Check local laws before brandishing a samurai sword

Early Tuesday morning at Johns Hopkins University, an undergraduate student heard noises coming from behind his off-campus residence, and noticed the door to his garage was open. The student then grabbed his samurai sword, and investigated.

Discovering an intruder in his garage, the would-be ninja threatened to call 911. According to police, the suspect then lunged at him, and the sword-wielding student sliced the suspect’s left hand, almost severing it. The intruder was mortally wounded with an upper-body cut, and was dead when police arrived.

Making sense of the health care reform

President Obama rallied citizens for national health care reform Sept. 12 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Using Rochester’s Mayo Clinic as a model, Obama called for accessible, effective health care at a sustainable cost, as Congress discusses the most ambitious health care legislation since 1994. It’s difficult to write a thrilling speech about reforming …

About time St. Thomas had a sick student policy

The first day of class was a time for professors to set the tone and share their expectations for the semester. While reading their syllabi, many students may have also noticed the pandemic prevention advice regarding the H1N1 virus expected to circulate this fall. In addition to providing annual flu tips like using hand sanitizer …

Social networks boost students’ online egos

TommieMedia’s View Another class of freshmen begins their St. Thomas adventure, thrust onto an unfamiliar campus surrounded by strangers. Fortunately, today’s first-year collegians have a remedy for their pangs of loneliness: social networking Web sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. EDUCAUSE, a higher education and technology non-profit, studied student online social networking usage at 44 …

St. Thomas icon missing

Priest, scholar and statesman, Archbishop John Ireland founded St. Thomas as a Catholic seminary in 1885.

Currently he is not a visible campus presence, due to construction of the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex.

Early this summer, the statue was taken down, disassembled, placed in a crate and secured in a storage unit near McNeely’s underground parking ramp.