National and State News-Tuesday, May 29th

WHITE HOUSE (AP) - President Bush is hoping new economic sanctions against the Sudanese government will force it to stop blocking international efforts to halt violence in Darfur. More
than 200-thousand people have been killed in four years of fighting there. Bush also wants the U-N to step up pressure on Sudan.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is set to unveil a universal health care plan today in Iowa. His proposal calls for subsidies for the uninsured based on their income. And he says he would cover the cost in part by repealing President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.

NEW YORK (AP) - Friends and families of fallen soldiers have marked Memorial Day by flying American flags across the country. Veterans and active soldiers in New York unfurled a 90-by-100-foot flag in Central Park. And President Bush paid tribute to U-S troops who have died in a speech at Arlington National Cemetery.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - Opening statements begin today in California in the trial of a former sheriff's deputy charged with shooting an Air Force airman in 2006. The shooting was caught on tape. It shows him appearing to obey an order to get up the off the ground when he was shot.

AHMEDABAD, India (AP) - An Indian firm says it will burn toxic waste from the city of Bhopal, where a gas leak killed about ten-thousand people in 1984. Survivors of the disaster have been
fighting to get the site cleaned up for years. But environmentalists say they doubt the company's ability to dispose of the waste.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Talk of government reform is easy to find in Harrisburg these days. But signs of real progress, not so easy. Some activists are discouraged, but others aren't, given the wide range of reforms on the Legislature's plate. The House speaker's Legislative Reform Commission has been meeting since January and will vote on another set of recommendations in the next couple of weeks. The governor issued his own reform agenda two months ago. And just last week, House members found themselves arguing over which position on the state
budget constituted "true reform." But actual changes have been less conspicuous, although the
House and Senate have revised some internal operating rules and a couple of bills have made it out of the Senate.

EIGHTY FOUR, Pa. (AP) - Deb Bandel says she and her husband built a farmhouse in southwest Pennsylvania as a peaceful retreat. They didn't bargain on a buzzing, crackling high-voltage power line cutting through their lush 60-acre property. The proposed 500-kilovolt line would hang from towers an average of 125 to 140 feet tall. It has become a point of bitter contention for residents like Bandel who have formed a group called Stop the Towers. Local residents are worried it will hurt property values, the environment and possibly their health. They also question whether it will benefit the area. The line is part of a larger project to build a 240-mile transmission line that would pass through West Virginia and continue to northern Virginia.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A body found over the weekend in Lackawanna County has been identified as that of a Philadelphia college student missing since March. Swimmers found the body of Matthew Grendel in Roaring Brook Creek near Nay Aug Gorge on Sunday. County Deputy Coroner Joseph Swoboda identified the body yesterday and said Grendel died in an
accidental drowning. Grendel was a junior at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia studying to become a research scientist. He was last seen on March 10th, the day of the annual Saint Patrick's Day parade in the city. Grendel's father, Dennis, says family members have been
preparing themselves for the worst. His mother, Patricia, says now they can be at peace and plan a celebration of his life. A memorial service for Matthew Grendel is planned Thursday at
Egan Hughes Funeral Home in Moosic. His funeral is to be held Friday morning at Saint Joseph's Church in Scranton.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - Just a few years ago, Lance Corporal Steven Szwydek was a classmate of high school students in the mountains of Pennsylvania's Fulton County. Now the fallen Marine is part of their history lesson. Students from all three high schools in his home county visited Arlington National Cemetery this spring and stopped at his grave. The bus trips were paid for by a memorial fund established by the parents of Szwydek. He was 20 when he was killed in 2005 by a roadside bomb during his second tour in Iraq. Nancy Szwydek is a strong supporter of President Bush and the Iraq war. But she says the bus trips are not about politics or joining the military. She and her husband see the annual visits as a way to teach students - quote - "to respect our freedom." Teachers say the trips help students from the rural county
connect with world events.

PENN RUN, Pa. (AP) - Authorities say a fisherman sleeping on the shore of a western Pennsylvania lake apparently rolled into the water and drowned. Friends of 23-year-old Matthew Bernard Bennett tell authorities they found him floating in Two Lick Creek Reservoir on Sunday morning, still in his sleeping bag. Indiana County Coroner Michael Baker says Bennett, of Johnstown, and his friends were camping and fishing near the water's edge.
Baker believes Bennett may have had some kind of seizure as he entered the water.
An autopsy showed that Bennett drowned, but Baker says he's waiting for the results of toxicology tests to determine if anything else might have contributed to his death.
The reservoir is in Cherryhill Township in southern Indiana County.

HICKORY, Pa. (AP) - A small farm tractor rolled over an embankment in Washington County and pinned the driver, killing him. Washington County Coroner Tim Warco says that 64-year-old Joseph Billante's tractor was pulling a mower deck when the accident happened at about 3:40 p-m yesterday in Mount Pleasant Township. Warco says a passer-by called 9-1-1 and Billante was taken to Canonsburg Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A ruling on the
cause and manner of death are pending.