What we're working on for June 15
Here's a quick look at the stories that are keeping our reporters busy Friday:
* Fourteen local heroes are being honored for their good deeds, including a corrections officer who thwarted a prisoner armed with a shank. Leon Bogdan has the story.
* Remember the bruin wandering around with a bucket on its head? The bear was sighted and saved! Susan Schwartz is gathering details.
* Two local men are clashing over the business of placing flags on veterans' graves. John-Erik Koslosky has more.
Look for these stories and more in Saturday's edition of the Press Enterprise.
Motorcyclist injured in Old Berwick Road crash
Authorities: Youth football boss stole uniform funds
UNION TWP. -- Children in a local youth football program may be without uniforms and equipment this year after the group's president stole over $15,000 from the club's treasury, police say.
Mary Elizabeth Kramer, 46, of 45 Kolb Lane, Shickshinny, began withdrawing money from the Northwest Area Junior Football Program's accounts last summer and used some of the money to gamble, charges say.
Gallery: Magee mansion through the years
In the 1940s, Harry Magee, local carpet magnate, tore down the house at 700 W. Main St., to build what he later described as a house "built along the lines of semi-ranch house style with Spanish motifs." Construction was completed in 1947. Now, 66 years later, its current owner Bloomsburg University plans to demolish the structure after it flooded in 2006 and 2011.
Van full of children crashes; driver reportedly fell asleep
LIME RIDGE -- A van full of schoolchildren crashed in a front yard along Old Berwick Road here Tuesday morning when its teen driver fell asleep at the wheel.
The accident across from the entrance to the former RR Donnelley publishing plant left the seven kids -- ranging in ages from nine months to 16 years old -- shaken but otherwise not hurt badly.
One of them, Leah Konkolics, 8, cut her hand while her 9-year-old sister Ruth complained of pain to the side of her ribs.
What we're working on for June 11
Here's a look at the news keeping our reporters busy Monday:
* Squatters have taken over a property, strewing garbage and partying at all hours, a neighbor says. See what we have on the story so far and look for Julye Wemple's full story Tuesday.
* A homeless man turns down a chance to get out of prison because he has no place to go, his attorney says. Reporter Susan Schwartz has the story.
Squatters take over property, man alleges
BLOOMSBURG -- A Berwick man says squatters have taken over a neighboring property, strewing garbage and partying at all hours, but repeated calls to authorities have been ignored.
Dan Bogart and his 87-year-old mother live at 1540 Ruhmels Lane, near the Test Track Park boat launch. He says squatters, including Rae Ellen Miller, 42, moved in three months ago and have turned his neighbor Jacqueline Blackburn's property into a pig sty. Blackburn, 52, of Benton, rents a two-story house on the property to her older sister, Kathleen Sowa, 55, and says the squatters are not welcome on her land.
Troubled bruin roams northside
JAMISON CITY -- A small bear that's been roaming out of the woods with a bucket stuck on its head is causing quite a stir.
First spotted Monday morning by staff at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, the bear took off across a field and into the woods before a team of game and wildlife officers arrived to try to capture it.
"This poor bugger has been running around for a week now with a bucket stuck on its head. He's literally flying blind," said Gerald Kapral, a wildlife conservation officer with the state Game Commission.
Police find makings of meth lab after decongestant buys
SHICKSHINNY -- Police tipped off by "alarming amounts" of decongestant purchased by a single household found the makings of a methamphetamine lab inside a man's closet here Monday, charges say.
Stephen Rodney Reider, 32, admitted to cooking the drug in the woods around Shickshinny and burning the refuse in the forest, police say.
Reider also directed officers to the stash of meth ingredients after a woman invited them to search their 14 Baer St. home, an affidavit states.