News Headlines

PENNSYLVANIA UNIVERSITIES RANK POORLY IN TEACHER PREPARATION

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:14:00 GMT

According to a report released yesterday by the National Council on Teacher Quality, universities across the state and nation do a “dismal” job of getting teachers ready for the education of students. Out of 1,200 elementary and secondary programs rated, only four received all four possible stars and just 101 received three or more stars.

The highest ratings in Pennsylvania were for undergraduate secondary programs at Bloomsburg and Mansfield. Their undergraduate elementary programs received lower ratings. The report also included a warning list for schools earning less than one star, including four in Pennsylvania. Those included the undergraduate elementary programs at California, Clarion and Holy Family universities.

The graduate secondary education program at Marywood University was also on that list. The results are based on document reviews, including admission standards, observation forms used in student teaching placement and student teaching handbook and course syllabi. The National Council on Teacher Quality did not visit university campuses or speak with superintendents or other officials on the performance of graduates.

PENNDOT DECLINES TO MAKE FUNDING WEBSITE PUBLIC

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:13:00 GMT

There’s been plenty of talk over the past several months of additional money headed to PennDOT to fix dilapidated roads and bridges.

Along the way, PennDOT officials have promised a listing of all the projects across Pennsylvania that would see work under a new funding plan. With a few plans circulating in Harrisburg, a website has been set up comparing how the funding would be used, but you can’t access it.

Officials say PennDOT gave lawmakers access to the website about two weeks ago and its existence was revealed to the Associated Press through lawmakers and legislative staff aides. PennDOT officials say the website remains a draft which isn’t ready for public viewing. Two main funding options currently exist in Harrisburg. One is Governor Corbett’s $1.8 billion funding plan from his budget address in February.

The other is the $2.5 funding plan found in the recently passed Senate Bill 1. That plan has come under fire from some in the House, since it raises gas taxes 28.5 cents over several years and increases driver’s license and traffic violation fees.

WESTMORELAND CO. MAN TO STAND TRIAL IN INFANT'S DEATH

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:13:00 GMT

A judge in Westmoreland County Tuesday rejected arguments from a Vandergrift man accused in the death of his 2-month-old daughter last year. 30-year-old Matthew Milisits is facing criminal homicide and related charges linked to the death of baby Sophia Luwiczak last November.

The baby had been shaken and had also suffered injuries to her ribs. Assistant District Attorney Judy Petrush says a conviction of first-degree murder will be sought against Milisits. Milisits’ attorney argued in court that investigators and doctors couldn’t prove that the baby’s injuries happened while she was in her father’s care. Police say that Milisits took custody of the child on November 15th.

As he was returning to baby to her mother, Milisits covered her with a blanket in his car. When he uncovered her, the baby gasped twice and stopped breath. She was later taken to Children’s Hospital where she died four days later. An autopsy revealed that the baby had a head injury and the prosecution says Milisits admitted to shaking Sophia to get her to stop crying. Judge Rita Hathaway ruled that there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial but a trial date has not been set yet.

COURT ACTION TODAY FOR TWO MEN IN SEPARATE SEX CASES

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:04:00 GMT

The cases against two defendants involved in sex ctimes with teenage girls will move forward in courts today in Indiana and Armstrong counties.

There is a motions hearing scheduled today in the Woodrow Hicks Jr. case, which has been slowly inching its way through the Indiana County court system since Hicks was arrested last November. Hicks, who is from Blairsville, is accused of arranging to meet up with a 15-year-old girl for sexual purposes at the White Township Wal Mart store.

Investigators say Hicks used text messages to lure the girl to the parking lot for a sexual encounter, but when he arrived he was met by state troopers. He tried to flee and resisted arrest, but was taken into custody.

The charges against Hicks include aggravated assault, statutory sexual assault, attempted statutory sexual assault, and unlawful contact with a minor for sexual offense. All of those are felonies. In addition, he is charged with misdemeanor corruption of minors, resisting arrest, fleeing or attempting to elude police, and simple assault. In April, his attorney filed a writ of habeas corpus and a writ to suppress evidence in the case, and last month Judge William Martin granted them, then rescinded them.

The trial date has not been determined.

Gregory Shaffer will be in court today for a preliminary hearing in Armstrong County. He’s the 41-year-old Kittanning man accused of stashing his 15-year-old girlfriend in an Indiana County apartment in April.

Shaffer was arrested again last Thursday for exchanging more than 700 text messages with the girl last month while he was out on bail and she was in foster care. Police said some of the texts were sexual in nature.

In addition to the previous charges, Shaffer is now charged with statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, solicitation for both of those crimes, disseminating explicit sexual material to a minor, and related offenses. His hearing is at one o’clock this afternoon before District Judge James Andring in Kittanning.

REA PLANS OUTAGES TODAY

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:42:00 GMT

Officials with REA Energy say there will be planned power outages today for system upgrades and maintenance in northern Indiana County and in Jefferson County.

The outage will begin at 9 AM and last about four hours for REA customers in Canoe Township, Banks Township and Rossiter in Indiana County. Other areas affected by the outage are Gaskill and Bell Townships in Jefferson County, along with Johnsonburg/Smithport, Winslow, Hillman, and Cloe.

NEW ALEX WOMAN CAUGHT WITH HEROIN, CRACK

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:37:00 GMT

A New Alexandria woman is facing drug charges and a Blairsville man with whom she was traveling has been turned over to Indiana County authorities on a bench warrant.

21-year-old Lashonda Dollison of Route 981 was taken into custody at the Sheetz in New Alex last Thursday. Police acted on a tip from a confidential informant that she would be traveling in a van with two men and would likely have drugs. She consented to a search by the troopers and they found 96 stamp bags of heroin and three to five grams of crack cocaine in her pants.

Dollison told police the drugs were hers. She’s charged with two felony counts of possession with intent to deliver and three misdemeanor counts of possesion. She pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver in 2011 and was sentenced to 11-and-a-half to 23 months in prison.

32-year-old Eric J. Murphy of Blairsville was handed over to Indiana County authorities. He was the driver of the van and does not face charges in the drug case. Murphy’s record shows numerous convictions for a variety of offenses in court cases going back to 2005. The latest warrant is not detailed in online court records.

The other man in the van was not charged.

PILOT KILLED IN ULTRALIGHT AIRPLANE CRASH

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:12:00 GMT

A Clarksburg man was killed last night in the crash of his ultra-light airplane in Young Township. 64-year-old Michael “Mickey” Grguric was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:25 PM by Indiana County Chief Deputy Coroner Jerry Overman, who said the cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma.

Overman says Grguric was practicing touch-and-go maneuvers when the plane evidently clipped some trees as it was gaining altitude. It went down at around 8:30 PM in a stand of pine trees off Church Street in McIntyre. State police said it was a one-person open cockpit plane – essentially a glider with an engine.

Saltsburg and Coal Run firefighters were called to the scene last night, and the Civil Air Patrol has secured the area. The Federal Aviation Administration will be on the scene today and will serve as lead investigator into the cause of the fatal crash.

INDIANA MAN CHARGED WITH RAPING WOMAN

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:00:00 GMT

An Indiana man has been charged with raping a woman on Saturday afternoon at an apartment in the 500 block of Philadelphia Street.

33-year-old Rory Green is charged with rape, invountary deviate sexual intercourse, and sexual assault. Indiana Borough police were summoned to the Indiana Regional Medical Center after the woman went there. She told them Green had raped her in her apartment. Police uncovered other corroborating evidence against Green, and District Judge George Thachik issued an arrest warrant. Green turned himself in at the borough police station and was taken to the Indiana County Jail.

Green has a criminal history in Indiana County, including being charged with recklessly endangering, endangering the welfare of children, simple assault, and related offenses in 2011. He plea bargained to simple assault and spent some time in jail. Most recently, he was charged with harassment last October. He has been through the court system for various offenses eight times since 2005.

Green will have a preliminary hearing next Tuesday before Judge Thachik.

41-YEAR-OLD MAN WITH TEEN GIRLFRIEND FACING NEW CHARGES

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:31:00 GMT

A 41-year-old Kittanning man already facing charges for stashing his 15-year-old girlfriend in a Shelocta apartment has been arrested on new charges that he has been exchanging sexually explicit messages with her while he’s out on bail and she’s in foster care.

Gregory Alan Shaffer was arrested in April for harboring the girl at the old Shelocta Hotel, where he kept an apartment. He has been out on $20,000 bond awaiting prosecution for concealing the whereabouts of a child, interference with custody of children, and corruption of minors.

The girl’s foster mother discovered sexually explicit messages between Shaffer and the girl, who’d used a Nintendo DS hand-held game unit that connects to the internet. Investigators found that Shaffer and the girl had exchanged more than 700 messages between May 10^th and the 21^st, some of which discussed plans to get married in October 2015, when she became of legal age.

New felony charges against Shaffer include solicitation for statutory sexual assault, solicitation for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, criminal use of a communication facility, and obscene and other sexual materials and performances. He’s back in the Armstrong County Jail with bond set at $75,000.

IUP SIGNS NEW DEAL TO MONITOR WATER AT BEAVER RUN RESERVOIR

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:10:00 GMT

The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County has signed a new deal with IUP to test the water in the Beaver Run Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to more than 120,000 customers in five counties.

Students from IUP’s geography and geoscience departments have been collecting water samples from the reservoir for the past three years. The samples are analyzed by a third party to measure the impact of Marcellus Shale drilling in the 1,300-acre lake, its tributaries, streams, and drainage areas. In all, the students provide blanket coverage of over 5,000 acres which are the home of 37 active wells.

The authority paid the university $55,000 the first year and $75,000 last year. The new deal is for $100,000, reflecting the growing number of wells. Thirteen more are scheduled to be drilled this year. Consol Energy has the gas lease on the property.

There have been no chemical infiltrations discovered in the reservoir’s waters, and only a small amount of silt from construction activities.