State briefs
Commercials planned SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Mark Schweiker may have an actor portraying him during next month’s ABC drama about the Quecreek Mine accident, but he will play himself in a commercial touting Pennsylvania.
The state will pay for the $170,000 spot to be aired on Nov. 24 during the ABC movie.
Schweiker returned Wednesday to the Sipesville fire hall, where he spent numerous hours in September speaking with families of miners during the final, gut-wrenching hours of rescue operations.
“It carries an economic development message,” said Schweiker’s spokesman, David La Torre. “It cites the example of Pennsylvania’s working men and women during the Quecreek rescue.”
Ads touting Pennsylvania are often aired during nationally televised events, such as sports or political gatherings like the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, state officials said.
Directions questioned
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (AP) – Students at four public high schools in Pittsburgh have learned that they received flawed directions before taking state-mandated writing tests last week.
About 240 ninth-graders were told by teachers that they could use dictionaries and thesauruses during the tests in contradiction of state rules.
“That is a no-no,” Superintendent of Schools John Thompson said Wednesday.
Some teachers relied on a memo sent by the district’s senior program officer for literacy that wrongly stated dictionaries and thesauruses were allowed, Thompson said.
Teachers failed to notice that the test’s official instructions stated that dictionaries and thesauruses were prohibited.
The test was the three-hour written part of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, a standardized exam required in all Pennsylvania public schools.
An investigator from the state’s Department of Education is expected to come to the district within two weeks to determine how to correct the error.
Chief suspended
BRIDGEWATER, Pa. (AP) – The longtime police chief of Bridgewater has been suspended over allegations that he ordered officers not to pull over drunk drivers and not to show up at court hearings so that such charges would be dropped.
Two officers went to officials in the borough, which is about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, with the allegations last week.
The case will be turned over to state police to determine if criminal charges should be filed, Beaver County District Attorney Dale Fouse said Wednesday.
Brian O’Connor has been the police chief in Bridgewater since 1967.
“I don’t like the idea of doing this,” said Mayor Charles Cerjak, who suspended O’Connor Tuesday. “He’s been here for over 30 years.”
O’Connor refused to comment Wednesday.
In 1989, O’Connor was charged with obstruction. He was a partner in B&B Vending, which state police said provided illegal video poker machines to businesses throughout Pennsylvania.
Teens charged
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (AP) – Two teenagers who allegedly ordered a pizza delivery with the intent of robbing a restaurant employee were instead delivered to a juvenile lockup.
Employees at Pesaro’s Pizza alerted police after receiving a delivery order for an address where an employee was robbed on Oct. 3.
Pittsburgh police dispatched a detective in an undercover car, with a magnetic delivery sign attached, to the address.
Robbery Detective J.R. Smith delivered a surprise to two boys, aged 14 and 15, who allegedly were waiting with a handgun.
The boys, who were being held in the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center Wednesday on charges of robbery and conspiracy, are being questioned about the Oct. 3 robbery.
Police are investigating three other robberies of deliverymen in the same area over the past three months, police Lt. Kevin Kraus said.
The boys’ names were not released because of their ages.
Rape probed
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Bloomsburg University student raped a female student in her dorm room after walking her home, according to police arrest papers.
Joseph R. Barron, 19, a freshman from Harrington, N.J., was identified by police because he left a cellular phone in the woman’s room, the papers say.
Campus police charged Barron with rape and related sexual assault charges this week.
According to the papers, the attack happened on Sept. 29, after Barron approached the woman, who was alone and crying. He offered to take her home and when they reached her room, he pushed her on the bed and raped her, the arrest papers say.
Barron was arraigned Tuesday and released after his parents arranged to post 10 percent of his $40,000 bail. A hearing on the charges is tentatively set for next Wednesday.
Drug arrests made
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) – Four alleged gang members from Lancaster city were arrested over the past week for selling heroin, cocaine and ecstasy in a multi-county drug ring, police said.
John Howard Burnside, 24; Shana May, 26; Hector L. “King Sac” Roomer, 31; and Jason “King Jason” Saints, 21; were arrested,
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Marty Carlson said the arrests were made in York, Lancaster, Dauphin and Lebanon counties.
The men are local members of two Chicago-based gangs, the Almighty Latin Kings and Queen Nation, prosecutors said.
Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Chris Hackman said a local investigation into the groups started last year.
Charges dismissed
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) – Two aggravated assault charges were dismissed Wednesday against a Moosic woman accused of holding her husband at gunpoint, although she still faces other charges.
Sandra Petriello, 50, had been accused of holding her husband hostage in their home, where police said they found a collection of more than 60 guns, 5,000 rounds of ammunition, Russian night-vision goggles and other items.
The aggravated assault charges were dropped against Petriello after her husband and son did not support the prosecution’s version of what happened.
But Petriello is still charged with giving false information to obtain a weapon following her Aug. 26 arrest and making threats to a police officer.
District Attorney Andy Jarbola said more charges would be filed.
Mayor subpoenaed
KUTZTOWN, Pa. (AP) – The Kutztown Borough Council has subpoenaed Mayor Gennaro A. Marino to appear at a meeting regarding employee complaints about him.
Three former staffers – former Borough Manager Keith A. Hill, interim Borough Manager Bonnie Bray and information technology director Frank Caruso – have said that Gennaro has been verbally abusive and made false allegations in the workplace and at meetings.
“I haven’t decided if I’m going to go,” Marino said. “The whole thing is a lie.”
Marino said council did not have the power to issue the subpoena. But Ed Troxell, director of government affairs for the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs in Harrisburg, said the Kutztown council acted within its authority.
Council unanimously supported the subpoena. They asked they mayor to attend two meetings earlier this month and he didn’t show.