Today's News-Wednesday, October 10th

The man behind the book "Breaker Boys", a story about the Pottsville Maroons 1925 Championship season, will meet and greet with fans today as part of Maroons Week.
Author David Fleming, a senior writer at ESPN-dot-com, will begin a whirlwind series of events today, beginning at 10:30am at Pottsville City Hall. Fleming and his family have journeyed from North Carolina to sign books and take part in all of the festivities surrounding the "Breaker Boys" release. This afternoon at the Schuylkill County Historical Society, Fleming will autograph books from 4 to 6pm, then its on to the Sovereign Majestic Theatre for a showing of the NFL Films story about the Pottsville Maroons at 7. The evening closes with a social time at the Greystone Restaurant. Thursday is another full day of book signings, and the Big Band Night at Pine View Acres, with the music of the Bob Crosby BobCats from 7 to 10pm. Proceeds from the event will benefit Pottsville Lasting Legacy. Fleming will be honored at a pre-game ceremony at Veterans Stadium Friday night, before the Shamokin/Pottsville game. All of the events surrounding Maroons Week are posted on our websites, wpparadio-dot-com and t102radio-dot-com, under the Sports tab.

A strong cold front brought a long line of showers and thunderstorms to parts of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Tennessee Valley, and the Southeast last evening. Areas in the Northeast experienced a few strong to severe storms, which produced frequent lightning, and damaging wind gusts. Thunderstorm wind damage was reported for many areas, such as Binghamton, New York, and Rush, Pennsylvania. Heavy rain fell for some areas, such as Hamburg, Pennsylvania, where 1-point-11 inches of rain was recorded in 45 minutes. Even hail was reported in Port Crane, New York. Cool high pressure has now settled into the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, with dry conditions.

The southbound lane of I-81 was closed last night for four hours following a crash. Ibrahim Barrie of Maryland was driving south on the Interstate near mile marker 108 when someone cut him off, causing his vehicle to swerve. Barrie's vehicle hit the guiderail, forcing the closure of that lane of travel for cleanup and investigation. The crash happened after 6pm.

A crash of a line painting truck near Gettysburg Monday claimed the life of a New Ringgold man. Troopers from the Gettysburg barracks report that 44-year-old Mark Dehart lost control of the truck he was driving on State Route 15 in Tyrone Township. The Republican and Herald reports that the truck left the road, went into a drainage ditch and became airborne and hit a tree as it overturned. Dehart was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger, Larry Wagner of Tamaqua, suffered minor injuries. The truck belonged to Midlantic Markings of Maryland, a company that paints lines on the road. The crash happened around 6:30am Monday.

The borough council in one Schuylkill County community is warning residents to be alert to daylight break-ins in their community. Tremont police continue the investigation into several burglaries and attempted break-ins over the past two weeks, according to the Republican and Herald. At Tuesday's council meeting, residents were cautioned to be alert for any suspicious activity, and to report those incidents to Tremont police immediately.

A Klingerstown woman was arrested by Hegins Township police on several warrants last week.
20-year-old Samantha Stehr was wanted for writing bad checks, as well as possessing a small amount of marijuana and alcoholic beverages. She was granted bail on those charges in the amount of $15-thousand-dollars, 10 percent bail. On Friday, Stehr was arraigned on charges of burglarizing the Hegins Service Station in September. Police say that most of the merchandise stolen in those thefts was recovered. Once again, bail was set, this time in the amount of $50-thousand-dollars, 10 percent bail. Additional arrests are pending.

No one was injured in a two vehicle crash on Route 61 yesterday. William McGinn of Shenandoah was transporting two students from Schuylkill Haven High School, traveling north on 61 when the car collided with Davinder Singh’s vehicle, which was making a left turn onto Tunnel Road from the left southbound lane of the highway near Fairlane Village Mall. The impact forced McGinn's car to hit a stop sign at the Eyeland Optical parking lot. Both vehicles had to be towed from the scene.

Governor Ed Rendell has declared today, "Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day", as part of a national safety campaign. As part of the declaration, Pennsylvania’s chief executive reminds drivers to slow down and keep safe driving in mind as they hit the roads. According to PennDOT, 1,525 people lost their lives and more than 96-thousand were injured on Pennsylvania roads in 2006. PennDOT urges motorists to follow these safe driving tips:

Always buckle your seatbelt.
Don’t tailgate. Always maintain a safe distance between vehicles.
Watch your blind spots and the “No Zones” around trucks and buses.
Keep your eyes on the road.
Avoid aggressive drivers and driving aggressively.
Use headlights when wipers are in use, it’s the law.
Never Drink and Drive

DETROIT (AP) - The United Auto Workers union and Chrysler are still talking as the union's strike deadline of 11 a.m. Eastern time nears. If there's no contract and the walkout takes place, it would affect 49,000 workers at 24 U.S. plants and other sites.

BAGHDAD (AP) - The latest shooting involving a foreign security company working in Baghdad may sharpen the government's demands to cut down on the number of such firms in Iraq. Guards working for an Australian-owned security organization fired on a car approaching
its convoy. Two women civilians died. Iraq's government calls the action "reckless."

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - A nurse charged along with seven guards in the death of a teen at a Florida boot camp says she did everything she could to prevent his death. A video shows the guards hitting and kneeing the boy because he would not exercise. The guards say they followed procedure and the nurse says the boy was able to answer questions.

ATLANTA (AP) - Not only does suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick find himself unemployed and possibly facing prison time, he may have to repay nearly 20 million dollars of the bonus money he got. But the players' union says it will appeal a judge's ruling that he return the money he got while secretly paying for an illegal dogfighting operation.

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Chicago culinary arts student is the winner of a chicken-wings-eating contest in Las Vegas, beating out two hot dog champs. Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti ate 4.1 pounds of chicken meat in eight minutes to win $25,000. He says the wings were just warm and soft enough to quickly squish the meat off the bones.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Members of the professors' and coaches' union have voted to approve tentative contracts with the State System of Higher Education. Vote counts were released last night following voting on the various campuses last week. The system's board of governors is scheduled to vote on the agreements tomorrow.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A bar association report gives suggestions for making Pennsylvania's death penalty system more fair. The report says all confessions should be taped, biological
evidence should better preserved and more money should be spent on legal defense.
A five-member team under the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project spent two and a half years studying how capital murder cases are investigated and tried in Pennsylvania. The report warns that Pennsylvania's application of the death penalty is inconsistent. It found that people convicted of murders with similar circumstances often receive very different sentences.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Former state-Supreme Court justice Rolf Larsen, who was impeached and removed from office in 1994, is suing to get pension benefits. Larsen claims he was wrongly denied full pension benefits by the State Employees' Retirement System. The suit says in 1989 -- before his removal from office -- the retirement system enacted a "secret" management directive. He says that enabled fired employees to file for a conditional retirement status while challenging their firing. The suit says if the fired employee lost the challenge, the directive provided pension benefits retroactive to the filing of the conditional application. Larsen was convicted in 1994 of conspiracy for using the names of court employees on his prescription drug purchases. He said at the time he wanted to keep his treatment for chronic depression
private.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The second funeral from last week's armored truck slayings in Philadelphia is set for today. Sixty-five-year-old William Widmaier is to be buried in suburban
Philadelphia. Yesterday, about 300 turned out for the funeral of 54-year-old Joseph Alullo.
Both men were retired Philadelphia police officers working for an armored truck companies. They were shot dead last week while servicing an ATM in the city's Rhawnhurst section. A suspect was arrested Friday.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia's police commissioner says he has "a lot of questions" about the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy who allegedly wielded a clothes iron at two
officers during a family disturbance. Commissioner Sylvester Johnson told reporters he will "let the chips fall where they may" after an internal investigation of the actions of the veteran officers who were called to the boy's home Monday. Johnson says the boy was holding a knife and a hammer and was struggling with his mother when police arrived. The boy later
picked up the iron, an item that Johnson says could prove deadly had he thrown it at the officers. Philadelphia police have been criticized for their use of deadly force. Last year, police fatally shot 20 people. The teen killed Monday, Ronald Timbers, is the 14th person killed by Philadelphia police this year.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The charitable trust that controls The Hershey Company says it isn't satisfied with the company's lackluster performance, and is working to improve it. The Hershey Trust board's strongly worded statement was obtained by The Associated Press. It comes the week after Hershey's chairman and chief executive Richard Lenny abruptly announced he would leave the company by the end of the year. The statement says the Hershey Company has been underperforming both the market and its own stated expectations. Hershey is in the midst of closing six North American plants and shifting production to Mexico, India and China.
It has yet to recover from its stumble last fall that left stores backed up with its older products.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Aluminum producer Alcoa says its third-quarter profit edged up more than 3 percent, helped by the sale of its stake in China's largest aluminum maker. But the results fell short of Wall Street expectations. Net income for the period ended September 30th grew to 555 million dollars, or 63 cents per share. That's up from 537 million dollars, or 61 cents per share, during the same period last year. The results were limited by charges linked to planned asset sales and restructuring, higher petroleum and energy costs, and other
costs. Revenue fell to 7.39 billion dollars from 7.63 billion during the year-ago period.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had predicted earnings of 65 cents per share on $7.40 billion in revenue.