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UT Student Punches Pregnant Woman on Friend’s Behalf Planned beating was an attempt to make her miscarry
By JOSHUA NAPIER Asst. News Editor
Pasco County Sheriff’s Office
Andres Luis Marrero, 19, was arrested and charged with armed kidnapping and aggravated battery on a pregnant female.
Police arrested a University of Tampa student Thursday after he confessed to abusing a pregnant teen just after midnight on New Year’s Day. The student, Andres Luis Marrero, had been asked by the woman’s boyfriend to beat her until she miscarried. Marrero, 19, received a phone call from Devin Nickels, a high school friend and Florida State University student, after Nickels’ 17-year-old girlfriend was reported pregnant. Nickels, 18, allegedly desperate to ensure the baby was not born, concocted a plan with Marrero to make his girlfriend miscarry, said the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.
Florida Judge Deems Health Care Reform Unconstitutional By MICHEAL ANGELO RUMORE Asst. A+E Editor
Florida became the second state to strike down health care reform. Judge Roger Vinson, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional on Monday. The ruling follows a similar case from December in which a federal judge in Virginia deemed the portions of the health care bill that require individuals to buy health insurance unconstitutional. However, the Florida ruling differed in that it voided the entire bill and not just the disputed provisions. Opponents of the health care reform bill have argued that the government should not and does not have the power to force citizens to buy private insurance. Disputes also have arisen over the consequences of not buying health insurance. Can Congress impose a tax penalty on those who choose not to buy health insurance? According to Judge Vinson, Congress does not have this power. In his 76-page
ruling, Vinson said, “I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the act with the individual mandate. “That is not to say, of course, that Congress is without power to address the problems and inequities in our health care system. “The health care market is more than one-sixth of the national economy, and without doubt Congress has the power to reform and regulate this market. That has not been disputed in this case. The principal dispute has been about how Congress chose to exercise that power here.” House Republicans embraced the ruling. House Speaker John Boehner said, “Today's decision affirms the view, held by most of the states and a majority of the American people, that the federal government should not be in the business of forcing you to buy health insurance and punishing you if you don't.” The ruling comes on the heels of a repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the [See Judge, 2]
Nickels wanted Marrero to pretend to be an armed robber and eventually punch the woman who was at the beginning of her second trimester in the stomach to end the pregnancy. He offered to pay Marrero $200 for his actions, but Marrero did not accept. Instead, he agreed to carry out the assault for free. At 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 1, Nickels drove his girlfriend to the woods outside an apartment complex in New Port Richey. Marrero got into the backseat of Nickels’ car minutes later.
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Soon after, he stepped out, then came back wearing a mask, forcing Nickels and his girlfriend out of the car at gunpoint. Nickels’ girlfriend-- whose name has not been released by the sherrif’s office-- had never met Marrero. She begged him not to hurt her because she was pregnant. He did not listen, and instead, according to police, “began to kick and punch her several times in the stomach and back while stating, ‘This is how much I care, b----.’” [See Pregnant, 2]
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He “began to kick and punch her several times in the stomach and back while stating, ‘This is how much I care, b----,’” said police.
Alumns Discuss Importance of Undergrad Internships By CHANNING HAILEY
News Reporter
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, a person stays with one job a median of 4.1 years. This means the average American will have around 7-10 jobs in his or her lifetime. There are many cases where a student’s major in college hardly affects what they do after graduation. Doug Heffner, a 2010 graduate of the University of Tampa, got his degree in Business Entrepreneurship.During his senior year, he and some friends from the College of Business decided to put their entrepreneurial skills to work and start their own wing sauce company through Anchor Bar on Davis Island. “I worked over 8 months on this project, but it just wasn’t enough to pay the bills. It did help me introduce myself to the real world and taught me how to interact with adults, though,” Heffner claimed. Currently, Heffner is working in a construction equipment rental business,
but he said, “I’m looking for a way to get out of that job and move on to something new.” Hardly a year out of college and Heffner is seeking out his third career. Heffner’s case is one where a link between college and a career was missing. An internship could play a critical part in helping a student determine what they want to do after graduation. Until recently, internships were merely a nice add-on to a resume. In today’s competitive job market, internships provide an invaluable way for juniors and seniors to get a foot in the door of the careers in which they are interested. According to a 2007 survey conducted by JobWeb, 70 percent of employers extended job offers to their interns. Timothy Kennedy has been the coordinator of internships for the communications department at UT for 23 years. He claimed, “Internships are an integral part of our curriculum. They provide a balance between the theories taught in the classroom and the practical [See Internships, 3]