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@bupipedream Monday, September 25, 2017 | Vol. XCII, Issue 9 | Binghamton University | bupipedream.com
The Free Word on Campus Since 1946
Holiday break impacts turnout
Hit-andrun driver receives sentence
More locals, fewer students attend Binghamton's fall Restaurant Week
Siddiqui receives two-month jail sentence after leaving accident
Sasha Hupka Assistant News Editor
Orla McCaffrey News Editor
Aizaz Siddiqui, the 26-yearold Binghamton man arrested last December for the hit-and-run death of Binghamton University junior Stefani Lineva was sentenced Thursday afternoon to two months in Broome County Jail and three years of probation. Siddiqui’s sentence, handed down by Binghamton City Court Judge William Pelella, will be served through the Weekender Work program, which requires inmates to report to the jail only on Saturdays and Sundays and perform manual labor or communityservice activities. Siddiqui was behind the wheel of a 2013 BMW when he struck Lineva early on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. Lineva was found against the concrete median on the eastbound side of Vestal Parkway near the Pennsylvania
Restaurant Week
Arts & Culture See page 5
Binghamton University’s Rosh Hashana break overlapped with the city’s twiceannual Restaurant Week, meaning fewer students were in town to dine at the 25 participating restaurants. Binghamton Restaurant Week, organized by eatBING, occurs every fall and spring in Downtown Binghamton. The 10day event offers students, locals and visitors discounted meals at restaurants from predetermined menus. Usually, Restaurant Week is packed with BU students looking to score deals on fine dining, but this fall, the four-day Rosh Hashana break fell near the beginning of the event. The break began on Sept. 21. and classes resumed on Sept. 25, giving students only six days to attend Restaurant Week — two days before the break, and four days after. For restaurant owners like David Whalen of Binghamton Hots, this meant that fewer students might turn out for Restaurant Week. Whalen wrote in an email that his restaurant had experienced
SEE SENTENCE PAGE 2
SEE BREAK PAGE 2
Activists protest jail conditions JC Wegmans begins Orla McCaffrey News Editor
“Why so little justice?” “Why so many deaths?” “Why so many poor locked up?” “Why so much medical abuse?” These were the messages on signs held by protesters on the corner of Front Street and Lt. Vanwinkle Drive in the Town of Dickinson on Wednesday evening, when roughly 40 community members and students rallied against what they said are inhumane conditions inside the Broome County Jail. “We found a really horrific spate of deaths that have occurred in the jail — four deaths in the last six years; that’s about six times the normal rate for a jail
this size,” said Andy Pragacz, a member of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier and a sixth-year graduate student studying sociology. Binghamton resident Tinamarie Gunther, 43, said her husband was neglected, abused and beaten inside the jail. “I was told that my husband’s medical conditions were made up,” Gunther said. Less than a half-mile up the hill, outside the jail, a very different scene unfolded. In the parking lot, kids climbed in and out of military-style black humvees, watched K-9 dogs follow orders and tried on officers’ equipment before taking a tour of the jail with their parents. The jail’s open house, according to
protesters, was a response to recent negative publicity the Broome County Sheriff’s Department has received. According to Broome County Sheriff David Harder, the jail has held an open house for 19 years — every year since he’s been in charge. The protest came two months after the jail was sued by Legal Services of Central New York, a public-defenders group whose suit alleges juvenile inmates are routinely kept in solitary confinement for interminable periods after committing minor offenses. According to The New York Times’ coverage of the suit, underage inmates
SEE JAIL PAGE 2
Jonthan Flores/Pipe Dream Photographer Students and community members protest near the Broome County Jail along the side of North College Drive. Activists from Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier are calling for better jail conditions after the death of six inmates.
home-delivery service Amy Donovan Assistant News Editor
Lugging Wegmans grocery bags on and off the bus is no longer the only way for students without cars to go grocery shopping. The Wegmans in Johnson City partnered with a delivery service this month, called Instacart, that allows customers to order their groceries online or on the Instacart app and have them delivered to their home. In August, Wegmans expanded its partnership with Instacart to locations in Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester, New York before adding the Johnson City location. Instacart employs personal shoppers who pick out the food customers order and then deliver within an hour, two hours or any scheduled time within the week the order was placed. The service will deliver to the following zip codes: 13760, 13790, 13850, 13901, 13903, 13904 and 13905. Julie Eckstein, a junior majoring in English who lives off campus, said she’s excited about Instacart deliveries. She thinks college students, specifically, will enjoy the new service. “I think it’s a really good idea,” Eckstein said. “I think it’s definitely targeting college students versus locals because I feel like college students won’t mind throwing down the extra $5 when they’re so busy.” While the service will not deliver directly to a dorm on campus, the Instacart website said the service will deliver to the Binghamton University
entrance by Denny’s, which is within the 13850 zip code. Daniel Kim, a sophomore majoring in cinema, lives on campus and said he thinks this delivery service is a positive thing, but the fact that it doesn’t deliver to individual dorms makes it less enticing. “That makes it a little less convenient, because I was assuming they would come straight to your door and you really have to do no effort with that,” Kim said. “College students hate giving effort for anything really, so it makes it a little harder.” The delivery fee is $5.99, but the fee is waived for a customer’s first delivery. Customers also have the option of signing up for a yearly membership for $149 or a monthly membership for $14.99, which would not include a delivery fee. Certain items from Wegmans cannot be delivered, including alcohol, prescription drugs, food from the hot and cold bars and over-the-counter drugs that require an ID. Most of the foods found on the Instacart website for Wegmans are more expensive than the foods found in store. For example, on Instacart, one gallon of Wegmans brand 2 percent milk is $1.99, while the in-store price is $1.69. Wegmans is not the only grocery store in the greater Binghamton area using Instacart. The PriceRite in Vestal, as well as various CVS stores and the Petco in Johnson City, have recently started using the delivery service. Customers can place a delivery any day of the week between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m.
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