tragic rush to accuse."
Three former Duke lacrosse players today called for justice system reforms and media restraint -- after a year living as sex assault suspects. North Carolina's attorney general said the Durham district attorney pushed the case forward unchecked. The D.A. now faces accusations he withheld DNA evidence.
Two advertisers have pulled their sponsorship of Don Imus' radio show to protest his racially charged comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. The office-supply chain Staples and Bigelow Tea Company said Tuesday they were ending their relationship with Imus.
Tours of duty for members of the U.S. Army will be extended from 12 months to 15 months effective immediately, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday.
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