the news in brief

(MCT) CHICAGO – When classes resumed after the slayings at Northern Illinois University,… (MCT) CHICAGO – When classes resumed after the slayings at Northern Illinois University, anxious students showed up at the campus counseling office seeking to talk to someone who was a good listener -someone calm, someone furry.

They wanted to see the dogs.

In the aftermath of the terrorizing Feb. 14 shooting by gunman Steven Kazmierczak, comfort came to the shaken campus from an unusually calm pack of four-legged therapists whose mission was to find people who wanted to pet them. The week-long presence of these comfort dogs has been so missed at NIU that campus officials are working to bring them back.

“In many instances, they gave to students things we couldn’t give them as mental health professionals,” said Elizabeth Garcia, a counselor at NIU. “Some students didn’t want to talk to counselors, but talking to the dogs made them feel better. I saw people sitting on the floor with them, talking to them like they were humans.”

The 12 dogs were from Animal Assisted Crisis Response, an elite group of therapy dogs trained to bring emotional rescue after a disaster or crisis. The dogs were used in New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and at Virginia Tech after the shootings there.

At NIU, comfort dogs rode city buses, went to basketball games, sat unnerved at noisy dorm parties and mingled inside pizza parlors.

Campus officials said the dogs drew crowds wherever they went, and there were constant requests from students and faculty members who asked to talk to them or pet them.

Cindy Ehlers founded the agency, which is based in Eugene, Ore., shortly after she and her dog responded to a school shooting in 1998 close to her home.

She realized that most regular therapy dogs could not withstand the stress of crisis situations. They would need special training.

Her agency certifies comfort dogs throughout the U.S. The dogs that traveled to DeKalb, Ill., where NIU is located, came from Minnesota, Kansas, Oregon, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Washington and Kentucky. NIU officials said the dogs came in contact with about 16,000 people on campus. -By Carolyn Starks, Chicago Tribune

(MCT) – To find Sen. Barack Obama’s strategic roadmap for the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, just pick up a copy of Rand-McNally and trace the Blue Route from the southern fringes of Philadelphia and up the Northeast Extension to Allentown, Pa.

The highways roughly form the western border of an eight-county region filled with the kinds of voters who have made Pennsylvania a swing state in general elections and who have formed the demographic backbone of Obama’s 29 primary and caucus victories.

Large numbers of black people, college students and the upscale, educated voters some pollsters call “Starbucks Democrats” live in the city, its suburbs and the Lehigh Valley.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is considered the prohibitive favorite statewide because Pennsylvania’s electorate has heavy concentrations of blocs that have supported her strongly: senior citizens, white working-class Democrats and Catholics.

Pennsylvania pollsters G. Terry Madonna and Michael Young wrote an analysis of the race Friday arguing that Obama could take the state or at least come close enough to diminish a Clinton win by cranking up voter turnout in the Philadelphia region.

“Currently he leads in Philly and will likely win the city decisively, making the suburbs a major battleground,” they wrote. “The Democratic voters there largely mirror the upscale, affluent voters Obama has been attracting nationally: they are the most liberal in the state, strongly oppose the Iraq War and have a low regard for President Bush.”

But analysts point out that the region is not a lock for Obama, who faces some potentially significant hurdles.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, along with other members of the Democratic establishment are backing Clinton. There also is a strong residual affection for the Clintons in both the city and the suburbs. -By Thomas Fitzgerald, The Philadelphia Inquire