By Crispin Havener

INDIANA -- Borough police closed a section of the main street in the downtown business district for several hours Tuesday after a gift-wrapped package was spotted on the sidewalk in front of the Indiana County Courthouse.

Police also called in the Allegheny County bomb squad to investigate what police called a  "suspicious" box shortly after 10 a.m. Borough police closed off Philadelphia Street between Eighth and Ninth streets for more than four hours at midday.

By Andrew Hesner

INDIANA -- Print news may not be so profitable as it was in the recent past. But the future of journalism is bright, a 1985 Indiana University of Pennsylvania alum and First Amendment activist told a standing-room-only campus crowd at the Hadley Union Building on Monday.

Robert "Rob" Boston, 49, a senior policy analyst at Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Americans United for Separation of Church and State  and a 1985 IUP journalism alumnus, spoke to about 80 students, largely journalism majors, about job prospects and career opportunities at an afternoon event sponsored by the IUP chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

"More outlets [are] spreading news, spreading positions and advocating," said Boston, in a tie and navy blazer. "But not all of them have figured out ways to make money. And that certainly is affecting writers."

By Gerald E. Smith

At the Wednesday night, March 14, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection hearing in Homer City on the proposed scrubbers at the Homer City Power Plant, I was among the small group of community members who, thanks to inflammatory remarks from state Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, had to be escorted to the parking lot by security guards for our own protection.

Before that, I heard speaker after speaker state what I know is true -- that folks in Indiana County are hard-working, skilled people who deserve family-wage jobs. I live in Indiana with my family. I support community growth and organized labor, and I appreciate that nothing builds community like good jobs.