US Representative Glenn Thompson, or “GT” as I’m sure nobody but himself refers to him as, has been wildly outspoken against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act since he voted ‘nay’ on that bitch.


“It really has failed,” he said of the ARRA. But wait, GT is using the money despite its failure! Thompson has been using the so called ‘failed’ stimulus dough for a number of pet projects, including $1 million in funding for an airport access road in Lycoming County and $525,000 in a grant to the Cameron County Health Care Center. Rumors also speculate that he’s using the money for a chin reduction, hair implants, and a conscience.


In his defense, he did say that if a bill passes to law, he will seize every opportunity to make sure the people he represents get their portion of the money awarded to them. The money he originally didn’t want to see leave the legislative drawing board, that is.


Curious as to what stimulus money has been spent in Centre County, and where? Read on to find out.

Pennsylvania Rep. Kerry Benninghoff is coming Wednesday to drink some coffee at the Abba Java Coffeehouse here in town. He will be here between 9:30 and 11:00 am to hold mobile office hours and, I don’t know, work on his novel in public.


If you want to come see Benny and the Jets, you have to make a phone call and schedule an appointment in advance. The phone number is (814) 355-1300.


Also, it sounds like if you just want some coffee at Abba Java, you’ll probably need to call that number in advance as well. So if you frequent that particular coffee house, I’d get on my phone.


No word yet on the cookie.

Registration opens for candidates hoping to run for President, Vice-President, and other representative seats for the University Park Undergraduate Association opens today.


Yes, the last two years have flown by–or not, depending on the type of meds you take– and Gavin Keirans’ two-term presidency is coming to a close. Candidates can pick up their necessary materials in the elections office, room 332 in the HUB starting at 10 am on Monday.


It’s important to note that your registration must be completed by the end of spring break because campaigning begins that following Monday, March 15th.


And then the fun begins.

Tonight’s meeting topic that got the UPUA all hot and bothered was Policy 17, which allocated money for this year’s Spring Festival.


As we all know, last year’s spring festival, Wallypalooza, featured-as President Gavin Keirans so eloquently put it – “one-hit-wonder suspect artist” Asher Roth, whose career has since skyrocketed straight into a ceiling fan. So this year they want to do something better. In very first-stage budgetary discussions, the UPUA has recommended to allocate $19,931.86 towards the Spring Festival 2010 account.


But tensions arose when Director of Legal Affairs Matt Lachman spoke up on behalf of his organization on the $2,000 allocated from the Legal Affairs’ budget. And so it went into debate. And, then of course, another debate. Read on for more details from the riveting meeting.

As a part of a panel of leaders made up of Pennsylvania’s state institutions, including Temple and Pitt, Pres. Graham Spanier traveled to Harrisburg yesterday to answer questions regarding Penn State’s funding needs.


Spanier and the panel met before the state House Appropriations Committee in what is considered the second step (the first being Gov. Rendell’s recent budget announcement) in the annual appropriations process.


Pres. Spanier had plans to inform the legislature about the funding needs of the university, as well as the educational opportunities made available to students because of said funding, according to Annemarie Mountz, Assistant Director of Public Information at Penn State.


Read on for some of the ‘educational opportunities’.

Last night, the UPUA voted on a selection of three different advertisements for State Patty’s Day, put together by the UPUA Student Life and Diversity Committee headed up by chairman, Christian Ragland.


Controversy had erupted earlier when the ad was first proposed because many members were concerned that it took a condescending tone and condemned fellow students for their actions during last year’s State Patty’s Day. The ad chosen by the UPUA will run the Wednesday before State Patty’s Day weekend. Some highlights of the ad, which is still subject to change before it goes to print, are crime statistics from last year’s celebrations and a humble message urging students to practice safety and responsibility.


“We want them to have fun without bringing about the negative aspects of our social lives,” said Ragland in an email to Onward State.


The ad will include a number of student organizations that have agreed to pledge to this safety initiative. Some of the groups signed on for the advertisement so far include the International Student Council, Center for Women, CCSG, Latino Caucus, IFC, Rainbow Roundtable, LGBTQA Student Alliance, NAACP, Blue and White society, and others. According to Ragland, the ad “is a starting point for more collaboration with these groups.”

Our local Congressional representative, Scott Conklin, has begun circulating nomination petitions for a Lt. Governor run later this year.


Conklin, a Democrat, has been the representative of Pennsylvania’s 77th district, which includes State College, since 2006. During his term, Conklin has been a strong supporter of PHEAA, a Pennsylvania organization that helps students with their pursuit of higher education. He has also helped Penn State secure grants and supported our basketball team when they were doing better than they are now.


With the primary election coming up May 18, he only has a few months to prepare. Even if he runs for Lt. Governor, he will still be allowed to run for re-election in his house seat, so he’s not taking a big risk. Conklin’s main motivation for running is to help reform PA’s constitution. Considering how abysmal the state’s budget process has been in the past few years, this might not be a bad idea.

Penn State graduate Michael Pipe will be officially announcing on Sunday his intent to run for Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District, which is currently held by Rep. Glenn Thompson, a Republican.


Pipe has a steep hill ahead of him, however, as he is running as a Democrat in a district that has been notoriously known for its conservative tendencies. Thompson has yet to officially announce his run for re-election, but it is assumed that he will do so soon.


Read on to see his campaign video and to learn Pipe’s story.

Wednesday night’s UPUA meeting tackled a few lingering issues within the assembly, including last week’s amendment proposals for the Elections Code, which were vetoed by President Gavin Keirans, and this year’s State Paddy’s Day.


Last week, Keirans vetoed the 2010 Elections Code, stating that there was a significant, even unconstitutional (the UPUA’s constitution, that is) issue with the proportion of representatives proposed in the new amendments. The amendment would have changed the number of On-Campus Reps from six to eight, and the number of Off-Campus Representatives from 10 to 12.


Another issue that Keirans cited was a part of his decision for the veto, were the new changes to the timeline of the election, including the date of the election this year and the period in which candidates would be eligible to campaign.


Learn more about the election issues (and State Patty’s Day) after the jump.

Dr. Fariborz Ghadar, a Distinguished Scholar and Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a Professor of Global Business at the Smeal College of Business here at Penn State testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia last Wednesday, Feb. 3.


Ghadar, an Iranian-born citizen, spoke to Congress regarding U.S. policies on Iran. In his testimony, “America and the Iranian Political Reform Movement: First Do No Harm,” which is available in full on Smeal’s website, ushered in some sobering truths regarding the U.S. current policies towards Iran and offered up some now strategies in how to best deal with this nation that is now in turmoil.


What were some of these sobering truths? Read on to find out.

As planned, Governor Ed Rendell announced his budget proposals today for the 2010-2011 fiscal year in the Commonwealth and proposed $333.9 million in appropriations for Penn State.


This is the first of a million steps in the appropriations process for Penn State that must be taken before the university receives its funding. Over the next few months, university officials must meet with state legislators in order to come up with a final spending plan by weighing the university’s costs and needs.


President Graham Spanier plans to go before the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 23 and the Senate Appropriations Committee on March 3.


After last year’s near-explosive financial dilemma, lets hope that everything gets worked out in an ordered and timely fashion, like a good fire drill.

DJ Ryan comments on the reasons behind his resignation as CCSG Liaison to UPUA, and responds to questions raised in our earlier post about the event.

Anyone wishing to comment on behalf of UPUA is welcome to contact us to make the arrangements.

Those in attendance last night at the UPUA meeting may not have been expecting anything interesting to happen, but they were in for quite a treat.


Drama ensued partway through the marathon session when DJ Ryan, CCSG Liaison to UPUA, resigned his position, effective immediately. The resignation was not a personal decision of Mr. Ryan, but of CCSG as an organization. CCSG, after attempting to collaborate with UPUA on many issues of importance, decided that they were not interested in continuing a formal relationship with a group that did not want to work with them.

Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and all-around pleasant man, announced that he is considering running on the Republican ballot in the 2012 presidential election.


So to reiterate, a man has publicly announced that he’s thinking about doing something but isn’t sure.


The speculation also came with a letter, which pretty much spells out his manifesto for his presidential campaign.


“I have no great burning desire to be president, but I have a burning desire to have a different president of the United States,” Santorum said. And a different candidate he would make. He’s been mentioned on several prestigious websites such as urbandictionary.com and even has his own “urban” defintion:

1. santorum: The sometimes frothy, usually slimy, amalgam of lubricant, stray fecal matter and ejaculate that leaks out of the receiving partner’s anus after a session of anal intercourse.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that that definition probably had something to do with his hardliner conservative stance against homosexuality. But regardless of his views and last name definitions, he still boasts a significant amount of political experience, and as “frothy” as he may be, he may very well could be the best choice for our country’s leader in the next election. Or he could be the bringer of the next apocalypse. In any case, invest in lots of canned foods.

However, considering that next year’s schedule has fewer games, the price per game will stay the same.


Tuition, on the other hand, will almost definitely be increased. In a meeting with the Board of Trustees last week, Graham Spanier announced students should expect to see a tuition hike of between 2.9 to 4.9 percent.


Spanier also noted that the difficulty Penn State had attaining its appropriations this fall should have been a hint that tuition might have to be adjusted to compensate. If you haven’t been paying attention, well, surprise!


As is it the media’s job to play the blame game, let’s start first with the Pennsylvania legislature. They wouldn’t give Penn State the entirety of its appropriations request and now students have to make up the difference. Also, we can throw some blame on the university’s representatives. Sure, they probably did their best, but why let facts get in the way of a good blaming? While we’re at it, Graham Spanier probably had something to do with this monetary meltdown… and you thought he and Fast Eddy were friends!


But the main culprit, the real son-of-a-bitch responsible for the tuition hike, is NBC. They ruined late night TV and ultimately spurred the final decision to raise tuition.


It could be worse. Even a five percent increase isn’t the end of the world (which is still in two years, btw). And at least Penn State isn’t the University of California. They call that a riot? Raise our tuition 32 percent and we’ll show UC how college rioting is done!