Brown and White Vol. 119 no. 24

              Local guitar prodigy performs at Zoellner
By SAMANTHA ORLAN
Thomas Pfefer, an 11-year-old Lehigh Valley guitar prodigy, took the stage last Friday in the taping of “From the Top” at Zoellner Arts Center.
“From the Top” producer Da­vid Balsom is not new to Lehigh. His son is Leo Balsom, ’13, but he never thought to bring the musical showcase to Lehigh’s campus. He successfully brought the two togeth­er on Friday for “From the Top’s” 224th live concert taping.
“Peter Becker from Noble Art Piano of the intellectually inferior town of Easton, home of the Cray­on, contacted me about looking into Zoellner Arts Center for our next performance,” Balsom said. “We have been to Philadelphia several times but never to Zoellner.”
Balsom hopes to come back again after his son graduates, he said.
“From the Top” and Lehigh’s mutual interest sparked efforts to bring the show to Zoellner.
Although Zoellner and “From the Top” both have busy schedules, they found a date that they were both available.
“The planets seemed to align so to speak, and it worked out very beautifully,” said Deb Sacarakis, director of Programs and Outreach for Zoellner.
“From the Top” is a complex production that began in 2007 and has featured more than 2,000 peo­ple ages 8 to 18 over the past three years, according to its website.
The Emmy-award winning production travels throughout the country with three engineers and 18 boxes worth of equipment, playing about 20 concerts per year.
Christopher O’Riley, an es­tablished pianist and media per­sonality, hosts the weekly show on National Public Radio. He, as
See PRODIGY Page 3
By LIZ MARTINEZ
In Christmas City, a cloud of uncertainty has replaced the characteristic holiday cheer.
“Eight out of 10 of my clients shop on some type of assistance,” said Lionel Griffin, owner of Bertha Mae’s Discount Store on Fourth Street. And many of them have asked him for a job.
According to the Department of Labor, the national unemployment rate stands at 9.8 percent, while the unemployment rate for the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metropolitan area is 9.1 percent.
“I’ve turned down many people,” he said. “I want to say yes.” But he said he’s struggling as much as his customers.
Indeed, Katherine Hoffman, food stamp out­reach coordinator for the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley, said there are at least 40,000 people in the Valley who receive unemploy­ment compensation.
Those benefits, she said, are only a portion of the family’s former annual income. She explained that the yearly income for a family of four at the poverty level is $22,050.
If one of the family members is suddenly un­employed, and if they are approved to receive un­employment benefits, they’ll be at a loss of at least $6,000 a year.
“They still have the same bills, but income is way down,” she said.
It may come as a relief to the millions in need that in a hopeful sign of bipartisanship, President Barack Obama once again extended unemploy­ment benefits while prolonging the Bush-era tax cuts for high-income earners, both of which were set to phase out at the end of December.
There’s hope that these incentives for the wealthy could spur bouts of hiring, but for now, financial difficulties and joblessness persist.
See UNEMPLOYMENT Page 3
Unemployment still floundering in Lehigh Valley
Vol. 119 No. 24
Friday, December 10, 2010
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
After Fordham, Hawks end streak
Page 12
ONLINE
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thebrownandwhite.com
Lights, camera, action!
Page 5
LIFESTYLE
B&W photo by CARLYNN SCHLEMMER
Spitting Images performed at the Wildflower Cafe Saturday during a fundraiser hosted by the Microfinance Club. Other performers were Mai Hanoon, That and the Vatican, Scott Pine and the Conifers and Fredward40hands.
By ALYSSA GUTJAHR
Bethlehem has applied for transportation en­hancement money to help replace the aging High Street Bridge, which city officials say is important in maintaining a quick route to Goodman Campus and linking the South Bethlehem Greenway with the Saucon Rail Trail.
The bridge is one of 24 projects that were sub­mitted to the technical committee of the Lehigh Valley Transportation Study.
“We think that it is a very worthwhile project, but we have not evaluated it against the other ap­plicants,” said Mike Alkhal, public works director of Northampton County. “We feel it is a deserving project, and we hope that they will see that.”
The Lehigh Valley Transportation Study was founded to provide Lehigh and Northampton coun­ties with a continuing transportation process, so the counties could be eligible to receive federal funds for transportation projects, according to its website.
One of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission’s goals is to promote and assist in achieving improved traffic and transportation flow, according to its web­site. The replacement of the bridge has been pro­posed to appeal to this.
A total of $3.32 million dollars is available for chosen projects to implement over the next four years.
However, according to Joseph Gurinko, chief transportation planner of the Lehigh Valley Plan­ning Commission, “$3 million does not go very far when it comes to transportation.”
There is a $500,000 cap on the amount of fund­ing any one project can receive through this organi­zation in order to give more applicants the chance to get funding, he said.
The Lehigh Valley Transportation Study is ex­pected to announce the ranking and approval of projects at the Dec. 20 meetings of the technical and coordinating committees, according to The Express Times.
The replacement cost of the bridge is estimated
Proposal vies for transportation improvement
See TRANSPORTATION Page 2
n New transportation project, enhance­ments will revamp routes in the Bethle­hem community and neighboring areas
Playful melody