AU fraternity members charged for throwing bricks

Authorities dropped felony assault charges against two American University students accused of a brick-throwing incident early Friday morning.

NBC News 4 reported that Shan Shariff, 21, and John Hayes, 20, appeared in court Saturday morning on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, attempted burglary and felony destruction of property. While the assault charges were dropped, the two men are still charged with destruction of property.

Police responded Friday at 1:45 a.m. to an incident at 3010 Foxhall Rd., a house rented by members of the Delta Chi fraternity at American. Shariff and Hayes are accused of throwing bricks through several windows of the house.

NBC News 4 reported that eyewitnesses said the members of a rival fraternity, who broke into the house, beat one man with a brick. The station also reported that Shariff and Hayes were members of an unsanctioned student group, Epsilon Iota, once a recognized fraternity on campus called Alpha Tau Omega.

A preliminary hearing for the case is scheduled for Oct. 19.

-Alex Kingsbury

State executes Texas A&M student

A former Texas A&M University student was executed last week by the state of Texas for the 1994 murder of fellow A&M student Lori Ann Baker.

The former student, Ron Shamburger, lived as an inmate on death row for seven and a half years, which is the average time it takes to exhaust the federal and state appeals process.

In a final interview with the Daily Texan, he called his imminent death a beginning, not an end.

Shamburger spent his last days at Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas following a 1999 escape from another state prison. While an inmate, he was allowed only one hour per day of free time to exercise.

AU professor displeased with university’s response to hoax

Adjunct professor Laura Drake of American University is unhappy with the university’s response to an anti-Israel e-mail that was sent to more than 100 people and was falsely signed with her name.

The e-mail, sent out Sept. 10, referred to Israel as a “terrorist state” led by “Nazis.” Drake, editor of the Virginia-based Middle East Affairs Journal, was not informed of the e-mail until two days after it was sent out in her name.

Once the university discovered the e-mail, officials sent out a broad message, distancing themselves from Drake and the ideas expressed in the e-mail. When Drake explained that she was not the author, university officials did not send out any indication that it was a hoax, allowing many to believe she was the real author.

Technology experts have traced the e-mail to somewhere in Southern California, though an exact location and suspect have yet to be identified.

Many colleges offer morning after pill

More than half the college and university health centers in the country offer students the “morning after-pill” as a means of emergency contraception, according to a new study released last week.

The study, which was published in the Journal of American College Health, indicated that of the 52 percent of colleges and universities that offer the controversial pill, more than one third do not advertise the product for fear of sparking a campus-wide debate.

The pill works by inhibiting ovulation, or by keeping a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine lining.

According to the survey, schools located in the Midwest and the South are least likely to offer the pill, as some see it as a form of abortion.