Brown and White Vol. 115 No. 36

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 115 no 36 friday march 13 2009 all the lehigh news first buses will connect city and casino by ryan ruggiero the city of bethlehem is partnering with lanta bus services to provide shuttle buses from the sands casino re sort to the north and south sides of beth lehem making transportation around the city easier for visitors and residents two years ago when bethlehem ob tained a casino license city officials esti mated bethlehem would have between 4.5 million and 5.5 million visitors per year mayor john callahan said this is an opportunity to expose visitors to all beth lehem has to offer the goal was to tap into these visitors and get a portion of them to do some thing else while they're here callahan said bethlehem has been successful as a regional destination for visitors so this is just another opportunity for them to move around callahan said people can park their car in a parking garage and then use the shuttle buses to get around the shuttle buses will provide less con gestion on the road making it more sus tainable for the environment and more cost effective for the community he said there has been anxiety from small business owners in the city who will now have to compete with the casino al though the casino will attract thousands of new visitors to the area there is the fear that they won't ever leave the casino causing local businesses to suffer the merchants were primarily in mind when we thought of the shuttle which will drive more visitors to the city callahan said although the buses expected to begin running in june will help attract visi tors to see the city's sites they are also empty student houses ransacked by dani todd b&wphoto by gwen purdom three off-campus houses rented by lehigh students were burglarized last weekend while the residents were away on break according to an article in the express-times in each of the three attacks the perpetrator ransacked the entire home using the con tents of the kitchen to trash the residence eggs were smashed food was thrown about and sauce and oil were poured on walls and floors kaila deutsch 09 a resident of one of the homes targeted said the burglars stole her 2002 honda accord worth 17,000 as well as other items including two laptops and two tvs deutsch said when she and a fellow housemate returned to school they noticed her car was missing and all the lights were on in the home and called the police when the girls were allowed back in the house they found it completely destroyed each room had been turned upside-down they tore all of our pictures down and the kitchen was demolished in our bedrooms they emptied every shelf and drawer onto the floors one girl had baby powder poured all over her things and another had red wine chocolate syrup and olive oil cover a kitchen floor on east fifth street vandals broke into several students houses over break damaging and stealing property club budgets expected not to change in bad economy student organizations will submit their budget proposals to student senate in the next couple of weeks to be approved for the 2009-10 school year while the current bad economy will impact the budget distribution for the upcoming school year the effects will be minor said matthew kitchie director of student activities and student senate co-adviser senate received 495,720 this current academic year to allocate to recognized clubs and organizations kitchie said despite the economy that is a 16,000 increase from the amount provided for the 2007-08 budget kitchie mentioned next year a reduc tion is expected because university bud gets are being cut by 10 percent due to the recession however the student senate and uni versity clubs will still have a significant amount of resources because of fund management by the senate the student senate has reserved a bit of funds that can carry over to next year to help us keep pace kitchie said we will have a better idea of the exact amount of our total budget for 2009-10 for clubs and organizations by the end of march last year approximately 90 clubs sub mitted applications for budgets for the 2008-09 academic year this year an estimated 100 budgets will be submitted for the 2009-10 aca demic year said sharon basso dean of students and student senate co-adviser despite drug violence many travel to mexico by allison rolish by molly o'neill every spring students flock to tropical resorts to enjoy the sun sand and nightlife one popular desti nation for students is cancun mexico however this year there was more going on in cancun than just beautiful beaches and popular bars drug trafficking has made mexico into a battleground between drug gangs and authorities according to a march 10 article in the new york times mexico had more than 6,000 drug-related deaths last year the worst of the violence has been situated at the u.s.-mexico border cnn reported in an article published feb 19 that part of the problem is corrupt government officials who are facilitating the dangerous drug trade by refus ing to acknowledge it the article cited a top anti-drug official was recently arrested for accepting 450,000 a month in bribes from drug traffickers the u.s department of state issued a travel alert on feb 20 to warn citizens of the current danger in mexico the alert said violence has recently increased and if traveling to any part of mexico one should take numerous precautions to ensure a safe trip u.s citizen visitors are encouraged to stay in the well-known tourist areas of the cities read the alert issued by the bureau of consular affairs travelers should leave their itinerary with a friend or family member not traveling with them avoid traveling alone and should check with their cellular provider prior to departure to confirm that their cell phone is capable of roaming on gsm or 3g international networks do not display expensive-looking jewelry large amounts of money or other valuable items the alert also said there is a recent surge of fire fights violent demonstrations car thefts and carjack ings in some parts of the country despite all this students across the country still flocked to popular resorts in mexico like those in cancun andrew lemchen 12 spent spring break in can cun with friends he said he wasn't that concerned see shuttles page 3 see break-ins page 2 see budgets page 3 see mexico page 2 musical-ly challenged page 9 l j^s jdj wrestling finishes 4 second at eiwas * t page 20 check out new b&w videos thebrownandwhite.com