National and State News-Monday, June 11th

MAHMOUDIYA, Iraq (AP) - Three U-S soldiers are dead and part of a highway bridge is gone after a suicide car bomber struck south of Baghdad yesterday. A U-S checkpoint that was guarding the crossing fell into the ruins.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - President Bush is in Bulgaria but he's also thinking of issues at home. At a news conference on the last stop of his eight-day European trip, Bush said he's confident an
immigration overhaul will make it through Congress, and he reiterated his support for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The first in a series of hearings surrounding children's vaccines takes place today in a federal court in Washington. Thousands of families allege that routine vaccines
caused autism in their children. Large scientific studies have found no link between autism and vaccines.

BEIJING (AP) - Organizers of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing are threatening to cancel the contracts of companies that are violating labor rules to make Olympic-licensed products. A new report found that four companies used child labor and violated minimum wage regulations, among other abuses.

DELAVAN, Wis. (AP) - Investigators in Delavan, Wisconsin, call it a "complicated death scene." They say a domestic dispute led to a mass shooting that left six people dead, including infant
twins. A two-year-old girl who also was shot is hospitalized in serious condition.

HOUSTON, Pa. (AP) - Lights blaring and buzzers buzzing, the Meadows Racetrack And Casino is slated to throw open its doors today, becoming the fifth gambling parlor in Pennsylvania and the closest to Pittsburgh. The grand opening comes a week late because security improvements were needed. But for enthusiasts, its better late then never. Fifty-six-year-old Carrick resident Carol Diethorn says the attraction for her is the simplicity of the games. Invited guests already got a taste of the facilities slots Friday and yesterday as state game regulators use these days to
ensure the casino is operating properly.

ERIE, Pa. (AP) - The F-B-I and the Internal Revenue Service are investigating hefty insurance payments made to a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge. Judge Michael Joyce received 440-thousand dollars in insurance money in 2002 for neck and back injuries he says he suffered in a
car accident. Dan Strong, a grand jury witness who's the judge's friend, says the F-B-I and I-R-S are looking into the extent of Joyce's injuries. Joyce's attorney, David Ridge, says the judge is cooperating and is certain the inquiry will determine he has done nothing wrong. Strong says the grand jury questioned Joyce's ability to fly a plane, scuba dive and ride a motorcycle since the accident.

BROWNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Authorities believe an arsonist set fire to a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, causing 20-thousand dollars in damage. Fire officials say someone apparently broke into the schoolhouse in West Earl Township early Saturday morning and set the fire. The blaze damaged a window, part of a wall and the ceiling before it was put out shortly after three a-m. State police fire marshals say there were no additional signs of
vandalism and nothing appeared to have been taken from the building. The school is attended by Amish and Old Order Mennonite schoolchildren. Officials say classes had recently finished for the year. Last fall, a gunman shot ten girls at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, killing five of them before committing suicide as police closed in.

FALLS, Pa. (AP) - Dive teams have found the body of a northeastern Pennsylvania teenager who disappeared while swimming with friends in the Susquehanna River. Fire officials in Exeter say the body was found just below the surface of the water around two o'clock Saturday afternoon. That was about 100 feet from where the boy was last seen Friday night. The Lancaster County coroner identified the victim as 16-year-old Patrick Raymond Wolak.
Wolak was swimming with a friend Friday night when another group of young men fishing along the shoreline noticed him struggling in the water. The other boy was able to swim to shore.

SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) - Seeking new ways to make a buck, Pennsylvania farmers are turning to raising deer. It's a thriving 40 (m) million dollar industry that still has room to grow. Turning away from traditional livestock, raising deer for their for their meat, antlers and urine has become a bigger moneymaker in Pennsylvania than farming Christmas trees, goats and sheep.
Dave Griffith of the Pennsylvania Deer Farmers Association says the industry's growth has been fueled by farmers' ability to breed in captivity deer with prize antlers. In addition, captive deer live four times longer than in the wild and are in better health. About 13-hundred Pennsylvania farmers have full-time jobs in the deer industry, and many more are raising the animals as a second job. John Swank of Berlin, a town about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, says about 70 percent of his profits come from deer farming. Harvesting urine for hunters to attract deer, Swank sells it in two-ounce bottles for about ten dollars a piece, plus shipping.

CENTRALIA, Pa. (AP) - There's a new book about Centralia, the Columbia County borough that has lost almost its entire population due to an underground mine fire. In "The Day the Earth Caved In," author Joan Quigley explores why so many of Centralia's residents fought to stay.
The fire began in 1962 at the town dump and ignited an exposed coal vein, eventually forcing an exodus. Most Centralians ignored the fire for years and some denied its very existence, choosing to disregard the threat posed by dangerous gases and cave-ins. For some, it was a simple matter of economics. Centralians worked low-paying jobs but for the most part owned their homes. They couldn't afford to move and take on a mortgage.