I The Behrend Beacon American Airlines cancels thousands of flights On Wednesday, American Airlines grounded over 1,000 flights to have extra inspections on their wiring. The cancellations encompass nearly half of the airline’s schedule. The type of craft in question is the MD-80 which is used by over a third of American’s 2,300 daily flights. On Tuesday, the airline grounded 450 of its flights for similar reasons. The planes had received wiring inspections two weeks ago, but the Federal Aviation Administration has increased and intensified safety inspections recently. The FAA stated they were too lenient on inspections last year, after the US House of Representatives’ Transportation Committee found safety hazards, in the form of fuselage cracks, on planes belonging to Southwest City officials attempt to curb graffiti By Adam Morton contributing writer atm 154 (a 1 psu.edu Erie officials are cracking down on the growing problem of graffiti throughout the city. “The current graffiti problem in Erie is the worst it has ever been,” District Justice Tom Carney said at a recent press conference with local Penn State students. “It’s no wonder people find it hard to take pride in our town, it’s starting to look like we just don’t care.” The current issue in Erie extends far beyond the everyday places graffiti is found such as bridges, overpasses and vacant buildings. Instead, modem graffi ti artists, or “taggers,” are targeting pri vate businesses, institutions, and resi dential property. “Taggers are not only affecting the image of our town, but now they are costing individuals a lot of money." Carney said. Erie City Council member Jessica Horan-Kunco is leading the charge against the graffiti problem. Kunco’s concern is the negative image that is cre ated by excessive graffiti. “People who come into our town will think it’s full of gangs and thugs” she said, “and Erie’s tourism will suffer greatly if no one feels safe within our city.” Erie Mayor Joe Sinnot has teamed up with Kunco by creating a ‘Graffiti Task Jenkins endorses Obama Continued from page 1 Jenkins told the audience of mostly col lege students, with a few adults mixed in, that after Obama graduated from college, he was left with significant college loans, just like they would be. In Jenkins' appeal, he noted that people making less that $75,000 per year would receive a tax credit of $4,000 towards their student loans. Jenkins went on to describe why he believes Obama is not your run-of-the mill politician. "This is a time when we have a politi cian that respects what people think,” he said. As Jenkins finished his speech and a long line formed for a meet and greet session, Jenkins told the audience, “This Source: CNN, BBC News Force’ that consists of local volunteers who wish to help make our town look beautiful once more. Through the aid and donations of local businesses like Home Depot and Braendel Painting, the task force has been successful in remov ing a substantial amount of graffiti. “The problem though, is that these ‘taggers’ are becoming more bold and daring,” Carney said, “and the graffiti reappears as quickly as it is removed.” Carney believes that public awareness plays an important role in the future pre vention of graffiti. “It’s not like when I was young and graffiti was just a slap on the wrist,” he said. Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice Act 33 allows for adolescents to be charged as adults for significant crimes and Carney thinks that the city’s youth needs to know this. “I know it’s tough to be a kid these days,” Carney admits, “but they need to know they’re really playing with fire.” The penalties for graffiti in the Erie area are as follows. A first offense that consists of damage less than $250 is con sidered criminal mischief and can carry a $250 fine and/or 90 days in prison. However, if the defaced property is a school, church or financial institution the offense climbs to institutional vandalism which carries significant fines and con siderable jail time. is your time.” The increased activity on college cam puses seems to be having an effect. State officials released the newest voter regis tration numbers on April 7 noting an eight percent increase in the number of registered Democrats to 4.2 million in the state. At the same time, the Republican Party saw a decrease of about two percent since last fall’s elec tion. New polls by Quinnipiac University released last week show that Obama is narrowing the gap in Pennsylvania. Last month, Sen, Hillary Clinton (D-NY) held an 11-point lead over Obama. However, the newest polls show that lead has slipped to just six points. Airlines that west unnoticed due to lax inspec tions. American Airline's Chief executive, Gerard Arpey, said in a statement, “We continue to inspect every airplane to ensure we are in total agreement with the specifications of the direc tive. We will get back to a full schedule as quick ly as possible.” . American Airlines is not the only airline being forced to conduct extra inspections, Delta, Southwest and United have all also pounded flights for inspection, but nowhere near the amount American has. American Airlines stated that mane of its flights may be grounded in the near future. As of Wednesday, only 30 planes were back in opera tion. NEW. However, Carney does not believe that these penalties are always necessary. Erie officials are working on a program that allows ‘taggers’ who are caught to adopt that building for a year. This means that once a “tagger” is through cleaning up their mess, they must contin ue to maintain the building by cleaning any future graffiti that appears. “Through this method,” Carney said, “combined with good behavior, we don’t have to throw kids in jail to teach them a lesson.” “Ignorance and apathy are the major problems in today’s society,” Carney said, “if you lay down and play dead; they’re going to walk all over you.” He added, “Every thousand mile journey starts with the first step,” he added, and hopefully the ‘Graffiti Task Force’ can be that step. Many of Professor Kim Young’s jour nalism students will be participating in a graffiti clean-up that is scheduled for April 19. Anyone interested in volun teering is encouraged to contact her for further information. Professor Young can be reached by phone at (814) 898- 6394 or e-mail kjylO@psu.edu. As an added incentive, Carney said that he would be willing to write a rec ommendation of character merit for any student who participates in the clean-up. Behrend students remember Virginia Tech massacre Continued from page 1. on a killing spree,” said Calvin Schmader, a freshman business major. “It would be unfair to prosecute some one for something they have yet to com- A mere four days later is the eigth anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School, when two stu dents killed 12 of their classmates and one of their teachers, before taking their own lives. Columbine was considered the worst school shooting in history, until Virginia Tech. Since the late nineties, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of school shootings. There were eight school shootings between 1997 and 1999, and five have already occurred in 2008 (all in the month of February), the most that has ever happened in a single year. The only school shooting to occur near the Erie area was the shooting at Parker Middle School in Edinboro, Pennsylvania in 1998. The shooter, Andrew Wurst was only 14 at the time. Wurst brought a firearm to a restaurant hosting a school dance which left one dead, three wounded. The owner of the restaurant then drew a shotgun on Wurst, keeping him at gunpoint for 11 minutes until authorities arrived. Cl O Protests plague Olympic torch relay Protests have plagued the Olympic torch relay across the globe. The protestors ate criticizing China’s crackdown in Tibet, and their support of Sudan in light of the years-long massacre in Darfur. In Paris, die last leg of the relay was cut short due to the unrest Despite the presence of 3,000 police along the route, the teach had to be extin* guished three times and eventually taken on a bus to the end point of the relay. One protestor tried to grab die torch itself and was immediate ly arrested and thrown to die ground by a police officer. In San Francisco, protestors climbed, the Golden Gate bridge and hung banners, reading “One World One Dream," and “Free Tibet.” The tench’s route was shortened before the relay began, for security reasons. The first torchbearer was forced to take shelter in a warehouse due to Lack of Obama visits to the Erie area could cost him the primary Continued from page 1. “His campaign is probably going to focus a lot on the Philadelphia area in turning out who he is sure will support him,” stated Speel when asked what other Pennsylvania locations may be drawing focus away from Erie for Obama. “I’m sure he is going to make another visit to Pittsburgh because in the city of Pittsburgh he will do well.” “[Hillary] should not be winning Erie County by a landslide and if he cam paigned here and came personally for a couple visits, my guess is he would have a chance to win Erie County." Senator Clinton’s case for becoming the Democratic Presidential nominee could ride on Pennsylvania and depend ing on how or if she wins the state, sev eral scenarios could play out. “If Obama can win Pennsylvania, you’re probably going to see the remain ing uncommitted superdelegates come to his side and Hillary Clinton’s mathemat ical chance of winning the nomination will drop to almost nil very quickly...if DiVecchio speaks to Behrend classes about proposed community college plan Continued from page 1 being able to fill gaps in the workforce within two or three years, and even bringing new companies into the city. The Erie executive board has a unique setting in mind, aiming to start off the college without a centralized campus. Students would enroll in the college, pay community college-priced tuition, and take classes through the four-year schools in the Erie area. The board said that since four-year schools are expect ing a sudden drop in student applications after the year 2008, a new pool of stu dents would be beneficial. Yet when pressed about the financial strain the four-year colleges would endure from taking in a large group of students for a fraction of the tuition, DiVecchio admitted that there would be “some competitive pinches.” Since 30 percent of Behrend students are Erie res idents, there could be an overlap of stu dents who might be able to take the same classes at Behrend for a sliver of the price. Mary-Ellen Madigan, Director of Admissions at Behrend, said that the impact on Behrend would depend on the setup of the community college. If the community college housed its own class es and focused on technological skills, Behrend would be able to be involved without much risk. Madigan said that she would like to see the community college in place as a stepping-stone to a four year college, functioning to boost ill-pre pared high school students up to a more rigorous level. However, if the community college “farmed out” classes to other colleges, as DiVecchio seems to be planning, Friday, April 11, 2008 the sheer number of protestors, but re-emerged a half hour later a mile down the route. Many of the individuals involved with the relay have aired concerns about thejp&le*# mem guarding the torch. Lord Coe, a footer Olympic champion and head of the otganiziis committee for the 2012 games said‘They tried to push me out of die way three times. They did not speak English. They were thugs.” Chinese officials have scrutinized dm protes tors, claiming drey are nying to steal toe spot light from a historical event for their self inter ests. Despite the Chinese government's criti cism, the protestors are the om» coming out on top as the International Olympic Committee is considering cancelling the rest of the relays across the globe, but as of press time no such decision has been announced. she wins by less than five percent...at that point some of the superdelegates may also start going to Obama’s side," Speel said. If Hillary wins by a larger margin, between five and ten percent, then the contest between her and her Illinois opponent will likely continue relatively unchanged. “If she wins Pennsylvania by a large margin, by over 10 percent, then obviously she is still going and she has a case to make,” Speel stated. The associate professor also postulat ed another reason for why Obama may simply be biding his time, waiting for the opportune time to hit the Erie area. “In order to win Pennsylvania it is actually better that he not have momen tum now because expectations for his campaign would rise and if she did somehow win Pennsylvania it would be an even bigger win for her... They like the fact that he is five to ten percent behind now so that if he can somehow win on April 22 that would doom Hillary Clinton’s presidency.” Madigan predicted some problems. First of all, the community college would have to make up for any money that Behrend would lose from a reduced tuition. Secondly, the community college would have to be Middle-State accredit ed, or the credits would not count for Behrend as they might some other schools in the area. In fact, Erie developed a similar con cept for a technical school in 1991. The Northwest Pennsylvania Technical Institute was “intended to function as a school ‘without walls,’ i.e., without a campus. Classes were to be provided by public, private and non-profit providers with which NPTI had cooperative agree ments,” according the summary report on Northwest Pennsylvania Technical Institute and Wrightco Technologies Inc, which was released Oct. 2003. The NPIT graduated 10 students in the 10 years before it shut down, although it turned out considerably more “technical skills certificates.” The college was never audited by the state until 2003, when it was discovered that the NPIT owed the Commonwealth $l6 million. Behrend students are less than enthusi astic about the potential arrangement. Many are concerned about classroom space, saying that it is already difficult to register for all of their classes. Another concern is how much of Behrend’s resources they would be sharing. “Are they basically able to mooch off our stuff without paying our prices?” asks Ahmed Abdalla, Behrend freshman. Current freshman at Behrend would still be enrolled in 2010, when the community college is supposed to be in place.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers