National and State News-Wednesday, March 7th

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Shiite pilgrims continue to be targets in Iraq. At least eleven were killed today as they streamed toward a Muslim shrine ahead of a weekend holiday. At least 120 pilgrims were killed and nearly 200 hurt in two suicide bombings at checkpoints yesterday.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says it's premature to discuss a pardon for former vice presidential aide Lewis Libby. He was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into who leaked the identity of a C-I-A operative. With the special prosecutor saying the case is closed, no one will be charged with the actual
leak.

PENTAGON (AP) - Reporters won't be allowed at hearings now under way for 14 terror suspects being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Pentagon says it's in the name of national security. The suspects were transferred to Guantanamo Bay from secret C-I-A prisons and allegedly have links to al-Qaida.

UNDATED (AP) - Still waiting to find out if anyone owns a 370 (m) million dollar lottery ticket. That's what the Mega Millions jackpot is worth. The winning numbers were drawn last night.

NEW YORK (AP) - They were sold as rare vintages worth more than 100-thousand dollars a bottle. But federal officials are investigating whether they were counterfeit. A (b) billionaire collector who's suing says he thought he was getting bottles from Thomas Jefferson's collection.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting today that federal mine inspectors are behind schedule and the government is losing so many inspectors that it cannot find experienced inspectors fast enough. In fiscal 2006, the U-S Mine Safety and Health Administration fell 245 inspections short of its goal of five-thousand-19 inspections a year. That's more than five times the 43 inspections the agency failed to make the year before. The newspaper found the agency is also losing experienced inspectors at an alarming rate. The agency hired 163 new coal mine inspectors in the last two fiscal years, but it has lost 147 through retirement or resignations during that same time period. Retired inspectors who spoke with the paper said more inexperienced inspectors are on the job -- and they say that's dangerous.

EBENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Cambria County prosecutors will recommend a sentence of ten to 25 years for a woman who pleaded guilty to coaxing her son to shoot her husband. Fifty-seven-year-old Deborah Cummings of Portage Township was scheduled to stand trial later this month, but instead pleaded
guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit murder in the December 23rd, 2005, shooting death of 50-year-old Charles Cummings Senior. Cummings son, 37-year-old Shawn Sweeney, is serving 20 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder for shooting his stepfather outside the Portage Revolver & Pistol Club. Sweeney had agreed to be the prosecution's star witness against his mother. Cummings will be sentenced April 24th.

LILLY, Pa. (AP) - The mayor of the tiny Cambria County borough of Lilly has taken a leave of absence while he answers to charges that he illegally issued three parking tickets. State police say 54-year-old Mayor John Gides illegally issued parking tickets and charged him with forgery, tampering with public records and impersonating a police officer. They say he signed the tickets using the name of a part-time police officer. Gides has two years left on his second four-year term in office in the borough near Johnstown. He says he'll fight the charges and doesn't plan to resign. But the borough solicitor said at a council meeting last night that Gides took the leave of absence for the good of the borough.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Montgomery County's top prosecutor says a blood test on a police officer after he was involved in a car crash while on duty revealed byproducts of cocaine and marijuana. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor says there's no way to tell when 30-year-old Michael Bramlett used the drugs since only the metabolites were in his blood. Castor says Bramlett wasn't impaired at the time of the on-duty car crash, but it's still illegal to drive with those drug byproducts in one's blood. Bramlett resigned from the Marlborough Township Police Department. He is charged with driving under the influence of a
controlled substance.

PITTSBURGH (AP)- An Allegheny County judge has convicted one of two men accused of conspiring to shoot a 16-year-old boy outside a Pittsburgh high school last year. Judge John Zottola convicted 24-year-old Thomas Beck on a charge of aggravated assault in the shooting of Aaron Henderson outside
Westinghouse High School last February. But the judge found reasonable doubt about whether 23-year-old Brandon Murray was also involved, so he acquitted him of all charges. As a result, the judge also found Beck not guilty of conspiracy and attempted homicide. Prosecutors had accused the men of using an assault rifle to try and kill Henderson. Henderson was wounded in the leg and buttocks and survived.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The flamboyant older brother of Philadelphia Mayor John Street says he's giving up on running for mayor himself. Milton Street says he will run for an at-large City Council seat instead. Milton Street, who is black, says he hopes two of the three major black candidates for mayor will abandon their bids so as not to divide the black vote. The major black candidates in the May 15th Democratic primary are Congressman Chaka Fattah, state Represenative Dwight Evans and former City Councilman Michael Nutter. All three are running against two major white candidates: Congressman Bob Brady and businessman Tom Knox. The winner of the Democratic primary is heavily favored to win November's general election. Mayor John Street can't run because of term limits.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Monroeville woman will spend the rest of her life in prison for fatally stabbing her 20-year-old daughter in a park last year. Forty-two-year-old Kimberly McKaveney was sentenced yesterday by an Allegheny County judge. She was convicted in December of first-degree murder for slashing the throat of her daughter, 20-year-old Jennifer McKaveney, in September 2005. McKaveney's attorney says he'll appeal her conviction because he says the woman is mentally ill and her jury should have heard from a doctor at trial. Police say McKaveney first told them she argued with her daughter about her daughter's drug and marital problems in Beechwood Park in Monroeville, and that her daughter decided to walk home alone after McKaveney left the park. Later, McKaveney told police that a strange man ran out of the woods and attacked her daughter.

CHICAGO (AP) - A wrongful death lawsuit filed in Chicago accuses Comcast of knowingly allowing a murder suspect to continue working as a cable repairman. Police say Anthony Triplett was working for a Comcast contractor when he killed Janice Ordidge in October. Two months later he allegedly killed Urszula Sakowska. A lawsuit filed by Sakowska's fiance accuses Philadelphia-based Comcast of negligence. Greg Magiera alleges that police had notified Comcast about Triplett's involvement in the Ordidge murder investigation but the company did nothing. On December Eighth, Sakowska's body was found in the couple's South Side home. A spokesman for Comcast says the company is cooperating with authorities. He declined to comment on the allegations.