Cheers to the teachers and students at Seneca Valley schools for putting a new twist on a lesson in charity: They produced some of the foods — and the dishes — for a recent soup dinner benefit.

Eighth-graders from Seneca Valley Middle School made and donated 120 loaves of bread to be served with the soup. Pottery classes at Seneca Valley Senior High School made more than 200 bowls for the event.

Dubbed the Full Table Project, the Nov. 14 dinner at Grace Community Church in Cranberry Township raised more than $2,000, said Cindy Zonts, the church outreach director. The money will be donated to the Lighthouse Foundation and Light of Life Rescue Mission to feed the hungry.

Patrons got to keep their handcrafted bowls, which serve as a reminder of a community's ongoing needs.

A $500 grant from the Seneca Valley School Foundation paid for the clay and glaze used to make the bowls.

The bread was baked by the six culinary classes of family and consumer sciences teacher Deb Mitro, who is a member of Grace Community Church. The class is a requirement for all eighth-graders.

As one eighth-grader noted, the baking is its own final exam. Students are exposed to all the variables of a recipe — dry and liquid measure, temperature and time — and they're also made aware of a community's needs, along with the rewards of serving a community in volunteer capacities.

Apparently a not-so-secret grand jury investigation isn't enough controversy for Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.One day after Kane testified to a grand jury about alleged leaks of confidential information from her office, she claimed in a CNN interview that images of children were among the explicit porn e-mails exchanged by state employees on state computers.That's a bombshell of an accusation if it's true — but it isn't true.On Wednesday, the day after Kane's CNN appearance, spokeswoman Renee Martin said the images didn't fit the legal definition of child pornography. And on Thursday, Martin retracted her statement altogether.It's not Kane's first retraction, but it is the most damaging yet. Child pornography is a very serious, specific legal claim. With reputations on the line, attorneys must be certain about such serious accusations.If a crime was committed, then it's Kane's duty to prosecute it in court. But if there was no crime, she shouldn't prosecute through the national news media.It's disconcerting to see this kind of uncertainty coming from the office of the state's highest prosecutor.

In 1968, Nixon beat Humphrey for president, O.J. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy and a NASA space mission completed the first orbit of the moon. Cassette tapes and hand-held calculators didn't exist yet, and the United States Postal Service's first self-adhesive stamp was still eight years away.That was the year Paul Rock went to work at the Butler Post Office after four years in the U.S. Navy.He's been there ever since.Rock, of Butler Township, recently was honored for 50 years of federal service. Add a cheer to the accolades.Automation has been the most dramatic change in his profession, Rock says. That cuts a lot of ways: from e-mails to mail-sorting machines and the rise of package deliveries, the Postal Service has changed in appearance and process.And nowadays all the stamps are self-stick. It's more hygienic than licking.What hasn't changed, he says, is good old-fashioned service. Customers appreciate reliable, consistent delivery of their mail, he says, and satisfied customers are what keep him going. Through three generations, no less.“That's what makes it worthwhile,” Rock said.