Maryland students cheat with text messaging
Twelve University of Maryland students admitted to using their cell phones to cheat on an accounting exam last month, WJLA news reported Friday.

The case has raised an entrapment controversy because the professor administering the test knew students were attempting to cheat.

Six of the students have admitted to receiving answers to the test via text messaging on their cell phones. The answers were provided by other students who waited until the test began and relayed a posted answer key from the class Web site. However, suspecting that students were cheating in this manner, the professor had posted a false answer key to catch potential cheaters.

The director of the Student Legal Aid Office, James Jones, said the incident is a clear case of entrapment because the professor challenged the students to cheat. Jones called it a “classic case of entrapment where someone is induced to do something wrong only because of the improper enticement of another,” in a letter to The Diamondback, Maryland’s student newspaper.

The controversy will be decided by a university hearing board, which will balance the school’s legal code with the merits of the individual case.

Moose to give money to charity
Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who headed the fall sniper investigation, has announced he will donate the proceeds from his book to area mental health charities, WJLA reported Saturday.

Moose, who spoke at GW on Friday to the School of Business and Public Management, is currently working on the book, “Three Weeks in October: The Manhunt for the D.C. sniper.”

Montgomery County officials have warned Moose about ethics rules that bar police commanders from taking even small speaking fees about the sniper shootings, WJLA reported.

Conservatives gather in Crystal City
Vice President Dick Cheney kicked off the 30th annual Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday, promising sweeping domestic changes and continued pressure on Iraq to relinquish its weapons of mass destruction.

Calling this year “a consequential year in the history of our nation and in the history of freedom,” Cheney outlined the administration’s domestic and international agenda for “2003 and beyond” in a speech that mirrored President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address.

The CPAC is a four-day conference at which Republicans from all over the country come together and discuss conservative ideas and the direction of the Republican Party.

College Republicans were on hand to show their support for the G.O.P.

“I’m here because I believe in the Bush administration’s ability to lead the American people to the promised land,” said Jeff Rollins, a junior at the University of Washington. “They have a vision for America, a vision that will make this country even greater in the upcoming years.”