News

The Tacoma Police Department established a new unit last week, dedicated to investigating unsolved mysteries, known as cold cases, full-time. Veteran Tacoma Police Detective Gene Miller was assigned to the unit on March 14 to investigate homicides and suspicious missing person cases that were never closed. Miller has begun prioritizing all of the Department’s cold case information and seeking assistance with DNA and other forensic evidence from the Washington State Patrol crime lab. A police investigation is considered “cold” after all possible leads have been exhausted, all evidence has been...

Recently, the Internet news site Inside Higher Ed reported on a new study called the Citation Project. This study analyzed research papers written by first-year students at a variety of different colleges. The Citation Project concluded that college students are not synthesizing their information, that they are not citing or paraphrasing information correctly and that their papers often include too many quotes. Researchers for the study sorted each piece of information found in student papers into four categories: exact copying, “patchwriting” (copying a piece of information with vary limited changes,...

A potential government shutdown was avoided on Friday, April 15, when President Barack Obama signed the budget agreement that outlines federal spending for the remainder of the fiscal year. The agreement was reached and sent for voting late on April 8, an hour before the government shutdown would have occurred. The agreement will cut spending by $38.5 billion and will fund the federal government through Sept. 30. Programs like the National Endowment for the Arts, the high-speed rail and emergency first responders will be affected by these cuts. Congress also...

The Supreme Court has recently heard a case concerning gender discrimination in Wal-Mart stores across the United States. On Mar. 29 the class action suit—Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., v. Betty Dukes, Et Al.—was argued before the Supreme Court. While the case centers on gender discrimination in promoting and paying female employees, the main issue of this case is whether or not female Wal-Mart employees constitute a single class of people with the authority to sue a major corporation. “Every store, the District Court found... managers are provided with the same level...

When the layout of the Puget Sound website changed almost two years ago, this prompted more departmental changes from within the University. The admissions office has been working on redesigning their webpage that is targeted towards admitted students. Four years ago, when the current seniors were deciding to attend Puget Sound, there was a discussion board on Cascade that allowed only the deposited students to talk amongst one another. Today, there are many more resources for admitted students, not just deposited students. Therefore, prospective students can communicate with one another,...

Puget Sound students have always shown a concern for their community, both on a campus level and from a city-wide standpoint. Recently, students have been reaching even further in response to the recent natural disasters that devastated Japan. According to students Imari Romeo and Melissa Merrigan, the Japan Support Coalition, headed by Skylar Bihl, consists of the Japanese cultural groups on campus, the Office of Spirituality, Service and Social Justice (SSSJ), Circle K and Interfaith Coordinators. “Because the earthquake occurred at the beginning of spring break, we weren’t able to...

April 1 marked the end of an era on McNeil Island, when it closed the doors for good to the prison that operated there for over 130 years. Located on the South Puget Sound West of Steilacoom, the McNeil Island Corrections Center was known historically as the “prison without walls”—with miles of frigid water preventing inmates from escaping the island. When the facility opened in 1875, it was the first federal prison in the territory that would become Washington state. According to www.doc.wa.gov, McNeil was the last island prison left...