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The PE Sneak Peek: Dec. 31, 2013

Here's a look at the stories that are keeping our reporters busy this last day of 2013: * A man is jailed after allegedly throwing his girlfriend against a bedroom wall hard enough to make a hole. Read our online report.* He's fighting City Hall: A man goes to court over a citation for putting up a big political sign. Find out who won. * Look back at the year's news and photos in Images, our special edition recapping 2013.

6 teens arrested in police impersonation prank

TEMECULA, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities say they arrested six teens accused of posing as Southern California police officers and ordering people out of their cars by using megaphones and high-powered flashlights to obscure their real identity. The teens ordered the victims to lie face down on the pavement and then drove away. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department says 18-year-old Mason Gonzalez of Temecula has been arrested as well as three girls and two boys. Authorities said they first received reports of the alleged pranks on Dec. 23.

Pa. couple plead no contest in child-starving case

SMETHPORT, Pa. (AP) -- A northwestern Pennsylvania pastor and his wife accused of underfeeding their three adopted children have pleaded no contest to child endangerment charges. The Kane Republican said 43-year-old Mark Hooper and 40-year-old Susan Hooper of Mt. Jewett entered the pleas Monday in McKean County Court. As a result, the Hoopers avoid a trial that was scheduled to begin next week and the child endangerment charges are reduced from felonies to misdemeanors. Sentencing is slated for February.

DA probes Pa. officer-involved shooting death

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Authorities in central Pennsylvania have released the name of a man who was fatally shot by Harrisburg police during a weekend incident. The Dauphin County coroner's office said Monday that 43-year-old William Jackson of West Hanover Township was shot three times by Harrisburg police shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday. The coroner said one bullet struck Jackson's spine, killing him. District Attorney Ed Marsico said three police officers were investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle and ordered Jackson to step out of a red pickup truck.

Woman poisoned children, stabbed ex on Christmas, cops say

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (AP) -- An Arizona woman is accused of trying to poison her four children with prescription narcotics drugs, including a teenage daughter who died. Police say she also lured her former husband to her apartment and stabbed him. Connie Villa, 35, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of one count of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder in the attack on Christmas in Casa Grande, south of Phoenix.

Pa. prisoner dies after guard finds him hanging

UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Authorities in western Pennsylvania say a state prison inmate found hanging from a bedsheet in his cell has died. The Allegheny County coroner's office will conduct an autopsy on 25-year-old Derek Andrew Thomas of Oliver. That's according to a report Sunday in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (http://bit.ly/1cf4994). A corrections officer at the Fayette County Prison in Uniontown found Thomas hanging on Dec. 22. The warden says Thomas had a pulse when he was cut down and taken to the hospital.

Injured eagle recovering, but future uncertain

LEBANON, Pa. (AP) -- A severely injured bald eagle that was found in Lebanon County recently faces an uncertain future as it recovers at a Schuylkill County wildlife center. The eagle, a 5-year-old male, was found by a resident in Cornwall's Spring Hill Acres development on Dec. 11. It had a severely broken right leg and about 100 puncture wounds to its face, legs, and body -- possibly from another eagle that attacked it. State Game Commission wildlife conservation officer Brian Sheetz, who responded to the scene, said the bird was in bad shape when he got to it.

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