Free Republic

UPDATE: With the Susquehanna River now projected to crest before midnight Thursday at 40.7 feet, Luzerne County officials accelerated their deadline for a mandatory evacuation order. Residents in a wide swath of the county, from Exeter Township to Shickshinny, must leave by 4 p.m., four hours earlier than the initial evacuation order, county officials said. “We want people to heed our order and leave,” Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said at a 9:45 a.m. briefing at the county’s emergency management headquarters. “It’s significant. We want them to leave.” The evacuation order, covering a region devastated by flooding following Tropical Storm Agnes...

Nicholas Sando said he was "out of his mind" when he led police on a high-speed chase through several Wyoming Valley communities. At one point in the pursuit, Exeter Officer Dion Fernandes fired a shot at the stolen Ford Bronco Sando was driving. The bullet shattered a window in the vehicle, but did not hit anyone. "They tried to shoot me and my girlfriend in the head," Sando said after being led away from his arraignment by police. He had been asked why he ran from police. But according to the affidavit of probable cause, numerous attempts were made to...