National and State News-Wed. March 14th

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Even its own expert said they would fail. But documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal that the Army Corps of Engineers installed defective flood-control pumps in New Orleans ahead of the 2006 hurricane season. The pumps are now being
replaced because they vibrate too much.

ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia highway officials are looking to improve safety at several Atlanta commuter-lane exits like the one that a baseball team's bus took before it plunged off an overpass. Seven people died when the bus driver apparently mistook an exit ramp for
a lane. Improvements will include signs and reflective striping.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Senate Democrats today will try for a third time to start formal debate on the Iraq war. While the House has been making headway on anti-war legislation, senators have been unable to agree on the rules of debate. Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing a resolution that would set a target date of March 31st, 2008 for the withdrawal of combat troops.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says he will not resign but he has acknowledged mistakes in the dismissals of eight U-S attorneys. Newly released documents detail a two-year campaign by the Justice Department and the White House to push them
out.

NOME, Alaska (AP) - Lance Mackey says he has dreamed of winning the Iditarod sled-dog race since his father won the race when Mackey was a child. Mackey's dream has come true. His dogs were the first to get to Nome, Alaska. He had to drop out of the 2002 Iditarod because he was too ill from cancer treatments.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The state House of Representatives has unanimously passed a reform package that will significantly change how it operates. The change in House rules will make actions far more transparent to the public. Supporters predicted the a shift in power from party leaders to the rank-and-file. The changes were also designed to reduce lawmakers' perks and disclose considerably more about itself to the public over the Internet. House members are hoping the reforms will help them get back into the public's good graces. This comes a year and a half after a 2 a-m vote to raise their own pay shed an unflattering light on
procedures and finances.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's top elections offical says a law changing the date of the primary election would have to be passed by late June to allow a smooth transition. Secretary of State Pedro Cortes and Governor Ed Rendell propose an early February primary.
Rendell says is a stopgap action that would enable Pennsylvania to hold its 2008 primary alongside other large industrial states. He says he hopes Congress will approve "some rational system" before the 2012 presidential election. Rendell says the April primary that current law provides for gives Pennsylvania virtually no influence over whom the major parties nominate -- which is says is unfair. But the change early February is opposed by school boards, who say it will wreak havoc with the budget process.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Two of the five major candidates for mayor of Philadelphia are to speak today about a lawsuit they're backing. The lawsuit backed by businessman Tom Knox and state
Representative Dwight Evans aims to get Congressman Bob Brady off the Democratic primary ballot. Both are to appear today at Evans' campaign headquarters to speak about the lawsuit.
Brady acknowledged last week that he failed to list his city pension on a financial interest statement. His campaign says it's only a technicality and that an amended statement has been filed. Two other major candidates are also in the Democratic primary: Congressman Chaka Fattah and former city Councilman Michael Nutter. The Democratic nominee is heavily favored to win in November.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Governor Ed Rendell wants state legislators to approve his plan to shift more public school funding to a higher state sales tax. But he's not sure he'll get enough support. Speaking at a gambling industry conference in Harrisburg, Rendell said there may not be enough votes in the state Senate for such a change in school funding. For more than two years, Rendell and some legislators have pushed the idea of raising the state sales tax to help cut school property taxes. But, he said, legislators are afraid to raise one tax to lower
another because they fear an election opponent will paint the change in funding as just a tax increase.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Officials with the Pittsburgh Penguins and government officials have spelled out a deal with government officials on financing for a new arena that will keep them in
Pittsburgh. The deal will include 15 (M) million dollars a year in state proceeds from slot machine casinos, and no local tax money from the city or Allegheny County. The Penguins will pitch in more than four (M) million dollars a year for 30 years, but they're expected to raise some of that revenue by selling naming rights to the new arena. The Penguins will play next season at 46-year-old Mellon Arena, the oldest in the National Hockey League, but hope to begin play in the new arena to be built nearby for the 2009-2010 season.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A federal bankruptcy judge in Pittsburgh has hired two firms to sell the Le-Nature's plant in Latrobe, which closed shortly after the drink maker was forced into bankruptcy last November. The joint venture of Gordon Brothers Industrial L-L-C of New
York and Harry Davis-and-Company in Pittsburgh could sell the plant within 45 days. They hope to sell the plant as a turnkey operation, meaning to a seller that would come in an operate the plant. If not, the property and the equipment in it will be auctioned off. The sale could occur within 45 days. Le-Nature's was forced into bankruptcy after a judge ruled that founder and C-E-O Gregory Podlucky and other directors may have engaged in criminal conduct by misreporting financial information. A federal investigation also is under way.

FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. (AP) - Police say a Bucks County school bus driver slammed on the gas pedal instead of the brake last month in a crash that injured 20 high school students, one critically. Falls Township police say driver John McCleary was not driving his usual bus during the January 12th crash at Pennsbury High School. They say the accelerator of the replacement bus was close in shape and location to the brake in his usual bus. The vehicle went out of control, barreling down a road into a crowd of students being dismissed from the school, and into a retaining wall. One student, 17-year-old Ashley Zauflik, had to have her leg amputated and is recuperating at home. Fifty-four-year-old McCleary says the bus kept moving despite
his efforts to stop it. Township officials say McCleary will not be charged and officials do not believe he acted negligently. His attorney blames mechanical error and says he will do his own investigation.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia police say the man shot while riding a bus yesterday was conscious and able to talk to investigators in a hospital hours later -- despite being shot twice
in the head. A witness says the gunman got away by catching another bus. Police say the gunman boarded the bus just before 5 p-m in in North Philadelphia and singled his victim out. Both the gunman and the victim are middle-aged men. Police say about 30 passengers were aboard and panicked, leaving through the back door and running away. Police are hoping to hear from those people.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The company that runs the Friendly's chain of restaurants says a Philadelphia location where a man died in an explosion is closed as a precaution. The man was working on the compressor of an ice cream machine when it exploded Tuesday afternoon. No one else was injured. The cause of the blast is under investigation.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Police found an elaborate explosive device made of propane, kerosene, acetone and lacquer thinner in an Allentown Housing Authority apartment -- and evacuated a half-block area while it was dismantled. A man trying to set a bag containing lighter fluid and a wick on fire Tuesday told police he wanted to blow up the building and to
look in his second-floor apartment. People in nearby buildings were evacuated for more than four hours while the device was dismantled. Evacuees included 28 children and nine staff members of a child care center at Salem United Church of Christ. Fifty-one-year-old Jeffrey Sweeney Sweeney was arraigned on charges of risking a catastrophe, arson and related offenses, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, and possession of a prohibited offensive weapon. He looked away from the judge, and said he needed his medication.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh man is the first to plead guilty to his role in a deadly heroin ring that federal authorities believe killed 18 people in the city last summer. Thirty-one-year-old Damon Jackson pleaded guilty to conspiracy and admitted dealing between 20 and 40 grams of the drug. Defense attorney Adam Cogan says Jackson was an extremely small player in the ring. The drugs, distributed under the names "Get High or Die Trying," "Burnout" and others, were laced with fentanyl, which made them more dangerous. Fentanyl is legally used as anesthesia and as a pain killer for some cancer patients. Hundreds of overdose deaths nationwide have been blamed on heroin laced with fentanyl. Nine other people charged in the Pittsburgh-based ring are still awaiting trial. Jackson will be sentenced June seventh.

TITUSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - A Meadville man is charged with vehicular homicide while driving drunk for in a crash that killed a Titusville-area woman last July. Forty-eight-year-old Brent Gaidosh was arraigned yesterday on charged stemming from the July 16th crash that killed 43-year-old Annette Lanning in Bloomfield Township. Police say the Union City woman was waiting to turn left off of Route 77 when her vehicle was rear-ended by Gaidosh's. Gaidosh is free on bond, but did not immediately return a call for comment. He faces a preliminary hearing March 22nd before Titusville District Judge Amy Nicols.

BOSWELL, Pa. (AP) - The young mayor of a Somerset County borough has his job back, a month after he resigned after police charged him with drunken driving. Boswell Borough Council voted 3-to-1 to reappoint Matthew Ash as mayor on Monday. Ash and the council members are not commenting on that decision. State police filed the charge last month, saying his alcohol level was more than twice what the law allows when they pulled him over about 2:45 in the morning January 20th. Ash resigned saying he wanted to avoid drawing negative
attention to his office. State law says anyone convicted of an infamous crime can't hold
public office, but courts have ruled that drunken driving isn't infamous enough to cause someone to lose office. Ash faces a preliminary hearing April 25th.

SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) - Somerset County District Attorney Jerry Spangler wants the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to investigate the suicide of an inmate who was charged with murder. The D-O-C's annual inspection of the jail begins today anyway,
and Spangler wants a review of 38-year-old William Cornell's death to be part of that process. Cornell, of Naples, Florida, hanged himself using a bed sheet tied to a shower curtain rod on Saturday. Cornell was awaiting trial on charges he killed 51-year-old Vincent Spadaro at a motel
last month. Jail officials say they were watching Cornell every 15 minutes, though he was not considered a serious suicide risk after a written assessment. But Spangler says Cornell had cut his wrists last week and was hospitalized for that before he was arrested for Spadaro's
death.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Classes are suspended at the Community College of Philadelphia because instructors are on strike. College president Stephen Curtis initially said students should
report to class as scheduled, but now says class is out until further notice. No new talks are scheduled. Salary and health care are the major sticking points.

DENVER (AP) - Coin collectors hoping to find a mis-struck presidential dollar coin made at the U-S mint in Philadelphia have found a new error. A coin struck at the mint in Denver has the
lettering on the edge -- but the front and back are blank. Mary and Ray Smith of Fort Collins, Colorado, bought two rolls of the coins last week after hearing about the earlier mistake.
Mary Smith says she was going to spend the coins after looking only at the edges. Then her husband saw that the third coin in the stack was missing the image of George Washington on the front and the Statue of Liberty on the back. The coin was verified as being a real mint error by professional coin authenticator Ron Guth of Newport Beach, California. Its value will depend on how many similar mistakes are found.