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BY WILL SLOAN
Opening statements were made today in the trial of Dharun Ravi, a 19-year-old former Rutgers student who illicitly recorded roommate Tyler Clementi having sexual relations with another man. Clementi committed suicide after Ravi posted information about the recording online. Cassandra Cicco, who lived in Riva’s dorm, was a defense witness: “He said he didn’t have an issue with homosexuals, and in fact he had a good friend who was a homosexual and he had no issue with him at all,” said Cicco.
Ravi faces 15 criminal charges, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. If convicted, Ravi could spend up to 10 years in prison.
New York regulators passed legislation today forbidding insurance companies from collecting interest on money owed to family of military members killed in action. Under the previous law, insurance companies could place money in checking accounts, and keeping the accumulating interest, instead of paying families directly. New York is the first state to enact legistlation of this sort.
26-year-old Jose Rojas was convicted of assault today for shoving a stranger into an oncoming subway train. Rojas, who has been jailed since the incident in August 2010 was acquitted on the charge of attempted murder, after lawyers successfully argued that his actions were a drunken accident.
Patrick Foye, the head of the New York Port Authority, has called out the docks of New York and New Jersey as “bastions of deliberate racial and gender discrimination.” Statistics from the Waterfront Commission reveal that dock workers are approximately 85 percent white, and over 90 percent male. The Port Authority owns the docks, and Foye promises to use “every tool at his disposal” to enact diversity hiring plans.
Weather will be overcast today, with scattered rain and a high of 46 degrees, with a low of 35 degrees at night.
