The Daily Collegian
Conklin calls for transportation funds
By Casey McDermott
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Local state representative and
lieutenant governor candidate
Scott Conklin is one of several
Pennsylvania leaders speaking
out in favor of patching up the
state's transportation funding.
Concerns about ailing roads,
bridges and other public trans
portation systems dominated a
Monday press conference held by
Conklin, D-Centre, in State
College, said Tor Michaels,
Conklin’s chief of staff.
“Rep. Conklin believes that the
No. 1 safety issue facing our resi
dents now is our transportation
infrastructure needs,” Michaels
said. “And we need to come up
Police warn against pool hopping
By Brendan McNally
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
When students are walking
home after a long night of party
ing in the stifling heat of apart
ments or fraternity basements,
they’re looking for a way to cool
off, and for some a quick
skinny-dip in Penn State’s out
door pool is just too enticing to
pass up.
Police have already cited stu
dents in six separate instances of
trespassing in the outdoor pool
after hours this summer, police
said.
Some students clad in swim
suits appear to have planned
out a night of forbidden swim
ming, police said, while others
seem to have hopped the pool’s
fence for a spontaneous skinny
dip after a night of partying.
Planned or not, McCoy
Natatorium Manager Shawn
Deßosa said these nighttime
swims can be deadly.
Swimmers can be severely
injured or killed from a simple
jump off the high dive, Deßosa
said, not to mention that there’s
an increased chance of drowning
at night.
Even worse, police said many
of the swimmers cited for tres
passing were under the influence
of alcohol a combination that
Deputy Director of the Penn
State Police Tyrone Parham said
could be fatal.
“Even during the day with life
guards, most pools say no alcohol
because it impairs your ability to
swim,” Parham said.
Parham said alcohol impairs
people's judgment to the point
that they will try dangerous activ-
Admissions office reaches out via networking
Twitter. Facebook are
sites used to interact
with incoming students
By Sky Friedlander
FOR THE COLLEGIAN
This week’s Spend A Summer
Day marks the start of the new
social media push by Penn State’s
Admissions Office.
Over the course of the two-week
event, the Office of
Undergraduate Admissions will
post on sites like Facebook,
Twitter and Flickr, recording the
event and communicating with
guests and those involved,
Undergraduate Admissions
Officer Alison Herget said.
Sestak criticizes left
By Marc Levy
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HARRISBURG U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak
didn’t spare fellow Democrats from blame Monday for
supporting a financial services deregulation bill a decade
ago that he now views as a key ingredient in Wall Street's
meltdown and the national recession.
Sestak has repeatedly blamed his Republican oppo
nent, former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, for helping cause the
recession by supporting a 1999 banking deregulation law
that, Sestak says, led to the Wall Street meltdown.
Asked by a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon moder
ator whether he also blames Democrats who supported
the bill including Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Harry
Reid Sestak responded: “Yes.”
“I stood up to my party when they're wrong and I'll say
it again,” Sestak said, a reference to his primary chal
lenge to Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter
against the wishes of President Barack Obama and party
leaders. Sestak won the primary.
Sestak, currently a House member, then repeated his
criticism of some Democratic senators who had voted for
Obama's health care overhaul earlier this year only after
they received heavily criticized carve-outs in the bill.
It's like “when someone like at the end of the health
care debate reaches over for a goody bar and says, ‘You
get my vote only because I take this back to my state,’” he
said.
And while much of Congress supported the financial
services deregulation bill, Sestak said “there were people
and there were senators who spoke against that.”
In 1999, Toomey supported the deregulation bill as a
House member representing the Lehigh Valley.
Reid, now the Senate majority leader, and Biden, then
a senator, voted fo voted for it and then-President Clinton
signed it. Toomey's spokeswoman, Nachama Soloveichik,
made the same point Monday.
with a bipartisan plan to address
this critical funding issue.”
Conklin’s stance echoes that of
Gov. Ed Rendell,
who just last week
gave a call to
arms in front 01
the Pennsylvania
Senate Transpor
tation Committee
urging its mem
bers to enact a
“real and lasting Conklin
transportation
funding solution.”
Pennsylvania ranks first in the
nation for structurally deficient
bridges.
The 5,646 cases in the state out
number those in New York, New
Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and
Coilegian file photo
A diver jumps off of the high board, which is now closed to the public.
ities that they wouldn’t otherwise
do while sober.
Deßosa said lifeguards have
already sent multiple swimmers
to the hospital after they suffered
injuries from routine jumps off
the 7.5-meter diving platform
during daytime hours.
Deßosa said swimmers have
experienced severe facial trauma
and dislocated shoulders from
diving incorrectly off the plat
form.
Because of the danger, pool
lifeguards won’t allow swimmers
to jump off the pool’s highest. lO
meter platform, but there aren’t
any lifeguards to stop tres
passers from making that jump
at night or to save them if they
get injured.
“There could just be a very
tragic accident,” Parham said.
That’s why police said they
One thing admissions is intro
ducing to the Spend A Summer
Day festivities is the live Twitter
feed screen, Undergraduate
Admissions Officer Jenna Spinelle
said.
Anyone who includes the hash
tag #SASDIO in their tweets will
show up on the screen.
This Spend A Summer Day is
like a “test” for admissions, she
said.
If the push is a success, admis
sions might use sites like Twitter
for more events.
“We’re looking to engage more
with prospective students and
their families,” Spinelle said.
“We’re really not sure how it’s
going to go.”
Spinelle said social networking
sites could be good for connecting
LOCAL & STATE
Maryland combined, according to
the Pennsylvania Department Of
Transportation (PennDOT)
“Transportation Flinding Crisis”
website.
Eighteen highway and bridge
improvement projects in Centre
County will go unfixed until addi
tional funding is available, accord
ing to PennDOT
Public transportation projects
for the Centre Area
Transportation Authority (CATA),
including 16 bus replacements,
will also be delayed until more
funding is available, according to
PennDOT
In order to foot the bill for these
and other projects, Michaels said
legislators should look at solutions
such as imposing a Marcellus
patrol the area on a regular basis
at night.
Police have cited trespassers
on May 14, June 24, and July 9,
10, 11 and 18 of this year, police
said.
Police said they issued cita
tions at the pool early in the
morning on the Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday of Arts Fest week
end.
Police often catch the tres
passers actually swimming in the
pool or climbing over the fence
soaking wet, police said.
More rarely, people are cited
after police find them walking
down the roads close to the pool
soaking wet, police said.
•‘lt's one of those things you
shake your head at,” Parham
said. “It's just not a good idea.”
To e-mail reporter: bwmsl47@psu.edu
“What we’re trying to do is give our visitors a
new and exciting way to interact with us.”
with students and their families,
as well as with other Penn State
groups and departments.
Admissions has been utilizing
Facebook for about a year but has
only recently started using Twitter
on its own. Herget said.
“What we're trying to do is give
our visitors a new and exciting
way to interact with us,” she said.
A screen displaying the Twitter
feed is located in the HUB-
Robeson Center, Herget said.
The HUB also houses admis
sions' “social media hub" where
Advertise! 814-865-2531
Shale gas tax or cutting corporate
income taxes by 21 percent.
“All options should be on the
table,” he said.
Penn State College Democrats
President Rob Ghormoz agreed
that transportation problems war
rant cooperation across the aisle.
“When it comes to something
like safety, it’s not a politics issue
anymore,” Ghormoz (senior-politi
cal science) said. “You need bipar
tisan agreement that’s keeping
citizens safe.”
Ghormoz also said he thinks the
Marcellus Shale tax should be
explored as a potential source of
transportation funding.
But Samuel Settle, chairman of
the Penn State Young Americans
for Freedom, said a tax on
The new table games in casinos have brought about great revenue
State sees casino benefits
By The Associated Press
ALLENTOWN Pennsylvania
collected more in taxes from com
mercial casino gambling than any
other state, including gambling
heavyweight Nevada, a newspa
per reported.
Pennsylvania’s tax revenue
from commercial casinos
approached $l.l billion in the fis
cal year that ended June 30, The
Morning Call of Allentown report
ed Monday. Indiana was second
with $B7B million and Nevada third
with $B3l million.
A comparison by the American
Gaming Association also showed
Pennsylvania ahead in the 2009
calendar year.
Pennsylvania has just nine casi
nos operating, but its 55 percent
tax rate on slot machine gambling
more than makes up for it.
By comparison, Nevada takes 8
percent from its 260 casinos.
Pennsylvania's casinos began
offering table games this month.
Those games are being taxed at
a rate of 16 percent and are
projected to bring the state
Jenna Spinelle
Undergraduate Admissions officer
employees can upload content on
sites like Twitter, Facebook and
Flickr, Herget said.
She said she also hopes people
will use their phones throughout
Spend A Summer Day and
share the content and document
their experiences while at Penn
State.
Student volunteers with Flip
Video camcorders will be record
ing video during the event, she
added.
Herget said admissions is hesi
tant to announce any future social
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 I
Marcellus shale drilling could
deter future development on the
resource.
Settle also said putting a tax on
Marcellus shale drilling could
cause the burden for a problem
that’s concentrated in two major
urban areas to fall upon those
throughout the rest of the state.
“There’s the same problem with
education or any major state ini
tiative the state has kind of a
weird, dichotomous relationship
between big cities and rural areas
like State College,” Settle (junior
political science) said. “[Rinds]
almost always get allocated to the
two places who have largest voic
es and who can cry the loudest.”
To e-mail reporter: cmms773@psu.edu
Matt Rourke/Associated Press
$320 million more per year.
Gaming Control Board
spokesman Richard McGarvey
said Pennsylvania's high revenue
isn’t surprising.
“Our tax is so high because the
intention of the gaming law was to
bring in tax money," he said.
Slot machine revenue has
helped lower real estate taxes and
helped prop up the state's horse
racing industry. Its also helping
pay for large civic projects like the
expansion of the Pennsylvania
Convention Center in
Philadelphia and grants for volun
teer fire companies.
Gary Tuma, a spokesman for
Gov. Ed Rendell, said a typical tax
payer have seen his bill go down
about $l9O per year, and senior cit
izens get even bigger breaks.
Pennsylvania’s 55 percent tax
rate on slot-machine proceeds is
among the highest in the nation,
below New York’s 65 percent and
West Virginia’s 57 percent.
The Keystone State’s high tax
rate is not unusual among states,
that recently approved gambling,
said a gaming industry analyst.
networking plans because the
office first wants to try it out to
“see what the response is."
Rishi Agrawal said he wouldn't
be adverse to an expansion in
admissions’ presence online.
“I think those would be useful
places to find answers,” Agrawl
(freshman-biochemistry and
molecular biology) said.
Agrawl does not follow Penn
State Admissions online, but he
does connect to other students on
Penn State Facebook pages, like
the group for Schreyer Honors
College students, Class of 2014, he
said.
But he said he thinks pages run
by students would be some
thing especially helpful for
other students like him to find
answers.
More than
3/4
of all students
have used a
coupon or
special offer!