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Teen homicide suspect had ‘unstable’ upbringing

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Diamonds to King&rsquo;s College and the Diocese of Scranton for striking a bargain that can help more high school graduates earn a bachelor&rsquo;s degree. Representatives from both institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding assuring that any graduate of one of the four diocesan high schools will be accepted at King&rsquo;s if that&rsquo;s where they opt to go and if they meet academic standards. Perhaps more importantly, students who do qualify will also be eligible for an annual scholarship for four years that can be worth up to $88,000 total. Making college more accessible and affordable has become a critical goal for the nation&rsquo;s future, and this is a solid way to do that. Holy Redeemer High School Principal Doreen Dougherty summed it up nicely: &ldquo;To have a close partnership with colleges and universities in our area such as King&rsquo;s College really gives our students an incredible opportunity from the day they walk in.&rdquo;
				Coal to Charles Baldrica for what &mdash; from the police description &mdash; was an utterly bizarre and dangerous decision with a gun. Police were investigating a bullet shot into an occupied Andover Street residence. When police traced the trajectory of the round to a nearby house, Baldrica eventually admitted he shot at the house &ldquo;on purpose&rdquo; to get someone to call police, insisting he intended to turn himself in. If true, there are much saner ways to get arrested that don&rsquo;t involve putting others at risk.
				Diamonds to Wilkes University students and faculty who participated in Wednesday&rsquo;s &ldquo;transcribe-a-thon&rdquo; at Breiseth Hall. It was an admittedly late arrival to the event, which technically was scheduled for Feb. 14, but this was a mammoth project supported by many people worldwide. Volunteers logged on to a website where they could view scanned copies of the prodigious writings &mdash; from letters to essays to financial documents and more &mdash; of Anna Julia Cooper, considered by many to be &ldquo;the mother of Black Feminism.&rdquo; Born to a slave, Cooper managed to become the fourth black American to earn a college degree, and went on to become a well-regarded scholar and activist. She deserves to be remembered, and the work done at Wilkes will go a long way toward making that happen, as her writings become part of a large, searchable collection available online. Student Mmachi Dimoiaku conceded she may have come to the project in part for some extra club credit, but added &ldquo;This would be worth it even if I wasn&rsquo;t getting credit.&rdquo;
				Coal to the unknown person who left a training grenade in a Wilkes-Barre home. Aside from the disturbing notion of having such a device around &mdash; even if mostly harmless other than as a blunt object for hitting someone &mdash; there is a real cost in what happened. It was left in an empty house to be discovered by a cleaning company. The fact that it wasn&rsquo;t a functioning explosive doesn&rsquo;t mitigate the damage it caused, with the police response, part of Beech Street blocked off, and a call to the Scranton Hazardous Device and Explosive Unit. No one was hurt, but a lot of resources were wasted in the name of safety and a lot of law enforcement personnel were distracted from other duties. If the person who left the grenade can be tracked down, justice might be served by billing them for the expense.
				 &mdash; Times Leader

Our View: Agreement between diocese, King’s is diamond worthy