WGRC Christian Radio

LOGANTON – A Muncy man was injured in a crash Monday in Clinton County. The crash happened just after two p.m. on Rauchtown Road in Greene Township. Police say 62-year-old Sherman Barto suffered major Injuries in the crash and was taken to Geisinger Medical Center. Police say Barto went off the roadway and slammed into a utility pole. Barto remains in critical condition at Geisinger.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

SUNBURY — Police say they don’t think alcohol was involved in a crash which killed a young father and his three-year-old son Tuesday night on the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge near Sunbury. Police inspected both vehicles yesterday. Investigators said the vehicle that caused the crash had an expired state inspection and registration. Twenty-two-year-old Kirk Mahaffey and his son Mayson both died. State police said Kirk was not wearing a seatbelt, and Mayson’s child safety seat was not the right type for his age. Police said the two were driving towards Shamokin Dam on the bridge when a vehicle operated by  24-year-old Brian Glass of Port Trevorton hit them head on. Glass and his passenger, 19-year-old Cody Glass were wearing seatbelts and suffered what police called moderate injuries. Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to call state police, Stonington at 570-286-5601.
(WNEP)

PETERSBURG – An SUV, after avoiding a collision on the highway outside, plowed through Doan’s Bones Restaurant in Petersburg in Huntingdon County on Tuesday.  A 20-foot wall disintegrated. Tables and chairs shattered. Three Penn State students, the only customers, were blasted off their feet. Nineteen-year-old, waitress Sarah Tkach, of Huntingdon, lay pinned to a wall under the SUV’s bumper. Twenty-year-old Conner Hall of Boalsburg suffered leg injuries. Inside the obliterated room, 19-year-old Heather Derr of State College was badly injured. Also hurt was 20-year-old Tyler Smith of Scranton. Restaurant owner Brandon Corvin was thankful that the crash happened on a weekday instead of a weekend when the place might have been full. Derr remained in “serious condition” at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. State police say a 17-year-old girl from Bellefonte was driving the SUV on Route 26 when she into the path of the oncoming vehicle. The Centre Daily Times reports, the oncoming vehicle driven by 48-year-old Daniel Ingle, of Tyrone, swerved went off the road and crashed through the restaurant. Neither driver was hurt.
(WGRC)

MIFFLINBURG - A Mifflinburg woman has been arrested for driving while under the influence of marijuana while a baby was in the back seat of her vehicle when she was stopped by Mifflinburg police on July 2nd. Police say 24-year-old Robin Combs, allegedly told officers she took a couple hits from a marijuana pipe before getting into the car. Combs, then allegedly drove from Knoebel’s Amusement Resort to Mifflinburg, where she was stopped by an officer after Combs failed to use a turn signal while pulling out of the parking lot of a convenience store. The baby girl was asleep in a car seat in the back of Comb’s minivan. Combs was charged with driving under the influence of marijuana, traffic violations and endangering the welfare of a child.
(WGRC)

BELLEFONTE — A Boalsburg woman is accused of starving her baby to the point the girl weighed 17 pounds when she was 2 years old. Police have charged 36-year-old Penny Mason with child endangerment and reckless endangerment. On Wednesday, Mason sent her charges to Centre County Court. State College police said Mason lost custody of her daughter in August 2010, when the girl weighed 17 pounds. The girl was taken to Geisinger Medical Center, where tests determined she was dehydrated and malnourished. Police said medical records show the first time Mason took her infant to the doctor after she was born in May 2008 was for a tick bite that occurred in October 2008. Mason took the child back to doctor in February 2009 for an ear infection, and a doctor told her the child was malnourished. Police said Mason followed the doctor’s orders to come back for two more weight checks, but Mason didn’t follow up with two more after that.
(WGRC)

MOUNT CARMEL TOWNSHIP - A young couple have been charged with felony drug offenses involving a heroin sale Sunday night in the parking lot at Turkey Hill Minit Market in the village of Strong in Northumberland County.  Police charged 23-year-old Joseph Rubendall Jr., of Sunbury, and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Jordan Derck, of Shamokin. Both are jailed in the Northumberland County Prison. Police say Rubendall delivered ten bags of heroin to a confidential informant around 8:30 Sunday night outside the store. He also had 20 more bags of heroin on him plus prescription drugs. Derck is accused of conspiring with Rubendall to deliver the drugs.
(WGRC)

MIFFLINVILLE — Two men and two women were caught Wednesday in Columbia County for allegedly running a makeshift meth lab from a tent at a campsite along River Road. All of the suspects fled the scene on foot as police raided the campsite. Twenty-one-year-old Jamie Krumm, of Berwick, 20-year-old Kathleen Bower, 35-year-old Mike Sockriter, and 42-year-old Mike Lockard, both of Berwick have been taken into custody and face methamphetamine manufacturing charges. The Press Enterprise reports, authorities say they received information about the meth lab from an informant.
(WGRC)

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - Copper thieves hit a Schuylkill Haven church last week. Borough police say someone stole 50 to 60 feet of copper downspouting on the north and northwest sides of St. John's United Church of Christ, on East Main Street. When the three sections were taken is unknown, but it was reported last Friday. Volunteers working at the church discovered the missing downspouts. Police say scrap yards have been notified of the theft and the investigation continues. Anyone with information should call the Schuylkill Haven Police Department at 570-385-9111.
(WGRC)

SUNBURY — The trial for a suspended Northumberland County Prison guard accused of stealing around $300 dollars from the prison more than four years ago began yesterday. Thirty-nine-year-old Shane Hoffman of Sunbury was charged with stealing scrap metal from the prison and then selling it. The three-day trial continues today at the Courthouse in Sunbury.
(WGRC)

JERSEY SHORE – A rape case in Lycoming County is being thrown out. All criminal charges against 47-year-old William Hohman have been dropped after authorities began to have concerns about the credibility of the alleged victim's account. Hohman of Jersey Shore was arrested on June 12 on charges of allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl after he lured her into his home, asking her to stay with his dog as he carried groceries into the house. Tiadaghton Valley Regional police charged Hohman with rape related offenses and he was jailed on $125,000 bail. An ongoing investigation into the alleged assault "began to raise questions about the credibility and reliability of the victim's account. The Lycoming County District Attorney’s office moved to have those charges dropped.
(WGRC)

STATE COLLEGE - Former Penn State president Graham Spanier has dropped the lawsuit he filed against the university to get access to old emails involving his discussions about convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky. Spanier did not specify the reason for dropping the suit, which seemed moot after the release last week of Louis Freeh’s scathing report that suggests Spanier and other senior university officials covered up allegations of abuse against Sandusky for fear of the fallout of bad publicity. The paperwork dropping the suit was filed Wednesday in Centre County court. Spanier filed the suit in May, seeking his emails from 1998 to 2004 and saying that he wanted to review them to prepare for an interview with Freeh’s investigators. A court date had been set for August in front of an out-of-county judge, but it has been canceled. The lawsuit was one of several the university was facing in the fallout of the Sandusky abuse scandal. The university wants to settle out of court with the victims in the Sandusky case. Meanwhile, three people not connected to the original case have filed civil suits in Philadelphia. Still looming is a possible whistleblower lawsuit by former wide receivers coach Mike McQueary, who made the report in 2001 about seeing Sandusky in a shower with a young boy. McQueary has only given notice he intends to sue and has yet to file a formal complaint.
(WGRC)

BURNHAM – In Mifflin County the Burnham Borough Authority will receive just over $10 million in financing for a major sewer renovation project. The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority awarded the grant to the Burnham Borough Authority, Wednesday. The authority is expected to apply the funding toward demolition of its entire existing sewer plant and build a new treatment plant. The project also involves the removal and replacement of over 1,800 feet of a sewer lines.
(WGRC)

WHITE DEER TOWNSHIP - A roadway re-surfacing project along eight miles of Interstate 80 westbound in White Deer Township, Union County and a 5 mile section of I-80 eastbound in West Hemlock Township and the town of Bloomsburg in Columbia County is scheduled to start today. The paving will take place along I-80 westbound, from about two miles west of the Route 15 Interchange to the Mile Run Interchange. This section will take about one week to complete. The contractor will then move to the section of I-80 eastbound, from the Montour/Columbia county line to approximately one mile east of the Buckhorn Interchange. That paving will also take about one week to complete. Traffic will be restricted to a single lane through the work zone. Motorists are asked to stay alert and drive with added caution.
(WGRC)

DANVILLE – School Board officials at the Danville School district want the Danville Middle School to be ready for students before school is set to open, but contractors working on the flood damaged building say that might not happen. The school along route 11 has been closed since last September’s flooding. Some work bids are anticipated for October but school officials would like for the work to be going a little faster. Since the flooding, students have been attending other schools in the district. School officials also want the ground surrounding the school to be tested for contaminates possibly deposited there by the flood. On a positive note, electrical components at the school have been raised so that if there is another flood, it shouldn’t affect electrical systems at the school.
(WGRC)

LEWISBURG - The North Central Pennsylvania Fresh Air Fund will be welcoming a small group of New York City children as they arrive in Lewisburg today. Volunteer host families share their summers for up to two weeks with Fresh Air children, ages six to 18, who leave behind the city streets to run barefoot in the grass or see the stars at night. Some youngsters are leaving home for the first time, while others are returning to visit the same host families for consecutive summers. The Fresh Air Fund is an independent, not-for-profit agency that has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Each summer, over 4,000 children visit volunteer host families in rural, suburban and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. The group of kids will be arriving at the Lewisburg Middle School around 3:30 this afternoon in Lewisburg and will spend several weeks with host families in Lewisburg, Turbotville, and Watsontown.
(WGRC)

WILLIAMSPORT - Later this week, three Lycoming County soap box racers will be speeding down the track at the 75th All-American Soap Box Derby Race in Akron, Ohio. Zofina Fink, McKinsey Sauers and Joey LaRose arrived in Akron on Sunday for a week of Soap Box Derby events, including a champion welcome parade on Monday, test runs that ended Wednesday and the championship race Saturday. Fink, of Montgomery, began competing to enter the anniversary race after she raced in Akron last year. To compete in the Rally Race, participants need at least four wins for 160 points to have enough points to continue to the national race, representing their districts. Sauers, of South Williamsport, won the super stock car race. LaRose, of Muncy, won in the stock car race after learning some tips from competing last year.
(WGRC)

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT - Lycoming County emergency responders filled the First Ward Fire Company hall in South Williamsport Wednesday night to discuss possible formation of a fire/police task force. The goal is to get all fire and police departments working in coordination in emergency and non-emergency situations. The flood of last September was an example of how a task force was sorely needed. With a task force in place, a tone would have gone off on all members' pagers. South Williamsport Police Chief Robert Hetner said situations can arise where police officers respond to a crime scene and also must provide traffic control or other fire police duties. A task force can help take that burden off police as fire police can then be dispatched for non-emergency events for traffic or scene control. Unfortunately, they are not covered by worker's compensation should they become injured while performing their duties in what are considered non-emergency situations. State Representative Rick Mirabito attended the meeting and vowed to push legislation to have fire police personnel covered in such events.
(WGRC)

MONTOURSVILLE - Numerous central Pennsylvania police agencies will conduct aggressive-driving enforcement activities on July 20 as part of a statewide wave continuing through August 16th. Police departments in Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Sullivan and Union Counties will be participating. Pennsylvania law enforcement reminds motorists to keep their distance from aggressive drivers who exhibit behaviors such as speeding, tailgating and running red lights. More than 330 municipal police departments and the Pennsylvania State Police will participate in the enforcement, and aggressive drivers stopped by police will receive a ticket. Last year 142,000 aggressive-driving related citations were handed out in 2011. In Central Pennsylvania last year police say 53 people were killed in aggressive driving crashes. The aggressive-driving enforcement is a part of the Pennsylvania Aggressive Driving Enforcement and Education Project and is funded by PennDOT's statewide investment of $2.3 million in federal funds from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
(WGRC)

HARRISBURG — Lawyers on both sides of a court showdown over Pennsylvania's tough new voter ID law filed briefs this week ahead of a crucial hearing in the case. Yesterday was the deadline for filing written arguments with state Commonwealth Court in a lawsuit seeking to block enforcement of the law. The Associated Press reports, the hearing is slated to start July 25th and expected to last five to seven days. Legal groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed suit on behalf of 10 registered voters. The plaintiffs contend the law is unconstitutional and that many voters will be disenfranchised because they cannot obtain an acceptable photo ID. State officials say they will ensure that every voter who wants to vote gets proper identification before the election.
(WGRC)

WILLIAMSPORT – Congressman Tom Marino has joined Congressman Joe Heck of Nevada as a co-sponsor of legislation on the proposed Stolen Valor Act. The legislation would subject an individual who knowingly makes a misrepresentation regarding his or her military service to a fine or a term of imprisonment. The Stolen Valor Act was originally signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2006. On June 28th of this year, the Supreme Court struck down the law, declaring it a violation of the First Amendment and therefore, unconstitutional. Marino says the legislation corrects the Constitutional concerns of the original bill and would punish only those who seek to gain anything of value from the misrepresentation of military service.
(WGRC)