Today's News-Monday, October 8th

Tomorrow is the last day to register or make changes to your Voter Registration status in Schuylkill County for the November election. Betty Dries, Election Bureau Director, reminds residents that Tuesday, October 9th, is the last day to take care of any changes to your voter record, or to register to be eligible to vote in the November election. To register in person, visit the Election Bureau at 420 North Centre Street, Pottsville, between 8:30 and 4:30. Or, residents can take care of the process online at http://www.dos.state.pa.us/, then complete the form and deliver it to the bureau by end of business Tuesday. If you have any questions, call the bureau at 628-1467.

State police are investigating a burglary at a Porter Township restaurant early Thursday.
Troopers from the Schuylkill Haven barracks now say that someone entered the rear of Schorr's Restaurant and Gas Station on Clarks Valley Road around 1am. The burglar opened the game room window and took cash, raffle tickets, tobacco products and food, then fled through a side door. The store had a surveillance system, and suspects are being developed by state police.

Two people face charges following an altercation in Mechanicsville Saturday afternoon.
Jason and Danielle Meyer were arguing inside a home on Pottsville Street, which eventually led to the street and turned physical. One of them broke free and returned inside the home and locked the door. Neither were injured. Charges are pending in the incident.

Two people escaped injury in a two car crash Saturday morning in Hegins Township.
71-year-old Richard Klouser of Good Spring and Jacoba Yerger of Valley View were traveling east on Route 25. Yerger's vehicle slowed to make a left turn into a driveway and was rear-ended by Klouser's vehicle. After impact, both cars traveled some distance before stopping.
Both vehicles had moderate damage. The crash happened just before noontime.

A New York motorcyclist was injured in a crash near Cressona Mall early Saturday morning.
43-year-old Edward Davidson, of Rome, New York, was traveling south on Route 61 and struck the concrete median in the center of the road, losing control of his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. State police at Schuylkill Haven report that Davidson showed signs of driving under the influence. He suffered severe injury to his head and leg, and was taken to Pottsville Hospital for treatment. Charges are pending blood alcohol test results. Davidson will be charged with traffic violations and driving with a suspended license. The crash took place around 2am Saturday morning.

An Orwigsburg man was injured in a motorcycle crash near Orwigsburg early Saturday morning. 33-year-old Eric Schaeffer was traveling north on Meadow Road in foggy conditions. He traveled through the stop sign at the intersection of Adamsdale Road. He was thrown from the bike. Schuylkill Haven state police believed that Schaeffer was driving under the influence, and was asked to take a blood test. He was taken to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center for treatment. Charges may be filed following the receipt of that blood test.

If the players on the 1925 NFL Champion Pottsville Maroons were alive today, they would be very proud of the book written about them, and the celebration planned in their honor this week. The "Breaker Boys", a book written by ESPN writer David Fleming, chronicles the exploits of the legendary Maroons football team, is being released and a full slate of activities are planned. On Wednesday, a meet and greet with Fleming will be held at City Hall at 10:30am, followed by a press conference at the newly reopened Maroons Sports Bar and Grill at noon. A book signing follows at the Historical Society of Schuylkill County on North Centre Street from 4 to 6pm, followed by a free showing of the Maroons story in film, and a question and answer session with the author at the Sovereign Majestic Theatre. A Big Band Night will be held at Pine View Acres Thursday night from 7 to 10pm, with the music of The Bob Crosby Bobcats. Tickets are $20 dollars. Friday night, the Maroons Week celebration culminates at Pottsville’s Veterans Memorial Stadium, with a pre-game ceremony before the Pottsville/Shamokin football game. For a complete listing of events, log on to wpparadio-dot-com (t102radio-dot-com) under the Sports tab.

CRANDON, Wis. (AP) - Residents in a Wisconsin town want to know how a 20-year-old man who shot six people to death yesterday passed a background check to become a sheriff's deputy. A seventh person was shot and critically wounded. The suspect, Tyler Peterson, was
later gunned down himself.

UNION, Mo. (AP) - A lawyer for a Missouri man accused of kidnapping and sexually abusing two boys will plead guilty to spare his and the victims' families any further pain. Michael Devlin is charged with more than 80 counts in four jurisdictions. He appears today in court for the first in a series of hearings.

UNDATED (AP) - Foot races in Chicago and near the nation's capital turned deadly yesterday. One man collapsed and died during the sweltering Chicago Marathon and another runner died near the Pentagon during the Army Ten-Miler.

PARIS (AP) - A British jury looking into the death of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed will be retracing their final moments in Paris. The group this week will the visit the underpass where their Mercedes crashed in 1997 and the hospital where Diana
was pronounced dead.

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) - Senator Hillary Clinton has been leading national polls of the Democratic presidential candidates. And now she has a clear lead in Iowa, where the primary campaign begins in three months. Clinton is at 29 percent in a new poll, ahead of John Edwards and Senator Barack Obama.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Rapper Beanie Sigel will surrender today to face charges in a dispute over a rental car. That's the word from his attorney. Sigel, whose real name is Dwight Grant, rented a 2007 Nissan Altima from Payless Car Rental in southwest Philadelphia in July.
Police say the car was due back on August 13, but Sigel did not return it in time or contact the rental company. Payless, which continued to charge the rapper's credit card, reported the car stolen on September Sixth. Police say someone returned the car to Payless, just as detectives went to Sigel's home in the suburb of Lansdale to arrest him. Sigel's attorney, Fortunato Perri, says it's all a misunderstanding.

ERIE, Pa. (AP) - Workers at the Erie County Office of Children and Youth are expected to be back on the picket line today. About 100 union workers went on strike Friday, saying
negotiations on a new contract broke down. The last contract expired on December 31st and workers took a strike vote last month, but remained on the job while talks continued.
But the workers walked out when a final bargaining session with County Executive Mark DiVecchio ended Friday without a resolution. A county judge did order intake workers and staff at the county's juvenile detention center to remain on the job through the weekend, however.

LYNNPORT (AP) - A growing number of environmentalists are trying to go green even when it comes to death. They're planning for home funerals with handmade, biodegradable
caskets. Sixty-four-year-old Penny Rhodes, of Albany Township, says her family washed and dressed her father's body after he died and then wrapped him in a family quilt in his bed.
Her brother built a coffin out of plywood. The "green burial" movement promotes natural and ecologically friendly burial practices such as using wood and other materials that decompose with the body. A national group that advocates such earth-friendly practices, the Green Burial Council, now attracts nearly 120-thousand hits a month on its Web site.

MANSFIELD, Pa. (AP) - Football is returning at Mansfield University, which dropped its Division Two program last year because of budget constraints. Mansfield will join the non-scholarship Collegiate Sprint Football League, which limits players to no more than 172 pounds.
Other members include Navy, Army, Cornell, Penn and Princeton. University president Maravene Loeschke says the program will allow more students to play and cost far less to operate than a Division Two team. Mansfield was home of the first night outdoor college football game in America in 1892, when it played Wyoming Seminary.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A convicted bank robber suspected of killing two armored car guards in Philadelphia is being held without bail and has a preliminary hearing set for Wednesday.
Police say Mustafa Ali shot the two retired Philadelphia police officers at an ATM on Thursday without saying a word. He was arrested on an unrelated warrant Friday and later charged with two counts of murder, robbery, a firearms charge and other crimes after giving a statement.
While the gunman left with a bag of deposits, police do not think there was much money in it.
The Philadelphia police department has struggled to solve murder cases amid a "stop snitching" culture among criminals and witnesses. Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson thanked the public for offering tips in the case.