The next sound you hear could be the clip-clopping of mini horse hooves in Penn Manor hallways.
Miniature horses have recently been added to the animals that may assist physically handicapped students in the Penn Manor school district.
“I think anything that they are willing to let us use is great. I know that my students can open up to animals more than people,” said Melissa McMichaels, who teaches life skills at Penn Manor high school.
Miniature horse is serving as service horse. Photo credit: www.showhorsegallery.com
When you think of a seeing animal you think dog right?
This may be a funny thought however these horses have been used to guide the blind.
Mini horses can actually be better for horse lovers and for people who are allergic to the very popular seeing eye dog.
These miniature horses can greatly help people in need of another set of eyes to guide them. The benefits of service horses are that they live longer. According to guide dog trainers, guide dogs have a useful life between 8-12 years. In the meantime miniature horses have an average life span of 30-40 years.
Apparently these special horse have many other advantages such as cost efficiency, better acceptance, calm nature, great memory, excellent vision, focused demeanor, safety conscious, high stamina and good manners.
Training these miniature magicians is a full time job and only should be attempted by a professional.
“The down side would be that it could distract the students in class while they need to focus on their work,” said McMichaels. “We would also need to take care of them.”
This could be a problem with such an extraordinary animal walking the halls grabbing hundreds of students’ attention.
The guide horses regularly work inside while leading the companion around restaurants, malls and offices. However when these horses are off duty they prefer the outdoors where they spend time in their small outdoor barns.
With the new seeing eye dogs being trained, walking the halls in Penn Manor high school, that could easily be a miniature horse roaming the halls
“Justice has been served,” said President Barrack Obama in an impromptu televised speech from the White House late Sunday night after he declared U.S. forces had killed terrorist Osama bin Laden.
After almost 10 years of trying to track down the purported mastermind of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S., bin Laden is confirmed dead. U.S. Navy Seals reportedly shot and killed him during a raid on a compound in Pakistan, according to several published news reports.
Adults and students at Penn Manor had strong reaction to the news.
Darius Howard, a senior at Penn Manor, said that he was “glad that we found him, but I wish we would have tortured him–he killed a lot of people. I’m glad we have a president who can clean up after the last presidents’ messes. (As for retaliation), If they want it, they can come get it.”
Penn Manor Junior Jordan Gerlitski first joked saying, “Yeah, I killed him.”
Osama bin Laden has evaded capture for years. Photo courtesy of Digitaltrends.com
But Gerlitski then got more serious.
“I was shocked, I knew it was going to be all over the news and something to talk about in school. It’s a bittersweet feeling, because even though it was who it was, we still did kill someone,” said Gerlitski.
“As for Obama’s popularity,” Gerlitski predicted. ‘It will definitively improve his image, but I think he’s going to milk it out, overuse the glory and try to call it all his own rather than who actually killed Bin Laden.”
Gerlitski also added, “Wasn’t there, like, a $50 million reward on his head?”
Social studies teachers in particular took a keen interest in the news.
Cindy Lonergan, teaches social studies at Penn Manor but has a connection to Sept. 11 as a New York native.
“This is definitely one of the biggest days in history, he was wanted dead all over the world,” said Lonergan.
She pointed out that on the same date, 66 years ago, the death of Adolf Hitler was announced, a man responsible for more than 11 million deaths during his reign of terror.
I’m surprised,” said Penn Manor history teacher Rich Brenton. “It’s been a long time and it seemed to me like the whole liquidation of bin Laden was on the back burner.
“It was a good move,” Brenton said. “It was something that needed to be done and the repercussions are way less than they would of been two years ago.”
But people are still talking of possible repercussions.
Although crowds cheering in the streets in New York and other locations insist justice was served in bin Laden’s death, other questions are surfacing that have Americans on their toes.
Will this change al Qaeda? Will this change terrorism? What happens with national security?
“The goal is to be a martyr and sacrifice yourself,” said Lonergan. And I think they are going to use this to praise him.
“Their greatest goal is to die for this cause, and that’s sometimes the scariest thing to face,” said Lonergan.
“The main worry is whether or not remaining members of al Qaeda will react in a violent way,” said Jeremy Kirchner, also a history teacher. “I think in the short term they’re going to be prepared for retaliation. Who could they be supporting now that Bin Laden is gone.
“Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan,” said Obama in his address.
Map of Abbottabad, Pakistan where Osama bin laden was captured. Photo courtesy of Google Maps
According to CNN news, the U.S. government was aware of a mansion in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan last August, and had been secretly watching the compound to confirm bin Laden’s presence.
Then, in a super secret operation, special forces flew into the compound in helicopters, engaged in a fire fight with bin Laden and supporters, killed bin Laden, his son and two couriers and gathered lots of documentation from the compound, according to CNN reports.
When one helicopter had mechanical failure, the special forces destroyed it to prevent it from becoming part of the terrorist intelligence operation.
Adults in the school reacted about the turn of events.
“It’s good for victims of 9-11,” said Aron Basile, a safety ed teacher. “He’s an evil creature, I’m glad he’s gone. He got what he signed up for. His (bin Laden) hole was a million dollar compound.”
Lisa Campbell, food service worker, said, “Finally he was found, more than found, but, I have a feeling it might stir some more things up (retaliation). But I hope I’m wrong.”
Sierra Woodworth, a sophomore at Penn Manor says, “I was shocked to hear it, but I’m glad we found him. I definitely have more respect for Obama, and fearful in the perspective of retaliation for sure.”
Bin Laden was called a super terrorist by many. A man who was ruthless against the West, a man who would stop at nothing and kill thousands without remorse.
Al-Qaeda translates into English as “The Base,” which was what Bin Laden called his terrorist organization that had approximately 3000 followers. Since his death, U.S. embassies all around the world have been put on high alert, watchful against al-Qaeda retaliation.
Originally, bin Laden teamed up with the Taliban, the former rulers of Afghanistan, who took control of most of Afghanistan after the Soviet Union collapse in 1989, according to published reports. The Taliban had supported Bin laden through his ‘jihad,’ or ‘holy war,’ which was a dedication made to kill all American citizens and Jews.
The history of bin Laden involved in fighting began back in the 1980’s when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and bin Laden began a resistance towards the USSR, forming armies and education systems in the process, which later formed into Islamic radical training centers.
After the fall of the Soviets, bin Laden reportedly moved to Saudi Arabia when U.S. Soldiers responded to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. He was against the invasion believing soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia were occupying the birthplace of Islam.
Because of this, bin Laden charged Saudi Arabia with ‘deviation of true Islam.’
Reports showed bin Laden then went to Sudan in 1992 where he claimed responsibility for anti-U.S. attacks in Yemen and Somalia.
In 1994 bin Laden returned to Afghanistan and increased his terrorist activity, encouraging terrorist activity in other parts of the Islamic world.
The 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were linked to bin Laden.
His most devastating attack toward the U.S. were the September 11, 2001 airliner crashes into the World Trade Center in New York City, a airliner crash into the Pentagon and the airline crash in Shenksville, Pa.
Ever since then, the U.S. made the killing or capture of bin Laden a top priority to bring justice to the killer of over 3000 American citizens.
Included in the speech broadcast all over the world last night was an explanation how the operation was formulated. United States Intelligence had been tracking a lead dating back to late summer, explained Obama. They identified a courier who was one of the few trusted by bin Laden according to officials. They tracked the courier to a compound that was far too large and too expensive for couriers to afford.
When the news was announced Sunday night, thousands gathered at the White House and Ground Zero where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed.
The announcement also was made over the loudspeaker at Citi Field where the New York Mets were playing and the crowd erupted with chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
Coincidentally, the announcement took place in the ninth inning, with a score of 1-1…or “9 11.”
Many predicted the capture and killing of bin Laden would affect the political landscape.
Senior Jaquan Presbery and Junior Jeffrey Kirk read one of the banned books
By David Mohimani, Jake Shiner and Sam Valentin –
Catcher in the Rye, Huck Finn, and To Kill a Mockingbird are all classic tales but also commonly bring about controversy in schools. While the three mentioned titles are very well known in literature, they didn’t even break the top 10 list of 2011’s most banned books list.
“(Books) Definitely shouldn’t be banned. There is no reason they should obstruct information from getting to us, that’s like the first amendment.”said Junior Logan White.
The 2011 list of banned books in high school may be considered more shocking than the content inside the books.
The list is as follows:
The ALA’s top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2011
1. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
6. Lush by Natasha Friend
Reasons: Drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
7. What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
Reasons: Sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: Drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint
9. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: Homosexuality, sexually explicit
10. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, violence
The Penn Manor library contains all but two of the book and the one, Crank, is not out in the general library but will be given to students if the student gets written permission by a parent stating that their son/daughter may read the book.
The books on the list however, did not shock everyone.
“No it doesn’t surprise me,” said English teacher Holly Asthiemer about the books on the list.
One student thought that Twilight deserved its spot on the list.
“Twilight deserves to be banned,” said Sienna Emrich, adding that it was not well written.
Some felt that Hunger Games didn’t deserve to be on the list.
“Twilight is poorly written but Hunger Games is a good book to teach for the right age group,” said Astheimer.
“I thought it (Hunger Games) was good and that it’s going to make a comeback like Huck Finn,” said Matt Purdin.
The most surpirsing book on the list is And Tango Makes Three, a child’s tale about two male penguins raising a baby penguin. It is banned because of the homosexual overtones some feel it contains.
Not everyone is in favor of libraries banning books however, especially educators.
English teacher CeCe O’Day said, “I think banning a book from a library makes no sense. People should be able to read and explore new ideas.”
Penn Manor students going to jobs after school or their parents trying to get to work in Lancaster may have to take a detour after a bomb threat was issued for the city Monday morning.
At 10:15 a.m. , city police and K-9s trained in explosives detection were sweeping the Prince Street Parking Garage, according to a news release from Lancaster City Police Lt. Todd Umstead.
Lancaster police said a anonymous call was made at 3 a.m. reporting there was bomb in the Prince Street parking garage.
“I did hear about it when I woke up this morning ,which I didn’t think anything of it, but any threat means it could be potentially true,” said senior Noah Kuhn who lives in Lancaster City.
Police believe the bomb threat “stemmed from an ongoing investigation” and has no ties to the announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death, the release stated.
Lancaster City police evacuated several blocks of downtown Lancaster in the early morning hours, due to what they termed a credible threat in the Prince Street Parking Garage.
Roads were blocked in the city Monday morning. Photo courtesty of Lancaster online newspaper
Before noon, a second search was being conducted. The first search found no traces of any explosives, according Umstead.
“We believe that things will be back to normal by noon,” said Lancaster police Chief Keith Sadler.
Residents in the first block of West King Street, the first and 100 block of North Prince Street, the first and 100 blocks of North Queen Street and the first block of West Orange Street were evacuated to the Franklin & Marshall College Alumni Sports & Fitness Center on Harrisburg Avenue.
Traffic was detoured from streets surrounding the garage. Also, police officers checked all businesses and homes to ensure that no one was inside.
Traffic was moving around the city through the morning. North Duke Street was open, as were other streets removed from the threatened area.
However, the shutdown affected a large group of workers due to the closed streets.
The outcome could just be a false alarm but the police aren’t taking any chances.
I think more people in my grade know my brother than they do me. And considering my brother is six years older than me, I consider this clearly pathetic.
For as long as I can remember my brother and I have been polar opposites. Him, the outgoing one with a ton of friends, and me the shy one who prefers books to people. For a while this didn’t bother me, but eventually I got sick of, “Aren’t you Dan Richards’s sister?”
With his tall stature and lengthy body shape my brother is relatively average looking, yet there is something about him that seems to make you look twice. He’s always wearing his quirky smile that never fails to look 100 percent genuine and in his gray-blue eyes you can never catch a hint of judgment.
Even teachers ask me about him and he graduated five years ago. One day I was walking down the hall and I was stopped by a particular teacher, whom I had in ninth grade mind you. There was no, “Hi Lauren, how are you?” No, instead I was greeted with a, “How’s your brother doing?”
My brother didn’t just have a bunch of acquaintances, he had numerous genuine friends. I swear he had an average of five friends over each week, all on different days. And I could never keep up with all the girls. One day he’d be asking me for advice about the girl he brought over that night and I would try so hard to give him the best suggestions possible. The next day when I saw him, I would anxiously ask him if my advice worked, only to be told that he met another girl and she’d be over later.
Once he brought home an exchange student from the Middle East that he met in one of his classes, the next week he was a member of our household. Oh and for the record, a couple weeks later he was shipped back to whatever country he came from for searching how to make homemade bombs on the internet at school. Sometimes my brother was a little too open to new people and his ability to judge others wasn’t always on point.
I’ll admit that my brother has some traits that I wouldn’t want. For instance, his vulnerability, naivety and gullibility. To say that my brother is too trusting would be the understatement of the year. Also, I have some traits that I wouldn’t want to give up. For example, I am a much better student than my brother and I have had relatively the same small group of friends for my whole time in high school. But sometimes I do wish that I could walk into a room and talk to any random person or that when I walked down the hall I was bombarded with people saying hi and waving to me from all directions. It would also be nice to have something to do every single night and go to three proms like my brother did.
However, I’ve learned to accept the fact that I will never be like my brother. Though we’re linked by genetics, it seems like my brother and I have literally nothing else in common. In literary terms, we are foil characters. While one talks, the other listens. One is outgoing, the other shy. And one of us is book smart whereas the other one is more smart socially. I like to think of it though as us being complements of each other, we may be different but we go well together.
I’ve never seen my mom jump and grab hold of something so quick in my entire life.
That’s how she was when I was first learning how to drive. At every stop sign, every red light or any time I was beginning to brake, mom grabbed the door handle faster than she could drop a hot pan. I always thought she was slow too.
I guess sometimes she had her reasons for jumping, like when I almost did go off the road, or when I almost hit the other car. I guess that’s just all part of the learning experience though.
The worst part about learning how to drive wasn’t paying attention to the road, learning how to work all the gizmos and gadgets or just simply figuring out how to make the car do what you want it to do; it was learning how to drive stick.
When I first was learning how to drive, I was in my mom’s automatic SUV, but when I bought my first car it was stick or manual. I didn’t really know what I was getting into, I just thought that, “Oh, this will be easy.” But it wasn’t.
An animated picture of a student driver. Photo from wordpress.com
After trying to figure out how to make the car magically go forward for about an hour by using two pedals instead of one, mom was on the verge of blowing up. She showed me the hand motions one last time on how to let out the clutch as I was pushing the gas, and so I followed exactly as she explained and nothing. Still the same shuddering forward with your head flying back and forth almost giving you whiplash and then halt.
“I’m done! You’re never going to learn!”
Mom got out of the car, slammed the door, and walked inside the house.
She exploded.
During the whole operation of me trying to learn, my brother was watching in amusement, kind of hoping that the car would also blow up along with my mom. After he saw me attempt a couple of more times at trying to drive, he finally got up and came over and helped. He got in the driver’s seat and we drove down to a path of a back road. He then let me get in and showed me how to really drive stick.
After that day, I gradually learned more and more with my brother’s instructions always in the back of my mind. I don’t really know the difference between my brother’s or mom’s instructions, but for some reason his worked. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t on the edge of exploding and yelling at me every time I failed. Either way, sometimes mom isn’t always right and you need a brother for help.
People pay taxes, the government receives the tax money and the government then gives the money to the schools to build stuff. The schools then build and construct buildings and parking lots, and yet the schools still make the students and parents pay for parking passes to park at the school that they already paid for through taxes.
So why do the kids pay for parking passes? The school should not be charging a fee to park at a place that was already paid for through tax money. The students aren’t even told where the money goes and so the schools should assign students parking spaces instead of making them pay for it.
Schools are funded by taxes from people paying money toward the school district depending on which area they live in. If schools need more money or funding, they should either try to pass higher taxes or ask the government for more money. Making students pay for parking passes is a sneaky way the school district has figured out to bring in more income. The taxes of the people who send their kids to Penn Manor and also funding from the state pay for the buildings, construction and parking lots, and the kids shouldn’t also be charged for what their parents are paying or have paid for.
A parking lot for students at a school. Photo from myparkingsign.com
For some students at Penn Manor, the $40 to park the entire year comes straight out of their pocket and that for some is an entire week’s work. Even though Penn Manor does provide transportation to school for all kids and truthfully doesn’t even need to allow kids to even park at Penn Manor, what would the school do about having all the kids stay for sports after school? There is a need for the parking spaces at Penn Manor so they don’t have to get buses to drive kids home after sport’s practices or games.
Parking passes at Penn Manor have been around for some time, and if the math is done, the paving for the parking lot is most likely paid off by now. The administrators should no longer be charging students from something that has already been paid for. The extra income from parking spaces might have been a necessity at the beginning after the parking lot was paved, but now it is just some extra cash for the school.
The administrators and school board staff should no longer be making students pay the fee. If the school needs more money, they should be either trying to raise taxes or be asking the government for more money. It is time for the students to stand up and stop paying for parking passes. The eleventh and twelfth grade students should be assigned parking passes according to their age and should no longer pay. If the cost continues or rises, it would just be taking advantage of the students.
Easter, just one more holiday on the calendar and another family gathering. There’s plenty of candy, food, drinks and family gossip. The whole family just loves spending time with each other, especially when all everyone is trying to do is dress to impress and see who is the better family, but deep down I know it’s a more important event than just a family gathering.
It’s getting together to see my family friends who I don’t really talk to, but for some reason I always become best buds again with them when we see each other at our grandparents. It’s also a chance to meet all the new babies in the family that magically just appeared out of nowhere, but every time I see them it feels like they’ve grown up two feet and learned some new important life skill like walking, crawling or talking.
Easter always starts at grandma and grandpa’s house. Each family comes in happy carrying the meals they prepared for lunch or dinner. It’s all hugs and kisses around, but truthfully everyone is checking out to see what Aunt Suzie made or did Uncle Scott bring his special dessert and did anyone forget something so we can pick on them and make fun of them later.
After everyone says hello and makes their rounds, I head into the kitchen to see what grandma is making for the delicious main course. I walk into the kitchen and smell all the melted brown butter on the green peas and noodles, I look into the warm oven and see the best-tasting beef brisket that is always the most amazing thing in the world I have ever tasted. Suddenly, I walk into the other room and see all the platters laid out before me that contain all the delicious desserts, and no one is around. I carefully sneak one of those crunchy and sugary cookies that Uncle Scott makes every year and then place the plastic wrap back very carefully and sneak out and head towards the dinner table to claim my spot.
Once grandma finally sits down after placing the final dish on the table, grandpa begins his ten minute prayer. When that is over, the passing of the platters and dishes begins. I start to build up the mountain that contains everything from corn, to ham, to mashed potatoes, to stuffing and green peas. Once it is complete, I look at the mountain, satisfied that I’ve stuffed all I could possible on it and in it. Then I get the gravy and top it all off so that the mountain is exploding and lava is pouring down the sides. This is one of the best feelings and memories to have and grandma and grandpa’s house; always knowing that they will have food and comfort for you.
Easter eggs. Photo from vlp.net
I wonder one day if the same experience will be shared by my grand-kids. I hope that they can share the same memory that I had as a boy of building a mountain of food at your grandparents and then devouring it. I plan on keeping the tradition going of having everyone over for holidays or family occasions, but maybe my kids will all move away. I hope the memories that I’ve had can be recreated by grandchildren one day.
The first bite into the Easter meal is always the best because every bite after that you get more full and more full until you look at the plate with the last bit of food left and realize you just engulfed about five pounds of food that you know probably doesn’t mix well in the end, and you can’t eat a bite more. It’s a sad feeling after that because the dessert that was next in line is just denied entrance into your mouth because you can’t eat any more or else you will burst like a balloon.
That’s the classic Easter meal with our family, and mixed in during the meal is all the compliments to chef’s, and the complaints that something needs more salt or an ingredient was forgot. At the end of the meal though, everyone is too full with the food they ate to complain, and they all the feel the gravy that they placed on their mountains is about to come pouring out of them.
It’s going to be sad when my grandparents pass away, and once a holiday comes around I will realize that there will be no more memories at their house. The hugs and kisses that welcomed me at the door of their house on each holiday or just when I visited will no longer be there. I don’t plan on those days coming soon though, I don’t think anyone does.
After the meal and once the dishes are cleaned, and grandma is happy with where everything was placed, the choice is then for me to either stay and take a nap on the old pink couch with flower designs that they’ve had since before I was a toddler, spend more family time with everyone which ends up to be playing board games with lots gossip, or I can claim your dishes of left overs and head home after making sure to thank everyone, especially grandma and grandpa, for everything.
Easter meal isn’t just a family gathering, it’s a time for everyone to gather and say hello and bring back those connections between each other that seem to break after leaving a family gathering. I see now that grandma and grandpa have found out that getting everyone together for food keeps us all close like a family should be, and the hassle that goes into making all the food and figuring out a date on which everyone can attend and how to keep everyone happy in the end doesn’t matter. What matters is that we all see each other and that we still keep in touch with our family who will always be there for us.
Entertainment Penn Manor will be held on Saturday at 7-10 p.m it’s an exciting event for students to show Penn Manor what they got. If a preview seen by the student body Friday is any indication it will be a very popular event.
Greg Gydush sings to an appreciative crowd. Photo by Blake Wales
In an assembly Friday a few students participating in ETPM performed and showed their fellow students a sneak peak.
Marcos Rivera, a senior danced a hip hop routine to a remix.
“I thought he did really good, dancing switches it up between the singing and instruments,” said Maddi Eckenrode, a junior.
The audience cheered with lots of ethusiasm after and during every act. After the prievew was shown to the school, the halls were buzzing with excitement.
“I though it was a really great, everyone who preformed did an awesome job,” said Demi Greenwalt a junior.
Bryan Buckius and Lily Ngo sang “Rhythm of love.
Jeremy Vital plays the bass with his group who performed the hit, "Little Lion Man." Photo by Blake Wales
Greenwalt said, “It was very cute and a great song for them to sing.”
“ETPM is a good way to show hidden talents,” said Eckenrode.
Admission is $6 and the money is going to a scholarship foundation for disadvantaged children. A donation is also going to the theater department.
With the nuclear disaster in Japan continuing to be problematic, Americans are starting to wonder how it could potentially effect us here and what to look for when it does.
Unfortunately, radiation is impossible to detect from just human senses and most people do not own a radiation detector. So, instead, the U.S. government is taking steps to shield its inhabitants from the possibility of radiation illnesses.
So far, the amount of radiation found by these tests in American soil from the Fukushima plant disaster has been minimal.
Small traces of radiation were found in milk on the west coast of California shortly after the Fukushima disaster, but according to John Moulder, a professor of radiation oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, these traces of radiation are not a threat.
“This amount of radiation is tiny, tiny, tiny compared to what you get from natural sources every day,” Moulder commented about the situation.
Woman being tested for radiation. Photo courtesy fukushimatragedy.com
Fish, however, have been more of a worry as seawater off the coast of Japan has been radiated to 7.5 million times the legal limit after 11,000 tons of radioactive water that was used to cool the plant was dumped into the Pacific Ocean.
The current nuclear situation has people around the world in fear of what is to come, but here at Penn Manor, students are hardly disturbed.
“I haven’t even thought about it,” senior Ande Olson said. “I mean I’ve thought about the crisis, but I never even considered it affecting me.”
These radioactive fish have officials uneasy as they wonder how it will effect the world’s seafood industry since the Japanese seafood industry has been struggling since the tsunami hit its shores on March 11.
All of these factors contributed to the officials’ decision to raise Japan’s nuclear crisis to level seven, the maximum level and equivolent to that of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.
Only time will tell how the disaster will play out, and officials believe it will be a long time indeed as predictions for the clean-up have gone in excess of a few decades.
