WGRC Christian Radio

BLOOMSBURG - Police in the town of Bloomsburg are investigating an early morning stabbing. That happened around 3:20 this morning in the 500 block of East 4th street. Bloomsburg police were looking for a female suspect. There's no word on who the victim or suspect are at this time.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

HEPBURNVILLE - A crash in Lycoming County early this morning send s a 25-year-old man to the hospital with injuries. That crash was reported around 2:30 this morning in the 200 block of Route 973 in Hepburn Township. Police say the man went off the highway and slammed into a tree. Police say he was not wearing a seatbelt and was trapped inside his vehicle and had to be cut free. He was flown to Geisinger. Police have not released his identity. Alcohol is believed to have been a contributing factor in that crash.
Jim Diehl (WGRC/WRAK)

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - No one was hurt, after a vehicle slams into a home in Schuylkill County late last night. Around midnight Police say 48-year-old Lori Walter of Zion Grove went off Sunny Lane Road, her pick-up truck crashing into the house owned by 45-year-old Douglas Williams. Police say Walter will be charged with DUI.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

LEWISBURG - One man was taken to Geisinger Medical Center following a two-vehicle crash involving a motorcycle in Union County Tuesday afternoon. The crash happened around two p.m. at the intersection of Colonel John Kelly Road and JPM Road in Kelly Township. Police say 78-year-old Max Yost of Milton pulled out into the intersection into the path of the motorcycle driven by 52-year-old Dennis Sampsell of Lewisburg. Sampsell was thrown from the bike. He remains in fair condition at the hospital.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - In Schuylkill County a Schuylkill Haven woman was flown to the Lehigh Valley Hospital Tuesday afternoon after she was run over by her own car. 45-year-old Lisa Kendall Breininger, was backing out of her parking space in a private lot off Wilson Street when she stopped her vehicle and got out to pick something up. The Republican Herald reports, when she exited her car, she became entangled in her seat belt, and was pulled to the ground as her car began drifting backward. Police say Breininger landed face-down on the gravel parking lot and the car rolled over the entire left side of her body. There is no word on her condition.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

SULLIVAN COUNTY - Equipment and other items stolen from two seismology companies in Sullivan County. Troopers say someone made off with tools, fire extinguishers and a radio belonging to F-T Seismic Support of Campbell, New York from its location along Hatch Road in Elkland Township. $17,000 worth of seismic equipment belonging to Geokenetics of Wysox was taken from a wooded area near Route 154 and Route 4003 in Fox Township. Both thefts happened on Monday or early Tuesday. Police do not say wether the thefts are believed to be related. Anyone with information is asked to call State Police at Laporte.
John Callahan (WGRC)    

KISTLER - Police are looking for the man who broke into a garage in Mifflin County and stole a SUV. That happened just after ten Tuesday night at Russ Maddens Garage located along Route 22 in Wayne Township. Police say the white man with long brown hair in a pony tail is believed to have broken into the garage. Anyone with information on the break-in and theft is asked to call state police, Lewistown.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)
   
MCVEYTOWN - A man and woman from Snyder County are facing drug charges following an incident in Mifflin County. Police say they were called to South Water Street in McVeytown behind a Minute Mart when 29-year-old Jamie Gill of Mount Pleasant Mills report she had been ripped off by a 16-year-old Mount Union girl. Police say Gill tried to buy prescription pills from the girls and when Gill handed over her cash the girl kept the money and didn't hand over any pills. The teen faces charges of theft in the incident. Meanwhile Police charged Gill and 34-year-old Jason Musser of Selinsgrove with drug possession after police found the two possessing a small amount of marijuana and items to smoke the pot.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

WILKES-BARRE - A federal judge on Tuesday set trial dates for two cases in which former Shenandoah police officers face charges that they, obstructed the investigation of a fatal beating and extorted money. Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo scheduled the start of the trial of Matthew Nestor, William Moyer and Jason Hayes, for January 10th for the beating case, while he slated the beginning of the extortion case for Nestor and Jamie Gennarini for February 7th. Each trial will be held at the Max Rosenn U.S. Courthouse, Wilkes-Barre, and will be presided over by Caputo. Nestor, Moyer and Hayes are charged with conspiracy and falsification of records for allegedly obstructing the investigation of the July 12, 2008, beating of Luis Ramirez who eventually died at Geisigner Medical Center. In the other case, federal prosecutors have charged Nestor and Gennarini, with the extortion of money from illegal gambling operations and a businessman and his family.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

WILLIAMSPORT - Twenty-three-year-old Javier Cruz-Echevarria who was convicted in the murder of 38-year-old Eric Sawyer and serving a life sentence in state prison without a chance for parole has been given a glimmer of hope for a retrial. The Sun Gazette reports, the state Superior Court has withdrawn an order upholding his conviction. Cruz conspired with Lycoming County Prison inmate, Maurice Patterson, to kill Sawyer, on March 31, 2007. He drove the triggerman, 42-year-old Sean Durrant, to the ambush site where Durrant shot Sawyer twice. Patterson was found guilty of ordering the murder of Sawyer and was sentenced to die. Durrant is serving a 25-to-60-year state prison sentence.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

ORWIGSBURG - A Landingville man was arrested Tuesday and charged with three times sending nude pictures of himself over the Internet to police posing as a 13-year-old girl. 35-year-old Douglas Homewood, thought he was showing the pictures to a teenage girl, but was actually showing them to an undercover  agent from the Child Predator Unit of state Attorney General's office. He's free after posting $15-thousand dollars cash bail.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

POTTSVILLE - A Lehigh County man is on his way to state prison and subject to lifetime Megan's Law sanctions after being sentenced Tuesday in Schuylkill County Court for sexually assaulting a girl at various times for almost three years. 34-year-old Randy Reinert, of New Tripoli, must serve six to 12 years in a state prison, plus five years on probation. Reinert pleaded guilty to the charges in December.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

POTTSVILLE - A man along with his girlfriend who were charged with over 100 counts of cruelty to animals in Schuylkill County will now head to state prison on violating his parole. 39-year-old Andy Oxenrider must spend four to eight years in a state prison. Schuylkill County Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin made that ruling Tuesday. Dolbin accepted prosecutors' arguments that Oxenrider violated his probation and parole by smoking marijuana, failing a drug test, committing at least one crime and possessing animals. He was on parole for a DUI offense in Lebanon County. Pine Grove police charged Oxenrider and 50-year-old Virginia  Justiniano, with mistreating cats, geese, chickens, ferrets and deer on January 24th, 2009, at a sanctuary they supposedly ran. Police charged Oxenrider with drug counts after finding cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription drugs during a search of the sanctuary.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

STATE COLLEGE - Nittany Lion mascot Clint Gyory will be handing over his costume for this season's first four football games after apparently partying a little too hard August 1st, the morning after his 20th birthday. Police found Gyory around 3 a.m. passed out in the bed of a truck. He was cited for underage drinking and public drunkenness and criminal mischief. Police say his blood alcohol content was well over twice the legal limit. Police say he had broken a mirror off a vehicle and took it. Gyory was selected to be the mascot in February 2009, shortly after his predecessor, James Sheep, was kept from attending the Rose Bowl game as the mascot after being charged with DUI.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

BEAVER SPRINGS - A new drug and alcohol treatment center along Route 522 in Spring Township, Snyder County has provided six jobs to residents from Beavertown, Middleburg and Lewisburg, and officials say that is only the beginning. Conewago Snyder, a facility owned by Firetree Limited, based in Williamsport, accepted its first client on August 12th, when it also held an open house for the public and local officials in Snyder County. The Daily Item reports, squabbling over the center has died down in the area after folks saw the renovations to the old Beaver-Adams Elementary School and found out about 30 employees from the local area will be needed to run the facility.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

SUNBURY - Courtroom No. 1 at the Northumberland County Courthouse was packed with people Tuesday morning, as a memorial service was held for the late Judge Samuel Ranck. Ranck was 82 when he passed away on July 18th. He retired in 2008 after 33 years as a judge.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

SUNBURY - Northumberland County officials are seeking state and federal funding for a $6 million project that will change the county communications center from a low frequency wide band system to a high frequency narrow band system. At Tuesday's meeting of the Northumberland County Board of Commissioners, county Public Safety Director Paul Froutz said the change at the 911 Center, which is long overdue, must be completed by 2013, and is being mandated by the Federal Communications Commission. Froutz tells the News Item changing to a high frequency narrow band  system will increase the center's capacity and make it a more reliable service.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

MONTOURSVILLE - Some 30 PennDOT employees and friends in Engineering District 3-0 participated in the second annual blood drive for the American Red Cross held in the Montoursville district office Tuesday. The employees donated a combined 3.75 gallons of blood. One donor, retired PennDOT employee Atwood Welker, reached the 23-gallon mark with his blood donation. Welker says, "It started back when I started with PennDOT, back in 1959. They encouraged you to give back to the community, and I thought it was a good idea." It was Welker's 184th time to lay on the donation table. The American Red Cross says 90 people will benefit from the blood donated by the PennDOT employees.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

MIFFLINBURG - A handful of Seniors at the Mifflinburg Area High School welcome students back with a wave and a smile Tuesday, but it wasn't like any other welcoming committee. Seventeen-year-olds Colbey Russell, Lyndon Noggler, Tyler Ditty, and Jeremy Rosborough wore full costumes of cartoon and children's program characters to welcome back students to the 2010 - 2011 school year. Russell was dressed as Winnie-the-Pooh, Noggler was dressed as the big purple dinosaur, Barney, Ditty was dressed as Woody the Cowboy of "Toy Story" fame, and Rosborough was the quizzical "Cat-in-the-Hat,"  from Dr. Seuss. Ditty says it was "pretty hot and his head was pretty sweaty" inside the costume as temperatures hovered near 80 degrees. He says "It's a dream come true," as he "always wanted to be a cowboy." They waved as students and passer-bys drove by gawking and smiling. One woman stopped dead on Market Street to have a small child in a booster seat see the funny characters at the school. Russell says the seniors were dressed up because he remembers "Back in the day, when he was a Freshman entering the High School, he remembers how scared he was walking through the doors of the school." The seniors dressed up not only to welcome back upperclassmen but to put the freshmen at ease if only for a few short minutes. For him, being a senior, he says," he's going out this year with a bang, and starting it that way as well.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

HUGHESVILLE - New windows and a furnace that burns locally grown crops to save costs and uses alternative fuels are a few of the energy-saving measures that either are in place or about to be in the East Lycoming School District. The Sun Gazette reports, new windows which will seal up the Ferrell Elementary School in Picture Rocks and handicapped accessibility along with a refreshed surface interior, are some of the big changes that will be noticed. Meanwhile a biomass project at the Hughesville High School is under construction near the gymnasium. To fuel the furnace, hybrid willow, a hearty crop which is yielded at 30 tons per acre, is growing in fields near the high school. The school will use green wood chips to fuel the burner.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)   

RUSH TOWNSHIP - The developer who had proposed building a landfill in Rush Township Centre County says the project has changed direction and the company is now working on plans for a waste-to-ethanol plant. Ed Abel, president of Resource Recovery tells the Centre Daily Times, the focus will be on converting waste to energy. The project would include a landfill, but it would be about one-fifth the size of the 274-acre landfill initially proposed. Development of the 5,800 acres of property Resource Recovery owns in northern Rush and western Snow Shoe townships also includes natural gas exploration. Abel said Resource Recovery is working with a large company on the waste-to-energy plans and they hope to resubmit plans for the site to the state Department of Environmental Protection in early winter. He said the plant could cost about $280 million to build and would produce an estimated 50 million gallons a year of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline.
Jim Diehl (WGRC)

WASHINGTON - The Federal Emergency Management Agency is closely monitoring Hurricane Earl, as it moves past Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and toward the East Coast of the United States.  According to the National Hurricane Center, Earl is now a Category 4 hurricane. FEMA is closely coordinating with state, territorial, and local officials in the affected areas and along the East Coast and stands ready to support their response as needed. Although no watches or warnings are currently in effect for the mainland United States, history has shown that storm tracks can change quickly and unexpectedly.  Officials are closely monitoring the areas from the Carolinas to New England, and FEMA is coordinating with the Governors and local officials along the East Coast to aggressively prepare for possible severe weather. FEMA has activated the National Response Coordination Center and its Regional Response Coordination Centers in all four of its regional offices in the eastern United States, located in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. 
(WGRC)