REGIONAL NEWS DIGEST

LOCAL

One hurt by fireworks

HERMITAGE, Pa. — At least one accident involving fireworks occurred in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys on Saturday.

Mercer County dispatchers reported that emergency workers took one person to the hospital by helicopter from a fireworks accident that occurred on Anne Lane a little before 11 p.m. Saturday.

The accident also caused the house at 4835 Anne Lane to catch on fire, a dispatcher said. No other information was available.

ohio

Museum explores life of Charles Darwin

CLEVELAND — A new exhibit at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland explores how Charles Darwin arrived at his groundbreaking theory of evolution.

Visitors will see a re-creation of Darwin’s study near London and some of the actual beetles, butterflies and other specimens he collected.

The exhibit was designed by New York’s American Museum of National History, with help from museums in Boston, Chicago, Toronto and London. It was shown in those cities over the last four years before moving to Cleveland. The exhibit runs through Sept. 29.

pennsylvania

6 motorcycle fatalities leading up to July Fourth

HARRISBURG — The week leading up to the Independence Day holiday has been deadly for motorcyclists in central Pennsylvania.

There were no less than four fatal crashes in a 24-hour period at the beginning of the three-day July Fourth weekend. Authorities say two fatalities occured in separate crashes in Dauphin County and another two in crashes in Lebanon County between Thursday night and Friday evening.

In all of last year, there were 16 deaths involving motorcyclists in the Harrisburg area.

Earlier in the week in York County, a man and a woman died after the motorcycle they were riding collided with a sport-utility vehicle. The coroner’s office says neither was wearing a helmet.

State police investigated 15 traffic deaths around the commonwealth during last year’s three-day July Fourth weekend.

Specter, Wecht’s lawyers criticize U.S. attorney

PITTSBURGH — Defense lawyers and a U.S. senator are criticizing comments made by Pittsburgh’s U.S. attorney last month as her office dismissed fraud and theft charges against a noted pathologist.

Lawyers for former Allegheny County medical examiner Cyril Wecht are calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to formally rebuke U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, saying she “vindictively ... expressed the view that Dr. Wecht was a criminal and was guilty of the charges made against him.”

“We trust you will agree such statements by a United States prosecutor are completely improper, violate all notions of prosecutorial ethics and decency, and warrant remedial action by the Department of Justice,” former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh wrote in a June 16 letter to Holder.

Prosecutors originally indicted Wecht on 84 counts in January 2006, but the case was whittled down before a trial that ended in a hung jury. The charges were then trimmed again until 14 counts remained, but the government’s case was undermined when a judge threw out two search warrants.

Staff/wire reports