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Smoky conditions explained

A controlled burn at Fort Indiantown Gap sent clouds of smoke wafting through the air as far north as Danville and Bloomsburg Thursday evening, officials say. Reports from Lebanon County said the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs' Forestry Department has begun a series of springtime burns to reduce the risk of wildfire by setting fire to 3,000 to 4,000 acres over several weeks. Thursday's burn covered at least 500 acres, according to officials at Columbia County's 9-1-1 center.

Police: Pa. English teacher bought students beer

RIDLEY PARK, Pa. (AP) -- A suburban Philadelphia high school has suspended an English teacher accused of buying beer for students. Authorities say 33-year-old Katherine Leigh Preusser was arrested March 23 after a car in which she was a passenger was pulled over in Middletown. Police say two 17-year-old Ridley High School students were also in the car, along with several open cans of beer. She's facing charges for allegedly providing alcohol to students.

Famed movie critic Roger Ebert dies at age 70

CHICAGO (AP) -- Roger Ebert, the most famous and popular film reviewer of his time who became the first journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for movie criticism and, on his long-running TV program, wielded the nation's most influential thumb, died Thursday. He was 70. Ebert, who had been a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, died Thursday at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, his office said. Only a day earlier, he announced on his blog that he was undergoing radiation treatment after a recurrence of cancer.

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