Back in Happy Valley

Nothing like snow

A smooth, dry trip across the country ended with a landing in snow last night at University Park Airport, appropriate for a return to Happy Valley.

It's nice to be back and shoveling again, even if it's just a couple of inches.

It was a nice trip, even if I lost the same piece of luggage twice flying from Denver to Phoenix and back. Going out it was lost for a full day; coming back it was well over an hour late in getting off the plane as it was "lost" in there with a handful of other bags.

Holiday flying is an adventure, but I'm pleased to report the baggage arrived in good shape here in State College.

Warning to those heading to Phoenix: A TSA group there seemed intent in going through every carry on item and everything in them. They seemed fascinated with newly purchased souvenirs. So give yourself extra time going through Sky Harbor Airport and you might consider mailing things. At times like this you realize that a few years ago the feds created another government bureaucracy, and this one isn't accountable to anyone. I just am amazed.

But that's travel, 2007 and now 2008 style. You put up with it if you want to get anywhere.

Enjoy First Night if you're local and have a happy new year, everyone.

A springboard?

A bowl win is a bowl win, and Penn State fans can savor the Alamo Bowl victory for a little while.

Coach Joe Paterno can look back on his 500th game fondly, as his team came together and beat a spirited Texas A&M squad 24-17 in a game that seemed to last forever.

The Lions should be able to use this one as a springboard for next year, given that few guys are leaving and there's reason to believe the offense will do fine under Daryll Clark.

It all ended 9-4 and Penn State fans, like some of those posting comments already, think that's so wonderful and the team is so good.

But keep in mind that this team only beat the teams it should have, all season long, and lost to the Big Ten elite. Keep it in mind as you talk about this season.

The hope is that they use this as a springboard to a great season, something they didn't do after last year's bowl win.

Happy Valley Road

We passed Happy Valley Road yesterday, on the beltway around Scottsdale, AZ.

Yep, out here in the land of the cactus is a Happy Valley reference, maybe started by all of those Penn State trips to the Fiesta Bowl.

Remember them? All five of them, all five Penn State victories.

You remember them well, don't you, and maybe you're like me and got to know Arizona through them.

I like to come back, and we're here for a short post-Christmas trip.

We'll soon be joined by all of the bowl fans, including Mountaineers and Sooners. They're in the Fiest Bowl this year.

Hope you're enjoying this holiday week, as I am.

Awesome volunteers

Our volunteer series kicks off today with Saloni Jain's service at Mount Nittany Medical Center.

It's amazing, and I think you'll find the volunteers we profile pretty awesome.

These are just a few of many out there, and these perhaps haven't gotten previous attention. That's what makes this series work so well, and the timing is right over this holiday week.

Amazing fans, tailgates

I hope readers liked our Penn State fan and tailgate of the year contest as much as I did.

The idea came about when we were considering just how to again cover the off-the-field festivities of 100,000 or more people every home weekend. How do you do that justice?

We decided to feature one fan and one tailgate per week, and correspondent Gail Franklin oversaw it all. Franklin, new to Happy Valley from Buffalo and a contributing writer for a few months, enjoyed meeting people and learning about the Penn State football craze through her reporting.

She chose great fans and tailgates, with some help from readers. Several of our featured Penn Staters came from tips from readers, and of course online readers determined the winners in amazing voting that concluded Thursday.

In fact, we found top fan Linda Barlett after we received an e-mail about her from a friend or care giver. What a wonderful fan, we thought, and she was featured in week five.

I'm thrilled that Barlett won the online voting. She's truly special and it's great that Penn Staters got to meet her through this contest.

She loves Penn State football as much as any fan, yet can't go to the games. We're glad to salute her today and we salute her caregivers and friends too. You all are special.

The tailgate side of the contest too was interesting and I think we featured some pretty cool groups. All were different, and we salute Becky Grove and her friends.

All 14 of our featured fans and tailgates were winners, I think you'd agree. I look forward to doing this again next year and we'll invite your ideas as the season approaches.

Thanks for following it online and for voting. You made it happen. 

Silence in Bellefonte

Memo to Bellefonte school officials: The public, yes the public, are the taxpayers who pay the freight for you, for the school district and for the $35 million high school building plan.

I'm glad this particular letter used the term "public" and not the "press" when it tells workers not to talk about the school project. This kind of thing helps the public, our readers, understand that they're often prevented by government in getting information they should have. it's not just a problem for the curious press.

If you live in Bellefonte, you should know everything about this high school building plan. You should get regular updates and you should debate it.

Perhaps you need some of the State College scrutiny over there. Your school officials certainly need it.

Movin' on

Congratulations to former Centre Daily Times Publisher P.J. Browning, who is moving on from the top job at the Macon Telegraph to the publisher position at the Myrtle Beach Sun News.

Both are McClatchy newspapers, and Browning and her family can look forward to sun and beach time when time permits. It's a nice Christmas present, we're sure.

This blog started when Browning was here, I think. It's nearing 1,300 posts and still going strong in Happy Valley, and I always like to update the whereabouts of former publishers.

Best wishes PJ and family.

Making an impact

The PR machines of U.S. Sens. Bob Casey Jr. and Arlen Specter are in overdrive the past couple days, sending out this, that and everything else that the great senators got done.

They certainly are making an impact given the volume of this correspondence.

It reminds you of the days after the state budget gets passed, when virtually every legislator and caucus sends out press releases on what a great job they did.

You'll read about stuff that Casey and Specter actually did. The rest of the barrage of e-mails will be deleted.

However, it's nice to know how hard the PR machines work in Washington. Let's hope they get some time off for Christmas.

Readers as partners

Better late than never, let me post a link to my Sunday column about readers as partners.

I won't repeat the column here but I will say that our partners make the job special. Readers are involved with the Centre Daily Times in so many ways, and I'm always interested in exploring new ways.

CDT alumni occasionally mention that they're amazed at how readers respond to our contests or reader submission requests. For current examples, you only have to look at the online voting for Penn State fan and tailgate (already above 8,000 total votes) and in entries for our photo contest. After we featured some photos from the contest last weekend, 50 people sent in photos by Monday.

Looking ahead, my column for this Sunday focuses on a new series we'll begin and run through the holiday week. I think you'll like these stories. More to come.

Keep Alamo in focus

With the Alamo Bowl back in the news, let me offer a word of wisdom to those planning a first visit to San Antonio.

The Alamo city is wonderful and you'll have a fantastic time. I almost guarantee that, after three visits in three years myself.

However, a friend shared this kernel of knowledge with me before I made the first visit, and I want to share it with you.

You may be like I was in looking forward to finally visiting the Alamo. You've heard about it, read about it, but never saw it ... until this trip. I had soaring expectations, talking about it constantly.

Shortly before I left for San Antonio my friend shared that the Alamo itself really isn't very big. It's nice, he said, but not big. Just be prepared.

That was great advice, because otherwise I would have had a letdown. The Alamo is the most visited attraction in Texas and is drenched in history. It's fantastic. But it is small. You can go in and out and then into a shop that seems bigger than the Alamo itself.

Just remember that and you won't be surprised.

That's my first of a few San Antonio travel tips. Enjoy it , everyone.

Capital perspectives

Rep. Scott Conklin shared his view on tolls today, and we thank him.

His column ran in our weekly spot for capital perspectives on the opinion page, and we invite local legislators and others in Harrisburg to share their views for our readers.

Capital perspectives has been going strong all year and we see no reason to slow it down. There's a lot to talk about and this offers a steady forum, and at times we run two columns on Tuesdays.

Thanks to all who've participated.

A real Happy Valley day

My office sports a big window looking out to the parking lot, not exactly a scenic view but a view of outside nonetheless.

And on days like this I experience Happy Valley moments, because every time I look out the weather has changed.

We've had three or four rounds of blowing snow today, then three or four peeks at the sun. In fact at lunch when I ran out I needed sunglasses.

We have snow flurries at this writing, but stay tuned, it'll change within minutes. I won't be blogging then, however.

Hope you get to experience these Happy Valley moments too.

Paying for its secrecy

The federal government is finding that its secrecy is costly, in a great victory for a newspaper in an open records case.

The feds are paying $105,000 in attorney fees for a Florida paper that successfully sued the Department of Homeland Security for public records.

This is great news and let's hope it sends a strong signal to government agencies, from the feds on down, that secrecy doesn't pay.

In this case, U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for the Department of Homeland Security's secrecy. I'm sure you're about as happy about that as I am.

Saluting No. 1

What a win by the Penn State women's volleyball team.

We saw it coming, but they made it pretty special.

Just like 1999, you can say, as they beat Stanford and are bringing home the title to Happy Valley. They truly crashed the California party.

Readers from around the country are posting well wishes for the Nittany Lions in one of our better Web forums. Read over the messages posted with our main story and our your turn.

Congratulations to Coach Russ Rose and the No. 1team.

Another bout with ice

Here we are again bracing for a winter event in Happy Valley and ice is key part of that mix.

Ice ... what I thought I left in Harrisburg when I moved here five years ago.

Icy conditions gripped the capital city regularly, but Happy Valley was known for snow. Just think back to the Penn State-Michigan snow bowl at Beaver Stadium, when it was all snow here while Harrisburg and elsewhere had rain and freezing stuff.

The weather is clearly changing, and now we get ice right here. That's too bad, because a great thing about being here is that people know how to handle the snow (I know some locals will complain about that statement but try living elsewhere where snow paralyzes.)

Handling ice is a different matter. Be careful, everyone.

It's probably a good night for it since all eyes should be on the Penn State women's volleyball team, playing for the national championship in California.

Game time 9 p.m. eastern on ESPN2.

Funny, isn't it, that Penn State draws Stanford in its only return trip to the national title since winning in 1999, and in the same year the Nittany Lions draw Texas A&M their Alamo Bowl opponent, just like their only other Alamo trip. Yes, that too was in 1999.

Both were Penn State wins. Ready for history to repeat, anyone?

News of suspect at large breaks online

Online reading soared Thursday night as State College area residents visited CentreDaily.com to read  about the escaped murder suspect on the loose too close to home.

Sara Ganim had the first story posted soon after calls began to notify residents (see earlier blog post).

Ganim, working the police beat, posted an update when she could and her two stories were read by nearly 10,0000 people last night.

Hourly story reading peaked at 9,000 page views at the 10 p.m. hour, three times the normal rate and a level usually seen for a big Penn State football win.

Breaking news brings people online, we know, and prior to this the top read story on CentreDaily.com in December was Ganim's report on a Sunday morning about the downtown State College fire.

Many residents now know to check with us for the latest news, and in October a record 81,000 Centre County unique visitors stopped by. The total was 73,000 in November.

Thanks for great readership in print and online, and know that you're joining a large Web community at CentreDaily.com that now numbers 194,000 unique visitors in December alone.

Residents warned

I applaud the reverse calling system used by State College police to notify area residents of the homicide suspect on the loose.

It's too close for comfort, actually, but the call gave fair warning and was much appreciated.

As an editor, I felt good when alerting the newsroom that the police reporter already knew about it.

We'll see how it turns out but I feel somewhat protected, given the warning and the fact that the driveway and sidewalk are pretty much frozen. Would be tough sledding to navigate this place.

Thanks again to police for the calling system.

Public Relations 101

I just happened to visit southwestern Virginia last weekend and observed one of the television reports on that took it to Penn State.

When I heard the teaser to the newscast, about Virginia Tech being upset at Penn State, all I could think of was the recent basketball game, which I attended. That was all great, I thought.

Watching in amazement, I took me awhile to realize it was all over two Penn State students who had dressed as Virginia Tech shooting victims on Halloween.

Of course it had nothing to do with basketball and the reaction got Old Main worked up, to the point of planning a "spontaneous" response by students, as our report says today.

Public Relations 101: If you even think about planing a "spontaneous" response, don't let anyone in the press know about it.

Let's get past this PR gaffe and think about what Penn State could have and should have done in this case.

How about trumpeting the great story on how Penn Staters saluted Virginia Tech at the blue/white game last April with a VT in the student section and maroon all over the stadium? The visuals, published by us and others, got widespread attention.

How about also talking about what happened at that recent basketball game at the Bryce Jordan Center, when $110,000 was given to Virginia Tech funds for the victims from the sales of those $10 maroon shirts for the blue/white game? It was a wonderful response and salute to the Hokes.

How about also talking about how the Penn State and Happy Valley community came together for the family of victim Jeremy Herbstritt, a Penn Stater?

Penn State had a great story to tell, clearly. Was it told?

Instead, Old Main runs for cover over what two students did on Halloween. Two students out of 42,000.

Let's hope a PR lesson is learned over this.

Westerners most welcome

September just got brighter for Penn State fans, and we should offer a warm welcome to the Oregon State Beavers and their fans.

I have out-of-town guests on football weekends and I've wondered for awhile whether they'd make the trip for Coastal Carolina, Arkansas State and Temple in consecutive order at Beaver Stadium before the real home season would begin with Illinois.

It was looking like the most brutal home non-conference stretch in Penn State's history.

But here come the Beavers to the rescue, and Oregon State makes for a very attractive opponent for Penn State and the blue and white faithful. I think most will agree.

Access makes a difference

A good number of people have taken time to tell me they appreciated our "positive" stories about Coach Joe Paterno and his Hall of Fame induction, and our editorial on the coach last week.

Yes, we had coverage fitting for a Hall of Fame event, thanks to sports writer Jeff Rice and a little thing I'll call access.

Access makes the difference, I tell people. Time set aside to talk to Paterno, to hear from him, really did make a difference last week and always will make a difference. Same goes for access to players, to hear from them regularly, rather than have them kept off limits. 

It shouldn't be hard to figure out, yet is seems to be a struggle for Penn State. There isn't a whole lot of access for football reporters to the coach, to players, or to the program itself.

It's been like that for ages and ages, I know, but just consider what access did to help last week's coverage become fitting for a Hall of Fame event.

Pretty simple stuff.

Interesting that I write this two days after the football banquet, which is reported in brief form today. Access to that? Nope, it's closed to the press.

Making work-force housing a priority

Back from the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County's annual luncheon, and it was truly heartening to see that work force housing is now a priority of chamber members.

It's been in the news so much this year, clearly, that it's been elevated to a new level of concern. It's great to see the chamber becoming active, and this is another reason to expect continued progress in this area in Centre County.

Thanks to all who are on the front lines in our county, and thanks to those working for affordable housing across Pennsylvania. I met several of those great folks last week when I received our media award from the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania at its conference in Harrisburg.

I told the group numbering in the hundreds that this is a fight that cannot be lost. We must see that affordable housing is provided for our workers, whether in Centre County or elsewhere.

It's a great sign when the chamber shows leadership in this area. Congratulations to those involved.

Dean Ceppos

The academic world has a new dean, and a great guy at that.

Jerry Ceppos, former Knight Ridder vice president for news and a friend, gets a blog salute today for becoming the new journalism dean at the University of Nevada Reno.

Reno students and faculty are lucky. They'll learn a lot and have a great working partner in Ceppos.

I'm happy that he landed so well, in a job I'm sure he'll enjoy. Congratulations Jerry, and thanks for helping me out around here so often.

I launched the midday report and this blog while he was watching -- and reading, I think.

Best wishes to a great guy.

Readers present challenges

Some posted comments with today's story on Penn State's wrestling upset over Oklahoma State show just how difficult it is to get readers to notice what you're doing in the paper.

I've gone through this for five years here, as we've added to local coverage and invited readers to contribute news and photos in new ways. Yet I still hear, point blank, that we don't cover anything or aren't interested in anything.

I'm always the optimist, so I ask people with that view what they'd like to see us cover. Invariably, they tell me they don't know.

I got off topic here, because today's post is about wrestling. Check out the posted anonymous comments with this story and you might think we don't cover Penn State wrestling much at all.

But starting last year sports writer Guy Cipriano started following the Nittany Lions on the mat and his coverage has elevated the visibility of Penn State wrestling in the paper. Many readers will nod their heads in agreement to that statement, and perhaps soon the others will too.

Cipriano writes a Monday column, advances and covers the meets and writes about the athletes all season long, just the way he covers the State College Spikes in the summer.

It's great coverage, whether you like wrestling or not, and it's much better than the anonymous so-called readers are noting today.

Problem is, it takes awhile for readers to notice anything, so this is par for the course. These readers also apparently didn't notice that the meet was in Stillwater, OK. We didn't send a reporter and/or photographer, and we won't with long-distance sports events other than Penn State football. That's a reality check based on interest (when 100,000 people show up in the big stadium and countless thousand more watch on TV, there's great interest).

Just another day and another challenge from readers not paying attention, for one reason or another. At some point you hope they will start.

No sunshine in this government

I hope my printed column today perhaps helps some readers see how limited access we all get from Harrisburg.

Too often, open records/sunshine in government is seen as a media issue -- us against them. Some of you often don't care, even though what we are trying to find out is how your tax money is being spent and how policies that impact you are being made.

Today's column, though, shows it's your problem too, as a Penn State student is having no success in getting information from state government.

She's been trying as an interested citizen, a western Pennsylvanian, and you can read the results of her semester-long work in today's column.

Maybe you don't think she's entitled to know anything either.

But maybe, just maybe, her efforts and this column will help you better understand the issue. I hope so.

Help from Washington

I'm occasionally asked what has changed since ownership changed from Knight Ridder to McClatchy.

I say very little, since we've had editorial independence all along.

But there's a clear demonstration on Sunday's front page of one thing that's changed, at least.

We have a Washington reporter, shared with another McClatchy paper, and Barbara Barrett's story on U.S. Rep. John Peterson's earmarks is front and center today.

It's a fascinating story and one that we would not have gotten without a Washington reporter. McClatchy has a regional reporting system that benefits papers our size.

Interestingly, too, Sunday's other front-page story is courtesy of McClatchy, detailing the fascinating results of the first McClatchy-MSNBC poll of the presidential campaign.

McClatchy newspapers like us broke the poll results today, and I'm sure readers across the country were somewhat surprised with the Republican findings.

Knight Ridder also had polling, but McClatchy has continued it and enhanced it. Look for more to come.

Raising awareness for housing

Our paycheck to paycheck series, published last week, and our affordable housing coverage overall will get attention tomorrow at the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania conference in Harrisburg.

I'll talk to the group when accepting its first media award for raising awareness of the need for affordable housing.

This award is special because Centre Countians nominated us. We appreciate it.

The group is keenly interested in our series, and it's all packaged now for Web reading. As we've mentioned, these issues apply everywhere. It's not just a Happy Valley concern.

Pick the top fan, tailgate

We're unveiling a lot online this week, and the latest is launching a two-week vote to determine our top Penn State fan and tailgate, as featured this fall in the Centre Daily Times.

You will pick the winners. Check them out on this special page and vote.

You may remember them from reading on home football weekends, and if you do you'll remember that all are worthy of their name in lights.

Know your bowls?

Don't miss our online-only bowl contest, which debuted today on CentreDaily.com.

Compete against our other online readers for prizes -- CDT books -- and most importantly recognition as a college football bowl expert.

Good luck all.

A new beginning

Rick Madore and Donna Queeney said the right things last night as the State College Area School Board began anew.

Let's hope the community comes together with this board, because despite the tone we sometimes hear we are convinced that people in State College -- elected or otherwise -- want the best for the students.

We certainly are convinced that the board members -- new and returning -- want the best, and we 're encouraged by their intent to work together in the spirit of openness.

All the best to the board members. 

Just call him coach

There will never be another coach like Joe Paterno, and it's great that we all can pay tribute to him at the time of his College Football Hall of Fame induction.

Never again will a coach define a university like Paterno at Penn State.

As a fan from way back and a Penn Stater myself, I've been honored to meet Paterno at times in this great job. I'm not sure that would have ever happened otherwise, although I will always thank him for the birthday note and photo he sent my mother when she was ill in a Harrisburg nursing home. She treasured it, and everyone else in there wanted it to the point of trying to steal it one day.

Our editorial concludes with this today, fitting and lasting for Paterno:

"This is ... a time to remember Paterno’s phenomenal success, his many contributions to the university he loves, and the community that has embraced him, his generosity, his idealism and even his personality — endearing or quirky depending on his mood and your perspective.

"And it is a time to remember, as Paterno certainly does, Engle, his head coach at Brown and the man who lured him from law school to Happy Valley; and John Cappelletti, Jack Ham, Lydell Mitchell, Mike Reid and the other hall-of-famers Paterno coached; and Lehman, Epstein, Riley, O’Hora, White, Phillips and others whose love for Penn State was deep, abiding and contagious.

"And Joseph Vincent Paterno, of College Heights by way of Brooklyn. A great football coach. One of the best. Ever."

Hide that deer

Here we go, with another "outta sight, outta mind" reference, but it applies today to people who get worked up every time we run a hunting photo.

In particular, today we ran a photo of a dead deer with the story about a Penn State class that isn't for the faint of heart.

Good story, good photo, good topic, considering that we're in the two-week deer hunting window and  about 1 million Pennsylvanians are taking to the woods for their shot.

But some people get worked up over this to the point of calling when we run a deer photo on the front page, as is the case today.

It's our lifestyle and it generates a lot for the economy, as we point out. And as for us, we publish every day so tomorrow no doubt will feature a different photo on another topic.

Nothing like treating what you don't like as "outta sight, outta mind." Hide the deer, everyone.

Our state's housing crunch

My Sunday column outlined a new effort to get Harrisburg to pay attention to the housing crunch across Pennsylvania.

It should be time for the state to set aside dedicated funding for this need. But to date it hasn't, while other states have passed Pennsylvania in this area.

Affordable housing isn't just a problem in Centre County. It's statewide, and those fighting for it are fighting the good fight.

I look forward to meeting many of them Friday at the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania conference in Harrisburg. I'll be there to pick up the media award, given to us for covering the issue over the past year. The best part of that award is that we didn't send in an entry; Centre Countians nominated us, which makes it special.

Let's hope Harrisburg starts paying attention to all of this.

Enjoy Good Life

Centre Daily Times home subscribers in Centre County today are opening their paper to a nice surprise.

Our quarterly magazine, Good Life in Happy Valley, is in their paper and is one of our best, featuring wonderful stories and photographs.

In particular this month, there's a remarkable story on Bill Coleman, known widely for his work in photographing the Amish. Do not miss Robin Crawford's story and Nabil Mark's photos. They're online for you now on the Good Life page, along with other content from the magazine.

Thanks go to Coleman for sharing his work and his world with our staffers, and all of our readers.

If you didn't get Good Life in your paper, you can purchase a copy in our lobby or at Barnes & Noble near the mall, or you might find one in professional offices when you visit.

Rarely do we hear anything but good reaction from readers to Good Life, and I hope everyone enjoys today's issue.