Pa. Lt. Gov. Knoll being treated for cancer

Pa. Lt. Gov. Knoll being treated for cancer

HARRISBURG — Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll was diagnosed with cancer in early July and has been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments, a spokesman said Thursday.

Knoll, 77 and a native of the Pittsburgh suburb of McKees Rocks, is Pennsylvania’s first woman lieutenant governor. She took office in January 2003 alongside Gov. Ed Rendell, and their second terms expire in January 2011.

Before she was elected lieutenant governor, Knoll served two four-year terms as state treasurer. She ran for governor in 1994, but didn’t win the Democratic nomination.

Under the state constitution, if Knoll is unable to complete her term, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, would become lieutenant governor.

Man gets 3-20 years in child-sex case

PONTIAC, Mich. — A 33-year-old man who authorities say wore a “World’s Greatest Dad” T-shirt to have sex with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl has been sentenced to three to 20 years in prison.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Michael Warren issued the sentence Thursday for Daniel A. Everett.

Everett pleaded guilty Aug. 7 to child sexual abuse and using the Internet to attempt child sexual abuse.

Everett has been sued for divorce by his wife, Michelle. Her lawyer Robert F. White has said Daniel Everett’s stepdaughter gave him the “World’s Greatest Dad” shirt.

Baby found dead after being left in car

CINCINNATI — A baby found dead in a sweltering minivan marks at least the 29th time a child died this year after being left in a hot car, ahead of last year’s pace for such deaths, child safety advocates said Thursday.

Prosecutors have not decided whether to file charges against Jodie Edwards, a counseling professor from Cincinnati Christian University who police said left her 11-month-old daughter, Jenna, in a car seat while she worked Wednesday. It’s the second straight year the child of a Cincinnati-area educator died in a hot car near the beginning of the school year.

Last August, an assistant middle school principal left her 2-year-old daughter strapped in a car seat in a sport utility vehicle for eight hours as temperatures neared 100 degrees.

Oct. 27 deadline set for Tubbs Jones’ replacement

CLEVELAND — Democrats have until Oct. 27 to find a candidate to replace the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones on the November ballot but held off speculating Thursday who that might be out of respect for the congresswoman’s family.

By law, party leaders must find a replacement, said Jeff Ortega, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s office, which oversees elections in Ohio.

Tubbs Jones, a Democrat who was the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, died Wednesday evening after suffering a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm. She was 58.

The party’s nominee can be selected by one of two leadership committees in the 11th Congressional District, which includes Cleveland and eastern suburbs Euclid, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights.

It was unclear if a special election would be needed to choose someone to serve out the remaining four months of Tubbs Jones’ term.

Australian officials move on plan to euthanize whale

SYDNEY, Australia — Wildlife officials moved ahead today with plans to euthanize an injured and abandoned baby humpback whale that has been trying to suckle boats in the waters off Sydney.

The decision was made Thursday after veterinarians and marine researchers examined the whale, determining that its condition had deteriorated to the point that euthanizing it was the most humane thing to do.

But officials later were unable to find the whale in the dark waters of Pittwater Inlet. Early today, the whale was located, and officials moved ahead with plans to sedate it before administering a fatal dose of drugs later.

The plight of the whale, which Australians have nicknamed “Colin,” has dominated news coverage here since it was first sighted Sunday and began trying to suckle from boats it apparently mistook for its mother.

Russian troops linger, set up mortars

GORI, Georgia — Russian forces lingered deep in Georgia on Thursday, digging trenches and setting up mortars a day before Kremlin officials promised to complete a troop withdrawal from this former Soviet republic.

But a top Russian general said it could be 10 days before the bulk of the troops left, and the mixed signals from Moscow left Georgians guessing about its intentions nearly a week after a cease-fire deal.

Strains in relations between Russia and the West showed no improvement. NATO, Moscow’s Cold War foe, said Russia had halted military cooperation with the alliance, underscoring the growing division in a Europe that had seemed destined for unity after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Prisoner data lost

LONDON — In another embarrassing stumble with computerized data, Britain’s government confirmed Thursday that a contractor lost a memory device containing information on every prison inmate in England and Wales.

British officials have been humiliated by a series of such blunders that has raised questions about its ability to safeguard personal information of citizens even as it works on final details for an ambitious national identification program and an expanded DNA data base.

Associated Press