In brief: Woman charged with recruiting jihadists

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March 9, 2010

Anonymous The Tribune-Democrat Tue Mar 09, 2010, 10:59 PM EST

PHILADELPHIA — A suburban Philadelphia woman “desperate to do something” to help suffering Muslims has been charged with using the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters and help terrorists overseas, even agreeing to move to Europe to try to kill someone, prosecutors said Tuesday.

A federal indictment charges that Colleen R. LaRose, 46, who called herself JihadJane online, agreed to kill a Swedish citizen on orders from the unnamed terrorists and traveled to Europe to carry out the killing. It doesn’t say whether the Swede was killed.

Town above mine fire claims massive fraud

ALLENTOWN – Centralians have long believed the government’s demolition of their town in the 1980s was part of a plot to swipe the rights to anthracite coal worth hundreds of millions of dollars – and not, as state and federal officials said, the solution to an out-of-control underground mine fire that began in 1962 and menaced the town with toxic gases.

Now, in a last-ditch effort to save their homes from the wrecking ball, the few holdouts who remain in the Pennsylvania town are taking their claims of a conspiracy to court.

Lawyer: DeWeese won’t testify in Veon case

HARRISBURG – The man who was the top-ranking Demo-crat in the state House of Representatives until a little more than a year ago will not testify in the Harrisburg public-corruption trial, his attorney said.

Attorney Bill Costopoulos declined to say whether Rep. Bill DeWeese of Greene County had invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination – only that DeWeese will not be a witness in the theft, conspiracy and conflict-of-interest trial of three former legislative aides and Mike Veon, the No. 2 ranking leader until late 2006.

DeWeese was charged in December as a result of the same investigation.

Judicial conduct board admits ignoring gripes

PHILADELPHIA – A state conduct board has conceded that it never investigated any of the complaints made against a former judge accused of taking kickbacks to place juveniles in for-profit detention centers.

The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board said it received four complaints about former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan, but failed to conduct interviews or review any documents related to the complaints.

Conahan and another former Luzerne County judge are charged in federal court with racketeering.

Fire that killed driver very rare, expert says

HARRISBURG – A gas station equipment expert said a central Pennsylvania man’s death is only the second documented case of static electricity sparking a fatal gas station fire.

Authorities said 19-year-old L. David Byers died early Friday when static electricity ignited a fire that killed him as he filled up his car in Camp Hill.

Robert Renkes, executive vice president of the Petroleum Equipment Institute, said the only other fatality from a similar incident was in Oklahoma more than a decade ago.

Bank apologizes for mistaken home repo

PITTSBURGH – Bank of America has apologized to an Allison Park woman after one of its contractors allegedly trashed her house and took her pet parrot while wrongly repossessing her home.

Forty-six-year-old Angela Iannelli sued the bank Monday in Allegheny County. She eventually got her parrot back.

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In brief: Woman charged with recruiting jihadists

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