Farmers’ Almanac Predicts Woeful Winter Weather

The 2014 edition of the Farmers’ Almanac that hit newsstands Monday offers homespun remedies, tasty recipes and a wallop of a wintry forecast that’s too bone-chilling to fathom in a week with highs in the 80s.

“We don’t use four-letter words but when it comes to this winter’s weather the word is c-o-l-d,” said managing editor Sandi Duncan.  “We’re predicting two-thirds of the country will have below-average temperatures for the winter season, and in some areas the temperatures will be biting and piercing.”

If all that’s not enough incentive to head to the grocery store right now to stock up, then choose between these poisons: The Pittsburgh region is right on the predicted dividing line of a winter that’s “bitterly cold and snow filled” (north through New York and virtually all of New England) and one that’s “cold, wet and white” (through West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey).

“You guys are right on the borderline,” Ms. Duncan said. “It looks like it’s going to be a wet winter, and more white than wet in Pittsburgh.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/weather/farmers-almanac-predicts-woeful-winter-weather-700911/#ixzz2dBkDCfd4

Police: Child Found In Wilkes-Barre House With Heroin

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WILKES-BARRE, PA — City police said they seized heroin packets, pill tablets, marijuana and contraband inside a South Welles Street house where a 10-year-old child resided with her mother.

Six people were arrested when police served a search warrant at 135 S. Welles St. on Friday.

Police said Nicole Genella, 41, was the legal tenant of the resident.  Her child was “within arm’s reach of several amounts of narcotics,” police said.

Genella, Danielle Levy, 35, same address, Ronnie Jones, 55, of Lincoln Plaza, Al-Quadir Hubbard, 24, of Elm Street, Diemah Murray-Muse, 28, of South Sherman Street, all of Wilkes-Barre, and James R. Love, 54, address listed as homeless, were charged with drug-related offenses.  They were jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $5,000 bail each.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/783315/Police:-Child-found-in-W-B-house-with-heroin

DA Says Mother Suffocated Newborn Baby Found In Starters Pub Toilet

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 26-year-old Allentown woman kept her pregnancy secret from everyone, authorities now believe.

So secret that when Amanda C. Hein began complaining about back pain while sitting in a booth at Starters Pub in Lower Saucon Township, the three men she was with had no idea she was about to give birth, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Monday.

But that night of Aug. 18, Hein delivered a son after leaving the table — laboring in a bathroom stall of the popular sports bar on Route 378 while she ignored her friends’ text messages as they worried why she was gone for so long.

Then she took that “alive and viable” boy of 33 to 36 weeks’ gestation and killed him, putting him in a plastic bag and leaving him in the tank of the toilet, Morganelli said in announcing homicide charges for a death he was unable to explain.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-starters-pub-baby-found-in-toilet-homicide-20130826,0,1487535.story#ixzz2dBbqGJEw

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COPS: Tamaqua Adults Use Kids To Steal From Upper Hanover Wal-Mart

Location of Upper Hanover Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

UPPER HANOVER TOWNSHIP, PA — State police arrested two Tamaqua adults for allegedly taking $583.23 in merchandise from the Wal-Mart on the 600 block of Gravel Pike on Aug. 15 at 5:42 p.m.

Store security saw Samantha Lynn Wagenhurst, 30, of Tamaqua, and Carlos Martinez, 29, of Tamaqua, allegedly placed numerous electronic items and DVDs into a shopping cart.  The pair allegedly instructed one of the children to push the shopping car past all points of sale and continue out of the store.

The 13-year-old child walked past all points of sale and was stopped by store security.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/article/20130826/NEWS01/130829750/cops-tamaqua-adults-use-kids-to-steal-from-upper-frederick-wal-mart

Suspect Sought In Death Of Reading Man

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An arrest warrant has been issued for a suspect in the death of a man whose bullet-riddled body was found in June outside a Reading storage unit.

Ruderick Quitcon-Vazquez, 25, formerly of the 600 block of Schuylkill Avenue, is wanted in the death of Yamil Lozado-Ocasio, 36, of the same block, city police said.

The suspect remains at large, said Sgt. John M. Solecki of the criminal investigations division.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=504586

Mix-Up In Payment Costs Reading $715,000

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

City officials acknowledged Monday that a $625,000 payment from the wrong fund 10 years ago for the Sovereign Plaza project now is costing the city $715,000 in money it could otherwise have used for economic development.

Matthew Bembenick, administrative services director, also told City Council that the Reading Redevelopment Authority had a verbal deal, not a written agreement, on who pays back several loans from that project, so there’s little paperwork except for some 10-year-old emails.

“The documentation that exists from 10 or 11 years ago is spotty at best,” said Bembenick, hired last year.

He added that he’s spent countless hours trying to find what paperwork the city has.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=504622