Today's News-Tuesday, September 4th

Fire destroyed a barn in Washington Township Monday morning. Just before 11am, the daughter of the property owner, Jane Schnoke, noticed that the barn along Stoney Top Road was ablaze. Fire companies from Pine Grove, Friedensburg, Summit Station and a tanker brigade from other communities were able to extinguish the fire within a half-hour. According to the Republican and Herald, there were no animals in the barn. It was used to store furniture and other items.

Police were busy during sobriety checkpoints conducted Friday night into Saturday. The roving DUI patrols included 11 police departments, with 12 officers participating. 123 vehicles were stopped, with 5 people tested for driving under the influence. Three DUI arrests resulted, and two were nabbed for underage drinking. During the stops, there were 56 other arrests for other violations. The checkpoints are part of the North Central PA Regional Sobriety Checkpoint and Expanded DUI program, funded by Penn DOT and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

A Pine Grove man was injured in a one vehicle crash Sunday morning in Washington Township.
48-year-old Edward Schaeffer lost control of his car on a left hand curve on Route 895. The car went up an embankment and rolled over onto the driver’s side and ended up blocking the eastbound lane of 895. He was taken to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries. His Saturn Ion had to be towed from the scene.

State police at Schuylkill Haven are investigating the theft of equipment from a vehicle at a local automobile dealership. Troopers released the details about the theft at R&R Auto Group yesterday morning. It occurred during the overnight hours Wednesday. Someone took 4 tires and aluminum rims off of a 2007 Jeep Liberty which was parked in the south lot of the business along Route 61. The value of the items was over $15-hundred-dollars. The investigation is continuing.

A Williamstown man is charged with writing bad checks to several businesses in Schuylkill and northern Dauphin County recently. Lykens State Police now say that 39-year-old Todd Graff wrote a check for $662 dollars to a veterinary hospital in Elizabethville, and checks to two other businesses, all on a closed account. Troopers are still trying to determine if anyone else received bad checks from Graff. If anyone suspects that they may have received a bad check from Todd Graff, they should contact Lykens police at 717-362-8700.

A Tuscarora man is suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol early Monday morning.
Schuylkill Haven state police report that 23-year-old Christopher Rowan was driving south on Peach Mountain Road in Norwegian Township after 2am, when his car left the road and struck a tree. Rowan left the scene, but police located him and took him to Pottsville Hospital for chemical testing. The investigation awaits those results. Rowan was not hurt in the early Monday crash.

A Pottsville man is in trouble with the law following an incident in New Ringgold Saturday.
Frackville state police say that 19-year-old Ronald Griffiths was driving near a picnic at the New Ringgold fire company in an erratic manner. There were children playing nearby.
Several picnic-goers followed Griffiths away from the grove, where a confrontation took place. Griffiths will be charged with disorderly conduct. The investigation continues.

MIAMI (AP) - Weather forecasters are now watching two hurricanes. Felix is a strong Category-4 and sending people fleeing from the coast along the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. Meanwhile, Henriette has reached hurricane strength off Mexico's Pacific coast.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Members of Congress will be back at their desks today. But unlike the nation's schoolchildren, lawmakers have some big tests right away, including Iraq and the home mortgage crisis. There are House and Senate hearings on the war this week.

HOUSTON (AP) - The Los Angeles Times reports defense contractor KBR ordered its truck drivers to speed through an Iraq combat zone in 2004 to deliver jet fuel, even though the company's own security advisers said convoys should be suspended because of the danger. At
least six civilians and two soldiers died in a subsequent attack.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Suicide bombers struck today in Pakistan, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens more near the capital. Police say some of the victims were Pakistani soldiers who died when their bus was blown up.

CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago's biggest mob trial in years is close to wrapping up. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating in the case against five defendants, all in their 60s and 70s. The jury has heard 10 weeks of testimony about unsolved killings, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Gun sales are on hold in Pennsylvania for three days following a shutdown of the commonwealth's background check computer system. State police spokesman Jack Lewis says the shutdown began at 6 p.m. Sunday as planned. The system will be down until 6 p.m. on Wednesday. During that time, gun dealers can submit information but sales will not be approved until the system comes back online. On Friday, a Commonwealth Court judge declined to intervene despite requests by gun dealers and a state lawmaker. A separate
application for a permanent injunction to prevent any similar shutdowns in the future is still pending. The shutdown drew protests from dealers and from lawmakers who head the sportsmen's caucus, who said it coincided with the first few days of dove and Canada geese hunting season.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A man who shot and wounded a Philadelphia police officer more than four decades ago -- and served a prison term for that crime -- is now charged with murder following the officer's death. Seventy-one-year-old William Barnes was charged two weeks after former Officer Walter Barclay died from an infection at the age of 64. The Bucks County Medical Examiner's Officer ruled the death a homicide, saying it stemmed from the gunshot wound Barclay suffered in 1966. According to court records dated yesterday, Barnes has
been charged with murder in the case. District Attorney Lynn Abraham earlier scheduled a news conference for this morning to discuss the case. Barclay, a rookie officer, was shot November 27th, 1966, while trying to stop the burglary of a beauty shop in the city's East Oak
Lane section. Barclay, who was left a paraplegic, died August 19th. Barnes served a 10- to 20-year attempted murder sentence. He has been living in a halfway house and working at a supermarket. Homicide detectives say Barnes is now in custody. It was unclear whether he has an attorney.

HOKENDAUQUA, Pa. (AP) - Authorities say a Lehigh County man died in an early-morning fire that apparently started when a pot cooking on a stove broke and set fire to the kitchen as he was sleeping. Twenty-eight-year-old Paul LaFaver was pronounced dead at 3:25
Monday morning. Lehigh County Deputy Coroner Paul Zondlo says an autopsy is scheduled today. Firefighters said they weren't sure whether LaFaver tried to get out of the house. He lived alone and his body was found on a lounge chair in the living room. His dog escaped unharmed through a trap door.

ERIE, Pa. (AP) - The state has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a lawsuit by a convicted murderer who alleged that she was raped and assaulted by state prison staff. Lisa Michelle Lambert accused administrators at the State Correctional Institution at Cambridge Springs of doing nothing to prevent the assaults. She also alleged that she was videotaped during a strip search. Lambert is serving a life sentence for the 1991 murder of 16-year-old Lancaster high school sophomore Laurie Show. The case led to anti-stalking laws in Pennsylvania and spawned a 2000 TV movie, "The Stalking of Laurie Show." Under the agreement, the defendants admit no wrongdoing, and the state agreed to let Lambert continue serving her time in Massachusetts.
Lambert's lawyer, Angus Love, called the settlement amount "low." But he says his client was concerned about her conviction being presented to a jury and also did not want to "fan the
flames" of the publicity that has surrounded her case for years.

BOSTON (AP) - Police in Pennsylvania are looking into whether a North Carolina trucker arrested in Massachusetts could be tied to two violent attacks in the commonwealth.
Forty-two-year-old Adam Leroy Lane of Jonesville is being investigated in Pennsylvania in connection with the fatal stabbing of 42-year-old Darlene Ewalt on July 13th in her West Hanover Township house. Lane is not considered a suspect in the case now. Police in Conewago Township also say they are looking into whether Lane is linked to the July 17th slashing of a woman who survived. Lane was arrested July 30th after he allegedly tried to break
into a 15-year-old girl's room in Chelmsford in the middle of the night and rape her. Lane has also been charged in New Jersey with the stabbing death of Monica Massaro, whose body was found in her Bloomsbury apartment July 30th.

SPRING HOUSE, Pa. (AP) - Gary Lassin didn't say "cheese" as he posed for a picture with life-size replicas of the Three Stooges." Instead, he smiled and trilled "Woob-woob-woob-woob-woob!" in a Curly-like falsetto. The statues of Larry, Moe and Curly are near the entrance to the Stoogeum in Spring House, Pennsylvania. It's home to Lassin's large and priceless collection of Stooges memorabilia. The Stoogeum has about 3,500 items on display. They range from Stooges bowling balls and cereal boxes to Shemp Howard's Army discharge, Larry Fine's driver's license and the flying submarine from "The Three Stooges in Orbit." Lassin opened the Stoogeum three years ago in a renovated architect's office that looks like a large house.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Police say the brief kidnapping of a young Philadelphia boy earlier this summer is an example of a crime that often goes unreported. They say drug dealers can demand huge ransoms after snatching rivals, their children or even local business owners.
The four men charged with kidnapping the seven-year-old Philadelphia boy hoped to get a quarter million dollars - but let him go unharmed when police got involved. And kidnappers demanded $450,000 this year to release a club owner who was shot, stabbed and left in a dank basement. The man - described as an innocent victim - instead managed to escape.
Lieutenant John Walker says there's clearly a lot of cash on the street. Drug investigators say the crimes often go unreported within the trade, because dealers don't want to call attention to their activities.

PITTSBURGH - Former Senator John Edwards picked up support from two large unions in Pittsburgh over Labor Day. The Democratic presidential candidate won the nod from the
United Steelworkers and the United Mine Workers of America. Edwards told the crowd that America wasn't built on Wall Street, but was built by steelworkers and mine workers.
Pittsburgh is home to the Steelworkers' international headquarters. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America are also backing Edwards. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has been endorsed by the United Transportation Union and the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The International Association of Fire Fighters is backing
Senator Chris Dodd.

MILNESVILLE, Pa. (AP) - Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are to be in Hazleton today to try to find out why a single-engine plane crashed, killing the pilot. The blue and white 1959 Cessna 150-J went down east of the runway at Hazleton Municipal Airport in Milnesville at about 11 a.m. Sunday. Seventy-one-year-old Martin Ulshafer, of Weston, a retired truck driver, was killed. Luzerne County deputy coroner Bill Lisman says Ulshafer died from injuries in the crash. The death was ruled accidental. Witnesses say they heard the plane's engine cut out a number of times before the crash. The fatal crash was the first in the airport's 52-year history. The cause is under investigation.