Armed and dangerous man sought by police

BLOOMSBURG — A man considered armed and dangerous is being sought by Town Police as the suspect who fled officers Wednesday afternoon, dropping a loaded handgun as he fled the vicinity of West Third and West streets.

An arrest warrant has been issued for 24-year-old Edwin Russell Coston of York, police said Thursday. They identified him as their suspect after a review of footage from nearby cameras and criminal database logs of people with the surname Coston.

Part of original Geisinger campus to be demolished

DANVILLE — A piece of Geisinger Medical Center’s campus that has been there since the hospital’s founding 104 years ago will soon disappear when the building for its former School of Nursing is demolished.

Work to tear down the deteriorating building, which graduated 3,638 nurses from its two-year program between 1915 and its closing in 1998, will begin some time in May, said Bob Markowski, Geisinger’s vice president of facilities administration.

Police seeking man accused of locking kids in closets

BERWICK — Police are looking for a Berwick man they say repeatedly locked two children in closets as punishment.

The youngsters, ages 9 and 5, also told police they slept in the closets, which had quilts, blankets and pillows on their floors.

One closet had a metal latch with a padlock on it, Children and Youth workers told police. The other was missing the doorknob on the outside, but still had an internal locking mechanism, which meant that someone had to place an object into the lock in order to open it, according to court papers.

Ex-Boy Scout official pleads guilty to theft

BLOOMSBURG — A longtime accounting specialist for the Columbia-Montour Boy Scouts of America pleaded guilty  Wednesday to stealing more than $5,000 from the local council.

Joyce A. Fisher, 62, of 20-A Gravity Hill Road, Catawissa, admitted misusing council credit cards on numerous occasions for personal purchases and paying bills, while also stealing up to $452 in petty cash kept at its Audubon Court office in Scott Township.

Berwick $2.49M lotto winner: Winner was a whim

BERWICK — A whim won a Berwick man $2.49 million dollars, according to a press release from the Pennsylvania Lottery.

Officials from the Pennsylvania Lottery and Sheetz today presented a commemorative check to Luther Coleman Jr., a Columbia County resident who recently purchased a jackpot-winning Pennsylvania Lottery Cash 5 ticket worth $2,488,733 for the March 8 drawing. The jackpot was the highest in the nearly 27-year history of Cash 5, the Pennsylvania Lottery’s longest-running jackpot game.

Man killed while cutting down tree, police say

CLEVELAND TWP. — A 70-year-old man who was cutting trees along side his driveway was killed when one landed on top of him, police say.

Donald Jeffrey of 622 Pine Swamp Road used his chainsaw to cut down a large oak tree located about halfway up the steep driveway. Instead of falling forward across the driveway, the tree tipped backwards down the tree-lined slope — right where Jeffrey had been standing, said Locust Township Police Chief Allen Breach.

Just before noon, Jeffrey’s wife, Kay, came to check on her husband and discovered him trapped under the tree.

Car crashes into two houses, passenger flees

ESPY — A small car careened into two homes along the 2300 block of Old Berwick Road here early Friday, damaging one of them extensively and sending the driver and two passengers to the hospital with various injuries, Scott Township police said.

Nichole Nickel, 24, of Bloomsburg, was driving a Volkswagen Jetta east at about 12:30 a.m. when the  car veered first into a residence at 2334 Old Berwick Road, according to officers. It glanced off some brickwork and then continued into the side of a second residence at 2336 Old Berwick Road, police said.

Ex-Danville superintendent to receive up to a year's pay

DANVILLE — The Danville Area School District will continue to pay resigned Superintendent Jason Bendle’s salary and health care for a full year, unless he finds other employment, according to the agreement the school board signed on to Wednesday night.

In addition, it has agreed to give Bendle a neutral reference, disclosing only his dates of employment, position and the fact he voluntarily resigned from the district, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by the Press Enterprise.

Buy a Cash 5 ticket in Berwick? Check your numbers

BERWICK — The winner of the biggest pot in the 27-year history of Cash 5 bought his or her ticket from the Sheetz convenience store in Berwick.

Someone who purchased a Cash 5 with the numbers 05-06-10-12-15 for Friday's drawing has a ticket now worth just under $2.5 million, according to a press release from the state Lottery Commission.

Before Friday, the Cash 5 jackpot had been growing since Feb. 22.

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