NEW CASTLE – A Lawrence Coupnty man is in custody on charges he punched a police officer after becoming upset about slick road conditions that apparently contributed to a crash involving his daughter.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 36-year-old Adam Ginocchi, of New Castle, who was arrested Monday evening.

Police say Ginocchi and his wife drove to the scene of the accident. After a firefighter told Ginocchi his daughter was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries he allegedly yelled that the firefighter should have been out plowing the roads instead.

Shenango Township police say they interceded and tried to subdue Ginocchi with a stun gun, but that he punched an officer in the face and neck.

A woman who answered Ginocchi’s home phone says he was still in custody, but otherwise declined comment this morning.



Police cite cross-dressing man chained in car

UNIONTOWN – Police have cited a man for disorderly conduct for allegedly chaining himself inside his car while parked outside a western Pennsylvania drug store and dressed as a woman.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Uniontown police were called to a Walgreen’s store about 11:20 p.m. Sunday when someone reported seeing the 28-year-old man chained inside the car.

When police arrived, the man told them he had restrained himself because he had come to buy his wife a drink at the store, but found it difficult to work up the courage to enter the store dressed as a woman. A police report says the suspect chained himself “to build himself up to going into the store dressed like a woman.”

The man his charged with disorderly conduct “for causing a public alarm.”



Three gunmen sought in fatal Pittsburgh porch shooting

PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh police are searching for three men wearing black hooded sweat shirts who fired at least 10 shots, killing a man standing on the rear porch of his second-floor apartment.

Police say 21-year-old Chaz Anger died from wounds to his head and back. Police say the shooting happened Monday about 7:10 p.m.

Police say shots were fired into the same six-unit apartment building in October, but that nobody was hurt during that incident.

Witnesses told police they saw men fire the shots from the back yard of the apartment building before they ran away.

Police have not named any suspects in the shooting.



Police: Celebratory gunfire blamed for foot injury

ALLENTOWN – Police believe someone trying to ring in the new year with gunfire is responsible for wounding a Pennsylvania woman in the foot.

Allentown police say the 77-year-old woman was struck in the left foot by a bullet four minutes after midnight Sunday.

Police say the bullet’s trajectory indicates it had been fired in the air, likely by a New Year’s reveler.

Authorities did not release the woman’s name. She was treated at a hospital and released.

Investigators also blamed midnight gunfire for the bullet that came through the roof of a building at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. No injuries were reported in that incident.

 

DA: Baby dies two weeks after being shaken

SCRANTON – Authorities say a northeastern Pennsylvania baby is dead two weeks after being shaken by his mother’s boyfriend.

Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola says 2-month-old Jayden Cohen died Monday.

Jarbola says he expects homicide charges to be filed later this week against 20-year-old Matthew Evans. Evans has been in custody charged with aggravated assault and child endangerment since the infant was hospitalized December 20.

According to a criminal complaint Jayden Cohen had no brain activity when he arrived at a hospital. Investigators say his mother had left the boy in Evans’ care at the apartment they shared in Dunmore.

Evans is being held on $100,000 bail. Online court records do not list an attorney for him.

 

Philly schools send layoff notices to 1,400

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia School District has sent layoff notices to an additional 1,400 employees as it struggles to contain costs while facing a bleak budget picture.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the district issued the notices last week to blue-collar workers who clean buildings and attend to buses. The layoffs don’t take effect until Dec. 31, 2012.

The district laid off nearly 850 similar workers in September. More than 1,000 teachers were laid off over the summer.

A district spokesman says the layoffs were necessary because the union rejected a contract extension that included $16 million in concessions. Union leaders say the proposal was rejected after the district paid nearly $1 million to buy out the contract of former Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.



Snow piles up in parts of northwestern Pa.

ERIE – A foot or more of snow is expected in some parts of northwestern Pennsylvania by the time a winter storm finishes moving through the region.

Ten inches had fallen in one Erie County community by Monday evening and the National Weather Service says a Lake Effect Snow Warning will be in effect until noon today.

Blustery winds will accompany the snow, pushing wind chill values below zero.

The National Weather Service reports at least 12 inches of snow on the ground in several communities by Monday night, including 13 inches in Edinboro and 17 in Canadohta Lake in Crawford County.



Prison inmate dies after charges withdrawn

ALLENTOWN – A Pennsylvania man is dead after being found unresponsive in a jail cell hours after the charges against him had been withdrawn.

Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim says in a story in The Morning Call of Allentown 25-year-old Andrew Czonstka was pronounced dead early Monday after being transported to a hospital. An autopsy is planned for today.

Grim says Czonstka was found responsive in his cell at Lehigh County Prison around 4 a.m.

Czonstka had been arrested on retail theft and disorderly conduct charges on Friday and held on $10,000 bail. But online court records say the charges were withdrawn on Sunday.

It was not immediately clear why Czonstka was still in custody. A phone message left with the warden’s office early today was not immediately returned.

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