State News-Friday, Feb. 2nd

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) - Whether or not he sees his shadow this morning, Punxsutawney Phil will see two new handlers when he lets the world know if winter will linger. Longtime handler Bill Deeley retired last year. Punxsutawney Groundhog Club members John Griffiths and Ben Hughes are taking over. Each February Second, thousands of people descend on Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to celebrate what was once just a
German superstition. According to the superstition, if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on the Christian holiday of Candlemas, winter will last another six weeks. No shadow means an early spring. The club says Phil has seen his shadow 96 times, hasn't seen it 14 times and there are no records for nine years.

YORK, Pa. (AP) - Union workers are on strike today at Harley-Davidson's largest manufacturing plant.
More than 50 workers picketed at midnight at the main gate of the company's York facilities as the strike began. Machinists and Aerospace Workers union representative Tom Boger says the company installed cement baracades to block access to all gates, even empty parking lots. The strike comes two days after unionized workers rejected the company's contract offer and authorized a walkout. In anticipation of the strike, the company shut down production at the plant yesterday.

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) - Aides, clerks and others workers at The Washington Hospital have ratified a new three-year contract, averting a strike set for tomorrow morning. The union representing about 500 workers says 83 percent of the union members have approved a new deal that will take effect immediately. The union says the new contract increases wages 9-point-5 percent over the length of the agreement, minimizes employees working six- and seven-day shifts, and provides affordable health care. The union says the caregivers will remain among the highest paid hospital service and maintenance workers in southwestern
Pennsylvania. The contract covers maintenance workers, nursing assistants, housekeepers, food service workers and medical records clerks.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A judge revoked bail for a child-pornography suspect who said she had forgotten to tell investigators about a three-way sexual encounter she had with a ten-year-old girl and a man accused of being the leader of a child porn ring. Forty-three-year-old Dorothy Prawdzik had forgotten about the
encounter because she became mentally incapacitated after the 1991 death of her husband, even giving up custody of her own children. That's according to her attorney, Regina Coyne. Prosecutors say they think that's a stretch. Assistant U-S Attorney Michael Levy says that's not the type of conduct someone would easily forget.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the rental manager and owners of a Lancaster apartment complex, alleging their rental policies discriminate against the visually impaired.
The complaint charges that a policy forbidding residents at Barrcrest Manor Apartments to keep dogs violates the federal Fair Housing Act. It says the landlords were refusing housing to people who use the animals as guides. Department of Justice officials posing as potential renters conducted the investigation into the complex's policies. The suit, filed in the U-S District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeks to end the policy and asks for compensation for those it affected.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Butler County man who left his 13-month-old son in a sport utility vehicle with a loaded shotgun while out hunting has been sentenced to six months in alternative housing and
ordered to take parenting classes. Forty-one-year-old Michael Kopera of Evans City also was fined
500 dollars and sentenced to three years' probation. Kopera pleaded guilty in November to child endangerment charges and unlawful possession of wildlife. Kopera was arrested on January 5th, 2006, in Hampton Township after police say they found an S-U-V near a wooded area. Authorities say Kopera told police he left the boy in the S-U-V so he could retrieve a deer carcass. Kopera also has said he could
see the vehicle from the woods and the gun was not pointed at his son.

NORTHERN CAMBRIA, Pa. (AP) - The Northern Cambria School Board has put an end to a board member's ten-year Groundhog Day tradition. Delvin Lockard says he is no longer allowed to give cookies in
the shape of Punxsutawney Phil to students in grades K-through-4. Turns out, the cookies have 37 percent fat, two percent above the limit set by the state wellness program. The district adopted the program two months ago and Lockard voted for it. Superintendent Thomas Estep says the school board can't make an
exception, despite Lockard's good intentions. Lockard says the school board is going too far. He says there is
nothing healthier for children than the smiles they have when they get one of his groundhog cookies.