State briefs
Better grades sought PITTSBURGH (AP) – The University of Pittsburgh wants fraternity and sorority members to boast better grades than nonmembers.
Kathy Humphrey, dean of students, said if those groups want to produce leaders, they should show it in their grades.
Women in Pitt sororities had a combined grade-point average last spring of 3.23 – above the 3.14 average for female students.
But fraternity members had a combined GPA of 2.62 – below the 2.94 average for male students.
About ten percent of the 15,000 students on the Oakland campus belong to fraternities or sororities.
Bryan Giglio, president of the Interfraternity Council, agreed that higher academic scores will improve the image of fraternities and sororities.
Law kicks in
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A new federal law penalizes motorists with commercial driver’s licenses for violations committed in their private vehicles.
The law, which took effect at the end of September, is intended to make roads safer. Violators could face bans on driving from 60 days to life and possible fines.
Jim Runk, president of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, said the state is already short on drivers and the new law could lead companies to lose good drivers.
He worries that someone may get a violation in their private vehicle even though that driver may have a perfect safety record in their commercial vehicle.
That person may leave the trucking profession, he said.
Motorists should be driving safely no matter what type of vehicle they are driving, PennDOT said.
Teen killed
LINESVILLE, Pa. (AP) – A 13-year-old died after crashing his all-terrain vehicle in an organized race this weekend.
Jason Myers, of Greenville, was pronounced dead at a hospital Saturday after the crash at the Pymatuning Holeshot Raceway near Linesville, Crawford County.
Myers’ tire clipped another vehicle’s tire as he was trying to move from the inside of the track to the outside, authorities said. Myers’ vehicle landed on him.
Myers died from accidental blunt force trauma to the chest, said Ronald Dickson, deputy Crawford County coroner.
Art Cervi Jr., who owns the track, said Myers was wearing required protective gear. He was racing as part of a three-day event.
Prison staff sued
ERIE, Pa. (AP) – Prisoners at the State Correctional Institution at Albion are suing prison staff over an outdoor strip search.
The 14 inmates claim the group search in September 2004 violated their constitutional rights because it occurred in the exercise yard in view of staff and other inmates.
The prisoners’ naked bodies were gratuitously exposed, according to the suit filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Erie. The inmates claim the search violated their Fourth Amendment rights that prohibit unlawful searches and seizures.
They are asking for unspecified monetary damages to compensate for humiliation, embarrassment, emotional pain and suffering.
The search caused depression to varying degrees, said Jere Krakoff, their lawyer.
William Barr, assistant superintendent at Albion, declined comment.
No more tests planned
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) – Police have no plans to give polygraph tests to any more family members of missing Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar.
Gricar’s daughter, Lara, and his girlfriend, Patty Fornicola, have taken lie detector tests. Both “passed with flying colors,” Bellefonte police officer Darrel Zaccagni has said. Authorities wanted to be sure that neither woman had any knowledge of Gricar’s whereabouts or had anything to do with his disappearance, Zaccagni said.
Police had considered testing other members of Gricar’s family, including his second wife and nephews, but now say that there is nothing to justify doing that.
“It’s highly unlikely that he’d go to an ex-wife whom he didn’t get along with … (a)nd his nephews he wasn’t close with on a daily basis,” Zaccagni said.
Police say they do not think his disappearance is tied to any of his cases and have few credible leads.
Office closings studied
LOCK HAVEN, Pa. (AP) – A Clinton County commissioner said he wants to reconsider the practice of closing county offices on Wednesday afternoons.
The offices began the practice several years ago, initially only in the summer months. Now the county employees’ union contract calls for half days on Wednesdays.
Commissioner Rich Kyle said he’d like to renegotiate that clause when the contract expires in two years.
“I’m open-minded enough to revisit it,” Kyle said.
The other commissioners, Tom Bossert and Bud Yost, had no comment.
Faculty lacks women
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) – Bloomsburg University has the lowest percentage of female faculty members in the 14-school State System of Higher Education, and also ranks last in terms of women and minorities in executive jobs, officials said.
According to 2004 figures from the State System of Higher Education, about 39 percent of Bloomsburg’s 379 faculty members were women, compared to a 44.7 percent system average.
Eight of the school’s 32 executives were women in 2004, and just one a minority.
President Jessica Kozloff said her administration is studying ways to improve those areas.
“We have to do better,” Kozloff said at a forum sponsored by the school’s Commission on the Status of Women last week.
New Provost James Mackin wants to increase the number of women on the faculty through the hiring process, he said.
Project successful
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) – A Lehigh University professor concluded that Bethlehem Area School District’s decision to provide laptop computers to middle school pupils was successful.
Ward M. Cates’ surveys of teachers and children concluded that the children gained confidence, felt better prepared for the future and were less likely to feel left out when issued the computers.
The school district now wants Cates to begin a study to evaluate the direct academic effects of the project.
Superintendent Joseph Lewis said he would like to let children take the laptops home with them, but there are concerns that they would be mugged if word got out that they were carrying computers.
“We have a tremendous number of students who walk,” Lewis said at a recent curriculum committee meeting. “While we’d like to do it, we’re just not comfortable with that at this point.”
Merger studied
OLD FORGE, Pa. (AP) – Money problems are forcing Old Forge School District officials to consider merging with the adjoining Riverside School District.
Old Forge faces rising health insurance and energy costs but also the possibility of paying two years worth of retroactive pay to teachers, who have an unsettled labor dispute.
“I’m worried in the future it may come to a merger, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Old Forge board member George Yescavage said. “We don’t want to merge.”
Riverside Board President Thomas G. Harrison said his board informally discussed the idea after hearing rumors.
“We’re not dead-set against it,” Harrison said. “Even though we’re rivals in football, it might be a good thing.”
Variety offered
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) – Bethlehem residents can choose their trash hauler from among 19 licensed in the city, which means it’s nearly always garbage day somewhere in the neighborhood.
“When I go to work, I see garbage in front of homes, trash piled high,” resident Josephine Zavecz said. “It is never really cleared away.”
Mayor John Callahan hopes to carve the city into five zones of about 5,400 households each and limit haulers to a single pick-up day in each zone.
“The neighborhoods will look cleaner, and there is less of a health risk because garbage will not be on the streets every day,” Callahan said.
About 80 percent of the 2,075 property complaints to the health bureau this year relate to garbage.
Trash hauling has been an issue in town for years. The city has tried twice in the past 13 years to award a citywide contract to a single hauler, but public criticism foiled the plans.