Today's News-Wednesday, October 17th

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A Kingston woman died from injuries in a two vehicle crash on Interstate 81 in Ryan Township Tuesday morning. Laura Benussi was driving south on the Interstate near mile marker 127 when her car left the road and rear ended the trailer portion of a disabled rig operated by Mark Chapman of Hamilton Ontario, Canada. Chapman's truck was parked alongside the road with the hazard lights on. Benussi's car spun clockwise across the southbound lanes, and she was ejected from the vehicle. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The crash happened just before 8am Tuesday.

It will cost more for customers of Comcast cable to watch TV, after a rate increase takes effect next month. In a notice to customers, the Philadelphia-based cable company announced an average 5 percent rate increase for their various cable packages, including standard and basic cable, digital premier and digital starter packages. However, the high-speed internet, residential phone service and their combination package prices will remain unchanged.
The company raised rates on the standard cable package back in January. Comcast provides cable television services to a large number of subscribers in Schuylkill County.

Port Carbon police are investigating a case of animal cruelty in the borough yesterday. William Devers Jr. of Jackson Street reported that his black female cat was shot by an apparent pellet gun last night around 6pm. The owner said that the cat got out of the house accidentally and when it returned home, the animal was bleeding. An examination by a veterinarian indicated that it was shot in the stomach. The animal is in serious condition. Port Carbon police are asking anyone with information about this case of cruelty to contact them at 622-5411.

State police at Frackville are looking for a Middleport man, relating to an incident last night in the borough. Troopers were called to a Washington Street home around 6pm. 35-year-old James Lake was at the residence of Tonya Kerns, and refused to leave when asked. He fled the scene when police arrived. There is an active Protection from Abuse Order in effect against Lake, preventing him from coming to the house. He is charged with Indirect Criminal Contempt, and also faces similar charges from a previous incident. State police are continuing to look for Lake.

Palo Alto woman will receive a traffic citation for leaving a child unattended in a car in the borough on Monday evening. Borough police say that Christine Hosler apparently left a 4-year-old in a car alone. The child was able to get the car into gear and it crashed into a parked car on Park Street. Hosler will have 10 days to respond to the charges before District Judge David Plachko, according to police.

BEDFORD, Va. (AP) - Twenty-one schools in Bedford County, Virginia, will be closed for cleaning today after a student died from a penicillin-resistant staph infection. The decision came
after students upset about the death of Ashton Bonds took the schools superintendent on a tour of their high school yesterday to show how unclean it was.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is set to announce the size of the cost-of-living adjustment come January for millions of Americans who receive Social Security. Many experts expect it be around two percent, the smallest increase in four years.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senator Larry Craig, in an NBC interview that aired last night, says he was entrapped in a sex sting at an airport men's room. The Idaho Republican told Matt Lauer that deciding not to tell his wife or children about the arrest right away was a "tough call." He's still fighting to withdraw a disorderly conduct guilty plea.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Police in Thailand are in an all-out manhunt today for a Canadian schoolteacher suspected of being a pedophile. Authorities think Christopher Neil is the same man whose digitally blurred image has appeared in about 200 Internet photos showing young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys being sexually abused.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says visiting Jesus' traditional birthplace today was a "very special and moving experience." Rice continues her Mideast trip, where she's urging Israel and the Palestinians to move toward resuming formal peace talks.

VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says his faith plays little role in his work life. Speaking yesterday at Villanova University, Scalia said he views both the law and his Roman Catholic faith through a prism of strict conservatism. But he said his job is only to determine the intent of the Constitution's framers -- not to contort the text to fit his
religious beliefs. Scalia joined the bench in 1986. He now serves on a court that for the first time in U.S. history is predominantly Catholic. The other Catholic members are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Dozens of anti-violence marchers, led by gunshot survivors in wheelchairs, rallied in Philadelphia for stricter firearms laws. Carrying signs and chanting slogans, they called on state legislators to pass laws that would limit handgun purchases to one
per month and require gun owners to report when weapons are lost or stolen. About 60 people representing a variety of gun control, community service and religious groups tied up noontime traffic downtown yesterday. They walked the half-mile from Magee Rehabilitation Hospital to
a state office building for the rally.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Two Pennsylvania agencies have signed a 50-year lease to turn Interstate 80 into a toll road and have applied to the federal government for approval to add the collection booths. Legislators approved the move in July. Under the agreement, the
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission would lease I-80 from the state Department of Transportation and generate 116 billion dollars over 50 years for highway and mass transit projects throughout the state. Federal Highway Administration spokeswoman Nancy Singer says the agency has received Pennsylvania's paperwork, but she can't say when a decision will be made. The turnpike commission is scheduling public meetings about the tolls along the I-80 corridor.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A son of Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid is back back in jail after missing a drug test. Prosecutors and his attorney say he didn't show up for a
scheduled test on Monday. The 24-year-old Reid is required to submit to random drug tests
while awaiting sentencing on drug charges. He admitted using heroin when he ran a red light and hit another car in January. He tested positive for a small amount of morphine in August, and a Montgomery County judge barred him from driving but allowed him limited leave from his family's home in Villanova. Reid's 22-year-old brother, Britt, remains jailed in an
unrelated case after violating his bail conditions.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A woman accused of cursing at her overflowing toilet within earshot of a neighbor says she will plead not guilty to a disorderly conduct charge. Dawn Herb, of Scranton, could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300. The American Civil Liberties Union of
Pennsylvania is expected to represent her in court today. Herb doesn't remember exactly what she said Thursday night, but she admitted letting more than a few choice words fly near an open bathroom window. Police say Herb's next-door neighbor, a city police officer who
was off-duty at the time, asked her to keep it down. When she continued, the officer called police.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Police say a man who claimed to be a New York City detective stole more than $500 in video games from a store at the Lehigh Valley Mall. Police say 23-year-old Samuel Weeks Junior of Ridgewood, New York, placed 10 video games in a backpack while he was in Game Stop around 6 p.m. on October 9th. After he was arrested, authorities say Weeks claimed to be a detective with the New York City police, but a department spokesman says no one by that name works there. Weeks has been arraigned on charges of retail theft and sent to
Lehigh County Prison under $5,000 bail.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The former head of a Pittsburgh company that sold prepaid funeral supplies will spend 77 months in prison for ripping off hundreds of clients for about 2.5 million dollars. Federal prosecutors say 39-year-old Joseph Stabile of Forest Hills cheated customers by not delivering vaults and caskets -- including one to a family whose loved one had to be laid on a table for viewing. Stabile was sentenced yesterday after pleading guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and other crimes while he was president and CEO of Celestial Burial Case Company.
The company had offices in Pittsburgh and Greensburg and marketed its services primarily to senior citizens and especially veterans through the Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS and the
American Legion.

CLAIRTON, Pa. (AP) - A 15-year-old Clairton boy has been arrested on charges that he robbed and killed an 82-year-old woman who lived nearby. Johnie Washington the 3rd is charged as an adult with robbery, theft and criminal homicide. He was awaiting arraignment after his arrest yesterday by Allegheny County police. Neighbors found Florence Ranta on her living room floor on October 6th. Police say she had been stabbed in the head and neck and died four days later.
Washington lived around the corner from the woman. Her car was missing the day she was robbed, but was found a short time later.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh man charged with taunting a police dog is free and will likely have his charges dismissed. Twenty-three-year-old Kenneth King spent nine days in jail
because he couldn't post $100,000 bail after his arrest October 7th. Police say King taunted and threatened to kill Benny, a German shepherd. King says he yelled at the dog because it barked and startled him when he walked past a police vehicle. Taunting police animals
is a felony under Pennsylvania's animal cruelty law. King's attorney, James Ecker, says the bail was unreasonably high and an Allegheny County judge agreed, releasing King without
bond Tuesday. Allegheny County prosecutors say they'll dismiss the charge once
King takes anger management classes.

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) - A Washington County woman whose family told police she was depressed about having another baby boy is charged with shaking the child so violently that he likely will never walk, talk or see. State police say 24-year-old Jennifer Lynn Proctor shook
3-week-old Wyatt Miller causing three skull fractures and irreversible brain damage.
Police say Proctor's mother urged her to take the boy to the hospital in mid-July because he was lethargic. Doctors thought the boy had an infection before tests revealed the skull fractures and brain damage. Police say they arrested Proctor on Tuesday on aggravated assault and other charges and that she has since acknowledged shaking the boy. She is free on bond. The boy and two siblings are staying with their father.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsylvania House of Representatives wants Major League Baseball to retire Roberto Clemente's number 21. By passing a resolution yesterday, the lawmakers became the latest group to argue that Clemente should be honored in the same
way that Jackie Robinson was for breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947.
Robinson's number 42 was retired for all teams on April 15th, 1997, the 50th anniversary of his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Clemente's Hall of Fame career with the Pittsburgh Pirates began in 1955 and ended in 1972 when he died in a plane crash while trying to deliver relief supplies following an earthquake in Nicaragua.

OAKDALE, Pa. (AP) - An Army commissary outside Pittsburgh that serves about 160,000 retired and active military personnel will stay open until 2011 -- and the Army plans to recommend a new one be built to replace it. Congressmen Mike Doyle, Tim Murphy and Jason Altmire made the announcement yesterday after meeting with Defense Department officials in Washington. The Pennsylvania delegation had previously secured assurances that the Charles E. Kelly Military Support Facility in Oakdale would stay open through September 2009 -- a year longer than the Defense Department's original plans. The Congressmen say 4 million dollars has been budgeted for a new commissary, but they have to find more funding because a new commissary is expected to cost more than 8 million dollars.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - An eastern Pennsylvania coal mine operator whose business was hit with record fines has committed suicide at one of his mines. David Himmelberger was the owner of the R&D Coal Company in Schuylkill County. The county coroner says Himmelberger died of a gunshot wound early yesterday. His attorney says Himmelberger had been under stress following a fatal explosion at the company's Buck Mountain Slope Mine in Tremont.
R&D was the first mining company cited for flagrant violations under new federal rules set out in 2006. Congress had boosted mine-safety fines after a series of miner deaths. R&D was fined $874,500 following the October 2006 death of 43-year-old miner Dale Reightler of Donaldson. Attorney Adele Abrams says the company will continue to fight the fines in court.