McKinley collection

McKinley collection
NILES -- Students at Niles McKinley High School hope to collect $1,000 for victims and survivors.
"We were at a National Honor Society meeting the Friday after the attacks and trying to decide how we could help," said Phil Annarella, 18, a senior member of NHS' character committee.
NHS members initially set their sights on $500, but at the end of the first week, the high schoolers already had contributed $480, so they upped their goal, said Mike Shrodek, an English teacher.
They plan to continue the collection through the week.
Students deposit their dollars and change into a jar and sign their names to a white banner with a red or blue marker during lunch period.
The money and banner will be forwarded through a charity.
Austintown food drive
AUSTINTOWN -- Austintown Community Church is conducting a food drive.
Items are being collected from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day through Sunday in the church atrium, 242 S. Canfield-Niles Road.
Especially needed are ready-to-eat meals, such as soups and canned goods; protein or snack bars; beverages such as bottled juice and Gatorade; soap; and paper products including napkins, paper plates, plasticware, toilet paper and paper towels.
False pretenses
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania State police charged an Erie man with theft Wednesday after accusing him of collecting about $500 for the American Red Cross and spending it on himself and friends at a hotel bar.
Jeffrey Lynn Skapura, 36, remained in Erie County Prison on $3,000 bail Wednesday.
Police said he spent the money at the hotel, buying drinks for friends, and on a computer rental.
"We were contacted by the Red Cross after they tried repeatedly to contact him," said state Trooper Mark Zaleski. "He told us basically he had no intention of turning the money over to the Red Cross."
Zaleski said Skapura contacted the American Red Cross on Friday and offered to organize a fund-raiser for the agency's National Disaster Relief Fund. The Red Cross authorized him and handed him material and information for a collection.
Hearing canceled
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Federal authorities in Pittsburgh canceled a Lawrence County doctor's hearing before a grand jury Wednesday after questioning him about the terrorist attacks.
Basem Hussein, 36, a Neshannock Township radiologist, met with officials from the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office on Tuesday.
A manager at his townhouse complex entered his apartment on the day of the attacks and notified authorities about finding Arabic literature, flight manuals and computer software related to flying commercial aircraft.
Hussein, who was working in New Mexico at the time, was interviewed and cleared by FBI officials there. He said the disruption has cost him lawyers' fees and said he fears his reputation has been damaged.
"I don't think it was a simple misunderstanding," he said. "They came into my apartment because they feared me. They feared me simply because I was Middle Eastern."