National and State News-Friday, March 2nd

UNDATED (AP) - Tornadoes are blamed for 17 deaths, nine of them in Georgia. The violent weather also killed seven people in Alabama and one in Missouri. A Georgia official says it appears a tornado hit a hospital in Americus, which is near where former President Jimmy Carter lives.

UNDATED (AP) - A winter snowstorm is being blamed for at least four deaths in three states. The system blasted parts of the Plains and Midwest, killing three people in car crashes. A fourth died shoveling snow. The worst of the snow hit North Dakota, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith's body is being flown this morning from Florida to the Bahamas for a memorial service and burial. But that may not be the final resting place. The lawyer for her estranged mother says his client may take legal action to get the body moved.

LONDON (AP) - A jury will preside over the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed. The ruling is a victory for Fayed's father who wanted a jury to oversee the probe, rather than a single coroner. Fayed contends the couple was murdered in a 1997 Paris car crash.

UNDATED (AP) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average opens at 12-thousand-234 today, after a 34-point drop yesterday. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index gained one-point-two percent today. But in Japan and Australia, stocks lost more ground on top of the huge losses earlier in the week.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Governor Ed Rendell has activated the state's emergency operations center due to heavy rain. Rendell says there's concern that there will be flooding in southeastern Pennsylvania. He says ice could accumulate and jam in creeks. It has been raining heavily across Pennsylvania overnight. Radar
shows the rain moving toward the northeast, but forecasters say runoff and melting snow will contribute to rising streams for several hours. Accu-Weather says temperatures could rise to about 60 degrees in
the Philadelphia area by this afternoon. At least 17 deaths in three states are now blamed on the system
of powerful storms that included tornadoes in the South and Midwest.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's top education official is defending a proposed 100 (m) million dollar expansion of an education-grant program in the state budget that would earmark the new money for preschool and full-day kindergarten programs. Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak discussed the proposal at a House Appropriations Committee hearing. He says the proposed expansion of Pennsylvania's accountability grant program will ensure that more young children will be ready for school. Representative Steven Cappelli of Lycoming County says he questions how Governor Ed Rendell's administration can justify such an increase while proposing a smaller increase for state-related universities and no increase in grants to college students. The three-year-old program allows school districts to use the grants for a variety of initiatives intended to improve math and reading scores. Rendell is targeting next year's increase for
early-childhood education.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A spokesman for Pittsburgh slots casino says the casino won't open until the summer of 2008 because of delays in issuing a formal license. Detroit businessman Don Barden had wanted to open the
435-(m)million dollar Majestic Star Casino in March 2008. The license was awarded on December 20th, but on February first, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board opened a monthlong appeal period, which ends Monday. The two losing bidders for the Pittsburgh license, Forest City Enterprises and Isle of Capri Casinos, have not indicated whether they'll appeal.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The owners of the planned SugarHouse Casino are challenging the validity of petition signatures gathered by anti-casino activists in Philadelphia. They filed a challenge in court yesterday. The activists hope to slam the door shut on gambling halls in the city by spurring a ballot initiative to restrict casinos to at least 15-hundred feet from any home, school or church. If successful, the city charter change would likely scuttle construction plans for SugarHouse and Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia along the riverfront. Lawyers for SugarHouse contend that only a quarter of the submitted signatures are valid. If true, that would leave the petitioners well short of the 20-thousand signatures needed to force a City Council vote on whether to put the measure on the May 15th primary election ballot. Anne Dicker, an organizer for Casino Free Philadelphia, says the mostly volunteer coalition will fight the challenge.

WASHINGTON (AP) - All the Democrats in Pennsylvania's U-S House delegation and one Republican, Tim Murphy, voted for a bill that makes it easier for workers to unionize. The bill allows a union to be certified as soon as a majority of employees at workplace sign cards authorizing it. Under current law, there must be an election to certify a union. This isn't likely to become law, however. President Bush has said he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk. The 241-to-185 vote was short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to
overturn a presidential veto.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The offbeat and sometimes off-color older brother of Philadelphia Mayor John Street says he's still pushing ahead with a long-shot bid for the office. Milton Street had said he would drop out of the race unless at least five-thousand people showed up at a rally Thursday. More than 100 people showed up for Street's rambling and sometimes profane address, but nowhere near the five-thousand he sought. But he says he's still in the race despite that. Street recently lived at least part-time in Moorestown, New
Jersey. The city charter requires that someone live in the city for at least three years straight before running for mayor. That requirement could keep Street's name off the ballot in the May Democratic primary, which already has five major candidates.

PENN HILLS, Pa. (AP) - Autopsies of four family members who died in Penn Hills show they all died from gunshot wounds. The Allegheny County medical examiner says 65-year-old George Terry died from a gunshot wound to the head and his wife and their two adopted adult sons died from gunshot wounds to the head and trunk. Police are calling it an apparent murder suicide, but have not determined a motive. Police say it appears Terry shot his wife and two sons before turning the gun on himself in their home about ten miles east of Pittsburgh. Police suspect that's how the shooting occurred because the gun
was found next to the father.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia police say two co-workers were shot dead in a car after one had offered the other a ride home. Police could not determine a motive quickly for the slaying of 64-year-old Coneita Hanchard and 41-year-old Dwayne Bell. Each was shot multiple times in the head and torso. Police Sergeant Anthony McFadden says they worked for a cleaning contractor. He says they started work Wednesday afternoon at a downtown Philadelphia hotel and finished at midnight. They were shot about an hour later.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The union representing about 160 American Red Cross workers has reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. Doreen Barclay, president of the Communications Workers of
America, Local 13-hundred, says she likes the contract and is encouraging everyone to vote for it. The union represents about 160 of the 700 workers employed by the Red Cross' Greater Alleghenies Blood Services Region, which provides blood to southwestern Pennsylvania and parts of five other states. Barclay says a ratification vote will be held within two weeks. The deal struck late Wednesday ends the threat of another strike by bloodmobile workers. They went on strike for three days last month.

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (AP) - A computer network outage at The Vanguard Group temporarily left customers unable to access online accounts yesterday. The Valley Forge-based mutual fund giant says the outage lasted
about an hour. Customers could still register trades by phone. Tuesday's big sell-off on Wall Street has made this a busy trading week, and other systems have experienced computer woes as well. High volume delayed the processing of trades at the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq Stock Market and major brokerages.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Shamrocks have long enjoyed a monopoly on voking the luck of the Irish. But at the Philadelphia Flower Show this year, tulips, rhododendrons and azaleas are giving the old classic some competition. "The Legends of Ireland" is the theme for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's annual show. The eight-day show in the Pennsylvania Convention Center starts Sunday. It could be called the Emerald Isle's greatest hits. Leprechauns made of ivy wear impish smiles as they paint a rainbow that dips into a pot of gold-coin yellow leaves. Trickles of water make natural music streaming off the cords of an oversized
harp. A cobblestone path leads to a quaint village front, complete with a wool shop, jewelry store and pub.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Archdiocese of Philadelphia hopes to add salvation to the seemingly endless list of things Internet surfers can find on YouTube. Just clicks away from videos of scantily clad women and stupid pet tricks, the archdiocese is posting weekly Lenten messages from Cardinal Justin Rigali. His first video got nearly 13-thousand views as of yesterday afternoon. The archdiocese got the idea after having success streaming video on its Web site. Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell says were some early
concerns about the racy content that can be found on the site, but all the feedback has been positive so far.