Bush booed at 2008 Nationals home opener

Only someone of this magnitude could bring out the boo-birds on Opening Day in a brand new stadium!!

Raymond J. Learsy: Cheney Greets King Abdullah In SaudiLand

We did it! You can well imagine the high fives, the cheers and hugs as Vice President Cheney met with King Abdullah in Riyadh last week. $100-plus oil as the norm. What a triumph for King Abdullah and his protectors and cheerleaders in the current administration, spearheaded by the oil industry's factotums in the White House [Bush and Cheney]

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Fighting Colon Cancer with WNEP 16

Check out the Voice with friends fighting Colon Cancer with Joe Snedeker!!!!!

Fannick and Klebon named Pennsylvani All-State

Photo by Seth Hoover of the Daily-Item

Tony Fannick Jr. and Colin Klebon are repeat PA All-Staters. Check out the Daily-Item story by Todd Stanford.

Cancer Treatment Getting More Expensive

Get the straight talk on cancer expenses rising in the coming years.

The Coal Region Voice will be at the following:

3/27

Go to WNEP and check the 6 am forecast.

3/28

Celebrate Life--Stories of Hope from Survivors of Colon Cancer Photos and stories from colon cancer survivors and their families will be on display in the Boscov Court area of the Susquehanna Valley Mall from March 26 through April 9.On Friday, March 28, from 4-8pm, a community outreach event will be added to the display.

This will consist of information from cancer centers, health care facilities, community organizations, survivors, local physicians, and other appropriate sources regarding colorectal cancer prevention, early detection, treatment and advocacy. At 6:00pm on March 28, a Community Reception will be held with light refreshments.

A formal Colorectal Cancer Awareness presentation will be on Tuesday, April 1 from 6:30-7:30pm in the mall Community Room

Hillary Clinton coming to Schuylkill County?????

Two different media outlets have reported that Hillary Clinton may be in Girardville, PA for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade. Read the reports here and here. It will be the first time a candidate ventures inside the Williamsport-Scranton-Harrisburg triangle. Former President William Jefferson Clinton has scheduled stops in State College and Lewistown this week.

It is hard to get a take on the reasons for the surge in voter registrations, especially counting all the party switches. Read Gort42's take on it.

The death toll hits 4000 in Iraq

The death toll has now reached 4000 dead in Iraq. Hopefully the debate between now and April 22nd will heat up and define victory for the region. 1oth Congressional District candidates Dan Meuser and Chris Hackett have not offered anything new.

Deer harvest is down 11 percent from last season in PA!!!

Hunters in Pennsylvania killed an estimated 323,070 deer during the 2007-08 season, an 11 percent decrease from the prior season. The Pennsylvania Game Commission says hunters killed 109,200 antlered deer, down 19 percent from the previous season's 135,290.

Where are deer? Good question.



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Pryor Commits Today

Saturday may have been Pryor's last relaxing day at PSU for awhile

There will be a few schools looking for that elusive signature. Signing comes at 12:00 today.

UPDATE: IT'S THE BUCKEYES!!!

Hard to say what went in the decision, but Ohio State and Jim Tressel have benn playing in BCS championship games and producing Heismann players. Did basketball factor in? Hard to say. Football is only six months away.

In Memoriam to a Colondar Model

In Memoriam

Michelle Cervone

As the Colondar turned from May to June back in 2006, electricity filled the air as my coworkers met Michelle Cervone for the first time. Michelle was a Stage IV cancer survivor who brought awareness to many by modeling for the 2006 Colondar. Sadly, Michelle passed away on March 12th, 2008.

You can read more about Michelle's battle with colon cancer just by clicking on the link titled Michelle's story under my colon cancer links.

On Friday, March 28th at 6 pm, there will be a Celebration of Life event at the Susquehanna Valley Mall in the Boscov's court. Colon cancer survivors including caregivers will share their stories of hope in person and in display. A program will be conducted to bring about education and awareness.

Pryor-Mania tops this weekend's PIAA Basketball Championships

The winter sports season has come to end and Terrelle Pryor will be making his decision within a week where he will play football. He was gracious enough to sign some autographs for the young fans after yesterday's championship game. The Coal Region Voice wishes Pryor all the best in his decision.

Lost a little bit in Pryormania, was the fact that two more teams joined the football-basketball double in the same years. Last year, General McLane did it in AAA. This season Jeannette completed the double in AA, while Steel-High had a rare A-football, AAA basketball. Serra Catholic deserves a shout here getting their football team into the A final and winning the A basketball championship. To all the coaches out there, let your football players play basketball and you basketball players play football.

What's in a nickname? Mount Alvernia's nickname is the Lions. Talking to some of there fans, Moun Alvernia is an all-girls school.

State College vs. Hershey???? Hard to say who does the better job or which is the better place for high school. The Steel-High/Susquehanna Township game was probably a better Giant Center draw. PIAA attendance figures to me have always been inaccurate especially when is comes to football. My doubts go all the way back to the Mount Carmel vs. Bishop McDevitt game in 1996.

It always comes home. I was having a conversation with a young man in his 20's while we were waiting for an autograph of Pryor. He said he was from Pittsburgh by was of Mechanicsburg and his grandfather is from Shamokin. After exchanging names, I asked if he was related to a specific person with his surname. He indicated that I was referring to his great grandmother. I told him I grew up right across the street. Wow!!!

While waiting for the Jennette team to come out of Bryce-Jordan, I thought there would be a Joe Paterno or Tom Bradley sighting at the game. NCAA rule prohibit contact and they were not in attendance to my knowledge. I did one last double-check to make sure. Paterno nor Bradley were not driving the Jeannette bus.

Billy Crystal and the rest of us.

Billy Crystal for his 60th birthday got to suit up and bat in a spring training game for his beloved New York Yankees. You can't help but think back to his "best day" line in the movie City Slickers. It also makes you think of Burt Lancaster's character, Archie "Moonlight" Graham in Field of Dreams.

For the record, here is the boxscore from my first game on August 19th, 1978. Mike Schmidt hit a rare game leadoff home run, Steve Carlton pitched a three-hit shutout, and 3 Hall of Famer's started the game.

PIAA basketball finals this weekend!!!

The Jennette Jayhawks go for a rare double on Saturday. The will try to win a AA football and basketball championship in the same school year. General McLane did accomplish the same feat last season in AAA. I believe Terrelle Pryor will have something to do with outcome.

UPDATE: We almost forgot Steel-High will be trying to do a rare A in football and AAA in basketball.

OUT SICK

We should be back soon this weekend with plenty to cover. Thanks for checking while I was gone.

Wear the Orange!!!!

Photo by Jon Terry for the Daily-Item

Maybe the Bison were able to figure something out. I don't know what figures in the choice of Bucknell road uniforms but maybe they want to consider orange the rest of the way. With Holy Cross getting knocked out last night, Bucknell becomes road warriors the rest of the season.

District IV Hoops

Todd Stanford of the Daily-Item has similar thoughts to what I posted back in February.

Bucknell sink the Navy in a 3OT Flash!!!!!

Navy goes down in a Philly Flash that is. Like the cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn would add at the end of a statement. John Griffin banked home a 40-foot desperation trey for an 87-86 win in triple overtime.

Bucknell (12-18) will now play Colgate this Sunday. The Red Raiders were 76-74 winners over 6th seeded Lafayette. In the Patriot League, all four games were decided by a total of eight points and 4 overtimes. Moving on to the semi's were the Bison, Colgate Army, and American. Navy ended their season at 16-14.

Season Ends for Lourdes, Shamokin and Southern

District IV's appearance was a short one for the most teams with only Hughesville, North Penn, Northeast Bradford and East Juniata moving to the next round.

Around the area, Lourdes boys and girls probably had the best chance to advance, but turnovers and poor foul shooting plagued them both. Shamokin girls and Southern boys both ran into teams that have been traditional powers in their divisions.

A mild surprise was that Selinsgrove's boys and girls games weren't even close. One of the main things noticed in the state playoffs the last few years is the ability to get good shots and the field goals to turnover ratios. Area teams have been making too many turnovers and many unforced. (See Shamokin Area boys early exit).

INJURY BUG??

The injury bug hit early and often for most area teams. Not only was it a problem on the high school level, but also on local college.

Bucknell Men - played 5 games this season to date with full roster.

Susquehanna - lost Landmark Conference leading scorer Josh Robinson late in the season.

Milton - lost all time leading scorer Anthony Fannick in District IV Quarters.

Lourdes - lost tough rebounder Tyler Reichwein late in the season.

Southern Area - lost Colin Klebon through much of of the first half of the league schedule.

All we could do is get healthy, stay there and go at again next season.

Lourdes, Southern, and Shamokin women in action today.

If you are making the trip to Marywood University today for Lourdes Regional for the games scheduled at 4:30 and 6:00 pm, here are the direcitons from I-81:

11:
Merge onto I-81 N via EXIT 260B on the LEFT toward WILKES-BARRE.
35.5 miles
Map
12:
Take EXIT 187 toward I-84 E / MT POCONO / I-380 S / MILFORD / US-6 E / CARBONDALE.
0.2 miles
Map
13:
Take the DRINKER ST exit- EXIT 186.
0.2 miles
Map
14:
Turn LEFT onto E DRINKER ST.
1.4 miles
Map
15:
E DRINKER ST becomes ELECTRIC ST.
0.2 miles
Map
16:
Turn RIGHT onto JEFFERSON AVE.

17:
Turn LEFT to stay on JEFFERSON AVE.
0.2 miles
Map
18:
Turn LEFT onto COLLEGE AVE.

19:
Turn RIGHT onto ADAMS AVE.
20:
End at 2300 Adams AveScranton, PA 18509-1514, US

Will this Southern Area fan be lurking at New Oxford today

Due to the weather last night, several area teams will be opening the state playoffs this afternoon and evening. Not much is expected out of area teams, but they play the games for a reason.

Southern Area have their hands full this afternoon down at New Oxford High School against Delone Catholic. Here is a PIAA rule I don't like. Unless your a number 1 seed coming out of the district, you shouldn't have a game in your back yard. More often than not this game is slanted toward the Hersheypark Arena or Giant Center.

Lourdes Regional boys and girls go up against Old Forge boys and girls. For years Old Forge and the former Bishop O'Reilly dueled for supremacy in District 2 A along with Bishop Hannan. Both Bishops are gone and have passed the torch to Old Forge. Out of District's 2, 4 and 11 in men, I give the Blue Devil boys the best chance of going deep in the state playoffs. Lourdes girls traditionally handled themselves against the District 2 champs (namely Forest City and the former Seton Catholic in recent years. They probably have the best chance of advancing.

Shamokin Area girls gave Selinsgrove Area all they could handle last week. A win by the Lady Indians would be their first state playoff win. They are going up against a new Catholic merger which the former was a regional power. With two freshman starters and plenty of talent coming back, Shamokin's better days are ahead. Good luck to the Lady Indians this afternoon.