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July 3, 2005 Man kills woman, self

PORT ALLEGANY, Pa. (AP) – A man shot and killed a woman before killing himself, the McKean County District Attorney’s office said.

Shadd Roberts, 23, of Port Allegany, was sitting in a parked car with Heather Bross, 33, also of Port Allegany, with whom he had been in a relationship, when he shot them both Thursday night, according to a statement from the district attorney.

The couple died at the scene, the McKean County Coroner’s office said. A pizza delivery man found the car and the bodies shortly after the shootings, officials said.

Food plant closes

ERIE, Pa. (AP) – The Van de Kamp’s Frozen Foods plant in Erie closed its doors Friday, the last day of work for nearly 300 employees.

New Jersey-based Pinnacle Foods Group, the parent company of Van de Kamp’s, announced in May that it would shift production to a factory in Tennessee.

Pinnacle Foods took ownership of the plant last year when it rescued the old parent company, Aurora Foods, from Chapter 11 bankruptcy following an accounting scandal that put Aurora’s former chief executive in prison for securities fraud.

The Van de Kamp’s plant made frozen seafood and other meals along with Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks and Aunt Jemima frozen french toast sticks.

Enrollment climbs

ERIE, Pa. (AP) – While other Roman Catholic schools are losing students, an all-boys high school in Erie has seen its enrollment steadily climb.

Freshmen enrollment at Cathedral Preparatory School is set to jump by about 44 percent next year over the number two years ago. In the 2003-04 school year, there were 127 boys in the freshmen class, and 183 freshmen are expected to start school in August.

Leaders of the Catholic school in Erie credit its tablet PC program for the enrollment boost. Since 2004, the school has given all incoming freshmen wireless computers that are about half the size of laptop computers. Students use them to take notes, write papers and download research, school spokesman Chris Hagerty said.

The school’s two-year-old, $3 million capital campaign has paid for the computer program, as well as building renovations, financial aid packages and other improvements, he said.

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