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Good evening! Here’s a look at AP’s general news coverage today in Pennsylvania. For questions about the state report, contact the Philadelphia bureau at 215-561-1133. Ron Todt is on the desk. Editor Larry Rosenthal can be reached at 215-446-6631 or [email protected].
A reminder this information is not for publication or broadcast, and these coverage plans are subject to change. Expected stories may not develop, or late-breaking and more newsworthy events may take precedence. Advisories, digests and digest advisories will keep you up to date.
Some TV and radio stations will receive shorter APNewsNow versions of the stories below, along with updates.
UPCOMING TOMORROW:
WILD WEST-OBSESSED MAYOR
HARRISBURG — The former longtime mayor of the state’s capital city is heading to trial on corruption charges stemming in part from his alleged unlawful use of public funds to chase his odd obsession with opening a Wild West museum in the heart of Pennsylvania. By Mark Scolforo. UPCOMING: About 500 words, photos.
SATURDAY’S TOP STORIES
TRUMP-WOMEN’S MARCH-PHILADELPHIA
PHILADELPHIA — Tens of thousands of men, women and children took to the streets Saturday to take part in the Women’s March on Philadelphia, in conjunction with similar demonstrations in Washington and other cities, walking shoulder to shoulder stretched for a solid mile along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. By Natalie Pompilio. SENT: About 460 words. AP photos.
BRIDGE CLOSED-FRACTURE
BRISTOL — An interstate bridge linking Pennsylvania and New Jersey that was closed due to a fracture will remain closed until engineers can come up with a repair plan, transportation officials said. SENT: NewsNow. UPCOMING: About 250 words by 7 p.m. EST.
DISC JOCKEY KILLED
EASTON — Two men have been convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the shooting death of an eastern Pennsylvania disc jockey more than four years ago. SENT: About 250 words.
FATAL FIRE
CHESTER — Authorities have released the names of two brothers killed in a row house fire in suburban Philadelphia and say the blaze has been ruled accidental. SENT: About 180 words.
EXCHANGE:
EXCHANGE-DISABILITIES-WORKSHOPS
FEASTERVILLE — Rosie Hickman’s gloved hands deftly threaded the ends of a black plastic strap through a thin metal buckle. Through, over, and back again. Hickman has been attaching buckles and performing other simple tasks for more than three decades as a client of Associated Production Services Inc., a Lower Southampton nonprofit that provides vocational training to adults with disabilities. But now, APS officials fear that work may be coming to an end, leaving folks like Hickman with no place to go. The state has developed a plan to move more disabled adults into the community from so-called sheltered workshops like APS, which has hundreds of people doing jobs such as assembly and packaging. While state officials say the plan wouldn’t end sheltered workshops, it would limit the number of people they could serve as well as the hours those clients could spend in such facilities. Crissa Shoemaker DeBree, Bucks County Courier Times.
EXCHANGE-AMISH FARMING
William Kautz grew up in the Chesapeake Bay’s backyard. He remembers standing in water up to his hips that was so clear he could see his feet. A few decades later, he couldn’t even see his shins. When the Baltimore County resident moved to South Lebanon Township in Pennsylvania eight years ago, he found out why. Agricultural runoff in south-central Pennsylvania has been identified as one of the leading causes of Chesapeake Bay pollution, according to Harry Campbell, Pennsylvania executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. That’s caused a lot of finger-pointing – and some of those fingers have been aimed directly at the Amish and Mennonite communities. Daniel Walmer, Lebanon Daily News.
EXCHANGE-LUNG TRANSPLANTS
PITTSBURGH — Paul McGuinness sat with his family as his doctor explained the life-and-death decision he faced— with neither option holding much hope. Continue with available cystic fibrosis treatments and he’d likely be dead within a year, with round-the-clock struggles to breathe. Or get an experimental double-lung transplant at with a 10 percent chance of living five years. “The choice was to die or get a lung transplant, and, of course, I wanted to live longer,” said Mr. McGuinness, who chose the transplant. “If I didn’t make it, I’d help advance science.” His double-lung transplant occurred Oct. 19, 1988 — 28 years ago. He not only beat the odds but also obliterated them and now is considered one of the longest surviving double-lung transplant patients with cystic fibrosis in the United States, if not the longest. “I’m still around,” he said, speaking to the paper to help celebrate UPMC’s 2,000th lung transplant. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
EXCHANGE-ENCOURAGING STUDENTS
YORK — Ginia Moorehead’s daughter, Aniyah Christy, loves school. Moorehead can tell by the second-grader’s enthusiasm — when she tells her mom she was recognized for a positive behavior, like being respectful, or was the only one to raise her hand for a question in class. Aniyah, 8, reminds her mother of herself when she was young. She loved school at that age and won a scholarship when she was still in elementary school. But things changed for her, somewhere around middle school. Life at home was chaotic, and school just didn’t seem that important. “School began to slowly fade into the background of my life,” Moorehead said. Last fall, Moorehead, now 24, stood before a room full of guidance counselors, social workers and others at a Lancaster County symposium and talked about an issue weighing on many in education: why students fade away from school. “Truancy is just a symptom, or at least it was for me,” she told them. Angie Mason, York Daily Record.
EXCHANGE-ADDICTS’ STRUGGLES
KINGSTON — Rob Kennedy Jr. isn’t ashamed to admit he nearly succumbed to his heroin addiction many times. “Nine, ten times — dead — brought back,” the Kingston man recalled recently. Sometimes it took an ice bath to make him snap out of the overdose. Other times he needed the opioid-reversal drug naloxone to be revived. Many of Kennedy’s acquaintances throughout Luzerne County weren’t so lucky. Luzerne County experienced a record-breaking 139 drug overdose deaths in 2016, a 107 percent increase in just two years. Kennedy estimates he knew 30 of the people from using or recovery classes. He said he’s been sober for three months, but acknowledged the “sleeping tiger” that is addiction is tough to beat. Bob Kalinowski, The (Wilkes-Barre) Citizens’ Voice.
IN BRIEF
PROSTITUTION CHARGES-HEROIN — A Pennsylvania man accused of running a prostitution ring out of a hotel and paying the women with heroin as well as money has been ordered to stand trial.
RANDOM SHOOTING — A Pennsylvania man who drove to Vermont and shot someone at random will serve at least 10 years in prison for shooting and injuring a Rutland Christmas shopper.
SPORTS:
FBN–THE THIRTYSOMETHINGS
PITTSBURGH — The numbers are staggering. Over 182,000 yards passing (more than 103 miles worth), nearly 1,300 touchdowns and seven championships, with an eighth guaranteed for whoever parties in the confetti in Houston next month. Yet the numbers that might define Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan as much as any other on their eye-popping, fantasy football league-winning stat lines might 39, 34, 33 and 31 — the ages of the quarterbacks in the NFL’s version of the Final Four. By Will Graves. SENT: About 1170 words.
BKC–T25–PROVIDENCE-VILLANOVA
PHILADELPHIA — Josh Hart scored 25 points, Kris Jenkins had 19 and No. 1 Villanova beat Providence 78-68 on Saturday. By Rob Maaddi.
BKC–T25-PENN ST-PURDUE
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Caleb Swanigan had 19 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 21 Purdue built an 18-point halftime lead and coasted to a 77-52 victory over Penn State on Saturday.
FBC–PENNSTATE’S OFFSEASON STABILITY
STATE COLLEGE — James Franklin has crisscrossed the country, recruiting in Alabama through California and Michigan in the last week. Everyone he meets has congratulatory words for the Penn State football coach. Although their season ended with a 52-49 loss in the highest-scoring Rose Bowl, the Nittany Lions enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in Franklin’s third year. By Travis Johnson. SENT: About 600 words.
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MARKETPLACE: Calling your attention to the Marketplace in AP Exchange, where you can find member-contributed content from Pennsylvania and other states. The Marketplace is accessible on the left navigational pane of the AP Exchange home page, near the bottom. For both national and state, you can click “All” or search for content by topics such as education, politics and business.