Voices of Central Pa

Strawberries for sale at the Boalsburg Farmers Market. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be more expensive than processed foods in the short run, but pay off over time with fewer health issues. Consumers can lower costs by buying in season, frozen or canned foods in winter. Photo by Tina Peterson

by Tina Peterson

Anna Marie Nachman raised five children and frequently found it difficult to buy the food she wanted to give them. The Covington township resident said she still remarks on how costly healthy food is.

“When they were growing up,” she said, “to try to feed that many, we just went for the least expensive food we could find. And I know they didn’t eat healthy.”

Her daughter has three boys, she said, and she knows how difficult it must be to make them healthy meals because it’s so expensive.

“It just costs so much less to buy a packet of Kool-Aid than juice. A lot of things are that way,” she said.

Nachman said she usually shops at Wal-Mart or Giant, which she has to go out of her way to visit.

Penn State has released it's report into the Michael Mann investigation. Here is a link to the report, the statement of it's conclusion, and a snippet about the process.

Conclusion of the Investigatory Committee as to whether research misconduct occurred:

The Investigatory Committee, after careful review of all available evidence, determined that there is no substance to the allegation against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Professor, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University.

More specifically, the Investigatory Committee determined that Dr. Michael E. Mann did not engage in, nor did he participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, or other scholarly activities.

The decision of the Investigatory Committee was unanimous.

http://live.psu.edu/fullimg/userpics/10026/Final_Investigation_Report.pdf
(The critical points in this report have been helpfully marked out with yellow backgrounds - look for the yellow to extract the most important items.)

From November 30 to December 14,2009, staff in the Office for Research Protections culled through the 1073 files that contained emails or email strings that were purloined from a server at the University of East Anglia. A subset of the files containing emails or email strings was reviewed. This subset of files included emails that were sent by Dr. Mann, were sent to Dr. Mann, were copied to Dr. Mann, or discussed Dr. Mann (but were neither addressed nor copied to him). In summary, the following were found: 

       206 files that contained emails or email strings that contained messageltext from Dr.

by Chris Ulmer

While most Penn State graduates will be enjoying one final summer vacation, interning or starting full-time work, William Morgan, a recent graduate, will be cycling across America with four friends in hopes of raising awareness for sustainable living and environmental issues.

“The ecosystem of earth is what motivates us,” said Morgan, who graduated in 2009. “The current culture of America is unsustainable. It systematically pollutes the earth, water and air. Humans cannot go on with infinite growth in a finite world. We are hoping to empower the individual to reconnect to the earth.”

The friends want to connect with people who are already dedicated to their environment during the cross-country trip.

“We are focused on meeting people who are dedicated to the community. These are the people who can make the biggest change,” Morgan said.

The bicyclists will begin in New Jersey, then bike around the Great Lakes, and to the Canadian border. They will ride along the border to Washington, then head south to San Francisco, their final destination. When they arrive in San Francisco, their sustainable lifestyle will have only just begun.

“One option we are hoping for is to live in a permaculture establishment,” explained Morgan. “If this does not work out, we could always settle down in San Francisco.” Permaculture is a method of gardening that mimics nature with edible and medicinal plantings.

Morgan and friends are not concerned with a fairy-tale ending to their story. They are more concerned with showing others it is possible to live sustainably.

“It is not the ending I am concerned with, but the journey,” Morgan declared.

Maya Althouse, recently-retired Bee Queen, remains active promoting beekeeping in the Rebersburg area. Photo by Jill Gómez

by Jill Gómez

Bees need a spokesperson these days, and Maya Althouse is up to the task. Well before she became the 2009 Honey Queen of the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association (PSBA), she studied the plight of diminishing honey bees and their critical importance to life on this planet.

Althouse moved with her family to the Rebersburg area from Florida in the summer of 2007, before her sophomore year at Penns Valley Area High School.

“Growing up in Miami, honey was something you found in the store on a shelf,” said Althouse. She met beekeeper Mike Byers at the Millheim farmers’ market that summer, and their conversation led to her interest in bees. Students in the Penns Valley school system are required to select a major project and have until their senior year to complete it. Althouse chose bees, and in the fall of 2007 she acquired her first set of honey bees, an “observation hive,” smaller than a standard hive.

“I wanted to be hands-on, to connect with bees, so to speak,” she said. Just a year later she ran for and received the title of Honey Queen, and around that time set up a larger hive in her backyard. As part of her yearlong, reign Althouse gave over 40 presentations at a myriad of events and organizations all around Pennsylvania. Locally, she appeared at the Grange Fair, the Ag Progress Days at Penn State and the Centre County Ag Forum.

 http://www.MarkFiore.com Witness the wonders of voluntary regulation and self-policing businesses in this animated political cartoon. Tony Hayward and BP aren't the first to revel in the wonders of poor government oversight. Obama gets blamed for BP's oil spill and much more! A Mark Fiore political animation.

 
Figure from the 2003 Centre County Growth Forecasting Project

Regional governments, city planners and citizens hold differing opinions on how much Centre County will grow—and how much it matters.

by David Hutto

Local and regional governments spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on the salaries of professional planners while local residents have shown little interest in the process unless it appears within their sightline.

“0.08 percent of the population showed up to provide any kind of comment” on the region’s five-year comprehensive plan, said Trisha Lang, director of Planning and Zoning for Ferguson Township, who added that the prevailing attitude goes something like, “As long as it’s not next door to me, I just don’t care. People don’t care.”

At the end of February and through March, six public meetings were held to discuss potential changes in the plan. Total attendance for the six meetings was 76 people.

Professional planning staff at the municipal and regional level anticipate slight growth in the region, but some local residents say planning for more growth is not the solution.

The State College metropolitan area has a population of 86,000. Nevertheless, in the next 30 years, this region is expected to add an estimated 20,000 people, according to Jim May, director of Centre Regional Planning Association.

Regional planners assume growth, and based on this assumption, plan for more housing and greater demands on infrastructure.

May said people in the region want a “sustainable” growth model.

A free political cartoon about the gulf oil spill, the birds of the gulf glaring at BP executives, by MEBE 2010.

by Hannah Abelbeck

The environmental risks related to drilling for gas in the Marcellus are worth the costs, according to Terry Engelder, professor of geosciences at Penn State.

Engelder has been a vocal advocate of Marcellus development, and it was his estimates of how much gas could be recovered from the shale, a figure announced in a Jan. 2008 Penn State press release, that helped spur the current rush.

The events that have followed have “been a life changer,” Engelder told Voices. Since then, the professor, who keeps meticulous records, has spoken with 139 reporters, 194 natural gas companies, and will soon give his 146th presentation on the Marcellus in Buffalo, N.Y. he said.

“I go home and work and fall asleep thinking about this,” Engelder said.

In addition to Engelder’s professorial responsibilities, he consults for the gas industry as a principal in Appalachian Fracture Systems, Inc. with Gary Lash, a geosciences professor at SUNY Fredonia, and co-author with Engelder on the Marcellus estimates. AFS consults with geologists and engineers, landowners and investors, providing estimates, explanations and advice.

“They’re all part of the same continuum,” Engelder said of his roles as teacher, researcher and private consultant.

He likened it to his role as a professor itself, with its three separate responsibilities of teaching, research and service. “It’s kind of hard to tell whether it’s teaching, research or service,” he said.

Engelder’s Marcellus estimates and his willingness to talk with the media are an outgrowth of “30 years worth of work,” he said. Now, it has “brought millions back.

Penn State students have, on average, a higher level of debt when they graduate than most students in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Education. But they are not alone. Pennsylvania overall ranks among the top 10 states (including the District of Columbia) for student debt load. Source: “Student Debt and the Class of 2008” report by the Project on Student Debt.

by Dave DeIuliis

Although Penn State students will be an average of $29,000 in debt when they graduate—well above the national average of $20,200 for the same cohort—many see their degrees as well worth a veritable mountain of debt.

Alyssa Fettinger, a graduating senior studying health policy and administration, estimates that upon graduation, she will have to repay more than $25,000 in student loans. She is also aware that 71 percent of Penn State graduates are in the same position, but despite the state of the economy and an entry-level starting salary, she would be willing to take on up to $10,000 more just to attend Penn State.

This willingness to take on more and more debt, as well as institutional tuition increases, are two reasons cited by the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to explain why the amount of money students borrow has long been growing.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, two out of every three students borrowed a total of $75.1 billion in 2008-2009, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. Although the amount borrowed has been consistently growing for years, a 25 percent surge is the largest recorded.