Pennsylvania News brief

A 17-year-old Northeastern Pennsylvania boy and two young men are accused of plotting to kill the teen’s mother.

State police say the Western Wayne High School student and two men from the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Moscow, ages 20 and 24, “engaged in significant negotiations” to kill the Lake Ariel woman.

State police Cpl. William Wagner says the 24-year-old man had a feud with the woman he allegedly planned to kill. Wagner says that man had been dating the woman’s daughter. Police say the daughter hasn’t been charged.

All three are being held at Wayne County Correctional Facility in lieu of $200,000 bail each.

EASTON

Inmate sues police over his injuries

An inmate at a Pennsylvania state prison is suing police over the injuries he got during his burglary arrest.

Tan Van Tran says in court papers that he was mauled by a Wilson Borough police dog on March 22, 2008. The 39-year-old man says he was left with permanent injuries, causing him to drop things inadvertently. He maintains that police used excessive force and that the officers weren’t trained adequately.

Borough Solicitor Louis Minotti says the case had been forwarded to the borough’s insurance company.

Tran pleaded guilty to burglary and is serving 16 months to five years at a state prison in Cambria County.

TANNERSVILLE

Pocono college campus gets stimulus money

A Northeastern Pennsylvania community college is getting $395,000 in federal stimulus money.

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, announced the funding for Northampton Community College on Wednesday.

The college is getting $300,000 for its Electrotechnology Application Center, which helps companies develop environmentally friendly business practices.

Also, it is getting $95,000 for a separate program to help track students’ successes electronically at the college.

PUNXSUTAWNEY

Famous groundhog wants to get out

The world’s most famous groundhog keeps trying to escape from his home in central Pennsylvania, but he hasn’t gotten very far.

The animal who emerges to check for his shadow each year of Feb. 2 — Groundhog Day — is kept most of the year at the Punxsutawney Library, where he stays in a man-made den.

But library workers say the groundhog has gotten out of the structure three times in the past two weeks.

Somehow, the groundhog climbs into the library’s ceiling and travels about 50 feet before dropping into some library offices. So far, Phil hasn’t been hurt and has been returned to his den each time.

PHILADELPHIA

Philly area museum has opposition

The lawyer for a conservation group says her group will continue to fight a planned museum in suburban Philadelphia.

The proposed American Revolution Center is a museum to be built on 78 acres of private land nearly surrounded by Valley Forge National Historical Park. The National Parks Conservation Association had gone to federal court to try to stop the construction, but U.S. District Judge Anita Brody ruled this week that the lawsuit must return to Montgomery County court.