ERIE — Erie County Health Department officials say they're awaiting confirmation that a Mercyhurst College student has a form of meningitis.

The female student has left school and is being treated at a hospital in her hometown. Officials are not identifying the girl or her hometown due to privacy laws.

Erie County health officials say there are no other suspected cases of meningococcal meningitis at the school.

Symptoms include a fever, neck pain and stiffness. The disease can be fatal and is spread through close contact, like kissing. Other students in close contact with the stick student have been given antibiotics.

A 19-year-old Albion woman, Ann Ryan, died last month from the disease. She was attending the University of Pennsylvania.

LANCASTER — When 10-year-old Kennedy Kulish found out President Bush would give her an award during his Lancaster County visit Wednesday she told her mother — but not right away.Cammyjoy Rhoads said her daughter got off the phone, "then she asked me if she could watch SpongeBob because she was finished with her homework. She didn't mention the award until after."Bush will be presenting the Hambright Elementary School student with a Volunteer Service Award.Kennedy's brother, Kaeden, was born with a hole in his heart and underwent three surgeries before the age of 1. In 2003, Kennedy founded "Kisses for Kaeden," and the service project has raised more than $48,000 for children in need.

LEHMAN — Union officials say teachers in a Luzerne County district will strike over a proposed pay raise that they say fails to keep pace with increases in the amount teachers are asked to pay for health insurance premiums.Pennsylvania State Education Association regional field director John Holland said many teachers in the Lake-Lehman district would receive more than $2,000 less under the proposal, and set an Oct. 15 strike date.School board member Mark Kornoski questioned those figures, saying he did not believe the health insurance premium shares exceeded the proposed raises.

PITTSBURGH — Allegheny County's public transit officials want to know who hung a black baby doll daubed with a racist threat in a hallway at one of the agency's garages Monday.An "item" found hanging near the entrance of the Port Authority of Allegheny County's East Liberty garage was turned over to the agency's police, said the agency's spokesman Bob Grove.A union official and others identified the item as a doll and said it had an epithet directed at an unspecified black woman.