Today's News- Tuesday, November 27th

Three people escaped injury in a Monday morning crash in North Manheim Township. Cars driven by Debra Moyer of Jonestown and Robert Guzick of Pottsville were driving south on Route 61. Moyer attempted to make a lane change and failed to see Guzick's car in the passing lane. Moyer's car struck Guzick's. After impact, Moyer's car spun 90 degrees and came to final rest at the intersection of Richard Street and Route 61. The crash happened before 9am Monday.

As of the close of business Monday, the November 6th election has been certified. In a press release from Election Bureau Director Betty Dries, five days have elapsed since the completion of the computation of votes. There were no petitions filed for a recount or recanvass filed, so the vote was certified.

State police at Frackville are looking for a Topton man for violating a protection from abuse order. Dawn Staller of Mertztown was staying at a relative's home in East Brunswick Township when Brian Staller was seen at the property, in violation of a standing PFA against him. Staller was spotted at the home on several occasions. If anyone knows the whereabouts of Staller, contact Frackville State Police at 874-5300.

A New York man, already serving jail time for a shooting in Tamaqua last year, will not be charged further on other counts by county prosecutors. Kareen Mills is serving 12 to 25 years for the shooting in Kelly Dalessio's apartment in March, 2006, as sentenced earlier this month by Judge Charles Miller. However, Mills will not be charged for perjury and false swearing, according to the Republican and Herald. Those charges stem from a bail hearing in the case.

A federal prison inmate will have to serve additional jail time for assaulting a prison guard earlier this year. Felix Sandoval was sentenced by a federal magistrate after pleading guilty to assault, resisting and impeding federal guards and other offenses. He struck a prison guard in March. According to Republican and Herald, Sandoval is serving his 70-month sentence for coming back into the country after deportation.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) - A federal judge in Camden, New Jersey, holds a hearing today on the case of five men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix. Three of the defendants are seeking release from a high-security prison at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. They say they're being denied the right to see all the evidence against them. Defense lawyers say the three should be moved to the prison's general population -- or at least receive the same rights as those inmates. The men face life in prison if convicted of conspiring to murder
military personnel. A sixth man pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to provide weapons to the group.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania lawmakers and other top state officials will see their salaries increase this weekend. The so-called cost-of-living adjustment of 3.5 percent is aimed
at making up for inflation. As of Saturday, the 253 legislators will each get raises of at
least $2,550 a year that will push their salaries to more than $76,000 a year. Top executive branch officials will also get raises. Gov. Ed Rendell's salary will rise to more than $170,000.
Pennsylvania's 1,000 judges are expected to get similar raises in January.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - An Ivy League professor faces a likely prison sentence of 4 1/2 to seven years for bludgeoning his wife to death last year. University of Pennsylvania economics professor Rafael Robb pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for killing his wife, Ellen, on December 22nd as she was wrapping Christmas presents last year. Robb says the two were talking about a trip his wife was going to take with their 12-year-old daughter. He says the argument grew heated, his wife pushed him, and he "just lost it" and beat her to death with a chin-up bar. University officials say they have asked for Robb's immediate resignation.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A doctor and his wife facing deportation because of a long-ago mistake on their immigration paperwork have been given a 60-day reprieve. Dr. Pedro Servano and his wife, Salvacion, were allowed to return home yesterday while lawyers seek political support for them to remain in the country. Attorney Gregg Cotler says no deportation date has been set,
which he calls "very hopeful." But an immigration spokesman says the Servanos were informed of their obligation to begin making arrangements to leave the country pursuant to the government's final deportation order. The Servanos are parents of four U.S. citizens and prominent members of their central Pennsylvania community. But they could be deported to their native Philippines because of a change in their marital status during their visa-application process more than 20 years ago. Cotler says all appeals have been exhausted, and their last hope is for Congress to pass special legislation allowing them to stay.

ALBION, Pa. (AP) - Authorities are still searching for a convicted murder who escaped from a medium-security prison in northwestern Pennsylvania. State police say 53-year-old Malcolm Kysor got away from State Correctional Institution-Albion by hiding in a garbage can. He was
discovered missing during a routine check Sunday afternoon. Kysor has been serving a life sentence since 1988 for an early 1980s murder in Erie County. He was moved to the State Correctional Institution-Albion in April. The prison houses about 2,300 inmates and is located just outside downtown Albion, a small town about 20 miles southwest of Erie. Albion is about 10 miles northeast of Pierpont, Ohio, the border town where Kysor's victim lived. A lockdown is still in effect at the prison. The FBI has announced an unspecified reward for information leading to his capture.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A former civilan employee at Tobyhanna Army Depot is charged with accepting more than $80,000 in illegal payments from a British defense contractor. Sixty-year-old Richard Feola pleaded not guilty to 27 charges, including acceptance of unlawful gratuities and money laundering. He worked as an information technology specialist at the army
depot in northeastern Pennsylvania until his retirement earlier this year. Prosecutors say he prepared bid documents seeking the purchase of computer equipment from Thruput Limited, based in Bristol, England. They say the company got eight contracts totaling more than $300,000, and the company owner paid Feola more than $83,000.

STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) - A man tearfully apologized before he was sentenced in Monroe County Court to 15 to 40 years in the death of his ex-girlfriend six years ago. Forty-year-old Mark Miller pleaded guilty last month to third-degree murder in the murder of 37-year-old Helen Biank on Halloween in 2001 in Barrett Township. Miller told relatives and friends in court yesterday that he was sorry to have taken "someone so beautiful away from this world."
The prosecutor says Miller has called the death an accident but the facts don't bear that out. He says Biank was shot in the back of the head at close range, and Miller then tried to cover his
tracks. Miller's attorney says he will ask the judge to reconsider the sentence. He says his client "ultimately accepted responsibility for what happened."

ERIE, Pa. (AP) - An Erie County woman whose husband is charged with shooting another man to death has now been charged with murder herself. The Erie County District Attorney's office accuses Crystal Sherlock of murder as an accomplice and conspiracy to commit murder in the Nov. 20 death of 28-year-old Kenneth Himrod. She had been charged with hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence. Police say she drove her husband to the shooting and helped hide the gun. Thirty-three-year-old Terry Sherlock, of Corry, is charged with
murder and related charges. Himrod was being investigated on allegations of molesting Terry
Sherlock's son. Police say Sherlock told them that he would kill Himrod because he felt investigators weren't doing enough.

GRANVILLE, Pa. (AP) - Two people were found dead after a mobile home fire in Mifflin County that authorities are calling suspicious. Firefighters responded to the report of the blaze off Route 522 in Granville Township shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday. After dousing the flames, they found the bodies of 33-year-old Jason Specht, of Lewistown, and 43-year-old Sherry Jo Leonard, of Three Springs. The cause of the fire is under investigation. But the township's
police chief, James Carter, calls it suspicious based on something found in the bedroom. He has declined to say exactly what the piece of evidence was. Mifflin County Coroner Daniel Lynch says it appears the victims died of smoke inhalation, but an autopsy will done to determine the
cause of death.

BERLIN, Pa. (AP) - A Somerset County hunter is dead after a fall from a tree stand.
Fifty-six-year-old Roger Deem, of Meyersdale, died on the first day of rifle deer season after falling about 20 feet from a stand in Brothersvalley Township. State police call the death accidental. A Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman says a man in Irwin, Westmoreland County, shot himself in the foot with a rifle in Armstrong County. Spokesman Jerry Feaser also says yesterday's rainy weather made for challenging conditions. He says some hunters likely headed in early, while others stayed out despite the rain and fog. The season continues through Dec. 8.

ABINGTON, Pa. (AP) - Authorities accuse a 33-year-old woman of abandoning her infant grandson on a suburban Philadelphia doorstep on a cold night. Abington Township police tracked down Jacqueline Betha after finding out that she bought the clothes and blanket found with the baby on Nov. 8. Betha and her 17-year-old daughter told police that they planned
to drop the baby off at Abington Memorial Hospital, but got scared and left it at a home instead, knocking on the door before they left. The daughter had concealed her pregnancy. Betha was arraigned yesterday and released on $5,000 unsecured bail. No one answered the door at her home.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Top officials from more than 40 nations gather today at the U.S Naval Academy for what President Bush hopes will be the start of the first Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in seven years. A Palestinian official says the bargaining terms remain vague, but they are a work in progress.

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military says two people were killed in Baghdad today when American troops fired on a minibus that drove into an area limited to cars. They say the driver ignored a warning shot. Iraqi officials say as many as four people died.

DETROIT (AP) - The rising wave of foreclosures is costing major metropolitan areas billions of dollars, according to a report from the U.S Conference of Mayors. The mayors are meeting today in Detroit to find ways to tackle the housing crisis they say is turning vibrant neighborhoods into "ghost towns."

UNDATED (AP) - Striking stagehands and the theater producers have been talking through the night in hopes of ending a work stoppage that's keeping most of Broadway dark. And Hollywood
studios return to the bargaining table with striking writers later in the day.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The NFL was in such a hurry to start last night's Steelers-Dolphins game in Pittsburgh after a lightning delay that the national anthem was skipped. There was no apparent reaction from the fans. Pittsburgh won the game on a sloppy field, 3-0, leaving Miami winless, at 0-and-11.