‘Larger-than-life’ local sports figure dies

Central Columbia schools lowered flags today to half-staff in remembrance of former teacher, coach and athletic director Don Engle, who died Thursday morning, said Central Superintendent Harry Mathias. Engle coached the Blue Jay baseball team to a state title in 1991 and compiled an astounding 555 -114 won-loss record during a 29-year run as baseball coach. "It's a tough day," said Mathias, at one time an assistant coach of Engle's.

House fire erupts in Danville

DANVILLE -- Old knob-and-tube wiring is to blame for a Danville fire that destroyed a woman's home and killed her two cats, fire officials say. Christine Fishburn was out running errands Thursday and returned to her 109 Spruce St., home around 12:30 p.m. to find the rear of her home's first floor on fire. She called 911, and firefighters rushed to the house, just off Route 54, behind Weis Markets. The house was engulfed, and firefighters concentrated some of their effort into trying to keep the blaze from spreading to a neighboring home, which was just inches apart.

Police: Shooting claim at Berwick Offray 'unfounded'

BERWICK -- A man called 9-1-1 from a stolen phone early Thursday to report that someone was shooting at a Berwick Offray plant, police say. The whole report was fake, but more than two dozen police officers swept through five Berwick Offray buildings in the area over four hours to make sure of that, said Berwick Police Chief Ken Strish. (Listen to two snippets of the call here.)
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Police swarm car, arrest Christmas Eve robbery suspect

By SUSAN SCHWARTZ and PETER KENDRON Press Enterprise Writers BERWICK -- Police swarmed a car Wednesday after an officer spotted a suspect in a Christmas Eve robbery sitting in the passenger seat. Detective Brandon Shultz said he was driving down Second Street when he saw a man getting out of a brown car that was pulled over to the curb. That caught his attention, he said. When he looked inside the car, he saw Jason Adamo, 36, sitting inside, along with an older man who was driving, he said.

Homeless man was drunk, unruly, and making 'snow angels' in street, cops say

BERWICK -- A homeless man got drunk and stripped off his clothes, making "snow angels" in the middle of the street late last week, police say. Isaiah Kmietowicz, 26, told police he had "an argument with God" after residents in the 600 block of North Vine Street complained he woke them up about 4 a.m. Friday, charges state. One woman told police she saw Kmietowicz outside her house "throwing himself onto the ground," removing his clothes and trying to get into her backyard through a fence.

Dad crashed car, then fled scene with his daughter, 4, cops say

CONYNGHAM TWP. -- A bloodied man fled a vehicle crash with his young daughter in tow, then concocted a story about what happened, charges say. Driver Cody C. Strunk's lies unraveled, and he's now facing charges for allegedly leaving the crash rather than calling police and getting daughter Haley, then 4, to a doctor. Strunk's license was suspended for a previous DUI. His mother tried to take the blame for driving, police say. But police figured out the ruse and charged Strunk, 29, Mount Carmel, with endangering his daughter and lying to authorities.

A second meth investigation underway today

BLOOMSBURG -- Probation officers on a visit to an East Sixth Street house in Bloomsburg spotted ingredients typically used to make meth during a visit Monday afternoon. They called in local and State Police, and by 5:40 p.m., the State Police Clandestine Lab Team had pulled several containers of ingredients from 225 E. Sixth St, including paint thinner, funnels, plastic bottles, and bags with a white substance inside. Police say there was not an active meth lab at that address, but were still pulling items from the house early Monday evening.

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