Today's News- Monday, December 8, 2008

Three remain hospitalized following Saturday crash

Two Tower City men and a teen are still hospitalized this morning after they were flown from the scene of a Saturday afternoon crash in Tremont Township. 23 year old Jacob Cook of Tremont was attempting to turn left onto Route 209 and struck a car driven by 49 year old Tim Scheib of Tower City, which was heading north. After impact, Scheib's car hit a tree. Scheib and 18 year old Dustin Scheib were flown to Geisinger Medical Center where they're in critical condition according to hospital personnel. A 14 year old was taken to Hershey Medical Center. Cook was not injured.

Police investigating man found dead in northern Dauphin County

State police at Lykens are investigating the death of a Millersburg man whose body was found in Wiconisco Township Saturday. 65 year old William Sims was hunting in that area and was to meet his son at nightfall. Fire personnel from Wiconisco and Lykens found his body around 10pm. Troopers say the death does not appear to be suspicious, but further investigation is pending the results of an autopsy.

How Freddie Mac halted regulatory drive

WASHINGTON (AP) - When the Washington Nationals played their first-ever baseball game in the nation's capital in April 2005, two congressmen who oversaw mortgage giant Freddie Mac had choice seats, courtesy of the very company they were supposed to be keeping an eye on. Efforts to tighten government regulation were gaining support on Capitol Hill, and Freddie Mac was fighting back. The baseball tickets for home opener were means of influence. According to confidential company documents obtained by The Associated Press, Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania and Republican Bob Ney of Ohio spent the evening at the ballpark with Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin and four of Freddie Mac's in-house lobbyists. Kanjorski declined comment through a spokeswoman. Ney ultimately served a federal prison term after pleading guilty to trading political favors in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, are in financial collapse and under government control. Congress is investigating how it all happened, and have a hearing planned for Tuesday.

Pittsburgh transit workers OK 4-year contract

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Union employees of Pittsburgh's main transit agency have approved a new four-year contract, preventing a system
shutdown that would have affected 230,000 riders. The deal cuts long-term benefit costs for the financially strapped Port Authority of Allegheny County. It must still be approved by the authority's board on Dec. 15.
The agreement requires workers to pay more for health care and pension benefits. But it also gives them annual wage increases of 3 percent, except for a 2 percent raise in the second year. A tentative agreement had been reached last week, ending fears of a walkout by 2,300 union drivers and mechanics. They had opposed the transit agency's plan to force a non-negotiated agreement on them.

Frugal farmer stuns church with $2 million gift

BLAIRSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - A tiny western Pennsylvania church is stunned by the largesse of a frugal farmer who left the congregation more than $2 million when he died. Hopewell United Methodist Church in Indiana County inherited the estate of John Ferguson, a farmer from Burrell Township. Ferguson wore faded overalls and lived in a mobile home
surrounded by rusty farm equipment. But he built a small fortune through stock and energy investments before dying in January 2007
at the age of 71. He left it all to the church, which has just 80 members. The gift has been in probate during the past two years. Hopewell pastor Jason McQueen says a panel of congregation members will choose projects annually to be funded from income generated by Ferguson's estate.

Bush leaves weak environmental legacy

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Former directors of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency say current administrator Stephen Johnson and the
Bush administration have abdicated their lead roles in protecting the environment and left the agency weak and demoralized. That's what The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting Sunday in the first of a series of articles on the topic. Johnson leaves office as one of the president's most loyal cabinet members. But his decisions alarmed environmentalists and
infuriated his own scientists. Democrats earlier called for his resignation. Russell Train, who was the EPA administrator during the Nixon and Ford eras, calls it a "real failure of leadership." Johnson says that EPA chiefs can rarely please everyone.

Army asked to review deaths of 2 soldiers

WASHINGTON (AP) - Video taken in Iraq from a camera mounted on a
soldier's helmet raises the possibility that two troops died not by enemy fire as their families were told, but by "friendly fire." Two congressmen are asking the Pentagon for a new investigation into the deaths of 31-year-old Private First Class Albert Nelson, of Philadelphia, and 21-year-old Private Roger Suarez-Gonzalez of Nevada. The two died Dec. 4, 2006, while fighting in Ramadi, Iraq. Nelson's mother, Jean Nelson-Feggins, is a former Philadelphia police officer who says a casualty officer initially said her son might have died from friendly fire. But she says that was the only time she heard from the military that it was a possibility. Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, says an investigation determined the soldiers were killed by enemy mortar rounds. He says the Army has no plans to conduct a new investigation.

Pa. police arrest 3 in theft of dozens of guns

HELLAM, Pa. (AP) - State police have charged three people with
the theft of more than 70 firearms from a central Pennsylvania gun
shop. Police say they recovered about 50 of the weapons from a pickup
truck following a traffic stop Friday afternoon in Hellam Township.
Authorities arrested 20-year-old Cyle Manmiller and two 17-year-old boys, all from Myerstown. Charges for the three include burglary, theft and conspiracy. Dozens of firearms had been stolen around midnight Monday from a gun shop in Richland, Lebanon County. The stolen weapons included semiautomatic guns, several rifles and boxes of ammunition. Manmiller could not be reached for comment.

Police: Man may have tried 'suicide by cop'

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia police say a man who pulled a
BB gun on officers may have been trying to commit "suicide by cop."
An officer shot 34-year-old Michael Diering in the abdomen Friday after a confrontation over a tire-slashing incident in the city's Grays Ferry section. Police were responding to a report by Diering's mother that he
had vandalized her car and threatened her with an ice pick and some
sort of gun. Lt. Frank Vanore says when officers confronted Diering, he
refused to drop the weapon, which looked like a black handgun. Vanore says interviews indicate "that was (his) state of mind, that he did that to get the cop to shoot him." According to Vanore, Diering was in stable condition Saturday.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's struggling automakers are facing
a carrot-and-stick package from the federal government. Legislation
in the works would provide a bailout worth billions. But an overseer would have the right to recall the money, if automakers' overhaul plans were unacceptable.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama says his economic
recovery plan meets the challenge, but he warns the economy has still not bottomed out. Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" that lawmakers accustomed to pork barrel spending might as well forget it.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan has made its first known response to the Mumbai, India, attacks. Security forces raided a camp yesterday used by militants blamed for the assault and arrested more than a dozen people. A Pakistani newspaper reports one of two suspected masterminds of the Mumbai attacks was captured.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Five Blackwater security guards indicted for killing 17 Iraqi civilians two years ago are expected to surrender today in Utah, where one of the guards lives. Blackwater says the guards were ambushed, but witnesses say the shooting at a Baghdad intersection was unprovoked.