TODAY'S NEWS: SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2011

MAY IS NATIONAL SKIN CANCER AWARENESS MONTH AND A LOCAL DOCTOR WILL BE PROVIDING FREE SCREENINGS. JASMINE BROOKS HAS THE STORY:

SKIN CANCER

EARLY AFTERNOON FIRE PUT OUT QUICKLY IN TREMONT

FIRE CREWS WERE CALLED TO 203 WEST LAUREL STREET IN TREMONT FOR A HOUSE FIRE JUST AFTER ONE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON. TREMONT FIRE COMPANY CHIEF JAMES KOPENHAVER TELLS US THE FIRE IN THE FRONT ROOM OF THE HOME WAS OUT WITHIN ABOUT 10 MINUTES OF CREWS ARRIVING. HE SAYS THE FIRE WAS ACCIDENTAL BUT HE IS NOT COMPLETELY SURE HOW THE FIRE STARTED. THE HOMEOWNERS WERE IN THE YARD WHEN THEY HEARD THEIR FRONT WINDOW SHATTER. THE FIRE WAS CONTAINED TO THE FRONT ROOM. KOPENHAVER SAYS THE HOME IS SALVAGEABLE. THE HOMEOWNERS DO HAVE INSURANCE AND THE RED CROSS IS ASSISTING THEM. NO ONE WAS HURT.

AN ALLEGHENY COUNTY LAWMAKER IS PROPOSING A STATE TAX ON MARCELLUS SHALE GAS DRILLING IN PENNSYLVANIA. AS HOWARD ONDICK TELLS US, SENATOR JIM BREWSTER WANTS TO USE MOST OF THE TAX REVENUE TO RESTORE FUNDING CUTS TO EDUCATION.

ONDICK

ATV ACCIDENT LEAVES TWO INJURED

TWO MINORS WERE FLOWN TO AREA HOSPITALS FOLLOWING A CRASH INVOLVING A HONDA ATV AND A DODGE DURANGO ABOUT 4:30 P.M. FRIDAY ON PLEASANT VALLEY ROAD. AS REPORTED BY THE REPUBLICAN AND HERALD, NEW RINGGOLD COMMUNITY FIRE COMPANY ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF CHRIS ECKROTH SAID THAT A MALE WAS DRIVING THE ATV IN THE WRONG LANE OF THE ROAD WITH HIS PASSENGER, A FEMALE, WHEN A DODGE DURANGO CAME AROUND THE CURVE AND THE VEHICLES COLLIDED. BOTH OF THE MINORS WERE THROWN FROM THE ATV, ECKROTH SAID, AND HAD TO BE TRANSPORTED BY LIFE FLIGHT HELICOPTERS. THE DRIVER SUSTAINED SEVERE INJURIES - ECKROTH SAID AT LEAST A COMPOUND FRACTURE TO HIS LEG - AND THE FEMALE SEEMED TO HAVE LESS SEVERE INJURIES. NEITHER RIDER WAS WEARING A HELMET. THE DURANGO WAS DRIVEN BY A NEW RINGGOLD WOMAN, WHO WAS NOT INJURED.

POTTSVILLE MAN CHARGED WITH HARRASSMENT

STATE POLICE AT SCHUYLKILL HAVEN SAID A 44-YEAR-OLD POTTSVILLE MAN FACES CHARGES FOR AN INCIDENT THAT OCCURED AT 8:45 P.M. WEDNESDAY AT 1 FIELD-OF-DREAMS DRIVE, NORTH MANHEIM TOWNSHIP. TROOPERS SAID JOSEPH EVANS WENT TO THE ADDRESS TO RESOLVE A PREVIOUS CRIMINAL TRESPASS ISSUE INVOLVING HIS SON. EVANS ALLEGEDLY THREATENED KEVIN FANELLI, 49, OF POTTSVILLE. FANELLI INFORMED EVANS THAT EVANS FACED ARREST FOR HIS HARRASSING CONDUCT AND THAT HE WAS EXPRESSLY TOLD TO STAY OFF THE PROPERTY, TROOPERS SAID. TROOPERS WERE CALLED ON SCENE AND RESOLVED THE ISSUE. TROOPERS SAID THAT EVANS THEN RETURNED TO THE PROPERTY ON FOOT AND SMASHED THE WINDSHIELD OF FANELLI'S CAR WITH A BRICK. TROOPERS SAID EVANS FACES CHARGES OF TERRORISTIC THREATS, CRIMINAL TRESPASS, CRIMINAL MISCHIEF AND HARASSMENT. ALL CHARGES WERE FILED IN THE COURT OF MAGISTERIAL DISTRICT JUDGE JAMES R. FERRIER, ORWIGSBURG.

MAY IS ALS AWARENESS MONTH IN PENNSYLVANIA, SPOTLIGHTING THE AFFLICTION KNOWN AS "LOU GERHIG'S DISEASE." DON ROONEY HAS MORE:

ROONEY

JIM THORPE, Pa. (AP) - A judge issued a preliminary injunction
preventing a Pennsylvania high school from barring a student from
the prom because he refused to take a drug test. The ruling allowed
Panther Valley senior Jeremy Thomas to attend last night's prom
with his classmates.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter says if
he's elected to a second term in November he hopes to make more
gains in reducing violent crime and adding jobs. Nutter faces a
challenge in this month's Democratic primary from his predecessor's
brother - former state legislator T. Milton Street.

EASTON, Pa. (AP) - An eastern Pennsylvania man who pleaded
guilty to murdering four people could get the death penalty at a
sentencing hearing Monday. Jurors will decide whether 37-year-old
Michael Eric Ballard is sentenced to death or life in prison for
the June 26 rampage in Northampton.

MADRID (AP) - George O'Grady, the chief executive of the
European Tour, says Seve Ballesteros was the inspiration behind the
tour and called his death a "very sad day for all who love golf."
Ballesteros died of complications from brain cancer. He was 54. He
did for European golf what Arnold Palmer did in the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says jobs and the
economy have never been off his mind, even during the tense raid
that killed Osama bin Laden. In his weekly radio and Internet
address, Obama tried to reassure the public that jobs and the
economy are his top priority.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans say terrorists should beware
following the death of Osama bin Laden in a raid on his Pakistan
compound. In the GOP weekly radio and Internet message,
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown says the U.S. will deal with those
who threaten its citizens "on our terms, however long it takes."

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Record river levels, some dating as far
back as the 1920s, are expected to be broken as the crest of the
Mississippi River continues to creep south. Residents, some unused
to seeing flooding, are trying to decide whether to flee.

ELKO, Nev. (AP) - A Canadian woman who vanished with her husband
seven weeks ago on their way to Las Vegas has been found in a
remote part of northeastern Nevada. Police tell the Elko Daily Free
Press that hunters spotted the van of Raymond and Rita Chretien
(kreh-TYEN') in a ravine. The 56-year-old woman told her son that
she ate snow to help her survive. She said her husband set off on
foot weeks ago in search of help.