HASTINGS — Four people were taken to the hospital after an SUV collided with a school bus on Friday in Susquehanna Township, authorities said.

The bus was carrying five students from the Northern Cambria School District when it was struck from behind at 4:09 p.m. in the 400 block of Carpinello Road near Hastings, according to a 911 supervisor and a school district official.  

Four people were taken to Miners Medical Center in Hastings as a precaution.

State police in Ebensburg are investigating.

West End Christmas parade planned

A Christmas parade, sponsored by the West End Improvement Group, will take place on Monday beginning at 5 p.m.

Bands, floats and other participants will march from Greater Johnstown Middle School along Garfield Street to the skate park on Fairfield Avenue. Santa Claus will attend and be available for photos. A tree-lighting ceremony will be held after the parade.

The Bishop McCort and Greater Johnstown high school bands are expected to participate, along with the Johnstown Fire Department, West End Ambulance, Tomahawks Mascot and others.

Parade organizers will be collecting canned goods for people left homeless by the recent fire in the Moxham section of the city.

City man sentenced for selling crack, heroin

A Johnstown man was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison, plus probation, for selling crack cocaine and heroin in 2011.

Prosecutors said Tyrone Greenwood, 30, distributed less than 28 grams, or an ounce, in September 2011, and less than 100 grams of heroin on Oct. 20, 2011.

His 90-month sentence also will include three additional years’ probation after his release.

Drug suspects’ hearing continued

EBENSBURG – A preliminary hearing for a Northern Cambria couple accused of using children to deliver drugs has been continued until Jan. 16 by District Judge Fred Creany.

Lawrence Wholaver, 46, and his wife, Stacey, 30, are charged with multiple drug-related offenses and with endangering the welfare of children.

The Cambria County Drug Task Force alleged that the couple used Stacey Wholaver’s three young children to deliver prescription pills three times in August and September.

$1 million Powerball ticket sold in Altoona

A $1 million winning ticket in the record-breaking

$587.5 million Powerball game was sold Wednesday night in Altoona. Other million-dollar winners were sold in Butler and Montgomery counties.

The identities of the winners won’t be confirmed until they claim their tickets.

The Altoona ticket came from Swaraj Service Station along Seventh Avenue. The retailer will receive a $5,000 bonus for the winning ticket sale.

All three tickets sold in Pennsylvania matched the five white ball numbers – 5-16-22-23-29 – while missing the red Powerball number, 6.

Former PSU prof sentenced for fraud

HARRISBURG – A former Penn State professor has been sentenced to nearly 31⁄2 years in federal prison for more than

$3 million in research grant fraud.

Prosecutors said 55-year-old Craig Grimes of Raleigh, N.C., defrauded the National Institutes of Health between 2006 and 2011 while a PSU professor of material sciences and engineering.

Authorities said his State College company got a $1.2 million grant, but funds weren’t sent to Hershey Medical Center as promised and clinical studies weren’t done. Authorities said Grimes also made false statements for a $1.9 million solar energy grant.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Terz said Grimes “is not a mad scientist. He’s a dishonest scientist.”

Campus beset by crows

STATE COLLEGE – It’s time again for a showdown between the Nittany Lions and the ... crows?

Penn State officials say a massive murder of crows has taken up residence in the campus’ trees, harassing students and staff and leaving droppings all over sidewalks.

One complaint from a university employee reads like dispatch from a war correspondent, describing the birds coming in from the east and students dodging “strafing runs.”

The Centre Daily Times of State College reported that the university will use flare guns and loud noises to push the crows back starting next week – after gathering additional intelligence on where the crows are roosting for the night.

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