Today's News-Monday, July 16th

Schuylkill Products has announced that it will be moving oversized loads today. Two loads of beams will leave the plant on Route 901 at 7 and 9am. Delays can be expected at the intersections of Route 901 and 183, and again at Route 183 and 61. The loads will travel south on Route 61 to 78 West, to I-81 North, then west on I-80 to its final destination in Tioga County. Schuylkill Products Incorporated manufactures concrete beams and other products for construction projects along the East Coast.

A national investment firm with local ties is providing an opportunity for residents to offer support for our troops serving around the globe today. Waddell and Reed, one of the oldest mutual fund and financial planning companies in the country has embarked on a 30-thousand-mile goodwill tour across America, working in conjunction with the USO to help provide care packages to US troops overseas as part of the Operation USO Care Package program. On Monday, kiosks will located outside of an 18-wheeler at Heritage Ford, Route 61 in Orwigsburg. The public can donate USO care packages to our servicemen and women. The packages may be purchased for $25 dollars, but include between $50 and $75 dollars worth of merchandise inside them. Waddell and Reed kicked off the tour in January with a donation of 1-thousand USO care packages. The firm's goal is 10-thousand care packages. The visit to Orwigsburg is being held from 11am to 7pm. Lori Smith, Managing Principal of Waddell and Reed's Pottsville office says the caravan is a unique way to reach out to the firm's advisors, clients and communities to thank them and to join in supporting our troops.

Its been about a week since the state House and Senate passed a budget. Now that the ink has dried, they are picking it apart and voting on it. Among the items seeing an increase are education spending, public welfare and corrections spending. A big chunk of money earmarked for the proposed cargo airport straddling Schuylkill and Luzerne County appears to be out of the final spending plan. During deliberations on the final budget, plans to use slots revenues included the airport, which has a total price tag of $1-point-6 billion dollars, were on the fast-track. However, it appears that monies for the Philadelphia Convention Center, the Pittsburgh Airport and the new Penguins arena are on the final plan. The total budget, $27-point-2-billion dollars, is expected to be voted on this week and signed by Governor Rendell.

No one was hurt in a one-vehicle crash Sunday evening in North Manheim Township. A car driven by Phillip Niguyen as driving north on SPCA Road when a deer crossed in front of the car. Niguyen swerved left to avoid the deer and went down an embankment, coming to rest at several small trees. Niguyen, nor his three passengers, were hurt. The car had to be towed from the scene.

An Orwigsburg man and his passenger were hurt in a two vehicle crash yesterday afternoon.
The cycle, driven by 41-year-old Daniel Mosher, was west bound on Tall Oaks Road in West Brunswick Township when he came around a curve and the bike slid across the road. A car driven by Jack Hoffman Jr. of York was coming from the opposite direction and couldn’t slow down in time, running over the bike, Mosher and his 14-year-old passenger. The crash happened around 1pm on Sunday afternoon.

A Tennessee man was injured in a two vehicle crash on Interstate 81 early this morning. David Grinley of Rockville, Indiana was north bound on I-81 near mile marker 109. His tail lights were apparently not working. James Coffey of Memphis, Tennessee was also traveling in the same direction, and did not see Grinley's truck until he got too close. When Coffey tried to swerve away from Grinley's truck, he ended up hitting it. Coffey was hurt during the impact.
Grinley will be cited for having faulty equipment on his truck.

A Port Carbon man is in trouble with the law after a dispute with a woman Sunday morning.
Schuylkill Haven state police say that Brenda Bensinger and Benjamin Honaker were in a car, driving along Mill Creek Avenue, when they got into an argument. Honaker allegedly hit Bensinger 30 times in the head, arms, chest and stomach. He is reported to have choked and threatened to kill her. Two members of the Anthracite Protective Services were driving by the car and stopped to help. Honaker jumped back into the car and took off. Port Carbon and St. Clair Police were able to apprehend him. Honaker is charged with simple assault, terroristic threats and harassment, among other offenses.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A final vote is expected today in the state House and Senate on the 27 (b) billion-dollar state spending plan -- two weeks into the new fiscal year. The document received unanimous approval last night in a bipartisan House and Senate joint committee, a necessary step before it reaches the full chambers. State Treasury officials have said the budget needs to be enacted by noon to guarantee on-time paychecks for 24-thousand
state employees this Friday. The budget legislation has been under wraps for the past six
days while Governor Ed Rendell and legislative leaders made final decisions on funding levels for programs. More funding for public schools, prisons, state employee pensions and public welfare programs drove the increased spending. Broad agreement on the budget was reached last Monday night as part of a wider deal to end the one-day furlough of the 24-thousand
state employees and a shutdown of state services deemed "nonessential."

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - State House members have readied for final passage a proposal to ban smoking in most public places, a version that grants fewer exceptions than legislation passed by the state Senate last month. During four hours of debate yesterday, the House amended the bill to permit smoking in exhibition halls that host events in which tobacco distributors promote their products. Companies would be allowed to hold up to six such events a year. Members yesterday added private, nonprofit clubs to the list of establishments exempted from the ban. An effort to add casinos to the list of exempted locations failed by a vote of 137-to-62. The Senate's bill would exempt one quarter of the gambling floors at slots parlors. House members narrowly rejected a proposal to exempt business owners' private offices from the ban. They also defeated an amendment that would create a special "smokers' establishment" license enabling establishments that do not serve or employ anyone
under the age of 18 to permit smoking. Rejected by a 175-to-24 vote was a proposal to completely outlaw the use and sale of tobacco products.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A New Jersey businessman goes on trial today on charges that he assaulted nearly a dozen minors on foreign soil. Forty-four-year-old Anthony "Mark" Bianchi, of North Wildwood, was convicted seven years ago in Russia of molesting children. He
was sent to prison, but officials later decided just to kick him out of the country.
Over the next few years, he traveled to Moldova, Romania, Cambodia and Cuba -- trips all designed, U-S officials allege, to recruit destitute boys for sexual trysts. Bianchi is scheduled to go on trial in Philadelphia today in federal court under a largely untested 2003 law designed to thwart "sex tourism."

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - From last-place finishes to September collapses, over the past 125 years no team has lost quite like the Philadelphia Phillies. Futility has followed them since the day they were born, and last night was no different. Loss Number 10-thousand came when
Albert Pujols hit two of the St. Louis Cardinals' six homers in a 10-to-2 rout. Not surprisingly, this defeat resembled the thousands that came before. Bad starting pitching, brutal relief and hardly any hitting. And, of course, lots of booing. From Connie Mack Stadium to the Vet and Citizens Bank Park, and at ballparks all over, the Phillies have cemented their place as
the losingest team in professional sports. The franchise, born in 1883 as the Philadelphia Quakers and briefly called the Blue Jays in the mid-1940s, fell to 8-thousand-810 -- and --10-thousand. Next on the losing list: the Braves, with nine thousand-681 defeats. It took them stints in three cities -- Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta -- to reach that total. Not even those lovable losers, the Chicago Cubs, come close at nine-thousand-425.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Montgomery County officials are recommending that schools be prepared to treat gunshot wounds and stockpile some food and medical supplies. A 13-page report was prepared by law enforcement officials and others following a series of school threats.
The report advises banning oversized pants or jackets that could be used to hide weapons. It also says schools should have enough food and medical supplies to last three days in case of prolonged building lockdowns due to violence. Other recommendations include unannounced searches of the student body at school entrances at least once per year, a system to handle reports of bullying, and also training students how to avoid and cope with "negative peer pressure."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources is giving some mussels a new home in the Ohio River. Hundreds of the clam-like animals are being moved from Pennsylvania, where a dock project meant the mussels needed a new home. D-N-R Biologist Janet Clayoton says the new West Virginian river inhabitants will go a long way towards replenishing a stock of mussels that were killed in 1999. After two weeks of quarantine, they'll find new homes at the bottom of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers.

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (AP) - Some residents who live next to Valley Forge National Historical Park are upset about what they regard as dramatically expanded plans for the proposed American Revolution Center. Under the new plan, the complex would be built on 78 privately
owned acres within the official boundaries of the park. It would include a museum, three-story hotel, tavern and restaurant, conference center, dormitory for visiting scholars, small
campground and other amenities. The concerns of residents, the National Park Service and Sierra Club have led officials in Lower Providence Township to delay a vote on the project. Instead, there will be a public presentation of the plans later this week.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) - National Parks officials are to start cutting acres of trees at the Gettysburg National Military Park this week as part of an effort to restore the battlefield to its
appearance during the Civil War. About 10 acres of trees will be cut by the McMillian House and
Devil's Den. The Union army placed cannons there during the war, but today they seem to face the woods below. The cutting is a continuation of the park's two-point-three (m) million plan to cut 576 acres of newer trees and restore as many 1863 views as possible. The Park Service says it has cut 165 acres of trees so far but has left in place "witness trees" -- those that stood during the battle. A biotechnician marks trees old enough to have stood in 1863 so they're not cut.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Preservationists are worried that massive power lines could soon loom over state and national parks including Gettysburg. A 2005 law gave federal regulators new authority over where power lines are built. Now, two large swaths of land -- in the
Northeast and Southwest -- have been proposed as corridors of "national interest."
If the corridors are approved by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, federal regulators can order power lines built in them -- regardless of state and local opposition. Preservationists and environmentalists estimate that there are millions of acres of wildlife refuges, cemeteries, national seashores and other types of protected land within the proposed corridors.

CLEVELAND (AP) - A pair of twin brothers from Pennsylvania who loved attending Ohio's Twins Day festival have left the bulk of their fortune to the festival's organizers.
John and William Reiff were shy bachelor farmers from Pennsylvania who both died several years ago in their 70s. They lived on a 150-acre farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, outside
Philadelphia. They left up to five (m) million dollars for the festival held each year in Twinsburg, Ohio. It attracts up to three-thousand sets of twins, triplets and quadruplets. The land deal enabling the brothers to bestow a fortune on the Twins Day festival is expected to be completed this year.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Movie memorabilia collector Wes Shank holds a bucket full of The Blob near and dear -- but he doesn't like to touch it much. The 61-year-old Philadelphia resident bought the goopy stuff from a Pennsylvania movie studio, but The Blob was born in West Virginia. The Blob was a product of Union Carbide's Silicones Division in Tyler County. The silicones plant has existed since 1955 and was Union Carbide's first to focus on silicones, which are chemical products that start with sand as a base. Shank's bucket is loaded with about two gallons of clear Blob material -- the blob is uncolored because it only turned red after
it drank the blood of its victims. The rest of The Blob material was used up during filming.
The movie "The Blob" was released in 1958 and starred a very young Steve McQueen.

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - At least five people are dead and more than 500 injured after an earthquake rocked Japan's northwest coast today. Officials say the quake flattened hundreds of buildings and sparked a fire at a nuclear power plant. No radiation leaked.

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U-S has launched a new offensive south of Baghdad. The military says the operation is designed to prevent the "movement of weapons, munitions and insurgents" into Baghdad. At least 15 people have been killed in a pair of car bombings in the northern city of Kirkuk.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidates outraised Republican candidates by about 30 (m) million dollars in the second quarter. New federal reports show all the candidates boosted their spending to about 50 (m) million, with more money going for staff, travel and consultants.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The head of the Los Angeles archdiocese says there's no way to give hundreds of victims of alleged clergy sex abuse the "innocence that was taken from them." Cardinal Roger Mahony apologized in church yesterday. The alleged victims each will get a share of a record 660 (m) million dollar settlement.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) - The town of Brattleboro, Vermont, is famous for its strip-and-let-strip attitude. But now town leaders are considering banning nudity in parts of the town, saying it offends some of the locals. One town board member says of taking it all off, "just because you can doesn't mean you should."