Sentinel Morning Update: DID advocate optimistic despite economic news
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Despite national news of economic woes, Perry Heath remains optimistic about the future of the proposed Downtown Improvement District in Carlisle.
The borough councilman was asked Monday whether now is the best time to push for an additional assessment on commercial property owners given the recent stock market meltdown and talk by some of a possible depression.
“The economy of central Pennsylvania is not being terribly affected,” said Heath, who chairs the task force working to implement a DID.
He explained that the regional retail climate, unemployment rate and housing market continue to remain stable compared to other parts of the country.
“Generally speaking, I don’t think concern about the economy will have a real negative impact on the DID,” Heath said. “People who support it understand its value. I don’t know if there is any better time.”
Under a DID, commercial property owners within a designated area pay an assessment beyond the real estate tax to fund ramped-up marketing efforts, traffic safety upgrades and beautification projects.
Along with the rest of this story from Sentinel reporter Joseph Cress, here's what else to look for in today’s print and on-line editions:
Dickinson College hosts talk on Gitmo prisoner rights
The War on Terror has raised many questions about the conduct of war.
The question probably most debated has been the detention of those captured during armed conflicts.
The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues will host a free public event on the issue at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Stern Center Great Room at Dickinson College on West Louther Street between College and West streets.
Rick Wilson, director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University’s Washington College of Law, will speak on “Guantanamo and the Nation’s Narrative: From Enemy Combatants to Lawfare.”
The Geneva Conventions specifically define a prisoner of war. However, the opposition coalition forces have faced typically do not fit this definition. Thus, the Bush Administration has determined they are not POWs but “enemy combatants” who are not entitled to the same rights.
During military operations, the U.S. military has detained many people who dispute they were ever involved in armed conflict with the United States. Some, after years of detention, brought suit against the United States government demanding their detention be justified in a court of law.
Wilson is founding director of the clinic, director for the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and is a professor of law at American University’s Washington Law School.
Scouts host women in military event Saturday
Visitors to the Army Heritage Trail Saturday can expect to see Molly Pitcher alive and well again, but fighting for a different cause.
The Revolutionary War heroine will be among a cast of characters out to educate the public on the many contributions women have made to military history.
Senior and Ambassador Scouts from Troop 619 will present a living history exhibit from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the trail at 950 Soldiers Drive in Middlesex Township.
Troop Leader Col. Susan Myers said the scouts developed the project as a way give something back to the Carlisle military community.
The troop consists mainly of girls from military families whose parents are assigned as either faculty or staff at the Army War College, Carlisle Barracks.
“The post has done a good job taking care of family needs,” said Myers, director of First Year Studies in the Department of Distance Education. Her daughter is in the troop.
Truck honors veterans, delights children in Shippensburg
Happy preschoolers got to sit in the driver’s seat of Vince Hagen’s truck on Monday.
Hagen, a driver for Schneider National, drives the 2008 “Ride of Pride” truck, which is painted with patriotic symbols and the phrase “In Honor of Freedom’s Warriors... Past and Present.”
“When I let them honk the horn, they became really excited,” he said.
Cadence Hench, 3, beamed when he got to sit in the driver’s seat and blow the horn.
Hagen also handed out toy Schneider trucks, and the children immediately started playing with the trucks in the dirt-and-gravel parking lot at the Capital Area Intermediate Unit Shippensburg Preschool, which is on South Penn Street.
“It was fun for me just to watch them,” Hagen said.
Morning Update
The Sentinel Morning Update runs every weekday by 8 a.m. to take a look at what we have planned for our newspaper and Web site. Feel free to offer any suggestions, questions or feedback to jpratt@cumberlink.com
