Today's News-Tuesday, October 16th

LINK TO MAROONS PETITION http://www.petitiononline.com/Maroons


A city man was arrested on drug charges late last week. Pottsville police drug investigators say that 18-year-old Cory Simpson was picked up Thursday morning at his home on Spring Garden Street. Simpson reportedly sold marijuana to a confidential informant on two separate occasions. When police came to Simpson’s home, they discovered marijuana plants, bags of pot and drug paraphernalia. His parents, John and Cynthia Simpson, and his brother Kyle, were smoking pot in the home when they arrived. Simpson was arraigned on charges of delivery and possession of marijuana, misuse of a communication facility. He was remanded to the Schuylkill County Prison.

Schuylkill County District Attorney Jim Goodman is convening a seminar tomorrow to provide information to heighten the awareness of possible gang involvement by area youth. The seminar, being held at the Pottsville Club Wednesday morning, is open to law enforcement and school officials, and is being paid for by grant monies from the Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force, operating under the US Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Goodman told WPPA/T102 News that while the problem is not prevalent in our immediate area, it is all around us:

GOODMAN

The featured speaker will be Detective William Chalfant, a gang expert who is retired from the Lancaster City Bureau of Police. He served in the department’s Pattern and Violent Crimes Gang Unit.

Several alternative-energy projects proposed in our area are receiving grants from the state.
State Reps. Tim Seip and Neal Goodman announced the awarding of $2.5 million in state grants to help finance them. The projects can help to provide alternative means for generating energy to help reduce the dependence on foreign oil, as well as to create local jobs. The four projects vary in scope, from a soy-to-biodiesel plant in Porter Township, which will receive $400-thousand-dollars. Half-a-million dollars will aid construction of a landfill gas-to-electricity facility Foster and Hegins Township. One-million-dollars was granted to help a company open a solar-panel manufacturing facility in Delano Township. And $600-thousand-dollars will aid a wind-turbine project near Mahanoy City. All of the projects require private matching funds from the developers. The Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority is funding the grants.
The four local projects were among 24 approved by PEDA yesterday.

Sports network ESPN said they would jump on board in support of the Pottsville Maroons. Now, they have delivered. ESPN columnist David Fleming, who authored "Breaker Boys", about the 1925 NFL champions, told the crowd at Pottsville's home football game Friday night that the network would support an effort to have the NFL owners reconsider awarding the championship to the Maroons. According to the Republican and Herald, the petition is now available as a link to their website espn-dot-go-dot-com. However, the author clarified that ESPN is not backing the effort, rather they are allowing the link to appear on their site.
Last week’s Maroons celebration tied to the book release was extremely well-received by area residents, with long lines at several venues to purchase copies of "Breaker Boys" and to have them personally autographed by Fleming. To participate in the petition, you can log on to our websites (wpparadio-dot-com and t102radio-dot-com) and go to the Sports page.

State police have identified the two people who were hurt in a Sunday morning crash in West Penn Township. Troopers now say that the motorcycle driver was 44-year-old Craig Mittl of Kutztown, and his passenger was 39-year-old Tracy Bohner of Orwigsburg. Mittl's motorcycle struck the rear of a car driven by 79-year-old Edith Coombe of New Ringgold. She was turning left onto Spring Road from Route 443 when her Chevy van was hit. Mittl and Bohner were thrown from the bike on impact. Both were flown to St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem. Their conditions are not known due to patient privacy laws. State police at Frackville say that prosecution is pending further investigation.

The Tremont Municipal Authority has handed over ownership of their waste water treatment plant to the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority. In a ceremony yesterday, county officials were joined by members of the Tremont Municipal Authority and the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority to mark the change of ownership. A $9-million-dollar upgrade is underway at the facility, which serves Tremont borough and Frailey Township. The borough and township had to guarantee the $6.2-million-dollar loan from Penn Vest in event of default by the authority. At that point, they felt it would be in their community's best interest to turn ownership over to the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority, relieving the residents of a large financial burden. David Holley, General Manager of the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority stated that the maintenance and operating cost of the wastewater treatment facility will be less under their ownership. The upgrades are expected to be completed in January.

An Ashland woman was arrested over the weekend following the assault of a young girl at a convenience store in the borough. Saturday afternoon, the 7-year-old was standing in line at the UniMart, when for no apparent reason, she was assaulted by 49-year-old Coral Caseman.
Borough police were able to identify the woman by store surveillance tapes. When she was picked up, Caseman allegedly lied about her identity. She is charged with simple assault, disorderly conduct and making false identification to police. She was arraigned before District Judge Bernadette Nahas and was taken to Schuylkill County Prison. Police believe that Caseman and her victim did not know each other, and consider the incident a random act of violence.

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A fugitive accused of raping a three-year-old girl on videotape is in jail after being arrested near Las Vegas during a traffic stop last night. Chester Stiles was wanted on 21
felony counts. Police say he told an officer, "I'm tired of running."

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Authorities in Thailand say a man who's being sought in an international pedophile manhunt is at large in Bangkok. Christopher Neil was allegedly photographed abusing young boys. Thailand's neighbors have put border guards on alert.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin says nations surrounding Iran shouldn't offer to be staging grounds for an attack against the country. The comment was a reference to rumors that the U.S. might use Azerbaijan as a base for military action against Iran. Putin is in Tehran now to meet with the Iranian president.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - With one eye on the temperature and the other on oil prices, people who heat their homes with oil are nervous about their bills this winter. Crude is up another
dollar-plus a barrel this morning -- flirting with the $88 level. But Triple-A says gasoline is still averaging about $2.76 a gallon.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Britney Spears has turned herself in at a Los Angeles police station to be booked on charges of hit and run and driving without a valid license. Police say she was cooperative as she was photographed and fingerprinted last night.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The state House of Representatives has voted against a proposal to establish a commission to consider changes to the state constitution. Lawmakers in the House also voted against forcing a vote on a bill to shrink the size of the Legislature by one-fifth.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the Federal Trade Commission has approved the 120 million dollar merger of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh. The deal will give UPMC control of Pittsburgh's
oldest hospital. Mercy will become the 20th facility to join UPMC's network.

NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge is ordering a Pittsburgh company to stop selling software that lets users flood the Ticketmaster Web site with requests and snap up tickets in bulk, beating the humans who log in manually to buy tickets. U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction against RMG Technologies on Monday.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - No one was reported injured in a collision between two freight trains in Dauphin County. The mishap occurred just after 5 p.m. Monday in Swatara Township. The
township's fire marshal said the Norfolk Southern trains were not moving very fast, and no one was hurt. Cleanup crews said some diesel fuel spilled but they were able to contain it.

EMMAUS, Pa. (AP) - Organizers of the Emmaus High School junior prom say not all of the record 721 juniors can attend the May 3rd dance because there isn't enough room at the site, a hotel. The school is holding a fundraiser to help decide who will be allowed to go. Students who sell at least $60 worth of Yankee Candles by Friday will be given dibs on buying the first tickets.