Pleasant Township
sets Cleanup Day
The Pleasant Township Spring Cleanup Day is set for 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 30, at the municipal building on Chari Lane.
Township residents may "bring any articles to discard except household garbage, tires, or hazardous materials such as chemicals, biohazards, paint, thinners and oil," according to a press release from the township supervisors. Car batteries, scrap metal and used motor oil will be accepted. Refrigerators, air conditioners, and dehumidifiers will be accepted, but gases must be removed.
Officials will check residency through drivers licenses and, in the case of seasonal residents, tax bills.
For more information, contact the township office at 723-5240.
Humane Society
receives donations
Donations were made to the Warren County Humane Society in honor of Beth English, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lyle, and Wallace Carter.
Donations were also made in memory of Abby Phillips, Allen Phillips, Barbara Hawley, Barbara Rupert Finley, Brenda Bonace Martin, Donald Chase, Edna Dickson, Eleanor Schrecongost, George Yeagle, Hunter Lewis, James Mangold Sr., Jill Simonsen, Kathy Young, Larry Allen, Lewis Conroy, Lynette Callan, Lynn Quiggle, Marion Gay, Patricia O'Chocki, Ruth Moniak, Sally Sokolski, Troy Johnson and Wilma Saunders.
Republicans to meet
The Warren County Republican Committee will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, at Republican headquarters, Conewango at Third Aves., Warren. This is a change from the usual meeting day.
State jobless rate
drops again
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's unemployment rate continued to drop in March for a third straight month and is now at its lowest level in two years, although a separate survey of employers showed that payrolls dipped slightly, the state Department of Labor and Industry said Thursday.
The unemployment rate in March was 7.8 percent, a drop of 0.2 percent. It was last at 7.8 percent in April 2009. The state unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007 peaked at 8.8 percent in January 2010.
Nationally, the unemployment rate was 8.8 percent in March.
The department said that a separate survey of employers showed nonfarm payrolls in Pennsylvania dropped by 1,700, leaving with Pennsylvania with a total of 5.67 million jobs, or more than 153,000 below the state's high-point in 2008. Still, that was more than 100,000 higher than the state's recession low in February 2009.
Labor economist Mark Price of the Harrisburg-based Keystone Research Center said the drop in payrolls while the unemployment rate is also dropping may be a quirk in the collection of data, and that viewing payroll numbers over a wider period than a month shows them continuing to rise.
He called the report a reasonably good one.
Jury selection set
for Sen. Orie
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pennsylvania state senator's retrial on criminal charges she misused state-paid staff for campaign work is now scheduled to begin in less than two weeks.
Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning on Thursday said jury selection in the case of Republican Sen. Jane Orie and her sister Janine Orie will start April 26 in Pittsburgh.
The new trial is needed because Manning declared a mistrial March 3 during jury deliberations after concluding the defense used forged documents as evidence.
Manning has rejected claims by both defendants that a retrial would constitute impermissible double jeopardy.
Janine Orie is currently suspended from her job as an aide to a third sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
Drilling highlights
firefighter needs
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's fire commissioner says the state's gas drilling boom in the Marcellus Shale is highlighting the state's need for more volunteer firefighters.
Commissioner Edward Mann told members of the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission in Harrisburg on Wednesday that the state now has about 50,000 volunteer firefighters, about one-sixth what it had 30 years ago.
The Daily Review of Towanda reports that Mann asked the commission to recommend ways to help underwrite special training for volunteers.
The newspaper reports one issue is the future of Marcellus training sessions at the state fire academy in Lewiston.
Academy training focuses on basic safety precautions. Mann wants to expand the scope of training to include an initial response to gas well blowouts.