National and State News-Thursday, April 12th

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate has approved a bill that would open up federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research but the measure did not get enough votes to override a veto. President Bush vetoed a similar bill last year and says this one "crosses a moral line" too.

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the burden of the war in Iraq has fallen to U-S troops and their families. Democratic leaders are complaining about the Pentagon's decision to extend combat tours by three months. The speaker and the Senate majority leader will meet with President Bush next week to discuss the war.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Rescue efforts are under way in Baghdad's Tigris River where cars fell when a truck bomb caused a major bridge to collapse. At least ten people were killed. As police patrol boats and scuba divers searched for victims, U-S helicopters whirred overhead.

NEW YORK (AP) - Kurt Vonnegut once said that of all the ways to die, he'd prefer to go out in a plane crash on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Although he was plagued by depression and once
attempted suicide, the author of "Slaughterhouse-Five" died of brain injuries suffered in a fall at his home in New York. Vonnegut was 84.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The makers of Cocaine the energy drink say they knew it would be controversial, and it is. The Food and Drug Administration says the drink is being illegally marketed as both an alternative to the street drug and a dietary supplement.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A former Westmoreland County bank employee is guilty of stealing more than 187-thousand dollars from Scottdale Bank and Trust Company. Lori Schomer, of Scottdale, pleaded guilty to one count of misapplication of funds by a bank employee yesterday in U-S District Court in Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - An environmental group is suing Reliant Energy Incorporated, claiming it violated its Clean Water Act permit by discharging water containing illegal levels of potentially toxic metals into a river near one of its coal plants in Westmoreland County. PennEnvironment sued the Houston-based owner of the Conemaugh Generating Station in New Florence under a citizens suit provision of the Clean Water Act. Reliant says it's complying with an agreement it has with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. (AP) - A Western Pennsylvania high school student suspected of supplying painkillers to another student who died has been suspended. Sixteen year-old Erica Million, died March 27th, at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, about a week after authorities said she took pills given to her by the boy. The New Castle Area School board suspended the boy, identified only as J.S., last month.

PORTERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - State police searched the offices of a Western Pennsylvania doctor who treated a five-year-old autistic boy who had a heart attack and died. Abubakar Tariq Nadama died in August 2005, after receiving his third dose of chelation therapy. Butler County District Attorney Randa Clark calls Monday's search of Doctor Roy Kerry's offices a fact-finding mission. She doesn't know if a crime was committed.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsylvania Game Commission says last year was the safest for Pennsylvania hunters in the more than 90 years that records have been kept. There were 46 hunting-related shooting incidents, including two fatalities, in 2006. However, 16
injuries were self inflicted.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh city councilwoman who has been charged with theft, ethics and election code violations says she didn't steal money from the city. Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle is accused of funneling more than 43-thousand dollars to herself through payments she made to various "consultants."