The Daily Collegian Haitian kids face uncertain future By David Crary ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER Six months after a chaotic airlift to the United States, 12 Haitian children remain in a Roman Catholic institution near Pittsburgh, their fate in limbo while U.S. and Haitian authorities struggle to determine which nation should be their future home. Their case is complicated and politically sensitive, and all parties say they want the best outcome possible for the children. Yet impa tience in some quarters is grow ing. “It’s astounding to me that the bureaucracy can’t get this done,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who took part in the air lift. “It’s unfair to these children. Let’s get them adopted by loving families.” Unlike some 1,100 other chil dren flown out of Haiti to the U.S. after the Jan. 12 earthquake, the youths at the Holy Family Institute in Emsworth, Pa., were not part of the adoption process prior to the quake and accord ing to some legal experts shouldn’t have been eligible for the emergency program. There are American families eager to adopt them now, includ ing some who've been screened and approved by adoption agen cies. But there’s been little in the way of public updates on the case as federal agencies, the Haitian government and the International Red Cross try to determine whether the 12 should be put up for U.S. adoption or returned to relatives in Haiti. The State Department, which oversees various aspects of inter national adoption, is deeply involved in case but has not Gas well employer had past violations By Joe Mandak ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER PITTSBURGH The employ er of two workers killed in an oil and gas well explosion last week had paid nearly $lO,OOO in federal workplace safety fines for two other well fires, including a 2007 explosion that burned an employ ee, records show. Officials at Northeast Energy Management Inc. of Indiana. Pa., did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday about the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration records. The explosion and fire Friday was the third since September 2007 involving Northeast Energy Management workers at a west ern Pennsylvania well. OSHA spokeswoman Lenore Uddyback- Fortson confirmed. Huntley & Huntley Inc. of Monroeville, the drilling company that owned the well, has a clean OSHA record, Uddyback-Fortson said. Northeast Management was cited for 10 serious violations, and one other violation after the September 2007 explosion and fire at a well near Sligo in Clarion County, OSHA records show. Workers at a natural gas well “were exposed to an unsafe air mixture environment resulting in an explosion and fire causing injuries," OSHA said. A piece of equipment called the f Ple.iseopplyatwwwdantesinc.com 11 L Or send resumes to bbp '-'dantesmc.com Jj issued statements about it. Two staffers authorized by the department to brief a reporter only if they not be identified described the case as very com plex and said there was no time frame for resolving it as efforts continue to verify information about the children's families in Haiti. They said no decisions would be made that were not acceptable to the Haitian government, which has been wary of some post-quake efforts to send children abroad. In May, the leader of an Idaho church group was convicted of arranging illegal travel after the group tried to take children out of Haiti with out government approval. The 12 children at Holy Family were part of an airlift of 54 chil dren from the Bresma orphanage in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where two Pittsburgh-area sis ters, Jamie and Alison McMutrie, had been volunteering for several years. The sisters' urgent post quake pleas for help were heeded participants in the Jan. 19 airlift included Rendell, officials from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and a local Democratic congressman. Rep. Jason Altmire. At Holy Family, the 12 children have been shielded from public view, and from the media, since their arrival, but by all accounts are receiving excellent treatment. They experienced their first snow fall during the winter, made field trips to Pittsburgh's zoo and chil dren's museum, and have enjoyed the swimming pool during recent hot weather. "The children had typical reac tions to being whisked out of their country.... We had bed-wetting and tantrums," said Sister Linda Yankoski, the institute’s president. The July 23 natural gas well explosion left two workers dead blowout preventer had been removed, causing the well to spew natural gas for two hours before an attempt was made to cap the well, the records show. OSHA proposed $12,442 in fines, and Northeast Energy eventually paid $5,965 to settle seven of the 10 serious violations, records show. In November 2008, the company was fined $4,000 for a drilling rig fire in Charleroi in Washington Countv. "No employees were injured, and we cited them for electrical wiring and equipment that was not approved for hazardous loca tions," Uddyback-Fortson said. OSHA and other investigators have yet to determine the cause of Friday's explosion in Indiana Township that killed Northeast Energy employees Andy Yosurak Jr., 56. of Creekside, and Kevin Henry, 46, of New Florence. It is known that at least one of the workers was welding an oil tank at the shallow oil and natural gas well when the tank exploded and set the well on fire, according to Helen Humphreys, a spokes woman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The tank rocketed 70 yards John Heller/Associated Press Orphaned Haitian children arrive at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh following the earthquake in January. 'We re not seeing that now. They appear to be very well adjusted. " Ranging in age from 15 months to nearly 13, the children have been living together in their own residence, kept apart from the dozens of troubled youths who make up the institute's regular population. The staff has been supplement ed with Creole-speaking volun teers. In hindsight, it's clear that including the 12 children in the air lift has created a long-running dilemma. Yet federal and state officials have defended the deci sion not to leave them behind in the confusion at the Port-au- Prince airpor t saying the alter native’ would have been to send them back to an understaffed, away, and the workers were badly burned and hurled dozens of feet by the blast, investigators have They've yet to pinpoint the cause of the explosion. lIEP Secretary John Hanger said he hopes the agency will report on the cause of the blast within 45 davs. The law gives OSHA six months to do that, Uddyback-Fortson said. Huntley President Keith Mangini defended Northeast Energy. "We've used them frequently, and we believe they've been a good company We continue to believe they're a good company” Mangini said Tuesday adding that Huntley expects to issue a state ment about the subcontractor. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner has yet to release the cause of death on the two workers, saying that is pending the out come of investigations into the explosion's cause. The well is in Indiana Township in Allegheny County, about 15 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Northeast Energy compnay is based in the Indiana borough, about 45 miles northeast of Pittsburgh in Indiana County. WOW!! FREE 1 st Mo. Rent 4 to 8 max. - 4 bedrm - 4 bath 129 Orange Ailey - More info, call 234-4462 www.specialdwellings.com Total monthly rent $2,600 divided by the number of residents undersupplied orphanage in a devastated city. When it became clear that the 12 children were not part of the U.S. adoption process, an adoption service provider affiliated with the Bresma orphanage compiled a list of qualified U.S. families willing to adopt them. Among them were Chad and Sherry Cluver of Forsyth, 111., who’d been contemplating adopt ing from Haiti long before the earthquake. The Cluvers both high school teachers flew to Pittsburgh on Jan. 21 to meet briefly with two of the 12 children who, later that day, were moved to the Holy Family Institute. Since then, according to Sherry Cluver, she and her husband have been prohibited from further visits Super apt. walk PSU MESS IUTHE W PAPER ■ PLATE DINING GUIDE •••••••••• Delivery Take Out Dine-In GO TO PSUCOLLEGIAN.COM Pa. one of 18 states competing for grants By Christine Armario and Dorie Turner ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS ATLANTA Eighteen states and the District of Columbia were named finalists Tuesday in the second round of the federal “Race to the Top” school reform grant competition, giving them a chance to receive a share of $3.4 billion. The states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. The competition rewards ambitious reforms aimed at improving struggling schools and closing the achievement gap. Dozens of states have passed new education policies to foster charter school growth and modi fy teachers evaluations, hoping to make themselves more attractive to the judges. In a speech announcing the finalists at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said a “quiet revo lution" of education reform is faking place across the country. “It’s being driven by great educators and administrators who are challenging the defeatism and inertia that has trapped generations of children in second-rate schools,” Duncan said. Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia applied dur- outdoors™** orcou ' )ons appMt4oors.c«R S?*wn Una Cc**f*, lfc>Th»3Qßm-B:3opin, fir »30ofn-9pm, 9» a»n>Bpm, Su 10»m-8pm Wednesday, July 28,2010 I or any other contact with the chil dren, and the last update they got from any federal official was June 15. “We’re here, praying for you, loving you, and writing and calling important people for help to bring you home,” Culver wrote in a recent blog entry, addressing the children even though they were unlikely to read it. “We pray that your hearts might somehow know that we have not left you behind.” Among those Cluver has con tacted is her congressman, Aaron Shock, R-111. His spokesman, Dave Natonski, said Shock plans to write to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius inquiring about the sta tus of the case and the welfare of the 12 children. ing the second round of the com petition so that they could advance. Applications were screened by a panel of peer reviewers, and finalists will travel to Washington in coming weeks to present their proposals. The department expects 10 to 15 states will ultimately receive money, depending on whether large or small states win. “Just as in the first round, we’re going to set a very high bar because we know that real and meaningful change will only come from doing hard work and setting high expectations,” Duncan said. All finalists scored higher than 400 points out of a possible 500 points in the initial evaluation. Duncan said the average score rose by 26 points between the first and second rounds. In the past 18 months, 13 states have altered laws to foster the growth of charter schools, and 17 have reformed teacher evaluation systems to include student achievement, among other things. New York, a finalist in the first round that did not win money, lifted its cap on the number of charter schools that can open from 200 to 460. Colorado passed laws that would pay teachers based on student performance and can strip tenure from low-perform ing instructors. Georgia, a current finalist, did n’t change any laws to its system but already had one of the most open charter policies in the country. Marmot Precip Rain Jacket Men's & Women's Originally $99.95 it's raining cats and dogs! Not a problem for the Marmot nrecip. Complete with side venting, helmet compatible hood and a lifetime warranty, this ram jacket will be your best friend alt year PRODUCT FEATURES • PreCip® Dry Touch Technology • 100% Seam-taped Waterproof Valid Tuesday, 27th through Sunday, August 1 st or while supplies la* Sorry, not valid with any other discounts Limited to in-stock inventory' only. Please, no rain checks or special orders. Select colors only
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