Today's News-Wednesday, May 6, 2009

DEBATE HELD THIS MORNING

The men who are vying for the state House seat in the 124th district made their case to members of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce this morning in Orwigsburg. Bill Mackey and Jerry Knowles want Dave Argall's job since he's moved on to the state Senate. During the hour long debate, both candidates answered position questions about taxes, transportation, healthcare, labor and others before about 50 people. Mackey offered his views about who the right candidate is:

MACKEY

Knowles said his years of public experience make him the right man for the job:

KNOWLES

The special election is May 19th.

ARGALL EXPLAINS SENATE APPROPRIATIONS BUDGET

Governor Ed Rendell is not happy about the budget proposed by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this week, saying it will be detrimental to school districts and squelch economic development. Senator Dave Argall of the 29th District offered his explanation about the $27.3 billion dollar spending plan as opposed to the Rendell administration’s $29 billion dollar budget introduced several months ago:

ARGALL BUDGET 1

Argall was in attendance at today’s 124th Legislative District candidates debate in Orwigsburg. Bill Mackey and Jerry Knowles are vying for that seat in a special election on May 19th.

MALDEF SPONSORS ON LINE PETITION

A non profit Latino legal organization who have followed the Shenandoah beating case since it happened last July has launched an online petition to get the US Justice Department to look into the case. MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, deems the case a hate crime. In a statement accompanying the petition, the organization says the Justice Department "should conduct a thorough and comprehensive" federal investigation surrounding the death of Luis Ramirez and bring "appropriate criminal charges" against his assailants. Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky were found guilty of simple assault and alcohol related charges by a county jury last Friday, having been acquitted of the more serious counts they faced. Henry Solano, interim president and general counsel of the organization has said that the jury's conclusion was an outrage.

STIMULUS MONIES TO BE USED TO PAINT BRIDGES

Federal stimulus monies will be used by PennDOT to spruce up a number of bridges in east-central Pennsylvania, including 4 in Schuylkill County. A New York firm has been contracted to paint the county structures as part of $2 million dollars in spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bridges targeted for painting are in Union and Eldred Townships and along Route 61 crossing the Schuylkill River in West Brunswick and North Manheim Townships.

POTTSVILLE MAN HEADED TO THE STATE PEN

A city man who's admitted to a drinking problem is going to state prison on vandalism and criminal contempt charges. The Republican and Herald indicate that 46 year old Kevin Viars was sentenced to 3 to 23 months in state prison on the charges after pleading guilty. Reports indicate that Viars showed up drunk before Judge D Michael Stine last month, adding to the list of charges, tied to vandalism at the Nativity High School athletic complex last fall. Viars told the court that he's had a drinking problem since he was a teenager.

TWO HURT IN WAYNE TOWNSHIP CRASH

Two suffered minor injuries in a crash in Wayne Township Monday evening. Schuylkill Haven state police indicate that a 16 year old boy was driving south on Panther Valley Road, and failed to see a Jeep driven by 38 year old Michelle Hair of Pine Grove, headed westbound on Sweet Arrow Lake Road when the vehicles collided. Both were taken to the hospital for treatment.

FIVE YEAR PRISON SENTENCE FOR ST CLAIR MAN

A St Clair man will make a state prison his home for five years for possessing a gun and pot. Judge John Domalakes ruled that 21 year old David Mengle had a pistol, brass knuckles and about 4 ounces of marijuana in his possession when arrested by Pottsville police in October, 2007. The combination of violations mandated the 5 year state sentence.

SPECTER-COMMITTEES
New Democrat Specter loses committee seniority
WASHINGTON (AP) - Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party has cost him his seniority on Senate committees. The Senate passed a resolution Tuesday night that made him the most junior Democrat on the committees on which he serves. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says the seniority issue will be revisited after the 2010 elections.
Specter is up for re-election next year in Pennsylvania. The five-term Specter serves on the Appropriations, Judiciary, Veterans Affairs, Environment and Public Works, and Special Aging
committees. Specter had been the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, which is preparing for hearings on a Supreme Court nominee. A message left with Specter's office Wednesday was not immediately returned.

ETHIOPIA-COUP PLOT
Rights group: Ethiopia coup suspects held secretly
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - A human rights group says the Ethiopian government must release the names and whereabouts of 35 people being held since their arrest last month in an alleged coup plot. Amnesty International says the suspects' families have not been informed of their whereabouts. The deputy director of Amnesty's Africa program several may have been detained solely because they have family ties to men who have expressed political opposition to the government. In April, Ethiopia said the suspects were found with weapons, plans and information that linked them to a prominent opposition group started after the country's disputed 2005 elections. Amnesty identifies one suspect as Geta Worku, who lives in the
United States and teaches economics at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

SHELTER CHANGES
Philly changes way it tracks mentally ill homeless
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia is making a change in the way it tracks homeless people with mental illnesses. The city's emergency drop-in shelters - called "overnight cafes" - now will report the names of people who stay there to the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health/Mental Retardation Services. The change follows a report by The Philadelphia Inquirer April 5 on the death of a 61-year-old woman, Margaret Jones, in a transit stairwell on Jan. 19.
Jones was mentally ill and the city's mental-health system knew she was missing. The homeless shelter system knew where she was, but the two never connected the information. The city estimates that 70 percent of people living on the streets have some degree of mental illness.

BRIDGE DANGER
Implosion set for dangerous Pittsburgh bridge
PITTSBURGH (AP) - About 400 nearby residents will be evacuated when demolition crews use about 70 pounds of explosives to bring down a 110-year-old Pittsburgh bridge that's in danger of collapsing. The Davis Avenue Bridge will be imploded sometime after 2 p.m. Wednesday. Residents within a 12-street safety zone will asked leave the area about 11 a.m. They'll be allowed to return several hours later, provided officials determine it is safe. Controlled Demolition Inc. will be paid up to $758,000 to demolish the bridge. The same firm imploded Three Rivers Stadium in 2001. The overpass closed to vehicles in 2001, but a consultant said
it could collapse soon. A few residents who live directly below the bridge are being given $200 a day until it's safe for them to return.

PHILADELPHIA-CONSTRUCTION UNIONS
2 new contract agreements for construction workers
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Construction workers will remain on their job sites in the Philadelphia area. The General Building Contractors Association has reached two tentative contract agreements - one with the Laborers' District Council and the other with the Interior Finish Contractors Association and the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters. Carpenters business manger Ed Coryell says they are each one-year agreements. The previous contracts expired at midnight on April 30. Workers had remained on the job while talks were under way.
Coryell says key issues involved money in the unions' fringe benefits, health and welfare, and pension funds. Details of the agreements will be announced after the union members vote.

ARSENIC NEAR PARK
DEP to advise residents of arsenic near Pa. park
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) - The state Department of Environmental Protection will help residents limit their exposure to arsenic found in a neighborhood and park built on the site of a former western Pennsylvania glass plant. DEP officials say high levels of the poisonous chemical were found in 11 samples taken in Butler, near an apartment complex and the park. DEP officials say arsenic was used in the glassmaking process. DEP spokeswoman Freda Tarbell says the findings are cause to investigate, not panic. Residents get drinking water from a public system that isn't
affected by the arsenic. Instead, regulators are concerned the poison could become airborne and swallowed. The DEP plans more tests to determine the extent of the contamination and how to remove it.

EARNS-ALPHA NATURAL
Alpha shares soar on higher first-quarter profit
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Shares of Alpha Natural Resources are soaring on news that the coal producer's first-quarter profit jumped more than 60 percent. Alpha's stock rose $3.77, or 14.89 percent, to $29.09 Wednesday morning after the Abindgon, Va.-based company said it earned $41 million, or 58 cents per share, in the period, compared with $25.5 million, or 39 cents per share, in first-quarter 2008. Revenue totaled $486.7 million, down from $493 million in first-quarter 2008. Costs, however, dipped to $417.3 million, from $447.1 million a year ago.
Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected Alpha, on average, to earn 48 cents per share on $521.8 million in revenue. Alpha operates 59 mines and employs more than 3,600 people in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

MUSLIM PILGRIMAGE SUIT
Muslim says pilgrimage cost him Pa. hospital job
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A nuclear medicine technologist claims he lost his job at a Pittsburgh hospital after he angered a supervisor by taking a Muslim religious pilgrimage. Sixty-one-year-old Mohammed Hussein, of North Fayette, says he was fired last year from UPMC Mercy hospital after returning from the trip in January 2008. Hussein's federal lawsuit says his 32-year career ended on trumped up charges of falsifying records and being dishonest. He
claims the hospital refused to reinstate him even after an investigation cleared him. Hussein claims he wasn't allowed to make the pilgrimage to Mecca over the Christmas holidays in 2006. He says a supervisor became irate when a higher ranking employee let him take the trip
beginning in late 2007.

FOUR WAY EMBEZZLEMENT
Forgiveness spares admitted Pa. embezzler

MEDIA, Pa. (AP) - A victim's forgiveness is keeping a Philadelphia-area woman out of jail.
Sixty-seven-year-old Elizabeth Greenawalt of Newark, Del. was sentenced Tuesday to house arrest after admitting to a 10-year, $925,000 fraud scam involving her southeastern Pennsylvania employer. Greenawalt's former boss at Environmental Equipment and Service
Co. in Marcus Hook told a Delaware County Court judge he has forgiven her. Ralph Bucci said he didn't want to see Greenawalt go to prison. Although sentencing guidelines could have put Greenawalt behind bars, Judge James Nilon decided to honor Bucci's request. He also ordered Greenawalt to pay $636,000 in restitution. Greenawalt is in remission from ovarian cancer. She pleaded guilty to multiple counts of fraud on Jan. 30.

TASERING-SUIT
Pa. city pays $45,000 to settle home Tasering suit
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A western Pennsylvania city will pay $45,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man zapped with a Taser when police arrested him at home on an outdated warrant.
Thirty-five-year-old Morris Earquhart says two Uniontown officers responded to a 911 hang-up call at his home on Dec. 1, 2006. They left after Earquhart's wife told them nothing was wrong,
but returned moments later with an arrest warrant that police later determined had been rescinded. When Earquhart tried to tell that to police, they shot him with the Taser. Earquhart lost control of his bladder and says he has permanent nerve damage. Mayor Ed Fike says the settlement was approved Tuesday night to save the city money, not to admit guilt.

COLD CASE UNIT
Pa. county forms cold case unit; has 30 old crimes
EASTON, Pa. (AP) - An eastern Pennsylvania district attorney is forming a "cold case" unit to take a look at more than two dozen unsolved homicides. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli estimates there are 25 to 30 unsolved slayings in the county dating to the
1970s. A renewed interest in them followed the recent conviction of Robert White for the murder of Virginia Morell in Easton in 1979. Most recently, Morganelli and his investigators have been taking another look at the 1979 murder of Holly Branagan. The 17-year-old
girl was stabbed to death inside her family's home. Morganelli says that will be the first case the new unit investigates. The unit will be headed by retired State Police investigator Robert Eagan.

STUDENTS RAPED
Judge: Mental tests for Philly serial rape suspect
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A judge has ordered mental tests for a West Philadelphia man accused of a series of armed home-invasion rapes and robberies in Philadelphia and Lock Haven, Pa.
Twenty-three-year-old Domenique Wilson was arrested in February in Lock Haven after an attack on three Lock Haven University students in central Pennsylvania. Wilson had attended school and played basketball there. Authorities say DNA and other evidence led them to connect Wilson with three attacks in Philadelphia. One involved two students - a man and a woman - from the University of Pennsylvania. They were bound and gagged, terrorized and robbed, and the woman was raped. A judge in Philadelphia on Tuesday granted a request by Wilson's attorney for the mental health evaluation.

DELI STABBING
2nd arrest in stabbing of Philadelphia deli owner
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Police report the arrest of a second suspect in the stabbing of a Philadelphia deli owner. Authorities say 20-year-old Zinnah Tobert is charged in the
attack on 51-year-old Edward Whalen. Whalen was seriously injured while trying to protect his daughter during a robbery at his store Monday afternoon. Police say two hooded men entered the deli in Southwest Philadelphia and one pointed a gun at Whalen's daughter. As the other man began to approach her, Whalen told him to stay away and that man lunged at him with a knife. Police say Whalen was stabbed several times in the back and hand. His daughter was uninjured. Police say Tobert and 22-year-old Terrell Nelson are charged with attempted murder, robbery and related offenses.

BABY'S ASHES
Police: Pa. man stole baby's ashes during break-in
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A western Pennsylvania man has been ordered to stand trial on charges he stole a wooden box containing a baby's cremated remains during a home burglary.
Eighteen-year-old Derek Tate, of Westmont, is charged with corpse abuse and other counts in the April 17 burglary. The home's owner reported someone took the box, a baseball cap, jewelry and $20. Police arrested Tate after the homeowner's son saw him wearing the stolen cap the next day. Police say Tate won't tell them what happened to the box of ashes. They don't know if Tate realized what was in the box, and believe he may have presumed it contained valuables.
Tate's defense attorney says he won't comment until Tate's formal arraignment next month in Cambria County court.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he'll focus on the issue of civilian casualties when he meets with President Barack Obama at the White House today. The international Red Cross is confirming women and children are among dozens of bodies found in two Afghan villages hit by U.S. airstrikes Monday. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Afghanistan to get on-the-ground sense of the security situation.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Police in Baghdad are reporting two deadly car bombings. The first killed 15 people and wounded about 40 when it exploded at the extrance to a fruit and vegetable market. The second, separate blast apparently was targeting a police patrol but missed. Two people were killed and six wounded.

MEXICO CITY (AP) - As Mexico's swine flu lockdown ends, health officials there are catching up on backlogged test results and raising the death toll. The tests have now confirmed 42 deaths,
inclding three in the past two days. Officials also have confirmed more than 1,000 other cases.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) - Fire officials in Santa Barbara, California, are trying to hold back a wildfire threatening about 2,000 homes in the city. Calmer winds overnight eased the
situation, but forecasters say they'll likely pick up.

NEW YORK (AP) - A private employment report indicating job losses slowed in April is boosting stocks this morning. The ADP National Employment Report says employment fell by less than half a million in April. That's much better than March's report of more than 700,000 job losses. The Dow has been in positive territory since the open.