Beacon
April 1, 2010
* | www.thebehrendbeacon.com
LOCAL NEWS
ERIE
On Tuesday, George Wands,
a senior aide with the Greater
Erie Community Action Com
mittee, agreed to help the anti
graffiti task force in Erie in
getting grant money.
Wands, who has experience
in grant writing, agreed to help
the task force after seeing graf
fiti along a stretch of West 16th
Street.
“When I saw that I said.’l
have to get involved’,” he said.
Wands got his first experi
ence in grant writing while
working as the general man
ager of the Erie Youth Sym
phony Orchestra. So far, the
task force’s efforts have been
funded through donations from
individuals and businesses.
The leader of the task force,
Erie 3rd Ward District Judge
Tom Carney, said, “It’s a huge
boost. I always said this is a war
on graffiti, and we have to take
every effort to be as effective as
we can.”
ERIE
25-year-old Vincent Davis
has requested that his case
be heard by a judge in a
non-jury trial.
Davis, who has pleaded
guilty twice in the murder of
his infant daughter and his
family dog, first expressed
interest in a trial by jury
back in Feb. 2009. Davis was
first set to go to trial with
Judge William Cunningham
presiding, along with a jury.
Instead, Cunningham re
cused himself from the case
due to the fact that he was
exposed to too much infor
mation in court after presid
ing over Davis’s two prior
guilty-plea hearings.
Davis remains in the Erie
County Prison with no bond
set.
iftffiLCREEK
car crash on West 12th
street in Millcreek township
sent three people to the hos
pital on Tuesday.
It was reported that Jes
sica Anderson of Fairview
Township with a 39-year old
female passenger turned left
at the intersection of West
12th Street and McConnell
Avenue, colliding with An
drew Foyle of Girard Town
ship at 11:15 a.m.
Anderson and Foyle were
both taken to Hamot Med
ical Center for minor in
juries, while the woman in
Anderson’s car had to be
pulled from the wreckage of
the vehicle before being
taken to Hamot Medical!
Center for serious but non-i
life-threatening injuries.
NATIONAL POLITICS
President Barack Obama proposes new oil drilling for U.S. waters
President Obama revealed plans on Wednes
day to open large areas of the U.S. coastal water
in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico for
oil and natural gas drilling on Wednesday. Along
with opening up U.S. coastal waters to drilling,
the plan would also lift the ban on drilling off the
Virginia coastline.
If a congressional moratorium on oil and gas
operations is also lifted, acoording to the pro
posal, around two-thirds of oil and gas resources
in the eastern Gulf of Mexico would be opened
to drilling. The drilling would be nearly 125 miles
off the coast of Florida.
The secretaries of interior, energy and the
Navy, as well as the chairwoman of the White
House Council on Environmental Quality, joined
the president as he gave his proposal and re
marks regarding the proposal to an audience at
the Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility in
Maryland.
“This is not a decision that I’ve made lightly,”
said Obama as he addressed the crowd. “But the
bottom line is this. Given our energy needs, in
order to sustain economic growth and produce
jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we’re
going to need to harness traditional sources of
fuel even as we ramp up production of new
sources of renewable, homegrown energy."
Some Republicans, though, believe the presi
dent’s proposal is not enough.
“It’s long past time for this administration to
stop delaying American energy production off all
our shores,” said House Minority Leader John
1. South Korea
stops search for
sailors
SEOUL, South Korea - The
South Korean military halted
the search for missing sailors
due to high winds on Wednes
day.
Since last Friday, searchers
have been looking for 46 miss
ing sailors since the Cheonan, a
naval ship, sunk in the Yellow
Sea after an unexplained ex
plosion on Friday.
The South Korean military
stated that an explosion in the
ECONOMY
Health care bill aids college students
The major health care reform bill that
was passed into law not only helps middle
aged adults and seniors, but also young
college students.
The bill, which also included a student
aid reform, is one of the most beneficial
legislative victories for young people that
has been enacted in the recent years.
Young adults, from the ages of 19-29,
represent almost a third of the uninsured
population. And two-thirds of those unin
sured young adults reported in 2007 justi
fied that they did not get the medical care
they needed because they could not afford
the high costs.
Most of the health care problems that are
related to young adults can be traced back
to the low-incomes of more than half of
young adults, according to research con
ducted for the Commonwealth FUnd.
But with the passage of this health care
bill, nine million more young adults will be
have access to care with the expansion of
Medicare, while two million more young
adults will be able to stay on their parents’
plans since the cut-off age for family bene
fits was extended to the age of 26.
Other young adults will be able to afford
insurance after benefiting from tax credits,
and be no longer denied because of a pre
existing condition.
Along with the health insurance, young
Boehner.
ERIC PEIRCE
asst, news editor
Boehner said that it seemed strange to still re
strict drilling in the Pacific Coast and Alaska
while gasoline prices are rising and Americans
need more jobs. But while some politicians argue
for more drilling than listed in the proposal,
some believe that this plan should be reconsid
ered, and even scrapped.
One advocate for the enviroment, Senator
Frank Lautenburg, says that the proposal is
sending the wrong message to oil and gas
drilling companies.
“Giving Big Oil more access to our nation’s wa
ters is really a ‘Kill, Baby, Kill’ policy,” Lauten
burg said. “It threatens to kill jobs, marine life
and kill coastal economies that generate billions
of dollars. Offshore drilling isn’t the solution to
our energy problems, and I will fight this policy
and continue to push for 21st century clean-en
ergy solutions.”
One Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, believes
that offshore drilling will actually help the envi
roment, saying that, “Moving forward on the
mid-Atlantic offshore proposal will provide an
opportunity to determine the scope of our re
gion’s offshore energy resources, the economic
viability of accessing those resources, and the
potential impacts on our environmental and na
tional security priorities.”
Other politicians stressed the economic bene
fits of the proposal.
“Virginians will benefit from the thousands of
jobs that will be created and the economic activ
ity and development that will accompany this
vital industry’s arrival in the state.” said Virginia
governor Bob McDonnell, who backed the pro-
World News
rear of the ship tore a hole
through the hull and caused the
ship to sink. So far, 58 of the
crew of 104 sailors have been
rescueed.
President Lee Myung-bak
said that an investigation into
the cause of the sinking was
underway
2. Serbian
parliament
apollgizes lor
massacre
BELGRADE, Serbia --
On Wednesday, the Serbian
ERIC PEIRCE
asst, news editor
adults will also benefit academically from
the bill.
The bill ended the spending of a sub
sidy program that put money into banks
and institutions for servicing government
student loans.
This will lead to over $36 billion being in-
Local
parliament issued an official
condemnation of the 1995 mas
sacre of thousands of Muslim
men and boys.
The massacre left over 7,000
Bosnian men and boys dead in
Srebrenica after Bosnian Serb
troops overran a United Na
tions “safe” area.
The condemnation also ex
pressed the concern of the cap
ture of Ratko Mladic, a former
Serb-Army commander who
was involved in the massacre
3. Americans on
CERRiTOS COLLEGE =
The health care bill helps college students with both student loans and health insurance.
posal with enthusiasm. Obama tried to make the small solution to a growing problem, since the
proposal appear as a way to balance the coun- U.S. is only in possession of two percent of the
try’s growing energy needs and enviromental world’s oil supply but accounts for over 20 per
concerns. He also stressed that this is only a cent of global oil consumption.
National News
trial in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -
Five U.S. college students
began their trial on Wednesday
in Pakistan after being accused
of several terrorist-related acts
including criminal conspiracy
to commit terrorism.
Sargodha Police Chief
Usman Anwar testified that he
has strong evidence against the
five, including over 20 wit
nesses.
The "D.C. 5” as the men are
called were arrested back in
December after they had been
missing for a month from their
homes in Virginia.
vested into the Pell Grant Program, which
provides money for low-income students to
attend college, over a period of 10 years.
The bill also allows the government to give
out loans directly to students, instead of
sending loans to banks that came with high
interest costs.
Offshore oil rigs may start dotting the landscape of the Gulf Coast.
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QUOTE OF
THE WEEK
, ,
| “Television is a medium be- |
1 cause anything well done is 1
! rare.” |
Fred Allen
FACT OF THE WEEK
/
Pretzels were invented 'i
1 by an Italian monk who |
! used them to bribe children j
! to memorize scripture. !
www.mentalfloss.com /'
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