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Drew University, like many colleges, is working harder to deter underage drinking, but that didn't stop students younger than 21 from drinking heavily at campus parties Labor Day weekend. "The parties are in dorms, on top of buildings, wherever people find an ample place where they're not going to be bothered," said 18-year-old Dean Shtainhorn of Millburn, who admitted to experimenting with alcohol. The Madison campus is not unlike colleges across the country dealing with the problem of underage alcohol consumption and binge drinking. That is why Drew University president Robert Weisbuch said he joined the Amethyst Initiative, a national...

To combat underage binge drinking, the national legal drinking age should be lowered to 18, a former college president is saying. Since releasing a 250-page study on the societal effects of modern drinking laws, Middlebury College President emeritus John McCardell has campaigned across the country calling for states to lower the legal drinking age to 18 because he observed fewer alcohol-related problems 30 years ago, when 18-year-olds could legally drink. "Before the law changed, it wasn't perfect," McCardell said. "But what you had then was out-in-the-open, intergenerational [drinking]." Since then, McCardell, who is launching the nonprofit group Choose Responsibility this...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- School officials investigating an apparent hazing ritual at a fraternity house on the University of Central Florida campus in which pledges were found in diapers, fairy wings and women's panties told Local 6 News that there is evidence that several of them may have been sexually assaulted. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at UCF was suspended by its national office and has become the subject of a police investigation after three students were recently found so drunk that they had be rushed to a hospital. University police, acting on a tip, said they noticed loud, aggressive screaming...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The State Liquor Authority is investigating whether alcohol was served to minors at a barbecue Eliot Spitzer's campaign for governor held for supporters at the state fair last week. The agency received complaints that alcohol was served to minors at the Aug. 31 event, said authority spokesman Bill Crowley. The authority was also investigating a potential violation of a law prohibiting unlimited alcohol offerings at public events, he told the Syracuse Post-Standard.

HOUSTON -- Houston Mayor Bill White's daughter was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, officials told KPRC Local 2. MORE AT LINK

Call Dean Wormer: Graduation party at restaurant owned by 'Animal House' actor gets out of hand... Mequon - When the party animals at Delta house were facing the wrath of the Faber College dean and campus ROTC commander Doug Neidermeyer, they decided on a now-classic response: "Toga party." Twenty-eight years later, a group of high school students decided the best way to celebrate graduation would be in togas - with a party at Libby Montana restaurant in Mequon. It seems the party planners chose Libby Montana because the actor who played Neidermeyer in the movie "Animal House" - Mark Metcalf...

When writer Marcia Segelstein headed to the bookstore to scout out books for her 12-year-old, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But she certainly didn’t expect rampant drinking, drug use, profanity, and explicit descriptions of sex and nudity. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what she found. Segelstein’s daughter had been clamoring to read the Gossip Girl series, which “‘all’ of her friends were reading,” she said. After seeing what was in the books, Segelstein was floored. But a school librarian confirmed, “They’re very popular among sixth and seventh graders.” Even worse, the librarian added, “Some parents are so happy that their kids...

Silvia Johnson, who became known as the "Cool mom" for partying with her children and their teenage friends, pleaded guilty this morning to a charge of violating bond conditions. Johnson, 41, is serving a 30-year sentence for plying high school boys with liquor, drugs and sex. She was charged with violating bond conditions and a protective order that barred her from contact with some of her children, while she was free awaiting sentencing. Johnson was arrested on the new charges after a Sept. 25 car crash in which a 14-year-old girl was driving. Johnson and a carload of teens, including...

A male teacher who performed naked cartwheels in front of young female students during a school camp has been jailed for five months. Warren David Schneider, 37 of Brisbane, pleaded guilty in the Queensland District Court to seven counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 years under care. He was today sentenced to 15 months' jail suspended after five months. The court was told Schneider was an art teacher at a private school in Brisbane's south when he committed a series of sexual offences during 2002 against three girls, all of whom were then in Year 7 and...

... Many parents have decided to take a realist's approach. They're throwing parties for their kids and their friends. They serve alcohol at these parties, but they also collect car keys to make sure no one drives home until the next morning. Their logic makes sense: The kids are going to drink; it's better that they do it in a controlled, supervised environment. ...For this the Andersons found themselves arrested and charged with supplying alcohol to minors... In fact, the Andersons were lucky. A couple in Virginia was recently sentenced to 27 months in jail for throwing a supervised party...

FREDERICK, Md. -- Two high school seniors who reportedly told a newspaper that they planned to drink alcohol after their prom said yesterday that they have been barred by the principal from attending the dance. Governor Thomas Johnson High School students Shawnda Lawson and Nicole Taylor, both 18, were quoted in the Frederick News-Post on May 5 discussing their plans to drink at parties after the prom this Saturday. "I like drinking," the newspaper quoted Miss Lawson as saying.

You Must Be Over 21 to Drink in This Living Room A crackdown on house parties stirs up a debate about privacy Officials in Stratford, Conn., convened a group of middle and high school students last year to quiz them on their attitudes toward alcohol. The officials were dismayed, if not surprised, when the teens reported that they thought alcohol, unlike tobacco and other drugs, was largely harmless, that binge drinking among their peers was habitual, and that drinking enough to pass out was funny. But the officials were perhaps most displeased to hear that the place kids most often...

This time next week, viewers across America will tune in for the big show: Not just the Super Bowl, but the ads, including a heady brew of beer commercials. The ever-busy plaintiff's bar is also ready... to serve up another round of lawsuits. On the surface, these lawsuits target alleged pitches by the alcohol industry to underage drinkers. As usual, though, what's really on trial are personal responsibility and the deep pockets of beverage makers. Class-action lawsuits filed in California and a few other states accuse alcohol companies of using provocative TV and magazine ads to push libations on youngsters....

<p>May 13, 2004 -- ALBANY - The latest Assembly sex scandal is just the "tip of the iceberg" of a far wider system of aggressive exploitation of young women in the state Legislature's intern program, a former official has told The Post. "The Assembly intern program is like a 'canned hunt' for these young women," said the ex-Assembly official.</p>

When Amante bar in San Francisco was slapped with a $3,000 fine for serving an underage customer who had used someone else's driver's license to gain entrance, the owners of the bustling North Beach establishment decided to take action. They sued the 20-year-old woman in San Francisco's small claims court and last month won a $5,000 judgment. Emboldened by the success of their innovative approach, Amante's owners, Michael DiBenedetti, Wizz Wentworth and Erik Boardman, have decided they won't stop there. They have joined other bar owners to crack down on underage drinkers by turning to the court system to make...

It seems that everyone has an opinion on the smoking bans that have been put into place in the last year. From Dallas to New York City to California, smokers are no longer allowed to smoke inside bars and restaurants. These bans have been met with great resistance, not only from smokers, but from the owners of the bars and restaurants, who say that the restriction is harming their business and causing profit loss. The opponents of such a ban also say that the bans are unconstitutional, because they prohibit legal behavior in privately owned places of business. Most people...

Your Tax Dollars At Work ... for Anti-Alcohol Activists Posted On August 19, 2003 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will soon release a major report on how to prevent underage drinking. Americans deserve a serious, science-based examination of this important topic, but the NAS report will almost certainly be a piece of anti-alcohol propaganda. It is expected to call for increased taxes on adult beverages and stricter regulations on marketing and advertising. Those recommendations target adult consumers, not just underage drinkers. Which is precisely the point. Nine of the 12 "experts" chosen to sit on the NAS panel are...

Two adults and a student were charged today with supplying alcohol to suburban Chicago high school students involved in the videotaped brutal hazing. Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine said one woman was charged with purchasing three kegs of beer, two of which were found at the forest preserve where the hazing took place. Another woman was accused of allowing her home to be used for underaged drinking. The student was charged with unlawful possession of alcohol by a minor. Devine said that student brought the kegs to the May 4 ``powder puff'' event where Glenbrook North High School senior...

<p>CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) — A judge sentenced a husband and wife to eight years in jail Monday for supplying alcohol to teenagers at a birthday party for their son.</p> <p>Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 90 days for Elisa Kenty Robinson and George Fisher Robinson of Earlysville. They pleaded guilty to 16 misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of minors.</p>

<p>OAK CREEK, Wis. -- Don Meyer was a little annoyed when a Pick 'n Save clerk here recently carded him in the liquor store.</p> <p>He wasn't just upset because they carded him while he was buying nonalcoholic beer. He was upset because he's 76 years old.</p>

Bush twins turning 21 today President's daughters are marking the occasion in Texas 11/25/2002 Associated Press WASHINGTON - President Bush's twin daughters, who have had brushes with the law for underage drinking, turn 21 on Monday, marking their birthday in Texas and looking to stay clear of the spotlight. Both Barbara Bush, who attends Yale University, and Jenna, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, were in their home state in advance of a Thanksgiving family celebration. The president and first lady planned to celebrate the twins' birthdays over the holiday weekend, the White House said. Laura...

<p>Already under fire in the ''Sex for Sam'' controversy in which a couple was arrested on charges of lewd behavior in St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Boston Beer Co. agreed yesterday to temporarily pull a TV ad for its Sam Adams Light beer that a law-enforcement group says encourages underage drinking.</p>

Australian school boys seeking an under-age drink in pubs made a crucial mistake when they forged proof-of-age documents. The photographs used in their faked driving licences showed the boys wearing school uniforms. The schoolboys from Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, had used a computer and printer to forge the driving licences. These were to be shown as proof that the 16 and 17 year olds were old enough to be drinking in pubs. But the flaw in their plan was uncovered by pub bouncers who spotted that the identity pictures showed them dressed for school. "With the person's photograph on the...

<p>Some state legislators are attempting to make it tougher for underage drinkers to knock back a few cold ones.</p> <p>State Rep. Sara Steelman, an Indiana County Democrat, is proposing that beer distributors slap registration stickers on their kegs, an idea she hopes will discourage adults from buying beer for those who are too young to drink it.</p>