I The Behrend Beacon
Midwest cleans up after storms
CANNELBURG, Indiana: Towns throughout the Midwest start repairs after a week of vio
lent storms.
It was a bad week for many residents of the central United States as tornado-producing storms
swept across a large areas and deposited rain, hail and debris.
One tornado swept through two counties in Indiana, causing an incredible amount of destruc
tion. Among the buildings destroyed by the impressive F 3 tornado were two schools, 10 busi
nesses and more than two dozen barns. The tornado also slaughtered an uncounted number of
farm animals. F 3 tornadoes are capable of producing winds of up to 206 miles per hour.
"It's a miracle that everybody got out of here," factory employee Abe Knepp said.
Marshall County in Tennessee had similar problems. Another F 3 tornado destroyed numerous
buildings as it cut a 17-mile long path across the state.
"We heard a weird sound coming through, kind of a whistle," said 37 year old Penny Leonard
who was not at home and sought shelter in the basement of the Madisonville hospital. "I thank
God I'm safe."
The National Weather Service has issued preliminary reports that the recent storms produced
at least 35 tornadoes as a cOttaavative estimate.
House narrowly votes down budget
WASHINGTON: Moderate Republicans joined unanimous Democrats in rejecting a new
health, education and social programming budget that would have made cuts to education and
college loan and assistance programs.
The bill, which also included cuts to healthcare, was defeated by a 224-209 vote in the House
of Representatives.
"It betrays our nation's values and its future," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of
Maryland. "It is neither compassionate, conservative, nor wise."
Republicans claim that the, budget cuts are needed due to the national deficit, a statement
Democrats contend is of the Republican's own doing through unchecked war spending and tax
cuts.
This bill was one of 11 such budget bills that must pass through the House every year and one
of the largest. Now that it has not been approved, the future of the budget will be decided in
year-end alterations and a new bill.
Fake IDs frequently confiscated
By Raechul Bowser
staff writer
rtnhso33@)psu.edu
There are a number of stresses and
pressures involved with receiving a col
lege education; pressures that can be so
overwhelming, students may feel more
of a need to release pent up tension by
partying and drinking. However,
unpleasant situations arise when under
age students are involved and are ques
tioned by authorities. Many students
are aware of the drinking policies on
and off campus, but some are not. With
tremendous stresses come careless
errors, and some students will do any
thing to escape the enormous pressures
of college even if that means using fake
identification in order to obtain alcohol.
According to Sergeant Wolinsky of the
State Police Bureau of Liquor Control
Enforcement, "Underage drinking is a
general problem to every city, college,
and bar or tavern."
According to Pennsylvania State
Police officer, Mark Zelenski, the sum
mary (or lowest) violation of underage
drinking is up to $3OO in fines, 90 days
in jail, and a 90-day suspension of their
driver's license. When an underage
person is caught with a fake ID, numer
ous penalties may occur. Section
6310.3 of the Pennsylvania Crimes
Code (Title 18) states that if a person of
less than 21 years of age possesses an
ID that falsely identifies their name,
age, date of birth, or photograph that
they will be given the penalties previ
ously mentioned by Zelenski for the
first offense. For a second offense,
false ID users may pay up to $5OO in
fines, spend up to one year in prison
and may have a suspension of their
license for up to one year. For subse
quent offenses, penalties include up to
$5OO in fines, up to one year in prison
Classifieds
"If you want to work for world peace,
go home and love your families."
Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu), nun
and founder of the Order of the Missionaries of
Charity (1910-1997), Nobel Prize for Peace
acceptance speech, 1979
Janet Neff Sample Center
*Mainers ir Civility
and up to two years of license suspen
sion. Even the misrepresentation of
age to purchase alcohol is a crime that
.can result in $3OO-$2500 in fines and
up to one year in prison.
Many bar and tavern owners in Erie
say fake IDs are a common occurrence.
Section 6310.1 of the Pennsylvania
Crimes Code
(Title 18)
applies to those
who knowingly
sell or supply
alcoholic bever-
ages (beverages
exceeding .5%
alcohol by vol
ume) to minors.
Sometimes it is
hard to distin-
guish between a
valid and
invalid ID,
especially dur
ing the busiest
hours of opera
tion. It may
also be chal
lenging to
maintain a bar
full of legal
drinkers if the A collection of fake IDs shows Jimmy Z's commitmenet to curb
business serves
food. For these reasons, some bars are
not as helpful as others when ques
tioned about the frequency of underage
visitors
Laws governing businesses with
alcohol licenses are strict and may
cause some bars and taverns to decline
the publication of such statements
about underage visitors whether they
are declining underage students or not.
However, some of these businesses
have no problem offering information
about the regulation of their bars.
According to Jim Zank, the owner of
fE \i\i9
Jimmy Z's Time Out Tavern, there is a
more frequent use of fake ID's during
the first couple weeks of the semester.
Zank said that he has seen students
attempting to use fake ID's from home,
including their older siblings' ID's.
Brian Russell. general manager of Fat
Boy's Deli Pub, said that his bar confis-
cater about five counterfeit ID's per
week. Marci Honard, one of the own
ers of Calamari's Squid Row, said that
if anyone notices a student that tries to
use a fake ID, the student will face a
confiscation of the ID and, in some
cases, will be kicked out of the busi-
In order for licensed alcohol
providers to follow the demands of all
of the liquor control regulations, many
bars and taverns are incorporating cre
ative methods of underage detection.
Honard said that she hires college stu
dents to work in her business because
they recognize other students with
greater ease. Behrend sophomore
Heidi Weismiller is a bartender at
Calamari's. She said that she has per
sonally seen fake IDs in which it is
obvious that the possessor is not 21.
Weismiller also said that she has seen
Cardboard City, Continued from Page 1
Besides the great success of the city, a Poker
Tournament to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank was
held. Also, many Residents Halls collected canned goods
for donation throughout the week as well as organizations
such as the Returning Adult Student Organization. RASO
challenged all its members and the Corry Manuacturing
Company to bring in one canned good or to donate one
France still in state of emergency
PARIS, France: The French Senate voted to extend a national state of emergency by three
more months as riots and unrest continue to plague the country.
New laws passed give powers to local officials allowing for curfews and new law enforce
ment methods to help contain the spreading civil unrest.
"French people want us to re-establish the order of the republic," Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy said. "We will answer their expectation, because we can't build a future in violence."
Sarkozy is now unveiling a series of plans, which, in direct opposition to French President
Jacques Chirac, will set up new programs to find jobs and organizations for younger
Frenchpeople who are currently struggling with the economic situation and must deal with
issues of personal and national identity.
"I challenge the idea that we all start at the same starting line in life," Sarkozy told L'Express
magazine in an interview. "Some people start further back because they have a handicap -
color, culture or the district they come from. So we have to help them," he said.
Sarkozy has been gaining steady support in French politics as he has consistently proposed
tough, quick, hands-on strategies to combat the riots and unrest that have been gripping the
nation for almost a month. Sarkozy points to unusually high unemployment rates among
minorities and issues of active discrimination in French and European culture as causes of mod
em unrest in the country.
Chirac has taken a different approach, asking for a voluntary cessation of violent unrest and
calling on the more well-to-do to provide monetary and other support for their less fortunate
countrymen.
The rioting in France has started to spread throughout Europe as Belgium, France's northern
neighbor, has now found itself in a similar situation as cars are being burned and rioters are
being rounded up and arrested. As a result, several nations bordering France have already
begun preparations for scenarios where the unrest may spike in their countries.
many students between the ages of 19
and 20 who do not even try to use
fakes. According to Weismiller,
C-alamari's checks for- identification at
the bar unless it is a Friday or Saturday
night, when the bouncers check IDs at
the door. Honard added that she hires
bouncers that are in their late thirties or
early forties in order
to maintain strict and
underage drinking
phony identification
Russell said that he has seen a fair
number of "underagers" from Behrend,
though his pub in particular does not
have a big problem with this. He said,
"This is not a big problem for 'Fat
Boy's] because [the employees] are
tight with the policies... if a business
doesn't follow policy, it can lose its
license to sell." Weismiller said that
while working, she doesn't see many
underage students from Behrend but
that she does serve many legal drinkers
from Behrend. She also mentioned that
from experience, there is more of a
problem of underage drinkers at clubs
than at bars. Wolinsky noted that there
is a bigger problem of underage people
buying six packs for consumption off
campus and that he receives complaints
of "underagers" in bars.
Though it is hard to detect a major
Source: CNN.com, Yahoo! News
mature judgment
when allowing cus
tomers into the bar at
Bars and taverns may
work in conjunction
with liquor control
officials as well.
After confiscation,
Russell reports bogus
IDs to the Erie Police
who then send the
IDs to Harrisburg's
Investigative Branch
of the Pennsylvania
Liquor Control
Board. From there,
the Investigative
Branch can find
where the fake IDs
are being created and
supplied and later
stop the production of
dollar. They collected $243 for the efforts, as well as
nearly 287 pounds of food. RASO president interim, Lou
Anne Glontz, said that the project was very successful,
with 93 percent participation.
If you would like to further contribute, the Northwest
Second Harvest Food Bank can be reached at 814-459-
3663 or by emailing the executive director, Karen Segie
at kseggi@eriefoodbank.org. Their location is 1703 Ash
Street in Erie.
Friday, November 18, 2005
problem with underage drinkers in
bars, taverns and with the police, some
Behrend students offer interesting
truths to the matter. One student agreed
to be interviewed for this article under
the condition of anonymity and will be
referred to as "Poppy." Poppy owns a
fake ID and claims that it is completely
valid, in that one of her friends picked
it up off the street and gave it to her
because of her likeness to the photo
graph on the ID. Poppy estimated that
she uses her ID about five times a week
in order to supply bottles of alcohol to
her friends. Poppy also said that she
does use her ID to get into bars and
clubs in her hometown but not in Erie.
Another student from Behrend
agreed to be interviewed anonymously
and will be referred to as "Noah."
Noah stated that he purchases alcohol
by using a different method. Noah said
that he makes friends with other stu
dents who either have fake IDs or are
old enough to buy alcohol. Noah pur
chases alcohol in this manner about
once a week in order to drink on the
weekend, and spends about $2O-50 per
purchase. He added that he sometimes
supplies alcohol for his friends and that
he has only purchased alcohol during
college. In Noah's opinion, many other
underage students on campus use this
method of purchasing alcohol as well.
Whether Behrend has a major prob
lem with underage drinkers or not is
hard to distinguish. Local bars and tav
erns cannot tell what underage student
is from what college, and the police are
not willing to provide statistics of the
number of underage offenses from
Behrend or from any particular bar or
tavern. In order to discover exactly
how severe underage drinking is within
Behrend, the students themselves are
the ones that provide the answers. In
any case, the stakes are high when a
student chooses to partake in underage
thinking. Though the anxiety levels
soar in college, students need to think
twice about committing this crime and
consider other methods of stress man
agement.