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March 21, 2007

OPINION
Titan Editorial
Providing insight, analysis and perspective since

From Model to Mop: Naomi Campbell Gets O Too Clean

a bit dierently. According to Miss Campbell, she threw a cell phone in Daily Titan Sta Writer the apartment and happened to hit opinion@dailytitan.com her housekeeper. is was an accident, because I Finally justice is served! Well, did not intend to hit her, Campbell kind of. While most high-prole celebrities said to the court in January. Well, while Scolavino tends to are able to escape jail time for their bad behavior, supermodel Naomi her injured head, Campbell started Campbell faced capital punishment mopping the oors of a New York City warehouse on Monday. for her violent ways on Monday. e very colorful Boy George is faCampbell has been sentenced to ve days of janitorial duty after miliar with the facility. He spent the pleading guilty to assaulting her past summer sweeping the streets of housekeeper Ana Scolavino with the Lower East Side and Chinatown a bejeweled cell phone. She is also after he was charged with criminal possession of a conresponsible for her trolled substance. housekeepers $363 people in medical bills. ... if youre a high- Most Most people prole celebrity such as would have spent 15 years in jail for serve community service for litter- the gargantuan model having 13 bags of ing or vandalizing. herself, community cocaine on them. However, if youre service is a reasonable However, if youre super amboyant a high-prole celebrity such as the judicial remedy for bat- and know the words gargantuan model tery or say, drug abuse. to Karma-Chameleon, a little househerself, community keeping will do. service is a reasonRussell Crowe able judicial remalso has a history edy for battery or of anger management issues. Hes say, drug abuse. Campbell has been known to head butted his way into trouble and throw a cell phone at an assistant ev- once pulled a Mike Tyson, biting his ery now and then or smack someone bodyguards ear. In 2005, Crowe over the head with a PDA. In 2000, took his aggression out on a hotel she pleaded guilty to pummeling clerk throwing a desk telephone at her assistant with surprise a tele- the man. Crowe was charged with second-degree assault and fourthphone. She has attended her fair share of degree possession of a criminal anger management classes, which weapon, the telephone. His time out have proven to be more than ineec- for the temper tantrum was a contive. e supermodel has also taken ditional discharge. Basically the Ausup yoga hoping to do away with her tralian actor was ordered to stay out angst. Unfortunately, other than of trouble for a year. In the meantime, Campbell will trim her gure, the yoga classes have be mopping oors for a few more been just as unsuccessful. Her latest attack resulted in four days while she thinks long and hard staples to the Scolavino battered about her actions. A better punishhead. After a heated discussion ment would have been prohibiting about a missing pair of jeans, Camp- her from the use of any form of bell fashionably hit Scolavinos head phone device. ose around Campbell beware; a mop can be just as with her sparkly mobile device. e model described the scenario dangerous as a cute little cell phone. BY CARLA BOUBES

The Advocate
BY Robert

Moran
According to court documents from Odgrens March 6 arraignment he told school ocials, I did it. I dont know why. I just snapped. Odgren said later that he did not know the kid and wanted to know what his condition was. Odgren also had a history of violence. He brought a screwdriver to school two days before the murder. He wore a trench coat that day, called himself a trench coat killer and told a student that he had decided not to kill him. ere was also a witness who heard James Alenson calling out, What are you doing? Youre hurting me, as Odgren stabbed him. e Metro West Daily News reported that, at Odgrens arraignment, Shapiro said Odgren was not getting the medications he needed and was on suicide watch. e article also said Shapiro petitioned the court to move Odgren to Westboro State Hospital for evaluation. Judge Isaac Borenstein agreed and ordered Odgren to be there for twenty days. Odgren pleaded not guilty. It seems I was right. By having Odgren at the hospital, there is a real possibility that the psychologists might give Odgren an evaluation that would help to convince the jury he was not responsible. In that case, the message will be sent that having Aspergers is a license to commit murder and that people who are autistic are murderers. It is not and we are not.

Keeping What Weve Got

In a week, the Skywalk will open in the Grand Canyon. e clear-bottom structure juts out 4,000 feet above the Colorado River. Its probably breathtaking and perhaps a little vertigo inducing. Its also just one of several tourist projects the Hualapai Nation oers through their company Grand Canyon West. Other activities include Hummer rides and tours of local sights, like the Guano Mine. All this tourism is good for the locals, and theres no reason not to encourage it. However, were forced to wonder what kind of ecological impact is being made. A brand-new tourist attraction on the scale of the Skywalk is going to have ramications beyond its construction. ere will be more visitors to the area, for one. More visitors means more trash and more pollution. Resource consumption will also go up. e water going into the showers, toilets and food for tourists has to come from somewhere. Other than a few token references to creating a tourist spot thats compatible with the environment and the Hualapai culture, the companys press releases have completely skirted the issue of impact. e Grand Canyon is one of the last places in the U.S. that hasnt been signicantly encroached upon. Grand Canyon West should be far more proactive in showing how its attractions will aect this bastion of natural grandeur. We simply cannot aord to lose anymore of this nations natural beauty.

e Twinkie Defense
After reading some responses to my previous column it appears there were some errors in the facts that were presented, and for that I take responsibility. My initial position that Aspergers does not excuse John Odgren from committing murder or that the case is still very much a tragedy has not changed. Correction one: Odgrens family had moved from the Wachussett school district to Princeton, Mass., so he could attend the Lincoln-Sudbury school because it oered the behavioral therapy he needed. Correction two: It was not teachers at the school who conscated the knife and did not report it. It was a school psychologist. Jonathan Shapiro, Odgrens lawyer, responded to my column. He wrote that he mentioned Aspergers in an eort to have Odgren held in a therapeutic setting as opposed to a prison. I see it as the beginning of a Twinkie defense the famous defense that was used successfully in the case of David White, who murdered San Francisco Mayor Gary Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. e defense is that something biological caused the motive for the crime and would render the defendant not criminally liable. Shapiro told the Worcester Telegraph & Gazette that Odgren was severely disabled and suffered psychological disorders, including ADHD and Aspergers. It must be said that Odgrens motive to murder someone he did not know is still unknown.

E-mail Robert at opinion@dailytitan.com