PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Game Commissioners will keep Thomas Boop as president, despite his criticism of the commission's deer-management program.

Last month, four of the six commissioners voted to remove Boop as president, saying he had questioned their competence and motives. On Monday, the commission said it had dropped the plan to remove him.

"Our disagreements should not cause us to do anything other than our duty to our agency, for which we all care a great deal, and to the people of the commonwealth who expect and deserve that we will perform our duties as commissioners to the best of our abilities," Boop said in a statement at the start of a commission meeting Monday.

Boop believes deer numbers are too low in some areas and too high in others and wants to modify the state's deer policy accordingly.

At an April 17 commission meeting, he called the state's deer policy "fatally flawed" and asked lawmakers to order an audit of deer harvest estimates. He said Monday that he regretted if anyone considered those statements to be anything other than his opinion.

The majority of the board, relying on agency biologists, believes the deer herd should be stabilized or reduced further in some areas.

Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said the commissioners made supporting comments after Boop read his statement Monday. Commissioner Russell E. Schleiden said the board was prepared to move forward.

PITTSBURGH — An ex-funeral director who stored the corpses of 19 babies and the remains of hundreds of fetuses in bags and plastic containers in his garage pleaded guilty Monday to theft and one count of abusing a corpse.Robert B. Winston Jr., 62, of McKeesport, had been charged with 19 counts of abuse of a corpse. Allegheny County prosecutors withdrew all but one of those charges saying that the case essentially involved theft because Winston was paid to have the remains cremated, but didn't.Winston "was supposed to do something and he didn't do it," prosecutor Janet Necessary said.Prosecutors said Winston's divorce and financial problems led him to store the remains in his garage after he accepted payment.Winston's attorney said it was a "fair deal" for his client to accept limited responsibility for one of the corpses."He didn't abuse the corpse," Ecker said.Necessary said several of the parents involved have lawsuits pending.

HARRISBURG — A plan to borrow a half-billion dollars to build research facilities and buy specialized laboratory equipment passed the state House on Monday, largely along party lines.The Jonas Salk Legacy Fund bill would take tobacco-settlement money — about $35 million in the first year — to pay off bonds that would fund the bricks-and-mortar development."We need to be able to compete with other states in attracting and retaining the top talent," said the sponsor, Rep. Chelsa Wagner, D-Allegheny.The legislation is a priority of Gov. Ed Rendell, who first proposed the idea last year, and still must be approved by the Senate before it can go to the governor's desk. It passed the House, 103-98.Wagner said the borrowing would pay for an estimated 2.2 million square feet of research space and create thousands of good paying jobs.Republican opponents objected to diverting funds that are paying for cancer research from the master settlement agreement reached with tobacco manufacturers by state attorneys general.