vol. 135 - no. 215 more inside former drug addict...
TRANSCRIPT
Vol. 135 - No. 215
Sunny and unseasonably warm with highs around 70.
Full report, A2
14 pages
Classi� ed ......................... B5
Comics ............................. B4
Lifestyles ......................... A4
Lottery ............................. A7
Opinion ........................... A6
Public Notices ............... B5
Sports ............................... B1
$1.00
•ThomasFarrell,68•WilliamRoberts,51•JeanStrouse,78•LauraWheeler,91
The voter gap in Jeffer-son County continues to widen. The offi cial voter registration numbers for the county show the num-ber of voters affi liated with the Republican Party grew by 76 new voters. A2
No end in sight forbudget stalemate
State-subsidized pre-kindergarten programs are shutting down, do-mestic violence shelters are closing their doors and Pennsylvania’s school districts are begging for more time to pay their bills — all because of a four-month budget stale-mate that shows no signs of ending. A5
Dentist wants to buy candyAn Albuquerque, New
Mexico, dentist is hoping to get ahead in the fight against post-Halloween cavities with cash. A7
Steelers stung by Bengals
The Cincinnati Ben-gals had a game-winning touchdown catch late in the fourth quarter to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16-10. B1
Voter gap widens in Jefferson Co.
Tomorrow’s Forecast
Index
ObituariesA7
MORE INSIDE
Page B1
By Jeff Corcino
Special to The Courier-Express
CLEARFIELD — Clearfi eld County voters go to the polls Tues-day in what is expected to be a light turnout.With no national races on the ballot, turnout is expected to be
about 25 percent, Dawn Graham, Clearfi eld County director of elec-tions, said.Last May’s primary had a turn-out of approximately 19 percent, ac-cording to Graham.“Usually, we don’t get a large turnout for municipal elections,” Graham said.
This is in contrast to presidential election years. Graham said she expects turnout to exceed 60 percent for next year’s Presidential election.There are 51,004 registered vot-ers in Clearfi eld County, Graham said.For those voting on Tuesday, none
of the polling places have changed since the last election. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.First-time voters are required to show identifi cation — an ID is not required for anyone else, Graham said.“I just urge everyone to get out and vote,” Graham said.
Voter turnout expected to be light; county urges residents to vote
By Elaine Haskins
DuBOIS — It’s time to Shine A Light on lung cancer and honor all those impacted by lung cancer.DuBois will be hosting its second annual Shine A Light on Lung Cancer event from 4-6 p.m. Friday at Penn Highlands DuBois. The community is invited to come with hope, inspiration and support for those affected by lung cancer and those at risk — from sur-vivors to the newly diagnosed to loved ones to healthcare professionals to those simply wanting to help.“The event is being held to create aware-ness about lung cancer whether it’s a lung cancer screening, treatment, people who have survived or people who haven’t sur-vived,” said Dr. Sandeep Bansal at The Lung Center at Penn Highlands DuBois. “It’s be-ing done jointly in collaboration with the Lung Cancer Alliance, which is one of the largest organizations in the world dedicated to saving lives and advancing research by empowering those living with and at risk for lung cancer.”
Those attending Friday’s event will learn about the latest advancements for lung can-cer.They will also hear a story of survival from Lessa Casteel of DuBois.“We want to encourage and inspire peo-ple. We don’t want them to feel helpless. And we feel that we have implemented programs that are impacting that,” Candy Cole, RN, and The Lung Center’s nurse navigator.“Our goal is to change the stage of diag-nosis. Right now, there are 159,000 deaths a year from lung cancer. That’s more than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined. So we think a reasonable goal is to bring that down to 150,000,” Cole said.In addition to Casteel, other speakers will include Bansal; Dr. Waqar Shah, Penn Highlands Healthcare interventional radi-ologist; and Raymond Graeca, CEO of Penn Highlands; Dr. Grae L. Schuster and Dr. Ha-zem Elkassas.Music will be provided by Brian Simpson and Dr. Paul Fehrenbach.The Lung Center will also offer free Al-pha-1 screenings at the Shine A Light event,
‘Shine A Light on Lung Cancer’ event set for Friday at Penn Highlands DuBois
DuBois will be hosting its second annual Shine A Light on Lung Cancer event from 4-6 p.m. Friday at Penn Highland DuBois to bring awareness to this disease. Shown “shining a light” with mini-flashlights, from left, are: Dr. Sandeep Bansal at The Lung Center at Penn High-lands DuBois, Candy Cole, RN, and The Lung Center’s nurse navigator; Michelle Smith, vice president of physician network and service line director; and Susan Mitchell, certified nurse practitioner at The Lung Center. (Photo by Elaine Haskins)
By Katie Weidenboerner
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles to run this week on drug ad-diction.❑ ❑ ❑An addict, now 12 ½ years into recovery, said his drug-induced tailspin began
at a young age.“Brought into the drug world” at 11 years old, he was ushered in by his half-brother and half-sister after his parents split up. At that point, he started selling and smoking marijuana.“I looked up to my broth-er. He said it was a good time, and I always liked to have a good time,” he said trailing off.Self-proclaimed as “rebel-lious” and “a troublemaker,” he said he was drawn to oth-ers with the same destruc-tive behaviors.By 13, he was sent to re-hab as an ultimatum after his mom beat him when she found him stumbling high and drunk from a party in the woods.“I went to rehab and was in there with a bunch of in-ner city kids. Instead of help, I got an education and drugs from them,” he said.Once released, he would continue his descent into ad-diction.This would be the fi rst of four trips to detox and three rehab stays over a decade of drug abuse.By 15, he was kicked out of his mother’s house, liv-ing with his sister, moving pounds of marijuana to be sold on the street. All while imbibing in cocaine and psy-chedelics.As he attempted to gauge the timeline during a face-to-face interview Monday, he paused and said “it’s all clustered,” blaming the gaps
in mental clarity on the 13- year-long drug dependency.“One summer, heroin hit town and a whole slew of my friends overdosed and died,” he said. “I remember going to those funerals and say-ing ‘I’ll never do heroin,’ ‘I’ll never shoot up.’”Two years later, after having quit school, he re-ceived his GED, as well as an Associate’s degree in Specialized Technologies from ITT Tech.“Toward the end (of re-ceiving my degree), I got introduced to Oxycontin. I knew it was a narcotic. I told myself it wasn’t a needle, it was a pill.And I was only going to eat them once in while,” he said.“Before I knew it ‘once in a while’ became all the time.”The narcotics fueled the disease.He lost his machining job and started up selling drugs again – running large amounts of marijuana from Pittsburgh back to the area to sell. In time, he lost his connection in Pittsburgh.“At 22, with a real bad ad-diction, I needed money bad, so I started running heroin from Philly because it was cheap and I could make money fast,” he explained. “For the next two years, I was shooting dope.”From the day he began to shoot, he described life in two modes – high or sick and chasing after the high.By this time, his fam-ily had built a wall between themselves and the burgeon-ing fi end.At 6’3” he weighed 162 pounds, was living out of his car, wouldn’t shower for days, and was an undesir-able to most.“I lived like an animal for
Former drug addictdescribes how his life has changed
DuBois Area Middle School students are shown with their historical figure pumpkin projects from teacher Matt Roush’s social studies class. From left are: Abby Johnston (Albert Einstein); Chase Runyo (Abraham Lincoln), Westin Meredith (Johnny Appleseed), Aliza Hallowell (Don-ald Trump), Felicity Enseki (Benjamin Franklin), Trenton Donahue (George Washington), and Melody Stainbrook (Donald Trump). (Photo by Elaine Haskins)
By Elaine Haskins
DuBOIS — DuBois Area Middle School eighth-grade social studies teacher Matt Roush has a talent for fi nd-ing creative ways to promote family engagement in the learning process.For Halloween, Roush said he challenged the stu-dents to brainstorm histori-cal fi gures that have made positive contributions to so-ciety.For extra credit, he had the students research the individuals and compose a short biography. Next, the students designed and cre-
ated the historical fi gure pumpkin with a parent or guardian.“About a third of the stu-dents completed the proj-ects,” Roush said. “There were really a lot of nice ones such as Chris Kyle, Ben Franklin, Johnny Ap-pleseed, Donald Trump and Albert Einstein.”Roush said the students had about two weeks to com-plete the project.“I just wanted to get them researching some his-tory about famous American people that we will be talk-ing about this year,” he said. “And hopefully, it gives the
DuBois teacher finds fun way to teach history
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2015
See History, Page A7
See Former, Page A7See Shine, Page A7