Molester sent back to prison; no new deal for Hutchings

BLOOMSBURG -- A tearful Dale Hutchings told a judge Wednesday he was sorry for all the damage he caused to the children he sexually abused in Berwick over the years. The former school crossing guard and community volunteer was in court in hopes of winning a shorter sentence, arguing that his defense attorney was ineffective. But he left without shaving any time off his 460-year maximum prison term. "It isn't even close," Columbia County President Judge Thomas A. James ruled after hearing the appeal.

Fire breaks out in potato-chip plant

BERWICK -- Wise Foods was forced to evacuate workers Tuesday after fire broke out in the wall of one of its potato-chip fryers, officials said. Employees shut off heat feeding the fryer and dumped the oil. They were pulling apart panels to get inside the wall where the fire erupted, borough Chief Bill Coolbaugh said. Firefighters were standing by with a special, waterless foam used to snuff oil fires.

Baby-abuse charges dropped

DANVILLE -- All charges were dropped against a father accused of suspected child abuse by violently shaking his infant son three years ago. State prosecutors found there was not enough proof to proceed against 30-year-old Amire Alumine Isbell, a Washington D.C. native who resided in Liberty Township with his wife and two children at the time. Isbell is now living in Marlboro, Md., where his wife is employed as a psychiatrist with a metropolitan health care system.

Agents dismantle meth lab

Five people were rounded up and jailed Thursday when state agents raided an alleged meth lab at 130 Karns Road near Stillwater and discovered two containers bubbling with lithium and other toxic chemicals. Taken into custody were Fred Houseweart, 28, Galen Houseweart, 22, Bernadine Houseweart, 53, Kimberly Grose, 33, and David Getz, 50, of Millville. The state attorney general listed all three Housewearts and Grose as residents of the Karns Road home. In addition to meth manufacturing materials, agents seized one assault rifle, a handgun and $1,136 cash from the home.

Feds: Shop owner, partners laundered $10M

BLOOMSBURG -- Town shop owner Paul Chomiak and three others sold drugs and laundered more than $10 million in proceeds, federal investigators allege. Chomiak and others sold drugs misbranded as novelties "not for human consumption," a 35-page federal indictment alleges. The defendants knew the drugs were being used to achieve "euphoric, psychoactive effects and stimulant effects" similar to marijuana and other illegal drugs, the indictment says.

Windsor Foods to shut down

BLOOMSBURG -- A frozen-food plant that employs 160 people will shut down early next year, a company spokeswoman says. The employees at Windsor Foods' Bloomsburg plant on West 11th Street were told Friday that the Houston-based corporation is "streamlining its Italian food manufacturing footprint" and plans to shutter the local plant in late February or early March, said company spokeswoman Lynn Hall. They are working with employees to find other jobs, either locally or at Windsor's other eight facilities, Hall said.

Fire burns house

MIFFLINVILLE -- A fire broke out in an East Third Street home while the homeowner was eating at McDonald's, neighbors said. The fire broke out around 9:30 a.m. and damaged the first floor of Terry Miller's house in the 200 block of East Third Street, they said. Miller told neighbors that he had shut everything down before leaving to have breakfast. But something started on fire. Smoke was coming from a vent when Sgt. Marc Fedder of the South Centre Township police arrived, Fedder said.

Fire burns through garage roof

BERWICK -- A malfunctioning wood stove caused a fire that burned a massive hole through a garage roof off Lasalle Street on Thursday afternoon, officials said. James Daly just moved into 417 Lasalle St., said Fire Chief Bill Coolbaugh. He had started up the stove in the garage behind his new home earlier in the day, but had been traveling back and forth between the house and garage, Coolbaugh said. When he came out around 4:20 p.m., Daly saw flames in the roof around the stovepipe. The pipe was glowing cherry red, the fire chief said.

Bloom shop owner taken into custody during FBI raid

BLOOMSBURG -- Paul C. Chomiak, the owner two downtown shops, was taken into custody on drug charges during a morning raid Thursday at his East Fifth Street home by FBI agents and local drug task force members, authorities said. Chomiak, 47, was one of several people expected to be named as defendants both here and out of state as part of a broad indictment alleging illegal sales of incense products containing synthetic marijuana, as well as bath salts.

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