| Disabled LANTA riders decry agency's fare plan
EASTON | Allentown resident Karen Lee Smith-Quirk said she and other low-income, disabled riders can't afford to pay $1 a day for Metro service. She and six other people Tuesday urged the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority to rethink raising bus fares this spring. Disabled people who qualify can now ride for free, but officials propose charging them a dollar starting April 1 to help offset a projected $750,000 deficit in the authority's 2006-07 budget. "We're going to wind up in our (wheelchairs) or with our walkers out in the street because we can't afford the price raise," Smith-Quirk said. She said some city sidewalks are in poor condition and impossible to navigate safely. "It's really going to be hard on a lot of handicapped people, extremely hard," she said.
AROUND THE TOWN: Kids get right to the point!
I was assisting my friend, Suzy, in the third and fourth grade Sunday school classroom the other day, and we were studying from the Old Testament book of Micah. As the students were looking through their Bibles to get to the correct chapter and verse, one of the students, Logan Adams, looked up at me and said, "Mrs. Jan, I sure wish God had put the Old Testament in alphabetical order." Suzy and I almost fell over laughing. Out of the mouths of babes! My seven-year-old niece, Lorna, is a first-grader at Homestead Elementary School. She was showing me her report card the other day, and I said, "Well, sis, looks like you made straight A's." Without batting an eye, she said, "I did not Aunt Jan, one of them was crooked." It took me a second, and then I realized that she was talking about the shape of the letter A's.
McCain Taps Cash He Once Sought To Limit
Just about a year-and-a-half ago, Sen. John McCain went to court to try to curtail the influence of a group to which A. Jerrold Perenchio gave $9 million, saying it was trying to "evade and violate" new campaign laws with voter ads ahead of the midterm elections. As McCain launches his own presidential campaign, however, he is counting on Perenchio, the founder of the Univision Spanish-language media empire, to raise millions of dollars as co-chairman of the Arizona Republican's national finance committee. In his early efforts to secure the support of the Republican establishment he has frequently bucked, McCain has embraced some of the same political-money figures, forces and tactics he pilloried during a 15-year crusade to reduce the influence of big donors, fundraisers and lobbyists in elections.
Sheikh Sabah's first year as Amir active at all levels
KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah's first year as Kuwait's leader was full of local, regional, and international activities aimed to consolidate Kuwait's status and the respect it enjoyed from countries of the world. Sheikh Sabah's prerogatives as Amir came with his taking of the constitutional oath on Jan 29, 2006. He thanked his people for their trust in him and promising to continue working for the best interests of the country and its people. He stressed the need for cooperation between the legislative and executive authorities to push forth change and bring about reform. On Jan 30, Sheikh Sabah gave his first speech as leader of the country in which he promised his people he would bear his duties and responsibilities and work to make Kuwait a modern state in which love and equality prevailed.
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