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A 9-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl are dead, and a woman and another young girl were hospitalized after the head-on crash on Route 48 in White Oak Monday evening. Police said a Honda Pilot and a Geo Prizm collided at about 4:30 p.m. Monday on snow-covered Route 48, near Route 30. The woman was taken to UPMC Presbyterian, and the two children -- ages 12 and 2 -- were taken to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. The 2-year-old was pronounced dead at the hospital late Monday night. The boy was pronounced dead at McKeesport Hospital Monday evening. Other people involved...

<p>The recent disclosure by the nation's second-largest bank, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., that two of its predecessor entities bankrolled Louisiana plantations using slaves as collateral was an important step in filling in the facts about America's holocaust.</p> <p>"The slavery era was a tragic time in U.S. history and in our company's history," the bank said in a statement. The company apologized to the African-American community, to the descendants of slaves and to the public. It also announced the creation of a $5 million scholarship program for black students from Louisiana to attend college in their home state.</p>

A committee appointed to review the problems experienced by Mercer County voters during November's election has found what members call "remarkable negligence" by the county's elections bureau and commissioners. In a 22-page report released this week, the committee made sweeping suggestions for correcting what happened on Election Day. Among the problems that day were incorrect programming on some electronic machines, machines breaking down entirely and the unavailability of paper ballots in those instances. According to the committee's study, out of nearly 52,000 voters who went to the polls, some 4,000 votes cast for president were not recorded. In one precinct...

A 10-year-old boy was critically injured in Perry Hilltop yesterday by two large dogs he provoked into attacking him, witnesses told police. The incident occurred at 1:20 p.m. in the 2100 block of Perrysville Avenue as two teenage boys were walking the dogs -- one a pit bull-chow mix and the other one a Rottweiler, both more than 100 pounds. Witnesses told police the victim began teasing and provoking the dogs -- slapping and yelling at them -- and didn't listen to the juveniles' entreaties to stop.

WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader (news - web sites) asked the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) on Thursday to place him on the general election ballot in Pennsylvania, a battleground state expected to be critical in the outcome of the Nov. 2 presidential election. In a sign the high court planned to move swiftly, Justice David H. Souter immediately requested that Pennsylvania officials file a response to Nader's emergency request by 2:30 p.m. Friday. Nader's late-evening filing asks the Supreme Court to review Pennsylvania's decision to remove the independent candidate because of legal problems with his nomination papers that...

Why is sKerry having a news conference - anyone know?

<p>Carter: No Fair Vote Possible in Fla. Monday, September 27, 2004 WASHINGTON — Former President Jimmy Carter (search) says that despite changes designed to eliminate voting problems in Florida — where the disputed 2000 presidential election was decided by only a few hundred votes — conditions for a fair election in that state still don't exist.</p>