The independent
To uncover
newspaper serving
the truth
Notre Dame and
and report
Saint Mary’s
it accurately
Volume 46, Issue 2 | wednesday, august 22, 2012 | ndsmcobserver.com
Suspect approached women on Notre Dame Avenue near campus, demanded cash By MEGAN DOYLE Managing Editor
Editor-In-Chief
Turn the page. That’s the goal of this newly redesigned Observer — to get you to turn the page. And then to do it again, and again and again. In years past, our design had a tendency to get in the way of our stories. The way we inserted headshots into stories made text look funny, our headlines weren’t very good and our printed copy was just a strain on the eyes. No longer. The new design starts at the top of this page with our brand-new logo. That logo, however, doesn’t mean much without the words to its right — our original mission statement. From our very first issue 46 years ago, we’ve tried to live up to our mission of uncovering the truth and reporting it accurately. Today, we’re putting that mission back where it belongs — at the top of every paper we produce. The new logo reflects that sense of uncovering and invites you to — what else — turn the page. While the format and layout of the paper has remained largely unchanged, we’ve updated to a more modern set of fonts to make our award-winning coverage easier to read. We’ve also reduced the number of distractions in the text of articles, made Page Two more relevant to your day-to-day life (check out that events calendar!) and found a way to add a Sudoku puzzle. I hope you’ll find this new design at once fresh and familiar. While you probably did a doubletake the first time you picked it up, it shouldn’t take you long at all to adjust to our new layout. If you do have feedback for us, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line. We’ve got some great things planned for the year ahead, and we think this design will help us bring them to you in a more userfriendly way. But don’t just take my word for it. Turn the page. Contact Allan Joseph at ajoseph2@nd.edu The views in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Scene PAGE 13
A man with a pistol robbed three Saint Mary’s students at gunpoint in the early hours of Sunday morning, police reports stated. Capt. Phil Trent of the South Bend Police Department said the three women were walking on the 900 block of North Notre Dame Avenue near Howard Street around 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning when the suspect approached them. One of the victims said the girls were walking from
a friend’s house to Brother’s Bar & Grill in Eddy Street Commons. The Observer is not naming the woman because she was the victim of a crime. “I’ve always felt safe in the area,” she said. “It was more a complete and utter shock, but also kind of a feeling that I would have done whatever he asked me to do. … If people had told me to run, I wouldn’t have been able to run. It was that type of scared. It was very surreal.” The girls were approaching Howard Street when they noticed a solitary figure
BRANDON KEELEAN | The Observer
walking in their direction. The victim said she grabbed her friend’s hand to make sure the two other girls were aware of him as they walked
down Notre Dame Avenue. When she thought he might pass them, he changed see ROBBERY PAGE 8
AP
Former Notre Dame fencer Mariel Zagunis leads the American Olympic delegation into the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in London on July 27. Read more about Zagunis’ experience at the front of Team USA in our Olympics In Focus section.
Former student faces murder charges By MEGAN DOYLE Managing Editor
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared Aug. 10 on ndsmcobserver.com A former Notre Dame student from Michigan was charged with open murder Aug. 9, less than 24 hours before a search team recovered the body of his missing father, police said. Patrick Mikes Jr., 21, pleaded not guilty to the charge Aug. 9 through his attorney at his arraignment at the 52-4 District
Court in Troy, Mich., according to court records. Mikes Jr. would have begun classes as a senior this week.
Patrick Mikes
Allan Joseph
SMC students robbed at gunpoint
Former Notre Dame student
A new design
University spokesman Dennis Brown said Mikes Jr. is no longer enrolled at Notre Dame as of Aug. 2. Brown did not
comment specifically on this case, but he said the administration reserves the right to immediately suspend any student charged with a felony. Mikes Jr. and his younger brother reported their father missing July 29, according to a press release from the Troy Police Department. The brothers told police they had last seen their father the morning of July 27 as he left for a bike ride. As police began to investigate the disappearance, they found evidence of a violent
OLYMPIC IN FOCUS section INSIDE
encounter in the family’s basement and named Mikes Jr. as a suspect in the case. Capt. Robert Redmond of the Troy Police Department said DNA recovered from the basement prompted his officers to arrest Mikes Jr. in what had at that point turned into a murder investigation. Based on that evidence, police arrested Mikes Jr. on Aug. 8 for his father’s murder. An “open murder” charge allows the trial jury to decide whether the crime is first- or see CHARGES PAGE 6
football PAGE 24