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VOLUME 130, No. 327
STAY CONNECTED CENTREDAILY.COM
Former Pi Lambda
Phi frat house for sale
in State College
BY LAUREN MUTHLER
lmuthler@centredaily.com
STATE COLLEGE
If you’re interested in buying a
10,000-square-foot, nearly
$1 million, 1900s home with 19
bedrooms and a commercial
kitchen within walking distance
of Penn State’s University Park
campus — you’re in luck.
Such a property is on the
market, listed by Linda and Ryan
Lowe at RE/MAX Centre Realty.
Yes — it’s a frat house.
SPIKESFEST BRINGS BALLPARK FUN INSIDE
Olivia Weaver, 5, of Bellefonte greets Ike the Spike on Sunday during SpikesFest at the Penn State Indoor Multi-Sport Facility. As winter
weather drags on, families in Centre County got a taste of summer on Sunday during SpikesFest. Now in its 13th year, SpikesFest brings
ballpark fun indoors with games, activities, inflatables, batting cages, and meet and greets with mascots including Ike the Spike. The State
College Spikes’ 2019 season home opener will be June 15.
House to seek records from 60
in probe of Trump, Russia
BY HOPE YEN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Declaring it’s “very clear”
President Donald Trump ob-
structed justice, the chairman of
the House committee in charge
of impeachment says the panel is
requesting documents Monday
from more than 60 people from
Trump’s administration, family
and business as part of a rapidly
expanding Russia investigation.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.,
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The former Pi Lambda Phi
house, located at 321 Fraternity
Row, is listed for $990,000 and
approved for up to 57 occupants.
Now that more than a dozen
Penn State fraternities have been
suspended as the result of stricter
Greek-life restrictions the uni-
versity set after the hazing death
of Beta Theta Pi pledge Timothy
Piazza in 2017, Ed LeClear, State
College’s planning director, said
former fraternity houses becom-
ing more common on the real-
estate market.
The former Delta Tau Delta
said the House Judiciary Commit-
tee wants to review documents
from the Justice Department, the
president’s son Donald Trump Jr.
and Trump Organization chief
financial officer Allen Weissel-
berg. Former White House chief of
staff John Kelly and former White
House counsel Don McGahn also
are likely targets, he said.
“We are going to initiate in-
vestigations into abuses of power,
into corruption and into obstruc-
tion of justice,” Nadler said. “We
will do everything we can to get
that evidence.”
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Serving central Pennsylvania and online at www.centredaily.com
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house at 429 East Hamilton Ave-
nue sold over the summer for
$1.5 million.
Once Penn State revokes a
fraternity’s recognition, the home
is no longer considered a fra-
ternity by the borough’s defini-
tion, LeClear explained, making
it essentially a rooming house —
which is not permitted under the
zoning ordinance.
A couple suspended fraterni-
ties, however, did win decisions
in Centre County Court in No-
vember to hold on to their houses
without Penn State recognition.
Asked if he believed Trump
obstructed justice, Nadler said,
“Yes, I do.”
Nadler isn’t calling the inquiry
an impeachment investigation
but said House Democrats, now
in the majority, are simply doing
“our job to protect the rule of
law” after Republicans during the
first two years of Trump’s term
were “shielding the president
from any proper accountability.”
“We’re far from making deci-
sions” about impeachment, he
said.
In a tweet on Sunday, Trump
5A Horoscope
5B Lottery
6B Obituaries
The windows are boarded up at the former Pi Lambda Phi fraternity
house at 321 Fraternity Row on Wednesday. The fraternity was
suspended by the university in 2017, and the house is now on the
market for $990,000.
Pi Lambda Phi was suspended
in October 2017, according to a
release from the university, for
violating Penn State’s expecta-
tions by making alcohol available
JESSICA MCALLISTER jmcallister@centredaily.com
blasted anew the Russia investi-
gation, calling it a partisan probe
unfairly aimed at discrediting his
win in the 2016 presidential elec-
tion. “I am an innocent man
being persecuted by some very
bad, conflicted & corrupt people
in a Witch Hunt that is illegal &
should never have been allowed
to start - And only because I won
the Election!” he wrote.
Nadler’s comments follow a
bad political week for Trump. He
emerged empty-handed from a
high-profile summit with North
Korea leader Kim Jong Un on
denuclearization and Trump’s
former personal attorney, Mi-
chael Cohen, in three days of
congressional testimony, publicly
characterized the president as a
SEE TRUMP, 3A
5A People
2A Puzzles 5A, 6B
4A Sports
Partly sunny
$1 28°/9° See 6A
ABBY DREY adrey@centredaily.com
to guests on three separate occa-
sions during social events, and
violating the capacity of the
SEE FRATERNITY, 3A
Rescuing
nuclear
plants may
come with
conditions
BY MARC LEVY
Associated Press
HARRISBURG
With nuclear power plant
owners seeking a rescue in
Pennsylvania, a number of
state lawmakers are signaling
that they are willing to help —
with conditions.
Giving nuclear power plants
what opponents call a bailout
to ensure they stay open could
mean a politically risky vote to
hike electric bills across the
state. One key motivator for
lawmakers could be attaching
it to a package that steps up the
fight against what some see as
a bigger crisis: climate change.
“The crisis is here and we
need … to deal with it,” said
Rep. Carolyn Comitta, D-Ches-
ter. “Even things we thought
were problems in the past need
to be part of the solution.”
Conversations among law-
makers in the state Capitol
now include provisions to im-
pose limits and fees on carbon
emissions, or expand on 15-
year-old requirements to sub-
sidize renewable energies, such
as wind and solar power.
Comitta and others in a
potentially sizeable clean-
energy bloc say that legislation
that raises electricity bills
strictly to rescue nuclear power
plants won’t cut it for them,
even if they embrace nuclear
power as a non-carbon power
source helpful in curbing glo-
bal warming.
Lawmakers’ immediate
deadline is June 1.
That’s when Chicago-based
Exelon Corp., the owner of
Three Mile Island, has said it
will begin the four-month pro-
cess of shutting down the plant
that was the site of a terrifying
partial meltdown in 1979, un-
less Pennsylvania comes to its
financial rescue.
Ohio-based FirstEnergy
Corp. has said it will shut down
its Beaver Valley nuclear power
plant in western Pennsylvania
— as well as two nuclear plants
in Ohio — in 2021 or before
SEE NUCLEAR, 4A
2A
6 51105 22222 6
1B
MONDAY MARCH 4 2019
CENTREDAILY.COM
The property is in the R-2 zoning district, or low-density residential, which means single-family homes and duplexes.
FROM PAGE 1A
FRATERNITY
house and expectations for
dry social functions.
After the fraternity was
suspended, its members
moved out and the building
was boarded up. Jennifer
Neely, an agent with the
Lowe real-estate team, said
she’s hoping someone can
purchase the home and fix
it up.
“I think with some reno-
vations, it can be really
nice,” she said. “Obviously,
frat houses aren’t always
kept up with if they’re
rented back to back, if
there’s not a lot of time for
turnover for people to go in
there and do a lot of up-
grades. So this will be real-
ly good for an investor to
get in there, fix it up and
make it one of the nicer
frats.”
Both Neely and LeClear
said their offices have re-
ceived a lot of calls about
the property, including a
few from people with in-
teresting ideas about what
they’d like to do with it.
The former Pi Lambda
Phi house is located in the
R-2 zoning district, or low-
density residential, which
typically means single-
family homes and duplex-
es. A new fraternity would
not be permitted in the R-2
district, but fraternities
built there before the zon-
ing changes in 2000 are
FROM PAGE 1A
TRUMP
“con man” and “cheat.”
Newly empowered
House Democrats are flex-
ing their strength with
blossoming investigations.
A half-dozen House com-
mittees are now probing
alleged coordination be-
tween Trump associates
and Russia’s efforts to sway
the 2016 election, Trump’s
tax returns and possible
conflicts of interest in-
volving the Trump family
business and policy-mak-
ing. The House oversight
committee, for instance,
has set a Monday deadline
for the White House to turn
over documents related to
security clearances after
The New York Times re-
ported that the president
ordered officials to grant
his son-in-law Jared Kushn-
er’s clearance over the
objections of national secu-
rity officials.
Nadler’s added lines of
inquiry also come as spe-
cial counsel Robert Mueller
is believed to be wrapping
up his work into possible
questions of Trump cam-
paign collusion and ob-
struction in the Russia’s
interference in the 2016
presidential election. In his
testimony, Cohen acknowl-
edged he did not witness or
know directly of collusion
between Trump aides and
Russia but had his “suspi-
cions.”
House Minority Leader
Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.,
on Sunday accused House
Democrats of prejudging
legally allowed, LeClear
said.
Therefore, the permitted
uses for the 321 Fraternity
Row property are as a fra-
ternity or sorority house, or
a single-family home.
However, the zoning
ordinance allows special
exceptions for certain uses
to be made through the
zoning hearing board.
Those uses, according to
LeClear, include:
A a club or community
center
A daycare center for
children
A home for elderly persons
A a nursing home
A offices
A a private school
“I should point out,
though, that in those cases,
you wouldn’t be able to go
back to a fraternity,” Le-
Clear said. “At least not in
the current zoning.”
Although conversions of
fraternities are rare, it has
been done before in State
College. The last time
LeClear could recall was in
1989, when the fraternity
at 507 Locust Lane was
converted into an
optometrist’s office, which
it remains today.
The fraternity could also
be demolished, but as it’s a
contributing historic
‘‘
WE WILL DO
EVERYTHING
WE CAN TO GET
THAT EVIDENCE.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
Trump as part of a query
based purely on partisan
politics.
“I think Congressman
Nadler decided to impeach
the president the day the
president won the elec-
tion,” McCarthy said. “Lis-
ten to exactly what he said.
He talks about impeach-
ment before he even be-
came chairman and then
he says, ‘you’ve got to
persuade people to get
there.’ There’s nothing that
the president did wrong.”
“Show me where the
president did anything to
be impeached…Nadler is
setting the framework now
that the Democrats are not
to believe the Mueller re-
port,” he said.
Nadler said Sunday his
committee will seek to
review the Mueller report
but stressed the investiga-
tion “goes far beyond col-
lusion.”
He pointed to what he
considered several in-
stances of obstruction of
justice by the president,
including the “1,100 times
he referred to the Mueller
PHOEBE SHEEHAN psheehan@centredaily.com
property, the owner would
have to get permission
from Borough Council.
The other wrinkle is that
Penn State is starting now
to see sororities move into
empty frat houses.
“I think there was a myth
you couldn’t have sororities
live in a house, but it ac-
tually is allowed,” Neely
said. “So I think having the
option to rent to a fraterni-
ty or sorority is definitely
an awesome option.”
The first case of a Penn
State sorority moving into
private, off-campus hous-
ing is expected to happen
in the fall semester, when
Phi Sigma Sigma is set to
move into the former Sig-
ma Alpha Epsilon house at
200 E. Beaver Ave., ac-
cording to The Daily
Collegian.
“We were aware of this
development and this is a
new direction for a Greek-
letter sorority at Penn
State,” university spokes-
person Lisa Powers said.
“We hope that the pres-
ence of Phi Sigma Sigma in
State College borough will
add value to their organiza-
tion and to the broader
community.”
Any Greek-life organiza-
tion that moves into private
housing must have a func-
tioning alumni house cor-
poration to handle the
physical maintenance of
the house, Powers said,
and undergraduate organi-
zational leadership that is
responsive to Penn State’s
Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., questions
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Feb. 8 as he
appears before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol
Hill. Nadler said the committee wants to review documents
from the Justice Department, the president’s son Donald
Trump Jr. and Trump Organization chief financial officer
Allen Weisselberg.
investigation as a ‘witch
hunt’ ” as well Trump’s
abrupt firing of FBI direc-
tor James Comey in 2017.
According to Comey,
Trump had encouraged the
then-FBI director to drop
an investigation into form-
er national security adviser
Michael Flynn. Trump has
denied he told Comey to
end the Flynn probe.
“It’s very clear that the
president obstructed jus-
tice,” Nadler said.
House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif., has kept
calls for impeachment at
bay by insisting that Muell-
er first must be allowed to
finish his work, and present
his findings publicly –
though it’s unclear whether
the White House will allow
its full release.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-
rules, regulations and ex-
pectations for managing a
recognized student group.
One popular idea for the
former Pi Lambda Phi
property might prove a bit
tricky: a bed-and-breakfast.
Saying initially that it
wouldn’t be permitted,
LeClear read further into
the ordinance and discov-
ered it’s not exactly impos-
sible but may be impractical.
If someone wanted to oper-
ate a bed-and-breakfast out
of a frat house, it’d have to
be limited to two unrelated
people sleeping there at one
time. And it’d have to be
within 500 feet of another
such establishment.
“So somebody could live
in a fraternity and have two
unrelated people sleeping
over as a bed-and-break-
fast, but it wouldn’t be a
20-room bed-and-break-
fast,” LeClear said.
For all those who com-
mented with their pre-
ferred hotelier or other
dreams on the Linda and
Ryan Lowe group’s
Facebook listing for the
house, LeClear signaled
hope.
“We haven’t really seen
consensus yet on what
other conversion uses
could added,” he said. “But
I think as we do the more
comprehensive zoning
update, there probably will
be a few other pieces that
get added.”
Lauren Muthler:
814-231-4646, @lmuth1259
ANDREW HARNIK AP
Calif., who chairs the
House intelligence com-
mittee, on Sunday also
stressed that it’s too early
to make judgments about
impeachment.
“That is something that
we will have to await Bob
Mueller’s report and the
underlying evidence to
determine. We will also
have to look at the whole
body of improper and crim-
inal actions by the presi-
dent including those cam-
paign finance crimes to
determine whether they
rise to the level of removal
from office,” Schiff said.
Nadler and McCarthy
spoke on ABC’s “This
Week,” and Schiff ap-
peared on CBS’ “Face the
Nation.”
ROLL CALL
Voterama in Congress
WASHINGTON
Here’s how members of
Congress from the area
voted last week. This week,
the Senate will vote on
judicial nominations, while
the House’s legislative
schedule was to be an-
nounced.
HOUSE
EXPANSION OF GUN
BACKGROUND CHECKS:
Voting 240 for and 190
against, the House on
Wednesday passed a bill
(HR 8) that would expand
federal background checks
of prospective gun buyers
by extending the require-
ment to transactions on the
internet and between pri-
vate parties at venues in-
cluding gun shows and
parking lots. Now, only
licensed dealers must run
buyers’ personal informa-
tion through the FBI’s Na-
tional Instant Criminal
Background Check System.
The NICS was established
in 1993 by the so-called
Brady bill, which outlaws
the sale of firearms to con-
victed felons, drug addicts,
abusive partners, fugitives,
people with serious mental
illness and undocumented
immigrants. This bill would
exempt sales between fam-
ily members and would
waive background checks
for transfers for hunting
and when a purchaser faces
imminent threat of great
bodily harm.
A yes vote was to send
the bill to the Senate. Rep.
Glenn Thompson, R-
Howard Township, voted
no.
ATTEMPTED PURCHASES
BY UNDOCUMENTED
IMMIGRANTS: Voting 220
for and 209 against, the
House on Wednesday
adopted a Republican mo-
tion to HR 8 (above) under
which undocumented im-
migrants must be reported
to U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement
when NICS detects they are
attempting to buy a fire-
arm.
A yes vote was to add the
GOP-sponsored provision
to the bill. Thompson
voted yes.
MORE TIME FOR BACK-
GROUND CHECKS: Voting
228 for and 198 against, the
House on Thursday passed
a bill (HR 1112) that would
increase from three busi-
ness days to 20 business
days the maximum time for
deferring firearms sales
when FBI background
checks on buyers have not
yet been completed. The
bill would apply to the
estimated 10 percent of
prospective sales not
promptly cleared or denied
by NICS. If the check re-
mains open after 10 busi-
ness days, purchasers could
file a petition asserting
their eligibility to acquire a
firearm. If the matter re-
mains unresolved for an-
other 10 business days -
bringing the total deferral
to 20 business days - the
sale would automatically
take effect.
A yes vote was to send
the bill to the Senate.
Thompson voted no.
EXEMPTION FOR DO-
MESTIC VIOLENCE VIC-
TIMS: Voting 194 for and
2 Calif. sisters
found after
frantic search
Two young sisters mis-
sing from their Northern
California home since
Friday afternoon were
found alive Sunday fol-
lowing a massive search
that included helicopters
and tracking dogs.
Leia Carrico, 8, and
Caroline Carrico, 5, were
The family of the late Victoria Witherite would like
to thank all of those who so generously provided
their heartfelt thoughts, prayers, condolences,
flowers, gifts, and charitable donations that were
made in her remembrance. Your overwhelming
support, thoughtful gestures, and kind words
continue to remind us all of the same comforts
she would so often provide to her family and
friends throughout her life.
News 3A
232 against, the House on
Thursday defeated a Re-
publican motion that would
exempt victims of domestic
violence from the delays
that HR 1112 (above) would
impose on unfinished back-
ground checks. The mea-
sure would allow these
individuals to acquire a
firearm after three business
days even when the FBI has
not yet approved or denied
the prospective sale.
A yes vote was to adopt
the motion. Thompson
voted yes.
NULLIFYING EMERGEN-
CY CALL ON BORDER:
Voting 245 for and 182
against, the House on Tues-
day approved a measure
(HJ Res 46) that would
nullify a national emergen-
cy declared by President
Donald Trump in an effort
to secure funding for a
border wall. Trump invoked
the emergency after Con-
gress denied his request for
at least $5.7 billion in fiscal
2019 for wall construction
on the U.S.-Mexico border.
He asserted authority un-
der the 1976 National
Emergencies Act to reallo-
cate military appropriations
to the project, while critics
said there is no border
emergency.
A yes vote was to send
the measure to the Senate
for a vote to occur within 18
days. Thompson voted no.
SENATE
INFANTS BORN IN
FAILED ABORTIONS:
Voting 53 for and 44
against, the Senate on
Tuesday failed to reach 60
votes needed to end a
Democratic-led filibuster
against a bill (S 311) that
would prescribe rules of
care for infants who survive
failed late-term abortions.
Health care providers in-
cluding doctors could face
up to five years in prison if
they failed to immediately
ensure the hospitalization
of an infant showing signs
of life after an abortion
attempt. The infant would
have to receive the same
level of care provided to
“any other child born alive
at the same gestational
age.” The bill also would
require medical practition-
ers or employees of hospi-
tals, clinics or physician’s
offices to report to law
enforcement agencies any
violation they witnessed.
A yes vote was to ad-
vance the bill. Sens. Bob
Casey, D-Pa., and Pat
Toomey, R-Pa., voted yes.
ANDREW WHEELER, EPA
ADMINISTRATOR: Voting
52 for and 47 against, the
Senate on Thursday con-
firmed Andrew Wheeler as
administrator of the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agen-
cy. Wheeler had served as
acting administrator after
replacing EPA head Scott
Pruitt last July. He joined
the EPA three months earli-
er from a law firm that
represents Murray Energy
Corp., the country’s largest
owner of underground coal
mines. He worked previ-
ously at the EPA under
President George H.W.
Bush and was a staff aide to
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
A yes vote was to confirm
the nominee. Casey voted
no; Toomey voted yes.
found “safe and sound”
on Sunday morning by a
fire captain and firefight-
er who had followed the
girls’ boot tracks, Hum-
boldt County Sheriff
William Honsal said.
“This is an absolute
miracle,” he said.
Though the girls were
dehydrated and cold,
they were uninjured and
“in good spirits,” Honsal
said.
— ASSOCIATED PRESS