Today's News - Saturday Dec. 8, 2007

RYAN TOWNSHIP - A crash injures two in Schuylkill County. Troopers say two people from Ontario, Canada were hurt in a one car crash along southbound Interstate 81 in Ryan Township just before 1:30 Friday afternoon. The car went off the highway and into the median and rolled several times. 78-year old Gordon Bennett and 79-year old Barbara Campbell were both wearing seatbelts and were injured. They were both taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Pottsville for treatment of undisclosed injuries.

CRESSONA - Another week, another truck gets stuck under the railroad bridge in Cressona. Yesterday morning, a trucker from Alabama was driving north on Route 183 when the rig became wedged under the 11 foot, 8 inch underpass. According to state police, 22-year-old Thomas Aveary was unfamiliar to the area, and wasn’t able to stop in time when he came upon the bridge. One eyewitness told WPPA News that the vehicle was backed out of the predicament under his own power. The crash happened around 1am. This is the 22nd crash at the scene this year.

POTTSVILLE - More activities are in store today for the author of the “Breaker Boys: book about the Pottsville Maroons. Observing the 82nd anniversary of the 1925 team over the Chicago Cardinals, and winning the NFL championship, the author is in the midst of his second swing through the area. A pep rally is scheduled for tonight. Representatives Tim Seip and Neal Goodman, along with Pottsville officials are planning a celebration tonight at the Schuylkill YMCA, the former National Guard Armory. Seip says that the site is where the Pottsville Maroons conducted a walk through of their game plan prior to departing for Chicago in 1925.
The rally will include a pep band from Minersville and Nativity High School, a color guard from the Hegins Civil Air Patrol cadets, the Star Spangled Banner sung by Tom Guastavino, Schuylkill County Idol winner. Mayor John Reiley will offer comments during the program, and skits will take place with author Dave Fleming providing the narration. Students from Penn State Schuylkill will also participate. A mixer will be held at Maroons Sports Bar and Grill following the pep rally. Doors open at the Armory at 7:30pm this evening. Monday in Harrisburg, Seip and Goodman will introduce a resolution on the floor of the House to honor the 1925 Maroons and urge the NFL owners to restore the Maroons’ championship title. David Fleming will be in attendance.

POTTSVILLE - An Allentown man who was found guilty in September of raping three children will be sentenced early next month, even though he is still on the run. Russell Rehrig, 51, did not show up for his trial after he posted bail in the case, in an apparent mix up. But, he was still found guilty of numerous counts of rape and related offenses. The Republican Herald indicates that sentencing is scheduled for January 2nd, 2008, before President Judge William Baldwin.
Authorities are still looking for Rehrig.

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates is urging Iran's Middle Eastern neighbors to pressure Iran into promising it won't develop nuclear weapons. Gates also says he thinks talks between the U.S. and Iran would not be productive. The comments come at an international security conference that Iran isn't attending.

BAGHDAD (AP) - A police station in one of Iraq's major oil hubs has been targeted in a suicide car-bomb attack. Police say five officers and one civilian are dead. More than a dozen other people were wounded. The city of Beiji houses northern Iraq's biggest oil refinery.

PENTAGON (AP) - Troops may be spending shorter deployments in Iraq starting late next summer. Because of this year's troop surge, deployments were extended from 12 months to 15. The Pentagon wants to shorten deployments back to a year as soon as possible, but one general says the timetable for doing that depends on accomplishing the mission.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Congressional Democrats are irate at the CIA for destroying videotapes of two terrorism suspects being interrogated. Democrats are pushing the Justice Department to investigate why the tapes were destroyed. Senator Ted Kennedy is comparing the situation to the Watergate scandal.

UNDATED (AP) - Western ski resorts are rejoicing as a winter storm is dropping up to two feet of snow in the mountains of Colorado and Nevada just in time for the holiday season. It has caused problems for drivers. Accidents shut down some interstates last night.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An Omaha, Nebraska, mall will reopen today, three days after being terrorized by a gunman who killed eight people and then himself. Police have released some surveillance footage. The video shows 19-year-old shooter Robert Hawkins entering a department store before leaving and coming back with a hidden gun.

NEW YORK (AP) - One man is dead and his brother is in critical condition after they fell from the roof of a 47-story Manhattan apartment building yesterday. The brothers were stepping on to a scaffold to wash the building's windows when it gave way. Authorities are investigating.

MINOCQUA, Wis. (AP) - Not three dollars a gallon, but three gallons for a dollar. That was the price of gas momentarily at a Wisconsin service station after an employee mistakenly changed the pump price to 3.29 cents a gallon. He meant to make it $3.29. Dozens of people with credit cards pumped hundreds of gallons before the mistake was caught.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER (AP) - Liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis is delayed at least until tomorrow. Shuttle managers plan to decide today whether to require all four of the shuttle's fuel gauges to be working properly for take off. Failure of two of the gauges halted a launch try Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Talks in Hollywood have collapsed, following days of hopes that striking writers would ink a new contract with producers. Both sides are blaming each other for the breakdown in negotiations. Writers have been on strike since November 5th over revenue from media aired on the Internet.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A proposed sale has the future of TV Guide magazine up in the air. The parent company of the magazine is set to be sold to a security software firm. Some industry insiders think the company may be planning to pull the plug on the 54-year-old publication because it's losing both money and readers.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Oprah Winfrey is set to kick off a weekend of campaigning for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Winfrey and Obama will make two joint appearances in Iowa Saturday and one Sunday in South Carolina. High ticket demand has forced Sunday's event to be moved to an 80,000-seat football stadium.

NEW YORK (AP) - A copy of one of the most important documents in history can be yours for around 20 or 30 million dollars. That's the price a New York auction house thinks it will get for a 700-year-old copy of the Magna Carta. The document goes on display this weekend. It's one of only 17 copies in existence.