WEST MIFFLIN — General Electric officials say a contractor has been killed in an accident at one of its plants near Pittsburgh.

GE spokesman Sean Gannon says the dead worker is not a GE employee, but works for an unspecified contractor who was performing maintenance at GE Energy's Pittsburgh Servicing Center in West Mifflin, about five miles east of the city.

GE isn't saying how the worker was killed. Emergency dispatchers say the accident was reported about 8:45 a.m. Thursday.

Gannon issued a statement saying GE is still investigating the accident and "working with the appropriate authorities as required to assess the situation."

The statement goes on to say that GE's primary concern is ensuring the safety and security of our employees, as well as others on-site."

The Allegheny County medical examiner didn't immediately release the worker's name.

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Boys 11, 12, robbed Pittsburgh woman after church

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police say they've charged two boys — 11 and 12 — with robbing an elderly woman who gave them a ride home as she was leaving a church service.

But police spokeswoman Diane Richard says a third boy, the 15-year-old brother of the 12-year-old, is suspected along with the others in a string of assaults, burglaries and robberies that began when the brothers moved to the neighborhood in December.

The boys' names aren't being released because they're being charged as juveniles.

The 84-year-old woman tells police she was leaving late Saturday afternoon when the two youngest boys asked her for a ride.

The woman tells police they got in the back seat of her car and grabbed her purse during the trip, prompting her to crash into a fire hydrant as she failed to stop them.

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39 Pocono Twp. children injured in NJ school bus accident

PARSIPPANY — Police say 39 children from a Pennsylvania sports camp have received minor injuries in an accident involving four school buses on Interstate 80 in New Jersey.

Trooper Christopher Kay says it appears one bus rear-ended another bus, and the other two vehicles sustained minor damage in the accident Thursday in Parsippany.

Kay says the buses were taking 9- and 10-year-olds from Lindenmere Sports Camp in Tannersville, Pa., to the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson, N.J. He says there were more than 100 passengers on the four buses.

The trooper says the children complained of pain or simple cuts and bruises. Two adults on the buses also were taken to the hospital to be checked out.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

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Dumper's lawyer chides AG for harsh sentence plea

WAYNESBURG — The attorney for a southwestern Pennsylvania man whose company dumped millions of gallons of drilling and other wastewater into streams and mine shafts says a state prosecutor disrespected the judge for objecting to a probation sentence.

Christopher Blackwell, the attorney for 50-year-old Robert Allan Shipman, says the probation sentence was proper under state guidelines. Blackwell also says Deputy Attorney General Amy Carnicella's motion to have a Greene County judge impose a prison sentence instead of seven years' probation ignores the other penalties Shipman endured.

Shipman must perform 1,750 hours of community service, pay $257,000 in restitution plus a fine of $100,000. The attorney says Shipman agreed to not only get rid of Allan's Waste Water Service, which did the illegal dumping, he also got divested a legitimate water treatment business that operated legally.

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AP: Deal reached on tax breaks for Pa. refinery

HARRISBURG — Republican lawmakers have an agreement on tax breaks that Gov. Tom Corbett sought in hopes of luring a petrochemical plant to Pennsylvania.

Republican House and Senate aides said Thursday that the legislation won't include a $66 million-a-year cap Corbett proposed.

But aides say the legislation would keep Corbett's proposal for a tax credit of a nickel per gallon of ethane used. They say it would add requirements that a qualifying refinery owner must invest $1 billion in a project with at least 2,500 construction jobs.

Corbett's tax-credit plan is linked to the tentative commitment by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell to build a multibillion-dollar refinery in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Shell wants the tax credit to help ensure there's a plentiful ethane supply from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.

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State House opens debate on GOP's $27.7B budget plan

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's House of Representatives is debating a Republican-crafted spending plan for the looming fiscal year.

At hand Thursday was a $27.7 billion plan negotiated between Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and leaders of the GOP majorities in the House and Senate.

The proposal would boost spending by about 1.5 percent, largely to pay for debt, pensions, health care and a current-year shortfall, without raising taxes.

Meanwhile, it would provide tax breaks to businesses while cutting aid for social services and eliminating a cash benefit for poor adults who are unable to work.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman William Adolph of Delaware County hailed the proposal as sustainable and fair, while his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Joe Markosek of Allegheny County, says it'll drive up local taxes and force a painful loss of services.