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.”

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)

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)

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.

Although the project has been lobbied against by environmental groups, they are not the reasoning for Obama’s disapproval. Instead, it was the “arbitrary deadline” set by Congress that Obama denounced, claiming it was not enough time to review the proposal. Read more at WashingtonPost.com

More National Stories:

House votes against debt ceiling increase (Fox News)

Abdul-Jabbar named State Department cultural ambassador (USA Today)

Family of U.S. couple on Italian cruise ship holds out hope (CNN)

Web protest g support ets results as for two bills slips (LA Times)

Gingrich sees a South Carolina surge (Washington Post)

Currently, only 51 percent of people 18 and older are married, compared to 72 percent in 1960.

Pew attributes this partially to people marrying later in life. First-time brides are, on average, 26.5 years old and first-time grooms are 28.7 years old–both record-high numbers. Additionally, cohabitation and single parenthood are becoming more common.

Read the full report here.

The money will be used to help the Crouse family in their time of financial need.

Additionally, RunAbout Sports, a running store in the University Mall, will donate proceeds from its 9th Annual Frosty 5k to the fund.

Students can also donate by leaving their books at BookHolders, which will donate sales.

One of the most successful is the Officer Deriek Crouse Memorial Fund. By late Monday night, the fund had raised almost $85,000.The money will go to his family to help them pay for the funeral as well as other potential expenses.

“When we first got the email from President Steger saying that Officer Crouse will be succeeded by his five kids, my heart just broke,” said senior human development major Bethany Darnley.  “Especially around the Christmas season. It’s hard to lose a father in the first place, but during a time where you spend so much time with family.  I felt horrible for them.”

Darnley and senior communications major Drew Jenkinson were quick to form the Hokies for Crouse website.

“I felt like I had all this free time because I’m done with finals,” Darnley said.  “I felt like we should work on trying to do something for them.”

Through their website and Twitter page, the two are trying to raise money and awareness for the Crouse family. The website can be viewed here.

“When you watched the response online, everyone was saying that their thoughts and prayers were with the family,” Jenkinson said.  “All of us are thinking about it, but I think our thing is bridging the gap between thought and action.”

Hokies for Crouse is also working with local businesses to help raise money.  Bookholders is offering an option for students to give their books back to the store instead of selling them, and Bookholders will give the money directly to the Memorial Fund.

Students can also purchase a ‘Stay Strong and Gobble On’ T-shirt, designed by freshmen Jarrod Freeman and Sarah Little.

The shirt was inspired by an image Freeman posted online after the events on Thursday that said ‘Keep Calm and Gobble On,’ according to Little.  The line was changed from ‘Keep Calm’ to ‘Stay Strong’ by popular demand.

The back of the shirt will include Officer Crouse’s name and date of death, as well as the phrase ‘neVer forgeT,’ according to Freeman.

“We’ve made a Facebook group for it, and we’ve already have over one thousand people in the last two days,” Freeman said. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback.  And the t-shirt company we’re working with is helping out a lot as well.”

Shirts will be available starting next semester and will come in both long and short sleeve.

In addition, tuition will be waived at any Virginia public school for the Crouse children.

A state law says that a child of a fallen police officer can attend any community college or four-year public school in the state of Virginia free of tuition provided they are accepted as a normal applicant, according to Barry Simmons, director of scholarships and financial aid.

Simmons also noted that a fund is being created through the Bank of Blacksburg to help the Crouse children with other fees besides tuition.

By news staff writer Kelsey Jo Starr

Friends and family will be received at the Horne Funeral Home at 1300 N. Franklin St in Christiansburg on Sunday from 3:00 — 8:00p.m.

Online condolences may be left here.