Penn Points Online

Teen Unemployment On the Rise Here

By Corey Fry –

The current drop in the job market isn’t only affecting the adult world. Teens are feeling the recession too.

The US Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 24 percent for people aged 16-19. This is the third consecutive year that teen unemployment was over 20 percent.

Even in Penn Manor one can see the effects of a weak job market.

Dozens of students struggle on a daily basis to find employment and with so few jobs available, students can’t afford to be particular.

“I’ve applied everywhere, but they just never call back,” said Matt Libonati a Penn Manor junior who said he tried to find a job at two dozen places including Dunkin’ Donuts, Dollar General, Cherry Hill, Turkey Hill, Country Dairies, Scheids, Walgreens and his list goes on and on.

Ian Tahmasbi, a junior, is also having a difficult time landing part-time work.

Teens from Penn Manor have submitted dozens of applications without much success -graphic courtesy of CPACareerCoach.com

“I apply at places and I know they won’t give me the job,” said Tahmasbi.

Why exactly is it so hard for students to find a job? Some common reasons students report:

First of all, students’ time is limited especially when they are involved in extracurricular activities.

“Asking for hours is difficult,” said Steve Long, a Penn Manor junior.

Teens are feeling just as much pressure to find employment despite the economy because parents still want them to foot the bill for gas, insurance and more, students say.

“Everyone I know has jobs,” said Tahmasbi, who does not get an allowance. “But no one will hire me.”

Trent Sheaffer is a Penn Manor student who is just dipping his toe in the job market but has had no luck yet.

“I mowed lawns during the summer for my neighbors and now I’m trying to get a real job,” said Sheaffer who estimates he has been looking for about one month.

Most teens who were interviewed say they just drop off applications at places of business without first checking out if they are hiring.

Tahmasbi thinks he applied to at least ten places.

“Being unable to support myself is the worst feeling,” he said.

Regardless of whether the economy is what’s causing the trouble, or if students simply aren’t applying at the right places, many will continue to go jobless.

Beavis and Butthead Return to MTV

By Corey Fry –

This week on MTV, Mike Judge’s popular animated series, Beavis and Butthead made a return. On Thursday night the show aired in Jersey Shore‘s previous time slot after their latest season ended.

Beavis and Buttheadis a crudely drawn animated series centered around the lives of two hormone-driven, metal-loving 14 year old boys. The premise of the series was to follow the actions of the two barely-literate delinquents as

they embarked on short adventures in their fictional town of Highland, Texas. Each episode features the duo sitting idly on a couch spectating on music videos and cable television shows.

The show was a hit when it originally aired in the early 90’s, its first season premiered in 1993 and the show continued for 8 seasons until it was canceled in November, 1997.

“I felt like television was becoming too smart,” Judge said at the 2011 ComiCon.

In their debut episode, “Werewolves of Highland”, the boys took shots at series’ such as Teen Mom, The Twilight Saga, and Jersey Shore. Music videos by Skrillex and MGMT were included as well.

“I don’t think its going to be as good as before, but I still plan on watching it,” said Beavis and Butthead fan Chad Gates.

Thursday’s showing received modest ratings, scoring an 8.0 on metacritic. Beavis and Butthead will continue to air on Thursday nights at 10:00.

Corbett Announces School Reform Plan

By Corey Fry and Julia Norton –

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett promised education reform when he took the position in January.

This month he released his proposal for a new public and charter school reform plan. The highlights of the bill include; changes in how teachers are evaluated, a new tax-funded voucher service, improvements to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program, and giving the state the ability to grant charters for charter schools,

Corbett addresses lawmakers about points of his education reform program. Image courtesy of fox43.com

The voucher service plans to give taxpayer funded scholarships to failing, low income students enrolled in Pennsylvania’s 140 worst schools that will pay for their enrollment in private or charter school in the area. The Pennsylvania State Education Association strongly opposes this section of the bill. The idea is extremely unpopular among many interest groups because it redirects taxpayer funding from the failing public schools to private schools. The first year of the voucher program is estimated to cost $21 million.

Joe Herman shared his thoughts on the voucher program, “I disagree with it strongly, its giving tax payer money to wealthy private schools, where they have total discretion with what they do with it, and its taking money away from the public schools. What we need to do is improve our public schools where students are failing.”

One of Corbett’s goals was to create more charter schools in Pennsylvania. A section of his bill plans to allow for the creation of more charter schools by giving the state the power to grant charters, but under stricter regulations than are currently being used.

Corbett also stated that he wanted to modernize the teacher evaluation program. “I realize that there are many good teachers in Pennsylvania.” he said. However the bill aims to get rid of the teachers that are just slipping by or those who haven’t been properly evaluated in recent years.

Finally, Corbett plans to increase funding to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program. This will give more tax breaks to groups or companies that donate to public or private school programs.

PM Boys Basketball Anticipates Successful Season

By Mark Dano-

After losing four seniors, Penn Manor Basketball may not necessarily be looking to rebuild for the future. They are looking to compete now.

“I think we can compete for a section title,” said junior guard Brady Charles, who is looking to be a major contributor.

The last time the Comets won a section title was 1972.

The team seems to forget the last 40 years. They know they can succeed, but they need their new leaders to step up.

The team will be led by seniors Marc Summy and Landon Alexcih. These two will be the core of the team, on and off the court, according to teammates including Charles.

“I try to always be a positive voice,” said Alexcih. “I always try to keep my teammates motivated.”

While Summy and Alexcih are key to the squad’s success, they can only get so far without the help from their role players.

Good thing there’s no shortage of support for the duo. Senior guards David Burch, David Mohimani and Jay Jackson will provide wing play. Joey Jackson and Alex Quinn will contribute rebounding and post play. In addition to these experienced players, juniors Brady Charles, Daulton Parmer and Adam Hess will be important role players as well. 6’7 sophomore David Carmichael will also add size and rebounding to the team.

Another important piece of the puzzle will be senior guard Reagan Forrey. Forrey left Penn Manor after his sophomore year to attend Elizabethtown High School. Now he has returned home for his senior campaign.

“He’s been playing well,” said Alexcih. “Reagan’s a welcome addition.”

The Comets will also be able to rely on quality coaching.

Marc Summy looks to lead the Comets in his senior season. Photo from berecruited.com

The experienced Charlie Detz will enter his third season as head coach. Detz was a two time All-American at Franklin & Marshall College as a player. He eventually went on to coach at Columbia High School and F&M before coming to Penn Manor.

Assisting Detz for the second season will be Larry Bellew. Bellew began as the assistant coach for Warren Goodling at rival Hempfield High School in 1999. Goodling retired in 2010. After not being selected as the new Hempfield head coach, Bellew left the school and became the new assistant coach at Penn Manor.

While the Comets have many things going for them, they will face some adversity.

Marc Summy, who has played on the varsity team since his freshman year, is nursing an Achilles injury. Summy still attended open gyms and exhibition games, but as a spectator from the sidelines instead of leading the team on the court. Players and staff hope that Summy will be ready for the start of the season.

“He’s looked good, but is still hurting a little,” said Alexcih. “We can’t go games without Marc.”

Another problem is that they will face very competitive teams.

McCaskey, the defending Section I champion, return most of their line up from last year. They also get a surge from transfer Devonne Pinkard, who led Lancaster Catholic to a District 3 championship.

Manheim Township has a an experienced roster that will include Jomar Guerrero, Billy Vaughan-Geib, Cory Stoltz, and Niki Veronis.

After losing many players to graduation last year, Drew Johnson and Mark Mangold will attempt to guide Hempfield to another solid season.

Penn Manor understands the talent that they’ll be up against, but they have a strategy for success.

“We won’t necessarily be better than anyone else, but we’re just going to have to out work and out hustle our opponents,” said senior forward Joey Jackson.

The season kicked off with the first practice on November 18. The team had their first scrimmage Tuesday at Hershey and will have another on December 3 when they host CD East. The first games will come December 9 and 10 at the LS Tip Off Classic.

The Millersville Parade Stays Afloat Through The Weather

By Laura Myers-

Through the wind, rain and snow, the Millersville paraded on.

The Millersville Parade is an annual community event to bring together Millersville Borough, Millersville University and the surrounding communities. This year’s theme is “Our American Heritage,” celebrating Millersville’s 250th anniversary.

Even with a 90 percent chance of precipitation and a possible 4-6 inches of snow fall, the parade marched on.

A balloon from the Millersville Parade. Photo Courtesy of Millersville Parade website.

Student worker Jennifer Vataha said there was little doubt the parade would go on in spite of the weather.

If it happens to snow during the parade Vataha had said “99 percent chance it will go on no matter what.”

All parade entries and bands are still in, except for Penn Manors own marching unit because of the snow.

Director Tom Mumma was not around for a comment.

For more information on the parade, visit http://parade.millersville.edu/, or call the parade hotline at 717-871-2213.

Scary Local Attractions Draw Teens for Thrills

By Andrew Morales –

What better place to look for a scary thrill than right around where we live.

Local Halloween scare enthusiasts all know of two places, Jason’s Woods and Field of Screams. These are the places to go to enjoy the spirit of Halloween.

Field of Screams is a haunted attraction located in Mountville. They feature three attractions. The Den of Darkness, a three story walk-through building that brings out the screams, the Frightmare Asylum, a four story hospital that displays movie quality video clips and great special effects, and the Haunted Hayride, a tractor pulled ride through eerie cornfields.

This Mountville attraction offers multiple ways to purchase tickets. A Scream Pass can be bought for $27 and allows access to all three attractions. A Combo Pass pays for any two attractions for the price of $25. Single attraction tickets are $15 for the Haunted Hayride, $13 for the Den of Darkness, and $13 for the Frightmare Asylum. Group rates are available for parties of 25 or more.

Jason’s Woods, another haunted attraction, is located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The farm on Stehman Road holds the five main attractions and two minor attractions run by Jason’s Woods.

The main attractions here include the Horrifying Hayride, which is featuring a brand new junk-yard theme for this year, The barn of terror, Pirate’s revenge, an adventure through a pirate ghost ship while wearing 3-D glasses, Lost in Jason’s Woods, the fourth year running of this walking tour through a forest where you will be met by creatures of the night, and The Carnival of Fear. The minor attractions include The Mystery Maze, and new for this year The Jason’s Woods Theater.

“The reviews this year are fantastic,” said Bob Hershey, the owner of Jason’s Woods.

Ticket packages available for purchase are a three show combo for $25. It pays for The Haunted Hayride, The Barn of Terror, and Pirate’s Revenge. A VIP version can be bought for 40$ and will grant you little to no wait to enter the attractions. There is also a five show grand slam which allows access to all main attraction for the price of $45. A VIP of this package is also available for $60. Minor attractions are free with the purchase of any combo package. Group rates are available for parties of 25 or more.

These attractions must be visited before it’s too late. The season ends early November.

Snow in the Forecast for Penn Manor

By Taylor Goldberg –

“Yeah we’re going to get snow,” said Dave Bender, Penn Manor science teacher and school weatherman extraordinaire.

There is a winter storm warning in the Susquehanna Valley, according to Bender and other weather reporters. Snow is supposed to start at 2 am Saturday morning and keep snowing until 10 p.m. Saturday night. Anywhere from 4 to 8 inches of snow is expected.

All sports and other activities in the district have been postponed.

The snow is coming from the Tennessee Valley.

“Lancaster is right on the fence of heavy rain and wet snow,” said, Millersville meteorologist, Eric Horst. “We are located in low elevated area so the conditions will result in a wet sloppy mix.”

The heavy wet snow will create slippery travel conditions for those planning to drive early in the morning or after dark.

As for the winds: North about 5 to 10 10 MPH and gusts up to 25 MPH. Temperatures in the lower 30s.

“A lot of snow might fall but it is going to turn into rain,” said Bender. “The amount of snow we get all depends on how much of it melts.”

Game 7 of the World Series Preview

By Chris Fleming –

The Cardinals having an amazing regular season and, after clinching the wild card, have ended up tied to the Rangers in game 7 of the World Series tonight.

Chris Carpenter is scheduled to start for the Cardinals tonight going up against Rangers starting pitcher Matt Harrison. If Carpenter is called to pitch tonight it would be a short rest start for a starting pitcher. A short rest start can be a huge difference for starting pitchers. They get into certain routines that they follow all season and ruining this can cause problems.

Harrison, surprised by having to start for the Rangers tonight because of the 9-10 defeat last night caused by Freese’s walk off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

“I’ll definitely be watching the game tonight,” said senior Logan White,” I stayed up last night to finish game six and it was insane. I can’t wait to see the game tonight.”

At first the Cardinals thought it was just a pinky bruise on Matt Holliday’s right pinky Thursday night after sliding into third base, but it ended up being a wrist sprain. So tonight rookie Adron Chambers is scheduled to take his place. Chambers is 1 for 5 with 2 RBI’s in this post season.

According to cbslocal.com, Freese tweeted a couple hours after the game,”Not much to say but thanks everybody. Like I said though… unfinished business. One more.”

Battlefield 3 Review

By Jacob Harvey –

The attempt at a realistic full-scale war video game has been attempted in the past but with its October 25 (27 in UK) release, Battlefield 3 seems to have outdone itself.

Battlefield 3 is a first person single-player shooter and action video game made by Electronic Arts with system link and online multiplayer capabilities allowing up to 24 players to play at once via Xbox live or the PSNetwork on the console’s (PS3 and Xbox 360) and 64 players on the PC.

With full vehicle warfare with playable tanks, humvees, jets, boats, ATV’s, and helicopters, Battlefield is the first video game released this year of it’s kind.

Battlefield is run on a new engine called Frostbite 2 which allowed the developers to program in better physics in the explosions and it allowed the developers to increase the amount of detail in the game.

image courtesy of battlefield3gameplay.net

Of course Battlefield’s multiplayer features full scale combined arm’s battles. It is possible to go from a boat to a jet to a tank.

Depending on the vehicle under the players control there are three sets of controls which are classified under infantry controls. There are ground vehicle controls, which consists of tanks and boats and other vehicles that don’t leave the ground. Then there are the aerial controls.

With all the great graphics and advances in the games physics there is a sense of loneliness on the larger maps where enemy players are in short supply and hard to find. With only 24 players on the console playing in a full map meant for 64 players on the PC the scale of the map is off putting at first but on the smaller map game modes like squad deathmatch and team deathmatch the sense of scale is similar to Call of Duty 4.

Console systems simply couldn’t handle a full 64 player battle though so the producers were forced to lower the amount of players allowed on a map to cut down on lag and bandwidth issues. Which has already been a problem on the Xbox because the server’s were down yesterday because of a bandwidth issue. If EA doesn’t fix its servers it could be a serious issue that could make or break a game.

Another new addition is it’s co-op mode. This is mode features multiple scenarios that force you and one other team mate to work together to complete the map’s mission objective. Don’t be fooled though just because it says co-op there is no split-screen multiplayer in order to play with your friends you must play over the internet or system link (LAN connection) the two devices.

Battlefield 3 was released with nine maps, 55 weapons, 27 weapon attachments that are awarded separately for each gun. There are 22 playable vehicles, 28 vehicle specializations, and 14 soldier specializations according to the GameInformer Battlefield 3 preview.

Also there are five playable online game modes which are.

Conquest: The objective of this game mode is to capture and hold control points placed throughout the map and to decrease the opposing teams ticket (respawn) count to zero before your teams reaches zero.

Rush: There are two sides to this conflict, an attacker and a defender. Attackers are charged with destroying multiple sets of 2 M-Com stations at a time before their ticket count reaches zero. Defenders are supposed to make sure that the M-Com stations aren’t destroyed and to make the attackers ticket count reach zero.

Team Deathmatch: A new game mode to Battlefield the object of this game is for 2 teams to battle and kill the opposing team 100 combined times. The first team to reach a combined kill count of 100 wins.
Squad Deathmatch: Another new game mode to Battlefield. Features four squads of four players each fighting each other to get the highest combined squad kill count.

Squad Rush: In squad rush there are two teams with four players each one attacking one defending with similar qualities to rush just not as many people and thus more complicated and tactical than its larger game mode counterpart.

In all, Battlefield 3 is one of the most anticipated game’s of 2011 and with awards like Game of the Year from E3 it is a good way to spend your money and makes a great holiday gift for all FPS fans.

Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan will Hurt Middle and Low-Income Families

By Adam Rohrer –

Herman Cain has been leading in national polls much due to his 9-9-9 tax plan but experts say the new tax code will hit middle and low income families hard.

Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan would usher in “A huge tax increase on lower-income and middle-class Americans,” says New York University tax law expert Daniel Shaviro. “With no tax on capital gains, the rich would pay almost nothing” in taxes. Shaviro went on to describe the plan as a “a distributional monstrosity.”

The new tax plan scraps the old tax code and replaces it with a 9 percent national income tax, a 9 percent business transaction tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. A plan that presidential candidate John Huntsmen first thought “was the price for a pizza.”

Despite criticism of his plan Herman Cain has continued to strongly support his plan saying the money saved by big business will trickle down to the employees but as has been the case in the future, that is never certain.

For an example of how this plan would effect you, consider that a family of four earning $50,000 a year now pays $3,850 a year in income tax. With Cain’s new plan they would pay $4,500, $650 more.

Cain boasts that families will save $4,000 on social security taxes, but under the new plan they will lose child tax credit worth the same amount. In addition, they will have to pay for a new national sales tax, which gets added onto your state’s sales tax, which would make the sales tax here in Pa. 15 percent. Sales tax increases primaryily effect the middle class as they are the people who spend a larger percentage of their income on consumer goods.

Rick Perry also proposed his plan which is a 20 percent flat tax on income but experts say it will shift the burden over to lower income families.

“Its more regressive then the current system,” said Ted Gayer, a tax policy expert with the Brookings Institution who served on President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers “The burden would fall more on lower-income people.”