State briefs
Contract approved SHARON, Pa. (AP) – Five months after they walked off the job, workers at a metal tube plant approved a three-year contract.
Workers at the Wheatland Tube Co. on Sunday voted 261-150 to ratify a new pact that ends a walkout that began April 28 at the plant, about 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh on the Ohio border.
Workers said they saw little improvement from a pact they rejected two weeks earlier but said they felt negotiations would likely have little effect.
“People are hurting. People need to get back to work,” said Michael Munger, president of United Steelworkers Local 1660, which represents 470 workers at the mill.
Under the contract workers will pay five percent of health care costs starting in January 2005 and pay $50 on monthly premiums for the first time. Workers will also get raises totaling $1.20 an hour during the three-year pact.
William Kerins, a vice president for Wheatland Tube, said the company was pleased the strike was over.
Not all the workers will return. Kerins said as many as 100 people could lose their jobs because of slow business.
Guilty plea entered
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A 37-year-old man pleaded guilty to taking pornographic pictures of his teenage employee to settle a debt with her and then posting the pictures on the Internet.
William P. Monac III, a pizza shop owner from Midland, pleaded guilty on Friday to engaging in sexually explicit conduct with the 15-year-old girl in July 1999.
Federal prosecutors said he loaned the girl $250 to take a vacation on the condition she pose nude for him.
Monac will be sentenced Dec. 19.
Apology issued
POTTERS MILLS, Pa. (AP) – A man charged with the theft of a church bell apologized for his actions and presented a check to cover the cost of the stolen item.
Lucas Maurice Mulfinger, 20, of Bellefonte, appeared at the homecoming service at Egg Hill Church on Sunday, shook hands with the bell ringer and apologized before the congregation.
“As far as I know, this is it,” Mulfinger, who was arrested Sept. 3 and charged with burglary, theft by unlawful taking or disposition and criminal mischief, said of his check. “If it’s not, if there’s anything I can do, please let me know.”
Mulfinger is accused of breaking into the church early on July 4 and making off with its brass bell. The bell was returned to the church exactly two weeks later. Mulfinger directed state police troopers to an abandoned car whose trunk contained the stolen bell, according to court documents.
Few protest
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Despite threatening a large rally outside the screening of a film centered on a gay teenager, only a handful of an extremist Kansas-based Baptist church actually showed up to protest.
The 10 representatives of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., were far outnumbered by the estimated 800 people who attended a counter rally Sunday in support of the film, “Jim in Bold,” which is based on the life of a gay Lebanon County teen who committed suicide in 1997.
No violent incidents or arrests were reported, police said.
The supporters of the film gathered for a two-hour Unity Day rally behind a museum. Participants sang “We Shall Overcome” and “What the World Needs Now is Love,” and some carried signs saying “God is love” and “God loves all.”
Organizers said Sunday’s film screening raised about $3,000.
50 attend ceremony
YORK, Pa. (AP) – About 50 people attended a rededication ceremony for a monument that bears the names of dozens of victims of drunken-driving accidents.
The South Central Pennsylvania Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving decided to construct a new, bigger memorial because it said the old one, built in 1980, had run out of room for new names.
“My mom wasn’t buried, so this is the only place I have to go,” said Stacy Beaverson, whose mother was killed in a drunken-driving accident six years ago. “It’s much better than a cemetery because it’s a place that’s full of life.”
Beaverson was killed on Oct. 18, 1997, when she and her husband were driving home from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Their car was struck by a 1994 Chevrolet Camaro that crossed over the center line and struck their Ford Explorer. The driver of the other car was also killed, and tests revealed him to be legally drunk.
Man faces fine
MOUNT POCONO, Pa. (AP) – A man angry that his son’s military service in Iraq has been extended said he faces a fine if he does not remove a sign criticizing the Bush administration from his front lawn.
Fred D’Amato said he learned in a letter last week that his sign, which says, “Support Our Troops – Impeach Bush Administration,” violated a Mount Pocono borough sign ordinance.
The letter, sent by the borough’s zoning officer, informed D’Amato that he could be fined up to $500 a day if he does not take down the sign.
“I’m not objecting to what’s on it; he needs to get a permit,” borough councilman Francis O’Boyle said. “The last couple of words is what’s the problem.”
D’Amato said he wanted to express frustration that his son’s tour of duty had been extended from a year to 18 months.
He said Sunday he planned to put the sign up again, even though he had earlier removed it.
Racing license sought
TREXLERTOWN, Pa. (AP) – A Mississippi casino group has applied for a racing license to operate a thoroughbred racetrack, officials said.
The proposed $80 million project by Isle of Capri Inc., based in Biloxi, Miss., would draw up to 2.4 million people a year and generate more than $136 million in gross revenue, according to the company’s application.
The plans, which call for racing competitions to eventually take place 100 nights a season, make no mention of slot machines.
“That facility doesn’t even include an area for slots at all,” said Les McMackin III, the company’s senior vice president for marketing and communications. “Slots would definitely change the function, but the design is only for thoroughbred racing.”
The proposed racetrack would be located on the northwestern corner of Interstate 78 and Route 100 in Upper Macungie Township.
The casino group plans a 1-mile, 90-foot wide racetrack, with 40 stalls in each of the 27 stables.
NASA invites three
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) – A high school physics teacher and two students have been invited to participate in a NASA program that seeks to determine whether life exists on Mars.
Don Stouch, a teacher at Allen High School, and Christian Bryan and Josh Harmony, both seniors, are to spend a week in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, working with a NASA mentor. They were admitted to the Athena Student Interns program and are from one of 13 school districts in the country invited to participate.
Stouch, Bryan and Harmony plan to analyze data collected by the twin NASA Mars Exploration Rovers, which are expected to land on the planet in January.
“We will be analyzing how much of any one substance – dust particles, water, ice aerosol, is found in the planet’s atmosphere,” Stouch said. “We’ll be trying to find out if life ever existed on Mars.”
Stouch and his students will also be responsible for discussing their experiences with classes, school assemblies and public groups.