Volunteers turn out for missing student

Lauren Spierer was captured on a surveillance video at her apartment complex right before her disappearance on June 3.Lauren Spierer disappeared three weeks agoShe was going home after a night out with friendsInvestigators have not been able to make any progressVolunteers turned out Saturday to search for clues

(CNN) -- The volunteers were told to wear long pants and sturdy shoes, to bring a driver's license so they could prove they were not minors. They were asked to check in and then placed in groups of four or five, maybe more.

And they were given the details of the last sighting of Lauren Spierer. She is only 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 95 pounds. She has blond hair and blue eyes and was wearing black leggings and a white top when she last went out with her friends more than three weeks ago.

The volunteers streamed in starting at 7:30 in the morning, determined to search for clues that might help police find her.

Spierer, a Indiana University student, disappeared some time after 3 a.m. June 2 after leaving Kilroy's Sports Bar in Bloomington. She never made it home that night.

For three long weeks, her parents have lived with uncertainty, police have called regular press conferences and volunteers have joined professionals in the effort to find her.

In mid-June, police had found possible new clues to Spierer's disappearance -- images of a white pickup truck caught on a security surveillance video. But they ruled out a connection and were back to square one. They had received thousands of tips but none so far have yielded anything concrete.

Amid little progress in the case, the police announced Friday they would no longer call news conferences, unless there was news.

The volunteers began to dwindle as well, prompting police, Spierer's family and community volunteers to come together Saturday for one last big push.

By Saturday afternoon, Find Lauren Day, as it was dubbed, had drawn about 400 or so people, said Kelly Holloway, who was helping coordinate search teams.

They were combing a 10-mile area and planned to be out all day long, Holloway said.

Police produced a photograph of Spierer taken at her apartment complex before she left home on the night of her disappearance. The petite fashionista wore black leggings with silver zippers at the ankles and a white shirt with elbow-length butterfly sleeves.

Surveillance camera footage from around 2:30 a.m. showed her and a male student, Corey Rossman, returning to her apartment building, Smallwood Plaza.

Spierer had left her shoes, along with her cell phone, at the bar earlier in the night.

An altercation with other people occurred there that led to Rossman getting punched in the face, his attorney told CNN affiliate WISH, and he claims he has no memory of what happened after that.

Police have said additional surveillance video from an alley showed them walking toward his building around 3 a.m. Her keys were later found in that alley.

A neighbor of Rossman reported seeing Spierer leave around 4:30 a.m., but police said they found no sign of her after the 3 a.m. sighting on any of the surveillance video they viewed from the blocks between the two buildings.

Spierer's mother, Charlene Spierer described her daughter as "a sweet, bubbly girl." She has repeatedly thanked the family's supporters and said she was trying to remain hopeful.

"As a parent, as a mom, you speculate and you wonder what happened," she said at the last regular police news conference Friday.

"Perhaps it was a terrible accident that happened and we can deal with that," she said. "What we can't deal with is what we don't know. So information is the most valuable thing we need right now."

Spierer's family is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to her recovery. They have opened up a post office box for people to send in information.

As she has done at almost every news conference, Charlene Spierer pleaded again Friday for anyone with information to come forward.

"Please," she said, "we're begging you. Help us find Lauren."

CNN

Chile's student protests could undermine president's approval (The Christian Science Monitor)

Santiago, Chile – Francisco Jorqueira, a Chilean student, says his private university is on strike, along with some 180 others across the country, to demand accountability after tuition rose from 3 million pesos last year (about $6,400) to 3.2 million pesos this year.

Mr. Jorqueira's father earns 800,000 pesos a month, meaning that his tuition now amounts to four months of his family's income, he said while handing out flyers for today's march and student strike, which saw an estimated 70,000 demonstrators hit the streets of Chile's capital, Santiago.

Jorquiera is one of thousands of students protesting the state of education in Chile, a movement that is gaining momentum and could turn into a political crisis for President Sebastian PiA±era.

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Students have called for a national student strike to demand an end to privatization and profiteering in education, more scholarships, and increased public support for secondary schools and universities. Loans currently charge 7 percent interest, and the law prohibits students and faculty from having any voice in university administration, Jorqueira says.

A challenge for PineraThe demonstrations add to a year of setbacks for the country's first conservative president since the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990. President Pinera’s approval rating fell to 36 percent in May, down from 63 percent seven months earlier in the wake of the successful rescue of trapped workers at an underground mine, according to pollster Adimark. The public widely opposes the government’s approval of a new dam complex in Patagonia, fare increases for public transport, and rising food prices.

Yet the student protests could be one of the biggest setbacks he faces. The current marches recall the deepest political crisis faced by the last government, under President Michelle Bachelet. Exactly five years ago, students went on strike in a series of actions known as the "penguin rebellion" and held marches with as many as 790,000 participants to protest lack of investment in education, with most of the complaints centering on high-school education.

What do the students want?The demonstrators have both economic and academic demands. They want increased public funding of universities, a year-round bus pass, full scholarships for lower- and middle-class students, and an increased role for the state in technical education, which is now handled by private institutes.

Academically, they want to end the use of a standardized test as the sole method of admission to the best universities. They also want technical institutes to offer liberal arts classes and are demanding guaranteed academic freedom. In addition, they are demanding more accessibility for people with disabilities.

To fund education, some marchers carry banners calling for the nationalization or increased taxation of the private-sector copper mines, which today produce more than half of the metal in this country.

While most demonstrators are peaceful, several student protests have devolved into violence in recent weeks. A march Wednesday ended with police on horseback and in armored vehicles chasing demonstrators around central Santiago. A group of students surrounded Education Minister Joaquin Lavin two weeks ago and began shoving, leading the minister to call for greater civility.

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Alleged spy arrested in Egypt is US law student (AP)

JERUSALEM – A man who Egyptian authorities have arrested on charges of being an Israeli spy is a 27-year-old American-Israeli law student who was doing an internship at a nonprofit organization in Cairo, a classmate said Monday.

Egypt says Ilan Grapel is a Mossad agent, and pictures of him in Israeli military uniform have been published in Egyptian papers. The semiofficial Al-Ahram daily identified him in a headline as a "Mossad officer who tried to sabotage the Egyptian revolution."

However, Will Felder, a 29-year-old law student at Emory University in Atlanta identified Grapel as a classmate originally from Queens, New York.

Grapel moved to Israel, where his grandparents live, as a young man and did his compulsory military service during the 2006 war between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

He was wounded in the fighting, Felder said, and Israeli news websites on Monday published what they said were old pictures of Grapel lying in his hospital bed.

Grapel later returned to the U.S. for law school and was in Cairo doing a legal internship with a local nonprofit organization ahead of his return to Emory for his third and final year of studies, Felder said.

"His parents became concerned because he hadn't shown up for work," Felder said, and then saw their son's name being reported as that of "a Mossad spy who had been arrested."

An acquaintance in Israel, Ziki Ud, told Israel Radio that Grapel had an avid interest in the Middle East and had studied Arabic. Ud, too, said he doubted the allegations were true.

The fact that Grapel appears to have been traveling under his real name, and that his connections to Israel would have been easy to find on the Internet, also appear to suggest it was unlikely he was a spy.

A 2006 New York Daily News story, for example, reported that Grappel had been wounded by shrapnel in fighting in south Lebanon. The same article said he studied international relations at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and moved to Israel in 2005.

The Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, citing security sources, said Grapel had recently attended protests and "incited the protesters to acts of riots and sabotage." It said he also tried to "plot discord between the people and the army." The army has controlled Egypt since the authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak was deposed in a wave of popular protests earlier this year.

Grapel was equipped with "communication devices, laptops, CDs, and flash memory," the paper reported.

Egypt, like other Arab states, has a long history of blaming internal problems on Israeli saboteurs.

Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said Egyptian authorities have yet to officially inform Israel about the arrest of an Israeli citizen on espionage charges.

___

Associated Press Writer Maggie Michael reported from Cairo.

(This version CORRECTS spelling of name to Grapel, based on information from friend.)

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Costa Rica finds body of U.S. student missing at sea

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rican rescuers on Friday found the body of a third U.S. high school student who was swept out to sea while taking a beach break during a religious mission.

A coast guard patrol recovered the body of Kai Lamar in waters off Bejuco beach on the Pacific coast, said Jesus Escalona, Red Cross assistant director of operations. The bodies of the other two students, Caity Jones and James Smith, were found earlier this week.

A strong undertow pulled the three away from shore Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement from their school, Patriot Preparatory Academy in Columbus, Ohio. They were among eight juniors and seniors on a trip not sponsored by the school.

Escalona said the body was found in roughly the same area where Smith's body was recovered a day earlier. He said the body fit Lamar's description and rescuers called off the search.

The bodies were taken to a morgue where relatives or U.S. Embassy officials can claim them. The U.S. Embassy has declined to comment, citing privacy restrictions.

Wednesday, the day before they were to return to Ohio, was a free day, and students were given a choice of whether they wanted to ride horses near a waterfall or go to the beach, the brother of one of the students told an Ohio television station.

"Unfortunately, it was just a fatal mistake," Smith's brother Nick Smith told WCMH-TV in Columbus.

He said the trip was the first mission for his brother and that he had worked to raise every penny needed to pay for the trip.

"That kid was more driven to do things for God than I've seen anybody at his age ever. ? He was doing things and so committed that honestly, in 16 years, he finished everything he needed to do in this life," Smith told the station.

A message seeking comment was left by The Associated Press on Friday at a phone listing for Smith's parents.

Shari Lamar, Kai Lamar's mother, said that while her family was saddened by her son's death, they found some comfort in knowing he had taken advantage of an opportunity "to show his love for the Lord and to do what he thought he was called to do."

"He and his friends had the time of their life doing the work," she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It just brought them great joy. They were phenomenal kids. ? It's sad, but we just trust God."

The three students swept away, all juniors, were described as active in school and the community, well-liked and good students.

The mission was organized by Ohio-based Impulse International Mission Trips, where a spokeswoman said no one could comment Friday. The students visited an orphanage, a drug rehabilitation center and some villagers, according to a post by Lamar on a blog the group was keeping on the trip. The group also played soccer, colored and read with youngsters at a community center and did some painting at a Salvation Army church.

The K-12 school, on the city's east side, is a former private Christian school that converted this year to a charter school, meaning it is publicly funded but privately run. It has about 500 students.

Students had made the same volunteer trip to Costa Rica in the past when the school was private, said Paul Blythe, a friend of the Jones family and a school board member whose children graduated from the school. They raised funds and obtained sponsors to pay for the trip, he said.

In 2006, three Kansas students and their teacher drowned in Costa Rica while on a Spanish language immersion trip. A group of students were swimming and some were swept away by strong currents. At least two were rescued, but the teacher and one of the students died trying to save the others.

"These beaches are some of the most dangerous beaches in the world," said David Angueira, a Boston attorney who brought a wrongful death lawsuit against a tour operator over the 2006 deaths. "These beaches are unbelievably dangerous, rip currents like you wouldn't believe. And our kids just keep drowning."

At least 52 people have drowned at sea in Costa Rica this year, said Freddy Roman, another Red Cross spokesman. While that appears to mark an increase from the 2010 full-year total of 76, Roman said he did not think it was a trend, noting last year's number was far below the usual. There were 103 drownings registered in 2009 and 128 in 2008.

Emergency officials have attributed the drop last year to an overall decrease in vacationers caused by an economic downturn.

Jim Batres, assistant director for rescues and operations for the Red Cross of Costa Rica, said the Red Cross is the only agency that offers lifeguard service at Costa Rican beaches, but doesn't have a big enough budget to cover all the beaches full time.

Batres said there are only about 60 volunteer lifeguards for all the country's beaches. Some hotels hire their own lifeguards, and there are signs on many beaches warning about hazards.

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Costa Rica finds body of U.S. student missing at sea

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rican rescuers on Friday found the body of a third U.S. high school student who was swept out to sea while taking a beach break during a religious mission.

A coast guard patrol recovered the body of Kai Lamar in waters off Bejuco beach on the Pacific coast, said Jesus Escalona, Red Cross assistant director of operations. The bodies of the other two students, Caity Jones and James Smith, were found earlier this week.

A strong undertow pulled the three away from shore Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement from their school, Patriot Preparatory Academy in Columbus, Ohio. They were among eight juniors and seniors on a trip not sponsored by the school.

Escalona said the body was found in roughly the same area where Smith's body was recovered a day earlier. He said the body fit Lamar's description and rescuers called off the search.

The bodies were taken to a morgue where relatives or U.S. Embassy officials can claim them. The U.S. Embassy has declined to comment, citing privacy restrictions.

Wednesday, the day before they were to return to Ohio, was a free day, and students were given a choice of whether they wanted to ride horses near a waterfall or go to the beach, the brother of one of the students told an Ohio television station.

"Unfortunately, it was just a fatal mistake," Smith's brother Nick Smith told WCMH-TV in Columbus.

He said the trip was the first mission for his brother and that he had worked to raise every penny needed to pay for the trip.

"That kid was more driven to do things for God than I've seen anybody at his age ever. ? He was doing things and so committed that honestly, in 16 years, he finished everything he needed to do in this life," Smith told the station.

A message seeking comment was left by The Associated Press on Friday at a phone listing for Smith's parents.

Shari Lamar, Kai Lamar's mother, said that while her family was saddened by her son's death, they found some comfort in knowing he had taken advantage of an opportunity "to show his love for the Lord and to do what he thought he was called to do."

"He and his friends had the time of their life doing the work," she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It just brought them great joy. They were phenomenal kids. ? It's sad, but we just trust God."

The three students swept away, all juniors, were described as active in school and the community, well-liked and good students.

The mission was organized by Ohio-based Impulse International Mission Trips, where a spokeswoman said no one could comment Friday. The students visited an orphanage, a drug rehabilitation center and some villagers, according to a post by Lamar on a blog the group was keeping on the trip. The group also played soccer, colored and read with youngsters at a community center and did some painting at a Salvation Army church.

The K-12 school, on the city's east side, is a former private Christian school that converted this year to a charter school, meaning it is publicly funded but privately run. It has about 500 students.

Students had made the same volunteer trip to Costa Rica in the past when the school was private, said Paul Blythe, a friend of the Jones family and a school board member whose children graduated from the school. They raised funds and obtained sponsors to pay for the trip, he said.

In 2006, three Kansas students and their teacher drowned in Costa Rica while on a Spanish language immersion trip. A group of students were swimming and some were swept away by strong currents. At least two were rescued, but the teacher and one of the students died trying to save the others.

"These beaches are some of the most dangerous beaches in the world," said David Angueira, a Boston attorney who brought a wrongful death lawsuit against a tour operator over the 2006 deaths. "These beaches are unbelievably dangerous, rip currents like you wouldn't believe. And our kids just keep drowning."

At least 52 people have drowned at sea in Costa Rica this year, said Freddy Roman, another Red Cross spokesman. While that appears to mark an increase from the 2010 full-year total of 76, Roman said he did not think it was a trend, noting last year's number was far below the usual. There were 103 drownings registered in 2009 and 128 in 2008.

Emergency officials have attributed the drop last year to an overall decrease in vacationers caused by an economic downturn.

Jim Batres, assistant director for rescues and operations for the Red Cross of Costa Rica, said the Red Cross is the only agency that offers lifeguard service at Costa Rican beaches, but doesn't have a big enough budget to cover all the beaches full time.

Batres said there are only about 60 volunteer lifeguards for all the country's beaches. Some hotels hire their own lifeguards, and there are signs on many beaches warning about hazards.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Undocumented Georgia university student allowed to stay in U.S

Student Jessica Colotl says the decision is "like a big present"She is scheduled to graduate from Kennesaw State University next weekColotl has been facing possible deportation to Mexico since she was arrested last yearActivists on both sides of the immigration debate have used her case as a rallying point

Atlanta (CNN) -- U.S. immigration officials have decided that an undocumented college student apprehended by authorities after driving without a license can stay in the United States for another year, the student said.

Reached by phone as she rushed to class Tuesday evening, Kennesaw State University student Jessica Colotl said the decision was "like a big present."

Officials at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency could not be immediately reached for comment.

Colotl, who is scheduled to graduate next week with a degree in political science, became a lightning rod in the immigration debate last spring. Activists on both sides of the immigration debate said her case was a symbol of a broken system.

Colotl has been facing possible deportation to Mexico.

Her legal problems started in March 2010, when police stopped her car on the Kennesaw State campus and accused her of stopping the flow of traffic in a university parking lot.

Born in Mexico but living in the United States since she was 11, she could not produce a driver's license, so she handed over as identification an expired passport from Mexico.

She was arrested the next day and turned over to immigration officials.

She spent more than a month in the Etowah Detention Center in Alabama.

Friends came out in force and marched on campus in her defense. In May, she was released, and her deportation was deferred for a year, which will allow her to finish her studies.

But she was quickly arrested on a warrant for the Cobb County Sheriff's Office and released on $2,500 bail.

"I'm just trying to live the American dream and finish my education," she said at the time.

Cobb County participates in a federal program that allows jail officials to initiate deportation procedures for inmates believed to be in the country illegally.

Immigration officials last year allowed her to stay until she finished finish her studies after pleas from the community and the university's president.

CNN's Dan Gilgoff and Jessica Ravitz contributed to this report.

CNN

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Feds chase more student loan defaults

The number of people who aren't paying back their student loans is on the rise, and the government is increasingly threatening to sue them for the money.

The amount of loan defaults that the Education Department has referred to Justice Department lawyers for possible legal action has risen dramatically since before the recession and nearly doubled from 2009 to last year: There were 918 referrals in 2006; that number rose to 2,596 in 2009, and then to 5,393 last year, Education Department figures show.

Suing to collect the debt is a "last resort step," says Jane Glickman, Education Department spokeswoman.

If the government does sue, it can go after wages, bank accounts, put liens on people's property and hold parents responsible for their children's debt if they co-signed the education loans.

"The most important thing to remember is we want the loans repaid," Glickman says. "Borrowers can work on repayment plans ranging from deferments to extended grace periods. We try to do everything possible to come up with a repayment plan before taking the step of seeking a lawsuit."

function AdjustHeight(elementID, val){if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1) {$(elementID).height=val;}else{document[elementID].height = val;}}

The amount of student loans repaid after being referred to the Justice Department for possible litigation. Collections (in millions):

* Money received so far; Source: Education Department

The most recent Education Department figures show that of about 3.37 million student loan borrowers, 238,852 were in default from the 2006 federal fiscal year through the 2008 fiscal year. The default rate for 2008 was about 7% compared with 5.2% in 2006.

Rising college costs, in addition to the economy, are helping drive up the rates as people have taken out more loans to cover tuition and fees, Glickman says.

College seniors who graduated in 2009 carried an average of $24,000 in student loan debt, up 6% from the previous year, the Project on Student Debt, a research and policy group, reported in October.

Since January 2010, the Education Department has stopped going after defaulted loans of less than $45,000 through the Justice Department. That doesn't mean people who aren't making payments are off the hook. Bad loans of less than that are handled by private law firms on a contract basis, Glickman says.

Although the department doesn't provide information on how many suits are filed, it does say it has received repayments totaling $11.3 million so far since 2006. Numbers from the U.S. attorney's offices in several states, which pursue the suits, gives a sense of how lawsuits are increasing:

In the past four years, the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Alabama sued more than 60 people, says Cindy Kelly, chief of the civil division. In the four years prior to 2007, 14 cases were filed.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Middle District of Florida saw the number of suits pursued grow to 980 in 2010 from 376 in 2008, spokesman William Daniels says.

Roney also reports for The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser. Contributing: Mary Beth Marklein.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Feds chase more student loan defaults

The number of people who aren't paying back their student loans is on the rise, and the government is increasingly threatening to sue them for the money.

The amount of loan defaults that the Education Department has referred to Justice Department lawyers for possible legal action has risen dramatically since before the recession and nearly doubled from 2009 to last year: There were 918 referrals in 2006; that number rose to 2,596 in 2009, and then to 5,393 last year, Education Department figures show.

Suing to collect the debt is a "last resort step," says Jane Glickman, Education Department spokeswoman.

If the government does sue, it can go after wages, bank accounts, put liens on people's property and hold parents responsible for their children's debt if they co-signed the education loans.

"The most important thing to remember is we want the loans repaid," Glickman says. "Borrowers can work on repayment plans ranging from deferments to extended grace periods. We try to do everything possible to come up with a repayment plan before taking the step of seeking a lawsuit."

function AdjustHeight(elementID, val){if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1) {$(elementID).height=val;}else{document[elementID].height = val;}}

The amount of student loans repaid after being referred to the Justice Department for possible litigation. Collections (in millions):

* Money received so far; Source: Education Department

The most recent Education Department figures show that of about 3.37 million student loan borrowers, 238,852 were in default from the 2006 federal fiscal year through the 2008 fiscal year. The default rate for 2008 was about 7% compared with 5.2% in 2006.

Rising college costs, in addition to the economy, are helping drive up the rates as people have taken out more loans to cover tuition and fees, Glickman says.

College seniors who graduated in 2009 carried an average of $24,000 in student loan debt, up 6% from the previous year, the Project on Student Debt, a research and policy group, reported in October.

Since January 2010, the Education Department has stopped going after defaulted loans of less than $45,000 through the Justice Department. That doesn't mean people who aren't making payments are off the hook. Bad loans of less than that are handled by private law firms on a contract basis, Glickman says.

Although the department doesn't provide information on how many suits are filed, it does say it has received repayments totaling $11.3 million so far since 2006. Numbers from the U.S. attorney's offices in several states, which pursue the suits, gives a sense of how lawsuits are increasing:

In the past four years, the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Alabama sued more than 60 people, says Cindy Kelly, chief of the civil division. In the four years prior to 2007, 14 cases were filed.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Middle District of Florida saw the number of suits pursued grow to 980 in 2010 from 376 in 2008, spokesman William Daniels says.

Roney also reports for The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser. Contributing: Mary Beth Marklein.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Student video touts Mitt Romney for president

Romney "stands as the most qualified Republican candidate due in large measure to his career as a leader in both the public and private sectors," says Garrett Sweitzer, a Vanderbilt University junior who is a founder and chairman of the student group.

Sweitzer says the group has supporters on about 40 campuses in 25 states.

The video was produced by Thomas Tatum, a graduating senior at Boston College, who said his intent was to show "the real concerns of real students preparing for graduation in May and June into an economy made uncertain by the economic policies of the Obama administration."

Students for Mitt Romney is actually formed as a political action committee that can make independent expenditures that aren't coordinated with the candidate. The group has a Facebook page here.

See photos of: Boston College, Vanderbilt UniversityTags:Boston CollegeMitt RomneyVanderbilt University .div-wrapper

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Maine student born without hands honored for penmanship

Boy with no hands wins handwriting awardSTORY HIGHLIGHTSFifth grader gets special award from publisherNational contest will now have category named after himMaine boy was born without hands or lower arms (CNN) -- Born without hands and lower arms, fifth-grader Nicholas Maxim received a unique award Monday for his participation in Zaner-Bloser's 20th annual National Handwriting Contest.

"We submitted his entry because we felt his penmanship was amazing considering he completes most of his work without using his prostheses," said Cheryl Hasenfus, Readfield Elementary School principal.

At those times, Nicholas writes by holding a pen or pencil between his upper arms.

On behalf of Zaner-Bloser, a publisher of educational materials, Hasenfus presented a trophy to Nicholas during a school assembly for his excellent penmanship. The school is in Readfield, Maine.

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