BLOOMSBURG — A Columbia County jury Friday convicted all three defendants of defiant trespass for their refusal to “mask up or leave” while attending a Southern Columbia school board meeting during the COVID pandemic.
Defense lawyer Greg Stapp said he expects to appeal the guilty verdicts against Elaine Barnhart, 72, Gary R. Krum, 71, and Kathrine Ann Detweiler, 46, all of the Catawissa area.
HARRISBURG — After being a staple of the Pennsylvania Farm Show for 11 years, collecting a series of royal titles, the reigning Rabbit Queen is preparing to step aside.
RUPERT - Fire burned a home to the ground early Thursday as firefighters struggled to get water up a steep hill to reach it.
The blaze at 86 Harp Lane, along a winding road off Hollow Road, was reported around 4 a.m.
Catawissa volunteers radioed they could see the glow from their firehouse more than a mile away.
COOPER TWP. — A woman apparently crashed her SUV into an embankment, sending it rolling across the highway, through a guardrail and down a 25-foot drop to the railroad tracks below.
But the woman, whom a relative identified as Aubree Shafer, emerged from the wreckage of her Kia Sportage with what looked like only minor injuries.
The accident happened around 1:20 p.m. Monday.
State Police stationed in Milton said the driver was headed west on River Drive toward Danville.
ARISTES — The ex-boyfriend of the woman shot to death in Geisinger Medical Center’s parking lot appears to have shot himself in the head while speeding down Route 42, the county coroner says.
David Morgan, 48, of Mount Carmel, then crashed his vehicle, which burst into flame, said Columbia County Coroner Jeremy Reese.
He was flung from the vehicle and died of the single gunshot wound and injuries from the collision, Reese said.
The autopsy was done Wednesday by Dr. Crystal Magno, a forensic pathologist with Forensic Pathology Associates in Allentown.
BERWICK — A boy playing with a lighter started a quick-moving fire that burned down his family’s home on Wednesday, his father said.
Terry Bogart, 48, of 1307 Rear Ferris Ave. said he was asleep in his mobile home when one of his 10-year-old twin boys ran in to tell him a curtain in the home was on fire around 10:20 a.m.
DANVILLE — Someone shot and killed a Geisinger employee walking to her car in the Geisinger employee parking lot early Friday evening, said Montour County Coroner Scott Lynn.
MAINVILLE — A farmer found the motor of his home furnace ablaze after checking on it Tuesday morning — a day after working to fix the aging heating system.
The blaze quickly spread through air ducts of the 130-year-old farmhouse at 98 Church Road in Main Township, sending Jerry and Shirley Bodman outside into the cold just after 4 a.m.
BLOOMSBURG — Autoneum’s unionized workers returned to production lines Wednesday after accepting a new four-year contract.
Their vote ended a seven-day strike spurred by dissatisfaction with previous offers that included health insurance rate hikes and pay raises that workers said would not have kept up with inflation.
ORANGEVILLE — A popular market and hardware store were engulfed in fire this morning.
Hess Market manager Peter Patel said he was alerted to smoke coming from the store’s north side around 10 a.m. by regular customers Marland Earnest and Gary Derrick.
He went to the office area to find an electrical panel sparking, but within seconds the gas station filled with smoke.
He yelled for Earnest and Derrick — daily customers — to get out of the store.
Patel runs the store for relatives Ashok and Naymesh Patel, who bought it in 2012.