July 31, 2014

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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF PENNSYLVANIA

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THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014 NOTE: This is the last 2014 issue of The Summer Pennsylvanian. Publication of The Daily Pennsylvanian will resume August 21, 2014.

Former student charged with four additional burglaries

Recent graduate dies while diving off Florida coast Joseph Grosso was diving for lobsters with a group of friends BY JILL CASTELLANO Staff Writer A 2014 Penn graduate and former Quakers linebacker reportedly died while lobster diving on Wednesday in Pompano Beach, Florida. Joseph Grosso was lobster diving with a large group of people along Pompano beach when he decided to go into the water alone, according to an article written by Broward County’s Local10 news. When the staff realized he hadn’t

resurfaced, they searched for him and found him nonresponsive, the article said. Grosso was brought to the Hillsboro Inlet marina, where paramedics were waiting to take him to Broward Health North, the Local10 article said, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital. T he B r o w a r d C o u nt y Sheriff ’s office would not confirm the circumstances surrounding Grosso’s death. The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office was unavailable for comment by press time. Grosso graduated from the SEE GROSSO PAGE 7

Rachel Easterbrook/File Photo

Joseph Grosso played football for the Quakers football team since his freshman year at Penn, finishing his Penn career with 43 tackles in 31 career games.

Drexel University trades community garden for parking lot Drexel bought the 14acre area for over $25 million BY EMILY OFFIT Staff Writer

Carolyn Lim/File Photo

Anthony Bagtas is currently in custody at a correctional facility with a formal arraignment scheduled for August 4.

Former basketball player Anthony Bagtas now faces 14 charges BY JENNIFER WRIGHT Staff Writer After leaving Penn, in part because of criminal charges against him, former Penn student and varsity basketball player Anthony Bagtas faces four more charges of burglary that were reported in the Quad last year. The charges were brought against Bagtas on June 9, 2014, according to cour t documents. He now faces a total of 14 burglary charges related to the theft of laptops, cash and other items. Back in Apr il, Bag t as was charged for eight of the burglaries that occurred in March of this year, one from September of last year and one from January of this year — all reported in Quad residence halls. The felony burglary charges accompany several misdemeanors, including multiple counts of theft, receiving stolen property and criminal trespassing charges, according to

court documents. The Division of P ublic Safety confirmed that these new charges are for the burglaries that occurred over Thanksgiving break in 2013. Three of the burglaries occur red in R iepe College House and the fourth in Ware College House between November 25 and December 1, as The Daily Pennsylvanian reported back in December. Bagtas was charged by an Indicting Grand Jury as opposed to at a preliminary hearing, meaning that some form of witness intimidation was involved or was suspected to be likely to happen in the proceedings against him. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said that Bagtas is not currently charged with witness intimidation, but noted that doesn’t mean he won’t be charged in the future. According to court documents, Bagtas is in custody at a correctional facility. His formal arraignment is scheduled for August 4, 2014, at which time his charges will be read against him and he will have the opportunity to enter a plea. ■

Members of the Penn and West Philadelphia community are fighting to help keep the University City High School Garden from becoming a

parking lot. The garden, which is located near the intersection of 36th and Warren streets, was founded in 2000, and has been described as the spirit of the “Black Bottom Community”, according to a recent Drexel press release. The garden produces about two tons of fruits and vegetables each year. Ten percent of the yield is donated to local

communities and 25 percent is sold to low-income Philadelphians. It also provided education for local elementary schools and hundreds of part-time jobs for high-school students. The garden has stood as a source of pride for the children and grandchildren of the community members who were affected by university expansion in the late 1960s.

Now, members of this community believe they are experiencing the same lack of respect as they have in the past. One year after the 2013 closing of the University City High School, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell approved a bill that allowed Drexel University to purchase the 14-acre area for SEE GARDEN PAGE 2

Luke Chen/Editor-in-Chief

The community garden near the intersection of 36th and Warren streets produces about two tons of fruits and vegetables each year. Drexel University bought the garden with plans to convert it into a parking lot.

Professors call Hobby Lobby decision a “setback” for equality Jennifer Prah Ruger and Theodore Ruger criticize the 5 to 4 vote BY ARIEL SMITH Staff Writer Two Penn professors argued in a recent paper that the Supreme Court’s controversial Hobby Lobby decision — which allowed closely held, for-profit corporations to be exempt from contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act — impedes progress

on women’s healthcare. Medical Ethics and Health Policy professor Jennifer Prah Ruger, Law School professor Theodore Ruger and Boston University professor George Annas collaborated in an article released in the New England Journal of Medicine called “Money, Sex and Religion—The Supreme Court’s ACA Sequel.” In the article, the three discuss the controversial five to four ruling and state that the majority decision “…is a setback for both the Affordable

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Care Act’s foundational goal of access to universal health care and for women’s health care specifically.” “Drugs and devices critical to health should be available to all,” Annas said in an email, summarizing the paper’s argument. The authors emphasized the importance of a uniform set of healthcare benefits for men and women. “I think that for many decades now the U.S. has lagged behind other leading democracies…in our failure

to provide universal health coverage to our citizens,” Theodore Ruger said. “The current U.S. system that predates the ACA left huge gaps in coverage for a number of groups — both individuals of low income and also individuals who had preexisting conditions and other health problems.” Je n n i f e r P r a h R u g e r echoed his sentiments. “I think that a uniform set of healthcare benefits is important for equity reasons so that individuals across the country

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— regardless of their backgrounds or where they live or what sort of demographic characteristics apply to them — have [an] equal opportunity to be healthy,” she said. While many women use birth control for medical reasons other than contraception, the Hobby Lobby case primarily concerned a religious groups’ objection to abortion — the owners of the Hobby Lobby chain believe that contraceptives that prevent fertilized eggs from implanting pose a religious

violation. “We emphasized in our article that while this is really a question of reproductive health and methods of contraception, [it] became an issue of abortion,” Jennifer Prah Ruger said. The scholars noted the gender split of the final court decision — the Court’s three female justices and Justice Breyer dissented, while five men composed the majority opinion. SEE HOBBY LOBBY PAGE 3

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