State briefs
Exhumation sought INDIANA, Pa. (AP) – The Indiana County Coroner will ask a judge to let him exhume a second body as part of a criminal investigation into the deaths of two people believed to have died from cadmium poisoning.
Coroner Thomas Streams said Friday that he wants to exhume the body of Anna Irene Nagg, 58, of Saltsburg. Nagg died Nov. 21 at Latrobe Area Hospital in neighboring Westmoreland County.
A doctor said Nagg died of pneumonia, but now Streams said Nagg’s death is suspicious and may be linked to that of Russell Repine, 61, of Homer City who died March 7.
Officials originally ruled that Repine died of a heart attack, but toxicology tests on his body, which was exhumed in June, showed lethal levels of cadmium.
Cadmium is used in paint and welding supplies.
Streams said he wasn’t sure if Nagg and Repine knew each other, and wouldn’t say why he considers their deaths suspicious and possibly related.
Streams said he has ruled out the possibility that Repine was exposed to the metal at his home or at the plant where he retired six months before he died.
Charges stand
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A judge refused to dismiss charges a second time against a motorist with a history of blackouts behind the wheel who is charged in a crash that killed a pregnant woman and her mother two years ago.
Allegheny County Judge Kevin Sasinoski ruled Friday that new vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter charges against Jack Monroe Smith, 51, of Bethel Park don’t constitute double jeopardy.
Smith’s attorney, William R. Bishop Jr., said he hasn’t decided whether to appeal.
Judge Robert Colville dismissed the charges against Smith in August, reasoning that Smith didn’t commit a crime because he had medical clearance to drive – despite the unknown disorder that causes his blackouts – and was licensed by PennDOT.
But District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. refiled the charges after he said a county police investigation showed that Smith had covered up past accidents and withheld information about his medical condition, in order to be cleared to drive.
Sherri Ann Zeis, 27, who was pregnant, and Patricia Schick, 54, died when Smith’s car struck theirs on Oct. 18, 2000 near Century III Mall in West Mifflin.
Project gains support
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The state has given an agency $2 million to help it develop a plan to implement $2 billion in sewer improvements in Allegheny County.
The 3 Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Project was established to help 50 of 83 communities in the county and Alcosan, the county’s sewerage authority, meet a federal mandate to fix the sewers.
The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency in 1996 ordered upgrades that will prevent raw sewage from flowing into the region’s three rivers when heavy rains occur. The overflows occur because those communities have sewers that let raw sewage and storm drainage run together – a method that was once legal, but has since been outlawed for environmental reasons.
The communities and Alcosan don’t have the money to make the improvements individually. The 3 Rivers Wet Weather project is developing a joint solution that will enable the communities to pay for the new sewers.
Prices held steady
MEADVILLE, Pa. (AP) – National Fuel Gas Co., which hiked its rates 5.1 percent in August, will not raise them again this quarter, company officials said.
That means the average National Fuel customer will continue to pay an average of $88.09 per month until at least Feb. 1, 2003, when the company may again ask the Public Utility Commission for a rate increase. National Fuel’s average monthly bill was $83.78 before the August increase.
The PUC prohibits utilities from reselling natural gas they buy at a profit, but companies may pass on any cost increases on a dollar-for-dollar basis. National Fuel officials said that wasn’t necessary this quarter.
National Fuel spokeswoman Sandy James said cold weather between now and February could determine whether rates will rise then.
“We still urge customers to conserve to hold down costs,” James said.
Buffalo, N.Y.-based National Fuel has 214,000 customers in 14 northwestern Pennsylvania counties.