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Good afternoon! 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A reminder this information is not for publication or broadcast, and these coverage plans are subject to change.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
TOP STORIES:
PERRY-TOWN HALL
RED LION — Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry’s town hall Saturday turned contentious in his conservative southcentral Pennsylvania district over questions about his support undoing President Barack Obama’s signature health care law and President Donald Trump’s budget proposal and immigration plans. By Marc Levy. SENT: About 600 words, photos.
DISAABILITY PRIDE FESTIVAL
NEW ORLEANS —New Orleans’ newest festival, the Disability Pride Festival , grew from a comment on the internet suggesting that it’s easy to get spur-of-the-moment festivals going but hard to get people to the capital to advocate for disabled people. To that, Jane Rhea Vernier responded: “Maybe we need to throw a festival or a parade ourselves.” Disability pride festivals and parades have been growing nationwide since 1990, when a parade in Boston celebrated that year’s passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. By Janet McConnaughey. SENT: About 490 words.
BURNED CASSAROLE KILLING
PITTSBURGH — A western Pennsylvania woman accused of having shot and killed her husband after an argument about a burned casserole has been ordered to stand trial on homicide and evidence-tampering charges. Stands for story sent earlier as Husband Slain-Wife Arrested. SENT: About 330 words.
GREAT LAKES-LIGHTHOUSE TOUR
MACKINAW CITY, Mich. — A five-day ferry tour will feature visits to 32 different Great Lakes lighthouses this summer. There are 80 available spots for the all-inclusive trip that takes place on northern Lake Michigan between June 5 and June 9. SENT: About 280 words.
EXCHANGE:
EXCHANGE-COAL MINING
CANONSBURG — Contractors for Corsa Coal Corp. are busy digging a hole larger than a football field in Somerset County. Their goal is the Middle Kittanning seam — buried about 120 feet deep. The Canonsburg-based company is on schedule to open its Acosta Deep Mine in May, with a plan for at least 70 miners to remove about three miles of metallurgical-quality coal — used in steelmaking — over the next decade. Starting a new mine in an era when many are shutting down feels good, said Robert Bottegal, Corsa’s general manager for engineering. “There will be some more jobs in the area, which is great,” Bottegal said. Officials say the number of bituminous coal mines operating in the United States plummeted from 1,010 in 2001 to 431 in 2015, driven by several trends: Natural gas-fired electric plants replaced coal-fired operations, and weak demand for steel caused a five-year slump in international metallurgical coal prices. Brian Bowling, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
EXCHANGE-STRANGULATION LAW
ALTOONA — A new state law targeting domestic violence took effect in late December, and already a half-dozen people in Blair County are facing the charge that aims specifically at one type of abuse — strangulation. While strangulation is a term most people connect with murder, nonfatal strangulation is a serious problem that people who deal with domestic abuse victims see all too often. If left unchecked, it can have deadly consequences. “A lot of time people say they were choked,” said Cynthia Estep, counselor and prevention advocate with Family Services Inc. in Altoona. “They don’t realize strangulation is a huge tool for abusers.” Estep said strangulation is dangerous, but many times is dismissed by victims because it didn’t involve hitting. Greg Bock, The (Altoona) Mirror.
EXCHANGE-COMIC INSPIRATION
LEECHBURG — Bernard Whitacre was reading the Valley News Dispatch one day when he came across a cartoon called “Pluggers.” Whitacre thought that the premise of the nationally syndicated comic strip was a good one. The single-panel comic, which relies on reader suggestions for its content, details the humorous escapades of everyday people — pluggers. Those people sounded a lot like him. “I can relate or know somebody that I think would relate,” said Whitacre, 74, of Gilpin. “I just like the fact that it’s witty. It just sticks out to me.” It took a few years for Whitacre to take his admiration to the next level. Madasyn Czebiniak, Valley News Dispatch.
EXCHANGE-GIRL’S MODELING CAREER
SHENANDOAH — Mia Michalik enjoys time with her family and friends at school like most girls her age, but she also has a modeling career that she loves. Nine years old may seem young, but Mia is a bit of a veteran when it comes to being in front of a camera. At the ripe old age of 3, she appeared in episodes of “The Good Night Show” on the Sprout channel in 2011. She also finished as one of 50 runners-up from more than 200,000 children entered in 2010’s “Regis and Kelly’s Beautiful Baby” search and was featured in the December/January 2011 issue of Parenting magazine. The daughter of Jason and Regina “Gina” Michalik, Shenandoah, Mia attends Trinity Academy in the borough and is in the third-grade class of Kim A. Kringe. John Usalis, The (Hazleton) Standard-Speaker.
EXCHANGE-BROADCASTER’S TEACHING CAREER
PHILADELPHIA — Four weeks into their internships, the Temple University students were getting a pep talk from their professor. It was the kind of straightforward advice that Lew Klein has been giving students for a long, long time. The Philadelphia broadcasting legend started his collegiate tutelage before he helped to launch the careers of NBC anchor Matt Lauer and Dick Clark; before he served as executive producer of American Bandstand, the show that turned Philadelphia teenagers dancing into a national trendsetting phenomenon; before his role in a local news station’s format and popular children’s program. All but one of these roles are in the rear-view mirror now for Klein, 89. Temple is not. For 65 years — as long as he’s been married — Klein has been an adjunct professor at Temple’s School of Media and Communication, which later this month will bear his name. Susan Snyder, The Philadelphia Inquirer
IN BRIEF:
PEDESTRIANS STRUCK — Authorities say a taxi jumped a curb and hit two pedestrians in downtown Pittsburgh on St. Patrick’s Day, killing one and injuring another.
CHILD FATALLY SHOT-NEWARK — Family members say a 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy was shot and killed during a family party in Newark. But it’s not clear if the fatal shot was fired in the home or came from outside the house.
GIRL SHOT — Authorities in western Pennsylvania say a man has turned himself in to face a firearms charge in the shooting death of a 3-year-old girl in Pittsburgh.
KILLED WITH SWORD — Authorities say a central Pennsylvania man accused of having killed his pregnant wife with a sword told investigators that he believed he was saving humanity from a global conspiracy involving what he called “hybrid humans.”
FATAL HOUSE FIRE — Authorities have released the names of two people who died in a central Pennsylvania house fire last week in which officials said “extreme hoarding” was a factor.
SPORTS:
BKC–NCAA-VILLANOVA-WISCONSIN
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Unimpressive in its opener, top-seeded Villanova had better be on its game when it faces Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The eighth-seeded Badgers have more tourney wins in the past four years than any other school and they’ve upset two No. 1 seeds in the past three tournaments. By Tom Withers. Game time 2:40 p.m. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos.
BKW–NCAA-PENN-TEXAS A&M
LOS ANGELES — Penn and Texas A&M square off in the NCAA Tournament. UPCOMING: 600 words, photos. 6 p.m. PT.
BKW–NCAA-OREGON-TEMPLE
DURHAM, N.C. — Temple and Oregon snap lengthy NCAA Tournament droughts when the seventh-seeded Owls and 10th-seeded Ducks meet in the first round of the Bridgeport Regional. By Joedy McCreary. UPCOMING: 600 words, photos from 6:30 p.m. start.
SOC–PHILADELPHIA-ORLANDO
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando City Lions return home for the first time in nearly two weeks to take on the Philadelphia Union. By Portland Desk. UPCOMING: 150 words. Kickoff is 7:30 EDT.
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