Residents robbed

Residents robbed
NEW CASTLE, Pa.-- Police said drugs were the target of two men who robbed residents at a home in the 900 block of Beckford Street.
The victims told police the two men entered their home through a side door around 9:50 p.m. Wednesday and demanded the painkiller OxyContin used by a 65-year-old female resident. One of the men had what appeared to be a handgun, the victims said.
The men were given a prescription bottle of OxyContin and fled, running through an alley toward Maryland Avenue.
They were described as white men -- one about 6 feet tall with a thin build and the other abut 5 feet 8 inches with a stocky build and possibly green eyes. Both wore bandannas to hide their faces and stocking caps on their heads.
Man admits drug sale
PITTSBURGH -- Romondo Oatis, 29, of Pennsylvania Avenue, Farrell, has pleaded guilty to violating federal drug and firearms laws.
Oatis made his plea Thursday before U.S. District Judge William L. Standish.
Michael A. Comber, assistant U.S. attorney, said Comber admitted that he possessed and sold more than two-tenths of an ounce of crack cocaine in Sharon on March 1, 2001. He also admitted that he had a firearm in his possession on June 21, 2001. Oatis is a convicted felon and not allowed to possess a firearm, Comber said.
Oatis faces sentencing Oct. 29 and could face up to 50 years in prison and a fine of $2,250,000.
Pa. road work
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- The oft-delayed repairs to storm water damage to Lamor Road just west of Pa. Route 18 finally began today. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) postponed the work twice since it occurred July 4 -- once because of more stormy weather and once because crews had more pressing repairs elsewhere.
It's a three-day job and the road will be closed between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. today, Monday and Tuesday.
PennDOT also closed Irishtown Road in Pine Township today to repair storm water damage. That job was to be completed by 4 p.m. today and involved replacing a cross pipe beneath the road and repairing an undermined section.
Nursing home sale halted
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The state has stopped Lawrence County's sale of Hill View Manor to Sylvan Heights Realty Partners.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health rescinded its approval citing "potentially improper associations" between employees of Sylvan Heights and the company that manages Hill View nursing home, Americare, Inc.
The department is also investigating questionable fund transfers from the nursing home's private-pay residents' fund.
Pharmacists won't return$4 million in overpayment
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Dozens of independent pharmacists throughout western Pennsylvania won't have to return alleged overpayments from a UPMC health plan, a judge ruled.
UPMC had maintained that about 320 independent pharmacists were overpaid for nearly a year after UPMC Health Plan/Best Health Care switched to a different company to manage one of its prescription benefits programs. The mistake cost nearly $4 million, according to UPMC.
Pharmacists at about 100 pharmacies joined in a suit to prevent UPMC from cutting future reimbursements to make up for the mistake. On Monday, Allegheny County Judge Judith L.A. Friedman said UPMC couldn't do that.
"Once [UPMC] agreed to pay a pharmacist a certain dollar amount for a particular person's particular prescription, there was no later review of price provided by the contract. As soon as the prescription was filled at the price [UPMC] approved, [UPMC] owed the pharmacist that amount," Friedman wrote in memo with the order.
UPMC said Thursday it would appeal and that plan members were not affected by the dispute.
United Way stops funding
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, citing its nondiscrimination policy, said Thursday it will no longer fund an urban school program of the local Boy Scouts chapter in the city and three suburban counties.
The Philadelphia-area United Way group had stopped funding the chapter itself after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts of America could exclude homosexuals.
On Thursday, the United Way said it would also pull funding for the Learning for Life program, which it had continued to support because the program was not subject to the ban on homosexuals. The local group's president, Christine James-Brown, said the board of directors decided there wasn't enough separation between the two groups.
The group gave about $400,000 for the Cradle of Liberty Council to operate Learning for Life in Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Delaware counties and also funded it in Chester County.