State News-Monday, Dec. 18th

MEADVILLE, Pa. (AP) - Former Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer is being remembered as a visionary leader and a compassionate man. About 250 people gathered yesterday at Allegheny College in Meadville for Shafer's funeral. He served as governor from 1967 to 1971. Former governors William Scranton, Richard Thornburgh and Tom Ridge were among the mourners. Shafer oversaw tax increases to finance social programs and overhauled the state constitution. He died last week at the age of 89.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Leaders of a union representing more than 900 workers at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News are urging their members to ratify a three-year labor contract. Diane Mastrull is the head of the bargaining committee for The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia. Mastrull says she's angry about the contract. But she says it's far better for the workers than what management wanted. Mastrull says if union members let their anger consume them and reject the contract, it will, in her words, "destroy the papers, destroy jobs and destroy families." Voting begins at 7 p-m tonight. The Guild is the largest of ten unions at the Inquirer and Daily News. It represents editorial, circulation, advertising and clerical workers.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A South Philadelphia man accused of pretending to be a doctor making house calls and assaulting elderly women is due in court. Christopher Donahue was 29 when he was charged last year with rape, harassment and other offenses. Opening statements are scheduled today. Police say Donahue would call women, who have ranged from 70 to 86 years old, then appear at their homes 15 minutes later.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania lawmakers have a personal stake in the state's generous pension system. Critics are saying that will make it much harder for them to deal with the pending benefits crisis.
In 2012, the cost of subsidizing pensions for state workers and school employees is expected to jump from less than one (b) billion dollars to more than three (b) billion dollars a year. The cost is being driven in part by big increases lawmakers approved five years ago. State workers and teachers received a 25 percent pension boost, while most legislators got a 50 percent increase. Nearly all lawmakers are now entitled to collect three percent of their peak salary for each year of service. That compares with two-and-a-half percent for teachers and most others in the state workers' retirement system.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A newspaper is reporting that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has spent 25 (m) million dollars getting the state ready for slot-machine gambling over the past two-and-a-half years.
That includes leasing new cars for five of the board's seven members and paying some of the highest salaries in the state. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review also found that four board members spent a total of more than 12-thousand dollars on travel to the western U-S and Canada. The paper says taxpayers are footing almost all the bills, but that casinos are supposed to reimburse the state as they start opening. A spokesman for the gaming board says the expenditures were necessary for business. He also says the trips helped members
gather information to develop Pennsylvania's gambling regulations.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A published report says that a recently appointed member of the state gaming board won thousands of dollars at casinos in recent years -- despite being a critic of gambling when he served as a legislator. According to tax returns obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer, former Representative Mark McNaughton won 15-thousand-500 dollars between 2003 and last year. The paper says McNaughton, a Harrisburg Republican who left the Legislature last month, did not disclose the winnings on his state
ethics forms. McNaughton says he didn't think he had to report them. McNaughton had for years opposed efforts to expand gambling in Pennsylvania and voted against the law that legalized slot machines
here. He says he was only acting on the wishes of his constituents.

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - Virginia's Episcopal Bishop Peter Lee says the denomination will assert legal claims of ownership over the property of breakaway congregations. Seven parishes, including two of Virginia's largest, announced today that their members have voted to leave the U-S branch of the world Anglican Communion. A lengthy and expensive legal fight could erupt over the church properties, which are worth (m) millions of dollars. Two of them plan to place themselves under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. He has called the growing acceptance of gay relationships a "satanic attack" on the
church. The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has been at odds with the national denomination over the same issues, but hasn't seceded.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A U-S Air Force sergeant is dead after a nightclub altercation turned violent.
Philadelphia police say it happened at about 1:30 a-m yesterday at a club in the city's Lawncrest neighborhood. The airman was at the club with his pregnant wife when someone made a comment
about her. That led to an argument and four men attacked the airman. The club was cleared out, but the argument continued on the sidewalk. The airman was fatally stabbed and another man who tried
to break up the fight was hospitalized. The airman had been scheduled to go to Iraq next week.