State News-Thursday, Oct. 19th

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - State lawmakers say they will need more time to finalize several major pieces of legislation. With less than three weeks before the election in this volatile political year, they say they have too many differences to resolve. Progress has been slow on three particular bills. Those measures would make numerous changes to the state's slot-machine gambling law, expand state subsidies for children's health insurance and require lobbyists to report what they spend to influence policymakers. The Senate has decided to add Monday as a voting day to its calendar in an otherwise election-shortened fall legislative session. In the meantime, lawmakers say negotiators plan to work on the bills while the legislators return to their districts to campaign.

LA PLUME, Pa. (AP) - President Bush is scheduled to stump for four-term Pennsylvania Congressman Don Sherwood today at Keystone College in northeastern Pennsylvania. Bush's appearance is intended to give a boost to Sherwood, who last year admitted to a five-year extramarital affair with a woman 35 years his junior. Sherwood settled a lawsuit claiming he had choked her.

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) - Another Pennsylvania soldier has been killed in action in Iraq. Family of 22-year-old Army Specialist Russell Culbertson Junior, of Lone Pine, say he was killed Tuesday when the truck he was riding in struck a roadside bomb outside Baghdad. The family says Culbertson, a tank gunner in the Fourth Infantry Division, was one of four soldiers killed near Abu Ghraib prison. A military liaison has told the family it will be several days before Culbertson's body is flown to Pittsburgh. The Department of Defense has not issued an official release confirming Culbertson's death.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Battles for cheesesteak supremacy usually involve beef, onions and some form of cheese. This time a family feud over cheesesteak is unfolding in federal court. Pat's King of Steaks -- a South Philadelphia institution since the 1930s -- is suing Rick's Steaks for trademark infringement. Located less than two miles apart, each eatery is owned by a grandson of Pat Olivieri, the purported inventor of Philly's favorite sandwich. Pat's filed the lawsuit, claiming Rick's has been illegally trading on Pat's name, its crown logo and trademarked phrases. It seeks unspecified damages and an order preventing Rick's from using the material. Rick Olivieri says his lawyer has not yet reviewed the lawsuit.