State briefs
Feb. 19, 2005 Parents lobby for coach
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) – Some parents in the Hempfield Area School District are lobbying to get the football coach reinstated.
The Hempfield Area Football Parents Club wants to persuade the school board to reinstate coach Robert “Bo” Ruffner. The board earlier this month voted to open up his job to new applicants.
The group has commissioned two roadside billboards and put blue and black ribbons on their cars hoping to get more support from the community.
Some students are also wearing T-shirts that say “We want Bo” and many have signed a petition in support of the coach.
Ruffner has been a coach in the district for two years. Parents and students say that isn’t enough time for a coach to develop a winning football program.
Drug sickens men
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. (AP) – Two men stopped by police in a stolen car were hospitalized after suffering seizures caused by eating crack, police said.
Will Motton, 20, and Gregory Liggett, 19, both of Aliquippa, were taken to Aliquippa Community Hospital on Wednesday. The hospital would not release condition details.
Police said the men were traveling in a car that had been reported stolen. When authorities tried to pull over the car, the men kept driving. Police eventually stopped the car and found drugs inside, as well as several empty plastic bags.
The men were taken to the police station, where both had seizures.
They could be charged with fleeing police, drug violations and charges related to the stolen car, police said.
Gambling blamed
BEAVER, Pa. (AP) – An Ambridge firefighter said a gambling addiction is to blame for him stealing money from the fire department.
Michael Longo Jr. was in court Thursday when he waived his right to a preliminary hearing on charges that he forged checks and stole money from the Ambridge Fire Department. He told the judge he has agreed to plead guilty under a deal with prosecutors.
Longo will formally enter his plea at a new hearing, which hasn’t yet been scheduled. Neither prosecutors nor Longo’s attorney would discuss details of the deal.
Longo was charged last week and resigned as Ambridge’s constable. He has also been suspended from the fire department.