National and State News-Thursday, March 1st

UNDATED (AP) - Major Asian stock markets fell for a third straight day today. Even China's stock market tumbled, after rebounding yesterday from Tuesday's massive plunge. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 52 points yesterday, after losing more than 400 on Tuesday.

WHITE HOUSE (AP) - President Bush visits New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi, today to check on hurricane recovery efforts. It will be his first visit to the region since the one-year anniversary last August. The White House says the president is committed to the recovery effort but is frustrated by the slow pace.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House promises a veto if Congress approves Democratic-backed legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize. The House today is almost certain to pass a bill that would eliminate an employer's right to demand a secret-ballot election. The measure is the top legislative goal of organized labor.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Jurors deliberating the fate of former White House aide Lewis Libby will try for a seventh day today to reach a verdict. Libby is accused of lying and obstructing justice in the investigation into who leaked the name of a spy.

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith's friends are planning an "over the top" memorial service for the Playboy playmate. The ceremony will be Friday in the Bahamas. One friend says there will be lots of pink flowers at the church service for 300. He also says Smith will be buried in a custom-made gown in a "very elegant" casket.

BALDWIN, Pa. (AP) - Teachers in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District will return to work today, even though they are no closer to a contract agreement. They are required by law to return to work by tomorrow
so the nearly 42-hundred pupils can complete 180 days of instruction by June 15th. Union president Rebecca Wolf says they're returning a day early so it will be easier for students to return to their routines.

PENN HILLS, Pa. (AP) - An Allegheny County emergency official says four adults have been found dead of apparent gunshot wounds in a home in Penn Hills. Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton told the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette a man, his wife and their two adult sons were found in the home about ten miles east of Pittsburgh. A dispatch center shift commander says the center got a call of a "man down" at 10:16 p-m last night (Wednesday). He says when police arrived, they found four bodies.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) - The superintendent of the Bethlehem Area School District says he has no explanation for a middle school principal accused of dealing crystal meth. Fifty-year-old John Acerra of Allentown was arrested yesterday. Police say they saw him selling meth in a store parking lot on Thursday -- then arrested him yesterday after a second sale. Police say they found him sitting at his desk with a bag of meth next to a glass tube with meth residue and burn marks on it,and the marked money used to purchase the drug.
Superintendent Joseph Lewis says a letter was sent to parents informing them of Acerra's arrest and teachers have spoken with the school's 950 students about it. Acerra has been with the school district since 1979, starting as a teacher.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A longtime member of the O'Jays has sued his former partners and record label over royalties. Sammy Strain charges in his 15 (m) million dollar civil suit that he never received any royalties from his 16 years with the group. That's when the O'Jays recorded such hits as "Used To Be My Girl" and "Forever Mine." The suit was filed last week in federal court in Philadelphia. It alleges that O'Jays founders Eddie Levert and Walter Williams conspired to deny Strain his share of the royalties. The suit also names renowned R-and-B producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff as defendants, and their label, Philadelphia
International Records.

SPRY, Pa. (AP) - A two-story wood house a few miles south of York was destroyed by an explosion and fire that officials said was apparently caused by a natural gas leak. There weren't any injuries from yesterday's blast. The man who lived there was at work at the time. A small next-door house was badly damaged. People who live within a block of the explosion were evacuated, and traffic was routed around the area. Parts of the building landed a block away, and a rain gutter ended up hanging from a tree.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh man has been accused of cashing his dead mother's pension checks for nearly six years. Federal prosecutors say 68-year-old Robert Crye was charged today with theft from an employee benefit plan. Prosecutors say that between September 1997 and June 2003, Crye deposited more than 26-thousand-300 dollars in checks from the Western Pennsylvania Electrical Workers' pension fund. They say the checks were intended for his mother, Sara Crye, who died in August 1997.