Today's News, Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

First snow, sleet, freezing rain…then rainy. It's been a sloppy Wednesday all across the region as we try to recover from a winter storm that overspread the area early yesterday. Schools started the day with a delay, then opted to close down as the weather really didn't improve. Slush and standing water have covered the roads today, making for slow travel in spots. An Ice Storm Warning was in effect through midday. No power problems were reported. Colder temps will return this evening, so icing is a definite possibility.
Caution will be the word as you move about today. Stay tuned for updates.

Today is deadline day for Schuylkill County and its software provider, New World Systems. The county gave the Michigan-based company till today to fix the problems that have plagued the county and its million dollar computer system. The accounting program was purchased to match the county's human services programs to the state's accounting year. Schuylkill County officials traveled to New World's headquarters to give them a deadline to fix the mess, or pay monies back. Company technicians came to the courthouse to work on the systems, but no progress was made. According to the Republican and Herald, Schuylkill County will enforce the deadline. New World is reported to have said that they feel the termination isn’t justified. Schuylkill County hired computer expert Peter Vogel of Dallas, Texas to review the New World System and help the county in proceeding with litigation against New World. He is expected to be in Schuylkill County next week.

A former corporate officer at Schuylkill Products Incorporated is expected to plead guilty in a fraud case today in federal court. Dennis Campbell, who served as the company's vice president, will plead to conspiring to defraud the federal government by violating minority-contract guidelines, according to the Republican and Herald. Schuylkill Products manufactures concrete beams for road construction projects. Campbell reportedly worked with the company's engineering subsidiary, and a minority owned company in Connecticut, Marikina Construction, to get contracts for Schuylkill Products. By using Marikina's name, Schuylkill Products would complete the work on the contracts, and paid the company a fee. All told, $45 million dollars in funds were paid that Schuylkill Products should not have received. It is not known if other indictments will be handed down in the case.

A Pottsville man is in jail following an assault in the city early Tuesday. City police were called to 507 Mahantongo Street for reports of a disturbance. They reportedly overheard 42-year-old Keith Robertson threatening his girlfriend Diane Bridges. Roberston told Bridges that he was going to kill her by burning down the house. Police charged him with making terroristic threats. He was taken to Schuylkill County Prison, in lieu of $15-thousand-dollars bail.

Two teenagers were involved in a fight at a bus stop in Girardville yesterday. After exiting the school bus at 2nd and Ogden Streets, a 13 and a 17 year old male from Girardville began fighting. The 17-year-old will be cited for harassment. Those charges will be filed in district court.

A Williamstown man is dead in a crash in northern Dauphin County. State police at Lykens report that 78-year-old Carl Feaster was traveling south on State Route 25 when he suffered a heart attack. His car traveled across the road and struck a tractor trailer, operated by Charles Bonawitz. Feaster was pronounced dead at the scene. Preliminary indications are that he died of natural causes.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Motorists on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Lancaster and Dauphin counties are experiencing lengthy delays from a traffic accident that closed the westbound lanes at 6 a.m. Wednesday. That's just one of the headaches for travelers and commuters across the state from the rain, snow and ice that have fallen over the past day.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A man on a recently released list of Philadelphia's most wanted suspects had been teaching at a city school. Police say 33-year-old Arnesx Honore has been teaching math to eighth grade boys since 2003 at an alternative school in North Philadelphia. Honore is accused of attacking a 17-year-old girl in
August 2006 and has been wanted on sexual assault charges.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A judge says it's too late for a former University of Pennsylvania professor to change his no-contest plea to sexual assault charges. Tracy McIntosh went to dinner in 2002 with a 23-year-old woman who was applying to graduate school at Penn. Prosecutors allege that McIntosh drugged the woman with an animal sedative from his lab and raped her in his office.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A plastic surgeon who removed the fingerprints of a man involved in a drug ring must serve 18 months in prison. A federal judge in Harrisburg called the crime "horrific" when she sentenced Dr. Jose Covarrubias. Covarrubias is a U.S. citizen who lived in the border town of Nogales, Ariz., and practiced in Mexico. He pleaded guilty in November.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pittsburgh City Council has approved using $43,000 in restitution to fight crime in the district of a former councilwoman convicted of corruption. Meanwhile, the defense attorney for former Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle wants a judge to reconsider the one- to two-year prison sentence imposed last week. Carlisle is to surrender March 10 to begin her prison term.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Roger Clemens' former trainer has made new allegations in his joint appearance with the pitcher before a congressional committee. Brian McNamee claims he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone more often than he previously claimed. Clemens has told the committee that he
has "never taken steroids or HGH." The credibility of both men is being challenged by members of the panel, who are questining them under oath.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senator Barack Obama is picking up another endorsement a day after securing three more wins in the Democratic presidential race. David Wilhelm led President Clinton's successful
1992 campaign. He's expected to back the Illinois senator later today. Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton is campaigning in Texas ahead of the state's primary next month.

CANTON, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio jury is deliberating for a second day in the case of a former police officer who admits killing his pregnant lover and dumping her body. Bobby Cutts claims he accidentally killed Jessie Davis with an elbow to the neck. Prosecutors maintain he deliberately strangled her.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department is welcoming the reported death of the suspected mastermind of attacks on the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon in the 1980s. While the U.S. has no independent information to confirm Imad Mughniyeh's death in a car bomb attack, a State Department spokesman says "the world is a better place without this man in it."

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A powerful winter storm has dumped more than six inches of snow across parts of the Northeast. The system has closed hundreds of schools and made a mess of the morning commute in many areas. The winter blast hit much of the Ohio Valley with ice and snow yesterday and is being blamed in 10 deaths.