Today's News-Tuesday, October 9th

By Allie Raring:

At Monday night's Pottsville City Council meeting, the city's census, which will be completed in 2010, was discussed. Next month, the city will begin to add new addresses to the list. Craig Becker, owner of Becker Roofing Company, was acknowledged for purchasing the Pottsville Police Department's first Taser. His brother, is a member of the city's police force and was trained how to use the weapon. Along with the Taser donated by the Becker Roofing Company, the Pottsville Housing Authority also supplied the police department with one. The chief of Pottsville's police department, Joseph Murton, commented that in other cities, the number of officers injured on duty has rapidly decreased due to the fact that their forces own and use Tasers. October 10th through 12th will hold local activities to honor the Pottsville Maroons NFL football team. The three day occasion, dubbed Maroons Week, will hold events such as book signings by the author of "Breaker Boys", Dave Fleming, including a meet and greet with him. There will also be a pre-game presentation at the Pottsville High football game against Shamokin.

Another step to recovery of a Schuylkill Haven fire company took place yesterday. Schuylkill Hose Company Number 2, which suffered a multi-million dollar fire on September 12th, saw the three vehicles that were destroyed in the blaze removed from their firehouse yesterday, and sent on their way to an impound lot for further investigation. The Republican and Herald reports that the vehicles, two fire trucks and a haz-mat trailer were removed so company personnel could continue the cleanup and recovery process. One of the engines is suspected of being the cause of the fire. The support of the fire community in the county and around the country has been overwhelming, with offers of equipment and monetary contributions to help Schuylkill Hose rebuild. The company has been back in service for several weeks with borrowed trucks, and have responded to a number of calls since. The Schuylkill Hose Number 2 is known as "Tuff 2", and they certainly show that toughness while they continue to recover from the devastating fire.

A Schuylkill Haven woman escaped injury when her car was involved in a crash in Pine Grove Township yesterday morning. Kara Riegel was driving west on Route 443, east of Berger Road, when a deer ran across the road. Her Ford Taurus had moderate damage. The crash happened after 7am Monday. Motorists are urged to watch for deer running at this time of the year, due to archery hunting season, and their increased movement as they move into their mating season.

Schuylkill Haven state police are investigating a burglary at the Schuylkill County Fairgrounds recently. Sometime between September 24th and 25th, unknown thieves climbed up on picnic tables to reach the rafters in a building and removed 30 feet of copper piping used to supply water to the building. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information should contact Schuylkill Haven state police at 593-2000.

A Pottsville man is charged with simple assault following an incident in North Manheim Township. State police at Schuylkill Haven just reported that Arthur Westcoat and Kerry Westcoat, Seven Stars Road, were involved in a physical altercation on Friday afternoon, September 29th. Kerry Westcoat was injured in the incident. Arthur Westcoat was charged with simple assault, did not post bail and was committed to Schuylkill County Prison.

An Allentown woman was arrested on drug related charges as the result of a traffic stop Saturday in Rush Township. Township police say that 44-year-old Catherine Altmonti was a passenger in a car operated by Joseph Martinson of Barnesville Saturday afternoon when they were stopped by officers. Almonti was found to have cocaine and heroin in her possession, along with other drug paraphernalia and cash. She was charged with various drug offenses, along with resisting arrest. A second passenger, 38-year-old Annalisa Polusky, was charged with possessing needles. The driver faces summary traffic violations.

A Minersville woman was involved in a crash early this morning near Schuylkill Mall, then fled the scene. Frackville state police have just reported that Krystal Thompson was driving south on Route 61 near the Mall Road ramp when she lost control on a curve. The car left the roadway and hit two road signs and a fence. Troopers say that Thompson left the scene and failed to notify them about the crash. The investigation continues and charges are pending.

More details have been released about the National Children’s Study that will involve children from Schuylkill County. The National Institutes of Health announced last week that the county, in addition to New Castle County, Delaware, were added to the study. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Drexel University College of Medicine will manage the study sites. Investigators anticipate approximately 1-thousand-families in Schuylkill County will participate in the study, following children from before birth until age 21. Nationwide, the study will follow about 100-thousand children, seeking information to prevent and treat some of the nation's most pressing health problems, including autism, birth defects and obesity. The Pottsville Hospital and Warne Clinic, and Penn State/Hershey Medical center will be participants. The National Children's Study is the first and largest long-term study of children's health ever conducted in the US, according to Jennifer Culhane, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Drexel.

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - Federal authorities in Washington state will investigate a plane crash that apparently killed all ten people on board on Sunday. Seven bodies were found last night at
the crash site in the Cascade mountains.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Car bombs have killed about 30 people in Iraq today. At least 18 died in two blasts in a northern city, Beiji. And at least 10 have been killed in two Baghdad attacks.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Two men are sharing this year's Nobel Prize in physics. France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg are receiving the prize for technology that is used to read information from computer hard drives. It has made it possible to miniaturize hard disks in recent years.

SEATTLE (AP) - New research says Tasers and similar stun guns are generally safe for police to use. Researchers reviewed almost 1,000 cases and found nearly all resulted in no injuries or just minor ones. But an expert at Wake Forest University says the devices are still "serious weapons" with the potential to injure or kill.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A man who went into a Pittsburgh grocery store looking for change for a one million dollar bill came out in handcuffs. Officials say the man was arrested after flying into a rage because a cashier wouldn't accept the bogus bill. He remains in jail.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A 15-year-old boy who reportedly went after a Philadelphia police officer with an improvised weapon has been shot dead by police. Public affairs spokesman Lieutenant Frank Vanore describes the teen as being armed with "an object in his hand that he was using as a weapon." Police were responding to a domestic-disturbance call yesterday
in the Lawncrest neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia when they encountered the teen.
Vanore says the teenager was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center after being shot.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Today is the last day to register to vote for next month's general election. There are statewide races for the state Supreme and Superior courts. Also, there are many races for local offices such as county commission, mayor and city council.
Voter registration forms are available at a number of places, including PennDOT Photo and Driver License Centers and armed services recruitment offices. You can also download a registration form by going online at http://www.votespa.com/.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - House Democratic leader Bill DeWeese says a review he ordered in July "uncovered information" about a former state representative working as a consultant to House Democrats. DeWeese says he ordered the information about Frank LaGrotta to be turned over to the attorney general's office. DeWeese spokesman Tom Andrews says DeWeese terminated LaGrotta's employment effective July 31st because of that information, but he
declines to elaborate. This comes after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that
LaGrotta told investigators that the Democratic caucus used legislative staffers for partisan political work. LaGrotta is a Beaver County Democrat. He served 10 terms before
he lost the Democratic primary in 2006.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Comcast Corporation is moving part of its Versus sports channel operations from Stamford, Connecticut, to its Philadelphia headquarters. The cable operator says 100 of the network's roughly 200 out-of-state employees have been offered jobs in Philadelphia starting next summer. Technical workers will stay at the Versus studios in Stamford. Once called the Outdoor Life Network, Versus is a national sports that features National Hockey League games and the Tour de France, among other sports coverage.
Comcast also says it's going to air a new one-hour weekly show on Versus called "Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller." It will debut November 6th.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Teachers at a Pittsburgh-area school district have authorized a strike after a one-year deadlock in contract negotiations. The Seneca Valley School District's 575 teachers are set to begin their strike on October 15th. A prolonged strike is forbidden by a state law that requires strikes to end in time to give students 180 days of instruction.
The teachers have been working without a contract since June 2006. Teachers and the school board have gone back and forth on various salary issues in the past year, but have failed to reach a deal.

ERIE, Pa. (AP) - Lake Erie Biofuels is launching its operations today in a new 50 million dollar plant that is expected to be one of the five largest biodiesel producers in the country.
The Erie County plant will have an annual production capacity of about 45 million gallons.
The grand opening comes as other Pennsylvania biodiesel fuel producers are complaining that without more financial incentives and tax breaks they will be unable to compete nationally.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pittsburgh is on the 3-D map. Joining the likes of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Pittsburgh is now one of 14 cities that Web users can see in three
dimensions. Using a program called Google Maps' Street View, viewers can navigate the city with the help of a virtual human dropped into a cyberspace image of the area. Moving forward, backward and even full-circle, viewers get a complete image of the area they are surfing.
The images are not live. They come from collections of photos taken by people who drove down city streets with special cameras. Street View product manager Stephen Chau says Google has
established a process for removing any images that captured objectionable scenes.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A tourism area in north-central Pennsylvania has won an award from the nation's largest association of travel writers. The area called the Pennsylvania Wilds was given one of four Phoenix Awards by the Society of American Travel Writers because of
the Wilds' conservation and preservation efforts. The Pennsylvania Wilds is made up of 12 counties unified by an intensive tourism campaign. The area offers scenic drives, outdoors activities, wildlife, parks, small towns and what the state promotes as the darkest night
skies in the East. The counties involved are McKean, Clinton, Lycoming, Warren,
Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Potter and Tioga. The award was announced Monday at the society's conference in England.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Penn State is building a new testing center. It's designed to give professors more flexibility in grading and putting together lesson plans. But it also happens to be perhaps the most comprehensive effort in the country to discourage cheating. Students must swipe their IDs through a card reader that brings up their picture at a security station before they can scoot through a turnstile. They must then check in at a desk where an attendant gives them a printout that assigns them their station. The printout, which includes a picture of the test-taker, is then placed on top of the computer station. It also includes information such as whether the test-taker can have a textbook or scratch paper for the exam.