Helena Guergis
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese
College

What students are talking about today (Aug. 30 edition)

Helena Guergis, student housing, Obama and Occupy
By Josh Dehaas

1. The University of Alberta’s class of first-year law students will include Helena Guergis, a former junior cabinet minister who had a very public spat with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Perhaps she’s studying up for her appeal after her lawsuit against the PM was dismissed last week.

2. Students in Fredericton, N.B. have their pick of where to live, due to declining local enrollment.

3. Students in booming Saskatchewan have trouble finding anywhere to live. Vianne Timmons, president of the University of Regina, says a student stopped her on the street to ask if she knew any rentals. New residences are coming.

4. A South Carolina woman has been charged after a night on the town with her four-year-old son. Witnesses say she gave the child “shots” of beer. The mother says the shots were tea. The child told police the tea “tasted funny and made him laugh a lot,” reports TheSmokingGun.com.

5. FinFisher spyware can take control of a range of mobile devices, including iPhones and BlackBerry phones, according to the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. The program can secretly turn on a device’s microphone, track its location and monitor emails, texts and voice calls. Eeek!

6. University of Windsor law professor Emily Carasco has withdrawn her Human Rights Tribunal complaint in which she alleged she wasn’t chosen as dean because of racism and sexism.

7. The UK has revoked the license of London Metropolitan University to sponsor overseas students, meaning 2,600 foreigners will have 60 days to leave or find new placements. One reason for the boot is the fact that the university can’t demonstrate students regularly attend classes.

8. U.S. President Barack Obama was on Reddit answering questions yesterday, including a tough one from an unemployed law school graduate, to which he responded by talking about his health care and student loan bills. Jesse Brown offers his assessment of the Ask Me Anything here.

9. Remember Occupy Wall Street? It has been almost a year since the anti-equality and anti-all-kinds-of-other-stuff movement first attempted to block traffic in Manhattan. Organizers are planning a protest called S17 on Sept. 17 that will include attempts to make citizens’ arrests of bankers.

10. Crown prosecutors will fast track the case against Travis Baumgartner, charged in the June robbery on the University of Alberta campus that left three armed guards dead and one wounded.