Regulator cites failures at Geisinger, where 3 preemies died

A major Pennsylvania hospital where three premature infants died in a bacterial outbreak last year routinely failed to sanitize the equipment it used to prepare donor breast milk, according to a state health department report released Monday.

Health department staff ordered Geisinger Medical Center in Danville to correct several deficiencies, determining the hospital’s systemic failure to prevent infection in its most vulnerable patients constituted “immediate jeopardy” — a legal finding that means Geisinger placed its patients at risk of serious injury or death.

Commissioners vote to take action on abandoned property

DANVILLE — Montour County’s commissioners say the owners of a vacant and derelict hotel have had long enough to fix it — the county is stepping in.

The commissioners voted Monday to go to court to try to force action at the abandoned property that once housed Days Inn at the I-80 interchange in Valley Township.

Specifically, they’ll be asking the Montour County court to appoint DRIVE, a local economic development agency, as conservator of the property, since owner Haddon LLC of New Jersey has not maintained the former hotel.

Fire brings droves of firefighters to Leggett & Platt

SALEM TWP. — Employees were evacuated Tuesday from the Leggett & Platt manufacturing plant outside Berwick after an electrician doing maintenance work sparked a fire inside the building around 8 a.m., according to a fire official. 

Salem Township Fire Chief Rich Eyer said operations at the factory — which manufactures foam carpet bedding and employs about 80 people — may halt temporarily due to extensive water damage inside the plant both from a sprinkler system and from hoses used by firefighters to douse the blaze.

Fire burns Berwick house

BERWICK — Flames ripped through a Fairview Avenue home before dawn Monday, but the couple who lived there was safe after leaving for an early breakfast out.

Janice and Tony Dalberto had received a gift certificate for  hotel and dinner in Lancaster as a 45th anniversary gift from their daughter, Carmella Leffler, but hadn’t had a chance to use it during the pre-Christmas rush.

On Monday morning, they got up early for breakfast at The Cracker Barrel in Buckhorn before heading south for the belated anniversary celebration.

Teen crashes car, shears pole

SALEM TWP. — A Wapwallopen teen lost control of his car and crashed into a utility pole, throwing live electrical wires onto another vehicle Friday morning, police say.

The 16-year-old boy was headed east on East Front Street around 8 a.m. when he suddenly swerved across the center line and the opposite lane of traffic before smashing into a utility pole and coming to a stop in the front lawn at 531 E. Front St., said Salem Twp. officer Fred Westover.

The teen told police he “lost complete control” of his Subaru Outback moments before the crash, Westover added.

Cops: Man held ex against her will

MIFFLIN TWP. — A man held his ex-girlfriend against her will inside a car for about two hours — beating and threatening her — after Christmas shopping led to an argument Monday night, arrest papers state.

The woman escaped from Joshua Kirchman, 23, at the Mifflinville Subway, but he fled before police showed up, police say.

Now police are searching for Kirchman, who they believe is living in the Catawissa area, and for Breanne Spudes’ blue 2017 Nissan Rouge, which they say Kirchman stole.

Black powder pistols, rifle found in home man fled

BLOOMSBURG — A man accused of firing shots in a Bloomsburg neighborhood Monday night is still at large, police say.

Michael Phillip Albert, 55, reportedly fled in his car just as police arrived at his 105 Franklin St. trailer around 7 p.m. after neighbors called 9-1-1.

Outside the home, police found glass on the ground in front of the windows and what appeared to be bullet holes in the window coverings.

Inside, police reportedly discovered all the windows in the trailer had been shot out, and there were additional holes in the walls and ceilings. 

Danville woman injured in rollover

A rural Danville woman was injured in a rollover crash Friday morning along Continental Boulevard, about a mile north of I-80. 

It was one of a series of wrecks across the area caused by misty rain and subfreezing temperatures.

Deedra Winey of Derry Township was on her way to an appointment in Danville when her Chevrolet HHR station wagon slid out of control and crashed near Silverbrook Lane about 9:30 a.m.

She was taken by Danville Ambulance to Geisinger Medical Center, where she was treated and released.

In other area wrecks:

Berwick police cruiser wrecks

BERWICK — Police say a mechanical malfunction appears to have caused a police cruiser to crash into two parked cars early Wednesday morning.

No one was hurt in the accident, said Police Chief Kenneth Strish, who turned the investigation over to State Police.

The crash occurred at 12:10 a.m. at the corner of Mulberry Street and Martzville Road here, county dispatch records show.

Ptlm. Victor Guevara was at the wheel of the marked Dodge charger with Sgt. Scott Sienkiewicz as a passenger, Strish said.

No death penalty in Montour motel homicide case

DANVILLE — A man charged with murdering a worker at a Valley Township motel this fall will not face the death penalty, officials say.

The district attorney didn’t feel there was enough evidence of  the “aggravating circumstances” needed to pursue the death penalty against David Downing, 33, in the shooting death of Derrick Potts at Super 8 Motel on Sept. 24, she said.

State law lays out multiple factors that a jury can consider when deciding on the death penalty, from if the victim was a police officer to if the murder took place during the commission of another felony.

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