ANDREA CONSTAND FILED LAWSUIT AGAINST FORMER MONTCO DA LAST WEEK

Last Monday, former Temple employee Andrea Constand filed a defamation suit against Bruce L. Castor Jr. for his alleged remarks against her earlier this year, the Washington Post reported.

Castor, Montgomery County’s District Attorney when the case involving Billy Cosby and Constand was filed in 2004, declined to prosecute Cosby for sexual assault when Constand first brought accusations forward. Castor told The Washington Post if Constand had given the same story to him that she gave to the public this year, he would have prosecuted.

The ex-district attorney’s comments started after he announced he was again running for Montgomery County District Attorney against Kevin Steele in the election Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Constand told The Washington Post she has been “collateral damage for his political ambitions.” Both parties have been accused of using the Constand/Cosby case to their political advantage.

Constand has until January 2016 to charge Cosby with sexual assault, and then the statute of limitations will expire.

-Lila Gordon

PHILADELPHIA RECIEVES MONEY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE 

The U.S. Department of Transportation granted $10.2 million to help with infrastructure improvements, the Philly Voice reported. The financial award will help offset part of the city’s $35 million endeavor.

According to the report, two miles of unused railroad track will be removed and repurposed with landscaping from Girard to Lehigh avenues. A footbridge on Westmoreland Street will be replaced with a multipurpose bridge and a railroad bridge in West Philadelphia will be restored to reconnect The Circuit, a regional bicycle and pedestrian trail network.

The improvements will focus on places in North and West Philadelphia, and some were designed with the purpose of increasing “mobility and access, recreational opportunities and neighborhood quality of life,” Deputy Commissioner of the Streets Department Michael Carroll told Philly Voice.

Philadelphia has received similar awards in the past that included projects involving Dilworth Park, the Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk, Wayne Junction Substation and Roosevelt Boulevard. Mayor Michael Nutter announced the financial grant Oct. 30.

-Julie Christie

18 THEFTS REPORTED TO TEMPLE POLICE LAST WEEK 

From Oct. 19-26, there were 18 reports of theft.

Eight of the reports were bike thefts, while one was retail theft at the 7-Eleven at 2034 N. Broad St. Three of the bike thefts occurred on Broad Street.

The majority of the thefts were concentrated around 12th, 13th and Norris streets. Bike thefts were more often reported in the afternoon and early evening, while the others occurred later at night.

-Lian Parsons

SMC ALUM DONALD FEY, 82, FATHER OF TINA FEY, DIES

Donald Fey died Oct. 18 at Bryn Mawr of a heart failure. Fey was the father of actress Tina Fey, and a Temple alumnus.

Fey was a Korean War veteran in the 1950s before returning to his home city to join the Philadelphia Fire Department.

He was also a professional writer for more than 30 years, the Inquirer reported. He primarily wrote about fundraising and lectured on grant writing at many universities and nonprofits.

Fey helped to raising more than $500 million for hospitals, schools and public service agencies, the Inquirer said.

In his free time, he also enjoyed painting and creative writing.

He is survived by his wife, two children, a sister, two brothers and three grandchildren.

Public services for Fey were held Friday.

A scholarship in Fey’s name has been established to support returning veterans enrolled in the School of Media and Communication.

-Lian Parsons

law student applications could rise this year

Beasley School of Law may have an increase in applications this year.

According to Kaplan Test Prep, 88 percent of law schools throughout the country believe they may see a spike in application rates this year, making it one of the most competitive application cycles throughout the past several years.

Temple has one of the highest rates of law school applications, with 185 Temple students in the 2014-15 application cycle.

Application rates for law school have dropped nationally, and the expected turnaround may help the future of the law school.

-Gillian McGoldrick

SMC RECIEVES GRANT TO MODERNIZE NEWSROOMS 

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation gave a grant of $1.3 million to the  School of Media and Communication to work on a new project that will be researching the best newsroom practices as newspapers become increasingly more digitally-oriented.

This project, named the Knight-Temple Table Stakes Project, will include the Philadelphia Media Network, the Dallas Morning News and the Miami Herald.

These newsrooms will become leading platforms for Temple through their research of new practices for media in a digital age. Temple will produce sample materials for legacy newspapers to use and adapt to the digital world.

The project will also create in-class learning materials for students and future curriculum design. Temple will produce extensive reports and studies on its research during this project, along with ongoing coaching to help other newsrooms put the findings into action.

-Gillian McGoldrick

UNDERAGE DRINKING SPIKES DURING HOMECOMING WEEKEND

Twenty reports of underage consumption occurred from Friday night to Sunday night during Homecoming Weekend. Six incidents were reported Friday, nine Saturday and three Sunday. Seven resulted in an arrest, 12 were referred for a university hearing with the Student Conduct Committee and one incident was exceptionally cleared. Nine incidents occurred in residence halls; the remaining 11 were reported in off-campus residencies, concentrated around Cecil B. Moore Avenue to N. 15th Street.

–Lian Parsons

COSBY QUESTIONED IN BOSTON ABOUT 1974 CASE

Former Temple trustee, Bill Cosby, was questioned under oath in Boston last Friday, philly.com reported. The seven-hour deposition addressed the 1974 alleged molestation of a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.

Judy Huth, the complainant, is one of 50 women who have accused Cosby of sexually abusing, harassing or raping them throughout his career. The deposition will remain under seal until December.

U.S. Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan will review the testimony and will hear the attorneys’ arguments over what parts of the deposition will become public. Huth’s lawsuit was filed in December 2014 and is the first significant court case since Andrea Constand, a Temple employee, sued Cosby in 2005.

Cosby could still be deposed at Montgomery County, as the statute of limitations for Constand runs out Jan. 1, 2016.

-Lian Parsons

TEMPLE HIRES NEW FACULTY

Keeping with past trends, Temple has hired 53 new faculty members to the major colleges around campus. For the past 12 years, an average of 57 faculty have joined Temple each year. The professors are all tenured or tenure-track with the university.

Most notable include maestro Andreas Delfs to the Boyer College of Music and Dance as conductor of the Temple University Symphony Orchestra, Ralph Horwitz to the School of Medicine as a professor and director of the new Institute for Transformative Medicine and Kose John and Masatoshi Nei, both distinguished as Laura H. Carnell Professors. Coming to the School of Media and Communication is Edward L. Fink, who will be a professor of Strategic Communication.

The College of Public Health, the School of Media and Communication, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Science and Technology, the School of Medicine and the Fox School of Business each saw five to eight new hires.

-Julie Christie

JUDICIAL CONDUCT BOARD REOPENS INVESTIGATION INVOLVING KATHLEEN KANE

The Judicial Conduct Board has reopened its investigation into inappropriate emails sent by Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin. The board investigated Justice Eakin last year and dismissed the complaints against him.

According to philly.com, Eakin had been receiving and spreading offensive emails from a private account. The emails included jokes about abuse and rape victims, as well as racism toward Muslims and African-Americans.

In a press release Friday, the Judicial Conduct Board said Attorney General Kathleen Kane provided them with emails sent by Justice Eakin that were not disclosed in the original investigation. The investigation had been concluded with the board believing it had been provided with all email records.

Kane, a graduate of Temple’s Beasley School of Law, has been under fire for providing the press with confidential information about a grand jury and then attempting to cover it up later,  the New York Times reported.

-Julie Christie

LEGISLATION PASSED FOR AFFORDABLE TEXTBOOKS

Legislation was introduced to the Senate last Wednesday to make college textbooks more affordable for students.

The Affordable College Textbook Act would create a grant program to support the creation of open college textbooks, which would be accessible under an open license to professors, students and researchers. The bill also would also require the Government Accountability Office to report to Congress by 2017 with price trends updated on college textbooks, as well as aims to improve existing requirements for publishers to make all textbooks available for individual sale, instead of as a bundle.

-Lian Parsons

TEMPLE POLICE, OTHERS ADD SECURITY ENFORCEMENTS AT CITY UNIVERSITIES MONDAY

Temple Police issued a pair of emails to the university community after the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms and Explosives discovered a vague threat in a post on 4chan, a popular imageboard website.

Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said the university exercised caution about the threat, which stated a “fellow robot will take up arms against a university near Philadelphia.” The time for the threat to be executed was 2 p.m. Monday EST, the threat read.

Leone added Temple is one of many universities that prepared for the threat. Drexel University’s Public Safety issued a statement to students, faculty and staff, reminding the community about the shooting that occurred at Umpqua Community College in Roseberg, Oregon.

“You’re talking a lot of territories and other universities,” Leone said.

He added Temple Police increased its presence in high traffic areas around Main Campus and encouraged students, faculty and staff to report any suspicious activity.

AlliedBarton was also instructed to help look for “anything suspicious,” Leone added.

The FBI, Philadelphia Police and other law enforcement agencies took notice of the threat and aided in the increase in security in the city Monday, he said.

“Unfortunately, this is the world we’re living in, so we have to be cautious,” Leone said.

-Steve Bohnel

ARMED ROBBERY SOUTHWEST OF MAIN CAMPUS

A 20-year-old man was robbed by four other men early Sunday morning at the intersection of 17th and Jefferson streets.

Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said the complainant, who is not a student, was at the aforementioned location when four men approached him.

One of the men displayed a silver-colored handgun, demanding the man’s belongings, Leone said. The 20-year-old gave the men his cell phone and $26.

Leone added the armed individual was about 5-feet-9 inches tall, and was last seen wearing a light-colored hoodie. The other three suspects were all last seen wearing dark hoodies. All four men appeared to be in their late teens to early 20s, Leone said.

Tipsters should contact Temple Police at 215-204-1234.

–Steve Bohnel

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL PILOTS NEW ‘MIRROR THERAPY’

Dr. Eric Altschuler, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the School of Medicine, is conducting a pilot research study that utilizes mirrors to lessen pain in injured veterans, according to a university press release.

“Mirror therapy” uses a mirror to display a reflection of the patient’s healthy limb where the injured limb would be. When the patient moves the healthy limb, the mirror gives the optical illusion of the injured limb moving in tandem. This illusion prompts the brain into believing the injured limb is functioning normally. The therapy can reduce pain and spasms in the injured limb.

The study will focus on combat veterans with complex orthopedic and peripheral nerve injuries, as well as continuous pain and discomfort that inhibits their lives. The study will be held at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland over a span of eight weeks.

Altschuler suspects people with severe injuries may be able to regain mobility and reduce pain and discomfort through therapy, and hopes to apply the results to the civilian population.

-Lian Parsons

HOSPITAL RECEIVES AWARD FOR INCREASED QUALITY

Temple University Hospital was presented with the 2015 Rising Star Award award at the University HealthSystem Consortium Annual Conference 2015 in Orlando, Florida. TUH is one of only three hospitals in the country to earn the award, which honors academic medical centers that have made significant improvements in their annual rankings in UHC’s annual Quality and Accountability Study.

TUH scored in the top 10th percentile in three out of the six performance categories on UHC’s 2015 Quality and Accountability Performance Scorecard, including clinical effectiveness, efficiency and equity of care. TUH was also in the top 25th percentile in the mortality and safety categories.  TUH earned a four-star rating out of a maximum of five stars.

“Honors such as the UHC’s 2015 Rising Star Award can only be achieved by physicians and staff who have made a commitment to high-performance healthcare that improves positive patient outcomes through evidence-based care processes,” said TUH President and CEO John Kastanis, said in a press release.  “This is the kind of commitment that earns distinction at the national level and will solidify Temple University Hospital’s continued success.

-Lian Parsons