Today's News-Friday, January 11, 2008

Day two of the Giving is Living blood drive campaign was just as successful as the first, thanks to generous donors like you. WPPA and T102 have been partnering with the Northeast Blood Services division to encourage Schuylkill countians to help bolster the blood supply during the winter months. Yesterday’s stop was at Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Schuylkill Haven.
The goal was 80 productive units. 138 units were collected, with 22 first time donors participating. For the two days in Schuylkill County, 271 units were collected, with 67 first time donors. The Northeast blitz collected more than 900 units. On behalf of the American Red Cross and all of us here at the Pottsville Broadcasting Company, THANK YOU!

It should take a lot less time and effort to clean the floors at the courthouse if the Commissioners approve the purchase of a floor cleaning machine. Bill Liptok asked the Commissioners during their Wednesday meeting to approve the purchase of a floor scrubbing machine from Hillyard, Inc., Lancaster under a state contract for just under $14-Thousand Dollars. Liptok said floor cleaning is now done by bucket and mop. In other business, Mark Scarbinsky was granted approval to advertise for A-D-A and roof replacement projects at William Penn Fire Company using money from CDBG funding. The Commissioners were asked to name several individuals to county level boards. They include the appointment of Joseph Chiaretti of Girardville and Kenneth Lehman of Pine Grove as new members of the Planning Commission for four-year terms. James Setlock of Orwigsburg was appointed to a four-year term on the Planning Commission. The Commissioners reappointed Michael Chickersky of Gordon to a three-year term on the Zoning Hearing Board, Craig Shields of Pottsville was given a five-year term on the Airport Authority, The Commissioners were also asked to approve several grant applications, including a $500-thousand dollar grant for the county-wide demolition and rehabilitation program. A $350-Thousand Dollar grant was approved on behalf of Schuylkill Women in Crisis and Gaudenzia, for renovation and maintenance projects. A grant of $25-hundred-dollars was approved from the Berks Council for the Arts for art activities at Sweet Arrow Lake.

The process of conducting a re-examination of a Schuylkill Haven boy's remains to determine an official cause of death is moving forward. We told you yesterday that Schuylkill County Court Judge Jacqueline Russell approved the exhumation of David Reed's remains to finally determine his cause of death. That request was made by former County Coroner David Dutcavich. He disappeared in the summer of 1985, and his remains were found near Cressona in December 1985. The death has been ruled suspicious, but state police have continued the investigation over the past 22 years, and they believe that his death was a homicide. State police at Schuylkill Haven report that Dr. Anthony Falsetti from the University of Florida, and the head of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Lab will assist in the re-examination of Reed's remains. A media briefing will be held this afternoon with state police, the DA's office and County Coroner Joseph Lipsett at the Schuylkill Haven Barracks this afternoon to provide more information about the investigation.

Schuylkill Haven state police are investigating a burglary at a home in North Manheim Township. Sometime between Monday and Thursday, unknown thieves smashed a front door at 39 South Greenview Road, owned by Curtis and Larry Hoffman. Taken in the theft were various tools, valued at $25-hundred dollars. Copper water pipes inside the house were damaged, and water was left running in the basement. Anyone with information should call State Police Trooper Allar at 593-2000.

Schuylkill County's Senator in Harrisburg has introduced a bill that would help all Pennsylvanians to cope with the high cost of home heating. The bill would require an immediate freeze on all light fuel oil throughout the winter season, until April 1st. The restrictions would mirror the guidelines of the LIHEAP home heating assistance program.
Rhoades noted that the skyrocketing costs of heating for the most needy Pennsylvanians is a life and death issue. The cost of an unrefined barrel of crude oil has been hovering around the $100 a barrel mark recently. Other forms of heating, including natural gas, has also been rising as well.

Two new members have joined the Schuylkill Economic Development Board of Directors. SEDCO Chairman Karl Kramer announced that former County Commissioner Bob Carl, Orwigsburg, now with Reading Anthracite, and Brett Fulk, an executive with Susquehanna Bank were added to the board. Other board action at their reorganization meeting included authorizing funds for engineering data that was developed by Penske Truck Leasing for development permits for a lot at the Highridge Business Park. In other business, the SEDCO board approved a $10-thousand-dollar donation to Schuylkill County's Vision. The gift will be granted in two equal installments, thefirst this year, and the second in 2009.

OFFICER KILLED
UPDATE: Police: Slain officer once chased man charged with
killing him

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Testimony is to continue today in the preliminary hearing for the man accused of gunning down a police officer inside a Philadelphia doughnut shop. Twenty-one-year-old John Lewis is accused of fatally shooting Officer Chuck Cassidy as he walked in on a robbery at a Dunkin' Donuts store on Oct. 31. Cassidy had a run-in with Lewis six weeks before before that. He had chased Lewis after another doughnut shop robbery but was only able to recover a sweatshirt that the suspect had tossed aside. Yesterday, prosecutors disclosed that DNA on the sweatshirt matched that of Lewis. Lewis also is charged with a short but increasingly violent string of store robberies in Northeast Philadelphia last fall. Employees of two pizzerias and several Dunkin' Donuts shops took the stand Thursday and gave similar accounts of the holdups.

WILLIAMSPORT-CRIME
NEW: Community policing to combat crime wave
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) - Williamsport Police Chief Gregory Foresman says community policing will resume by Monday in response to a recent crime wave. His remarks follow a promise by Mayor Gabriel Campana at Thursday night's City Council meeting that shootings and a homicide last Friday will be solved. Foresman says about seven officers are being taken off their current duties and assigned to either community policing or the county drug task force.
The police chief also says he will be back before the council soon to ask for more personnel.
A Williamsport college also says it is boosting patrols. Penn College police are beefing up some of their patrols in response to about a dozen recent burglaries in the area.

CELEBRITY PATHOLOGIST TRIAL
NEW: Jury selection begins in famed pathologist's trial
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Jury selection is to continue today for the fraud trial of celebrity pathologist Cyril Wecht. Wecht was indicted nearly two years by a federal grand jury on charges that he used his former government staff to benefit his famous, multimillion-dollar private practice. Sixty people in the jury pool were summoned Thursday to fill out questionnaires.
The 76-year-old Wecht resigned from his position as the Allegheny County medical examiner and coroner after being indicted on Jan. 20, 2006. Wecht is famous for investigating or consulting on the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and others. He remains a pundit and expert on high-profile cases. He also conducts autopsies-for-hire in several Pennsylvania
counties.

SCHOOL STABBING
Boy, 13, to face assault, weapons charges in attack at Pa. school
READING, Pa. (AP) - Authorities say the eighth-grader accused of stabbing three students at Antietam Middle-Senior High School this week will face charges. Charges will include aggravated assault and risking a catastrophe. The 13-year-old boy is due in juvenile court for a detention hearing on today. He is being held at the Berks County Juvenile Detention Center.
Witnesses say the boy burst into an English class on Wednesday and began slashing at students with a knife. Three students suffered minor stab wounds before the boy was subdued by school
officials. Police said the boy also brought to school a small can of gasoline, a water bottle filled with torch fluid, firecrackers, knives and face masks to keep out fumes.

SPORTS STORE-WEAPONS PROBE
Pa. sporting goods dealer charged with illegal weapons exports
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania sporting goods dealer and a Russian businessman have been charged with illegally smuggling military equipment out of the United States. Federal prosecutors say 45-year-old Mark Komoroski of D&R Sports in Nanticoke, Luzerne County, was arrested Monday and released on $50,000 bail. He denies any wrongdoing. A criminal complaint alleges that Komoroski conspired with Sergey Korznikov, to smuggle rifle scopes, firearms magazines, face shields and other equipment to Russia. Korznikov has also been arrested. He is in prison on $150,000 bail. Komoroski and Korznikov each face up to five years in prison if convicted.

REMAINS EXHUMED
NEW: Judge OKs exhumation of 7th-grader's body in decades-old Pa. case
POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - The remains of a Schuylkill Haven seventh-grader will be exhumed to determine whether the boy's death in 1985 was a homicide. Schuylkill County Judge Jacqueline Russell has granted the petition of a former county coroner. She wrote in her 7-page order
that information developed relatively recently has led the state police to conclude the boy was likely a homicide victim. State police have reopened the case. The badly decomposed remains of David Wellington Reed were found in December 1985, four months after he disappeared after leaving his home on his bicycle. Investigators were unable to determine the cause of death at the time.

HOSPITAL-TWIN'S DEATH
NEW: Family sues Pa. hospital over newborn twin's death
DANVILLE, Pa. (AP) - The family of a newborn twin who died after what the hospital acknowledges was a medication error has filed a lawsuit against Geisinger Medical Center. The lawsuit says the surviving twin was left with a permanent brain injury that a lawyer says will require a lifetime of care. Josiah and Nevaeh Mertune were born prematurely at the Montour
County hospital last August. A day later, the twins were given an antibiotic to defend against infections. According to the lawsuit, an overdose of the medicine sent both babies into cardiac arrest, which caused the twins "catastrophic and permanent injuries." Nevaeh died in November, while Josiah survived and is home with his parents, Tiffany Green and Anderson Mertune of Wilkes-Barre. According to the lawsuit, the parents were told by a neonatologist
that a "pharmacy" error led to the drug overdose. The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 in damages from the medical center. Geisinger says the hospital took corrective steps after the
boy's death, increasing a "double-check" system to a "triple-check" system and adding educational sessions for pharmacy staff.

LINGUIST-SUNDANCE
NEW: Pa. linguist in film going to Sundance
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Like a linguist encountering an unfamiliar tongue, a Pennsylvania scientist will enter a new domain of popular culture next week at the Sundance Film Festival.
David Harrison, of Philadelphia, teaches at Swarthmore College and is the costar of the 70-minute documentary, "The Linguists." In the film, he and colleagues travel to Siberia, India and
Bolivia to study and record the last speakers of languages nearing extinction. An estimated 7,000 languages are spoken today. Harrison says the likely disappearance of nearly half of them in this century threatens the loss of unique knowledge and ideas. Now Miller will be traveling to Park City, Utah, for the star-studded film festival. "The Linguists" is the first film funded by the National Science Foundation to premier at Sundance.

PITTSBURGH ART
NEW: Pittsburgh to renovate old sculptures
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pittsburgh plans to renovate five sculptures sitting in a warehouse as part of a plan to refurbish and celebrate public art. The R.K. Mellon Foundation is underwriting the renovation with a $300,000 grant. The measure goes before city council for approval
in a few weeks. Four of the sculptures had been outside the Carnegie Library's Squirrel Hill branch. Another once sat in front of the city-county building. The city has more than 100 public works of art. The city's new art manager, Kimberly Baker, plans to reassess and maintain the
city's art holdings and educate the public about them.

SEA OF GALILEE, Israel (AP) - President Bush is sightseeing at holy Christian sites in Israel at the end of his first ever visit to the country. The tour comes after two days of meetings with
Israeli and Palestinian leaders on peace negotiations. Bush heads next to Kuwait.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Two people are dead following traffic accidents in Alabama and Mississippi caused by heavy rain and high winds. The storms also damaged homes and ravaged farms. In Illinois, hundreds have been forced from their homes by flooding blamed on downpours and melting snow.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - Disgraced Olympian Marion Jones will appear before a federal judge today to learn her fate after admitting to lying about steroids and about her involvement in a check-fraud scheme. The confession has already cost Jones her five Olympic medals. Her lawyers are pushing for probation; prosecutors are asking for up to six months in jail.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - A South Carolina man has confessed to faking his own death to escape drug charges. In an Associated Press interview behind bars, Butch Nesbitt says it was a "spur of the moment" decision six weeks ago to fake his death by abandoning his boat on a South Carolina beach. Authorities caught up with him Tuesday in Indiana.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - The first man to conquer the world's highest mountain has died. Sir Edmund Hillary died today at the age of 88 following a heart attack in his native New Zealand. Hillary is being remembered as a driven, but unassuming man who preferred to be called "Sir Ed."