Today's News-Monday, September 8, 2008

Garbage truck wrecks near Nuremburg

A man escaped injury when his garbage truck crashed Sunday evening in North Union Township. State police say 59-year-old Eugene Lupcho was traveling east on Buck Mountain Road when his vehicle hit a small embankment and hit a tree. There was moderate damage to the front of the rig, which had to be towed from the scene.

Andreas woman escapes injury in Sunday morning crash

An Andreas woman was involved in a one vehicle crash in North Manheim Township Sunday morning. 25-year-old Bethany Mengel was eastbound on Tumbling Run Road when her car hit a patch of gravel and went across the road, hitting an embankment. State Police at Schuylkill Haven said Mengel was wearing her seatbelt and escaped injury.

Tornado hits Allentown high school

Tropical storm Hanna dumped plenty of rain across the region Saturday and spawned a tornado that ripped up the roof of Allentown Dieruff High School. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service confirmed the twister Sunday. Top winds of the category 1 tornado were clocked at around 95 miles per hour. A number of other properties near the school were also damaged, estimated at $1.5 million dollars. Students in the Allentown School District will be out of classes today and tomorrow.

Pennsylvania stubbing out smoking in public places

Smokers who like to light up after dining out in Pennsylvania have just a few more days to break the habit. Pennsylvania's smoking ban takes effect Thursday - 90 days after
it was signed into law. State Health Department spokeswoman Holli Senior says she thinks
business owners are ready. Pnnsylvania joins 32 other states with laws that ban smoking in
most workplaces and public spaces. They include restaurants, office buildings, train stations and sports arenas. Violators face fines of up to $250 or more. But the compromise measure comes with many exemptions - including the right to smoke in some bars, hotel rooms and nursing homes. That's led the American Lung Association to decide not to endorse it.

Pa. 3rd-party candidates make their cases in court

It's decision time for several political outsiders who want to take on establishment candidates in Pennsylvania's Nov. 4 election. There have been numerous challenges filed against third-party candidates. They've prompted courtroom debates over the validity of petition signatures, the fairness of filing deadlines and other issues that stand between them and the ballot. Objections to the Democratic and Republican candidates were settled earlier this year - well in advance of the April primary. But third-party candidates do not run in primaries. Instead, they are required to collect many more voter signatures than major-party candidates and are given months - instead of weeks - to do so. Challenges are not uncommon. And because of the longer signature-gathering period, they are filed late in the campaign season.

Philly-area balloon accident kills 1, injures 7

A hot air balloon made an unscheduled landing and burst into flames in a field in suburban
Philadelphia, killing one person and injuring seven others. The balloon carrying eight people was making an hourlong flight as part of a dual flight by Air Ventures Hot Air Balloon Flights in Chester Springs. Deputy Chief Chuck Fields of the Kimberton Fire Co. says it came down early in a field about two miles from the liftoff site. Fields says that when the basket made contact with the ground shortly before 6:40 p.m., a propane fuel hose came off. The venting propane came into contact with the flame used to heat the air for flight, igniting the balloon and its basket. The pilot died at the scene and Fields says the passengers were burned, some seriously. Two were flown to Temple University Hospital, where a spokeswoman says they are being treated in the burn unit but declines to release their condition. Three others were taken by road to Chester Crozier Medical Center, where hospital officials say one was in guarded condition and two were listed as stable. Two others were treated at Phoenixville Hospital and released. The crash will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Former Pa. senator Vincent Fumo faces long fraud trial; jury selection starts Monday

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Longtime political powerbroker Vincent Fumo goes on trial Monday on charges that he misused $3.5 million in state and other funds. Jury selection is expected to take a week, and the 65-year-old Philadelphia Democrat is expected to be on trial for about three
months. He's leaving the Senate after three decades to fight the charges - and has beaten two indictments early in his political career. Prosecutors say Fumo, a multimillionaire, used state funds and Senate staffers for personal and campaign chores. And they say he awarded no-work jobs and contracts to friends. Fumo says he's done nothing wrong. He says he's worked tirelessly for voters over the years.

3 candidates running in Pa. auditor general race

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Chet Beiler has never run for public office. But the Lancaster County businessman says the executive skills that helped him build a multimillion-dollar gazebo company also qualify him to be Pennsylvania's auditor general. It could be difficult for the Republican to unseat Democratic incumbent Jack Wagner. Wagner served 10 years on Pittsburgh city council and spent another decade in the state Senate. He wants voters to keep him on the job as the state's top fiscal watchdog; the auditor general monitors how state government spends taxpayers' dollars. Beiler says he's optimistic his candidacy will appeal to voters who believe the auditor general needs private-sector skills to run the office efficiently.
The race for the $141,565-a-year job also includes a Libertarian candidate, Wilkes-Barre businesswoman Betsy Summers.

Ike causing damage in Cuba

CAMAGUEY, Cuba (AP) - The winds and storm surge from Hurricane Ike are ripping apart houses and toppling trees in Cuba. The Category-3 storm is roaring toward Havana and its historic but decaying old buildings. State television is showing images of the storm surge washing over coastal homes in the easternmost city of Baracoa, and it reports that dozens of homes have been destroyed. Former President Fidel Castro released a written statement calling on Cubans to heed security measures to ensure no one dies. Ike has killed about 60 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It's estimated that more than 770,000 Cubans have evacuated to shelters or higher ground. The National Hurricane Center expects Ike to weaken a bit over Cuba but grow stronger as it moves into the Gulf of Mexico early Tuesday. Landfall in the U.S. is expected later this week -- between the Florida Panhandle and the Texas coast.

Markets move higher on bailout news

TOKYO (AP) - Asian stock markets are soaring on the news of Washington's bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The move that could bolster a shaky U.S. housing market seems to have renewed global investor confidence. Japan's benchmark Nikkei was up 3.4 percent in afternoon trading in Tokyo. Markets in Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia are also reacting positively. However China's Shanghai Composite index is down on heavy losses
in property developers, refiners and airlines. But major banks in China rose on the housing news in the U.S.

Bush says intervention necessary

WASHINGTON (AP)- President Bush says the government stepped in to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because their failure would be "unacceptable." The president says allowing the two mortgage giants to go under, or even sink much more, would have disrupted the financial system and hurt an economy still hobbled by the housing slump. It's a risk Bush says the feds could not take. But in a written statement, Bush stresses that putting Fannie and Freddie under the Federal Housing Finance Agency is a temporary step -- to buy time while their future role is determined. Bush adds it's "crucial" these companies not be allowed to pose "similar risks" to the U.S. economy again. The companies, which together own or guarantee about 5 trillion
dollars in home loans, have lost 14 billion dollars in the last year and are likely to pile up billions more in losses until the housing market begins to recover.

Fannie, Freddie deal helps some borrowers, not all

NEW YORK (AP) - The government's historic bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be good news to homebuyers and some homeowners hoping to refinance if it leads to lower mortgage rates, as experts expect. But the plan offers little immediate relief for homeowners
already behind on their mortgage payments, or those who owe more than their homes are now worth. Greg McBride at Bankrate.com, says the move will "keep the lanes in the mortgage freeway open." McBride says if mortgage rates fall, that will attract more potential buyers into the market, which, in turn, will help to prop up home prices. He expects rates on a conventional, 30-year fixed-rate home loan to fall over the next few weeks. Rates, which now average 6.35 percent, could fall as much as half a percentage point. Rich Cosner, the president of Prudential California Realty, says a stabilized housing market with some price gains would help
homeowners struggling with their mortgage payments. But such a market is at least a year away.

Poll: McCain takes lead from Obama

UNDATED (AP) - A new national poll shows John McCain has taken the lead from Barack Obama in the presidential race. The USA Today-Gallup Poll shows McCain now ahead, 50 percent to 46 percent. That puts the Republican's lead beyond the margin of error.
The survey was taken from Friday to Sunday, after the Republican National Convention, and indicates the Minnesota gathering gave him a substantial bounce. Obama had a seven-point advantage following the Democratic convention the week before. The addition of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket prompted 29 percent of the voters surveyed to say they were more likely to vote for McCain. Twenty-one percent say it made them less likely.

Olbermann, Matthews won't co-anchor political coverage

NEW YORK (AP) - MSNBC says Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews are out as co-anchors of political night coverage. Veteran reporter David Gregory will anchor coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates, along with election night. Olbermann and Matthews will stay on as commentators on the cable news network's coverage. The change reflects tensions between the more opinionated MSNBC and the impartial reporters at NBC News.
MSNBC's executives have spent months arguing that Olbermann and Matthews could be dispassionate anchors on political news nights while offering their opinions most other nights, and that viewers would accept them in that role. But things fell apart during the conventions, when Olbermann, Matthews and MSNBC pundits engaged in a series of on-air spats.

Rights group urges halt to bombing

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Human Rights Watch says the use of "overwhelming" air strikes is responsible for a large number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan. The U.S.-based rights group is urging the U.S. and NATO to stop using airstrikes in densely populated villages, saying the military risks losing the strategic battle for support of the Afghan population. The report comes just two weeks after an Afghan government commission and a preliminary U.N. report found that a U.S.-led military operation in the village of Azizabad killed 90 civilians. The U.S. originally said the Aug. 22 operation killed 30 militants, but a military investigation later concluded it killed up to 35 militants and seven civilians.

Jury selection in robbery-kidnapping trial to begin

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nearly a year after O.J. Simpson walked into a Las Vegas hotel room intent on reclaiming some sports memorabilia, lawyers in his robbery-kidnapping trial are ready to begin picking a jury. The jury selection scheduled to begin today figures to take a week or longer. Simpson and co-defendant Clarence Stewart have pleaded not guilty to 12 charges stemming from a heated encounter with two sports collectibles dealers. Charges include burglary, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon. Once jurors are seated, the prosecution will tell them Simpson and Stewart walked into the casino hotel room with four other men
and robbed the sports collectibles peddlers at gunpoint. Simpson maintains he was trying to recover things stolen from him. He says he didn't ask anyone to bring guns and didn't know
anyone in the room had one. A conviction could put him away for life.

Study: Older patients don't get enough followup

NEW YORK (AP) - A new study shows many colon cancer patients aren't getting all the screenings recommended after surgery to make sure the disease hasn't returned. Of the more than 4,000 patients 66 and older looked at, only about 40 percent got all the doctor visits, blood tests and the colonoscopy advised in the three years after cancer surgery. Most of the time it was the blood tests that went neglected. The study's leader says he's putting most of the blame for that on the patients' doctors, saying perhaps the follow-up care was being provided by doctors who aren't specialists and who aren't familiar with the guidelines. About 149,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year. Survival after five years varies from 90 percent for cancer that hasn't spread to 10 percent for advanced cases.

'Rent' brings down the curtain on Broadway run

NEW YORK (AP) - After a dozen years and more than 5,000 performances, Broadway has said goodbye to the musical "Rent." The cast of the show was given a standing ovation even before a
single note was sung in its finale Sunday. Members of both the final cast and the original one joined together on stage at the end of the evening to sing "Seasons of Love," one of the show's
best-known songs. Jonathan Larson's tale of free-spirited artists and street people in a gritty drug and AIDS-plagued East Village of the early 1990s started off-Broadway. But its immense popularity quickly landed it on Broadway, where it won numerous awards, including Tonys and Obies. It grossed more than 280 million dollars. Larson didn't live to see the show's success. He died after the final dress rehearsal in 1996 at the age of 35.