Today's News-Wednesday, September 26th

Three people escaped injury in a multi-vehicle crash in Washington Township Monday night.
State police at Schuylkill Haven report that 71-year-old Pearl Murphy of Tremont was attempting to turn left onto Sweet Arrow Lake Road and didn’t see the car driven by Brittany Corbacio of Pottsville. Murphy's car struck Corbacio's in the rear passenger side, then struck a parked car owned by Kathy Kurtz. Murphy's car traveled off of the road and struck a mailbox and through the Kurtz's yard, and back across Sweet Arrow Lake Road. The crash happened before 7pm Monday evening.

Two vehicles were involved in a crash in Frailey Township late last night. A van driven by 41-year-old Mary Jane Bair of Joliett and a car operated by 18-year-old Teileigh Altland of Williamstown were headed south on Route 209 around 11:30 last night. Altland's car was in front of Bair's, and when the lanes narrowed to one, Bair attempted to pass Altland, and struck her car, forcing it to spin out on the road. Bair was suspected of driving drunk, and was placed under arrest. She was taken to Pottsville Hospital for blood tests. Bair, her passenger nor Altland were injured, but their cars were towed from the scene. Charges will be filed against Bair upon completion of tests.

A Republican candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court made a campaign visit to Schuylkill County yesterday. Superior Court Justice Maureen Lally-Green stopped in the county to promote her candidacy for the state's highest court. A native of western Pennsylvania, Lally-Green has been seated on the appellate court for nearly a decade. She has served as a corporate attorney, a law professor and in other legal capacities during her career. Lally-Green tells WPPA/T102 why she wants to run for one of two seats open on the state Supreme Court:

LALLY-GREEN

The highest court in Pennsylvania's main role is to interpret the Constitution. She won the Republican nomination in May, along with Michael Krancer. They are opposed by Democratic nominees Debra Todd and Seamus McCaffrey for the two open seats. A state Supreme Court judge serves a ten year term.

An Auburn teen was assaulted in Shoemakersville yesterday afternoon. Hamburg state police report that 18-year-old Christopher Heck was allegedly struck in the face with a closed fist and a pair of metal knuckles by at 17 year old female. Heck was also injured in the left arm with a bicycle brake cable. Charges are expected to be filed with Berks County juvenile authorities.

A Frackville woman faces theft charges. Norwegian Township police say that 24-year-old Rachel Ann Fidler allegedly took merchandise from Boscov's Department Store on several occasions since June 1st, totaling over $25-hundred-dollars. The items in question include clothing. Retail theft charges against Fidler were filed at the office of District Judge Charles Moran.

Candidates for the seven Schuylkill County row offices up for election this November spoke at a coffee talk program at Luther Ridge at Seiders Hill Tuesday morning. Judy Schweich of the Government Affairs Committee of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce explained the purpose of the event:

SCHWEICH

Each candidate was given three minutes to talk. Incumbents talked about their accomplishments and the challengers talked about their qualifications and what they would bring to the office. Chamber Executive Director Lori Kane said the event went very well:

KANE

The program was co-sponsored by Luther Ridge, Providence Place, Seton Manor, Tremont Health & Rehabilitation, the Schuylkill Chamber and the Government Affairs Committee.
The County Commissioner Candidates will participate in a debate at next month's Schuylkill Chamber second Wednesday breakfast meeting. Kane recommended Chamber members make early reservations for the debate to be held at the River Inn October 10th at 8:00am.

DETROIT (AP) - Back to work. That's the call to thousands of rank-and-file members of the United Auto Workers, which has a tentative deal with General Motors after a two-day strike. A source tells the AP that the burden of retiree health care will be shifted from the automaker to the union.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Warning shots and tear gas have been fired in Myanmar's largest city, as pro-democracy activists ignore a ban on anti-government marches. Riot police have
been seen beating some monks and dragging others away into waiting trucks.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - A large portion of the 50 billion additional dollars the Bush administration is seeking from Congress for the war in Iraq would be for mine-resistant armored vehicles. Today's request comes as Defense Secretary Robert Gates goes before a
Senate committee.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Idaho Senator Larry Craig today asks for a second chance. He wants to withdraw his guilty plea in connection with an arrest in an airport men's room sex sting. His lawyers will try to convince a judge in Minnesota that the guilty plea was a mistake.

ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) - The victim in the case against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs says it was about child abuse, not religion. Jeffs could get life in prison for being an accomplice to rape. He forced the woman, now 21, to marry an older cousin when she was 14.

CANTON, Pa. (AP) - Threats to students have led a Bradford County school district to shut down for the rest of the week and plan to buy metal detectors. Two students were arrested yesterday at Canton Area Junior-Senior High School and more arrests could come.
Superintendent Jeffrey Johnston says there's evidence that five male students are behind the threats, which he describes as credible. The school board has a special meeting planned tonight to discuss the threats.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Federal agents said after nine months of stakeouts, phone taps and aerial surveillance they have begun rounding up a marijuana and ecstasy distribution network stretching from Canada to North Carolina. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided suspected marijuana growing and stash houses yesterday in Philadelphia and
Berks County and arrested nine Vietnamese defendants. Technology played a role, with thermal images and electricity use patterns leading agents to an alleged indoor pot growing site
in Sinking Spring near Reading. Federal court papers accused the defendants of distributing
60,000 ecstasy pills and 100 pounds of marijuana this year.

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) - The former office manager at a Washington County automobile dealership has pleaded guilty to bilking her employer out of about $400,000. Prosecutors had charged 59-year-old Joyce Piasente of Chartiers Township with theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, unlawful use of a computer, and securing execution of
documents by deception. Piasente worked at Arnold Pontiac-GMC in Houston. Prosecutors
say she stole the money to finance gambling trips with friends and family from 2002 through 2005. The car dealership's owner did not realize the theft until November.

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - Police say an autopsy shows a baby found in a Lancaster trash bin was a newborn girl. Investigators say yesterday afternoon's autopsy revealed little else. Further tests are expected to show whether the baby was born alive and what caused her death.
Lancaster police are asking the child's mother or anyone with information about her to come forward. Captain John Flemming says investigators think someone must be aware of a woman who was pregnant and no longer has the child, and are hoping they will contact police.

HARRISBURG (AP) - Pennsylvania's students are outperforming students in most other states.
Pennsylvania is one of only six states to make significant improvements in fourth-grade math and reading scores on national standardized tests since 2005. State education officials say the average score for fourth-graders was 244 in math and 226 in reading on the National
Assessment of Educational Progress this year. That's, up from 241 in math and 223 in reading two years ago. Eighth-grade scores on the tests averaged 268 in reading -- a one-point increase from 2005 -- and 286 in math, a five-point jump during the same period. The tests are administered every other year.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Seamus McCaffery and Republican Mike Krancer each have surpassed the (m)-million-dollar mark in their campaigns for state Supreme Court. Newly filed campaign finance reports show Republican Maureen Lally-Green more than doubled her campaign war chest to more than 829-thousand dollars in the 15 weeks ending September 17th.
The other candidate, Democrat Debra Todd, also reported an increase that pushes her total to nearly 711-thousand dollars. McCaffery, Lally-Green and Todd are judges on the state Superior Court. Krancer is a former chief judge of the state Environmental Hearing Board.
They are competing in the November sixth election for two open seats on the state's highest court.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Chicago-area woman who bought a crib that was later part of a major recall is suing its Pennsylvania manufacturer Simplicity Incorporated and retailer Target
Corporation. The lawsuit was filed yesterday in federal court in Minneapolis and seeks class-action status. According to the lawsuit, Amber Spitzer, of Hanover Park, Illinois, bought a Simplicity Aspen four-in-one crib for her daughter at a Target store in April 2006. The lawsuit does not allege the one-year-old was hurt, but says she could have been. On Friday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled one million Simplicity cribs, including the the model Spitzer had purchased. The recall advises consumers to contact Simplicity for repair
kits.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The parents of a Shippensburg University student killed in a drug-related kidnapping and robbery seven years ago are suing the three men convicted of killing him. The attorney of the parents of victim Sydney Bull says they filed a one-point-five billion dollar lawsuit in Cumberland County on Friday. It was filed mainly as a symbolic gesture.
Attorney Karl Rominger says the goal is to make sure that Matthew Norris, Emmett Lockhart and Dontae Chambers are not able to inherit money or profit by selling their stories. All three are serving life sentences. Police say the three lured the 23-year-old Bull to a secluded
state forest about 10 miles from campus, then shot him. They used gasoline to burn his body, igniting a forest fire that led authorities to Bull's corpse.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The head of Pennsylvania's student-loan agency, which has been criticized by the governor and state lawmakers over its spending practices this year, says he plans to retire at the end of the year. Sixty-one-year-old Dick Willey has been president and chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency since 2002. He announced plans yesterday to retire effective December 31 in a letter to state Representative Bill Adolph, a Delaware County Republican and chairman of the agency's governing
board. Willey says the timing of his departure is related to his intention to serve as the agency's leader for five years and to fulfill his goal of taking it to the next level. Willey's base salary is 289-thousand dollars. He was paid a bonus of 181-thousand dollars last month.