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The Daily Northwestern
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Find us online @thedailynu
Harsha Maddula
Toxicology report looms By patrick svitek
daily senior staffer
The weeks-old investigation into Harsha Maddula’s disappearance is growing increasingly dependent on toxicology results that authorities hope can shed light on some uncertainties about the McCormick sophomore’s final steps. Evanston Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott said Monday that those results could help answer a critical question when they are released next month. “Was this an accident or was there more to it?” Parrott asked. The Cook County medical examiner’s office still hasn’t determined how Maddula drowned in Wilmette Harbor. His body was found six days after he was last seen leaving an off-campus party in September. Spokespeople in the office told The Daily not to expect any updates on Maddula’s autopsy report until toxicology results return. One key detail those results will reveal is how intoxicated Maddula was the night he vanished. Witness statements have confirmed that Maddula was drinking alcohol, Parrott said. The results typically take six to eight weeks after the initial autopsy, which was conducted Sept. 28, the day after a fisherman found Maddula’s body floating in Lake Michigan. “You have to wait,” Maddula family
spokeswoman Padma Sonti said Monday. “It’s just a matter of waiting for information now.” For several hoursSaturday, six EPD officers and a sergeant knocked on doors and distributed flyers along the two-mile stretch of Ridge Avenue that they believe Maddula trekked before winding up in the harbor. The canvassing turned up no new information, Parrott said. Meanwhile, Maddula’s parents are having a “very hard time” adjusting to their day-to-day lives in the wake of their son’s death, Sonti said. Prasad and Dhanalakshmi Maddula recently attended a memorial event at Harsha’s high school in New Hyde Park, N.Y. “Everybody’s trying to show that they’re there for them,” Sonti said. “I don’t think they’ll ever be OK.” University President Morton Schapiro told The Daily on Monday that he last spoke with Harsha’s parents shortly before their son’s body was discovered Sept. 27. That conversation happened as Schapiro was heading to the airport for a fundraising event with alumni in New York, NU spokesman Al Cubbage confirmed Tuesday. “It’s just a nightmare,” Schapiro said. “You begin every year hoping and praying that students will be safe.” patricksvitek2014@u.northwestern.edu
Rafi Letzter/Daily Senior Staffer
SPOTLIGHT Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl tugs on her dog Comet’s leash during a walk Associated Student Government senator Jane Gilmore organized in order to evaluate poorly lit off-campus areas.
Off-campus lights get review By Lauren Caruba
daily senior staffer
Representatives from Northwestern’s administration, Associated Student Government, University Police and Evanston evaluated lighting surrounding the western edge of campus Tuesday night in an annual Off-Campus Light Walk, a day after a tour to assess on-campus lighting. The hour-long walk, which was cut short due to rain, began at Sheil Catholic
Center, headed west along Noyes Street and down several side streets to end at Foster Street and Sheridan Road. Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and Ald. Delores Holmes (5th) participated, while Betsi Burns, assistant dean of students for NU, and UP officer Frank Walsh represented the University. During the walk, participants marked as poorly lit several Evanston parks and areas under viaducts, as well as numerous alleyways. Improving lighting in Evanston alleys requires petitions initiated by Evanston residents, but the areas under
PBS commentator gives Minnow lecture Shields discusses election, colleague during Tuesday talk By Jamie Lovegrove
the daily northwestern
Acclaimed PBS NewsHour political commentator Mark Shields visited Northwestern on Monday to deliver the 2012 Minow Lecture in Communications. Shields’ talk focused on his experience covering presidential campaigns, including the 2012 election and his opinions on how it has transpired so far. His speech was filled with humorous anecdotes from his many years in Washington, D.C., ranging from Ronald Reagan’s use of “factoids” – information that Shields explained was “patently untrue” – to his affection for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his impressions from the governor’s Republican convention speech in August. Shields commented on colleague Jim Lehrer and his recent performance as a presidential debate moderator. “I think Jim Lehrer of moderating in the sense that he’s always felt, he’s always believed, he’s always argued that debates are not about journalists,
they’re not about clever questions,” he said. “They are about the candidates.” He noted Lehrer’s format “worked for Governor Romney, it did not work for President Obama,” and explained why he believed the night was unsuccessful for the President. “It’s been an interesting ... We have to campaign,” remember that Shields said. think in our politics are “I tr ying to different from understand this election those of any or American other place on politics at any time we have the planet. to remember Mark Shields, that our poliPBS political tics are difcommentator ferent from those of any other place on the planet. We don’t have a multiplicity of political parties, we’ve only got two. There are millionaires who are Democrats, minimum wage workers who are Republicans, and each party has people of all faiths or no faith.” The event attracted more than 160 people from throughout the NU, Evanston and Chicago communities to a packed McCormick Tribune Center Forum. Weinberg freshman Ross Jordan
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
» See lighting, page 7
ComEd outage leaves 2,100 without power Tuesday evening
since 1988. Outside of PBS, Shields has previously worked as an editorial writer for The Washington Post, and has taught political science courses at Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania. He was named the 2012 Newton Minow Visiting Professor by former Federal Communications Commission Chairman and NU
Commonwealth Edison reported a power outage Tuesday afternoon that affected about 2,100 customers. City spokesman Eric Palmer said in a news release that as of 4:47 p.m., there were 1,285 ComEd customers without power. When ComEd restored service 48 minutes later, the number totaled 2,100. Palmer said areas of Evanston, Park Ridge and Lindenhurst were affected. In Evanston, Lincoln Street to Church Street and Maple Avenue to Leland Avenue experienced loss of power. ComEd spokesman John Schoen said a wire down in north Evanston caused the outage. He did not know what caused damage to the power line, but said ComEd crews arrived at the source and connected a new wire to the electrical poles to replace the one that got knocked down. “We know it’s a problem for our customers whenever the power goes out,” Schoen said. “And our goal is to get the power back as quickly as possible. Whether it’s big or small, we’re trying to get people back up as quick as we can once the power goes out.” The power outage may have caused failure in some traffic lights on the intersection of Green Bay Road and Ridge Avenue, according to Evanston Now.
» See shields, page 7
— Susan Du
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Meghan White/Daily Senior Staffer
APPLAUSE Mark Shields, left, of PBS NewsHour laughs as professor emeritus Newton Minow introduces him at Tuesday’s Newton Minow lecture. He spoke to a full auditorium at the McCormick Tribune Center.
said he was glad that his freshman seminar professor had asked his class to attend the lecture. “Mark Shields is a really notable person and he knows what he’s talking about,” Jordan said. “He has so much experience in this area and so I think he has a good perspective on what is going on in the political world.” Shields has been a weekly commentator on the PBS NewsHour
overpasses are the responsibility of the Chicago Transit Authority. Walkers also cited the corner of Maple Avenue and Foster Street as under-lit. Prior to Tuesday’s walk, students helped highlight other areas for improvement to off-campus lighting. Comments made on ASG’s Facebook page Tuesday identified Emerson Street and Library Place as dark and “creepy in general,” said Jane Gilmore, ASG Panhellenic senator and member of the Student Life and
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