Today's News- Thursday, April 9, 2009

FIERY CRASH ON ROUTE 924
A Gilberton woman and two children were injured in a fiery crash Wednesday morning in northern Schuylkill County. Troopers say 44-year old Christine Prep of Girardville was driving along Route 924 in Gilberton when she hit a vehicle parked on the shoulder of the road. Jody Kaczynski and two children were inside the vehicle that was disabled after being involved in another accident. The two vehicles caught on fire after impact. Everyone was able to get out of the vehicles. Prep wasn't hurt. Kaczynski and the two children suffered what police say were minor injuries. The three were treated and released at Schuylkill Medical Center South.

ICY 81 SCENE OF FOUR ACCIDENTS
Travel from icy conditions caused Interstate 81 to be closed north of Frackville early Wednesday. State police from Frackville and Hazleton say the near white out conditions were to blame. The most serious accident happened around 5am when 54 year old Michael Yanetti of Kelayres lost control on an ice covered bridge in Hazle Township. His vehicle spun on the road, hit a guide rail and rolled onto its side. A vehicle traveling behind tried to stop, but was rear ended by a tractor trailer. Yanetti was taken to Geisinger Medical Center Wyoming Valley. Several other crashes resulted from icy roads from the Luzerne/Schuylkill County line northbound, making for an interesting morning commute.

VANDALS BLOCK SEWER
Schuylkill Haven state police are investigating criminal mischief in Cressona. Sometime over the past week, vandals shoved rocks and a soda bottle down a sewer pipe at the Cressona post office on Sillyman Street. The junk blocked the sewer system causing $800 dollars damage. The investigation continues.

CELL PHONES BANNED IN COURTHOUSE
If you are planning to take a cell phone to the Schuylkill County Courthouse, think again. At Wednesday's county commissioners meeting at Schuylkill Haven High School, the board voted to ban cell phones and similar gear from the courthouse, district judges offices and the county human services building on Centre Street. In addition, the new policy will prohibit audio and video recording devices in the courthouse. If a member of the media wishes to use recording devices in connection with court proceedings, they must request permission in writing with the county sheriff's office. Photo identification will also be required of everyone coming to the courthouse.

HELP FOR FORECLOSURES

As people are looking for ways to save their homes from foreclosure, Governor Ed Rendell is taking time to remind Pennsylvanians that help is available. Over the past year, foreclosures have increased by nearly 130 percent. Last month, Rendell redirected $5 million dollars in additional funding to Home Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program to aid an additional 550 PA families. While things may start to improve on the housing front soon, Rendell said people shouldn’t be afraid to ask:

RENDELL

Forty three thousand foreclosure filings were made in 2008. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency reported that it received more than 14-hundred-applications through HEMAP. Already in 2009, 22-hundred families have been aided 22-hundred families.

OFFICERS' VIEWING-BANK ROBBERY
Pittsburgh bank robbed during officers' viewing
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Authorities are looking for a man who robbed a downtown Pittsburgh bank while hundreds of police officers gathered just a few blocks away. Police from as far away as Georgia gathered at Pittsburgh's City-County building to attend the public viewing Wednesday for three officers killed during the weekend. While that was going on, officials say a man entered a nearby Northwest Savings Bank office, gave a teller a note demanding money, and ran down the street with the cash. The robbery while attention was elsewhere is similar to the robbery of a Huntingdon Bank branch downtown as crowds gathered for the Pittsburgh Steelers' Super Bowl victory parade on Feb. 3. A 29-year-old man faces trial for that heist, though he denies any involvement.

PENNSYLVANIA SLOTS
Philly casinos fight returns to Harrisburg
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The fight over construction of two casinos in Philadelphia has landed back in the lap of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Officials from SugarHouse Casino and Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia were heckled and shouted down by several dozen Philadelphia residents at the agency's chaotic public meeting Wednesday. Foxwoods official Brian Ford said the casino group has decided to move its location about two miles from the Delaware Riverfront into Center City. SugarHouse chairman Neil Bluhm said the group is
making design changes that include a temporary facility that could open next spring. Residents holding signs and standing among the seats of the Pennsylvania State Museum auditorium not more than 15 feet away had ready responses. One shouted, "It's going to get harder." Another
said, "You're dead in the water; everybody knows it."

PHILLY DA CANDIDATE
Court puts Philly DA candidate back on ballot
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Pennsylvania court has reversed a lower court decision to remove a Philadelphia district attorney candidate from the primary ballot. Democrat Seth Williams was kicked off the May 19 ballot by a judge who ruled last month that he had failed to disclose all
sources of his income as required by law. A Commonwealth Court panel overturned that ruling on Wednesday. Attorneys for rival Dan McCaffery say Williams failed to disclose more than $11,000 he received from his campaign committee, hich Williams says was reimbursement for campaign expenses. McCaffery released a statement later Wednesday saying he wouldn't appeal and welcomed Williams back into the race. Williams ran for district attorney in 2005 and narrowly lost to incumbent Lynne Abraham, who is stepping down.

SCHOOL HIRING PROBE
Feds ask for tips on job selling in NE Pa. schools
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - The FBI is asking for help finding anyone who has been required to provide money or anything of value in order to get a job in a northeastern Pennsylvania public school. The FBI issued the request Wednesday in what it said is a criminal investigation into the hiring of teachers and other school employees. Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Jeff Namey testified before a federal grand jury in Scranton on Tuesday. Last
week federal agents issued a subpoena for records from the district and from the Wilkes-Barre Vocational-Technical Joint Operating Committee. Namey told reporters that agents have interviewed his district's teachers and that he testified for about 25 minutes. He didn't describe his testimony and didn't return a phone message left Wednesday. Tipsters are asked to call 570-344-2404.

POT BY CHILD'S BED
Police: Pa. couple had pot growing by child's bed
POCONO LAKE, Pa. (AP) - Police in northeastern Pennsylvania say they found hundreds of marijuana plants in two homes - including plants growing just feet from a 3-year-old boy's bed.
Pocono Mountain Regional Police say that boy's parents are facing numerous drug and child endangerment charges. Their son is protective custody. Detective Sgt. Kenneth Lenning says there was an "overwhelming" smell of marijuana throughout the Tobyhanna Township home when police raided it Wednesday.

CROSS-STATE SHOOTINGS
Pa. man accused of 2 shootings 150 miles apart
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A man is accused of two shootings in Pennsylvania more than 150 miles apart. Police in Scranton accuse 33-year-old Joseph Brian Olecki of shooting Michael and Lindsey Ross as they were on the back porch of their home March 15. They survived. Police have not determined a motive; Olecki said nothing as he was led into court Wednesday in
Scranton. Police in Logan Township, outside Altoona, say the next day, Olecki riddled his ex-girlfriend's home with 21 bullets. Police say he had six homemade pipe bombs strapped to his body when he was arrested, among other weapons. Olecki grew up next to the Ross house in Scranton, in northeastern Pennsylvania. He lived more recently in suburban Altoona, in southwestern Pennsylvania.

DEALER'S FAMILY SLAIN
Convicted Philly kingpin charged in fatal arson
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A convicted drug kingpin is charged with murder for allegedly setting a Philadelphia house fire 4 1/2 years ago that killed six people, including four children, in retaliation for an informant's testimony. Federal authorities say Kaboni Savage and three other men set the fire in Oct. 2004 that killed five family members of cocaine trafficker-turned-informant Eugene Coleman. The fire killed Coleman's mother and four other family members -
including a toddler and two children under 12 - as well as a teenage family friend. Three years ago Savage was sentenced to 30 years in prison on drug, money laundering and witness retaliation counts. In 2004 he was acquitted of a murder charge after the sole witness was killed
on the eve of the trial.

FATHER-SON DRUG CHARGES
Philly man gets 10 years in prison for cocaine
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Philadelphia man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession with intent to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine. He is 56-year-old Ricardo McKendrick Sr., who entered the plea Dec. 8 and was sentenced Wednesday. McKendrick was also ordered to forfeit the home used to store the cocaine, pay a $20,000 fine and complete five years of supervised release. McKendrick's son, convicted drug kingpin Ricardo McKendrick Jr., made news recently when he testified against a former Philadelphia police officer. A jury deadlocked on whether Malik Snell robbed the younger McKendrick of $40,000 and on charges from an unrelated home invasion. Snell was acquitted of a weapons charge.

INFANT BEATING DEATH
Pa. man reaches plea in daughter's slaying
LEBANON, Pa. (AP) - A south-central Pennsylvania man who pleaded no-contest to first-degree murder in the death of his 6-month old daughter faces a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Wednesday's plea by Kevin Mitchell Jr. spares him the possibility of the death penalty, which Lebanon County District Attorney David Arnold had been seeking. Mitchell also pleaded no contest to aggravated assault, simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Defense lawyer Brian Deiderick says it wasn't an easy decision to plead no contest but it was ultimately up to his client. Mitchell and Miriam Nebot, the child's mother, lived together in
a Lebanon apartment when they took 6-month-old Zariyah Mitchell to a hospital May 23. Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful. Prosecutors plan to charge Nebot as well but are not seeking the death penalty for her.

TEACHER-CHILD PORN
Pa. teacher resigns during child-porn probe
HANOVER, Pa. (AP) - An elementary school teacher in south-central Pennsylvania has resigned after being investigated about alleged viewing of child porn. The fifth-grade teacher hasn't been charged with a crime and the police investigation continues. The South Western School District
in York County accepted his resignation Wednesday. Superintendent Barbara Rupp says she's shocked by the allegation but stresses that the allegations involve the man's home computer.
She says there's no indication that the teacher did anything wrong in the classroom. State police seized his home computer last week; the man hasn't been in the classroom since.

MOTHER TARGETED
3 charged in NE Pa. murder plot
HONESDALE, Pa. (AP) - A 17-year-old northeastern Pennsylvania boy and two young men are accused of plotting to kill the teen's mother. State police say the Western Wayne High School student and two men from the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Moscow, ages 20 and
24, "engaged in significant negotiations" to kill the Lake Ariel woman. State police Cpl. William Wagner says the 24-year-old man had a feud with the woman he allegedly planned to kill. Wagner says that man had been dating the woman's daughter. Police say the daughter hasn't been charged, but the investigation continues. All three were arrested late Monday and are being held at Wayne County Correctional Facility in lieu of $200,000 bail each. Their preliminary hearings are April 15.

REVOLUTION MUSEUM
Suburban Philadelphia museum dispute continues
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The lawyer for a conservation group says her group will continue to fight a planned museum in suburban Philadelphia. The proposed American Revolution Center is a museum to be built on 78 acres of private land nearly surrounded by Valley Forge National Historical Park. The National Parks Conservation Association had gone to federal court to try to stop the construction, but U.S. District Judge Anita Brody ruled this week that the lawsuit must return to Montgomery County court. Libby Fayad is general counsel for the National Parks
Conservation Association. She said Wednesday that the group was still considering its options, which include appealing Brody's ruling or taking the case to county court.

NORTHAMPTON-STIMULUS
Pa. college to get nearly $400,000 from stimulus
TANNERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - A northeastern Pennsylvania community college is getting $395,000 in federal stimulus money. U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski announced the funding for Northampton Community College on Wednesday. The college is getting $300,000 for its Electrotechnology Application Center, which helps companies develop environmentally
friendly business practices. Also, it is getting $95,000 for a separate program to help track
students' successes electronically at the college. Kanjorski says that will allow the college to improve its offerings by making it clearer where gaps exist.

PENN ST-MYSTERY DONATION
Penn St.-Harrisburg gets mystery $3 mil. donation
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Penn State-Harrisburg doesn't know who to thank for a $3 million donation - the largest in that school's history. An anonymous donor last week sent the school two checks of $1.5 million. A development official says he initially thought the donation was an April Fool's trick. University president Graham Spanier said Wednesday a representative for the benefactor spoke with school representatives and made clear the donor's identity would not be revealed. Spanier says all Penn State can do is say "Thank you." He says it's the first time in his 14 years at the university that such a large donation was made anonymously. Half the donation is targeted for scholarships, with the rest to be used at the discretion of the Harrisburg campus' chancellor.

PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL
Punxsutawney Phil keeps 'escaping' from his den
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) - The world's most famous groundhog keeps trying to escape from his home in central Pennsylvania, but he hasn't gotten very far. The animal who emerges to check for his shadow each year of Feb. 2 - Groundhog Day - is kept most of the year at the Punxsutawney Library, where he stays in a man-made den. But library workers say the groundhog has gotten out of the structure three times in the past two weeks. Somehow, the groundhog climbs into the library's ceiling and travels about 50 feet before dropping into some library offices. So far, Phil hasn't been hurt and has been returned to his den each time.
Still, workers are hoping to put a stop to the escapes before Phil isn't so fortunate.

NORDEN, Calif. (AP) - California Officials say an armed man who had been holding his wife and three children hostage on a freeway released them and eventually surrendered. The tense standoff lasted about eight hours yesterday and shut down the freeway.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The first pirate attack on an American crew near Somalia is being monitored by a U.S. Navy destroyer today. The crew retook the ship but the pirates are in a lifeboat, holding the ship's captain as a hostage.

L'AQUILA, Italy (AP) - The rescue and recovery effort has ended at a collapsed university dormitory in central Italy. Three more bodies were recovered, bringing the earthquake death toll to 275. Huge excavators have begun dismantling the dorm.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - The discovery of the mutilated bodies of three missing political dissidents has triggered protests and riots in Southwestern Pakistan. One policeman has been killed. The unrest raises another threat to the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

LONDON (AP) - British police have 12 men in custody today after a series of anti-terrorist raids involving hundreds of officers across northwest England. The arrests were triggered after a
security blunder by Britain's top counterterrorism officer. He has resigned.