Published: June 09, 2009 11:08 pm      

In brief: Secretary sets Flight 93 deadline

WASHINGTON — No further sale agreements on properties needed for the Flight 93 National Memorial had been made as of Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Department of the Interior said.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has set a Friday deadline for deals to be struck before the federal government resumes a push to take the lands through condemnation proceedings.

“Our grateful nation will never forget the heroism of the men and women of Flight 93 who died in the fields of western Pennsylvania, and we have a moral obligation to complete the memorial by Sept. 11, 2011,” he said in a release.

The National Park Service and the landowners have been working to find agreement for several years.

Lilly mayor seeks to dump appeal

EBENSBURG – Lilly Mayor John Gides has asked the state Superior Court to throw out the appeal filed by Cambria County prosecutors, who are seeking to have the court reinstate charges against the mayor.

Judge Gerard Long in October threw out criminal charges in which Gides was accused of forging a police officer’s name when illegally writing three parking tickets. The judge ruled that the charges were “de minimis” – Latin for the legal principle that “the law is not concerned with trifles.”

District Attorney Patrick Kiniry, who filed the appeal, has maintained that the issue is not about parking tickets but about a police officer’s name and badge number allegedly being forged by a public official.

In the meantime, Gides’ civil action continues in county court. Gides is suing the borough for $7,500 that he has paid attorney Thomas Dickey for legal representation.

Dickey originally filed what is known as a mandamus action in civil court seeking to force the borough to pay the legal fees. Judge David Tulowitzki ruled that step was not the proper procedure, and Dickey has refiled the civil action.

Man heads to prison for grabbing money

EBENSBURG – A Johnstown man who stole money from two women while reaching into their car was sentenced Tuesday to 14 months to

five years in state prison.

Joseph A. Schuller, 26, of the 400 block of Coleman Avenue, was ordered to serve 12 months on probation in addition to the prison sentence imposed by Judge Norman Krumenacker in the theft case.

Schuller had pleaded guilty to two counts of theft in the Jan. 3 incident in the city’s Oakhurst section. City police alleged that he stole $380 from one woman’s purse and a $20 bill from the pocket of the other woman’s sweater.

Krumenacker also gave Schuller another one-year consecutive probation on a guilty plea to giving false identification to law enforcement.

He was accused of giving a fake name when the police were called to a domestic disturbance March 1 at a Virginia Avenue residence.

Burglars hit four Somerset businesses

SOMERSET – State police in Somerset are asking for the public’s help in finding burglars who broke into four Somerset Township businesses.

The break-ins happened between 6 p.m. Monday and 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at Backwoods Country Store on North Center Avenue, Somerset Milling Co. on Stoystown Road, Papa John's pizzeria on North Center Avenue and Rhoads Mini Mart on Glades Pike.

About $400 and a GPS unit were stolen from Backwoods, about $115 was taken at Papa John’s and some change was stolen at the mini mart. The burglars opened filing cabinets and ate a few cookies at the milling company, police said.