hehe en enturionturion TT All theC news--aboutC Bucks--that’s fit to print. The week of April 14, 2009 www.bucks-news.com Volume: 44 Issue: 12 Will the economy improve? BY DIANA LEE GRODEN are in this Centurion Staff e d i t i o n ’ s pages. The Bucks County community A n o t h e r INSIDE has hardly been immune to the case is a nation’s economic woes. Every man from aspect of our lives seems to have B r i s t o l been touched by them. B o r o u g h Everywhere we turn, we seem to Paul Revere play who started run up against the fallout. The a blog that at Bucks very air is fraught with stress. c h r o n i c l e s PAGE 2 The financial landscape has his job loss changed, becoming unfamiliar and ulti- Credit card debt and treacherous. mately suc- Like so many of us, Bucks stu- c e s s f u l affecting students dent Latonya Evans is feeling the efforts to PAGE 4 pinch in the tough economic find another times. She works part-time at her one. Economy: Who is local “Y” but said it’s getting We heard KEY ECONOMIC STAFF MEMBERS CONFER DURING A BUDGET SESSION IN THE WHITE HOUSE. harder to pay her bills. “My from stu- as fast as their means of earn- to blame? PHOTO COURTESY WHITEHOUSE.GOV hours were cut back from 35 to dents who ing a living and savings are PAGE 4 15 a week.” are experiencing cutbacks and ployed swelling, displaced evaporating. While most every- Though the county is faring losing jobs they counted on to workers flocked to the college’s one seems to be feeling the emo- Interactive Media: better than the nation as a whole, help defray tuition expenses. tuition-free program, hoping to tional and psychological impact Latest Game its unemployment rate has They share the ways they found learn skills that will help them of the recession, faculty and staff steadily risen to 6.5 percent. It to save money. Bucks President find a job. offer coping strategies for stu- Reviews jumped 2 percent, or by about James Linksz, and Matt To take a step back and gain dents struggling to find balance PAGE 8 one-third, over the last year. Cipriano, director of Student some perspective, a Bucks pro- in the high-pressure world of And 1,668 of its families’ homes Life, weigh in. fessor explains how the country academia that, for many, has JenEric reviews are in foreclosure. In Newtown, Using their credit cards to the got into the mess it’s in and how intensified due to the ailing orange treasure that’s one in 1,505 homes. In hilt, some students owe thou- it might get out of it. economy. Feasterville, it’s one in 636. Some of the nation’s senior cit- However, there is a silver lin- PAGE 10 sands of dollars. Also, parents of Amid the uncertainty, loss, students worry about their dwin- izens have been through severe ing to the multitude of chal- and worry, the Centurion decid- dling savings, which they had economic times before. Sister lenges we are facing now. As ed to find out how people at worked so hard to put away for Molly McGuire, 91, shares her Bucks student Sarah Palladino Bucks and those who live in the their children’s college educa- memories of living through the said, “It makes you think about SPORTS area are faring and what they are tion. Great Depression. what’s really important in your doing to cope. What we found With the ranks of the unem- People’s stress levels are rising life.” Can the Phillies do it again this year? BACK PAGE Retired principal reflects on Holocaust BY DIANA LEE GRODEN form were unprepared for people in the camp. They Centurion Staff what waited beyond. were gypsies and homosex- WEATHER The white officer had said uals, Jews and trade union- The Army truck came to a they were driving to investi- ists, even Catholics, all Tuesday: Rain, with a high halt. The engine quieted. near 52. gate a concentration camp. transported there by the Twenty-year-old Cpl. Leon Buchenwald. In all of his Nazis. He led Cpl. Bass Bass, a member of the intelli- training, Cpl. Bass was never around the camp. They Wednesday: Showers, with a gence and reconnaissance high near 54. told about such a thing. Now stepped into an unheated unit of the 183rd Engineer there he was, about to enter barrack, where the prison- Combat Battalion, stepped another world. ers slept in rows of dirty, Thursday: Partly cloudy, down into the stillness of a with a high near 61. Before him lay the shock bare wooden bunks stacked cool afternoon. It was 1945, of his life. People stood star- four levels high. On a bot- April 11 or 12, he doesn’t ing as he stared back at them. tom bunk, in a filthy bed of Friday: Sunny, with a high remember exactly. Several near 60. They were nothing more than straw, laid a cadaverous men from his unit had been skin and bone. Their eyes old man in rags, too weak ordered to drive to a place were sunken. Their heads Friday Night: Partly cloudy, to speak, beseeching in his outside Weimar, not far from were shaved. Some were cov- eyes. The stench of death with a low around 42. their camp in Eisenbach, ered in sores and bruises – was overwhelming; Cpl. BASS AT AGE 18. CIRCA 1943. Germany. : Showers, with a they had been beaten and Bass couldn’t breathe. He Saturday Before them, unguarded guide explained that “selec- high near 55. starved. Tattered, striped stepped out into the cold air and eerily agape, hulked a pajama-like clothing hung on and made his way to the next tion” took place every morn- large black iron gate, the ing, when people were cho- : Showers, their skeletal frames. Some building. Saturday Night words “Jedem Das Seine” sen as subjects for operations with a low around 42. were naked. As they started There, the young soldier (“To Each His Own”) sol- to stumble toward him, Bass saw the cement floor of the and medical experiments. dered at the top, inserted into Naked, atrophied bodies had : Sunny, with a high drew back. “What is this interrogation room covered in Sunday the middle of a white enclo- been stacked neatly in a pile 4 near 59. insanity? Who are these peo- blood and torture instru- sure studded with several ple, and what have they done ments spiked into blood-spat- feet high and 10 feet long small windows and above to be treated like this?” Bass tered walls. near the crematorium. which loomed a brown asked himself. In the third building, wooden watchtower. All was A young prisoner stepped labeled jars containing human silent. They saw no one. The forward to tell the story of the body parts sat on shelves. His young American men in uni- Continued on page 3 WEATHER COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE. Follow us on Twitter.com at buckscenturion 2 News Tuesday, April 14, 2009 “Midnight Ride” to be performed BY JOHN BRODIE “Minute Man” chosen to in-education, Centurion Staff warn the citizens. Paul and afford- Revere is given the assign- ability. The play “The Midnight ment, and rides to warn the The play Ride of Paul Revere” will be American citizens of the will be per- performed at Bucks on British invasion. The play formed in the Friday, April 17 at 1 p.m. and ends at the beginning of the G a t e w a y 7 p.m. It is sponsored by the American Revolution. auditorium, Office of Cultural and The show is mounted by which the Community Programming. TheatreWorksUSA, a New Bucks web- The play will cover important York-based touring company. site says historical events including The cast will contain young “ o f f e r s the Boston Tea Party and, of professional performers, exceptional course, Paul Revere’s famous leading to what Jonathan Lee, s t a g i n g , ride to warn of the British the Director of Cultural and lighting, and invasion. Community Programming, acoustics in “The Midnight Ride of Paul calls “a terrific opportunity an intimate Revere” is set in the colony of for Bucks students interested 330 seat set- Massachusetts Bay, where in the arts to interface with ting.” The Samuel Adams and others young pros with one foot in auditorium is form “The Sons of Liberty” in the door.” He urges all stu- located on THE CAST OF “THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL REVERE.” HOTO BY OAN ARCUS reaction to the rising British dents involved in theater, the main cam- P J M . taxes on the American communications, and music pus in colonies. Paul Revere joins classes to attend. Newtown, and was renovat- price for the play is $5 for the will receive a free ticket for a this group. The Boston According to Lee, the play ed in 2000. 1 p.m. show and $10 for the 7 friend. If interested, go to Massacre then takes place, fulfills the criteria that the All Bucks students receive p.m. show. bucks.edu/cultural, click on along with the infamous Office of Cultural and free admission; for non-stu- Students may also volun- the “Gateway Stage” link, Boston Tea Party. Community Programming dents, tickets for both shows teer to help the show run and then click “Volunteer,” The Sons of Liberty set up a uses to select its program- are available via the Student smoothly, acting as ushers, or contact Jonathan Lee network of spies to warn of ming, including cultural rele- Life office located in the box office personnel, and directly at [email protected] incoming danger, with a vance, artistic integrity, arts- Rollins Center.