PITTSBURGH — Vice President Joe Biden's office has confirmed he'll speak at the Allegheny County Democratic Committee's annual dinner Oct. 19 in Pittsburgh.

The dinner will be held in the East Club Lounge at Heinz Field.

The Kennedy Lawrence Dinner is one of the marquee events for the local Democratic committee.

County party Chairman Jim Burn says the dinner gives party members an opportunity to hear leaders from all areas of government speak on issues important to Western Pennsylvania.

Biden was born in Scranton and lived there for about 10 years before his family moved to Delaware, where he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972.

PITTSBURGH — The Allegheny County district attorney says he'll drop charges against at least four University of Pittsburgh students arrested during the G-20 economic summit.Stephen Zappala Jr. says some students were used as pawns by protesters. Hearings for some of those charged were scheduled for this morning.Police also looking at the arrest of a Pittsburgh newspaper reporter. Zappala says reporters shouldn't have been arrested as they worked, but that everyone had to comply with dispersal orders.Zappala says Greenpeace activists who rappelled from a bridge likely will get community service.Many of the 190 summit-related arrests occurred Thursday and Friday night during protests near the university.

PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh-area oral surgeon who was cleared earlier this year of criminal charges that he sexually assaulted or fondled 17 female patients under anesthetic is being sued by four of those women.Two women filed lawsuits last month and two more filed Monday against 44-year-old Dr. Robert Boyda Jr. of Mount Lebanon.Allegheny County Judge Anthony Mariani acquitted Boyda of criminal charges in July after experts raised doubts about whether the anesthesia can cause sexual hallucinations.But Mariani said his verdict might have been different had he heard the allegations in civil court where the burden of proof is lower.

PITTSBURGH — Students were bused home Tuesday from Uniontown High School after a bomb threat was found written inside a girl's bathroom stall.Heather Sefcheck, the acting assistant principal, said four bomb-sniffing police dogs found nothing after the threat was found Tuesday morning.The threat was reported shortly before 9 a.m. Students and faculty were evacuated from school grounds within an hour.Sefcheck says whoever left the threat will be expelled, prosecuted and forced to repay the costs associated with the evacuation.Uniontown is about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.