State News-Monday, Jan 15th

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Organizers of Ed Rendell's second inauguration have decided to make a small number of tickets available today. The hundred-dollar tickets were sold out last week, but organizers decided to make more available. Rendell wants the festivities for his second inauguration tomorrow to be a relatively low-key affair. That's when compared with the parade of more than five thousand people from all 67 counties four years ago. The inaugural ball is expected to host about half of the 95-hundred revelers who packed the hall at the Pennsylvania Farm Show complex for the first inauguration in 2003.

MARYSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - An autopsy planned today could determine the cause of death for a Harrisburg man shot by police in Perry County. Authorities say 52-year-old Joseph Donald Dum cut himself several times during a struggle Saturday. It's unclear if he died from the gunshot or the cuts. State troopers were interviewing people in Rye Township on Saturday as part of the investigation into Elaine Pierson's death. Troopers saw a car parked near where Pierson's body was found January Sixth and stopped to ask Dum why he was there, but Dum fled and led police on a chase.

FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsbury School District in suburban Philadelphia is having counselors come in this morning despite the Martin Luther King holiday. It's because so many were shaken up by Friday's school bus crash that injured 17 students, one critically. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have examined the bus, but didn't announce any conclusions right away.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Braddock branch will receive a 300-thousand dollar state grant. It's to support a program focusing on disparities in the treatment and prevention of diseases such as cancer and asthma. The grant will fund the Steps to a Healthy Community Office, which is scheduled to open after a dedication ceremony on Friday morning. Pennsylvania State Senator Sean Logan will present a check for the amount at the ceremony, which will be followed by an open house. The program at the U-P-M-C facility in Braddock will seek to address disparities in the treatment and prevention of asthma,
cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - What will cities of the future look like? Young students from across the country are trying to answer that question by building computer and tabletop models to enter in a national competition. Teams of seventh- and eighth-graders from western Pennsylvania and West Virginia will compete in the regional finals of the National Engineers Week Future City Competition on Saturday at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall. About 30-thousand students from 11-hundred schools across the country are expected to participate in regional competitions before winning teams head to Washington, D-C, for the national finals from February 19th through 21st. The top team will win a trip to U-S Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - With the number of priests declining, Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania and across the country are stepping up ambitious recruitment efforts. In the nation's 175 Catholic dioceses, the number of priests has dropped 25 percent over the last four decades even as the number of parishioners has increased. Now, many dioceses are resorting to some combination of mass media, the Internet and software to woo new ones. In the Philadelphia Archdiocese, officials say recruitment has become a major priority, with about 20 priests dying each year. The Reverend Christopher Rogers, the archdiocese's vocations director, says the group recently put large billboards on Interstate 95 and Interstate 76.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A suburban Philadelphia man was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for running over his friend with an S-U-V after a night of heavy drinking. In November, a judge found 43-year-old Bruce Hunziker guilty of third-degree murder in the death of his friend, William Hartey of Philadelphia. The same judge sentenced Hunziker to 14-and-a-half to 25 years in state prison on Friday. Authorities say Hunziker drove over four lanes of traffic and a median to hit Hartey at an intersection in Northeast Philadelphia. Police also say Hunziker fled the scene and changed the license plate on his truck afterward. Hunziker, who had pleaded not guilty, told the judge the death was an accident and apologized in court. He faced a maximum
possible sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A four-year-old boy was killed in a freak accident when a table toppled over and pinned him to the floor at an Allentown check-cashing business. Authorities say Giovanni Carballo had been hanging and swinging from a table at the Money Mart check-cashing business shortly after 11:30 Saturday morning. Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim says the boy had been at the business with a relative when the accident happened. The boy was pronounced dead about an hour later at Lehigh Valley Hospital.

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) - Want to really seal your letters with a kiss? Now there's a way. The U-S Postal Service has unveiled a 39-cent "Love and Kisses" stamp adorned with the image of a Hershey's chocolate kiss. The announcement comes in commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the sweet chocolate treats, which Milton Hershey first introduced in 1907. The new stamp features a Hershey's Kiss and a red heart. Richard Lenny, president and C-E-O of Pennsylvania-based Hershey, says he hopes that the stamp will help many people send out messages of love and caring - just in time for Valentine's Day. The Postal Service began issuing its popular Love stamps in 1973, featuring the image of the Robert Indiana sculpture located in downtown Philadelphia. Over the years, the stamps have featured an assortment of designs, including hearts, flowers and the word "Love."