State News-Friday, Oct. 13th

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) - The site of the one-room Amish schoolhouse where ten girls were shot, five of them fatally, is now just a patch of dirt with a rough-hewn wooden fence around it. The site will become a green pasture, and because of Amish beliefs, it's unlikely to have a memorial. Ten Amish girls were shot on October second in the schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, by a killer who then committed suicide. Workers using heavy equipment bulldozed in about 15 minutes the tragic reminder of what happened in the Lancaster County community. A community leader says there was a "widespread feeling" that the building had to go. A garage on a nearby farm is serving as a temporary school, until a new schoolhouse is built on a site still to be determined.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A state jury has found that Wal-Mart broke Pennsylvania labor laws by forcing employees to work through rest breaks and off the clock. Plaintiffs' lawyers say the decision would result in at least 62 (m) million dollars in damages. Jurors that returned the decision yesterday will return today to determine damages in the class-action lawsuit. The action covers up to 187-thousand hourly current and former Wal-Mart workers. The Arkansas-based retail giant is facing a slew of similar suits around the country. The company declined to comment because of the pending deliberations over damages.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh is posting a freeze warning for much of western and central Pennsylvania. The warning is in effect until 9 a-m today. Forecasters say sub-freezing temperatures are imminent or highly likely -- a condition that would be deadly for crops and other sensitive vegetation.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Prosecutors allege that two Philadelphia-area stockbrokers bilked investors in a hedge fund out of nearly two million dollars by sending out statements that
the fund was performing well when it was actually losing money. Anthony Postiglione Junior and William Lennon are charged with mail fraud and other counts in connection with the Fountainhead Fund L-P, which they co-founded in 2001. Postiglione also faces one count of obstruction of justice. Postiglione, of Malvern, and Lennon, of Media, raised about five-point-two (m) million dollars from 17 investors, but are accused of having misrepresented the risks of the investment. Messages left at listed telephone numbers for Postiglione and Lennon were not immediately returned.

SPRING, Texas (AP) - Golfing great Arnold Palmer traveled from Pennsylvania to the Houston-area Augusta Pines Golf Club the way he usually gets to a tournament -- flying his own plane. Palmer flew to Texas yesterday from his home in Latrobe. Lidle and his flight instructor were killed when their small plane hit a condominium tower in New York on Wednesday. Palmer says he's lost a number of friends the same way. The 77-year-old golfing legend says he began flying when he began playing the tour in 1955. Palmer calls flying a convenience and business tool -- plus he enjoys it.