Week in Brief

Both computers were examined at the onset of the investigation, but sources said the new search is intended to plumb the depths of the computers' hard drives for lost or deleted files.

Captain Brian Sullivan, head of detectives, declined to comment. on the tactic.

--Andra Waniek

Rowland responds to sheriff's office scandals

Waves of scandal have rocked the Connecticut sheriffs in recent months. High Sheriff Gerry Egan is being prosecuted for fraud and having an illegal weapon in his office.

On Thurs., Aug. 19, in New Haven, two deputies apparently failed to notice a woman being raped by two prisoners in the back of a van they were driving. New Haven County High Sheriff Frank J. Kinney faces accusations of hiring the son of powerful New Haven state legislator, William Dyson, despite a record of drug and firearm related felonies. In June, Kinney hired Fred Brandi, the son of another prominent Hamden Democrat, who also owned a felony record.

Governor John Rowland was quick to call for reforms of the system. "All these incidents are symptoms of a bigger problem," Dean Pagani, the governor's press secretary, stated. Rowland proposed eliminating the position of high sheriff and giving the sheriff jobs to different state organizations.

--Sue Tuddenham

CityScape shows freshmen their new home

JOHN YI/YH Freshman on CityScape received t-shirts

A Dwight Hall-sponsored program this past weekend challenged freshman to look past New Haven's reputation as a troubled city surrounding a great University. On Sat., Sept. 4, members of the Class of 2003 abandoned Old Campus for CityScape, a Yale-sponsored tour of New Haven offered solely to freshmen.

Although freshmen, new to the school and city, appeared unfazed by last year's troubling events at Yale, Dwight Hall coordinator Anika Singh, BR '01, said the perennial challenge of CityScape is curing students' fears about New Haven. "Freshmen consistently describe previous conceptions of the city as a downtrodden, impoverished ghetto," Singh said. "However, the response was excellent. Evaluation comments included `Thank you for a consciousness-raising stellar program!'"

Part of the enthusiasm for the program may have come from the changes made by this year's organizers. A majority of last week's tours omitted the community service commitment that used to accompany the affair. Students visited community gardens and historic neighborhoods dating back to the American Revolution. Every participant was given a T-shirt with little-known facts about New Haven's place in history as the first city to introduce hamburgers, pizza, and silly putty.

--Sarah Izfar

Ken Starr thinks his job should not exist

Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr spoke to a packed audience in Battell Chapel Thursday night at a Yale Political Union meeting on the topic, "Resolved: That Congress was correct in not renewing the Independent Counsel statute."

Starr argued that Congress made the right decision when it let the statute expire on Wed., June 30, 1999. The decision does not affect Judge Starr's investigation of President Clinton, but will prevent anyone else from assuming the position of independent counsel in the future. "The Independent Counsel statute tries to cram a fourth branch of government into our three-branch government system," Starr said.

Students in attendance said Starr has played an important role in American politics. "I believe that time will show that Judge Starr's importance was not only of a sensational nature," Christina Bost, MC '01, said.

--Jane Gao

Connecticut unemployment at 29-year low

Connecticut's workforce is more active than it has been in nearly three decades. On Mon., Aug. 23, the State Department of Labor announced that the state's unemployment rate dropped to 2.6 percent in July, 1.7 percent below the national rate of 4.3 percent.

State research director Roger Therrein noted that the change in joblessness is the largest in 22 years. He credited the drop to "a combination of factors--changing seasonal patterns of unemployment, the tightness of the labor market." Therrien recommends waiting for several additional months and estimates to confirm the picture painted by the July numbers before drawing any conclusions.

Yale School of Management Professor Douglas Rae points out that things look good for New Haven. "Tight labor markets solve urban problems more effectively than all federal programs combined," Rae said.

--Leslie Kuo

JOHN YI/YH Noah Kaye, CC '02, and Andrew Whealy, MC '02, practice their recruiting skills.

Around the Globe

Libyan la vida loca

A crazed dictator cares about human life--really. During all those boring years of sanctions, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been busily inventing a high-tech car shaped like a rocket. The prototype, unveiled Mon., Sept. 6, holds five passengers and has airbags that deploy all around the interior.

The vehicle is meant to highlight Gadhafi's concern for humanity and human life, according to Al-Dukali Al-Mugaryef, general commissioner of the Libyan Arab Domestic Investment Co. Al-Mugaryef said that the car will be quite affordable.

"We're going to have it for every man and every woman, and they'll all be James Bond," he said.

Tweety in the sky with dimebags

An apparent drug smuggling effort failed when the exhausted courier--a pigeon--landed on an offshore oil platform to rest. The crew of the Norwegian B-11 platform in the North Sea caught the bird on Sun., Sept. 5, and found five grams of hashish taped to its legs.

"We've never heard of anything like it," platform worker Endre Nodeland said. "Is this the new way of smuggling drugs?"

Authorities would not comment on whether the pot stash was found intact, but the dazed pigeon recently checked into a rehabilitation program at the Betty Ford Center.

Body movin'

Bidding for a human kidney offered on the Internet auction site eBay hit $5.7 million before the company put a stop to it on Thurs., Sept. 2. A spokesman for eBay, Kevin Pursglove, said the seller blatantly broke eBay's rule that clearly outlawed the sale of body parts.

The seller, identified as "hchero" from Sunrise, Fla., started the bidding at $25,000 on Thurs., Aug. 26. The description read: "Fully functional kidney for sale. You can choose either kidney. Buyer pays all transplant and medical costs. Of course only one for sale, as I need the other one to live. Serious bids only." Word on the street is that "hchero" next plans to auction off his frontal lobe.

--Compiled by John Chin from AP

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