WDUQ News, Pittsburgh

MONDAY, MAY 30, 2011

“Good Samaritan” Bill in PA House
A bill granting partial immunity to underage drinkers who call the authorities when their friends’ lives are threatened due to alcohol is winning praise from student leaders.

Dan Florencio, the president of Penn State University’s Interfraternity Council, said he’s heard a similar story time after time. “Someone just appeared really, really sick, and people were just like, ‘oh, let him sleep it off.’ Because they don’t want to get anyone in trouble,” he explained. “They don’t want to implicate themselves or the person. So they just let them sleep it off, or brush it off, when really, something really bad could be happening to the person’s body, because of alcohol.” Read the rest of this entry »

May 24, 2011
by Adam Smeltz

For at least 10 years, the State College teachers’ union has wanted the inclusion of same-gender domestic-partner benefits in school-district employee contracts, union President Holli Jo Warner said Monday.

In fact, Warner said the union — the State College Area Education Association — has asked the State College school district for that policy addition in the last two rounds of contract talks — one about five years ago, the other a decade ago.

“Through the negotiations process, we did not achieve that goal,” Warner told StateCollege.com. ” … We are currently in the process of negotiations (again) … and I’m sure it will be talked about again.”

StateCollege.com approached Warner about the subject in light of a federal lawsuit filed against the district last week.

In the case, district employee Kerry Wiessmann and her partner, Beth G. Resko, have targeted the district policy that prevents workers’ same-gender domestic partners from qualifying for the same benefits made available for opposite-gender domestic partners.

That policy, according to their complaint, violates Wiessmann and Resko’s First and 14th Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution. The women are seeking a change in the policy.

The school district is expected to respond formally in court. But in a preliminary statement released to reporters on Friday, the district administration indicated that the benefits policy in question stems from the collective-bargaining process. Read the rest of this entry »

By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD
New York Times
May 20, 2011

The battle to legalize same-sex marriage may be dominating the headlines, but that issue could take years to resolve. More immediately, a growing number of companies have taken it upon themselves to make life a little more equal for their gay employees.

These companies are reaching into their own pockets to pay for an extra tax that their gay employees owe on their partners’ health insurance — something that their married heterosexual co-workers don’t have to worry about because the federal government recognizes them as an economic unit.

To gay employees, gaining equal benefits is about more than the money. The gesture itself validates their relationship with their partners at a time when the government has not.

Most heterosexuals take for granted that they can add a spouse or children to their employer’s health plan. But gay employees with partners have that option only if they work for an organization that offers domestic partner coverage. Read the rest of this entry »

May 6, 2011

PHILADELPHIA – Panther Valley High School ( Carbon County ) senior Jeremy Thomas will be attending his prom tonight after all. Late yesterday afternoon a judge issued a ruling prohibiting the Panther Valley School District from enforcing its unconstitutional policy requiring students to submit to random drug testing to participate in extracurricular activities, including school dances. Until yesterday, Thomas was barred from attending his senior prom because he and his parents refused to consent to random drug testing.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on March 9, 2011, against PVSD on behalf of siblings M.T., a ninth grader, and Jeremy, who were not allowed to participate in after-school activities because of their refusal to consent to random, suspicionless urinalysis. An Eagle Scout and Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) member, Jeremy was kicked off the golf team after refusing to sign the consent form.

“We are very excited. This ruling vindicates our belief that people are innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around,” said Morgan Thomas, Jeremy and M.T.’s father. He added that his son was getting his suit today in preparation for tonight’s prom. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday, March 18, 2011

Alice Englin, Partners in Prevention

Parents are key in preventing underage drinking. Many studies have shown this to be true. When Freeborn County Partners In Prevention facilitates listening sessions in schools we hear over and over the impact parents have on kids decisions to drink or not. Following is an article written by Michelle Trudeau from the website www.npr.org.

As teenagers mature into their senior year of high school, many parents begin to feel more comfortable about letting them drink alcohol. But new research from brain scientists and parenting experts suggests loosening the reins on drinking may not be a good idea in the long run. And, researchers say, parents’ approach to addressing teen drinking does influence a teen’s behavior.

Brain researchers are finding that alcohol has a particularly toxic effect on the brain cells of adolescents. That’s because their brain cells are still growing, says Susan Tapert, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.

The regions of the brain important for judgment, critical thinking and memory do not fully mature until a person is in his or her mid-20s. Tapert found that alcohol can damage the normal growth and development of a teenager’s brain cells in these regions. Read the rest of this entry »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2011

PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed separate lawsuits in state court today to stop two northeastern Pennsylvania school districts from randomly drug and alcohol testing students who participate in extracurricular activities, including athletics and school dances, or who drive to school. The ACLU of PA believes the schools’ policies violate a 2003 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling requiring schools to justify suspicionless drug testing programs with evidence of a widespread drug problem among students.

“These policies teach young people to accept extreme invasions of their privacy when they’ve done nothing wrong,” said Mary Catherine Roper, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania and one of the attorneys representing the students and their parents.

“Random drug testing is also counterproductive, as studies have shown that extracurricular activities help students avoid drug use. Schools should not be putting up barriers to students’ participation in after-school activities,” she continued. Read the rest of this entry »

Monday, March 7th 2011
Penn State’s World Campus | University Park, Pa.

Penn State Public Broadcasting’s third installment of the Geospatial Revolution Project deals with the technology in relation to privacy and how geospatial information affects law enforcement, war and diplomacy.

– As police departments around the country consolidate and face tough decisions on how best to use limited resources, geospatial technology has proven to be an asset. Geospatial technology allows law enforcement officials to identify crime hot spots in the communities they serve, so they can dedicate the necessary resources to these areas, thus maximizing efficiency.

Penn State Public Broadcasting’s four-part online video series, the Geospatial Revolution Project, explores the way geospatial information—such as geospatial information systems (GIS), global position systems (GPS), and digital mapping—enhances the lives of individuals as well as the efficiency of institutions like police departments. Episode Three of the series, available now, also focuses on safety, privacy and the use of geospatial technology in warfare and diplomacy.

“A surveillance society is not only inevitable and irreversible, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s irresistible—and it’s not government doing it to us, it’s us doing it to ourselves,” Jeff Jonas, member of the board of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, said. “The more data that is available to us, the more transparent the world becomes.” Read the rest of this entry »

Cliff White and Wildamie Ceus
February 27, 2011
Centre Daily Times

STATE COLLEGE — Clad in green and blowing vuvuzelas, thousands of young people swarmed downtown State College on Saturday to celebrate State Patty’s Day, a student-created holiday centered on drinking.

Despite efforts by local officials to tamp down this year’s festivities, State College police Lt. Chris Fishel reported there were more people in town and more crime than last year’s event.

Police responded to more than 110 incidents in a 24-hour period through Saturday morning, about three times as many as a normal Friday night, Fishel said. During the entire State Patty’s Day weekend last year, State College police responded to about 365 calls related to the event, most of them alcohol-related.

Fights, false identification, and public urination and intoxication represented a majority of offenses committed by Saturday afternoon, Fishel said, adding that he expected the revelry to continue until about 4 a.m. today.

A spokeswoman for Mount Nittany Medical Center reported more than 40 people had been treated for alcohol-related injuries and conditions from 9 p.m. Thursday through 9 p.m. Saturday, some with severe injuries. Read the rest of this entry »

HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 24 (UPI) — The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board says no substance is more widely abused in the United States by those under the age of 21 than alcohol.

“This survey’s findings should serve as a reminder to parents and the entire community that no one is immune to the dangers of alcohol misuse and abuse,” Patrick J. “PJ” Stapleton, chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, says in a statement.

The survey, required annually by law, presents updated information on levels and trends of underage consumption of alcohol prevention programs supported by agency partners and science-based, proven prevention strategies. Read the rest of this entry »

By Joshua Ballard, Wildamie Ceus, Katie Moffitt and Anita Oh
For the Centre Daily Times
February 25, 2011

STATE COLLEGE — Green beer. Green shirts. Green beads. Green shamrocks.

To the rest of the country they mean St. Patrick’s Day, but in State College they all point to Saturday, the drinking “holiday” called State Patty’s Day that has come to confound university officers, borough officials and business owners alike.

Originally created by students because St. Patrick’s Day fell during spring break in 2007, the popularity of State Patty’s Day has grown each year, along with the partying, the drinking, the arrests and the soured town-gown relations.

Determined to tamp down the event, Penn State officials started planning months ago. A Sept. 17 report on alcohol initiatives to the board of trustees included steps aimed at “downplaying State Patty’s Day.”

Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims’s report called for efforts to discourage vendors from promoting the day, “a game day-like law enforcement presence,” and messages about responsible behavior from student leaders and organizations. All of those things have been done. Whether they will affect what happens on Saturday remains to be seen. Read the rest of this entry »