National and State News-Tuesday, May 1st

WHITE HOUSE (AP) - President Bush today is expected to get the Iraq war spending bill from Congress that includes a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq. He'll likely veto it tomorrow. The president says he wants to work with Democrats on the 124 (b) billion-dollar measure but he won't give in on the question of setting a timetable.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A video has surfaced on an Islamic Web site purportedly of an al-Qaida-linked militant group showing an insurgent-made device that specifically targets U-S minesweepers in Iraq. The 90-second video shows a U-S army vehicle being blown up.
The device was not shown or explained in any way.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has closed a loophole in state gun laws that allowed Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho to get the guns he used in last month's campus massacre. The executive order requires anyone ordered to get mental health treatment be added to a state police database of people barred from buying guns.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former pizza deliveryman has been found guilty of killing ten women and one victim's fetus. The murders took place in the 1980s and 90s. Prosecutors in Los Angeles call Chester Turner one of the city's most prolific serial killers. The sentencing phase of his trial begins tomorrow. Turner could be put to death.

MONTEBELLO, Calif. (AP) - A circus performer fell about 40 feet to his death last night during a show in Southern California. The 35-year-old trapeze artist was working without a net. The man was part of a troupe called Circus Vasquez. Firefighters, who were there monitoring the show, responded immediately, but the man died at the scene.

MEDIA, Pa. (AP) - Police say an e-mail message threatening violence at a community college was sent from a wireless Internet system, making it difficult to trace. All five campuses of Delaware County Community College remain closed today as the investigation progresses.
West Whiteland Township Police Chief Ralph Burton says the message was sent from the wireless network run by the Chester County Intermediate Unit. He says someone could have pulled up into the parking lot of any public school or library in the county and gotten a signal from the wireless network. Burton says police have been questioning instructors at the
college, asking them if anything in the message sent Thursday reminds them of any of their students.

HOLTWOOD, Pa. (AP) - There's still no word on the whereabouts of a girl who was aboard a small motorboat that tumbled over a dam on the Susquehanna River. But a state official has explained how the accident happened that led to the disappearance of 16-year-old Nicole Jane Barlow. Derek Pritts of the Fish and Boat Commission says the group on the boat shut off the motor to have lunch, then were unable to restart it. Pritts says they threw out an anchor to try to hold the boat in place, but it didn't catch. The boat drifted about 300 yards before it went over the dam, and all six people on the boat jumped out. Pritts says four of the six were wearing flotation devices, including the missing girl. Police say witnesses reported seeing Barlow alive and calling for help after the fall.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Pittsburgh is second only to Los Angeles on the American Lung Association's list of most polluted cities in America. The organization based the rankings on ozone pollution levels produced when heat and sunlight come into contact with pollutants.
The group also studied particle pollution levels emitted from these sources, which are made up of a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles in the air.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - It is illegal to smoke in taverns in Pittsburgh today. A judge refused to extend a court order yesterday, blocking the Allegheny County workplace smoking ban from taking effect in taverns and restaurants. The ban took effect at midnight. A earlier granted an injunction delaying its effect in bars and restaurants after some of those businesses sued to stop the ordinance in December. Another lawsuit is before a state appeals court. It contends
that counties don't have the authority to regulate smoking.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The state auditor general says Pennsylvania should rethink how it manages and funds major construction because problems at the University of Pittsburgh's Petersen Events Center. Jack Wagner says the state failed to control costs and the state's construction management agency, the Department of General Services, accepted poor results.
A leaky roof cost Pitt an extra six (m) million to fix and is the subject of lawsuit to recoup the money. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has reported the cost of the 12-thousand-500 seat arena ballooned from 35 (m) million dollars to 119 (m) million dollars. Wagner places the final cost slightly lower, using different calculations, but he says taxpayers paid more than they should have. Wagner says the state should limit prime contractors to four. The Petersen job had 25. He also says benchmarks should be met before the state releases money. Governor Rendell and Pitt didn't immediately comment. The Department of General Services says it's already changed how it does projects.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) - Crews have begun demolishing buildings at the former Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem. They're making way for a 600 (m) million dollar casino, hotel and events center. Most of the major demolition will start in June after work crews reroute utilities and relocate museum pieces in the buildings. Nearly two dozen buildings will be saved, including five huge blast furnaces, the stock house built in 1863, and the electric repair shop for the sprawling Bethlehem Works. Two Rutgers University educators, Howard Gillette and Sharon Ann Holt, plan a conference next month where industrial historians will discuss what Bethlehem Steel meant and how its memory should be preserved. They have gathered 30 groups -- including the National Museum of Industrial History, the National Canal Museum, Historic Bethlehem and ArtsQuest -- to form the Lehigh Valley Industrial Heritage Coalition.

SUNBURY, Pa. (AP) - A Northumberland County jury is considering wheter a man who admits beating his stepdaughter to death should be convicted of first-degree murder. Brentt Sherwood contends that he was so high on various drugs that he didn't realize what he was doing at the time. Sherwood killed four-year-old Marlee Reed in December 2004. He testified he didn't know what happened that day until more than a year later when flashbacks and nightmares helped bring the memories back. District Attorney Tony Rosini notes that Sherwood was able to find his phone after the beating, call 9-1-1 and follow the operator's C-P-R instructions.
Rosini is seeking the death penalty for Sherwood.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Former state Representative Jeff Habay has pleaded no-contest to 21 criminal counts. They stem from his alleged reports to police that he was the target of an anthrax hoax supposedly perpetrated by a political opponent. Habay was a six-term incumbent when he resigned February 8th last year, the day he was sentenced to six to 12 months in prison. He had been convicted on separate conflict of interest charges for using his legislative staff to do campaign work. Habay has been released to home confinement while he appeals
that conviction.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A five-year-old girl died last night from a house fire in South Philadelphia. Firefighters got the girl out of the house, but she died on the way to the hospital.
It was the city's second fatal fire in two days. A baby died in a fire on Sunday. The Philadelphia Fire Department says there was no sign of working smoke detectors in either fire. The Fire Department gives away free smoke detectors to city residents.

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Relatives of a Marine officer from Doylestown who was killed in combat in Iraq say he was a dedicated supporter of the troops' mission. First Lieutenant Travis Manion died Sunday in combat in Anbar province. He was serving his second tour in Iraq, embedded with an Iraqi army unit that he was leading and training. His mother, Jannette Manion, says he phoned her the night President Bush called for the "surge" of additional troops in Iraq. She says her son commented, "That's exactly what we need." His father, Tom Manion, says his son had a big heart and never spoke a bad word about anyone.

RADNOR, Pa. (AP) - Police have a 16-year-old boy in custody who admitted bringing a gun to his suburban Philadelphia high school. It happened yesterday at Radnor Senior High School in Delaware County. Authorities say the gun was revealed after the boy was in an altercation with another student today. Classes are to be held as scheduled today, but with extra police
at the school.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Philadelphia firefighter is losing his job over a rap song in which he called police "pigs" and spoke of turning officers into "bacon bits." Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers says Rodney Jean-Jacques is suspended with intent to dismiss.
Jean-Jacques had been placed on administrative leave while fire officials investigated the situation. The president of the police union initially only asked that Jean-Jacques apologize in writing. But when that didn't happen, he demanded that the city dismiss him from his job.

SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) - A Somerset County man pleaded guilty but mentally ill to abusing his infant daughter, including snapping her leg and shocking her with an electric cattle prod.
Brandon Austill, who is from Somerset, entered the plea yesterday to charges of aggravated and simple assault, reckless endangerment and related offenses. Austill says he has a lot of mental illness and is on medication. The abuse took place between September eleventh -- four days
after the girl was born -- and October 31st. She sustained two breaks to the left leg, a broken forearm, facial injuries and two skull fractures. She is in foster care. By pleading guilty but mentally ill, Austill could initially be placed into a mental institution for treatment, then serve the rest of his sentence in jail.

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) - A Washington County man is convicted of first-degree murder for beating and stabbing another man to death. Randy Douglas Reese, who is from Washington, was convicted yesterday in the February 19th murder of John Lawrence Lewis. An apartment building surveillance video showed Reese and Lewis meeting in the foyer and Reese leaving about 40 minutes later while wearing an overcoat belonging to Lewis. A ball cap found at Reese's house also had Lewis' blood on it. Prosecutor Mike Lucas says Reese was looking for money to get drugs. Reese's attorney says he'll appeal. He says police didn't thoroughly investigate the crime, but were looking to pin it on Reese. Reese faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced on July 24th.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Penn State's groundbreaking arrangement with Napster is over.
The university will turn to Ruckus Network this fall to allow music-loving students at its 24 campuses to download songs on to their computers or M-P-3 players. Penn State's ties to Napster will be severed in May. That partnership was the first of its kind in higher education
when announced in November 2003. Students got legal access to streaming music and limited downloads and could permanently download music to a compact disc or portable device for 99 cents a song. A university official says Ruckus is offering more features sought by college students, such as movies and video content. Penn State is also saving money by making the switch.

MOUNT CARMEL, Pa. (AP) - A wildlife conservation officer will return to Northumberland County in an attempt to capture a bear that attacked and killed a dog in Mount Carmel Township. The News Item in Shamokin reports that a female bear and two cubs showed up Sunday evening in the back yard of the Krakowski family in the Den-Mar Gardens section of the township. The family's yard is flanked by woods that stretch out behind the housing development. The family says the bear killed their eleven-year-old miniature dachshund.
State Game Commission officials believe the bear was trying to protect its cubs.
The trap will stay set until Saturday.