HARRISBURG — The vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has resigned after admitting that he was twice convicted of drunken driving during his tenure following accidents in state vehicles that he was operating.

In a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell dated Monday and obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, Timothy Carson says he was convicted of driving under the influence in 2003 and 2006.

Carson, who previously worked as a public finance lawyer, said both accidents occurred while he was driving a turnpike commission vehicle. He said he paid for the vehicle repairs out of his own pocket but failed to report the accidents to the commission.

Nobody was hurt in the accidents, he said in the letter, which did not provide any other details.

His letter does not explain why he waited four years to resign, nor did he respond to a reporter's request for an explanation. Carson said he has an alcohol dependency problem and that he has been in treatment since the second conviction.

PITTSBURGH — The nation's first double hand transplant recipient has left a Pittsburgh hospital after medicine cleared up a rash that signaled he might be rejecting his new hands.University of Pittsburgh Medical Center spokeswoman Amy Dugas says 58-year-old Jeff Kepner, of Augusta, Ga., was discharged Monday from UPMC Montefiore hospital.Kepner received the hands at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in May and went home in October. He was hospitalized Feb. 2 when he developed the rash on both hands.Dugas says the rash went away after doctors applied an ointment to suppress his immune system.Kepner, a former pastry chef, lost his hands and feet a decade ago to a bacterial infection.