The Smoke Signal

By: Staff Writer Chakshu Hurria

Local
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a federal agency overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has decided to award Ohlone College a $306,000 grant. This grant will help the school’s Student Health center fund a three year campus suicide prevention program for students. Director of Student Health Sally Bratton said, “This is truly an honor. Only 15 colleges and universities across the country are granted this award each year.” This grant will go towards improving student mental health, an objective necessary in a time in which suicide is the third leading cause of death among American youth.

National

A not-for-profit legal defense fund program known as the Project on Fair Representation filed a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) on November 17. The program claimed that race plays a significant role in the admissions process of the university, and that this is detrimental to the admissions of white and Asian-American applicants. The group consists of a group of rejected applicants, prospective students, and their parents, and these people are all members of a nonprofit known as Students for Fair Admissions. Students for Fair Admissions argues that UNC-CH’s admission protocol does not comply with the US Supreme Court decision in Fisher v. University of Texas, which stated that universities should first pursue “race-neutral alternatives”, then if necessary, only consider race as a part of admissions “under strictest scrutiny”.

International

Ten people were killed on Tuesday, November 18, in Egypt’s northeastern Sinai Peninsula when a bomb struck the residence they were in. Security officials have said that it is not clear whether the rocket was from the Egyptian army helicopters or an errant mortar round from the insurgents who have killed scores of policemen and soldiers as acts of violence against the Egyptian government. The victims have been recognized as three children, three women and four men, but have yet to be properly identified.

Quirky

Australian police have released CCTV footage of a man dressed in a Santa suit robbing a post office on Saturday, November 15. Store employees initially believed that the weaponless man, who was about six feet tall, was going to give them some candy when the man came into the store fully dressed as Santa, and were surprised when he demanded that they open the safe and leaned over the counter to help himself to cash in the register, which he then stuffed in his sack. Detectives from the Moreland Crime Investigation Unit are still searching for the suspect.