Here are the fives most-read local stories on Gant from the month of May 2010.
DEP Awards Grants to Promote Environmental Education, Stewardship
HARRISBURG – Ninety-five schools, universities, non-profit groups and conservation districts will receive more than $382,000 in Environmental Education grants for projects that will educate Pennsylvanians about important issues such as renewable energy, water conservation, air quality and climate change, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said today.
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Clarification: All Three Athletic Directors Resign at CASD
CLEARFIELD – All three high school athletic directors saw their resignations accepted by the Clearfield Area School District Board of Directors at a regular meeting Monday night.
“They didn’t express any reasons. They just said they were resigning,” said board President Dave Glass, pointing to the brief letters of resignation.
Jon Mikesell resigned as the head of the athletic department. In addition, he will transfer from his high school guidance counselor position into the same position at the middle school.
Mikesell will begin in the middle school guidance counselor position today. He’ll continue duties as the athletic director until June 30.
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ACS Celebrates Cancer Fight with Paint the Town Purple
CLEARFIELD – Purple is a color of inspiration for the American Cancer Society, as it decorates the organization’s spirited battle to overcome the disease. But Susan Babik, of the ACS, said they’ll draw on community spirit to strengthen its stand against cancer during the “Paint the Town Purple” initiative from May 10 – 21.
“It’s to celebrate our fight against cancer. It’s to remember those we’ve lost. It’s to fight back,” Babik said. She said they have adorned Clearfield, Curwensville and Grampian with community banners. In addition, she said they’ve encouraged local merchants to embellish their storefronts with purple displays and to compete in a community contest.
Babik said local merchants can still enter the best purple display contest by contacting the local office at 765-1315. She said the Clearfield County Commissioners will judge the competition and name winners in each of the two categories.
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PSP Makes Record Number of DUI Arrests in 2009
HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania State Police made a record number of arrests for driving under the influence last year, while alcohol-related fatalities in crashes investigated by troopers dropped by 14 percent from 2008, announced Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski.
“It’s clear that our efforts to keep impaired drivers off our roads in Pennsylvania are having a positive impact,” Pawlowski said. “Our troopers are helping to save lives by cracking down hard on those who drink and drive.”
Pawlowski said troopers made 16,900 DUI arrests in 2009, an increase of 4 percent over the 16,156 DUI arrests reported the previous year. He said the number of alcohol-related fatalities decreased from 161 in 2008 to 141 in 2009, while the number of alcohol-related crashes investigated by troopers declined slightly under 1 percent from 4,664 in 2008 to 4,625 last year.
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New Application ‘Speaks’ for People with Communication Disabilities
UNIVERSITY PARK – People with communication disabilities now have the power to “speak” clearly, thanks to a new iPhone application created by College of Education doctoral candidate Samuel Sennott and David Niemeijer, a software expert in the Netherlands.
Sennott, who is pursuing a doctorate in Penn State’s Special Education Program, worked with Niemeijer to develop Proloquo2Go, an application that runs on iPhone, iPod Touch, and other portable hand-held devices. Proloquo2Go opens new doors of communication for children and adults who have autism, cerebral palsy, and other developmental disabilities, as well as stroke and accident victims who have lost the ability to speak.
A user communicates simply by pressing buttons containing illustrated symbols and activating a natural-sounding text-to-speech voice output. Proloquo2Go features a default vocabulary of more than 7,000 items.
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