New Salem center

New Salem center
SALEM -- Groundbreaking for a $9.5 million community center is expected in the next couple of weeks. Salem Community Center Inc., the nonprofit corporation that will run the facility, agreed late last week to hire Stitle Construction of Salem to build the nearly 50,000-square-foot center.
The center will be built on a nearly 10-acre site along North Ellsworth Avenue near 12th Street. Construction may take about 14 months.
No charges
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police in Lawrence County said charges will not be filed against the area woman who lost control of her car and struck five pedestrians Sunday at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Union Township.
Police said Anna Walko, 78, Sharpsville, told them she got a cramp in her leg, which she was using to operate the accelerator. One pedestrian, Donna Jean Lutton, 61, of New Castle, was transported by ambulance to Jameson Hospital and treated for a hip injury.
Items confiscated
NORTH VERSAILLES, Pa. (AP) -- Police confiscated thousands of pieces of counterfeit clothing, sunglasses, handbags, watches and other items from five vendors at a flea market in suburban Pittsburgh. Police neither arrested nor charged the vendors at the Eastland Mall in North Versailles on Sunday. But Pittsburgh police Detective James D. Conn Sr. said authorities might file charges after they look through the seized items.
Police said the counterfeit merchandise raid is the largest in recent history. Investigators took 1,050 items -- labeled with brand names such as Gucci, Guess and Adidas -- from one booth and confiscated half of the merchandise at another. If the items were real, they would be worth $1 million dollars, police said.
Drug charges
SHARON, Pa. -- Police arrested Michael Golden, 42, of South State Line Road, on a warrant charging him with possession and sale of crack cocaine.
Golden turned himself in at the police station at 10 a.m. Saturday on charges of possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, conspiracy and criminal use of a communication facility (telephone) in the commission of a crime. He was accused of selling crack to an undercover agent on June 29.
He was arraigned before District Justice James McMahon and freed on an unsecured bond.
Can't be on ballot
BEDFORD, Pa. (AP) -- A third-party candidate has failed in his bid to gather enough petition signatures for a spot on the May 15 ballot to pick the successor of retired U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster. John Kensinger II, 36, is a pharmacist, married father of two, and a registered Republican who was looking to run under the Reform Party banner. Shuster, a Republican, resigned from Congress in January, and his son, Bill Shuster, a car dealer from Hollidaysburg, is the GOP nominee. Also on the ballot are Democrat Scott Conklin and Alanna Hartzog, a Green Party candidate.
Under state law, Kensinger had to gather 3,689 signatures -- or 2 percent of the largest vote cast in a November election in Shuster's district -- to get on the ballot. Kensinger fell about 1,000 signatures short in his 10-week bid to get on the ballot. He blamed the shortfall on a lack of money, name recognition, volunteers and time.