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Brittany Moore scores five goals over the weekend
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PAGE 8 THE MASSACHUSETTS
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Tuesday, October 22, 2013
RemembeRing evan Jones
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Nev. shooting leaves 2 dead ‘Student/suspect’ kills student, teacher By Sam Stanton and Kim minugh The Sacramento Bee
JUSTIN SURGENT/COLLEGIAN
Univeristy of Massachusetts students gather on the Haigis Mall in a candlelight vigil for sophmore Evan Jones, who passed away in September.
Around 100 gather in vigil to UMass sophmore By mary reineS
A
Collegian Staff
s the sun set over the Fine Arts Center, Evan Jones’ friends and family quietly lit dozens of tea candles for his vigil on Oct. 20, the day that would have been the University of Massachusetts sophomore’s 20th birthday. About 100 people gathered on the grassy island in the Haigis Mall to honor Jones, the UMass student who was found dead in his dorm room on Sept. 7. Kappa Sigma, Jones’ fraternity, planned the service. Michael Wiseman, director of the Greek Life program at the University of
Massachusetts, compared the candles to birthday candles as he addressed the crowd. Wiseman spoke about Jones’ uplifting funeral service, and mentioned that Jones’ mother, Kristan Bagley Jones, had recalled that Jones was born three weeks early, but he still managed to weigh about nine pounds. “He came early, he came large,” Wiseman said. “He lived that way.” When it was time for Jones’ family to speak, his mother called up all of the people from Milton, his hometown, to stand with them. She stood with her husband, Don Jones, their daughter Ally and about 20 Milton residents as she spoke to the sea of UMass students. She said that her family and the Milton community appreciated the vigil. “It really means a lot to us,” she
said. She remembered the night that he died and said that he was very happy at the time. She added jokingly that he had actually called to ask for some money because he had lost his credit card. Smiles spread across the candlelit faces as listeners chuckled. Jones’s mother supposed that his epileptic condition was the cause of his death. He had to leave UMass the semester before to maintain his health. “He had a chronic disease. We thought it was under control, but it wasn’t,” she said. The cause of his death is still under ongoing investigation. Jones’s sister Ally, a senior in high school, spoke after her mother, speaksee
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SPARKS, Nev. – Students and parents described a terrifying scene Monday morning near Reno, where a young man showed up on campus at the Sparks Middle School and wounded two students, killed a teacher and then apparently shot himself. The alleged shooter was described by police as a “student/suspect” who came to the school before classes began today. “He shot a student and then a teacher tried to stop him and he shot the teacher,” Abner Lopez, father of a 13-year-old eighth-grader, told The Sacramento Bee. “The kids kind of scattered. “School was not open yet, so they ran off into the field. It’s a pretty tragic scene.” Police said the shooter “is neutralized” and was described as a “student/ suspect.” Lopez said his son, Abner Jr., first realized something was wrong when he heard the first gunshots, which apparently were directed at a student the shooter knew. “He just heard the gunshots,” Lopez said. “Then he saw the teacher telling him to calm down, to put the gun down, and that’s when he shot the teacher.” Lopez said his son was
in the teacher’s math class along with the suspected shooter. Authorities have not yet released the names of the school staff member they say was killed or the gunman, but students and local media have identified the teacher who tried to stop the shootings as Michael Landsberry, a 45-year-old eighth-grade math teacher and former Marine. A woman who answered the door at Landsberry’s home declined to speak to comment, but students have posted tributes to him online and a “Rest Easy Mr. Landsberry” page has been created on Facebook that refers to him as the “best teacher there ever was.” His class website explains his approach to teaching and offers this advice to students: “I have one classroom rule and it is very simple: Thou shall not annoy Mr. L.” Kyle Nucum, a 13-yearold student, told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he was on a basketball court with others when he heard a popping sound and saw a young man in a school uniform who was about 14 and had a gun. The young man was confronted by a teacher who was then shot, Nucum told the newspaper. “We heard a pop, like a loud pop,” he said. He said he and others ran across the street and see
SHOOTING on page 3
Shelter Sunday Obama: ‘No excuse’ for foul-ups New health care helps homeless website hits snags Annual event raises funds for the needy By marleigh FelSenStein Collegian Correspondent
On what appeared to be a quiet Sunday morning on the University of Massachusetts, something big was quietly brewing, and the town of Amherst was about to get busy. On Sunday, the non-profit organization, Amherst Friends for the Homeless, held its “Annual Shelter Sunday,” a yearly event to help the homeless of Amherst get back on their feet. Starting around 10 a.m., community volunteers of all ages gathered in the lobby of the Fine Arts Center to aid the homeless. Annual Shelter Sunday, supported this year by Craig’s Doors, which operates Craig’s Place shelter, the Amherst Survival Center and an organization called “Not Bread Alone,” began back around the fall of 1989. Jennifer Blain, the onsite coordinator for Craig’s Doors, called Shelter
Sunday a one-day canvas of Amherst that, “covers the entire town.” Each group of canvassers receives a canvas envelope, a plastic bag for money and checks and brochures. They then go all around Amherst ringing doorbells to ask for donations to help the homeless population of Amherst. Blain said that Shelter Sunday has been “incredibly successful over the last 30 years.” The event has raised upwards of $31,000 from donations. “That’s a tremendous amount of money,” Blain said. Jim Lumley, a director on the board of Craig’s Doors, said that one of the main missions of the organization is to get involved in bringing the homeless into “more permanent housing.” Lumley also said that even though Amherst is a small town, there are a lot of people that are still in need. The “main thrust is for the homeless,” said Lumley, adding that there is a “top to bottom awareness, bringing see
SHELTER on page 3
By anita Kumar and tony Pugh
McClatchy Washington Bureau
vide more comprehensive, affordable health coverage remained a success and that any problems stemmed from interest that exceeded expectations. Nearly 20 million people have visited the website, and more than half a million have successfully submitted applications. “The product is good,” the president said. “The health insurance that’s being provided is good. It’s
high quality and it’s affordable.” The federal marketplace was supposed to provide a one-stop site for users in 36 states to browse, compare and enroll in qualified health plans. But numerous software problems overwhelmed the site shortly after the enrollment period for 2014 coverage began. Some improvements have been made, but delays and
malfunctions continue. A new Washington PostABC poll released Monday found that 56 percent of Americans say the website problems are part of a broader problem with the law’s implementation, while just 40 percent see them as an isolated incident. Recent polls generally find that more people
WA S H I N G T O N – President Barack Obama said Monday that he was angry and frustrated with the failures of the federal see WEBSITE on page 3 government’s new health care website and he vowed to solve them as soon as possible. Obama said a team of America’s top private-sector tech experts was working around the clock to fix Healthcare.gov, though he and his staff declined to name the companies that are involved or to provide a deadline. “There’s no sugarcoating it,” the president said at a Rose Garden event with supporters of the health care overhaul. “It’s fair to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than I am. ... There’s no excuse for the problems, and these problems are getting fixed.” Obama, in his first extensive remarks since the botched Oct. 1 rollout of OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT the insurance marketplace, President Barack Obama walks to the Oval Office after speaking about the Afforable Care Act in the Rose Garden said the law that aims to pro- of the White House on Monday, October 21, 2013.