National and State News-Wednesday, April 4th

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is brushing off White House criticism as she meets with Syria's leader. President Bush says the trip sends the wrong message to a country he calls a state sponsor of terror. Pelosi says she's aiming to get Syria to change its behavior.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - No comment yet from the U-S military on reports coming out of Iran. State-run media say an Iranian envoy will be allowed to meet with five Iranians detained in Iraq in January. The U-S has accused them of aiding Iraqi insurgents.

BERLIN (AP) - There's no deal yet, but the head of DaimlerChrysler says the automaker is in talks about the sale of its struggling Chrysler division. The U-S unit lost one and a-half
(b) billion dollars last year and there's a plan in the works to trim thousands of jobs.

UNDATED (AP) - From the Midwest to the East Coast, spring is taking a break. Chicago is expecting snow flurries after a high in the 70s yesterday. Storms with heavy wind and hail have raced through Kentucky and Tennessee and temperatures are expected to take a plunge.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - The fight against childhood obesity is getting a big helping of cash. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says it will spend 500 (m) million dollars over five years on
programs to educate children and their parents about healthy eating and exercise.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A man accused of stealing historic items from the National Archives in Philadelphia is scheduled to plead guilty today. He is 40-year-old Denning McTague of Philadelphia. He got an unpaid internship at the archives after being recommended by a
professor at the State University of New York at Albany. McTaugue's laywer says his client has helped officials recover most of the missing items. In an unrelated case several years ago, a former curator of the Philadelphia branch of the archives was also caught when documents
appeared on e-Bay. Shawn Aubitz was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2002.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Those who didn't get licenses to operate a slot-machine casino in Pennsylvania are critical of state regulators. In briefs filed with the state Supreme Court, they claim the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board illegally made their decisions in private. They say regulators ignored one winning applicant's financial troubles and allowed another to skirt the rules. Rejected applicants will get a chance to make those points in person on May 15th.
That's when the state Supreme Court hears oral arguments on challenges to the slots licenses awarded by the gaming board in December. The gaming board will have a chance to respond in its own briefs due April 23rd.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A new Web site has been established to help Pennsylvanians get access to public records and know what they are entitled to see. The site www.openrecordspa.org (open records p-a dot org) includes a forum for posting questions and finding answers about accessing records from local and state government. It is from a new nonprofit group, the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition. The group was founded by journalists, librarians, attorneys, educators and community advocates. The coalition also monitors proposed state and federal laws, regulations and court decisions.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Candidates for two open seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court are collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars for thier campaigns. Campaign-finance reports show a Philadelphia judge, Paul Panepinto, has the biggest war chest by far. Panepinto has more
than a quarter of a (m) million dollars. He is competing for the Republican nomination against two candidates endorsed by the Republican State Committee -- Mike Krancer, chief judge of the state Environmental Hearing Board, and Superior Court Judge Maureen Lally-Green.
On the Democratic side, Philadelphia Judge Darnell Jones pulled in more than 169-thousand dollars. He's campaigning against two party-backed candidates -- Superior Court judges Seamus McCaffery of Philadelphia and Debra Todd of Allegheny County.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A federal judge says a lawsuit against the Port Authority of Allegheny County can go forward. The American Civil Liberties Union and Pittsburgh League of
Young Voters Education Fund are suing the transit agency. They say it has refused to allow on its buses nonpartisan ads informing ex-convicts of their voting rights. The lawsuit claims the Port Authority refused to consider the ads, claiming it only accepted noncommercial ads.
The A-C-L-U, however, has noted that Port Authority buses have displayed ads from nonprofit agencies discussing people's rights. The transit agency had asked a judge to dismiss the charge, but Judge Terrence McVerry has refused.

LATROBE, Pa. (AP) - The facility that brewed Rolling Rock beer for decades will soon start making Samuel Adams. Boston Beer Company says it has signed an agreement with a
subsidiary of City Brewing Company of Lacrosse, Wisconsin, to brew an unspecified amount of the beer at its plant in Latrobe. City Brewing bought the facility last year after its former
owner, InBev U-S-A, sold the Rolling Rock brand to Anheuser-Busch for 82 (m) million dollars. Anheuser-Busch is now brewing Rolling Rock in Newark, New Jersey. Boston Beer says it plans to invest between three and seven (m) million dollars in the facility, which is about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The company also says it might take an ownership stake in the plant.

SEATTLE (AP) - The chief academic officer of the School District of Philadelphia may be moving to the Pacific Northwest. The Seattle School Board says Gregory Thornton is one of two
finalists to become the new superintendent there. The other is Maria Goodloe-Johnson, who's currently superintendent of the Charleston County School District in Charleston, South Carolina.
They were selected from a pool of six semi-finalists who were interviewed by the Seattle School Board over the weekend.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The state Health Department is putting out a call for volunteers to lend a hand in the event of a statewide disaster emergency. Health Secretary Doctor Calvin Johnson says the state is launching the Statewide Emergency Registry of Volunteers in
Pennsylvania, also known as "Serve-P-A." Johnson says the state is looking for both medical and non-medical volunteers. The site asks registrants to share information about any licenses or certifications they have and the best way to contact them. (The address to register is www.serv.pa.gov )

ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) - The original letter in which Theodore Roosevelt first used the phrase "Speak softly and carry a big stick" is up for sale. The Raab Collection, a dealer of rare manuscripts based in suburban Philadelphia, is asking 200-thousand dollars for it.
Roosevelt was governor of New York when he wrote the letter in 1900 to Henry Sprague, a member of the Union League Club in New York. The Republican governor was expressing his pleasure in convincing his party's state leaders to reject the reappointment of the insurance commissioner. Less than two years after writing the letter to Sprague, Roosevelt was president.