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News
Leave policy designed to help troubled students Institute sees growth in intellectual properties Field Hockey splits weekend matches versus UCAA rivals
Ed/Op
Staff Editorial
Students need to maintain sportsman-like behavior Editorial Notebook
Rankings come at a price Derby
Live performances coming to campus Independent Council
Independents make mark in traditions Top Hat
Response task force created Graduate Council
Council seeks student feedback Letter to the Editor
Individual not representative Letter to the Editor
No outdoor graduation Letter to the Editor
Not everyone wants a union
Features
Goicolea brings new look to abstract art Beignets’ savory taste provides for ideal breakfast Dave Barry
Eighth graders call Dave Barry doofus Running away to Northern Lights Eatery offers exotic meals Attraction draws in college crowds
Sports
Engineers break the ice, take second Football stumbles, loses Dutchmen Shoes to Union Women’s Soccer loses first game this season Crew takes shot at first large regatta Wild cards uproot favorites as World Series approaches
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Rensselaer in Brief
U Albany receives $1 M
The New York State University at Albany has been granted $1 million from the US Department of Education to offer outreach services for low-income students.
The school will use the funds to help applicants in Albany, Schenectady, and Troy, NY. One thousand students per year for five years will benefit from the program.
A small portion of the contribution will also pay for technical assistance to school districts.
This is the third grant the school has received from the Department of Education’s Trio program.
State denies raise
The state of New York is not granting 1,900 state employees a raise due to September 11 events. The action spawned a lawsuit by nine of the affected workers, including seven State Police pilots. “To drag the events of September 11 into the courtroom in this issue is inappropriate,” said William Sheehan, citing that the roughly $5.6 million in question is less than 1/100th of one percent of the current state budget.
James B. McGowan, the assistant attorney general arguing the case, supports budget director Carole E. Stone’s position that the suit should be thrown out because of “the extraordinary demands placed upon the state’s resources following the terrorist attacks.”
State declares crime
Governor George Pataki signed a bill into law last Wednesday that has given identity theft felony status. New York was one of the last states to declare the action a crime in and of itself. The law creates three levels of identity theft, from misdemeanors to felonies, and sets a maximum prison sentence of seven years for the most serious offense.
The measure is meant to punish computer-savvy criminals who use personal information, such as Social Security numbers stolen from online databanks, to illegally run up credit card bills or take out loans under other people’s names. Previously, prosecutors had to rely on other charges, such as, grand larceny and conspiracy, to convict identity thieves. Legal fees draw attention
In 1998, New York received $25 billion as part of a settlement between 46 states and the tobacco industry, and subsequently paid 2.5 percent of it to five law firms that worked on the case. Between the five, 45,000 hours were spent on the case, which amounted to nearly $14,000 per hour.
State Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos is launching an investigation into the payment to decide whether or not such massive legal fees violated the New York State Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Responsibility.
Some legal experts said the hourly rate is not an appropriate measure for large and unprecedented cases like this one.
“You really can’t look at it as dollars per hour, because if they don’t win, they get nothing. They get paid for taking that risk,” said Howard Erichson, a visiting professor at Columbia Law School and an expert in legal ethics in civil procedure. |
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