Opinion-Editorial Columns

Bill Welch loved journalism, during his 21 years at the Centre Daily Times and later when he always would help young reporters and editors and journalism students get it right.

We don’t know why Faleh Hassan Almaleki came to this country in the mid-’90s, and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to tell us anytime soon. He’s in jail in Maricopa County, Ariz., at this writing, in lieu of a $5 million cash bond. It hardly seems farfetched,

I think back to my time in the now inactivated 318th Maintenance Company in the 1990s here in State College.

Wow. Where do I begin? The Ohio State game is far from a game. It is a full-combat war between skilled adversaries whose loyalty and history run deep — Red vs. Blue. It is where legends are born.

Editor’s note: WPSU-FM 91.5 features the “This I Believe” series at 5:45 p.m. Thursdays. On Saturdays, the Centre Daily Times prints essays by residents of the region that have aired on WPSU.

Addison Frazier attended her first Penn State football game when she was just nine weeks old. She doesn’t remember that one. Now, at age 9, she is enjoying her 10th season at Beaver Stadium.

“I think binge drinking is the No. 1 problem facing American higher education. This wasn’t on the radar screens of university presidents two or three years ago.”

— Penn State President Graham Spanier on CBS News’ “Sunday Morning,” 1999

Editor's note: This letter was sent to Penn State President Graham Spanier on May 25. It is reprinted here with the author's permission, along with a column by Spanier.

These are published today in hopes that they spark a community dialogue on the impact of problem drinking locally. A Public Issues Forum on Thursday, as detailed on Wednesday's Views page, also will tackle the excessive drinking issue.

GOVERNMENT CLIPS PILOTS' WINGS

At least two of Northwest Airlines pilots won't have to worry about crew scheduling now that the government has clipped their wings after they flew 150 miles past their destination.

Does the U.S. Constitution stand for anything in an era of government excess? Can that founding document, which is supposed to restrain the power and reach of a centralized federal government, slow down the juggernaut of czars, health insurance overhaul and anything else this administration and Congress wish to do that is not in the Constitution?

I'm glad to hear that the stock market is up. But, frankly, my own household doesn't feel it.

An 18-year-old student plummets 15 feet to his death in an outdoor stairwell and isn't discovered until 24 hours later.

Approach 2: DUI court, rehabilitation and treatment.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released its annual Traffic Safety Assessment, revealing a dramatic 3.7 percent decrease in alcohol-impaired driving fatalities since the previous

Approach 1: Strengthen and enforce the law.

For every underage drinking tragedy there is usually an adult person, organization or business that furnished the alcohol to the underage drinker.

Approach 3: Educate for societal change.

Efforts to reduce alcohol abuse by enforcing laws or treating it as a public health epidemic are likely to be ineffectual until we confront the campus-community norms that condone excessive drinking.