STATE
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's attorney general is encouraging people to contact her office if they have complaints about big increases in electric bills.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Wednesday her office has already been contacted by hundreds of consumers, and their complaints suggest the issue is variable-rate pricing deals.
She's telling those with complaints to provide documentation on contracts, billing, and marketing practices. Her Bureau of Consumer Protection is trying to figure out if anyone has been overcharged.
The Public Utility Commission voted last week to review policies and rules that pertain to electric generation suppliers that buy and sell electricity. The PUC says it has fielded about 1,500 informal complaints about large bills.
BEAVER — A former Western Pennsylvania borough councilman has been sentenced to eight to 16 years in prison in the killing of a woman in 1979.Gregory Scott Hopkins, 67, was convicted in November of third-degree murder for the death of Catherine Janet Walsh.Walsh was found strangled in her Monaca apartment in September 1979. She was 23. Hopkins is a former councilman in nearby Bridgewater.Hopkins was charged in 2012 after DNA analysis found his previously undetected DNA on her nightgown, a bedsheet and the rope used to bind her hands.
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State says 33 of 35 licensed bars or restaurants are accepting money from the school to close or not sell alcohol on Saturday, an unofficial drinking holiday known as State Patty’s Day. The university last year offered the businesses a flat $5,000 each to not sell liquor. This year, the school offered businesses between $2,500 and $7,500.State Patty’s Day began in 2007 when St. Patrick’s Day fell on spring break. The holiday no longer coincides with the break, so students now celebrate on the first Saturday of the break, which is March 1.
