Wows and Scowls
Scowl: The latest PETA campaigns that are a rip off on the milk industry’s Got Milk? ads leave us wondering once again if the folks at PETA got brains? The Got Beer? campaign is back with PETA purchasing ads in student newspapers at several college campuses. This is the same stupidity-based slogan that PETA tried two years ago when it claimed, ounce for ounce beer packs more nutrition than milk. This defies logic.
It’s common knowledge that beer is little more than empty calories with few, if any, nutritional value and milk is chalk full of calcium.
PETA isn’t content to just target college kids looking for a good excuse to pound back a few brews, it is also attempting to market a billboard in the south picturing klansman David Duke with the tagline “Got (Lactose) Intolerance? The White Stuff Ain’t the Right Stuff.”
—
Wow: Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon in assuming the lead of the revived Drug Task Force from the attorney general’s office named deputy prosecutor Mark Brooks the coordinator.
This was a smart move on Vernon’s part. Brooks held this position under former DA and now judge Ralph Warman and has earned the respect of law enforcement officers by being available and on-call at all hours.
He has also demonstrated expertise in the nuances of searches, controlled buys that must be carried out precisely in order for the district attorney’s office to successfully prosecute drug cases.
—
Wow: In too many of our communities kids complain that there is no place to go and adults complain that kids are just hanging out, looking for trouble.
A group in Masontown is doing something about it. Formed a year ago, the Power Plant Youth Center is catching on, according to its director Barbara Lewis.
This week she attended the Masontown Borough Council meeting asking for help in turning the former Masontown Elementary School into a place that community groups such as hers can use. The school would be an ideal place for kids to gather for after school, weekend and summer activities.
Already a core group of kids ranging from 20 on a slow night to 60 on a hopping night are attending the youth center activities.
Lewis said they could use more space and that the old school could be turned into a community center that plays host to groups of all ages and interests. This is a goal worth pursuing.
—
Wow: Hardly a week passes without the publishing of yet another study on obesity, diets, exercise.
The information can be overwhelming and conflicting. Recently the Institute of Medicine released new guidelines for partaking of a healthy diet, with recommendations for the amount of fat, protein and sugars we should consume on a daily basis. And for the first time ever the institute recommended at least an hour of exercise each day.
In commenting on the recommendations, Uniontown’s Dr. Paul Hartley reminds us that one needn’t fret over fat grams and carbs but merely follow the healthy living plan that mothers and grandmothers served us as children. “They told us to eat a well-balanced diet and not to eat too much fast food. They also told us that we needed exercise. If we would have listened to the common sense advice of our mothers and grandmothers, we would be doing all right.”
—
Wow: Not too many folks would turn down an honor to have a flag they designed be officially adopted by the state.
But Donna Martin of Dawson did because the strings attached didn’t fly right with her. Martin, immediately after Sept. 11, designed a flag depicting the tragedy and has so far sold 5,000 flags and 3,000 pins with proceeds benefiting charities.
In March, state Sen. Richard Kasunic liked Martin’s flag so much that he introduced a bill to establish the flag as the terrorism memorial flag for Pennsylvania. After reviewing the bill, Martin realized the flag would then belong to the state and any proceeds from sales would go to Pennsylvania and not necessarily to the non-profit groups that she attempts to aid.
—
Scowl: Leave it to state Rep. Larry Roberts, D-South Union, to use whatever documents he can to advance his position for personal benefit – even if those documents run counter to a political vendetta that he continues to pursue with zeal.
Roberts in petitioning to lower the $22,3,590 assessed value on his home appeared at a zoning appeal board hearing and submitted appraisals that he felt more in line with the home’s value. One of those appraisals, setting a $206,000 value, was completed by chief county assessor Jim Hercik in 1997 when Roberts began his personal crusade to pay less in property taxes and his personal crusade to smear Hercik.
It’s somewhat ironic that Hercik’s appraisal holds so much worth in Roberts’ eyes when used to his benefit, especially when Roberts claims Hercik is so incompetent in establishing property values that he should be stripped of his license. Roberts plans next month to testify against Hercik during a hearing before the State Board of Certified Real Estate Appraisers. As an aside, Hercik’s appraisal did work in Roberts’ favor. The board reduced his home’s value to $212,500.