State briefs
Shopping delayed IMPERIAL, Pa. (AP) – Despite continued lobbying by Pittsburgh airport officials, people without tickets won’t be able to shop at the 110 stores at the airport until at least next year, if at all.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will not consider any requests to change access to the airport until the agency cuts 6,000 screening jobs nationwide, including 230 at Pittsburgh, which will likely happen next year, said agency spokesman Mike Hatfield.
Pittsburgh International officials have proposed screening shoppers to help recover a 4.7 percent drop in sales at the airport’s mall last year. Two stores have closed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because of dwindling sales.
People without tickets accounted for as much as 4 percent of sales at airport shops. Although they made up a fraction of total sales, airport officials said people without tickets could help the Airmall weather a drop in flights and passengers.
Anniversary observed
PITTSBURGH (AP) – More than three dozen people, some braving corsets, gathered at the city’s historic Homewood Cemetery to mark its 125th anniversary.
About 40 members of the Victorian Gibson Girls and Gentlemen, dressed in Victorian garb, prayed and sang hymns as part of a re-enactment of the ceremony that opened the cemetery in 1878.
“It squeezes your organs,” said 16-year-old Kelly Ylosvar of New Kensington, who squeezed into a corset for the celebration.
The 210-acre Homewood Cemetery is a historic landmark and is the final resting place for many of the city’s most notable families, including the Mellons, Fricks, Benedums, Baums and Heinzes.
Jazz pianist Erroll Garner, best-known as the composer of “Misty,” Pittsburgh Pirates legendary third baseman Harold “Pie” Traynor and candy bar king D.L. Clark are also buried in the cemetery.
Police plan sorties
MARTINSBURG, Pa. (AP) – State police will soon be making sorties out of another western Pennsylvania airport.
The state police have selected the Altoona-Blair County Airport, about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh, for its seventh Aviation Patrol Unit, which searches for missing children, hunters, fugitives and marijuana farms.
“There was a hole in their coverage. (State police) response in our area came out of Latrobe or other areas,” said Charles E. Pillar Jr., manager of the airport.
Since the late 1960s, state police have used helicopters for surveillance, searching for fugitives and lost people and checking on traffic accidents.
The state police also have aviation units in Berks, Luzerne, Lycoming, Venango, Westmoreland and York counties.
Motorcyclist killed
STEWARTSTOWN, Pa. (AP) – A motorcyclist who fell from his bike after a collision died when he was run over by a passing car,
Kevin Mozelack, 38, of Felton, fell off his 1979 Yamaha motorcycle around 1:15 a.m. Saturday when a car traveling behind him collided with the bike, police said. He was dragged a short distance before being struck by a car in the opposite lane. Police said both cars drove away after the collision.
“It just floors us that nobody stopped,” said the victim’s brother, Michael Mozelack.
Police took a Nissan truck into custody in connection with the accident. Authorities believe the truck, which had recent front-end damage and leaking fluid, was the vehicle that struck Mozelack from behind.
Counterprotest set
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A high school student says he and his friends are planning a silent counterprotest in support of a documentary depicting the life of a gay teenager who committed suicide.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., have threatened to demonstrate outside five Lebanon churches if the film, “Jim in Bold,” is shown next month at The State Museum of Pennsylvania.
The film chronicles the life of Jim Wheeler, a gay teenager from Lebanon County who killed himself six years ago.
David Reinbold says his counterprotest is intended to combat the message of the Westboro church.
“A lot of my straight Christian friends were appalled to see the words ‘God’ and ‘hate’ in the same sentence,” Reinbold said. “I was disgusted by it. They said horrible, horrible things about Mrs. Wheeler, and she’s one of the sweetest people I know.”
Charges stand
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) – A judge refused to dismiss charges against a fugitive accused in the October 2000 stabbing death of a bartender.
Judge Thomas A. James ordered Carlos A. Alvarez, 26, to stand trial in September on manslaughter and other charges. Alvarez was released from Columbia County Prison but was immediately taken into custody by federal immigration authorities.
Alvarez asked the judge last week to drop the charges on the grounds that he has not been given a speedy trial. He has been in jail for about a year while awaiting his court date.
Alvarez’s friend, Jose Perez, 24, was convicted last year of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault for his role in the attack. Perez testified that Alvarez delivered the knife wounds that killed Anderson outside the Crossroads bar in Berwick.
Museum under way
SOUTH CANAAN, Pa. (AP) – Construction on a museum named for the former spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church in America is expected to be completed by next Memorial Day.
Metropolitan Theodosius, who retired in July 2002, agreed to donate his collection of religious relics and artifacts to the museum. He helped break ground Sunday on the $1.5 million Metropolitan Theodosisus Museum.
The collection includes relics of St. Daniel, who is believed to have founded the first monastery in Moscow, that were once hidden in Russia. Metropolitan Theodosius said he was given the artifacts by a Russian believer in 1978, but returned most of them ten years later.
The church’s current leader, Metropolitan Herman, also attended the groundbreaking at St. Tikhon’s Monastery.
“(The collection) will be a pictorial history, in 3-D almost, of the church,” said Father Michael Dahulich, dean of St. Tikhon’s Seminary.
Virginia man killed
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) – A 21-year-old Virginia man was shot to death in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, the second shooting outside the convenience store in less than two months.
Abraham W. Adamski, of Ashburn, Va., was shot around 5:15 a.m. Sunday, about one hour after officers responded to a large brawl involving at least 100 people, police said.
Police were investigating a possible connection between the shooting and the melee, in which two men were arrested and two others cited and released.
Dozens of young adults typically loiter around the 7-Eleven, store employees said, after nearby private clubs close for the night.
“We’re looking at several angles,” Allentown Lt. Daryl Hendricks said. “Do we have problems stemming from the after-hour clubs? Absolutely. Can I say the shooting is definitely related? No, I can’t say that.”
Shafiq Sheikh, the store’s co-owner, said his staff called police after hearing shots exchanged in the parking lot.
Power knocked out
READING, Pa. (AP) – Metropolitan Edison Co. plans to have power restored by Monday morning to the roughly 2,000 Berks County customers who experienced outages this weekends.
Severe thunderstorms on Saturday knocked out power to a few thousand customers but brought little rain.
“We have identified 44 different problem spots and they are not concentrated in any one area,” Met-Ed spokeswoman Marybeth Smialek said. “Most of the problems are things like transformers and seem to have been caused by lightning strikes.”
The other utility that serves the county, PPL Corp., reported no problems, officials said.