May 21,2013

 

AP-PA--Right Now,1262

Latest Pennsylvania news, sports, business and entertainment

PENN STATE-ABUSE

Federal judge weighs fate of Corbett suit vs. NCAA

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ A federal judge in Pennsylvania says she'll decide in the next couple weeks whether to dismiss Gov. Tom Corbett's antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA over penalties against Penn State.

U.S. Judge Yvette Kane had pointed questions for both sides during a nearly two-hour hearing Monday.

Corbett says the NCAA went too far in getting Penn State to agree last summer to a $60 million fine, a multiyear ban on postseason football play and a temporary reduction in scholarships.

The university agreed to the sanctions over its handling of the child molestation scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Penn State isn't a party to the lawsuit.

Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence after being convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse.

PENNSYLVANIA PRIMARY

Pa. primary will settle municipal, judicial, races

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ It's primary day in Pennsylvania and a slew of nomination battles for municipal and judicial offices will soon be settled.

Polling places across the state will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Most of the balloting is limited to Democratic and Republican voters, who will be choosing nominees for the Nov. 5 general election. Only about one in five registered voters is expected to cast ballots.

The most closely watched races include contested mayoral nominations in Pittsburgh, Scranton, Harrisburg and York, as well as a three-way Democratic primary for Philadelphia city controller.

The only statewide contest is for the Democratic nomination for an open seat on the state Superior Court. The candidates are Allegheny County Judge Jack McVay and Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Joseph C. Waters.

MISSING COLLEGE STUDENT

Police search for RI college student from Pa.

SKIPPACK, Pa. (AP) _ The parents of a University of Rhode Island student who disappeared while driving home to Pennsylvania are pleading for information that will lead to his return.

Investigators say 21-year-old Collegeville resident Matthew Royer was last seen outside Allentown just after 2 a.m. Friday. He was captured on surveillance video at a Sunoco gas station in Fogelsville.

State police said Monday they haven't ruled out that Royer voluntarily disappeared, but investigators are pursuing all leads.

His parents appeared at a news conference with police and asked him to call home.

Authorities say he was driving a silver 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt with Pennsylvania registration.

MUSICIAN-FATAL SHOOTING

Man convicted of murder in Pa. musician's slaying

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) _ A man said by prosecutors to have been the ``mastermind'' of the slaying of a musician in his Philadelphia-area home three days after Christmas in 2011 has been convicted of second-degree murder.

The Bucks County Courier Times says jurors deliberated for nearly eight hours before convicting 20-year-old Jermaine M. Jackson of Trenton, N.J. on Monday.

Authorities said Jackson conspired with four others in the robbery attempt that ended in the slaying of 56-year-old Danny DeGennaro of Levitttown.

Jurors also convicted Jackson of robbery and conspiracy but acquitted him of first-degree murder, burglary and possessing an instrument of crime.

Defense attorney Craig Penglase vowed to appeal. He said his client had been invited to the home for a drug transaction but had left by the time of the murder.

WRONG-WAY CRASH

1 dead, 2 critical after wrong-way Pa. crash

(Information in the following story is from: Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era , http://lancasteronline.com )

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) _ A central Pennsylvania coroner has released the name of a man killed in a wrong-way crash in central Pennsylvania over the weekend that left two other people in critical condition.

Police in Lancaster County told the (Lancaster) Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era the collision happened on Route 30 near Mountville at about 12:20 a.m. Sunday.

Coroner Stephen Diamantoni said 18-year-old Queshawn Brown of Lancaster, a passenger in one of the vehicles, was pronounced dead at Lancaster General Hospital.

West Hempfield Township police said the drivers of both vehicles were listed in critical condition at the hospital Monday.

Police, who are still investigating, said they were responding to a report of a vehicle going the wrong way when the crash happened.

ABDUCTED FROM HOME

3 charged in Philly-area home invasion, slaying

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) _ Authorities have charged three men in the slaying of a teenager found shot in the back on the side of a road shortly after he was abducted from his Philadelphia-area home following what investigators say was a home invasion robbery.

Twenty-five-year-old Andre Collier and 21-year-old Rasheed Teel of Philadelphia and 22-year-old Charles Freeman of Stowe are charged in Montgomery County with first-degree murder and numerous other offenses in Sunday's killing of 19-year-old Kareem Ali Borowy of West Pottsgrove Township.

Police said Freeman and Teel are in custody while Collier is ``aware he is wanted and has evaded arrest'' and should be considered armed and dangerous.

Listed numbers for Collier and Freeman couldn't be found and a number listed for Teel had been disconnected; it was unclear whether they had attorneys.

BABY FOUND IN MOTEL

Man gets 14 months to 4 years in Pa. child's death

ERIE, Pa. (AP) _ A northwestern Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 14 months to four years in prison in last year's death of a 5-month-old child.

Twenty-two-year-old Matthew Clark pleaded guilty in Erie County to endangering the welfare of a child in the death of Jasper Holmes.

The child was found unresponsive in the Riviera Motel in Millcreek Township in February 2012. He died 11 days later of traumatic brain injuries.

Twenty-three-year-old Leslie Holmes was sentenced last month to four to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.

She acknowledged having shaken the boy but said she was trying to revive him after he stopped breathing

Clark apologized Monday for not seeking medical aid for those injuries or for a broken arm weeks before the child's death.

MAYORAL CANDIDATE-CHARGED

Pa. mayoral hopeful charged with defacing signs

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ A mayoral candidate in Harrisburg is facing charges stemming from allegations that he spray painted the campaign signs of one of his competitors for the Democratic nomination.

The charges announced Monday against Lewis Butts include criminal mischief and criminal conspiracy for allegedly defacing the campaign signs of candidate Eric Papenfuse with black spray paint.

Butts told WHTM-TV in Harrisburg that he apologized for going to such lengths to prove a point. But he says he plans to continue campaigning and won't drop out of the race.

Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico says he believes Butts was frustrated at the way the campaign was going.

The primary election is Tuesday. Four people are running for the city's Democratic nomination to run for mayor.

FRACKING WITH GAS

More companies in Pa. trying fracking with gas

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ Another natural gas exploration company says it's experimenting with the gas to power huge pump engines that drive the hydraulic fracturing process.

Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. said Monday that it successfully tested an engine last month in northern Pennsylvania's Susquehanna County with gas from other wells it had already drilled.

A Cabot spokesman says the Houston-based company has two multi-engine units active in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale formation.

The formation is thought to be the nation's largest natural gas reservoir.

A number of increasingly cost-conscious oil- and gas-field companies are trying to save money by using natural gas to run trucks and drilling rigs.

The conversion of the hydraulic fracturing pump engines to natural gas is particularly challenging because of the amount of horsepower necessary to power the pumps.