National and State News-Friday, March 9th

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - President Bush and the president of Brazil sign an ethanol agreement today. One of Bush's goals is to get more vehicles running on something other than gasoline. Brazil is Bush's first stop on a five-nation Latin American trip.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's job approval rating is up a speck. But it's still the weakest of any second-term president at this point in office since Harry Truman. The latest A-P-Ipsos poll gives Bush a 35-percent approval rating, up from 32 percent in February.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - House Democrats hope to get a bill through by the end of the month setting September First, 2008, as the deadline for getting U-S troops out of Iraq. The White House calls it a nonstarter and promises a veto if it gets that far.

UNDATED (AP) - Technology types in the U-S are gearing up for the change to daylight-saving time Sunday. Because the switch comes earlier starting this year, there's concern that computers, programmed to change the first Sunday in April, may not be able to cope.

TOKYO (AP) - Michael Jackson is in Tokyo where he performed for more than a thousand partygoers who paid 130 dollars apiece to see him. Yesterday, several hundred fans paid 35-hundred dollars each
for some face-time with Jackson at a dinner.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The future of the Pittsburgh Penguins remains unsettled as team and state officials met for more than four hours to try to negotiate a new arena to keep the team in Pittsburgh. Owners Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux, Governor Ed Rendell, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and N-H-L Commissioner Gary Bettman huddled in Philadelphia. Talks began at seven p-m and wrapped up a little after eleven p-m. Both sides agreed to meet again next week. Across the state where the Penguins faced the New Jersey Devils, fans started a "Save Our Pens!" chant less than a minute into the
game. The Penguins are threatening to leave Pittsburgh if they can't secure a new rink. Their lease at 46-year-old Mellon Arena, the oldest facility in the league, expires June 30th and the team is free to leave after that.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal judge has ruled that the maker of Splenda must defend its advertising tagline that the product is "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar." The Merisant Company, which makes rivals Equal and NutraSweet, charges that McNeil Nutritionals has misled consumers by suggesting in its ads and packaging that Splenda is a natural product and contains sugar. Merisant, based in Chicago, says Splenda contains no sugar and is instead sweetened with a synthetic compound through a complex chemical process.
U.S. District Judge Gene E-K Pratter this month refused McNeil's motion to dismiss the 2004 suit along with each side's challenge over expert witnesses. McNeil says in a statement that the claims against it were
without merit and that the company planned to vigorously defend itself.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Sheriffs' Association of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and five other plaintiffs are suing to stop a referendum that would let Allegheny County voters decide if the sheriff's office should be an appointed instead of elected position. The lawsuit contends making the sheriff an appointee puts too
much power in the hands of County Executive Dan Onorato. They also say that the sheriff's power to issue gun permits should not be put under the control of the executive branch of government. The groups claim that the county can't hold a vote on more row office reforms yet because they claim the county charter allows for
a change in the form of government only every five years. Two years ago voters approved eliminating the prothonotary and clerk of courts as elected row offices.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The ranking Republican on the state House Appropriations Committee calls Governor Ed Rendell's ambitious state-budget proposal "too much." State Representative Mario Civera made that assessment yesterday after a hearing into the 2007-2008 budget proposal. Lawmakers are focusing on the Democratic governor's proposals to extend health-care coverage to uninsured adults and raise billions
for transportation needs. They're also asking about his tax and fee increases and the recent growth in spending and public indebtedness. Rendell has offered a 27 (b) billion dollar budget, and the budget deadline is June 30th.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania soldier killed when a roadside bomb set fire to her armored patrol vehicle in Iraq was about to get a proposal from her military boyfriend. That's according to her father.
Army Sergeant Ashly Lynn Moyer, of Emmaus, was killed along with two other soldiers while on a routine patrol in Baghdad on Saturday. Her family says Moyer was driving the armored vehicle in a convoy of four when the lead vehicle drove over a buried bomb. The soldiers in the lead vehicle survived, but the explosion detonated the fuel tank in Moyer's vehicle, killing her and two others. Among the soldiers responding to the bombing was Moyer's boyfriend, Jake Wells, a member of her unit who tried to rescue her but was turned back by the flames and rounds of exploding ammunition.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Westmoreland County woman has been charged with the murder of her husband 21 years ago. Pittsburgh police say 62-year-old Diana Rader of North Huntingdon was arraigned yesterday on one count of criminal homicide for the February 15th, 1986, shooting death of 47-year-old Raymond Marzoch. Marzoch was found shot to death in the driver's seat of his car on the third floor of the Kaufmann's parking garage in downtown Pittsburgh. Police say their Cold Case Squad received several new leads when
they reviewed the file in 2005. Investigators say they learned Rader and Marzoch had a rocky relationship.
Prosecutors say they referred the case to a grand jury, which recommended that Rader be charged.
Rader is in Allegheny County Jail without bond.

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett says two Blair County brothers stole more than 300-thousand dollars in timber and failed to pay state income taxes. Forty-three-year-old Harold Jake Ritchey Junior and 37-year-old Francis Irv Ritchey, both of Claysburg, were charged yesterday.
Corbett says the brothers illegally removed timber from land in Blair and Bedford counties from 2003 to 2005 without paying for it. One land owner was promised a 60-40 split on any proceeds from his
lumber. Corbett says Ritchey Logging cut down 140 trees worth more than 18-thousand dollars total, but the customer never received his cut. A phone number for Harold Ritchey is unlisted; and The Associated Press could not immediately determine if Francis Ritchey has a phone.

PORT ALLEGANY, Pa. (AP) - Port Allegany police say two employees worked closely together to steal about 35-thousand dollars from the town's First National Bank over six years. Thirty-year-old Kerrie Meacham of Port Allegany and 29-year-old Merry Marsiglio of Turtlepoint allegedly stole the money between July 1999 until August of last year, when both were fired. Police say the women would steal money from the bank, and then use money from the cash drawer of the other to cover up the thefts when the other employee was on vacation. Over the years, police say Marsiglio stole 19-thousand dollars and Meacham allegedly took nearly 16-thousand. Both face a preliminary hearing on theft and conspiracy charges on March 19th.

HUNTINGDON, Pa. (AP) - A former guard at the state prison in Smithfield is now behind bars himself, accused of taking bribes to sell marijuana to inmates. Twenty-six-year-old Richard Albert Butler of Altoona was
arrested yesterday and is now in the Huntingdon County Jail, unable to pose 50-thousand dollars' bond.
Butler was suspended from his job when authorities allegedly found drugs in his vehicle in December, and last week he resigned. State police say Butler was paid 600 dollars to smuggle marijuana into the prison to two inmates who are brothers. Their mother provided the money, but authorities aren't sure if she knew
what the money was for.