Today's News-Monday, June 14, 2010

FIRE DESTROYS HOME, CLAIMS LIFE
Investigators continue to look for a cause of the fire that claimed the life of a Deer Lake woman Saturday night. 44-year-old Susan Drummer, who was wheelchair bound, was in her parents home on Maple Boulevard when the fire broke out. She was pronounced dead at the scene. State police are handling the fire investigation.

WOMAN INJURED IN CRASH
A Pine Grove woman is in Geisinger Medical Center following a crash in Pine Grove Township early Sunday. Schuylkill Haven state police say 41 year old Crystal Jones was headed east on Sweet Arrow Lake Road around 445am when she veered into the oncoming lane and struck a mailbox and a utility pole. Jones reportedly had serious injury to her legs and hips and was flown from the scene for treatment.

TOMBSTONE TOPPLED IN HAVEN
State police are looking for the vandals who toppled a tombstone over the weekend. Someone knocked over the tombstone in Jerusalem Cemetery, also known as Union Cemetery. The incident happened between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

NACCHIO TRAVELS TO DENVER
An attorney for Joe Nacchio says the former Qwest CEO spent eight days in solitary confinement, had no visitors for six weeks and was denied his medication for days during his round trip from a prison camp in Pennsylvania to Denver for a court hearing. Nacchio was convicted of insider trading in 2007. He had a court hearing in Denver on May 4th, and his return trip to the Federal Correctional Institution in Minersville took 34 days, ending on June 7th. The US Marshals Service, which transports about 350 thousand prisoners a year says Nacchio was a low priority transfer. Nacchio was sentenced to six years in prison and $71 million dollars in fines and forefeitures, but the sentence is being recalculated because an appeals court ruled it was too harsh.

COUNTY WOMAN NETS HONOR FROM STATE POLICE
A Schuylkill County woman has been honored for her work with special needs children by her employer. Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Pawlowski presented the Civilian Employee of the Year Award to Darlene Stiely, Sacramento, during a ceremony Friday. Stiely, 49, is an administrative employee at the Schuylkill Haven barracks. In addition to her daily work, Stiely is the founder of the Tyler Stiely Memorial Fund, which provides support to Tri Valley area families with special needs children. Stiely was nominated for the award by her station commander, Sgt. Steven Stinsky.

YORK, Pa. (AP) — A charity motorcycle ride in York County turned tragic over the weekend when a woman was killed and several others were hurt in a crash. Springettsbury Township police say Terri Fleagle was a passenger on one of three motorcycles involved in the crash shortly after noon on Route 30 Saturday.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania National Guard official says two members from western Pennsylvania have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan. A Guard spokesman says Sergeant First Class Robert Fike of Crawford County and Staff Sergeant Bryan Hoover of West Elizabeth in Allegheny County died Friday in southeastern Afghanistan.

COATESVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia teen is facing murder charges in a crash last year that killed his two teenage passengers. Zachary McGehrin is being held on $1 million bail in the December crash that killed Victoria Garvin and John Sherman Jr. Police tell Daily Local News that McGehrin was speeding and had marijuana in his system when his car crashed into a garbage truck.

BRISTOL, Pa. (AP) — The owners of an inn that opened in 1681 are selling the historic property, leaving some to worry that Bristol and the U.S. may lose one of its oldest continuously operating inns. John and Geri Caparrelli have owned the 16-unit inn since 2004 and are putting it up for sale because of a slowdown in business caused by the economy. The asking price is nearly $1.4 million.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is signaling it wants BP to create a multibillion dollar compensation fund for victims of the oil spill. President Barack Obama is going back to the Gulf Coast today and he plans a national address tomorrow after he gets back to Washington. Obama's going to Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

WASHINGTON (AP) — BP executives will be on the Capitol Hill hot seat this week. Several testify tomorrow and BP CEO Tony Hayward goes before a House panel Thursday for a first-time grilling about the spill. One question will likely be whether other oil companies are better prepared for disaster than BP.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A spokesman for the New York state Senate Democratic leader says there won't be a government shutdown over the lack of a budget. Austin Shafran, spokesman for state Sen. John Sampson, says an emergency spending bill to extend funding to keep government running for another week will be approved today. There have been closed-door discussions over the weekend.

UNDATED (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration is taking a hard look at whether Americans are overexposed to radiation from medical tests. The average American's dose has grown sixfold in the past few decades. Americans get the most medical radiation in the world and the FDA is looking at ways to reduce and keep track of a person's exposure.

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Helicopters have flown Japanese scientists to the remote site where their space probe made it back to earth, hopefully carrying samples of an asteroid. A scientist with Japan's space agency says they're especially pleased since the return was delayed three years by technical problems. The capsule landed in the Australian Outback yesterday.