National and State News-Monday, June 25th

BAGHDAD (AP) - Suicide bombers have killed at least 29 people in a series of attacks today across Iraq. One bomber killed at least nine people in the lobby of a Baghdad hotel that houses the Chinese embassy and several news organizations. No American casualties have
been reported.

MEYERS, Calif. (AP) - A wildfire is raging in northern California, near Lake Tahoe. So far, it's destroyed 165 homes and structures and threatens hundreds more homes. Officials have been
warning of a bad fire season in the Sierra Nevada because of a below-normal snowpack.

CANTON, Ohio (AP) - The police officer accused of killing a pregnant Ohio woman has a court appearance this afternoon. And a former classmate of Bobby Cutts Junior also faces arraignment. Myisha Ferrell was jailed yesterday for allegedly hindering the investigation into the death of Jessie Davis.

PARIS (AP) - The U-S, China, France and other key world players are meeting in Paris. They're hoping to speed deployment of peacekeepers to Darfur. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the international community has fallen down on the job in the ravaged Sudanese region.

ATLANTA (AP) - A dangerous, drug-resistant staph germ may be more common in hospitals and nursing homes than previously thought. That's the conclusion of a new study from a group of infection experts. They say at least 30-thousand patients may have the bug at any given time. It's spread by touch and can be a killer.

AVONDALE, Pa. (AP) - State police at Avondale say they have a man in custody who shot a woman, then held her and an eigh-year-old child hostage. He is 42-year-old Clarence Kenneth Love of Newark, Delaware. Love is to be arraigned this morning on attempted homicide and
other charges. Police say he shot 36-year-old Jennifer Lee Smith last night at her home in East Marlborough Township, Chester County. Police say he threatened to kill Smith, the child and himself. Hostage negotiators got him to surrender about half an hour past midnight. Police say Smith was taken to a hospital, but her injuries aren't believed to be life-threatening. Police say the child wasn't injured physically.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Within a matter of days, Pennsylvanians could find that their cash-strapped mass transit systems are being bailed out and tolls are in the works for Interstate 80.
They could also find that more money is on the way for biotech research and clean energy development. Then again, they may still be waiting to see who will blink first in the Legislature's annual mad rush to pass a state budget before the summer recess. Some sort of bill is expected to hit the House floor today to provide a multi (B) billion dollar fix for transportation and mass
transit. House Democrats have scheduled votes for today and tomorrow that would accomplish much of Democratic Governor Ed Rendell's ambitious agenda.

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - Autopsies are planned today on the three people killed in Saturday's crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The Lancaster County coroner has identified them as 70-year-old Gertrude Hill, 39-year-old Jacqueline Gail Hill and five-year-old Morgan Shannon. All three were in the same car and all were from Pittsgrove, New Jersey. State police say the driver of a tractor-trailer didn't notice slower-moving traffic in front of her, causing a crash.
Westbound lanes of the turnpike were closed for nearly nine hours following Saturday afternoon's crash.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Philadelphia teenager sent to a Tennessee facility for troubled youth by the city's social services agency died after a physical confrontation with the center's staff.
The death has prompted Philadelphia officials to consider relocating dozens of teens who were sent there. Omega Leach is described by city officials as a 17-year-old who got in trouble for stealing a car. But police say Leach got into a physical confrontation with the staff at the Chad Youth Enhancement Center outside Nashville on June Third and died the next day. Investigators are trying to find out whether Leach was restrained improperly. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the city agency was paying Chad for Leach's treatment, even though questions had been raised about the center in the past. Now, the agency has frozen admissions to Chad and says it is putting into place a contingency plan for relocating 45 city children still there, pending further investigation.

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) - A state appeals court says a doctor can't be sued for a car crash caused by a patient. The Superior Court's recent ruling upholds a decision written by a Blair County judge dismissing the lawsuit filed by Matthew Stever of Altoona, who was injured in a head-on crash caused by Crystal Ickes almost three years ago. Ickes was killed in the accident, so Stever sued her psychiatrist. Stever argued that the doctor had a responsibility to preclude Ickes from driving, knowing there was danger in mixing anti-depressant drugs and methadone.
But Judge Tim Sullivan cited four Superior and state Supreme Court cases in which doctors were deemed not responsible for accidents caused by their patients. Stever also sued the clinic, but that suit also was dismissed. Ickes was leaving the clinic after undergoing treatment when she crossed the center line and smashed into Stever's vehicle, according to court papers.