National and State News-Tuesday, March 20th

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - A House committee will delve into the F-B-I's misuse of the Patriot Act today. The Justice Department's inspector general is scheduled to testify. His report, released
last week, revealed that the F-B-I improperly or illegally gathered private information on U-S citizens.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Newly released e-mails detail some of the reasons eight U-S attorneys were fired by the Bush administration. One says Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was "extremely upset" with the way his deputy explained the firings to Congress last month. A congressional panel will focus on the messages in the coming days.

WASHINGTON (AP) - People are living longer these days, and a new report says that's why there's been a sharp increase in the number of Alzheimer's cases in the U-S. Five (m) million have the disease now, a ten percent increase from five years ago.

MOSCOW (AP) - Authorities in Russia say a night watchman ignored initial fire alarms when a blaze broke out in a nursing home and killed 62 people. Meanwhile, 102 miners have been confirmed dead in a Russian mine blast. Rescuers are looking for eight miners who are
still missing.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Jury selection continues today in the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector. He's accused of killing actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. A judge dismissed 43 of 150
prospective jurors yesterday.


HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The prospect of selling beer in grocery stores and convenience stores is the subject of a legislative hearing in Harrisburg today. The subject was in the news recently when a court ruled that the liquor board improperly licensed a Sheetz store in Altoona to sell
take-out beer. Sheetz is appealing that decision. The House and Senate committees that oversee Pennsylvania's alcohol sales are inviting comment from representatives of various
interest groups for today's hearing. They include the Liquor Control Board, the beer-sales industry, taverns, restaurants and organizations that battle drunken driving and underage
drinking.

CINCINNATI (AP) - Ohio prison workers are preparing to execute a man who killed a woman in 1991, cut up her body and scattered the remains across northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania. But it's unclear if courts will allow today's planned execution of 48-year-old Kenneth Biros. Yesterday, a federal appeals panel in Cincinnati says Biros should be able to continue appealing a lawsuit with other inmates. That lawsuit argues that Ohio's method of lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. But the state appealed that ruling to the U-S Supreme court in hopes of killing Biros today. Biros' lawyer says there's another appeal pending that should keep his client from being executed even if the Supreme Court rules against him in this matter.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A judge is scheduled to open a hearing today into whether U.S. Representative Bob Brady stays on the ballot for Philadelphia mayor. A judge from outside the city - Luzerne County Judge Patrick J. Toole - will be conducting the hearing, to be held in
Philadelphia's City Hall. Two rivals for mayor - Tom Knox and state Representative Dwight
Evans - are challenging the financial statements Brady filed with his nominating petitions.
Brady, the city Democratic chairman, acknowledged failing to list his city pension on the financial disclosure forms. His campaign argues that information was not required. An attorney for the challengers, Paul Rosen, says whatever happens today, he expects an appeal.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - Hazleton Police Chief Robert Ferdinand is to testify today in a trial to determine whether laws cracking down on illegal immigration may be enforced. Ferdinand
began his testimony yesterday about crime problems from illegal aliens. Yesterday, an expert witness testifed against the laws -- saying they grossly oversimplify federal immigration law.
Earlier in the day, a labor economist testifying for the city said immigration tends to depress wages for lower-skilled workers.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A Montgomery County prosecutor says a Philadelphia man applied for a job at a catering business in Ardmore -- then beat and stabbed to death a woman who worked there. Trial for 28-year-old Jacuqin Byrd continues today. The lawyer for Byrd says he had no motive to kill 24-year-old Sarah Boone. Byrd maintains he wasn't even in Ardmore the day of the murder. Boone was found dead in January of 2006 inside Cricket Catering
where she worked.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Philadelphia man is convicted of killing his parents -- a decade after the slaying. A prosecutor says Matthew Zimmerman, who's now 34, shot both his parents in 1997 because he wanted his share of an inheritance right away. He got 65-thousand dollars from the estate of 54-year-old Richard Zimmerman and his 45-year-old wife, Patricia.
The parents ran a jewelry business out of their Queen Village home. It took years to build a case against their son. Prosecutor Richard Sax says Zimmerman didn't act alone and the investigation continues.

KING OF PRUSSIA (AP) - Ten people protesting the Iraq war outside a Lockheed Martin plant in suburban Philadelphia were cited for trespassing. An organizer says the demonstrators accused the defense contractor of improperly profiting from the war. The action in King of Prussia was among a number of anti-war demonstrations around the country yesterday on the fourth anniversary of launching of the war in Iraq. They follow a weekend of demonstrations nationwide that called for an end to the U-S military presence in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Representative Paul Kanjorski is recovering heart bypass surgery.
A statement released by his office says Kanjorski had a routinely scheduled operation yesterday that wasn't the result of a heart attack. The statement says Kanjorski should be
able to return to work by mid-April, following the congressional spring recess. Kanjorski, a Democrat, was first elected to Congress in 1984. He serves Pennsylvania's 11th District, which includes Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Bloomsburg, Hazleton and Stroudsburg.

ATLANTA (AP) - Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge won't stand for re-election to the board of directors of The Home Depot. The Atlanta-based home improvement store chain said in a regulatory filing that Ridge and another director will serve out their terms on the board, which expire in May. Ridge resigned as governor of Pennsylvania during his second term. That happened when President Bush asked him to be in charge of homeland security following the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, 2001. He ran that effort until 2005.