Local News-Wednesday, June 13th

An officer from the Hegins Township police department has been charged with insurance fraud.
Attorney General Tom Corbett announced Tuesday that agents from the Insurance Fraud division have filed charges against 31-year-old Shannon Tietsworth of Hegins. The criminal complaint indicates that Tietsworth submitted a claim to Erie Insurance under his automobile policy, reporting that he fractured his right hand when his son accidentally closed a van door on it. Under the policy, Tietsworth would have been entitled to medical and wage loss benefits.
However, the insurance carrier learned that he told medical personnel that he injured his hand playing basketball. When confronted with the medical records, Tietsworth maintained his original his original story. Agents say that the injury resulted from punching a refrigerator during an argument with his wife. Erie denied the claim. Shannon Tietsworth is charged with one count each of insurance fraud and criminal attempt to commit theft by deception. He was released on his own recognizance following a preliminary arraignment. Formal proceedings are scheduled for August 7th in Cumberland County.

An announcement is expected to be made today about a new distribution center at Highridge Industrial Park. State, county and local legislators and leaders will take part in the ceremony for 182-thousand-square-foot center for the Sara Lee Company, a Fortune 200 food conglomerate. According to a media release from the Schuylkill County Economic Development Corporation, the noontime event will introduce Sara Lee to the area. The business is expected to bring 120 jobs to the county, in addition to construction jobs.

Manpower Incorporated has issued its jobs outlook for the Pottsville area. The survey indicates that from July to September of this year, area employers are expecting to hire at a brisk pace. Thirty-three percent of the companies interviewed by Manpower, an employment services company, say that they plan to hire more workers. Another 57 percent say they expect to maintain their current staffing levels, and ten percent say they are not sure of their hiring plans.
According to Manpower spokesperson Irene Kadziela, the best job prospects in the third quarter are in mining, construction, goods manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade and services. Nationally, the third-quarter hiring pace is expected to remain unchanged from the current quarter. Among the 14-thousand employers surveyed by Manpower, 29 percent of companies expect to see an increase in hiring activity, while 7 percent expect a decrease.
The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforce during the coming quarter.

Mahanoy City police are investigating a suspicious incident outside of a borough store Monday night. A customer at the Dollar General store on Center Street called police, saying that two men were sitting in a parked car, with what appeared to be a weapon in their possession. When police drove by, the pair took off in a dark blue Jeep Cherokee. The pair are described as being white males, in their early-to-mid twenties, one with a very short haircut, and one with long dark hair tied in a pony tail. Schuylkill County 9-1-1 issued an alert to police in communities surrounding Mahanoy City, but no one saw the vehicle following the incident. Anyone with information about these two men should call Mahanoy City police at 773-2310.

A state House commission voted unanimously in favor of making most government records, beyond a list of exceptions, available for public inspection. Pennsylvania law currently defines just two categories of government records as public, making it among the weakest access
laws in the country. The Speaker's Legislative Reform Commission voted against both
eight-year and 12-year term limits for lawmakers and against six-year terms for committee chairmen. Representative Dave Argall of Schuylkill county said that the committee proposed a cut of legislative spending by 10 percent, or more that $30 million dollars in the next budget. He feels that the initiatives already discussed are a commonsense approach to reform.
The commission's nonbinding recommendations are being sent to Speaker Dennis O'Brien and will be passed along to committees for potential action.