Authorities search for New Castle girl

Authorities searchfor New Castle girl
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Police are searching for a 13-year-old city girl missing from her Neal Street home. Police believe Amanda Sluder left home Friday to be with her mother, who may be living in Texas. The mother, Stephanie Archly, 27, faces charges of interference with custody of children and concealment of the whereabouts of a child in the March 6 disappearance of her 8-month-old son, Brandon Sluder. Archly was scheduled to give Brandon back to his father that day when she and the boy disappeared from the Super 8 Motel in Shenango Township. The father, Don Sluder, has primary custody of Brandon and Amanda. District Justice David Rishel issued a warrant for Archly's arrest shortly after she disappeared. City police say that Amanda's school friends told them the 13-year-old has been contacted by her mother by telephone and e-mail from Texas. Archly does not currently face charges in Amanda's disappearance.
New UPMC office
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- UPMC Horizon has opened an office to provide certain diagnostic services in the area. The office, which will offer routine X-ray and laboratory work, is at 565 W. Neshannock Road and will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Many UPMC patients live in the New Wilmington area and this service will be more convenient for them, said Deborah Gurtner, director of imaging services at UPMC Horizon.
Higher education aid
HARRISBURG -- May 1 is the deadline to apply for the 2001-2002 Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance grants. Students with financial needs may be eligible for a Pennsylvania State Grant of up to $3,200 to attend schools in the Commonwealth and up to $600 while enrolled in schools outside the state. May 1 is the deadline for all students except those seeking aid for the first time who plan to enroll in trade or business schools, hospital schools of nursing, or two-year, nontransferable programs at community or junior colleges. Aug. 1 is the deadline for those students. Forms are available in the offices of area state representatives and state senators.
Humane Society dinner
WHEATLAND, Pa. -- The Humane Society of Mercer County will have a chicken dinner from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at Wheatland American Legion, 432 Council Ave. Tickets will be available at the door at $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. Carry-outs will also be available.
Foster parent's trialin Monroe County
STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Attorneys for a foster parent accused of child molestation asked a court to allow the defendant to dress as a woman and to bar prosecutors from referring to the defendant's gender during the trial. Their demands occasionally turned a pretrial hearing for Kevin Simon, also known as Anna Hart, into a debate about sexual identity. The 41-year-old is charged with having sex with several foster sons. Sherri Stephan, assistant district attorney for Monroe County, said preventing prosecutors from referring to the defendant as a man would force the state to become a "co-conspirator of the defendant." As for dress, she said, the "defendant is male in gender; however, his manner of dress is not something the Commonwealth intends to exercise control over." Officer John Bohrman of the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department testified Wednesday that he was called to the Hart home in August 2000 when a person he believed was a female named Anna Hart was trying to commit suicide by slashing herself with a knife in the kitchen. Bohrman said he disarmed Hart, threw her to the floor and handcuffed her. Hart, he said, was drunk on Southern Comfort and said she wanted to die because the "DA was coming to arrest her for having sex with foster children." The defendant was taken to Pocono Medical Center, Bohrman said.