Today's News-Friday, November 2nd

There are reports of a fire in Shenandoah this morning. The borough fire companies were called out to 121 Bower Street around 8:35. Crews had the blaze under control quickly and began wrapping up operations an hour or so later. No word on what caused the fire as yet.

A New York man, convicted of aggravated assault and other offenses from an incident in Tamaqua last year, will spend time in state prison. Kareem Mills, who fired a gun inside his ex-girlfriend's apartment in Tamaqua, was sentenced to 12 to 25 years in state prison, according to the Republican and Herald. Mills, who was convicted in September of aggravated assault, criminal trespass and discharging a firearm, was sentenced by Judge Charles Miller.

The nation's first coal-to-oil plant, being planned for our area, received important news this week. The hi-tech plant, being developed by Waste Management and Processors Incorporated near Gilberton, received approval to proceed forward in a report from the US Department of Energy. The Republican and Herald reports that the developers, the Rich family, now will focus on the final financing plans, which include government loans, tax credits and private financing. The price tag to construct the plant is in excess of $1-billion-dollars. The plant would use waste coal, which our area has an abundant supply of, to convert it into a usable fuel. The project has been in development for a number of years.

A local hospital has unveiled a state-of-the-art way to treat patients with severe trauma via video link. The Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center Emergency Department demonstrated a telemedicine system yesterday, linked with specialists at Lehigh Valley Hospital. Simply put, an audio and video system is set up at both locations, and Lehigh Valley doctors can monitor and assess severe trauma cases via the link, and help Good Sam staff provide appropriate, real-time care for patients. The system will help doctors to make decisions about transferring patients if the cases require it. Dr. Mohamed Meeran, Trauma Program Medical Director at Good Samaritan, talks about the benefits the tele-trauma system provides:

MEERAN

Good Sam hospital was granted Level Three trauma center status last month, the only hospital in Pennsylvania to receive it, through a rigorous standards process. That accreditation is good for one year.

It was a fun-filled, successful afternoon for the Schuylkill United Way yesterday, in the first Tug A Bug contest. The teams, sponsored by businesses and individuals, put up money for the Schuylkill United Way, and the grunt work was done by students and staff at Penn State Schuylkill, pulling a VW bug with a rope, measured by time and distance. The Bug was provided by J. Bertolet Volkswagen. The team sponsored by Bob Weaver Chevrolet won the tug competition, and the costume contest prize, worth $1-thousand-dollars to the United Way, was won by Penn State Schuylkill and an anonymous donor team. The Schuylkill United Way campaign, "We Are…Community Strong" is in the final three weeks of the 2008 effort, and are nearing the 60 percent mark of their $1-million-dollar goal.

The outgoing Schuylkill County Controller has been appointed to a position with a statewide group. Gary Hornberger, who did not seek re-election, has been appointed Schuylkill County coordinator of Pennsylvania for Marriage. The group made the announcement in a press release, stating that their mission is to seek an amendment to the state Constitution that would define marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman. That would exclude gay marriage. Hornberger will work closely with another area leader, Michael J. O'Connor, Esquire of Frackville, who is State Deputy of the Knights of Columbus, which has donated more than $300-thosuand-dollars,000 to the PA for Marriage initiative.

WEATHERLY, Pa. (AP) - Authorities say DNA from the exhumed bodyof a pregnant woman whose dismembered remains were disposed of in Carbon County more than 30 years ago will be sent to Texas foranalysis and comparison with an FBI database. State police hope the national database search may find a matchfor a relative, or possibly the woman herself, though state police Cpl. Thomas Williams acknowledges that may be a long shot. But hesays news of the exhumation has prompted some new tips to police. The woman, in her late teens or early 20s, was strangled, shot,dismembered and stuffed into suitcases that were flung from anInterstate 80 bridge in December 1976. The remains of the woman known as Beth Doe and her unborn baby have been laid to rest againin Lehigh Township. This time three ministers officiated and about 20 people attended the Thursday ceremony.

TREXLERTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A Fortune 500 biotechnology company plans to build a warehouse and distribution center in the Lehigh Valley. Amgen produces medications to treat patients with cancer, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases and other illnesses. Spokeswoman Anne McNickle says Amgen will build the facility on
26 acres at the Mill Run Corporate Center in Upper Macungie Township. It will serve the mid-Atlantic region. Lehigh County officials say the Thousand Oaks, California, based
company anticipates hiring about 40 people at the site. It will be in a Strategic Development Area signed into law by Gov. Ed Rendell granting a 15-year state tax exemption.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's top elections official says he will go to court to block an out-of-state nonprofit group from airing a television ad promoting a candidate for state Supreme Court. Secretary of State Pedro Cortes said the ad promoting Maureen
Lally-Green violates state election law because it is financed with corporate money. The law forbids the use of corporate funds to influence elections. The ad asks the public to "thank" Lally-Green for being tough on crime, not to vote for her. But Cortes says airing it in the week before the election clearly is an attempt to influence the vote. The ad is from a group called the Center for Individual Freedom. The organization describes the 30-second spot as part of a "public education effort."

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The judge who sentenced Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid's sons to jail noted that searches of the Reid family's home and vehicles found a long list of drugs, guns and ammunition. Police found a shotgun and hollow-point bullets along with cocaine, marijuana and OxyContin in the vehicle Britt Reid was driving during a January 30th road-rage encounter. Police found only weapons and ammunition - and not drugs – at the house. But the judge took note of Britt Reid's statement that
he once mistakenly grabbed a Vicodin tablet instead of health supplements out of a pill drawer at the home. The judge likened the coach's home to "a drug emporium" and
questioned whether Britt and Garrett Reid should live there, given their drug problems.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The state attorney general's office has won access to 20 boxes of records seized in an August search of the House Democratic research offices. The House Democratic caucus had challenged a ruling by the judge supervising an investigative grand jury that is looking into the bonuses. The state Supreme Court denied the caucus' petition today. Court filings by the Democrats, as well as the attorney general's office, are all sealed. The Supreme Court's four-sentence order said the decision was unanimous, but Justice Thomas Saylor did not participate.

BALTIMORE (AP) - A Pennsylvania man who won a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against protesters who picketed his son's funeral is urging other families to sue the group. A Baltimore jury awarded Albert Snyder of York nearly 11 million dollars in his suit against the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. He sued after members of the church protested at last year's funeral for his son, who was killed in Iraq. The church says the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq are a punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality. Snyder told NBC's "Today" show that the case "wasn't about the money." He said it was to set a precedent, so other people could sue the group. He added that his son died fighting for freedom for Iraqis, but not for hate speech. Even after the verdict against them, Westboro church members vowed to continue picketing funerals with signs that say "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."