CentreSquawker

No lie: St. Patrick's Day moved

So, just when you thought this blog had no chance of being revived --

We're back.

Because nothing gets CentreSquawker charged up like a little controversy in downtown State College.

Today's chatter: the State Patty's Day idea. That's the suggestion that downtown bars and campus alike should celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 1, a couple weeks before the official holiday.

As reported today in the CDT, the official St. Patrick's holiday falls this year during the Penn State spring break -- when most students will be away from the party haven that is State College.

Hold up, though, some eagle-eyed CDT readers have said today. They've noted that St. Patrick's Day appears on 2008 calendars as March 17, which is the Monday right after Penn State spring break.

True enough. But as The Associated Press reported back in July, the Catholic Church has moved the official St. Patrick's Day this year to March 15. That's the last Saturday of Penn State spring break.

And that's why some students want a State Patty's Day on March 1, when students will be in town.

Another point of State Patty's clarification: Two downtown bars -- Bar Bleu, 114 S. Garner St., and Tony's Big Easy, 129 S. Pugh St. -- do not plan to participate in State Patty's stuff on March 1, representatives of those establishments said today.

Earlier this week, The Daily Collegian reported that those bars had expressed a willingness to open early on March 1. The Collegian also reported that the Phyrst plans to open early on that date. A phone call to the East Beaver Avenue bar was not immediately answered today, but we'll keep at it.

Bottom line: It's not clear exactly which bars are willing to participate in State Patty's at this point.

Meanwhile, student group Safeguard Old State has launched a Web site devoted to the State Patty's efforts right here.

Executive: Big Ten Network stirs new interest in D&E

Not even a full week has passed since D&E Communications announced that it'll carry the Big Ten Network in an expanded-basic cable package.

Already, a D&E executive said this morning, the company has seen interest from TV viewers in the State College market.

Garth Sprecher, a senior vice president at Lancaster County-based D&E, said he couldn't cite specific figures. (They're proprietary, anyway. And, for reasons of competition, cable companies generally do not cite customer volume in an area as specific and narrow as, say, the Centre Region or Centre County.)

But Sprecher did say that D&E has, in the last several days, seen "a number of calls" coming from State College borough residents interested in the new channel. It's slated to launch on Thursday.

To read D&E's official BTN announcement, released on Wednesday, go here; for a Centre Daily Times report from last week, go here.

D&E is a relatively small cable provider in the State College market. Philadelphia-based Comcast is the dominant one.

Comcast, of course, has yet to strike a distribution agreement with BTN. Comcast wants to place the channel in a package of other sports channels (Price: an extra $5 a month), but BTN executives want it to be included in an expanded-basic package at no new or additional cost to customers.

Sprecher said he could not identify the fiscal terms of the D&E agreement with BTN, including what D&E is paying BTN. He said D&E wanted to put BTN in an expanded-basic package because "that's where the majority of our customers are."

"We felt it was important to have the Big Ten Network as a service offering," Sprecher said. "D&E, being a local company, understands how important this is to our State College customers."

He said the price of the D&E expanded-basic service — $38.95 a month for 60-some channels — will not be affected by the addition of the BTN. At least three Penn State football games this season will be carried on the channel.

Big Ten Network: tracing a public-relations war

On the homepage of the official Penn State news site, you'll find a digital clock that's faithfully counting down to the Big Ten Network's launch date  -- right there in the upper left-hand corner.

Click the link below it -- it says "Big Ten Network News" -- and you'll be spirited into a repository of public relations: a full list of Penn State-BTN press releases sent this summer to the news media. At least 14 times since June 29, Penn State has issued BTN-related advisories and statements to us.

That, of course, doesn't count the steady stream of other advisories released by the network itself (Go here for a sampling of those) -- nor the  multiple offers that official BTN advocates have extended to news reporters, inviting us to chat with executives involved in the network. (Come back to this blog post soon to read excerpts of interviews with a couple BTN on-air personalities.)

Indeed, the public and behind-the-scenes campaigns to stir support for BTN -- and to get TV viewers to demand it -- has been a recurring presence in newsrooms across the eight Big Ten states this summer. As noted in today's Centre Daily Times, even the Penn State Alumni Association has jumped into the fray and sought its members' support for BTN.

Penn State is hardly alone among its Big Ten peers. The University of Michigan athletics department has taken up the cause here; the Wisconsin Alumni Association, here; and the MSU Alumni Association, here.

Among official news services at the Big Ten universities, Penn State Live appears to offer one of the strongest ongoing public emphases on BTN. Its well-placed homepage feature on the BTN stands in marked contrast to news sites at Ohio State, the University of Wisconsin, Michigan State, the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota. None of those included any homepage attention for BTN as of Sunday morning.

In any case -- Comcast, which has sparred repeatedly and publicly with BTN executives over distribution, has helped drive online conversations, too. This slick site is a direct affront to BTN arguments. And it has corporate support from the Philadelphia-based media giant.

The jousting from all sides is almost a sport in itself.

Gone in 59 minutes: more on the Penn State football ticket affair

A ticket sell-out in 59 minutes flat?

That's -- like -- a Rolling Stones-esque figure.

But that's all the time it took on Thursday for Penn State students to snatch up all 21,520 season football tickets that the university allocates for them. Here's today's Centre Daily Times story.

The sell-out was speedy even by Penn State standards. Last year, the student tickets sold out in about 13 days -- setting a new record at the time.

Greg Myford, an associate athletic director, said the department stuck with the traditional first-come, first-served approach this year, but improved communication with students. Officials resurrected e-mail alerts that had been used before 2006, and sent conventional letters as well.

They switched the online ordering service from a university Web server to Ticketmaster, Myford said, in anticipation of heavy demand.

"We knew that they could handle the capacity," he said. " ... Offering just more than 21,000 tickets — that's something that Ticketmaster does every day in cities across the United States."

Demand for student seating has swelled in the last couple years or so, buoyed perhaps by more gridiron wins. The television program called the student section here the best in the United States.

One reason for the incredible rush on Thursday morning, rising senior Hannah Ryan said, probably stems from last summer. Dozens -- no, probably hundreds -- of students lamented last year that they couldn't order tickets fast enough, and were left out in the cold for the 2006 season. (Many blamed the fact that the university last year used only conventional letters -- not e-mail -- to alert students to ticket availability.)

Penn State added more than 500 seats to the student section for the 2007 season — the first increase since 1978. The stadium seats about 107,000 people.

Statewide, the university enrolls more than 80,000 students, all of whom can seek student football tickets.

Myford said a couple factors prevent additional expansion of the student section. For one thing, demand can vary significantly over time. And for another, he said, the university has fiscal considerations.
Football games are a prime source of the money that finances the rest of Penn State athletics. Student seats at the stadium are relatively cheap, and so expanding them could cost the athletic department — and other sports programs — some money.

Still, that explanation doesn't sit well with some students and alumni.

"I understand that sports cost money," said Jim Monteleone, of Pittsburgh. "But I think the cart has gotten in front of the horse here. Let's remember what student athletics are all about. They're about students."

A 1970 Penn State graduate, Monteleone said his daughter is a university senior who was denied student tickets because she was working — and not on the Web — on Thursday morning.

All students should get the first crack at tickets, he said, and the general public should buy what's left. Penn State could make up the monetary difference by raising prices for the general public, he said.

"It's unfortunate that it's become a money issue," Monteleone said, "because the kids are now in second place. And that's just wrong. It's unconscionable."

Penn Stater scores interview with Netanyahu

Ex-State College Magazine writer Josh Lipowsky, now a journalist at the New Jersey Jewish Standard, landed a major -- major -- interview this month.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat for an exclusive conversation with Lipowsky at the Regency Hotel in New York.

Lipowsky's report, which has been published online, quotes Netanyahu at some length on Iranian issues.

A Penn State alum, Lipowsky also is a graduate of State College Area High School.

Documents sealed in Portland case

All appears quiet in the discrimination case against Penn State and Rene Portland, the head women's basketball coach at the university.

Unless you take a look at federal court records.

They show that at least three documents were filed in the case last month -- as recently as Jan. 26.

But those documents have been sealed. The public -- including reporters -- cannot read them.

We haven't reported any substantial news in the case since November, when a judge set June 18 as a jury-selection date.

The parties have been mum lately.

Speculation, certainly, is rampant.

We'll report concrete information when we can.

To drink is to pay taxes

Sure, death and taxes may be life's only certainties.

But there's nothing certain about how you're taxed for alcohol purchases. It depends entirely on where you are.

In Pennsylvania, the state imposes an 18 percent alcohol tax but prevents municipalities from establishing local alcohol fees. (The State College Borough Council, as reported today, would like to see a formal provision allowing local taxation of alcohol.)

Still, Philadelphia managed to gain an exception and institute a city liquor tax in the early 1990s. Revenue from that unique assessment -- which is still very much in effect -- is meant to help public schools there.

As the state's largest city, Philly can, on occasion, maintain special permission for efforts that might elude smaller municipalities.

A drive for a special alcohol tax in Pittsburgh -- some four years ago -- met substantial pushback. To date, The Burgh remains free of a city booze assessment. No exceptions from Harrisburg for you'uns.

Outside the commonwealth, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, Alaska and Wyoming are among the states that allow municipalities to establish local alcohol taxes.

The rate in Juneau: 3 percent.

In Kansas, the state government handles alcohol taxation. But Kansan cities that allow booze and beer sales receive a share of the tax revenue.

In Pennsylvania, alcohol-tax revenue goes into the state budget.

Update @ 1:22 p.m.: The following short report, about a financial assessment at Penn State, accompanies the alcohol-tax article in today's printed CDT.

PSU EYEING ABUSE

Penn State is studying the financial impact of alcohol abuse on the university, spokesman Bill Mahon said last week.

He said the goal is to compile the cost of educational programs, late-night entertainment, police enforcment efforts, counseling, discipline and vandalism related to alcohol abuse.

In November, university executives talked with State College borough leaders about the idea of a per-drink alcohol tax. Revenue would help cover alcohol-related expenses, but the idea would first need to gain support in Harrisburg.

The financial-impact study is not directly connected to the borough tax discussions, Mahon said.

—Adam Smeltz

When a sinkhole swallows

This week marks the third time we've given front-page attention to the gaping sinkhole along Slab Cabin Run.

The issue, noted several times, is the cavity's proximity to public water wells for College Township and University Park.

If surface water mixes directly with underground water supplies, according to state rules, that water needs to undergo an expensive purification process before it can be pumped to homes and businesses.

Trouble is, neither the College Township water system nor the Penn State system has the right equipment to handle that kind of purification. Their supplies, safely underground, haven't needed it.

So far, they still don't. The sinkhole could change that.

The only water system in the Centre Region that does have the pricey purification equipment is the State College Borough Water Authority. It depends in part on surface water from mountain waterways.

About 12 years ago, the authority spent $6 million to build its surface-water-treatment plant, Executive Director Max Gill said.

Another aside: The borough water authority sees sinkholes appear two to three times a year in the streams near its wells, Gill said.

If a sinkhole creates a connection between a stream and a well, he said, the well water can turn cloudy pretty immediately.

Herman didn't want hearings to visit PSU

State Rep. Lawrence Curry, a Montgomery County Democrat, met with a handful of Penn State faculty at University Park a few weeks back.

On the agenda were the then-upcoming recommendations from the academic-freedom committee. (The recommendations were released Tuesday.)

Curry made a number of key points. He said a GOP majority in the state House -- if it lasts -- may try to bring back the academic-freedom issue soon.

He also said something interesting about outgoing state Rep. Lynn B. Herman, R-Philipsburg.

Herman, Curry said, helped steer the academic-freedom committee hearings away from University Park earlier this year.

I asked Herman this week if that were true.

Herman said that committee leadership -- not he -- chose the locations for the committee hearings.

But he did make it clear, he said, that he thought the hearings should have been held at places where perceived problems were festering.

And Penn State, Herman went on, didn't make the list in his estimation.

"Obviously, the hearings should have been held at the state Capitol or in those areas where there was the greatest concern," Herman said. "Penn State was not one of those. ... (Penn State) already had (and has) a policy" on politically and ideologically driven discrimination.

The committee ultimately held four hearings, including in Harrisburg and at Millersville University. None was at University Park.

Online reports add perspective to El Salvadoran labor issue

We've published a few reports involving Hermosa, the now-shuttered El Salvador factory that made Penn State apparel.

Most recently, this report -- published Friday -- noted the claim that former Hermosa workers are still missing their rightful pay.

Adidas, a Penn State licensee that contracted with Hermosa, has a strong perspective on the situation. Its report is posted online here, and a portion of it will appear in the Wednesday Centre Daily Times.

To read a Hermosa update from the Worker Rights Consortium, go here (PDF download).

The issue intersects directly with an anti-sweatshop-campaign being run by Penn State students. If any activism is likely to take center stage this semester at University Park -- this would be it.

Update @ 11:24 a.m. Wednesday: United Students Against Sweatshops takes apparel makers to task on this Web site. (Scroll down on the page for a report on Hermosa.)