TimesLeader.com

11:28 AM

McCain continues town hall meeting

Dave Konopki of The Times Leader is blogging during the town hall meeting with Sen. John McCain. Click on the above headline to read the blog.

11:20 AM

State police official charged with witness intimidation, assault

HAZLE TWP. - A state police corporal was charged earlier today after an investigation by the state police Internal Affairs Unit determined he assaulted a man while investigating a robbery in February.

11:46 AM

Elderly driver charged in fatal accident

HAZLE TWP. - An 82-year old woman was charged earlier today in connection to a fatal vehicle crash that claimed the life of a Tunkhannock school official in April.

10:35 AM

McCain takes the stage

Dave Konopki of The Times Leader is blogging during the town hall meeting with John McCain. Click on the above headline to read the blog and check back later for updates.

11:20 AM

McCain town hall meeting concludes

WILKES-BARRE - The town hall meeting with Senator John McCain got underway at the F.M. Kirby Center in downtown Wilkes-Barre around 9:45 a.m.

11:47 AM

Hackett addresses crowd

Dave Konopki of The Times Leader is blogging during the town hall meeting with Sen. John McCain. Click on the headline to read the blog. Be sure to check back later for updates

8:14 AM

$1.3M million award to W-B police officer hurt in crash overturned

WILKES-BARRE – The state Superior Court has overturned a $1.3 million award to a city police officer injured in a car crash while responding to a call, ruling a Luzerne County judge wrongly precluded the jury from hearing information on the rules governing police response in an emergency.

July 23

Woman faces trial on assault charges

WILKES-BARRE – Shaking and looking down from the witness stand, a 19-year-old woman testified on Tuesday that she sought help from Tracy Lynn Snyder about being raped in 2003.

8:26 AM

Wyoming Area hires official’s brother as school cop

EXETER -- There’s a new lawman in town in the Wyoming Area School District — and he’s a school board member’s brother.

11:48 AM

Municipal percentages calculated

Property owners in Laflin will pay 20 percent less toward county taxes on the whole next year because of the reassessment.

8:00 AM

McCain arrives for W-B visit

WILKES-BARRE – Traffic patterns in the downtown will be slightly altered this morning due to the visit of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

8:27 AM

Woman refuses to testify

WILKES-BARRE – A woman who told city police she was raped in a High Street apartment by two men last month refused to testify during a preliminary hearing in Central Court on Tuesday, forcing a district judge to dismiss the charges.

8:56 AM

Golden Girls’ ‘Sophia’ dies at her home

LOS ANGELES — Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV’s “The Golden Girls,” has died. She was 84.

July 23

Home gutted; hose does damage

WILKES-BARRE – A fire hose set up to battle a blaze that gutted a double-block home on Holland Street got tangled in the rear wheels of an aerial ladder truck early Tuesday morning, a city official said.

July 23

Burglary report leads to 4 arrests

HAZLE TWP. – A response to a report of a burglary in progress led to the arrest of four people after state police found several drugs inside a Back Street home on Monday.

July 23

Protest can’t use Square

WILKES-BARRE – The Alliance for Retired Americans will protest Republican Sen. John McCain’s visit to the city today, but will not gather on Public Square as planned.

July 23

Sherman Hills eyes security

WILKES-BARRE – The manager of the Sherman Hills housing complex said Tuesday he is at a loss to explain a recent rash of criminal activity, but vowed the complex will continue efforts to ensure the safety of residents.

11:50 AM

Hackett blasts Carney, brochure

DALLAS TWP. – Chris Hackett called a press conference Tuesday to detail what he described as Chris Carney’s “misuse of taxpayer dollars for his campaign.”

July 23

Avoca family among those at landing

PITTSTON TWP. – Sherwood Grabiec brought his family to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport to catch a glimpse of history Tuesday night.

July 23

Bear Creek Charter unveils student handbook

BEAR CREEK TWP. -- Students at Bear Creek Community Charter School will return to classes next month to detailed discipline policies, a stricter attendance policy and new ways to pay for their school lunches.

8:30 AM

As fuel prices climb, traffic fatalities drop considerably

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Rising prices at the gas pump appear to be having at least one positive effect: Traffic deaths around the country are plummeting, just as they did during the Arab oil embargo three decades ago.

8:54 AM

Most state workers not eyed for bonus restitution

HARRISBURG — Hundreds of legislative employees believed to have been illegally paid from state coffers for political campaign work, even an aide who collected a salary for a virtual no-show job, will likely not be asked to return any money.

8:57 AM

Officials: Dolly threatens levees

McALLEN, Texas — Dolly spun into a hurricane Tuesday, heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border and the heavily populated Rio Grande Valley, where officials feared heavy rains could cause massive flooding and levee breaks.

8:29 AM

$25B Fannie, Freddie tab possible

WASHINGTON — A federal rescue of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost taxpayers as much as $25 billion, Congress’ top budget analyst said Tuesday.

8:57 AM

Karadzic hid in plain sight

BELGRADE, Serbia — Radovan Karadzic grew a long, white beard to conceal his identity and even managed to openly practice alternative medicine while in hiding, officials said Tuesday in revealing details of the war crimes fugitive’s capture after a decade on the run.

8:49 AM

Obama pledges to push for peace in the Mideast

AMMAN, Jordan — Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama stepped into the thicket of Mideast politics Tuesday, declaring in Jordan that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are strong enough internally to make the bold concessions necessary for peace.

8:58 AM

Palestinian strike uses construction vehicle

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian attacker turned a construction vehicle into a fearsome weapon in downtown Jerusalem just hours before Barack Obama’s visit Tuesday, ramming a bus, overturning a car and injuring five people before he was shot dead.

8:54 AM

International News Briefs

A former driver for Osama bin Laden knew the target of the fourth hijacked plane on Sept. 11, a prosecutor said Tuesday as he sought to undercut defense arguments that the Guantanamo prisoner was a low-level employee of the terrorist leader.

9:02 AM

TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, July 23, the 205th day of 2008. There are 161 days left in the year.