Category: News

By Frank Herr-

Pennsylvania lawmakers are giving ‘texting behind the wheel’ the red light.

After years of studies and debates concerning texting while driving, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett is projected to sign a proposed bill that will make it illegal to combine the two any longer.

Under the new law, police officers would be able to pull over any motorist that they suspect of text messaging. Being a primary offense, texting while driving may be the only violation needed to be pulled over, instead of the prior slap-on-the-wrist approach when violators of other laws are suspected of texting. The State Senate has voted to pass the bill, 45 – 5. If approved and enforced, this bill would be effective in March. Violators would face a $50 fine.

“If they (police officers) want to make people conscious of it, a fine is acceptable, but if they really want to stop it, they need to put points on your license, like with a speeding ticket,” said Diane Bounds, librarian of Penn Manor High School.

Bounds believes that Bluetooth devices should be available to those motorists who heavily rely on constant communication as a part of their occupation.

In an effort to reform the safety and well being of Pennsylvania’s motorists, officials have been counting on this bill to be put into effect. The proposal of this bill has been a slow process, with Pennsylvania lawmakers taking years to get to the present state.

“This bill will be a welcome addition to motorist regulations. It will eliminate another major factor of accidents and give drivers peace of mind,” said high school motorist Derek Harzinski.

According to a study performed by Edgar Snyder and Associates, for every six seconds of drive time while simultaneously text messaging, 4.6 of those seconds are spent with the motorists’ eyes not on the road, a hefty 77 percent. This risk is greatly magnified for truck drivers while text messaging, leaving them to be 23.2 times more likely to get into an accident than a trucker paying full attention to the road.

“We can’t continue to play ping-pong with the House on this issue,” said an anonymous Pennsylvania representative.

However, not all folks support this proposed ban. Some believe that this law would infringe upon personal liberties. These people think that if a motorist is driving without paying attention to the road, and is texting, then they should be charged just the same as someone who is alert and attentive.

Other people believe that if texting behind the wheel is outlawed, folks will be more inclined to keep their phones below window level and out of sight of police officers. The problem with this possible outcome is that the lower in the car a person’s phone is while they are texting, the further their eyes have to travel from the road. If this were not banned, motorists could legally text with their phones on or above their steering wheel. This would, in theory, create a more safe scenario than its sneaky, lap-level counterpart.

It is now up to Governor Tom Corbett to either make or break this much anticipated addition to motorist safety in Pennsylvania.

By Corey Fry and Julia Norton –

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett promised education reform when he took the position in January.

This month he released his proposal for a new public and charter school reform plan.  The highlights of the bill include; changes in how teachers are evaluated, a new tax-funded voucher service, improvements to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program, and giving the state the ability to grant charters for charter schools,

The voucher service plans to give taxpayer funded scholarships to failing, low income students enrolled in Pennsylvania’s 140 worst schools that will pay for their enrollment in private or charter school in the area.  The Pennsylvania State Education Association strongly opposes this section of the bill.  The idea is extremely unpopular among many interest groups because it redirects taxpayer funding from the failing public schools to private schools.  The first year of the voucher program is estimated to cost $21 million.

Joe Herman shared his thoughts on the voucher program, “I disagree with it strongly, its giving tax payer money to wealthy private schools, where they have total discretion with what they do with it, and its taking money away from the public schools.  What we need to do is improve our public schools where students are failing.”

One of Corbett’s goals was to create more charter schools in Pennsylvania.  A section of his bill plans to allow for the creation of more charter schools by giving the state the power to grant charters, but under stricter regulations than are currently being used.

Corbett also stated that he wanted to modernize the teacher evaluation program.  “I realize that there are many good teachers in Pennsylvania.” he said.  However the bill aims to get rid of the teachers that are just slipping by or those who haven’t been properly evaluated in recent years.

Finally, Corbett plans to increase funding to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program. This will give more tax breaks to groups or companies that donate to public or private school programs.

By Adam Rohrer –

Herman Cain has been leading in national polls much due to his 9-9-9 tax plan but experts say the new tax code will hit middle and low income families hard.

Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan would usher in “A huge tax increase on lower-income and middle-class Americans,” says New York University tax law expert Daniel Shaviro. “With no tax on capital gains, the rich would pay almost nothing” in taxes. Shaviro went on to describe the plan as a “a distributional monstrosity.”

The new tax plan scraps the old tax code and replaces it with a 9 percent national income tax, a 9 percent business transaction tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. A plan that presidential candidate John Huntsmen first thought “was the price for a pizza.”

Despite criticism of his plan Herman Cain has continued to strongly support his plan saying the money saved by big business will trickle down to the employees but as has been the case in the future, that is never certain.

For an example of how this plan would effect you, consider that a family of four earning $50,000 a year now pays $3,850 a year in income tax. With Cain’s new plan they would pay $4,500,  $650 more.

Cain boasts that families will save $4,000 on social security taxes, but under the new plan they will lose child tax credit worth the same amount. In addition, they will have to pay for a new national sales tax, which gets added onto your state’s sales tax, which would make the sales tax here in Pa. 15 percent. Sales tax increases primaryily effect the middle class as they are the people who spend a larger percentage of their income on consumer goods.

Rick Perry also proposed his plan which is a 20 percent flat tax on income but experts say it will shift the burden over to lower income families.

“Its more regressive then the current system,” said  Ted Gayer, a tax policy expert with the Brookings Institution who served on President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers   “The burden would fall more on lower-income people.”

There’s a new, legal drug that has become popular among teenagers. It’s called spice, or K2, and can be dangerous in any quantity.

This drug can have negative side effects such as anxiety attacks, hallucinations, nausea and cause a chemical dependency. However, it is being marketed as synthetic marijuana and the high is said to be similar to that of original cannabis, only much stronger.

Because it is compared to marijuana, teenagers continue to smoke it, thinking it is safe.

“I was sitting in this chair and everything looked like I was in a cartoon,” said one Penn Manor senior about her experience on a strain of spice called Bayou Blaster. “Everything had rainbow outlines, I couldn’t move and I felt really light headed.”

“It hits you like a brick wall,” said another Penn Manor senior. “I didn’t like it. I was just kind of on the floor, non-responsive.”

While these two high school students have had negative experiences with K2 and did not enjoy it, there are many people who do. Some are also completely aware of how dangerous it can be, but continue to use it.

“I like it. One time, I felt like my brain was being sawed into little squares,” said a Penn Manor junior.

“Yes, it is bad for you,” he said, acknowledging the dangers of the drug. “It probably puts holes in your brain and chemicals inside you that aren’t supposed to be there.”

So how can this be legal?

The drug is actually not being sold as a drug. It can be bought in many gas stations and tobacco stores as incense. It specifically says on the packages that it is not meant for human consumption when that is clearly its purpose.

Many states have tried to make K2 illegal but have failed to do so. The reason behind that is that as soon as the government makes one strain of spice illegal, the companies manufacturing it change the chemistry of it the tinniest bit so that it is once again legal.

With teenagers being drug tested at their jobs, by their parents and by schools, some people have turned to spice as an alternative to smoking marijuana.

“My mom drug tests me now,” said a junior at Penn Manor. “I smoked it occasionally before she started testing me.”

Although K2 is beginning to be viewed as an equally safe alternative to marijuana by many teens, this is simply untrue.

By Becca Frankford –

After “pet” alligators were dumped in local reservoirs, municipal authorities are fearing the amount of pets dumped along the streets will increase around the Lancaster area due to the falling economy.

Shelters across Pennsylvania are seeing an increase in the number of pets being dumped at them. Workers there blame the economy. According to www.Philly.com, the Animal Rescue of Berks County has seen and housed double the number of dogs this year than it did in all of 2010.

In Slickville, PA an alligator about five-feet long was found taking shelter in a local reservoir. The authorities around the county don’t believe the gator will last very long in the chilly water.

Berks County Animal Rescue and the York SPCA are no-kill shelters, which means that if over populated they will not kill any animals to help rid of the crowding.

With all the animals coming into these two shelters, chances for pets to survive is a lot lower with every new pet left behind. In Honesdale, Pa., a litter of puppies were dumped on the side of the road earlier this month.

Some factors include the rising price of pet food and the cost of taking a pet to the veterinarian being too high  for pet owners who are struggling with their own expenses. To help decrease the amount of dogs, cats and other friendly pets being dropped off, the Berks County shelter has offered to donate food to pet owners who can afford to buy it for their pets if asked.

In Harrisburg, tenants  Timothy Weltmer 44, and Michele Ryan 48, left 20 cats and kittens locked inside an apartment located on the first block of West St.

The landlord reported the cruelty act on July 13. When authorities arrived, eight cats were dead and two were emaciated. The couple is being charged with 69 counts each of animal cruelty, and 20 counts each for not vaccinating the cats and kittens for rabies. Weltmer and Ryan are being arraigned today, according to www.pennlive.com.

The SPCA has reported 200 more animals coming in this year then the same time last year. York Dispatch reports high numbers of smaller dogs compared to big dogs being dumped at the shelters among York County. Berks County shelter is offering discounts on cat adoptions.

By Becca Frankford –

After too many years of too-low PSSA scores, Penn Manor High School decided to make a change and although it’s taken a Herculean effort to execute the schedule, it’s in full operation.

“Not any major problems, so far it’s off to a great start,” Phil Gale said in an interview about what remediation entails and how it’s going to improve juniors’ test taking skills in the future.

The remediation includes juniors at Penn Manor students who have had low scores based off the benchmark tests on reading and math. They have remediation every day during enrichment periods blocks one, two, three and four.

Gale has high hopes for the upcoming seniors of 2013, and has a little treat for the students who do well throughout remediation.

“Rewards will be given,” said Gale.

Remediation is planned to run until at least the PSSA testing in March.  A decision will be made later whether remediation will run until the end of the 2012 school year.