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Tight end ►. & t. i implicated in larceny ■ Brian Brownlee is sixth charged in Nov. 22 theft from Williams-Brice FROM STAFF REPORTS Former USC student and tight end Brian Brownlee was charged with grand larceny Friday. Brownlee, who allegedly took two laptops and two video projectors, became the sixth Gamecock football player charged in the Nov. 22 thefts. ^ Five other USC players were arrested and arraigned Thursday, the result of a two-month investigation stemming from the Nov. 22 theft of laptops, video equipment and framed photographs from Williams-Brice Stadium. Woodly Telfort, Dondrial Pinkins, Syvelle Newton, Freddie Saint-Preux and Rodriques Wilson were all charged Thursday. Inc o-root->incn, z^/-pound Brownlee totaled five catches for 48 yards last season while playing in every game. The redshirt senior had his best outing against Clemson, catching three passes for 41 yards. University officials said in Friday’s news release that all the computer and video equipment had been returned and that most, if not all, of the framed items had been returned. Fifth Circuit Solicitor Barney Giese told The State newspaper that any player who was a first time offender would be eligible for pre-trial ^ intervention. The charges would be cleared from the player’s record upon completing community service and possibly counseling. The State also reported that Telfort went through a pre-trial intervention program in Florida following his arrest for grand-theft auto in 2001, and would likely be ineligible. USC law enforcement officials and the S.C. Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s office will review the remainder of the file to determine whether additional charges should be filed. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknnvs@gwm.sc.edu Mock-trial ^competitors to battle for national bid By LIZ SKELLY THE GAMECOCK The USC Mock Trial Team will travel to Furman this weekend to participate in a regional tournament in hopes of getting a bid for national competition. Although some schools have up to three or four teams competing at the event, USC has entered just one. “Our big competitors are Furman and Bob Jones,” team treasurer Kat Knaak, a second-year English student, said. “Furman is a big player in the mock trial world. They send out four teams, ^ and we send out one.” Last year, the mock trial team did well at regionals and got a bid for national competition in St. Petersburg, Fla. USC’s team succeeded at nationals as well. “We had a really good time,” team member Michael Patterson, a third-year broadcast journalism student, said. “We placed in the top half of the 30 teams.” Last semester the team traveled to several tournaments in preparation for this semester’s regional and national competitions, going as far away as Rhode Island’s Brown University to compete in the Ocean State Invitational. “We were the furthest team away at that tournament,” team member Mac McQuillin, a fourth-year political science student, said. The Mock Trial Team has always had trouble getting recognition around campus. “Not a lot of people know about us, Patterson said. “We’re pretty low-key around ^campus.” ♦ Please see MOCK TRIAL, page 3 JON TURNER/THE GAMECOCK Residents of Maxcy College said the leak originated in the maintenance room after the sewer line backed up Friday. Sewage leaks in Maxcy Wastewater backup from city line seeps into students closets By JON TURNER NEWS EDITOR The sewage came seeping underneath the walls at Maxcy College on Friday morning. When first-year Maxcy resident Gwyn Pauley opened her roommate s closet, it came pouring out. USC Housing Director Gene Luna said Sunday that the leak was the result of a blockage in the city sewer line that backed up wastewater into Maxcy’s basement. The incident was the latest in a series of recurring plumbing problems there. “The first two incidents were related, and then the third was a random incident,” Luna said, referred to the two broken water pipes last week. First-year business student Sasha Noorani said that when she returned from class, she immediately felt something was wrong. “I was walking down the hall, and I could see the wet carpet all the way down, and then I saw Gwen hauling stuff out, and I was like, ‘Oh man, this is gonna be the worst day ever.’” “It was like this deep,” she said, holding her thumb and index finger about half an inch apart. Although the leak caused very little damage, it was a near-miss for Noorani. “I usually keep my laptop in my closet, but I just had this random feeling like it shouldn’t be in there,” she said. The damaged items included shoes soaked in sewage and a box of records where Noorani stored all her warranty information. “They were like, ‘Maybe you should throw this box away,’” Noorani said, “and I was like, ‘I can’t, I need this box,’ so I just, I kind of toweled it off, and now I’m going to have to go wash my towel.” “We would do laundry, but we can’t,” Pauley said. “We have no water.” “Oh, that’s right/ Noorani said. “There’s no water, so we’ll just sit around and smell bad.” Noorani said she and her fellow Maxcy residents have learned to cope with such incidents. “Yeah, it’s like every time a fire alarm goes ■5MHBI off now, it means water’s coming in somewhere,” she said. “It’s a water alarm.” “It was a tremendous distraction for students,” Luna said of the Friday sewage leak. He said that throughout his years working in university housing, certain dorms “will seem to have a rash of incidents.” Pauley said she missed an English quiz as she worked for about an hour to save her ♦ Please see LEAK, page 3 JON TURNER/THE GAMECOCK First-year business student Sasha Noorani and first-year exercise science student Naomi Schmalz were forced to empty their closets. USC students happy to see sunshine By TAYLOR SMITH STAFF WHITER According to various news broadcasts, the . U.S. Northeast and Midwest are receiving record amounts of snowfall and temperatures “that could kill,” conditions USC students from those areas are happy to be away from. Marti Hause, a third-year electronic journalism student, doesn’t live in Maryland anymore, but she often hears about harsh weather from friends back home. “I talked to some of my friends up there and they are going to see 8 to 10 inches (of snow),” Hause said. During her morning walks to class, Hause said she has noticed less students walking to class, weathering the cold. Columbia’s climate, she said, was a factor in her choosing to attend USC. I looked at other schools around New York and Maryland, but this works,” Hause said. “I guess every now and then, I miss the weather at home around Christmas time because I feel it should be colder here, but I don’t mind.” With the Palmetto State’s traditionally mild winters, the recent cold snap has deadened the already slow pace of this Southern city, With other friends back home who attend schools in upstate New York, Hause said universities in those areas accommodate students with underground tunnels and encouraging them to “bundle-up.” She said she can’t complain about her residence hall, East Quad, because during the winter, it provides a geographic safe-route to classes around campus. “I have a really good friend at Penn State, and she had the heating shut off at her dorm,” Hause said. “She had ice on the inside of windows. Basically, she was screwed.” JASON STEELMAN/THE GAMECOCK First-year psychology student Lexie Smith, back to USC from Virginia, still has ice frozen to her car. Unlike Columbia, it often snows in Kate Edward’s home city of Cincinnati, which has received record snowfall this season. Edwards, a third-year hospitality, retail and ♦ Please see WEATHER, page 3 so soon. “I think it’s up in the air,” she said. “Most people don’t want to align themselves just yet.” Scott said this year’s race could be a big one. “I’ve worked these past two years to bring the visibility of SG up to where it should be,” he said. “I would expect more to turn out from hearsay.” Preston said he’s heard of eight candidates for president. Students can file for candidacy today and Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the SG office in the Russell House. Candidates will submit their platforms Tuesday and Wednesday and have their photos taken for the SG Web site. Executive offices candidates — president, vice president and treasurer — pay $50 for the election but will be reimbursed $45 if they clean up their campaign signs within 48 hours after the election. Senate candidates pay a nonrefundable $5 fee. While students can run for the senate within their respective majors, executive office ♦ Please see ELECTIONS, page 3 Storm wracks Northeast with 152-mph winds By THEO EMERY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON - A howling blizzard slammed the Northeast on Sunday with more than 2 feet of snow and hurricane-strength wind gusts, halting air travel for thousands of people, keeping others off slippery highways and burying parked cars under deep drifts. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri both declared states of emergency. - Up to 31 inches of snow fell north of Boston, parts of New Hampshire got 2 feet, New York’s Catskills collected at least 20 inches and 18 inches fell on parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and the eastern tip of New York’s Long Island. The weather system had earlier piled a foot of snow across parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and northern Ohio. in addition to tne snow, temperatures were expected to reach zero in some areas Sunday night, with wind chills dropping as low as minus 15. The wind was fierce across much of the East Coast, with a top wind gust of 152 miles per hour recorded on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. At least nine deaths were linked to the weather, three in Ohio, three in Wisconsin, one in Maryland, one in Pennsylvania and one in Iowa. Wind gusted to 84 mph on Nantucket, and the entire island off the southeast coast of Massachusetts was plunged into darkness Sunday as 9,400 utility customers lost power. On the mainland, some 18,000 customers lost power, the utility NStar said. Smaller outages were reported elsewhere around the Northeast. Nantucket firefighter Robert Bates said most island roads were drifted over and some pans of ♦ Please see BLIZZARD, page 3 IN THIS ISSUE ♦ THE MIX Jesus and ‘The Joshua Tree’ How an on-campus Christian group is using U2 for reflection and inspiration. Pagt< 6 ♦ SPORTS USC continues road struggles The Gamecock Sports Staff examines Carolina’s weekend loss on the road to the Mississippi State Bulldogs. i Page 9 ' WEATHER ♦ TODAY High 4 6 Low 2 9 ♦ TUE. INDEX Comics and Crossword..8 Classifieds.12 Horoscopes.8 Letters to the Editor..5 Online Poll..5 Police Report..2^ Hopefuls start annual filing for SG offices By ALLYSON BIRD THE GAMECOCK As election hopefuls begin filing for Student Government offices today, neither Elections Commissioner Stacy Rainey nor Student Body President Zachery Scott would say whether any rumored candidates are standouts for the offices. “Stacy and I try to remain impartial,” Scon said. “I don’t want to seem like I’m passing the torch on to someone else.” But Science and Math Sen. Sonam Shah said the buzz around SG is that Liberal Arts Sen. Steven Byrd and Business Sen. Ben Havird will run for president. Liberal Arts Sen. Tommy Preston said that Randy Dargan, former co chairman of the College Republicans, is also expected to run for president, and Vice President Yvonne Miller might run as well. Shah said Liberal Arts Sen. Ryan Holt will run for vice president, and Preston has heard Cabinet member Damion Robbs will also run. Preston is planning to run for treasurer. Shah said SG members aren’t picking favorites