Today's News- Wednesday, January 21, 2009

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS PICKED UP

A traffic stop near Shenandoah leads to the discovery of four illegal immigrants. Frackville state police detained the men, who were reportedly living in the borough, at the entrance to Redner's Market. 23-year-olds Nicholas and Juan Mat-lala, 35-year-old Javier Garcia and Humberto Vergara, age 30 are lodged in Schuylkill County Prison awaiting processing by by federal immigration authorities.

WILLIAMSTOWN MAN CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A TEENAGER

A Williamstown man was charged with numerous sex related crimes by Lykens state police. 24 year old Joseph Hinkledire the Third is alleged to have had sexual relations with a 14 year old female last week. He was charged with statutory sexual assault, corruption of minors, indecent assault and unlawful contact with minors. He is in jail on $25-thousand-dollars unsecured bail.

JELD-WEN TO CLOSE CENTRAL PA PLANT

SUNBURY, Pa. (AP) - A door manufacturer is closing the doors on its own central Pennsylvania plant. JELD-WEN Interior Doors notified the Northumberland County commissioners last week that they will be shutting down their Sunbury plant by March 31. The plant employs 94 people. A JELD-WEN official at the corporate office says the Sunbury employees have been offered jobs at the company's Schuylkill County plant, JELD-WEN has operated the Sunbury plant since 1990. Sunbury Mayor Jesse Woodring on Tuesday night called the loss of jobs "very disturbing," but he said, "we're in that kind of economic climate, unfortunately." JELD-WEN Interior Doors is the third factory to idle operations in Sunbury in the last year.

RUSH TOWNSHIP CHIEF DISMISSED

What happened to the Rush Township police chief? That's what residents want to know, and made their displeasure very clear at this week's township meeting. The Republican and Herald reports the township supervisors confirmed that Robert Romanick is no longer on the job, but declined to comment further. A lawyer for the Fraternal Order of Police is reportedly looking into the circumstances surrounding Romanick's departure.

FIREBUG IN COURT

A man accused of setting fire to the office building of State Representative Bob Belfanti in Mount Carmel last March was in Northumberland County Court yesterday. The News Item reports 28 year old Kevin Mazur faces arson and related counts for allegedly starting the fire, that caused about $150-thousand dollars in damages to the Representatives office and two apartments above. Fire Marshal Norman Fedder testified Tuesday that his investigation revealed four distinct points of origin, and that he eliminated all accidental causes of that fire. Mount Carmel police also testified they found pieces of the door to Belfanti's office at Mazur's home during a search following his arrest. The trial continues today in Northumberland County.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD URGES OBAMA TO PAY ATTENTION TO TEEN PREGNANCY

Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania is hoping the new Obama administration ends the federal government's dependence on abstinence only funding to combat teenage pregnancy. Glen Gardner reports:

GARDNER

Senate Republicans push anew for reform measures

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Republicans who control the state Senate say they'll take another shot at passing a package of government-reform bills. Among other things, the proposals would ban the payment of bonuses to state employees, change the way state government awards consulting contracts and increase penalties for violating Pennsylvania's open-meetings law. All but one of the measures were passed with bipartisan support in the Senate during the last two-year legislative session, but they died in the House. Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi of Delaware County says he expects the Senate will approve the measures again, and that he's optimistic the House will follow suit.
Supreme Court won't revive online content law

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has lost its final attempt to revive a federal law intended to protect children from sexual material and other objectionable content on the Internet. The Supreme Court, in an order Wednesday, said it won't consider reviving the Child Online Protection Act, which lower federal courts struck down as unconstitutional. The law has been embroiled in court challenges since it passed in 1998 and never took effect. The law would have barred Web sites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled that would violate the First Amendment, because filtering technologies and other parental control tools are a less restrictive way to protect children from inappropriate content online.

FCC fines cable operators

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Federal Communications Commission is fining nine cable TV operators for attempting to thwart its investigation of a practice in which analog channels were transferred to a more expensive digital tier. That left some customers without access. In a letter to Congressional leaders Monday, on his last full day in office, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said cable operators had exhibited "contempt" for the commission by not providing full information about their practices, as ordered. The cable operators receiving fines were Comcast, Time Warner Cable and others. The fines range from $7,500 to $25,000 - totaling about $500,000. Some companies also were told to issue refunds to customers within 90 days for failing to give a 30-day notice about the channel changes.

FCC probes Comcast's phone practices

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Comcast Corp. is being investigated by the Federal Communications Commission over concerns that it is giving preferential treatment to its phone service at the expense of Internet voice services from competitors. In a letter to Comcast on Sunday, the FCC said it wanted Comcast to justify this "disparate treatment." Comcast has changed the way it handles Internet traffic after the FCC cracked down on its practice of delaying peer-to-peer file sharing. The FCC said Comcast's latest regulatory filings had "omitted" the effects that its new network management technique would have on Internet voice services. Philadelphia-based Comcast said it is reviewing the FCC's letter. Comcast is the nation's biggest cable TV operator.

Clear Channel cuts 1,850 jobs, 9 pct of work force

Clear Channel Communications Inc. is laying off 1,850 employees as the nation's largest owner of radio stations grapples with the economic meltdown. The cuts represent about 9 percent of the company's total work force and affect staff throughout the company, in radio, outdoor advertising and corporate offices. In a company-wide email sent on Tuesday, Chief Executive Mark Mays told employees that the company is facing an "unprecedented time of distress."

Authorities: woman, 2 children dead in NE Pa. fire

WAYMART, Pa. (AP) - Authorities say a woman and two children are dead in an apartment fire in northeast Pennsylvania. The fire broke out around 1 a.m. Wednesday and was out within minutes after firefighters arrived. Waymart Assistant Fire Chief Cliff Jones says the victims were found together in an upstairs bedroom. A resident of an adjacent apartment, Dale Miller, said he heard a fire alarm and went outside where he saw smoke. He said he used a flashlight to try to enter the apartment but the smoke was too thick. The bodies have been taken to Wayne Memorial Hospital for autopsies. Wayne County Coroner Carol Lienert says she is waiting for family members to positively identify the victims. Grief counselors have been called in to talk to the firefighters.

UFO group plans southeastern Pa. conference

NEWTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Some people are turning their attention from football playoff and presidential coverage in an otherworldly direction at a weekend conference in southeastern Pennsylvania. Those who feel drawn to the convention being organized by the Pennsylvania Mutual UFO Network will talk more about unidentified objects than incompleted passes and more about alien abductions than inaugurations. The confab is Saturday at Bucks County Community College in Newtown Township, 25 miles northeast of Philadelphia. The UFO group says Bucks County outpaces other areas with 71 UFO reports in 2008, including sightings over Sesame Place and the Oxford Valley Mall. Pennsylvania MUFON director John Ventre says the group's investigators conclude 10 percent were hoaxes and 10 percent were man-made satellites or have other plausible explanations. They have no earthly explanation for the rest of the sightings.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is getting to work on his first full day as commander in chief. He spent some time in the Oval Office this morning, reading the note left for him by his predecessor. Later, he and his wife, Michelle, attended a multi-denominational prayer service at Washington National Cathedral. It's a tradition that dates all the way back to George Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is summoning top military advisers to the White House to discuss the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan today. He's pledged to "responsibly leave Iraq." A key Iraqi lawmaker says if that means an early withdrawal of U.S. troops, the government has a "Plan B."

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - The defense lawyer for a young Canadian being held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison says suspension of his war crimes trial stops the process "probably forever." The judge in the case granted President Barack Obama's request to suspend the trial this morning. Another judge is expected to rule later today on whether to stop the case of five men charged in the 9/11 attacks.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner is apologizing to Congress for failing to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes earlier this decade. At his Senate
confirmation hearing today, he called it an "unintentional" but "careless" mistake.

NEW YORK (AP) - The key stock indexes appear to be giving back some of their early gains, but they're still higher. Yesterday, the Dow lost 4 percent amid fresh concerns about the financial industry. But a better than expected forecast from IBM has helped boost prices this morning.