| Press Enterprise Online

Snowy crash kills one

DIVIDE — A man is dead after his car veered off a narrow snow-covered road Sunday and hit a tree.

The driver, whose name has not been released, was partially thrown from the Subaru Outback as it overturned, rescuers said.

It’s unclear when the accident on Pole Bridge Road, just north of Divide, took place.

Benton Fire Chief Ed Musser said a member of Jackson Township’s road crew didn’t see any sign of the crash around 8 a.m. when he was plowing and cindering the road after Saturday night’s sleet and snow.

Bloomsburg woman killed in I-80 crash

VALLEY TWP. — A Bloomsburg woman died Thursday morning after her pickup truck crossed the median on Interstate 80 and was struck by a tractor trailer, State Police said.

Marlene Butters was driving a 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 west on the highway when, for unknown reasons, her pickup went across the median and into the eastbound lanes, troopers said.

Firefighters fight cold, snow to douse 4-alarm blaze

HUNTINGTON MILLS — Volunteers from Luzerne and Columbia counties rushed through the snow Sunday to a four-alarm fire at a former chicken farm near here, the local fire chief says.

The call to 39 Ftorkowski Road, just north of here, came around 3 p.m. Sunday, said Dustin Thomas, chief of Huntington Valley Volunteer Fire Co.

The first volunteers arrived to find four empty barns ablaze and the nearest sources of water frozen, Thomas said.

Fire breaks out in Espy apartment complex

ESPY — A kitchen fire at a duplex apartment on Lackawanna Avenue here left one dog dead and a cat missing, but the apartment's occupant escaped with only singed hair, he said

Daniel Jeremiah said he was lying on his couch around 4 p.m. Thursday when his apartment began to fill with smoke. He saw flames crawling up the kitchen wall, near to the only exit from his apartment. He ran for the door, having to yank it open after it got stuck. By the time he got it open, the heat from the flames had singed his hair.

Fire destroys widow's home, 2 dogs feared dead

MOORESBURG — An early-morning fire left a 61-year-old woman homeless and mourning two dogs she feared were lost in the blaze.

Anne Dewald, of 5 Stump Road, said she was on her way back to bed after visiting the bathroom shortly after 2 a.m. when she smelled smoke.

Police look for man following Berwick gas station robbery

BERWICK — A man pointed a gun at a clerk and stole more than thousand dollars worth of lottery tickets from a West Front Street gas station here Sunday morning.

He then ran off toward the Park Place Village housing development behind the gas station.

Now police are looking for a man clerk Pratham Patel descibed as a White man around his 20s, last seen wearing a green hoodie, black pants, gray shoes, black gloves and a black mask.

Prof union calls for Hanna to step down — or be fired

HARRISBURG — The union that represents the faculty at Bloomsburg and the other campuses of Commonwealth University has called for school President Bashar Hanna to resign — or for the State System's Board of Governors to fire him.

But Hanna says he's not going anywhere, and plans to focus on improving education at the school.

Republican David McCormick flips pivotal Pennsylvania Senate seat, ousts Bob Casey

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican David McCormick has won Pennsylvania’s pivotal U.S. Senate seat, as the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund beat three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in Tuesday’s election after accusing the incumbent of supporting policies that led to inflation, domestic turmoil and war.

The battleground state contest pads Republicans' majority in the Senate, which they wrested from Democratic control this week.

Trump wins presidency

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.

With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

Bomb threat disrupts Columbia's count

UPDATE 9:20 P.M.: County officials have returned to the vote counting site, and expect to have counting resume by 10 p.m.

ORIGINAL STORY 9:05 P.M.

BLOOMSBURG — A bomb threat emailed to officials at Columbia County's Main Street County Annex has disrupted vote counting on election night, officials say.

But it's not going to stop the count, said Columbia County Chief Clerk Dave Witchey.

"We are counting tonight, until 1 a.m., until 2 a.m., we're going to count until whenever," he said."