Today's News- Saturday, December 13, 2008

Dems to announce candidate Monday

Democrats in the 29th District have been quietly looking for a candidate to run in the special election for the late State Senator Jim Rhoades seat. Monday morning, we'll all know who that is. WPPA News spoke with Schuylkill County Party Chair Ed Kleha Friday and he said that the party faithful in all the counties represented are in unison as to who their choice is. Republicans in the 29th will meet next Saturday morning to pick their nominee. Dave Argall, Christopher Hobbs and Gretchen Sterns have all announced their intentions. The special election will be held on March 3rd to fill the seat held by Rhoades, who died in October from injuries in a car crash.

Fall cleanup results

Two hundred thirteen tons of waste was collected during the Schuylkill County fall cleanup and 82 percent of it was recycled. The Office of Solid Waste and Resource Management repoted that 106 ton of tires were gathered, 35 ton of electronic waste, 31 ton of scrap metal items and 47 pounds of freon from appliances were collected, along with 39 ton of other items. The program is designed to discourage illegal dumping throughout the county.

Two county fire companies benefit from federal grants

Two Schuylkill County fire companies have benefitted from the latest round of federal Fire Grants. Tuscarora Fire Company gets over $23 thousand dollars and Tremont Fire Company garnered nearly $39 thousand bucks to aid in their operations. In this fiscal year, the feds will award a half a billion dollars to fire and EMS operations across the country.

Republican Roundup

Several important items, including the state's budget woes, highlight this week's Capitol Republican Roundup:

ROUNDUP

Electoral college to meet to cast votes for Obama and Biden

As required by the U.S. Constitution, the 56th meeting of the Electoral College will take place Monday in Harrisburg and other state capitals to cast votes for president and vice-president of the United States. Dave Washburn reports from Harrisburg.

WASHBURN

Economy delays Penn St. children's hospital

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) - Penn State University's medical center is delaying construction of a new children's hospital in Hershey because of concerns over the global economic crisis. The center's chief executive officer, Dr. Harold Paz, said Friday the economic climate hampers the hospital's ability to borrow money for the $235 million children's hospital project. Groundbreaking had been scheduled for January, pending the approval of architectural designs and financing plans by the hospital's board and Penn State's trustees. Paz says officials are continuing to raise money for the children's hospital. He says they've secured $58 million in private donations so far. Paz says the delay won't affect several other expansion projects already in progress at the medical center.

Friends, family, colleagues gather in Pittsburgh to remember slain FBI agent

PITTSBURGH (AP) - An FBI agent slain during a drug raid in suburban Pittsburgh is being remembered as a man who loved his job so much he could barely believe he was paid to do it.
Sam Hicks was remembered Friday by about 200 friends, family and law enforcement officials at a memorial service in Pittsburgh. The 33-year-old FBI special agent was killed Nov. 19 while serving a drug-trafficking warrant. The Pittsburgh Police band's bagpipes streamed through the university neighborhood of Oakland while an honor guard lined up outside the 102-year-old St. Paul Cathedral. Christina Korbe, the wife of the man being sought in the drug raid, has been charged with fatally shooting Hicks. She told police she thought her home was being burglarized and she was shooting a home invader.

Car slams into school bus in northeastern Pa.; at least 4 hurt, including 2 students

JEDDO, Pa. (AP) - State police say a man lost control of his car and slammed head-on into a school bus in northeastern Pennsylvania, injuring two people in the car and at least two students on the bus. More than 20 other students were taken to the hospital as a precaution following Friday morning's crash in Jeddo, Luzerne County. Police say 25-year-old Jason Barker of Freeland lost control of his Mitsubishi Lancer about 8:30 a.m. and hit a Hazleton Area School District bus heading to Freeland Elementary/Middle School. Barker and his passenger, 26-year-old Christopher Whitney of Drums, had to be extricated from the car. They were hospitalized with moderate injuries. The bus driver wasn't hurt.

Pa. teacher pension agency says outlook worsens

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's public school pension fund says school districts should try to start saving for an expected increase in costs starting in 2012. The Public School Employees Retirement System announced Friday that the amount of payroll that school districts and the state will have to contribute that year is now expected to be more than 16
percent, up from earlier projections of about 11 percent. The system's board of trustees says next year's employer contribution rate will be just under 5 percent, fractionally higher than the current year's. Pension system officials say planning could lessen the impact of the dramatic increase expected to hit in four years. The pension fund's investment portfolio was $55 billion at the end of September.

Pure Weight Loss, owner agree to pay $700k into fund for shuttered company's Pa. customers

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A closed-down weight loss company is agreeing to pay $700,000 to settle complaints from former customers who didn't get products or services they paid for.
The Pennsylvania attorney general's office announced the consent agreement with Horsham-based Pure Weight Loss Inc. and owner Vahan Karian on Friday. Most of the money will go to people who filed complaints with the attorney general. Some will go into a fund to pay former
customers who've filed claims as part of the company's bankruptcy proceeding. The state is still verifying claims, and the amount paid out will vary among customers.

Dean says law school opening may be pushed back

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - Opening Wilkes-Barre's first law school is going to take longer than planned. Dean Loren Prescott Jr. of the Wilkes University Law School Planning Initiative says a feasibility study won't be ready in time to open the school in 2010 as proposed. Prescott says it could be ready, though, in the fall of 2011. The school still needs to be approved by the university board of trustees. After the university grants approval, it could take nine months to receive state approval. Prescott says a building must still be found, money raised, a curriculum developed and faculty hired. He says it is too early to comment on how fundraising is going. Wilkes University is planning to locate the law school either on campus or in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

$20 million Lincoln collection to stay in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia valued at more than $20 million has been donated to the state of Indiana and will be housed in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. The collection of more than 20,000 items includes photographs, signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and thousands of other documents. It is considered the world's largest private collection of memorabilia from Abraham Lincoln's personal and presidential life.
Gov. Mitch Daniels announced on Friday that the items formerly housed at the defunct Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne will go to the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis and the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. They are being donated by the Lincoln Financial Foundation, which relocated from Fort Wayne to Philadelphia in 1999.

BALAD, Iraq (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has arrived in Iraq to meet with commanders as the U.S. prepares to cut troop levels and pull forces out from Iraqi cities. Earlier while in Bahrain, Gates asked other Middle Eastern nations to do more to help in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is working with U.S. automakers on a new rescue plan, as Chrysler and General Motors teeter on the brink of bankruptcy. To the relief of many lawmakers, especially in Michigan, funds from the Wall Street bailout program may be used.

WOODBURN, Ore. (AP) - Police in an Oregon farming town are looking for whoever left a bomb outside a bank yesterday. That bomb exploded when police took it inside, killing one officer and
seriously injuring the Woodburn police chief and a bomb technician. Federal agents are on the scene.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans are criticizing President-elect Barack Obama's silence over any contacts his aides may have had with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. They say Obama is already breaking his promise about bringing transparency to government. Obama said yesterday he will release in a matter of days the results of an internal investigation into the matter.

CHICAGO (AP) - The attorney general in Illinois has formally asked the state Supreme Court to declare Gov. Rod Blagojevich unfit for office. She says it's the only way to keep the state government functioning. The governor says that he'll have "a lot to say at the appropriate time."
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - About 1.25 million homes in seven Northeast states are in the dark thanks to a brutal ice storm, and it may be several days before crews can get everything turned back on again. The storm is blamed for at least one death.

WASHINGTON (AP) - It doesn't look like this recession is going to end anytime soon. With retail sales in November down for a record fifth straight month, and prices falling again, inflation is no longer a concern. But now the possibility of potentially devastating deflation is.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Authorities say a 31-year-old Oregon man with a history of gang involvement is in grave condition after he was shot during a funeral Friday. Services were being held inside a church in Portland for an elderly woman when he was shot. No one else was injured.

PECOS, Texas (AP) - Inmates at a privately run prison in West Texas are still holding on to one hostage after starting a riot Friday. The Pecos Enterprise reports inmates are demanding better
medical treatment. At least one fire has also been set.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Police say a Canadian man is dead after a recently laid off worker opened fire at his former office's Christmas party. The rest of the partygoers escaped
without injuries. Police say the suspect gave himself up about two hours later.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - A reflective President George W. Bush says popularity is "as fleeting as the Texas wind." In the final commencement address of his presidency, Bush told graduates of Texas A&M University on Friday that what matters is whether they think they've done what is right.

ATLANTA (AP) - Brian Nichols will not be put to death for killing a judge and three other people in Atlanta in 2005. Jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision on his sentence. The judge is
required by state law to sentence Nichols to life. On Saturday, the judge will decide if it will include the possibility of parole.

NEW YORK (AP) - Three of college football's top quarterbacks are in New York for tonight's Heisman Trophy presentation. Colt McCoy of Texas and Oklahoma's Sam Bradford put up huge numbers in the Big 12 this year. Florida's Tim Tebow, who was last year's Heisman winner, dominated the SEC.