Wows and Scowls
Scowl: Setting fires and rioting in the streets is criminal behavior and West Virginia University officials need to treat it as such. The university, along with local and state police, did all that they could to warn students to stop setting fires in the streets after WVU football games. It didn’t work. Thursday night, rowdy football fans first stormed the field trying to tear down the goal posts and then hit the streets to set what they could on fire and, in some cases, to battle police officers attempting to restore order. WVU plans to look at videotapes and photographs depicting those involved. “If there are students in the pictures, and I’m sure there will be, they’ll be hearing from our student affairs office and will be disciplined accordingly,” a university spokeswoman said. If that statement is the equivalent of a “wait until your father gets home,” then the fires will continue. Following similar post-game mayhem earlier this month, WVU expelled one student. Another faces an expulsion hearing and a third is on deferred suspension, which means he’s one infraction away from expulsion. That’s showing way too much tolerance for criminal activities that risk catastrophe to life and property. —
Wow: Congratulations to the Enlow Fork mine rescue team for winning its second national rescue team title in as many competitions. The contest, held this year in Louisville, Ky., is an important to training teams in mine rescue. The CONSOL Energy’s Enlow Fork team demonstrated just how important training is when they were relied upon last year to help save the nine Quecreek miners.
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Scowl: Margie Povlik was sentenced to serve one to three years in prison for killing her 3-year-old son and the 2-year-old and 8-month-old children of her friend, Billie Jo Ohler. Ohler has yet to be sentenced. The women left three young children one morning to go chasing after a man and a cell phone. Fire broke out; the children perished. There are those who feel sorry for the women, remembering that they once or twice went outside to do yard work or ran briefly to a neighbor’s house while their kids were napping. It isn’t the same thing.
These children were awake and left in the care of a television set. Regardless, Povlik’s behavior at her sentencing hearing, where she blew kisses to photographers, continues to border on bizarre. She told the judge that she is off of mind-aletering drugs and her memory of that fatal day is clearer. She claims that the person who started the fire remains free. “I don’t think anyone here cares about the truth,” Povlik said. The fire marshal was unable to determine if the fire was accidental or arson. If Povlik has any information that indicates someone deliberately set this fire then she owes it to her deceased son to say so.
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Scowl: The checks won’t be in the mail. Unless compromise and reason descend upon Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s 501 school districts have little chance of receiving a subsidy check on Oct. 30. That’s the date that schools usually receive the second payment from the state. But the first check still hasn’t arrived. Pennsylvania remains the only budgetless state in the nation. Despite the state House passing a bill this week that would raise personal income tax rates 16 percent to pay for education, the state Senate has no plans to follow suit and the governor says he won’t budge any further. Too bad taxpayers can’t lock them all in a room and feed them only bread and water until they strike an agreement.
The trouble is, that unlike schools that will need to borrow more to keep going, the governor and lawmakers are under little pressure. The stalemate isn’t costing them a dime.