Today's News-Saturday, May 1, 2010

Shenandoah woman to remain in prison

The women at the center of a bar brawl in Shenandoah will remain in Schuylkill County Prison. Miriam Malave who was charged in connection with a bar fight that became racially charged at the M&T bar in February learned that her request for a bail reduction has been denied. An accomplice in the case, Malave's stepson, Michael Berdecia, was also denied his request to have his bail lowered before Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin. Both requests were denied due to the defendants being flight risks according to the Judge.

Damage done and a security camera stolen from a Schuylkill County business.

Troopers say sometime between 6 Thursday night and just before 6 Friday morning someone pried open the main exterior electric panel at Natural Soil Products on East Main Street in Good Spring turning off all the breakers and then disconnecting all the telephone lines. The culprits also smashed out the main office window and took a security camera from that area before prying open another entry door to the main office, entering but apparently doing no further damage or taking anything more. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call State Police at Schuylkill Haven at 593-2000.

Motorcyclist hurt in Friday morning accident.

A Columbia County motorcyclist is seriously hurt in a crash while trying to pass between vehicles in Schuylkill County. Troopers say 31-year old Daniel Werner of Bloomsburg was riding a motorcycle along Route 61 in Blythe Township just south of the Schuylkill Mall off ramp just after 7 Friday morning when he attempted to pass two vehicles simultaneously down the center line as they drove side by side. As Werner was between the two vehicles he lost control of his cycle hitting the tire of one of the vehicles. He was thrown off the motorcycle and onto the shoulder of the roadway. The drivers of the other vehicles, 50-year old Walter Oakman of Maine and 33-year old Steven Esler of Saint Clair, pulled their vehicles off the road and rendered aid to Werner along with a passing motorist who is an EMT. Werner was lifeflighted to Geisinger Medical Center with major injuries. A condition report is not available. He was wearing a helmet. Werner will be cited for the accident. No one else was hurt.

Next week is National Police Week

Monday is Police Officer’s Memorial Day in Pennsylvania. Lawmakers and Pennsylvanians will pay tribute at a State Capitol ceremony to those officers who gave their lives in the line of duty last year. Howard Ondick has this report.

ONDICK

Tremont Little League to receive grant money
State Representative Tim Seip will present the Tremont Little League with a $5,000 state grant in order to upgrade the league playground. Representative Seip will present the grant around 12:30 tomorrow at the Tremont Little League ball field on the Clay Street Extension. The presentation will follow the Tremont Little League opending day parade which will begin at 11 a.m.

The Department of Veterans Affairs To Provide Jobs

The campus of the Lebanon VA Medical center is set to expand with the addition of the Consolidated Patient Account Center or CPAC. The CPAC is an industry-modeled initiative to enhance insurance billing and collection activities by consolodating decentralized program functions into regionalized centers of excellence. The VA anticipates that this initiative will improve revenue performance and bring over 450 new jobs to the Lebanon Area. Positions will be available in areas of billing and accounts receivable, accounting, education and training, utilization and review, quality assurance and administrative support. Recruitment is expected to begin in April 2011, with all jobs posted on www.usajobs.gov. The project is scheduled in three phases and is expected to be completed by September 2012.

Diamond ring stolen from Girardville home

Frackville State Police are investigating the theft of a diamond ring valued at 25 hundred dollars from a home on West Mahanoy Street in the borough of Girardville. Andrea Evans reported the heist occured between 4:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. Anyone with information regarding this theft is asked to contact Frackville State Police at 874-5300.

NEW RINGGOLD, Pa. (AP) - The talk lately in Schuylkill County is that Beyonce and Jay-Z are moving there. There's a rumor they are buying a multi-million dollar property, but a real estate agent marketing the home says the gossip isn't true. No one seems to know how the rumor got started.

READING, Pa. (AP) - A suspect in the shooting deaths of two sisters in a Berks County motel office has taken his own life. District Attorney John Adams says Christopher Dieter shot himself
in a Lancaster County hotel with the same shotgun that was used Tuesday on the victims in Douglasville.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) - Sands Casino Resort says it's laying off 80 people at its Bethlehem complex. President Robert DeSalvio says most of the cuts are in the four restaurants run by the casino. The layoffs bring the Sands' work force to 780 -- nearly 200 fewer than when it opened last May.

FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) - The Pentagon says a 24-year-old soldier from Claysville, Pennsylvania was killed in Afghanistan. Military officials say Sergeant Nathan Kennedy died Tuesday after a small-arms fire attack on his unit. He previously served in Iraq and had begun his tour in Afghanistan last June.

MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER (AP) - BP said in 2009 that the kind of catastrophic accident that happened to its rig off the Louisiana coast was unlikely, or virtually impossible. The assessment is in an exploration plan and environmental impact analysis. Oil from the spill is now reaching precious shoreline habitat along the Gulf Coast.

CLINTON, Ark. (AP) - At least one person died and nearly two dozen were injured by tornadoes in central Arkansas and the state is bracing for more of the same kind of weather today. Several
homes were destroyed and some roads were blocked by downed trees and power lines.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he'll fight hard for campaign finance measures to restrict political advertising by corporations and unions. He says in his weekly radio and Internet address that it's about the "integrity of our democracy." The legislation is in response to a January Supreme court ruling upholding business and labor's First Amendment rights.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Republican congressman from Michigan says Americans face fewer jobs and fewer opportunities now than when President Barack Obama took office. In the weekly GOP radio and internet address, Rep. Pete Hoekstra says University of Michigan graduates should use President Barack Obama's commencement speech today to ask where the jobs are.

CHICAGO (AP) - Immigrant rights activists are hoping Arizona's controversial immigration law is the catalyst for mass participation in dozens of planned marches nationwide. Activists
hope opposition to the law could mean similar crowds today to those at May 1 rallies in 2006, when more than a million people across the country united against what they consider anti-immigrant bills.