Numbers in the news

33

About one-third of Pennsylvanians are missing out on the telephone excise tax refund they're entitled to. Many federal tax returns filed so far have failed to request the refund. Taxpayers can still submit an amended return.

The government stopped collecting the long-distance excise tax last August after federal court decisions held that the tax does not apply to long-distance service as it is billed today. Federal officials also authorized a refund of the tax collected on service billed during the previous 41 months, stretching from the beginning of March 2003 to the end of July 2006.

To make the refund easier to figure, the government established a standard refund amount, based on personal exemptions, ranging from $30 to $60. If taxpayers have phone bills and other records, they can request the actual amount of excise tax paid.

Millions of taxpayers have not requested the refund. Nearly half of those returns were completed by a tax preparer.

Emporium tax consultant Bill Bogart said his firm has built the request into a computer tax program to ensure his clients receive the refund.

6

Six members of the successful Penn State DuBois men's basketball team have local roots. Starters on the team have been Kyle Dynda (Austin), Jon Songer (Cameron County), Kyle Vogt (Cameron County), Marcus Genevro and Kevin Genevro (both Elk County Catholic). Dylan Howard (Oswayo Valley) has also seen plenty of floor time.

Penn State DuBois recently placed second in the national small college tournament at South Portland, Maine. Vogt and Kevin Genevro were named to the all-tournament team. The Lions followed that with 76-51 win over Penn State Beaver in the quarterfinals of the PSUAC tournament. On Friday night, PSU DuBois meets PSU New Kensington in the semifinals.

3B

The touch-screen voting machines that have replaced paper ballots and other votecounting systems across the U.S. may be declared invalid. The federal government made $3 billion available last year to help counties acquire the machines.

Now, Congress is considering a law that would require machines to have verifiable paper trails so that poll workers can check them for accuacy and perform more reliable recounts. The earliest the law would take effect is May 2008.

2

Home schooling has come a long way since it was simplistically branded by some as a way for parents to circumvent the separation of church and state that's required of public schools.

Some two percent of American students are homeschooled. A larger percentage of home-schooled students than public school students are being recruited by Ivy League colleges and other prestigious universities.

15

The number of deaths from colorectal cancer has declined for 15 straight years. The American Cancer Society is observing March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month by educating the public on the importance of prevention.

Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in the U.S. It is also the second leading cause of cancerrelated death. The situation has improved largely because polyps, or growths, are being found by screening and removed before they can develop into cancers.

Screening is also allowing more colorectal cancers to be found earlier, when the disease is easier to cure. In addition, treatment for colorectal cancer has improved over the last 10 years. Because of this, there are 1 million survivors of colorectal cancer in the U.S.

Several tests are used to screen for colorectal cancer. For information on colorectal screening, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800- 227-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.