PRAYER-DEATH-CHILDREN
DA to speak on religious couple who lost 2nd child
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia prosecutors plan a news conference about a faith-healing couple who lost a second ill child while on probation in their toddler's 2009 pneumonia death.
Lawyers for Herbert and Catherine Schaible (SHY'-bull) say they don't know of any arrest warrants being issued.
However, public defender Mythri (MY'-three) Jayaraman (JI'-ya-RA-muhn), who represents the mother, says charges appear likely.
District Attorney Seth Williams plans a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
The Schaibles, who quit school after ninth grade, have worked as teachers at their fundamentalist church, First Century Gospel Church in northeast Philadelphia.
Their 8-month-old son, Brandon, died in April after suffering from diarrhea and breathing problems.
The Schaibles remain on probation for involuntary manslaughter in their 2-year-old son Kent's death, and are required to get medical care for their children.
Their seven surviving children have been placed in foster care.
PA CORRUPTION SCANDAL-DEWEESE
DeWeese presses appeal before Pa. court panel
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - An attorney for convicted former state Rep. Bill DeWeese told an appellate court panel the trial judge undercut his defense by limiting the number of witnesses who testified.
William Costopoulos told the three-judge Superior Court panel Dauphin County Judge Todd Hoover wrongly barred about 20 people from testifying about a DeWeese directive warning House staffers to confine any political work to their personal time.
The 63-year-old DeWeese was a longtime House Democratic leader and is serving a 2.5 to 5-year prison term for illegally using public employees and resources for political purposes.
Amy Zapp of the state attorney general's office said judges may set reasonable limits on the number of witnesses and that jurors who convicted DeWeese heard testimony about the directive more than a dozen times during his trial.
HARRISBURG-FINANCIAL WOES
Pa. control may limit role of new Harrisburg mayor
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's debt-laden capital city will have a new mayor next year, but that could mean little for Harrisburg's most pressing financial problems.
Mayor Linda Thompson lost Tuesday's Democratic Party primary election. The winner, Eric Papenfuse, or an independent candidate on the fall ballot will take over in January.
By then, a state-appointed overseer, William Lynch, could wrap up plans to resolve an approximately $350 million debt on Harrisburg's municipal trash incinerator and a $15 million budget gap.
Matt Fabian of municipal bond research firm Municipal Market Advisors says Lynch's presence diminishes the election's importance.
Both Papenfuse and Thompson support Lynch's efforts to keep Harrisburg out of bankruptcy court. But the editorial board of the local paper, the Patriot-News, endorsed Papenfuse.
JITNEY DRIVER-RAPE
Pittsburgh jitney driver charged in passenger rape
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pittsburgh police have charged a jitney driver with raping a female passenger and say his pants were still loose from the alleged attack and fell down when they stopped him and made him get out of the vehicle.
Online court records don't list an attorney for 34-year-old Eric Pace, who faces a preliminary hearing June 4 on rape, sexual assault and other charges. The Associated Press could not immediately locate a listed phone for Pace, who was released on bond after his arraignment Tuesday.
Police say the alleged victim was 1 of 2 women who called for a ride outside a bar about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. The one woman refused to get in because she doesn't trust jitney drivers, but memorized his license plate number.
Police used that to find Pace after the passenger reported being attacked.
CHILD SHOT
Authorities work to identify Pa. child, shooters
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Allegheny County medical examiner's office has been working to identify a 19-month-old boy fatally shot during a backyard picnic in Pittsburgh, along with two young women who were wounded.
Police believe the victims may not have been the intended target of the unknown shooters. Police say as many as three gunmen jumped out of a vehicle and opened fire on the group in the city's crime-ridden East End about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Police collected dozens of bullet casings from a road where the shots were fired.
One woman was reportedly found lying on top of the child, in an apparent effort to shield him. That 20-year-old woman was listed in critical condition after surgery at UPMC Presbyterian hospital.
Another woman, 19, was in serious but stable condition after surgery for her wounds.
TRAIN FATAL
Man fatally struck by commuter train near Philly
HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa. (AP) - Transit officials say a commuter train has struck and killed a man on the tracks outside Philadelphia.
It happened around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's West Trenton line. SEPTA spokeswoman Kristin Geiger says the train was heading outbound toward Trenton when the 56-year-old man was hit near the Philmont station in suburban Huntingdon Valley.
Delays of up to 60 minutes are being reported on the line as officials investigate.
DAHLKEMPER-ERIE COUNTY EXECUTIVE
Dahlkemper rebounds with Erie executive nomination
ERIE, Pa. (AP) - Former Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper has resurrected her political career by winning the Democratic nomination for Erie County executive.
Dahlkemper defeated Democrat incumbent Barry Grossman with 52% of the vote to Grossman's 48% in Tuesday's primary. That makes her the favorite for the Nov. 5 general election in the heavily Democratic county over Republican nominee Don Tucci.
Dahlkemper was elected to Congress in 2008, but lost Pennsylvania's 3rd District Seat to Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, of Butler, in 2010.
The Erie Times-News reports Grossman called Dahlkemper to concede the nomination about 10 p.m. Tuesday.
He had been seeking a second 4-year term as executive but lost to the 55-year-old Dahlkemper, who entered the race slightly more than two months ago.
BALD EAGLE SHOT
Game, humane groups offer $5K in bald eagle death
LORETTO, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsylvania Game Commission and The Humane Society of the United States are offering more than $5,000 for information on whoever fatally shot a bald eagle in western Pennsylvania earlier this month.
The wounded eagle was found by people riding all-terrain vehicles on May 10 in northern Cambria County, about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh. The bird died before it could be treated for a single wound from a small-caliber gun.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the game commission is offering a $250 reward and the Humane Society $5,000 more for information leading to an arrest.
Wounding or killing the birds is a state and federal crime. The birds are no longer considered endangered or threatened under federal guidelines, though the species remains on the threatened list in Pennsylvania.
UPMC TRANSCRIPTIONISTS
UPMC transcriptionists offered work with vendor
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is cutting costs by laying off more than 100 transcriptionists, all of whom are being offered jobs by a Massachusetts company which has worked with the hospital network to develop voice recognition software.
Officials with UPMC and the Burlington, Mass. firm, Nuance Communications Inc., have confirmed the move.
Nuance will provide transcription services to the hospital network, which dominates the western Pennsylvania market.
The workers transcribe dictated notes from doctors. The software Nuance has developed reportedly makes that process more efficient.
Nuance spokeswoman Ann Joyal says its transcriptionists typically work from home, so any workers hired from UPMC will not have to relocate.
Nuance pays the workers by the written line, not by the hour, but it was not immediately clear how much UPMC will save.
TRY TRY AGAIN
Cops: Pa. man robbed store he targeted in 2004
CHARLEROI, Pa. (AP) - Police say a southwestern Pennsylvania man who didn't succeed in robbing a liquor store in 2004 should have thought twice about trying again to rob the same store earlier this month.
Online court records don't list an attorney for 48-year-old Richard Heinzelman, of Monongahela, who is jailed on charges he robbed the same Charleroi state store he spent two to four years in prison for robbing nearly nine years ago.
The (Washington) Observer-Reporter says Heinzelman was 1 of 2 men who robbed the store in November 2004, when his partner in crime swung a bottle of Jack Daniels at a clerk.
On Friday, police say Heinzelman swung a bottle of wine at a clerk before stealing an undisclosed amount of money.
Police say 1 of the store clerks recognized Heinzelman from the earlier heist.
EJECTED OVER CANCER HATS
Sisters ejected from Pa. mall over cancer hats
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) - Three sisters say they were kicked out of a suburban Philadelphia mall after refusing to remove profanity-laden hats expressing their hatred of breast cancer.
Zakia Clark and Tasha Clark had been at the King of Prussia Mall on Sunday shopping for funeral dresses with a third sister, Makia Underwood. Their mother died last week after battling the disease.
Zakia and Tasha Clark were wearing hats that had a one-word profanity - with a pink ribbon substituting for the third letter - before the word cancer. Zakia Clark says it's the only word strong enough to defeat the word 'cancer.'
Security asked them to remove the hats. They were ejected after refusing.
Mall manager Robert Hart says he sends condolences to the sisters, but that the mall is a family place where the code of conduct does not tolerate profanity.
PHILADELPHIA-SKATEBOARDING RETURNS
Skateboarders might find new love at Philly park
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Brokenhearted skateboarders who have long been denied access to Philadelphia's internationally renowned Love Park may have a new object of affection. It's called Paine's Park.
The $4.5 million city plaza officially opens Wednesday - but don't call it a skate park. Officials say it's a 75,000-square-foot public space that happens to be skateable.
Supporters have spent more than 10 years trying to build the park. It now sits next to a popular exercise path along the Schuylkill (SKOO'-kul) River, offering amenities for both skaters and non-skaters.
The project was spearheaded by the Franklin's Paine Skatepark Fund. The advocacy group was founded after boarders were exiled from Love Park in 2001.
Then-Mayor John Street instituted the ban because he said skaters were destroying the park's granite ledges, steps and benches.
CONSTITUTION CENTER-BILL OF RIGHTS
Pa. Constitution Center to display Bill of Rights
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - 1 of the 12 surviving copies of the Bill of Rights that may have been stolen from Pennsylvania in the late 1800s is returning, under a 100-year agreement reached with its owner, The New York Public Library, and state officials.
The document will be at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for three years starting in the fall of 2014.
The New York Library acquired its Bill of Rights in 1896 as a donation.
Of the 14 original copies - one for each of the colonies, plus Congress - four are missing from their home states, including the Pennsylvania copy.
Officials say it's unlikely to determine with absolute certainty that this is Pennsylvania's copy. New York and Pennsylvania agreed to not battle over ownership and struck the joint stewardship arrangement.
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