Today's News-Friday, October 12th

DAVID FLEMING ARTICLE LINK:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=fleming/071011&sportCat=nfl

A parents group dinner for the Nativity football team had a few anxious moments yesterday.
Around 4:30 pm, all 8 fire companies from Pottsville were called to the school on Lawton's Hill, where a build up of gas in a kitchen stove caused a small fire. Three parents had minor injuries from the accident. WPPA/T102 News spoke with Lynn Sabol, a member of the Nativity administration. She said that the Green and Gold Booster Club were making dinner for the football team when a buildup of gas in a stove, blowing the door open. The parents, whose names couldn't be confirmed, were taken to the hospital for treatment of minor burns. One was life flighted to the Lehigh Valley Medical Center. Occupants in the building were evacuated after the fire, but returned to finish their meal a short time later. A technician from PPL Gas Utilities arrived around 5:40pm to check the lines and the stove.

One of Pottsville's hospitals received an important designation as a Level 3 trauma center, beginning next month. Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center will become the first and only Level 3 trauma center in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation, the organization responsible for maintaining the state’s private voluntary trauma center accreditation program. Good Sam CEO Bernard Koval explains what the designation means for the hospital and the community:

KOVAL

The hospital began the process of seeking accreditation three years ago, by designating staff and significant resources to the program, and underwent a rigorous review process in August. Level 3 accreditation came about as the result of the Trauma Stabilization Act of 2004. Among the requirements Good Sam had to meet are that they have a comprehensive emergency department with more than 4-thousand patients admitted per year, and have a resuscitation team organized for severely injured patients, among others. The Level 3 trauma center designation is in place for one year, beginning November 1st.

Several people were injured in three crashes within minutes of each other on Interstate 81 near Ravine yesterday morning. State police say that the accidents resulted from heavy rain that moved through the region. A tractor-trailer heading south lost control and went down a 50-foot-embankment. Another rig following behind tried to slow down after the first crash, and lost control as well. It struck an embankment. A third truck jack knifed after trying to avoid a collision with the second rig, and hit a mini van that was being towed by a motor home. Troopers from Jonestown have not yet provided the identities of the drivers. Several had minor injuries. The crashes happened around 10am and forced the closure of southbound lanes of Interstate 81 for hours. Traffic was diverted around the scene.

The "Breaker Boys" book about the Pottsville Maroons continues to draw huge interest among Schuylkill countians. The second day of book signings by author David Fleming was another sellout, as he camped out at the Pottsville Free Public library to autograph copies of the book. In fact, organizers had to travel to Scranton to get more books from the publisher to meet demand, and its given Fleming a case of writers cramp, which is a good thing. Michael Solomon, editor for ESPN Books is thrilled with the interest in the book:

SOLOMON

Last night, Pottsville Lasting Legacy hosted a big band dance at Pine View Acres, featuring the music of Bob Crosby's BobCats, which was attended by more than 70 people. Copies of the "Breaker Boys" were also available. Event chairman Eric Lipton was all smiles when talking about the overwhelming response to the book and Fleming's visit:

LIPTON

A pre-game ceremony honoring the book and Fleming will be held before the Pottsville High football game this evening. David Fleming wrote a heartfelt column for ESPN-dot-com about the events so far. We’ve posted a link to that article on our News website at wpparadio-dot-com and t102radio-dot-com.

A Tremont woman, who was accused of spreading rumors against her former employer, had her case heard yesterday, and some of the charges were dropped. The Republican and Herald reports that Amber Wolfgang originally faced charges of ethnic intimidation, making false reports to law enforcement and disorderly conduct, among others. She was accused of perpetuating a rumour about her former boss, Sam Singh, who owned Tremont Super Market. The rumour said that Singh told a person wearing a military uniform to leave his store.
Court documents said her employment was terminated due to poor performance. Singh failed to show up for the hearing, prompting District Judge Carol Pankake to dismiss all of the charges, with the exception of filing false reports to law enforcement, which she’ll face in county court.
Singh, who is a native of India, said that the spread of the rumour caused his business to plummet. The store closed last month. Wolfgang remains free on bail.

Schuylkill County voting machines will be put through their paces next week in preparation for the November elections. The touch-screen systems will undergo testing on Monday, beginning at 9am at the Election Bureau on North Centre Street, according to Betty Dries, bureau director. This is a standard procedure for every election. In addition, those voters who are submitting absentee ballots are reminded that it will cost 58 cents to mail those ballots to the county. The general election is Tuesday, November 6th.

The Schuylkill County Commissioners approved several requests to seek grants for programs during their board meeting Wednesday. Schuylkill Community Action was approved to seek $500,000 in funding from the Department of Economic Development to support an initiative targeting blight, and to provide affordable housing opportunities for low-to-moderate income families. S.T.S. was approved to apply for a $1.1 Million Dollar operating assistance grant.
The Office of Senior Services was given approval to apply for two grants totaling almost $6-Million Dollars. The larger of the two, $5.9 Million dollars of block grant funding will be used to fund various programs. The other is for the senior community service employment program.
The Emergency Management Agency was granted approval to apply for a $2.3 Million Dollar homeland security grant for a law enforcement terrorism prevention program. The Department of Children and Youth will seek a state transition grant of just under $70,000.
In other business, the Commissioners will seek bids for a bridge rehabilitation project located at Cedar Street over the Little Schuylkill River in Tamaqua. Bids will be opened November 8th with a tentative award date of November 14th. The Commissioner also approved a land swap deal at Sweet Arrow Lake. The county will exchange 35,285 square feet of county owned land for an equal amount of land from a private landowner along the Berger Dam trail.

UNDATED (AP) - Former Vice President Al Gore says he's donating the money he's won for the Nobel Peace Prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection. Gore today was named recipient of this years Peace Prize, along with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

BAGHDAD (AP) - At least four people are dead and another 15 are wounded after a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in Baghdad. Authorities say the man who parked the car ran off. In northern Iraq, a bomb hidden among toys near a playground blew up today, killing one person and wounding 17 others, including five children.

PENTAGON (AP) - The Pentagon has paid more than 100 million dollars to keep experienced commandos from leaving the military. Research by The Associated Press shows the retention effort began nearly three years ago. Bonuses have been awarded according to how much longer the commandos agree to serve.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A suburban Philadelphia teenager is scheduled to appear in court today after authorities found a cache of weapons in his room. They say the home-schooled teen had
recruited another boy for a possible attack on a high school.

MIAMI (AP) - The 15th tropical depression of the Atlantic storm season is moving slowly across the Atlantic, still hundreds of miles east of Bermuda. Maximum sustained winds are near 35 miles-per-hour. The depression popped up yesterday, and forecasters expect it to weaken over the next 24 hours.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. (AP) - Five people, including two state troopers, were injured when a speeding SUV plowed into the officers' patrol car west of Philadelphia. The crash occurred just
before midnight Thursday on Interstate 76, the Schuylkill Expressway, near the Conshohocken interchange. The highwy was shut down for four to five hours.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Penn State University has reported a minor leak of "slightly radioactive water" at its Breazeale nuclear research reactor. But the school says the water poses no health risk to workers, the community or the environment. The water leaked from the pool in which the reactor sits into the ground below.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Alcoa has been given a 360 million dollar contract to supply parts for new stealth fighter jets that will replace aging military planes. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin
awarded the contract to the Pittsburgh-based aluminum maker. They will announce the contract at the Cleveland facility this morning.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Two former executives with Adelphia Communications have appealed their fraud convictions to the U.S. Supreme Court. The founder of the defunct cable company, John Rigas, and his son Timothy were convicted in 2004 on charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - ConAgra Foods has voluntarily recalled all of its Banquet pot pies and store brand varieties after they were linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak. The largest numbers of salmonella cases were in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Missouri. Consumers are being told not to eat the pies but to throw them away.