Today's News - Saturday September 8th

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - The Schuylkill United Way kicked off its 2008 Campaign at Penn State Schuylkill Campus yesterday. A crowd of more than 150 people were in attendance to rollout this year's effort "We Are Community Strong" with a campaign goal of $1-million-dollars. Dr. R. Keith Hillkirk, Chancellor at Penn State Schuylkill, is this year's General Campaign chairman. The Tamaqua campaign chair is businessman Todd Miller of M&S Hardware. For more information about giving to the Schuylkill United Way, call 570-622-6421. All monies raised during the campaign stays right here in Schuylkill County, benefiting the 16 member agencies.

POTTSVILLE - The County's annual fall clean-up and electronics waste collection and recycling program will take place later this month. The County Office of Solid Waste and Resource Management asked for approval of September 17th thru the 29th for the event at the County Commissioners work session meeting Wednesday. The request is expected to be approved at next week's board meeting. The program is open to all county residents and municipalities. Information on acceptable items and appropriate fees is available by contacting Michelle Kintzel at 628-1220. In other business, the Commissioners were asked to accept a traffic light retrofit proposal for the Route 61 and Mount Carbon intersection. Telco, Inc. of Reading submitted the lowest of three proposals received amounting to $4,402.20. The retrofit will change the traffic signal from incandescent lights to LED which is less costly to operate. County Engineer Lisa Mahall (MUH-hall) said four of the county-owned seven traffic lights have been retrofitted.

KUTZTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Police in Kutztown say the college student beaten to death on a downtown sidewalk was apparently attacked at random. Three Allentown men are charged in yesterday's predawn attack on 19-year-old Kyle Quinn, who later died at a hospital. They are 22-year-old Terry D. Kline Junior; his 21-year-old brother, Kenneth R. Kline; and 23-year-old Timothy R. Gearhart. The suspects didn't respond to reporters' questions as they were led into court for their arraignments. They're being held on 10 million dollars bail. Quinn was a sophomore history major from Warminster. The university says he had transferred to Kutztown after taking classes at Penn State and a summer course Bucks County Community College. He had been on campus less than two weeks.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - National Penn Bancshares says it's buying KNBT Bancorp, a thrift about half its size, for more than 464 million dollars in stock. Boyertown-based National Penn operates 81 banks in Pennsylvania and one in Maryland. It says the combination with Bethlehem-based KNBT will help both companies save money and better fend off competition. KNBT owns Keystone Nazareth Bank and Trust Company, which has 56 branches in the state. National Penn operates banks under the names National Penn Bank, FirstService Bank, HomeTowne Heritage Bank, Nittany Bank and Peoples Bank of Oxford. In terms of assets, the new company is slated to be the fifth-largest bank holding company based in Pennsylvania.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's Democratic and Republican committees will meet this weekend to nominate candidates for a seat on the state Superior Court. Voters will decide who will fill that vacancy in November. The opening was created when incumbent Judge Michael Joyce announced his intention to retire in January rather than seek another term. Joyce was recently indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple counts of mail fraud and money laundering. He also was suspended by the state Supreme Court.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Penn State's trustees have approved an appropriation request from the state for the school year that begins in the fall of 2008. It's for more than 350 million dollars -- almost seven percent more than the amount lawmakers approved earlier this summer for the current academic year. The university says research expenditures have more than doubled since Spanier arrived at Penn State in 1995. They're now at 700 million dollars.
Earlier, trustees renewed Spanier's contract for another five years. That means one of higher education's longest-serving administrators will stay at the school through 2013. Spanier is 59 now and will be 64 when the contract renewal ends.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - President Bush heads home from the APEC summit today to face an important tussle with Congress over his Iraq strategy. Bush told reporters in Australia that the latest video from Osama bin Laden proves Iraq is central to the war on terror. The video focuses, in part, on Iraq.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A broad, non-binding agreement on global warming by President Bush and other Pacific Rim leaders today says the world needs to "slow, stop and then reverse" greenhouse gas emissions. It also adopts targets which critics complain are too modest to be effective.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Government scientists say global warming will take a serious toll on polar bears in the next 40 years. The U.S. Geological Survey predicts that two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050. And it says there will be no polar bears left at all in Alaska because of thinning sea ice.

WASHINGTON (AP) - First lady Laura Bush is having some surgery today on pinched nerves in her neck. Pain from the condition kept her from accompanying her husband to the Australia summit. A spokeswoman says it's elective, outpatient surgery designed to take pressure off the nerve.

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. (AP) - Two Louisiana nursing home owners have been found not guilty of negligent homicide. They were charged for not evacuating the patients prior to Hurricane Katrina. Thirty-five of them died. One angry relative says they're still guilty and will have to answer to God.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has asked a predominantly female audience in San Francisco to take a risk and support him. Without mentioning rival Hillary Clinton by name, Obama says candidates touting their government experience are in a system that's not working.

MARIAZELL, Austria (AP) - Pope Benedict is using a visit to a famous shrine to the Virgin Mary in Austria to make a case that faith is still a force for good in Europe. The pope is reaching out to disillusioned believers in a mostly Catholic country that has seen considerable dissent against the church.

MIAMI (AP) - A tropical storm watch has been issued for portions of the North and South Carolina coasts. It's for Subtropical Storm Gabrielle. A subtropical storm is a hybrid system that gains strength from both ocean waters and the collision of warm and cold fronts. It's generally weaker than a hurricane.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The mortgage industry credit crunch is hitting hard at Countrywide Financial. The struggling lender says it's cutting as many as 12,000 more jobs. That's 20 percent of its work force. Countrywide had previously dumped about 1,400 employees. It's also tightened its lending standards.

RAJSAMAND, India (AP) - At least 85 people have been killed in the crash of a large truck jammed with Hindu pilgrims on their way to a religious festival in India. The vehicle plunged off a sharp curve into a gorge. Rescuers worked through the night to evacuate 64 injured survivors.

MINDEN, Nev. (AP) - Another day of disappointment in the search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett in northwestern Nevada. The mix of mountains and canyons takes on an unearthly look from the air. The tricky shapes and areas of small pines make any downed aircraft difficult to spot.

MODENA, Italy (AP) - Throngs of Luciano Pavarotti's admirers continue to pay last respects ahead of his funeral today at the cathedral in his hometown. Pavarotti's body has been on view to the public prior to the funeral which will be broadcast on Italian television.