Monday, March 10th, 2008

A UPenn dental student was tied up in his apartment at 43rd and Spruce Streets by two thieves, who held him captive for seven hours while they watched “American Gladiators” and then slept over, before leaving in the morning with his laptop and iPhone.

Police have no leads and are scratching their heads at a crime as ridiculous as this. No report on why they stayed the night or how the victim was found.

Source: NBC Story

The PA House and Senate are working towards a compromise to pass a smoking ban for Pennsylvania. The politicians failed to pass one by the end of the session last year.

The main issues are whether are not casinos should be exempt, like they are in New Jersey. They are also debating whether or not taverns and private clubs should be exempt.

Source: KYW Article
Photo courtesy of www.athletic-scholarships.net

Mayor Nutter has announced a major citywide clean-up initiative to take place on Saturday, April 5th, from 9am to 2pm. He called it the “largest citywide cleanup Philadelphia has ever seen” and told everyone to participate to “clean up Philadelphia once and for all and then keep it clean.”

Nutter believes that a clean city would be a safer city, because when people care about their surroundings, they care about each other. This is part of the “broken windows” theory.

Residents can get involved by going to www.phillycleanup.com or just picking up some trash! The program has goals to recruit more than 10,000 volunteers and remove 1 million pounds of trash and litter from across the city.

Source: Philly Cleanup, Facebook event (Must be logged in)
Photo courtesy of Facebook event for the Cleanup

Tap water or bottled? Be careful when drinking water from the tap either at off-campus apartments or even Drexel water fountains. An Associated Press investigation found 56 prescription drug residues in the Philadelphia water supply.

A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Water Department said that federal law doesn’t require that water be tested for these drugs and that there is no human health hazard or impact with these trace amounts. The pills get into the water supply through waste water that has been treated and purified. The purification process currently does not remove the drug residue.

Source: KYW Article
Photo courtesy of KYW

Drexel’s new police force initiative is a great move by the University and many students feel it is about time. A large percentage of students (myself included) feel “safer” with Drexel public safety officers on and around campus (compared to there being none!), but always wondered in the back of our heads what would really happen if we were in trouble and needed help and what the public safety officers could really do. Plus, I know I’d call 9-1-1 before 215-895-2222.

Now though, 9-1-1 should go to Drexel police, who are only going to be dedicated to solving Drexel crime, following Drexel crime patterns, carrying weapons, being able to arrest, and probably concentrating north and west of campus on their patrols. With so many cops patrolling just for Drexel’s interests, not only will they prevent crime, but if crime does occur, it’s much more likely that the culprits will be caught, either right away or eventually.

Additionally, it has been hinted in this transformation that regular public safety officers like we have now would stick to campus (where there is very little crime) and do escorts and other things like that. I hope that in this transformation the current officers are trained in Drexel activities and customer service and become people that we can turn to for directions etc. because I know that I try to say “hello” to officers every time I pass one, but most look away from me as I get close, and its very uncomfortable. They could become very valuable assets for visitors to the University in their new role, if they are trained to do so.

Photo courtesy of Triangle Files