Feds: Shop owner, partners laundered $10M

BLOOMSBURG -- Town shop owner Paul Chomiak and three others sold drugs and laundered more than $10 million in proceeds, federal investigators allege. Chomiak and others sold drugs misbranded as novelties "not for human consumption," a 35-page federal indictment alleges. The defendants knew the drugs were being used to achieve "euphoric, psychoactive effects and stimulant effects" similar to marijuana and other illegal drugs, the indictment says.

Windsor Foods to shut down

BLOOMSBURG -- A frozen-food plant that employs 160 people will shut down early next year, a company spokeswoman says. The employees at Windsor Foods' Bloomsburg plant on West 11th Street were told Friday that the Houston-based corporation is "streamlining its Italian food manufacturing footprint" and plans to shutter the local plant in late February or early March, said company spokeswoman Lynn Hall. They are working with employees to find other jobs, either locally or at Windsor's other eight facilities, Hall said.

Fire burns house

MIFFLINVILLE -- A fire broke out in an East Third Street home while the homeowner was eating at McDonald's, neighbors said. The fire broke out around 9:30 a.m. and damaged the first floor of Terry Miller's house in the 200 block of East Third Street, they said. Miller told neighbors that he had shut everything down before leaving to have breakfast. But something started on fire. Smoke was coming from a vent when Sgt. Marc Fedder of the South Centre Township police arrived, Fedder said.

Fire burns through garage roof

BERWICK -- A malfunctioning wood stove caused a fire that burned a massive hole through a garage roof off Lasalle Street on Thursday afternoon, officials said. James Daly just moved into 417 Lasalle St., said Fire Chief Bill Coolbaugh. He had started up the stove in the garage behind his new home earlier in the day, but had been traveling back and forth between the house and garage, Coolbaugh said. When he came out around 4:20 p.m., Daly saw flames in the roof around the stovepipe. The pipe was glowing cherry red, the fire chief said.

Bloom shop owner taken into custody during FBI raid

BLOOMSBURG -- Paul C. Chomiak, the owner two downtown shops, was taken into custody on drug charges during a morning raid Thursday at his East Fifth Street home by FBI agents and local drug task force members, authorities said. Chomiak, 47, was one of several people expected to be named as defendants both here and out of state as part of a broad indictment alleging illegal sales of incense products containing synthetic marijuana, as well as bath salts.

Molester wants out of prison

BLOOMSBURG -- Dale Hutchings, the former school crossing guard sentenced to 460 years in prison for molesting children, wants out of the state penitentiary, or at least a new trial. He says his court-appointed lawyer didn't do enough to help him. He will be back in Columbia County court on Oct. 30, four years after he pleaded guilty to 36 of 1,389 crimes against children. Hutchings, now 66, had used his job near the schools, plus volunteer positions as a sports coach and Berwick High band booster, to cultivate victims.

UPDATE: Missing woman found

BERWICK -- Police officers found a missing 71-year-old woman who'd been showing sings of confusion or possible dementia and wandered off from an East Front Street home late Friday night, family members say. Judy Patterson was found by borough officers who were searching along the embankment along Canal Road late Sunday morning, family said. Patterson has been staying with her daughter, Neta Hartig, at 132 East Front St., while the family gets Patterson medical attention to find out what's been causing her recent confusion, Hartig said.

Confused woman missing after wandering away from home

BERWICK -- A 71-year-old woman who'd been showing sings of confusion or possible dementia wandered off from an East Front Street home late Friday night and had not been seen since, family members say. Judy Patterson has been staying with her daughter, Neta Hartig, at 132 East Front St., while the family gets Patterson medical attention to find out what's been causing her recent confusion, Hartig said. Hartig awoke around 9 a.m. Saturday to find her mother missing, police said.

Manhunt ends in capture (W/ PHOTOS)

BERWICK -- A man carried out two carjackings and one attempted carjacking over the course of 18 hours in Berwick, police say. They captured Noah Frank Bomboy, 31, in Beach Haven after launching a massive manhunt following the third crime that shut down Route 11 north of the borough. Bomboy's alleged crime spree began Thursday night, when he got into a car in the parking lot of the CVS Pharmacy on Market Street and waited for two women to get in. He carjacked them, forcing them to drive to ATMs to withdraw money, police said. He fled after one of the women escaped.

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