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The pope’s last journey
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Dual Senate votes part of blame game Immediate impact of acrossthe-board cuts uncertain as both sides harden positions. By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON — Squabbling away the hours, the Senate swatted aside last-ditch plans to block $85 billion in broad-based federal spending reductions Thursday as President Barack Obama and Republicans blamed each other for the latest outbreak of gridlock
and the administration readied plans to put the cuts into effect. So entrenched were the two parties that the Senate chaplain, Barry Black, opened the day’s session with a prayer that beseeched a higher power to intervene. “Rise up, O God, and save us from ourselves,” he said of cuts due to take effect sometime today. The immediate impact of the reductions on the public was See BUDGET, Page 10A
Casey, Toomey stick with parties By BILL O’BOYLE boboyle@timesleader.com
AP PHOTOS
Speaker of the House John Boehner meets with reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. gestures during a news conference.
Two alternative spending plans offered by both political parties were defeated Thursday in the Senate. That leaves today’s deadline for the dreaded sequester at hand, and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said the effects on the country and specifically his home state will be devastating. The Republican plan,
Another chance for Section 8
The U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan, where guard Eric Williams was killed Monday, impacted by move.
By JENNIFER LEARN-ANDES jandes@timesleader.com
By MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com
AIMEE DILGER /THE TIMES LEADER
Don Rash pulls the lever on the printing press he used to make a replica for the National Park Service of the chess board that was created by Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko.
All the right moves Area artisan re-creates history By MARK GUYDISH mguydish@timesleader.com
PLAINS TWP. — Don Rash hasn’t played chess for years, couldn’t string three facts together about Thaddeus Kosciuszko and never visited the Revolutionary War hero’s native Poland or adopted Philadelphia home. Yet when the National Parks Service craved a replica of the freedom fighter’s chess board, they hired the bookbinder with the gray beard and shop full of antique technology Kosciuszko would probably recognize. So how does one recreate a 230-yearold chessboard that sits in Poland while
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INSIDE
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Additional guards get pepper spray
County housing authority hasn’t taken applications since ‘11 due to huge demand.
For the first time in two years, the Luzerne County Housing Authority is accepting applications for Section 8 rental assistance. Authority Executive Director David Fagula said it’s taken that long to work through a waiting list of 700 applicants who sought the rental subsidy during the last three-week enrollment period in March 2011. He expects a similar onslaught of new requests this time, which prompted him to limit new applications for H ow to a two-week apply period ending How to apply March 13. Luzerne “I know we’ll County residents can apply receive hunfor Section 8 dreds of appliin person at cations in two the Housing weeks, and it’s Authority Ofsenseless to fice, 250 First take more when Ave., Kingston, between 9 we won’t reach a.m. and 3 the people on p.m. Monday the waiting list through Friday for years,” Faguuntil March 13. Faxed or mailed la said. He received applications 25 applications won’t be accepted. the first day they were accepted Wednesday and already had another 20 as of Thursday morning. The authority, which serves all county municipalities except for the four cities, is federally authorized to fill 1,115 Section 8 slots, but 75 aren’t being accessed by renters because of federal funding cuts, he said. A federal budget dispute could result in further spending reductions in the rental housing program, he said. Fagula said he doesn’t want to offer the subsidy to new tenants until he’s confident the authority can afford to keep them in the program. Other housing authorities throughout the country have been notifying Section 8 participants
co-authored by Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, failed by a 62-38 vote. A second bill — authored by the Democratic majority - failed 51-49. The two plans were attempts to avoid or replace the $85 billion in cuts that both sides say will threaten economic growth, military readiness and jobs. The House did not have any
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never leaving Luzerne County? Let’s just say Rash doesn’t live up to his name; you don’t learn in a hurry the art of binding handmade paper in vegetable-tanned leather decorated with pressed gold leaf. “I get people who say they’d like to learn this, and I ask, ‘What’s your boredom threshold?’ ” Rash quipped. Rash worked from photos of the original, leather-backed board with a handmade paper playing surface. “The weird thing was that, when they showed me the picture, it looked like it had been
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The antique replica chess set painstakingly created by Dan Rash.
See CHESS, Page 10A
ABOUT THADDEUS KOSCIUSZKO A native of Poland, Kosciuszko was commissioned as Colonel of Engineers by the Continental Congress in 1776 and began his outstanding service of fortifying battle sites, many of which became turning points in America’s
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fight for independence against the British. He became friends with Thomas Jefferson and in 1778, Kosciuszko was made chief engineer of West Point, N.Y. This fortification became known as the
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American Gibraltar because it was unable to be penetrated by the British Army. Eventually West Point became a military academy. In 1783, Kosciuszko was appointed brigadier general and was awarded the Cincinnati Order Medal by
Gen. George Washington. Washington also presented Kosciuszko with two pistols and a sword as gifts for his outstanding service to America. SOURCE: Polish American Center, Philadelphia
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On the heels of the homicide of federal corrections officer and Nanticoke resident Eric Williams, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced Thursday it will issue pepper spray to officers at high-security prisons, including the Wayne County facility where Williams was killed. The Justice Department instituted a pilot program to arm corrections officers with pepper spray, or oleoresin capsi- Williams cum aerosol, in June 2012 at seven federal prisons, including the high-security prison in Lewisburg. On Thursday, it expanded the program to all highsecurity prisons, including the U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan near Waymart, according to Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke. Williams, 34, was working at the Canaan prison Monday night when he reportedly was beaten and stabbed by an inmate. Federal corrections officers are equipped with an alarm system on their bodies that they can trigger if they are in danger, but according to his father, Donald Williams, initial reports indicate Eric Williams did not trigger the alarm. It remains unclear why. The FBI is investigating his homicide. The new operations memorandum detailing the use of pepper spray allows officers at specific posts within prisons, including housing unit officers, corridor officers and recreation officers, to carry pepper spray after they have received training in its use. The training consists of an initial fourhour class and quarterly refresher courses. It permits officers to use the spray as a “last alternative after all other reasonable efforts to resolve a situation have failed.” “Prior to any OC aerosol spray being used, staff must attempt verbal intervention to defuse the situation when feasible,” the memorandum states. “… When authorized, staff must use only that amount of force necessary to gain See PEPPER, Page 10A
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