A $1 million gift from Kent State alum Jason M. Cope and his wife Stacie was unexpectedly withdrawn Friday. Kent State planned to name its basketball court “Cope Court” in a ceremony January 14 before the men’s game.

The announcement of the withdrawal came after the Daily Kent Stater made inquiries into the past of Jason M. Cope, a 1995 Kent State finance graduate. Cope was the branch manager of a financial firm that defrauded 190 investors of $8.7 million in late 1999 and early 2000. Cope was one of four defendants required to pay a total of more than $19 million in penalties, according to litigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission and court documents.

Presented without comment.

motherjones:

Meanwhile, in Utah.

I’m just now learning that one of my Videography Basics classmates from last fall committed suicide Sunday; he recorded a last-will video for his family before lying down on the train tracks at Towner’s Woods.

I didn’t know him very well, but one one of his hands only had two fingers and I was always amazed at how dexterous he still managed to be with that hand, like it was really impressive.

:/

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“Death is not a fearful thing; it’s living that’s treacherous…”

Julian Johnson, freshman exploratory major, lives on the fourth floor of Leebrick Hall. Johnson said resident services told him that someone would call him on his cellphone when he could return to his room.

He said he noticed an usual smell last Saturday and thought it might be something rotting in his room. The rooms in Leebrick hall are singles, and students who live there do not have roommates. Johnson said the smell grew worse throughout the week, and he tried to cover it up with Febreeze.

A Stater reporter described a rotting smell when he stepped off the elevator on the fourth floor earlier Sunday evening.

“It smelled like something dead,” he said. “It was overpowering.”

msnbc:

Cone or Klan? Costume freezes business at ice cream shop

Headline of the Day goes to WESH for its story about an ice cream shop employee who dressed up what was supposed to be a vanilla ice cream cone, and then discovered that business dropped dramatically.

“New York’s hottest club is WESH. Nine-year-old Tokyo pimp Ishiyakaguro is back with an all new hotspot that answers the question “WHAT?!”

Tattoos, jerseys, scandal and secrets mean more in today’s headlines than ever before and at the Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop, top sports journalists and ethics professionals will discuss all of the “Foul Play” happening in athletics at the collegiate and professional levels.

The seventh annual conference will take place on Thursday, Sept. 15 in Franklin Hall, home of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University.

The event will stream live on the Web and on mobile devices. All participants can contribute to the Workshop discussions and ask questions of the speakers via Twitter using the hashtag #ksuethics11.

The Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop is sponsored by the Poynter Institute, the Media Law Center for Ethics and Access, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the College of Communication and Information, Kent State TeleProductions, Kent State’s Department of Educational Technology, Akron Area PRSA, the Akron Beacon Journal and the Online News Association.

Speakers include great writers like Terry Pluto and Brian Windhorst, ESPN vice president Rob King and plenty more.

This is going on all afternoon; click to watch the discussion.