BETHLEHEM — A Pennsylvania woman is in the cooler after police say she stabbed her boyfriend because he smacked her sunburned bottom.
Bethlehem police say 24-year-old Tiffany Sherry stabbed her boyfriend three times Monday night, including once in the back as he fled.
Investigators say Michael Martinez told officers Sherry was washing dishes when he slapped her rear as a joke because she'd suffered a bad sunburn. He says she turned around with a knife and stabbed him after he backed into the living room.
Sherry was arrested on charges including aggravated and simple assault after Martinez called police from a neighbor's home. Authorities say Martinez was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Sherry is being held on $25,000 bail at Northampton County Prison. Court records don't list an attorney for her.
________________________________
10-to-20 year sentence handed down in inmate death
NORRISTOWN — A Pennsylvania prison inmate will spend an extra 10 to 20 years in prison for fbeating and stomping a fellow inmate to death in 2010.
John Kasianczuk had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the Oct. 2010 death of 49-year-old Roberto Avalle at the State Correctional Institution in Graterford, Montgomery County.
Kasianczuk's lawyer said at Monday's sentencing hearing his client had been sexually abused as a child and Avalle had threatened to do the same thing to him before the August 22 attack. Avalle died about six weeks later of a brain hemorrhage.
Public defender John Kravitz said the remark trigged an episode of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Kasianczuk was serving a robbery sentence at the time of the killing. Avalle had recently arrived to serve a witness intimidation sentence.
________________________________
Pittsburgh-area man killed when he answers door
MCKEESPORT — Police are searching for a suspect who fatally shot a man who answered a knock at his door in a crime-ravaged Pittsburgh suburb.
McKeesport police and Allegheny County homicide detectives say the dead man is 20-year-old Jabar Ford.
Police say he was shot once in the chest when he answered the door about 11 p.m. Monday at his home in McKeesport, about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
That city has been plagued by shootings and other street violence in recent weeks.
Police have not named any suspects or made any arrests.
________________________________
Seized councilman's properties scheduled for sale
ERIE — A northwestern Pennsylvania county councilman facing jail time in a Social Security fraud case is having four properties sold off to pay his tax debt.
The Internal Revenue Service has schedule an auction of Erie County Councilman Ebert Beeman's properties for Aug. 29.
The IRS sued Beeman over a $2.1 million debt in 2010. He was evicted last year and the properties in Waterford Township seized. The Erie Times-News reports the properties were advertised for sale on Sunday.
Beeman was sentenced last month to a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to using a fraudulent Social Security number. He hasn't yet reported to prison.
The Erie County district attorney is seeking to have Beeman removed from his elected post.
________________________________
Oct. hearing set for 2 charged in Okla. porn case
SHAWNEE, Okla. — A former third-grade teacher and an ex-college professor accused of sexually exploiting schoolgirls are due back in Pottawatomie County District Court on Oct. 2.
Former McCloud teacher Kimberly Crain of Shawnee and retired professor Gary Doby of Bloomsburg, Pa., were in court Tuesday. A judge was set to schedule a trial date for both but each waived their right to a speedy trial.
Prosecutors allege the 49-year-old Crain took photos of as many as 14 young girls while they changed clothes in her classroom and at her home, then shared the images with 66-year-old Doby.
Prosecutors also allege the girls were videotaped naked while changing clothes.
Doby's attorney, Karen Byars, says she does not expect either defendant to go to trial before January.
________________________________
It's official: It's been hot in the Northeast
ITHACA, N.Y. — No surprise for Northeast residents sweating out the summer after a winter barely touching their snow shovels: this is the hottest year on record in the region so far.
The Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University reported Tuesday that the average temperature in the 12-state region was 49.9 degrees from January through July. That's the warmest seven-month period since 1895, the year systematic record keeping began.
The second-warmest comparable period was 1921, when the seven-month average was 49.2 degrees.
Areas around the United States this summer have suffered through blistering heat waves, wildfires and droughts — the sorts of extreme weather events that experts have predicted will come with climate change. But Cornell researchers cautioned against reading too much into a small set of data covering a single region.
Hoffa Mystery Still Fascinates After 4 Decades
Raw: 1 Dead in Shooting at Mo. Apartment Complex
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Raw: Obama Arrives in Berlin
3 Charged in Ohio With Enslaving Mom, Daughter
Obama Seeks G-8 Support on Syria
Raw: Volcano Erupts Near Mexico City
Kid Couture: Spending Big Bucks on Babies
Suicide Bombs Target Baghdad Mosque, Killing 29
Military Plans to Put Women in Combat Jobs
Solar Power Chargers in NYC Parks
Civil Rights Groups Sue NYPD Over Muslim Spying
Raw: First Lady, Daughters Enjoy Irish Sights
RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled
Boeing, Airbus Battle for Sales Supremacy
