ACLU Defends Brownsville High ‘Harlem Shake’ Video

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Fayette County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A version of the Harlem Shake performed by students at Brownsville High School last month continues to reverberate.

Thirteen students at the Fayette County high school were given two-day suspensions in February for their involvement in filming a 29-second Harlem Shake video and posting it online, part of a popular song-and-dance craze that has swept through the Internet in recent weeks.

Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the National Coalition Against Censorship emailed a letter to Philip J. Savini Jr., Brownsville Area School District superintendent and Rocky Brashear, school board president, urging the district to revoke the suspensions and expunge the students’ records.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/region/aclu-defends-brownsville-high-harlem-shake-video-678338/#ixzz2MtMmBTIL

Brownsville Students Suspended For Harlem Shake Video

The Harlem Shake, an Internet dance video craze, is everywhere. Here, however, the shake has shuddered to a stop.

Thirteen students at Brownsville High School in Fayette County were given two-day suspensions this week after a Harlem Shake video was filmed in a high school classroom and posted online.

“There’s nothing wrong with the song. It’s just what was done with it,” Rocky Brashear, president of the Brownsville Area School Board, said in a phone interview Wednesday, describing the video as “graphic.”

The shake, for those not familiar with it, has swept through the Internet in recent weeks.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/washington/brownsville-students-suspended-for-harlem-shake-video-676244/#ixzz2LZqOALL1

If you want to see what all the fuss was about, click here: http://youtu.be/jj0gAMNdbtg\

Marcellus Shale Yield Skyrockets In Allegheny County

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The amount of Marcellus Shale gas produced in Allegheny County more than doubled in the first half of 2012, with nine online wells concentrated in Frazer and Fawn producing more than 3.6 billion cubic feet of gas, according to new data released by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Even with the increase, the county still contributed a pittance to total statewide production figures.

Gas production across the state climbed from January to June, with 704 billion cubic feet of gas produced, up from the 630 billion cubic feet reported from July to December 2011.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/marcellusshale/county-marcellus-shale-yield-skyrockets-649379/#ixzz246GMjMrr

Trooper Moochers: Big Towns That Rely On State Police Still Get Off Easy

Don’t shed any tears for the sizable towns in Pennsylvania that are going to lose the revenue from traffic tickets written on their roads by state police. They still get to keep a more lucrative freebie, the use of state troopers instead of locally funded officers to handle all their law enforcement.

It’s nothing short of cop welfare — a local expense covered by state taxpayers for towns that, relatively speaking, aren’t even needy.

The loss of the ticket money is due to the enactment of Senate Bill 237, which will take effect Sept. 3 in municipalities with 3,000 or more people that have no local police force. Among the towns that will be affected are Hempfield (population 42,000), Unity (24,000), Derry Township (15,000) and Mt. Pleasant (11,000) in Westmoreland County; White (16,000) in Indiana County; North Union (12,700) in Fayette County and Somerset Township (12,000) in Somerset County.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/trooper-moochers-big-towns-that-rely-on-state-police-still-get-off-easy-645772/#ixzz21Sgah8jz

Verizon Loses $300,000 To Copper Thieves In Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Image via Wikipedia

A sign of rough economic times is people breaking the law to get money.  Usually, things like shoplifting, armed robbery and burglary are the most common.  However, some clever criminals in Fayette County are stealing telephone line to strip the copper wire out and sell it. 

We had a copper thief here in Pottstown.  They were stealing copper rain gutters off churches, of all things, and selling it.  They were  fortunately apprehended.

In Fayette County, 35 thefts of telephone line have occurred since April.  Since October, 19 of these thefts have occurred.  Guess somebody needs some Christmas cash?

Verizon is offering up to $50,000 in rewards for information leading to an arrest. The downside is, in addition to Verizon being out money, Verizon customers are losing their phone service. 

Fayette County is mostly rural and located south of Pittsburgh.  The county shares its southern border with West Virginia.  The county seat and largest city is Uniontown.