Free Republic

Antoinette Hodge, the treasurer of Uniontown who was charged last year by then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro for allegedly stealing $106,000 in taxpayer funds while in office, is now facing more charges. Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower said Hodge “substantially depleted” the funds of the Youghiogheny Western Baptist Association, where she was a chair of the trustee board, with the first incident happening in July 2018 and continuing through the pandemic. The YWBA is an organization that represents some Baptist churches in Fayette, Westmoreland, Greene, and Allegheny counties, as well as a church in Morgantown, W.Va. Bower announced 38...

A road trip on a weekend and making sure you can still get to Mass can sometimes result in a very pleasant surprise and a holy experience.Quite recently Marjorie (my fiancée) and I were returning home over the weekend from a car trip to Ohio. Not wanting to miss Mass, we looked online at Mass times for the areas we would be traveling through on Saturday afternoon. Expecting to be driving near Uniontown, PA about four o’clock, we found several churches that had four o’clock Saturday afternoon Masses listed.But our travel plans were slightly delayed driving over the mountainous region...

An Ohio woman's lawsuit alleging a Downers Grove sperm bank error that led to the birth of her biracial daughter has been thrown out of court. A DuPage County judge Thursday dismissed the lawsuit against Midwest Sperm Bank, saying the woman's wrongful birth claim and breach of warranty were not viable claims under state law. The suit, originally filed last November in Cook County, was refiled in DuPage County in March. Judge Ronald Sutter then gave attorneys for Jennifer Cramblett of Uniontown, Ohio, 14 days to refile the lawsuit as a negligence claim. Thomas Intili, a Dayton, Ohio attorney representing...

"The Uniontown election exceeded the number of people in the town who are old enough to vote. The News also found that the number of registered voters there — 2,587 — was higher than the town’s overall population, which was 1,775, according to the census. Also, absentee voting was high, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the ballots cast. State records show that the average for absentee voting is 3 to 5 percent. Uniontown had 1,140 people of the minimum voting age of 18 or older, according to the census. On Tuesday, 1,431 votes were cast for mayor and almost...

UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- A woman in Fayette County said police used her dog for target practice when she called them for help. Elizabeth D'Auria said she and her sister found their two-year-old pit bull dead after calling 911 for help. snip "They shot him six times with a pistol and once with a shotgun. They took the dog and we asked them if we could have him back to bury him and they won't give him back to us," said D'Aurio.

Impassioned parents demanded jail time for educators and district officials Saturday following the release of test scores that showed fourth- and eighth-graders had the worst math scores in the nation. City students took the National Assessment of Educational Progress test this year, and 69 percent of fourth-graders scored below the basic level in math and 77 percent of eighth-graders scored below basic. The Detroit scores on the progress test were the lowest in its 40-year history. The sample of students included 900 of Detroit's 6,000 fourth-graders and 1,000 of the district's 6,000 eighth-graders. Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of the Detroit Parent...

The Uniontown Area School Board, as well as concerned citizens and parents, had an opportunity Wednesday to learn about Tasers that will be proposed in the school district and share their opinions on the subject. Even before Don Homer, the director of security for the school district, could show the proposed Tasers to be used and explain how they operate, those attending a special meeting voiced opposition. One resident, Mary Hackney, a teacher at Laurel Highlands School District for 35 years, said she had to break up many fights in her years but no incident required a Taser. "This is...

FORT HOOD -- In his quarter century working in military courts, attorney Guy Womack can count on the fingers of one hand the times he has allowed a client to testify. "My knee-jerk reaction is never to do that," said Womack, an ex-Marine Corps lawyer based in Houston. "I've never regretted not doing that." But he may make an exception to his rule for Spc. Charles Graner Jr., the Army reservist accused of leading the much-publicized abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. He says Graner, whose trial begins with opening statements Monday, can explain better than anyone...