More local news in brief

LOCAL

Youngstown woman shot in the back

YOUNGSTOWN — Police said a 48-year-old Woodbine Avenue woman was shot in the back by gunmen as she rode in a car near her home around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Terry Purdie was in stable condition in St. Elizabeth Medical Center after surgery to remove the bullet, police said.

Witnesses told police that Purdie was in the back seat of a car traveling west on Woodbine when gunfire came from an eastbound passing gray car.

Two other people riding with Purdie weren’t injured, police said.

Witnesses were unable to give a better description of the gunmen’s car. Officers found spent .40-caliber and .45-caliber shell casings in the street.

Mill Creek Deli robbed

YOUNGSTOWN — Police said intruders took $3,000 cash and $10,000 worth of tobacco products from the Mill Creek Deli, 1260 S. Schenley Ave.

The owner told police that he locked the business at 10 p.m. Monday and returned at 7:40 a.m. Tuesday to find a back door open.

Police said the thieves got into the building through an exhaust fan and were able to disarm the alarm system.

They broke into an ATM machine inside the store to get the cash, police said.

Day-care operator charged in billing scheme

FARRELL, Pa. — State prosecutors say a day-care operator and 10 others bilked the state out of more than $700,000 through bogus claims.

Attorney General Tom Corbett says 45-year Kelley Culp, of Hermitage, operated Kelley Culp Daycare and Kelley Culp Daycare Too, both in Farrell.

Corbett says Culp and the others lied to state and Mercer County agencies about how often the centers cared for children, thereby inflating state pay. Corbett says Culp also falsely claimed some children’s parents were employees.

Culp is charged with theft, conspiracy to commit welfare fraud and related offenses.

Numbers for Culp and the daycare centers couldn’t be located. It’s unclear if she has an attorney.

OHIO

Power plant burns crops instead of coal

COLUMBUS — A power plant has agreed to burn tree trimmings, grass, crops and other green material instead of coal to reduce pollution.

Ohio Edison Co., a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based First Energy Corp., will repower a coal-fired plant near Shadyside in eastern Ohio under a federal court agreement announced Tuesday.

The agreement was filed in federal court in Columbus.

The Justice Department says Ohio Edison’s R.E. Burger plant will be the largest coal-fired power plant in the country to repower with biofuels.

Ohio Edison will repower the plant beginning in 2012 with mostly biomass fuels along with no more than 20 percent low sulfur coal.

The plan modifies a 2005 agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that required Ohio Edison to cut pollutants at several of its coal-fired plants.

PENNSYLVANIA

Web sex sting results in arrest for ex-teacher

PITTSBURGH — A former high school chemistry teacher in suburban Pittsburgh has been sentenced to eight months of house arrest and five years’ probation after pleading guilty in an online sex sting.

Nicholas Salvo apologized for his actions Tuesday as he was sentenced. Prosecutors say the 35-year-old Mount Lebanon man sent sexually explicit photos and chat room messages to an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty in May to two counts of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.

Salvo must register as a nonviolent sex offender under Megan’s Law for 10 years.

Salvo taught at Mount Lebanon High School since August 1999. He was briefly head coach of the girls’ tennis team before he was suspended last summer.

Deaths of 2 in garage ruled accidental

MEDIA — A suburban Philadelphia medical examiner has confirmed that a father and daughter found dead in their garage died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Delaware County Medical Examiner Frederic Hellman ruled Tuesday that the deaths of 38-year-old James Craig Martyniak and 3-year-old Jocelyn Janet Martyniak were accidental.

Jennifer Martyniak found the bodies of her husband and daughter in the garage Monday afternoon. Investigators believe that James Martyniak, who had diabetes, suffered some sort of medical emergency, fell and hit his head. Police said the car’s engine had been running the closed garage and lethal levels of carbon monoxide were found.

2 men shot dead

LANCASTER — Police in south-central Pennsylvania say two men have been shot dead half a block apart from each other.

Lancaster Police Chief Keith Sadler told reporters Tuesday afternoon that investigators hadn’t confirmed whether the two slayings were connected. He said he was withholding the men’s names because their families hadn’t been notified.

Sadler says the victim of the first shooting, reported at 5:46 a.m., was targeted by his killer. The 28-year-old man had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The second shooting was reported about 45 minutes later. A 38-year-old man was found lying in the street with at least one gunshot wound. He was also pronounced dead at a hospital.

Staff/wire reports