Today's News- Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Forklift fire at SAPA

Firefighters were called to Cressona last night to extinguish a forklift fire at SAPA Industrial Extrusions. Their quick work avoided what could have been a bigger problem. Around 7:30pm, fire companies from Cressona, Schuylkill Haven, Pottsville and surrounding communities responded to the scene inside the aluminum plant, and had to use dry chemicals to work the fire, due to potential chemical reactions with the aluminum. Fire officials say that the fire was contained to the forklift. Employees at the plant were evacuated for a time.

Geiger to stand trial for Reed death

A Pottsville man has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he killed a 13-year-old boy in 1985. Forty-three-year-old Joseph Geiger is charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, abuse of corpse and related offenses in the slaying of David Reed, of Schuylkill Haven. Geiger was arrested Aug. 21. He was returned to Schuylkill County Prison without bail after Tuesday's hearing before Orwigsburg District Judge James Ferrier. Authorities allege that Geiger was a former small-time drug dealer who suspected that the boy was stealing his marijuana plants. Geiger has denied the charges and says he barely knew Reed.

Pottsville man arrested on public drunkeness and drug possession charges

A Pottsville man is jailed following his arrest on drug and alcohol charges late Monday night. Pottsville police were called to 202 North Second Street for reports of a man possessing a gun during a drug transaction. Daniel Seyler was found to be drunk and was carrying three baggies containing a chunky white substance. A witness at the scene reported that Seyler was looking for someone to help him sell the drugs. He was arraigned on possession of a controlled substance, public drunkeness and related counts and taken to Schuylkill County Prison.

VIST Financial contributes money to YES program

An area financial institution is kicking in some money to help high school students prepare for their future. VIST Financial, with an office in Schuylkill Haven, contributed $10-thousand-dollars to the YES program through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program. YES, which stands for Your Employability Skills, is a 120 hour, 1 credit program that is used to train high school students in team building, resume writing and other skills that help them in the working world. Six county high schools are running the program currently. The tax credits benefit the sponsoring businesses. YES is administered by the Northeast Pennsylvania Manufacturers and Employers Council.

Breast cancer screenings available

It's one test that could save the life of a woman very close to you. WPPA Reporter Kerry Dowd explains:

DOWD

Virginia, Pennsylvania govs call for new federal transportation focus on maintenance, transit

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) - The governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania are calling for a new federal transportation policy that focuses more on mass transit and repairing deteriorating infrastructure and less on building new roads. Democratic Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell endorsed the agenda of a coalition of environmental, housing and urban planning groups. Transportation for America was formed to influence the debate over the transportation bill that Congress is due to deal with next year. Democrats have recently proposed investing heavily in transportation projects as a way to create jobs and stimulate the economy. The House passed an economic stimulus measure in September that included that idea. Transportation for America endorsed the idea, but says such investments should not be spent primarily on highways. Rendell says his state has been adhering to the "fix it first" motto, refraining from building new bridges and roads before the maintenance backlog is cleared.

Muslim scientist wants to force Energy Department review of security clearance revocation

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Muslim scientist is asking a federal judge to order an administrative hearing into why he lost his security clearance and his job at a nuclear warship components plant. Abdel Moniem El-Ganayni is suing the Department of Energy with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. He says he was wrongly fired for speaking out against U.S. foreign policy and the alleged mistreatment of Muslims by the FBI. U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry says he expects to rule on the matter soon. The Egyptian-born scientist has been a U.S. citizen for 20 years. His Energy Department security clearance was suspended in December. In May, his clearance was revoked and he was then fired from Bettis Laboratory near Pittsburgh, where he had worked for more than 17 years. El-Ganayni's lawsuit says he was questioned about his speeches, his views on suicide bombings and the Quran, and a conflict with the Pennsylvania prison system, where he has ministered to Muslim prisoners. But he says he was never told what information led him to lose his security clearance and job. Government attorneys asked McVerry last month to dismiss El-Ganayni's lawsuit. They say the judge doesn't have the jurisdiction to challenge a finding that an administrative hearing could release sensitive national security information.

Threatening letter, powder prompt evacuation of Obama campaign office; found to be harmless

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Authorities are trying to find out who sent a threatening letter with a suspicious substance inside to one of Barack Obama's Philadelphia campaign offices.
The office was evacuated for less than an hour after the discovery around 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Police say a volunteer brought in the mail and opened a letter that had a suspicious substance inside. Officials evacuated the office, took the letter outside and called police.
A hazardous materials crew responded, but investigators say initial tests determined it was brown sugar. Philadelphia police Capt. Mike Gillespie called the letter "somewhat threatening in nature."

Pa. court quashes Mexico's appeal in murder case

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) - The state Supreme Court is denying the government of Mexico the right to appeal a death penalty case on behalf of one of its citizens. The court says Mexico does not have the authority to intervene because the government is not an attorney for 27-year-old Miguel Padilla. He has been convicted of killing three men outside a
social club near Altoona in August 2005. The Mexican government's petition sought to allow Padilla to withdraw his no contest plea to an illegal weapons charge related to the shootings. As an illegal immigrant, Padilla is not allowed to possess a weapon.

Former Marine arrested in Pa. road-rage shooting

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A former Marine has been charged in a road-rage shooting that critically injured a motorist driving his 8-year-old daughter to her home in suburban Philadelphia. Authorities thanked the public for help in finding 33-year-old Christian Squillaciotti. He was arrested Monday at his South Philadelphia home and charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and other offenses. Authorities accuse Squillaciotti of firing at 41-year-old Thomas Timko on Oct. 5 after their vehicles crossed the Walt Whitman Bridge from New Jersey into Philadelphia. Timko lives in Glendora, N.J. He was driving his daughter to her home in Norristown and police say he may have cut off Squillaciotti. Police say gestures were exchanged and Squillaciotti fired, striking Timko in the head. Timko's daughter was unhurt, but police say it appears that Squillaciotti did not know there was a child in the car.

Pistol-packing Pa. soccer mom gets judge to restore her permit to carry a concealed weapon

LEBANON, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania soccer mom who packs a pistol is getting her concealed weapon permit back. Meleanie Hain on Tuesday persuaded a Lebanon County judge to rescind the sheriff's revocation of her permit. She had lost the permit after other parents complained last month that she was carrying her loaded handgun in a holster at her daughter's soccer game. Judge Robert Eby says even though the law required him to give her the permit back, he questioned whether Hain showed good judgment by ignoring other parents' safety concerns. Hain says she's satisfied with the result and expects she'll be back on the sidelines with her gun in the future.

Pittsburgh physician dies in 60-foot fall at Seneca Rocks, a popular W.Va. climbing spot

SENECA ROCKS, W.Va. (AP) - State police in West Virginia say a Pittsburgh doctor who was an experienced rock climber fell to her death over the weekend at a popular climbing spot. Police say 49-year-old Dr. Amy Ruth Stine was ascending a rock face at Seneca Rocks in Pendleton County when climbing equipment because dislodged, causing her to fall about 60 feet. Friends indicated Stine had traveled to the popular climbing destination with her husband, William Brose, but it wasn't immediately known whether he was with her when she fell. Stine had a private practice in holistic family medicine and was a member of a Pittsburgh rock climbing club.

Federal judge in Pittsburgh revokes local rule that kept jurors' names secret after appeals ruling

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A federal judge in Pittsburgh has revoked a local rule that kept the name of jurors secret. The action on the July 2006 rule follows an August decision by a federal appeals court in the fraud case against former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht. News organizations challenged the rule before Wecht's mistrial in April. The judge in that case ordered the names of potential jurors be kept not only from the public - as the rule required - but from attorneys on the case. The federal appeals court ruling didn't specifically mention the local rule. But Chief U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose says she read the opinion to mean that juror names should be public during the selection process. Wecht's retrial has yet to be scheduled.

A Supreme Court page-turner: Roberts, dissenting, channels his inner Raymond Chandler

WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts knows his way around an opinion, even a dissent - but his latest created a new genre. Call it Supreme Court Noir.
Roberts wanted the court to reverse a Pennsylvania high court ruling throwing out a drug bust. His colleagues disagreed. So he issued a written dissent, beginning as follows: "Narcotics Strike Force, North Philly, May 4, 2001. Officer Sean Devlin, Narcotics Strike Force, was working the morning shift. Undercover surveillance. The neighborhood? Tough as a three-dollar steak. Devlin knew. Five years on the beat, nine months with the Strike Force. He'd made fifteen, twenty drug busts in the neighborhood." Roberts went on to describe an exchange between two men and said "Devlin knew the guy wasn't buying bus tokens. He radioed a description and Officer Stein picked up the buyer. Sure enough: three bags of crack in the guy's pocket. Head downtown and book him. Just another day at the office." Turning to a more familiar style, the chief justice then said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court "held in a divided decision that the police lacked probable cause to arrest the defendant."

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - The focus of tonight's final presidential debate in New York is expected to be the economy and domestic policy. The most recent polls show John McCain falling behind
Barack Obama in key states. McCain has been seeking to separate himself from President Bush, telling supporters yesterday that "we cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight."

HONG KONG (AP) - Most Asian markets have finished down after two days of gains. The index in Hong Kong lost 5 percent. Markets in South Korea, Australia, and Singapore also finished lower. Japan's Nikkei finished up a little over 1 percent.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Many economists believe the U.S. is on the edge of, or already in, its first recession since 2001. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be in New York today to give his take on the country's current economic and financial challenges.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A military prosecutor consulted a priest for help with his concerns about the fairness of the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. Army Lt. Colonel Darrel Vandeveld quit last month. He is at least the fourth prosecutor to resign from the tribunals.