Collegiate Times

by Nick Cafferky

A group of students will march around campus this evening at 6 to honor Trayvon Martin, a teenager in Florida that was killed on Feb. 26 by George Zimmerman, a member of the neighborhood watch.

The story has quickly become a national topic, as the racial aspect of the incident makes it ripe for a hate crime label. Zimmerman has told the Orlando Sentinel that Martin punched him and slammed his head on the sidewalk, but most of the current focus has been on the fact that Martin was unarmed.

According to the Facebook group, people who would like to participate in the march should gather at the War Memorial pylons at 6 p.m. wearing their favorite hoodie — the type of clothing Martin was wearing when he was shot. After doing a loop around campus, the march will conclude with a poem reading, balloon release and moment of silence.

by Erin Chapman, news reporter

Virginia Tech will participate in Virginia’s statewide tornado awareness day. and have a tornado drill that will also coincide with a test of the VT Alerts system at 9:30 a.m.

Notifications will be sent out via emails to all vt.edu accounts, message boards in classrooms, campus sirens, and loudspeakers. Those without a PID can check the @vtalerts Twitter account as well as Facebook for postings.

In the event of a real tornado the VT Alert will give simple guidance, but most importantly, you should move away from windows and get to the basement of a building if possible, said Ron Angert, emergency preparedness planner for Student Affairs.

”Students need to be prepared, especially where they live to have some food and water. I’m always interested in making sure people know to be personally responsible and prepared for any kind of emergency which limits their access to their normal lives,” Angert said.

This is the 3rd year of the statewide tornado awareness day and the 3rd year that Tech has carried out a drill.

There will also be notifications in academic buildings, residence halls and dining halls notifying students and faculty of the safest place to go in that building, in the event of an actual tornado.

Angert said that drills are necessary in helping people take a minute to think about where a safe place might be in their building.

“It’s good to have some experience of going to a place that is safe—in the time of a real emergency it’s easier to decide where to go, you’ve been there before and you know what to expect,” Angert said.

by Ashley Seager, news staff writer

Virginia Tech Atmospheric Teaching Experiment (VTATE) will be full of hot air tomorrow, as it launches a weather balloon with local elementary schools to help encourage studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“We wanted to introduce the concept of engineering, but also to relate to what they are learning [in school],” said George Bacon, a senior aerospace engineer and founder of VTATE.

From 10-11 a.m., VTATE will talk students through the different parts of the balloon and its functions as they begin to assemble it.

When it is complete, the group will launch the weather balloon from the Drillfield and record data from the balloon’s various sensors and cameras data analysis until 2 p.m.

Created in the fall of 2011, VTATE is a group of 20 students in the college of engineering that has developed a creative and interactive program that teaches materials found in the Standards Of Learning (SOL) for the state of Virginia.

VTATE has gone to fourth-grade classrooms across the state to teach about high altitude weather balloons with materials such as scientific method, weather and measurements.

“We wanted to include the SOL concepts so that we aren’t just another Tech group visiting elementary schools,” Bacon said. “They’re actually getting more out of it because it’s something that they will eventually be tested on.”

There are three phases to VTATE’s program. First — something that has already been accomplished — the group made an initial visit to the elementary school introducing the elements of the weather balloon, while going over material found in the SOL. The students take that information and make predications for the second phase: the launch of the weather balloon.

After the launch and they have access to the results, phase three will begin. VTATE will go back to the elementary schools and present the results, a review of what they learned, and talk about upcoming events.

“It took minimal class time and it was practical to the materials they [students] are learning,” said Clare Lau, a fourth grade teacher at Margaret Beeks Elementary School. “It was a good way to build enthusiasm and the kids really enjoyed it,”

If you would like to find out more information about VTATE you can find them on Facebook.

By Nick Cafferky, news editor

Virginia Tech Relay for Life reached $100,000 this weekend, making it the second school in the country to hit six figures.  Tech currently sits at $103,255 with 1,971 people already signed up in 292 groups.

Relay’s official kickoff event was last Wednesday and different fundraising opportunities will continue throughout the next few months until the actual event takes place on April 20 on the Drillfield.

But with two months left to raise money, Relay has goals much higher than $100,ooo; according to it’s Facebook page, the goal is to hit the $750,000 mark.

Next up for Relay is a profit-sharing night at Benny Marzano’s this Wednesday; 15 percent of all procedes will go directly to Relay.

Follow Nick on Twitter at @NickCaffCT

by Nick Cafferky, news editor

UPDATE 9:08 P.M.

Blacksburg Transit has stopped running for the rest of the night due to the inclement weather. No decision has been made for service tomorrow.

PUBLISHED 8:09 P.M.

Blacksburg is finally seeing its first real snow fall of the winter and it is hitting the region hard.

Starting in the early morning, the storm has already dumped an estimated 5.8 inches of snow on the ground with anywhere from three to five more inches to come into the night.

Theses conditions have made driving almost impossible, as the Virginia Department of Transportation is scrambling to improve conditions on the roads.

“Everything on the Virginia Traffic 511 is showing that road conditions are what we consider moderate,” said Jason Bond of the VDOT.  “This means that there is some type of accumulation on the roads throughout the region.

“The last update I had on the interstates says that the roads are covered in flush and I would anticipate that for all of the roads throughout the area as long as the snow is coming down,” he said.

With many reports leading up to today suggesting that the precipitation would mostly be rain and sleet, the VDOT did not treat the roads before hand. Treatment was done in the early morning, but the late start and heavy snowfall has the snowplows trying to play catch up.

“We’re concentrating our efforts the primary roads,” Bond said, “the ones that carry the most traffic. That’s where efforts are right now because snow is continuing to fall. That means there’s probably more accumulation on the secondary roads and probably more snow in the higher elevation.”

As of right now, there appears to only be one incident on roads in the area, as a tractor-trailer accident on the 114 mile-marker on I-81 has closed the south-bound left lane.

Follow Nick on Twitter at @NickCaffCT

The Virginia Senate passed a bill that closes a loophole which allows online retailers, such as Amazon, to avoid sales taxes.

According to the Virginian-Pilot, this bill comes as local stores seek tax parity with online competitors.

The bill would require online businesses with a presence in the state to collect a 5 percent sales tax and forward it to the state.

Amazon currently has one distribution center in Sterling, Va. However, talks among the retailer and the state could bring two distribution centers to the state as well as 1,350 jobs.

The deal would also include $4.3 million in state financial aid as part of the deal.

By Nick Cafferky, news editor

At about 8 p.m. on Monday, Eric Johnson’s evening came to a grinding halt when he found himself trapped in a Lee Hall elevator.

“I hit ‘seven,’ and the ‘one’ sign flashes, and all of a sudden, it just stops,” the freshman general engineering major said. “The first thing I did was hit ‘seven’ again. And then I hit ‘two,’ and it didn’t work either, so I knew something was wrong.”

For more than three hours, Johnson, a Lee Hall resident, stood — sans a watch or phone to tell the time — waiting for the maintenance team to help him escape.

“I didn’t to want to hit that button have police come and have this be a whole fiasco, so I figured I’d let maintenance work,” Johnson said.

Without anything in his pockets to keep himself occupied, Johnson had to get creative when it came to entertainment.

“There are 1,458 squares on the bottom (of the elevator),” he said. “I untied my shoelaces and tied every knot I know of, sung a couple of songs and slept a little.”

Unfortunately, Johnson lives on the seventh floor of Lee, so avoiding the elevator isn’t a practical long-term solution.

“I might take the stairs for a week or two,” he said, “just in case.”

Google announced Tuesday that it will be changing its private policy to keep information gathered when people use its products, including YouTube, Picasa, GMail and its search engine.

The new policy will begin on March 1 and is being put in place so the company can learn more about each user personally, which will lead to “a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”

However, many are not sold on what Google is doing and is calling the move an invasion of privacy.

The change will perhaps be most alarming for users of android phones, who are powered by Google and will therefore have everything they do with the phone be documented.

Read more at WashingtonPost.com

Links:

Florida primary 2012: Delegate dispute could drag on (Politico)

Netflix regains 600,000 U.S. subscribers (USA Today)

Obama and Ariz. Governor have heated exchange (Fox News)

Two buildings in Rio collapse (CNN)

A federal judge ruled that a woman in Colorado could be compelled to give authorities the password of her PGP-scrambled hard drive.

Judge Robert Blackburn argued that disclosing a password does not violate the Fifth Amendment, which says no one can “be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”

If Ramona Fricosu, who is the defendant in a mortgage scam case, does not comply, she will have to face consequences, such as contempt of court.

In the past, some judges have ruled that there is a distinction between ordering a defendant to decrypt a computer and giving a password. However, Blackburn’s opinion is in-line with the Justice Department’s stance.

Fricosu’s attorney plans on appealing the decision, according to CNET. They argue that the right to remain silent coincides with not giving a password to authorities.

Read more:

Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops (CNET)

DOJ: We can force you to decrypt your laptop (CNET)

The newest numbers released by GOP officials have Rick Santorum ahead of Mitt Romney by 34 votes in the Iowa presidential caucus. Initially, officials declared Romney the winner by eight votes, according to the Des Moines Register.

However, votes from eight precincts are missing and will never be recovered, causing officials to declare it a “split decision.” Inaccuracies were found in 131 precincts. The official data will be released Thursday morning, according to a statement from the Republican Party of Iowa.

With South Carolina’s primary on Saturday, this could be an upset for Romney. Typically, presidential candidates who win the Iowa caucus or the New Hampshire primary win in every other states’ primary.  After Iowa and New Hampshire, and although virtually tied with Santorum before Iowa, 31 percent of Republican or right-leaning voters would vote for Romney, compared to only 14 percent for Santorum, according to the most recent Pew Research data.