National and State News-Tuesday, March 13th

WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says he believes homosexuality is immoral and should not be condoned. Marine General Peter Pace tells the Chicago Tribune that's why he does not believe openly gay men and women should be allowed to serve in the military.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - House Democratic leaders don't want Iran to get in the way of their Iraq policy. So they are removing from a military spending bill the requirement that President Bush gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran. The spending bill sets a timetable for the withdrawal of U-S troops from Iraq.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - The Senate today expects to pass a homeland security bill that contains (b) billions of dollars for state and local emergency workers to fight terrorism. But the measure also would give airport screeners the right to unionize. President Bush has threatened a veto.

MOCKSVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Authorities don't know what started the fire that killed one resident and injured 19 others at a North Carolina nursing home last night. Davie Place Residential Care near Winston-Salem was home to about 50 residents.

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nothing but dust where the famed Stardust resort once stood on the Las Vegas Strip. The once-glitzy casino has been imploded to make way for a new megaresort complex, Echelon Place. The Stardust was Las Vegas' first mass-market casino when it opened in 1958.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Several proposed reforms to the state House of Representatives have been rejected.
The proposals are meant to get more power into the hands of the rank-and-file, term limits for committee chairmen and a ban on taxpayer-paid election-year public-service ads. Only one member spoke about the public-service ads. Representative Greg Vitali says they're mostly used to pump up a politician's name recognition at public expense. His colleagues then voted 160-to-39 last night to keep things as they are.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Media reports say the Penguins' future apparently is in Pittsburgh, not Kansas City or Las Vegas. KDKA-TV reported last night that the team has reached a deal with city, county and state officials on financing for a new arena. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review also reported the deal, citing unnamed sources. KDKA said the deal is "done" and will be announced sometime before today's game against the Buffalo Sabres at Mellon Arena. Penguins officials did not immediately return calls for comment,
nor did a spokesman for Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato. A spokesman for Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said he knew nothing of a deal, and a spokesman for Governor Ed Rendell refused to confirm the
agreement.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Picket lines are expected this morning at the Community College of Philadelphia.
A union representing 14-hundred instructors rejected the college's latest offer last night, opting to strike.
The college president says for now, the college plans to continue with a normal class schedule. He says he will wait and see that the strike actually begins as expected and how effective it will be. This is the first strike at C-C-P in nine years. The college has 37-thousand students.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union said in court that the city of Hazleton is usurping the federal government's power over immigration policy. A lawyer for the city says Congress wants state and local governments to help enforce immigration law. Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta says illegal immigrants are destroying the quality of life in his small northeastern Pennsylvania city. The nonjury trial opened yesterday in federal court in Scranton and is expected to last two weeks.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The charges have been thrown out in the case of a gaming board investigator and a reputed online diploma mill. A Dauphin County judge dismissed the case after hearing the prosecution's testimony against Michael Rosenberry. Rosenberry was charged by state police last April after they
discovered that his bachelor's degree actually came from a reputed diploma mill. Rosenberry's lawyer says his client never tried to hide the source of his degree, and that if any crime occurred, it was that his client was ripped off by the online diploma mill. Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board officials have insisted Rosenberry committed no crime, and Tully says the state police and gaming board simply did not communicate well.
Rosenberry remains employed by the gambling agency.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - The Bryn Mawr man who used to run Student Finance Corporation is accused of lying in a bankruptcy proceeding about how he spent the company's money. Andrew Yao's lawyer acknowledged in his opening statement that Yao lied in a 2003 deposition. But he says Yao was simply trying to cover up an extramarital affair. Prosecutors say Yao used money from the company to shower his
mistress with money and gifts and to pay off gambling debts. Defense attorney Brian McMonagle say the money was Yao's to spend as he saw fit, since Yao was the company's sole owner. He says it was spent long before S-F-C was forced into bankruptcy, and that Yao never intended to deceive the bankruptcy court or
creditors.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Police say two students fighting outside West Philadelphia High School were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Students were evacuated from the school for two separate fire
alarms yesterday, both for fires in lockers. It was the first school day since a teacher was attacked by
three students during a similar evacuation. During a fire evacuation at the same school on Friday, a teacher
was attacked by three students, the eighth such assault there in two weeks. A 16-year-old girl was arrested and the teacher, a long-term substitute, was taken to a hospital with injuries to his face and jaw.
Also Monday, a 15-year-old student at another Philadelphia high school admitted his guilt in an attack last month that left a teacher with a broken neck.

CALIFORNIA, Pa. (AP) - California University of Pennsylvania police will be carrying guns for the first time when students begin the fall semester in August. Last year, the General Assembly debated a bill that would have made it mandatory for police at 14 state-owned universities to carry guns. That bill was amended to leave the final decision up to each university's board of trustees. California University president Angelo Armenti at first opposed the idea, but says he changed his mind because the threats to public safety on college campuses have increased in recent years. Campus police won't carry guns until August, however, so they will have time to get the certification and training that officers need to carry weapons.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The University of Pittsburgh has cut a five-year deal that could bring the school up to five (M) million dollars a year to do research work for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Pitt and PennDOT have worked together before. In 2004, Pitt studied the impact that Interstate 99 would have on animal habitats, waterways and other environmental aspects. Pitt has also been working on a "smart pavement" -- a road resurfacing material that includes sensors that monitor the weather and other environmental conditions, and how quickly the road degrades. PennDOT officials say they'd like to continue that work, and other projects, under this new agreement.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A 14 (M) million-dollar government contract to improve the runway at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport is being delayed. An Ohio company, Hi-Way Paving, won the bid for the project, which is being coordinated by the Army Corps of Engineers. But now, airport officials say a protest has been filed with the federal government's General Accounting Office, which has up to 100 days to review the beef. Government officials don't reveal the nature of such complaints, but people familiar with the procedure say they're usually filed by competitors that did not get the bid. If Hi-Way Paving loses the bid, they can file their own challenge, which could result in another 100-day review. If that happens, work on the new runways might not start until next year.