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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017
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NEWS in REVIEW By Karolina Rivas
INTERNATIONAL
VOLUME 124, ISSUE 14
TICKING TAX BOMB
DEATH TOLL RISES IN EGYPT MOSQUE ATTACK The bloodiest attack by Islamist extremists in modern Egyptian history occurred during midday prayer at al Rawda Mosque last Friday. Terrorists claimed the lives of 305 individuals, 27 of whom were children. According to NBC News, terrorists carrying ISIS flags detonated a bomb in a mosque and opened fire on nearby crowds outside. In an interview with NBC News, local teacher Mohamed Salah said that victims told him that masked men in military fatigues exited four cars and began firing automatic weapons and threw hand grenades into the mosque. “They came from different directions and sprayed bullets with automatic weapons. Whoever fled outside they killed,” Salah said he was told. “The whole thing lasted 45 minutes to an hour. It’s a real massacre. The mosque was filled with bodies, blood and blood on the carpets. And in the hospital there are people in bad shape.” There were about 25 to 30 militants that arrived in SUVs and positioned themselves at the entrance of the mosque’s 12 windows before firing indiscriminately into the crowd, Egyptian chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq said in a statement.the largest to happen in “a long time.”
NATIONAL MORE THAN 180 CASES OF SEXUAL ASSAULT REPORTED AT MASSAGE ENVY In an investigation conducted by BuzzFeed, more than 180 women have reported cases of sexual assault at Massage Envy. The popular massage chain has over 1,200 spas across the U.S. Women reported that the company had mishandled the victims’ cases or ignored them entirely. According to the report, women claimed that they were either groped or had other forms of sexual abuse performed on them during their massage appointment. “The article references 180 reported incidents,” Massage Envy said in a statement to The Washington Post, in reference to BuzzFeed’s investigative report. “These occurred over a span of 15 plus years and 125 million massages. But, we believe that even ONE incident is too many, so we are constantly listening, learning, and evaluating how we can continue to strengthen our policies with respect to handling of these issues.” In the BuzzFeed report, the American Massage Therapy Association said that it “strongly believes that any massage therapist who steps over the line to inappropriate touch should face the legal consequence,” and that “anyone who feels there may be inappropriate behavior to call the local police immediately.”
LOCAL TEEN INVOLVED IN CARSON CITY CRASH DIES One of the seven teenagers involved in a car accident in Carson City has died. Timothy Jones was only 16 when he passed Sunday. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, Jones was the eldest of three, played baseball at Carson City High School, and was an honor student. On Thursday, Nov. 10, officials responded to a single-vehicle accident in Carson City on Kings Canyon Road. When officials arrived at the scene, seven teenagers were found inside the Dodge Nitro, and five of the teens were not wearing seatbelts. Police say two of the teens remain in the hospital with serious injuries. Officials reported that the vehicle had rolled over causing two teens to be airlifted to the hospital while the remaining five were taken via ambulance. According to Gordon, two teens are still being treated for life-threatening injuries after being ejected from the vehicle. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Karolina Rivas can be reached at mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @karolinarrivas.
How the GOP tax plan could affect students By Madeline Purdue and Jacob Solis Anyone with unpaid student loans may be facing a steep increase in how much they are expected to pay back under the proposed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — which passed in the House on Thursday, Nov. 16. The tax bill would repeal the student loan interest deduction that more than 12 million people used in 2015 and reduce $65 billion worth of tax benefits for college students over the next 10 years. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act looks to offset a $1.5 trillion tax cut by taking away a number of individual tax breaks, including the student loan interest deduction. “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is focused on providing tax relief and increasing take-home pay for Americans of all walks of life — including people working to pay off tuition and other education costs,” a House Ways and Means spokeswoman said in a statement. The deduction allows an individual that makes up to $65,000 a year or a married couple that makes up to $130,000 a year to lower their taxable income by $2,500, saving them $625 a year. But the tax cut would hit graduate students particularly hard, increasing taxes for them by nearly 400 percent. Currently, universities offer graduate students tuition waivers,
meaning they can attend school for free in exchange for work — whether that be teaching classes, working research labs, or other things around the university. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, this tuition waiver would be taxed as income. According to the American Council on Education, nearly 145,000 graduate students use these tuition waivers. According to CNBC, it takes the average student loan borrower 20 years to pay off their loans. In the United States, over 44 million people hold a total of $1.4 trillion in student loan debt and over 3,000 people default on their federal student loans every day. Fred Vautour, a Boston College custodian who put his five children through school by working for the university and using his benefits as an employee, told the New York Times that if he had had to pay the increased tuition this bill promises, it would’ve been “killer”. “It’s not going to hurt the people who can afford college anyway,” Mr. Vautour said in the article. “These kinds of benefits, they’re either for the rich or the poor. It’s always the in-between people who get screwed.” Even though the bill passed earlier this month, the future of tax reform remains in the Senate’s hands — and what the Senate might do is not completely clear.
See LOANS page A2 File Photo
In this file photo, a student cares for lab mice in a research lab in the basement of the Center for Molecular Medicine at UNR. The new GOP tax plan threatens to cut the plan that allows graduate students to go to school for free if they work for the university doing research or other activities.
SNIF invests in campus sustainability By Madeline Purdue Students looking to improve environmental sustainability on the University of Nevada, Reno, campus need look no further. SNIF — or the Sustainable Nevada Initiative Fund — is a university program that funds students to create environmental projects to be implemented on campus. SNIF was originally created by ASUN President Caden Fabbi in 2015 but is being revived this year as the new Director of Sustainability, Brita Romans, takes office after being approved by the ASUN Senate on Nov. 8. “As the land-grant institution of Nevada, it is important that we set the standard for the rest of the state and set the bar high for how eco-friendly we are,” Romans said. “Being the driest state we are naturally waterconscious, however, managing all aspects of the university in an eco-friendly way assures that we will be around in the future and contributing to our local environment in a positive way without harm.” Students interested in SNIF can apply by filling out the Sustainable Nevada Initiative Fund Form on ASUN’s website. Students can work individually or in a group. Students must have an idea and know how they want to implement it during a specific timeline, along with projected outcomes and a measure for analysis of success. ASUN
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FAA initiates automatic authorization for drones By Karolina Rivas
See DRONES page A2 Photo Courtesy of Strix Imaging
Strix Imaging is a local air mapping company that provides clients with standard aerial imaging and mapping services. Maps are made by using an Unmanned Aircraft System.
Eddy House provides shelter to Reno homeless By Austin Daly With the winter months approaching, Reno’s homeless population fight to survive the cold weather. While homeless shelters are an option to stay warm, younger homeless tend to stay away, in fear of being assaulted or harassed by the older population. This leaves them without many options to get through the night. “Some of them have other friends that their parents will let them sleep on the couch or something, but it gets so cold at night and some of them don’t have friends so then they have to sleep on the benches or under the bridge or in the park,” said Carolyn Northam, a former homeless youth in Reno. “Sometimes a lot of them will purposely get locked up, just to have somewhere warm to stay, even just for a night.” Currently, there is only one facility in Reno geared specifically toward homeless youth: the Eddy House. The Eddy House provides a place for homeless youth to get the resources they need like food, water, job skills training, and among other things, a place to sleep. Due to limted funding, it can only be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week, meaning the kids have to find somewhere else to go during the night and on weekends. According to the Eddy House, less than eight percent of Reno homeless youth attend adult homeless shelters, while 54 percent would attend an overnight youth homeless shelter if one existed.
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