National and State News-Wednesday, June 13th

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's prime minister is imposing a curfew in Baghdad and asking American commanders for more troops in Samarra. That, after an attack that destroyed two minarets at a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra. An attack at the same shrine last year touched off a wave of bloody sectarian killing.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Democrats on Capitol Hill say an energy bill that would raise fuel economy standards will help reduce the country's reliance on oil. But Republicans say it will do nothing to increase domestic oil production. The White House has denounced many of the bill's most critical parts, adding a veto threat.

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - A federal panel is recommending special medical compensation for thousands more former workers at the now-closed Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado. But some 15-thousand people who worked at the plant still aren't covered. Some complain of life-threatening illnesses.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Today Southern Baptists find out the result of a vote taken yesterday at their convention in Texas. The church voted on a measure supported by moderates who fear a rightward shift in the denomination. Opponents say the measure is confusing and shouldn't be viewed as significant.

HOUSTON (AP) - Astronauts on shuttle Atlantis go on their second spacewalk today at the international space station. Meanwhile, NASA engineers are mulling over whether to use a sewing technique to repair a thermal blanket that has peeled back from the shuttle.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Thunderstorms caused power outages and disrupted air traffic yesterday in the Philadelphia area. PECO Energy says it recorded some 30-thousand temporary outages at the height of Tuesday's storm. By early this morning, PECO had
only a handful of scattered outages in Lower Bucks and Delaware counties. Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed at Philadelphia International Airport. An airport spokeswoman says the problems continued overnight, with some 700 people stuck at the airport waiting for flights out. The spokeswoman, Phyllis Van Istendahl, says as of five o'clock this morning, operations were returning to normal and most flights were running as scheduled. Only a handful were canceled. If you want to check on your flight, you can go to the airport's website at www.phl.org or call 1-800-PHL-GATE.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - In Pennsylvania it is legal to fire a worker because that person is gay.
A bill that would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is to be introduced today in the state Legislature. The bill would also make it illegal to discriminate on the basis
of sexual orientation for housing and credit. There's no federal law prohibiting such discrimination but a number of other states have laws on the books.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A study is to be released today on the cost of consolidating school districts. Pennsylvania currently has 501 school districts. Many of them have only one high school and some don't even have one -- they must send students to neighboring districts for high school. The Legislative Budget and Finance Committee is to release the study.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A state House commission voted unanimously yesterday 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. The commission's nonbinding recommendations are being sent to Speaker Dennis O'Brien and will be passed along to the various standing committees for potential action.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Governor Ed Rendell is letting legislative leaders see documents submitted by companies and other groups that have an interest in the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Some of the companies want to lease it. Others want to have a hand in a transaction that it's estimated could bring between 12 and 18 (b) billion dollars for transportation funding. Previously, Rendell's top aides had said they were keeping the documents private on the advice of outside financial advisers. Last week, top Republican legislators said that serious
consideration of the plan was unlikely without the documents.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Governor Ed Rendell is suggesting he's dissatisfied with the pace of work in the Legislature to find new transportation funding. Meanwhile, House Democrats say they're almost ready to advance a plan to find money to fix crumbling highways and deficit-ridden mass transit systems. Rendell expressed impatience yesterday with the slow pace of
action on transportation, health care and energy initiatives. He hinted that he might call legislators into special sessions during the summer if they don't pick up the pace. Rendell's comments also coincided with a rally in the Capitol Rotunda by labor leaders, transit riders and advocates for the poor. They're lobbying for more state funding for transit agencies to ward off layoffs, fare increases and service cuts.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pittsburgh police are investigating whether there really was a baby sitter at the home where five children died in an early morning fire yesterday. Police say the children's mothers were out for the evening. They haven't been able to confirm one mother's account of hiring a sitter. The fire reported about 1:30 Tuesday morning was started by
children playing with matches. Two eight-year-old boys managed to escape. But five children ranging in age from three to seven were killed. The house had a smoke alarm, but it apparently wasn't working.

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - Investigators are turning to Internet message boards and blogs to find clues in the slayings of a suburban Lancaster couple and their teenage son. Police still don't know who killed Thomas and Lisa Haines along with their son, Kevin, in their home on May 12th. Manheim Township Police Sergeant Tom Rudzinski has been assigned to check out
comments posted online about the slayings. He says some people might feel more comfortable posting information online because they can do so anonymously. But there are drawbacks to this method of investigation. Rudzinski says with so little information being released, "people
are filling in the blanks on their own." He says that's leading to unfounded theories of the crime.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - There's still no verdict in the trial of a Philadelphia man accused of drugging and raping seven women. A fifth day of deliberations is planned today for the jury
weighing the fate of 34-year-old Jeffrey Marsalis. Yesterday (Tuesday), jurors asked the judge if it was possible to give consent to intercourse while legally intoxicated. The judge responded by re-reading his legal instructions regarding consent. Marsalis met the women through an online dating site. He lured them into dates by pretending to be a doctor, a secret agent, and
an astronaut. His lawyer says the women consented at the time and are falsely accusing him of rape to get revenge because he lied about his accomplishments. The seven women, who didn't know each other, gave remarkably similar accounts.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - More than 280 universities and colleges, among them five from western Pennsylvania, have announced plans to cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions by using energy efficient equipment. The institutions involved -- including Chatham University, the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville and Allegheny, Juniata and Washington And Jefferson colleges -- have committed to inventory greenhouse emissions biannually and set a date for eliminating all
harmful emissions. Emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are blamed for global warming. Rebecca Flora, executive director of Pittsburgh's Green Building
Alliance, says most local campuses are moving to become greener. She says Carnegie Mellon is the most aggressive.

SHIPPINGPORT, Pa. (AP) - Black soot that rained down on the small community of Shippingport earlier this week has led officials to close a popular park used in the summer for family reunions, picnics and parties. Late Sunday, First Energy Corporation had what it calls a
stack-rain incident set off when two scrubbers used to clean emissions were brought back online after maintenance work had been completed. Residents woke the next day to find the dry black substance covering cars, lawns, homes and the community park, which was closed for nearly the entire summer last year after a similar incident. Borough Council President Pat Lampe says the park will remain closed until the Department of Environmental Protection can say
what the substance is.

GREENVILLE, Pa. (AP) - Ladder maker Werner Company says it has completed the sale of most of its assets to a group of investors in a deal valued at about 270 (m) million dollars, which will enable it to emerge from bankruptcy. Greenville-based Werner sought bankruptcy protection last June because of rising costs of aluminum and other materials. The recovery plan was approved in April. Investors included Black Diamond Capital Management L-L-C and
others. Werner has about 750 workers in Pennsylvania, California and Mexico as well as outsourcing arrangements in China.

DUNCANSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - West Nile virus has been detected in Duncansville, a town near Altoona. It's the earliest finding of the mosquito-borne virus in Pennsylvania in the past five years. Authorities sprayed four Altoona-area municipalities late last night, plans that were made before the test results were confirmed. Authorities initially decided to spray in those areas due to a large number of mosquitos. The U-S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the West Nile virus, which is contracted from mosquito bites, can cause a fever, rash, headaches, meningitis, encephalitis or death. The most severe cases are found in people with weaker immune systems and the elderly. Authorities are surprised to detect the virus so early in the season. West Nile is most commonly found in the late summer or early fall.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - By scouring ancient fossils and operating on a 99-pound monkey a Pittsburgh doctor hopes to prove his controversial knee theory. Doctor Freddie Fu of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center intends to use surgery planned today on Johnny, a 12-year-old Mandrill monkey at the Pittsburgh Zoo, to get a look at how his knee is put together.
Fu contends that a decades-old method of knee surgery - done to repair a torn ligament that connects the shin to the thigh bone - is incorrect. In the United States, about 200-thousand people a year tear this anterior cruciate ligament. In normal A-C-L surgery, doctors repair
one bundle of fibers, even though there are two - one that allows the knee to bend and one to twist. Fu contends that knee surgery must replace both bundles to be truly successful.

OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) - Vacations, college tuition and fancy video games are all on the wish list of Oakmont residents who are making a pretty penny by charging U-S Open spectators to park in their yards. Parking is so slim in Oakmont, organizers have found lots in neighboring towns and arranged shuttles, something many spectators consider an inconvenience. Backyard parking is one creative solution offered by Oakmont's budding entrepreneurs. Twelve-year-old Barbara Hipp says are family will go on a Bahamas cruise, get a new roof for their house and buy the Guitar Hero video game from the money they make renting out parking spots
for 50 dollars a pop. Just two blocks from the Oakmont Country Club, where the golf
tournament is being held, the Hipp's have a prime piece of property. In two days, they made nearly three-thousand dollars.

OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) - Spectators, golfers, caddies and others attending the U-S Open about 15 miles from Pittsburgh are expected to pour nearly 60 (m) million dollars into the local economy during the week. The Oakmont community - population about 66-hundred - will host
40-thousand visitors. The president of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention And Visitors
Bureau, Joe McGrath, says these people are expected to spend 16 (m) million dollars on food and drinks alone. Last year, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game put some 30 (m) million dollars into the local economy. McGrath says the U-S Open visitors are expected to spend nearly that much just on lodging. Hotel rooms have been booked in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 30 miles from Oakmont, and Youngstown, Ohio, nearly 70 miles away.