Empty cars derail on Pgh. freight train

PITTSBURGH — State and city officials say 13 cars that derailed on a Pittsburgh freight train were empty and injured nobody.

Guy Costa, the city’s director of operations, says the 13 cars derailed shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday. Costa says the entire train, not just the derailed hopper cars, was empty.

Allegheny Valley Railroad officials confirmed the train is theirs, but declined additional comment. The company’s website shows the railroad operates 77 miles of track in Pittsburgh and its suburbs, and connects with lines run by four other freight railroads.

The cars tipped over in the city’s Hazelwood section.

Group to focus on municipal pensions

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s governor is setting up a task force on the state’s municipal pension plans to recommend how to make them more financially sound.

Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday appointed Auditor General Eugene DePasquale to lead the group, along with former Budget Secretary Mary Soderberg, businesswoman Janet Yeomans and Local Government Academy executive director Susan Hockenberry.

He’s announcing the group a day after a proposal to alter funding and eligibility rules passed the state Senate. That legislation deals with the state’s two large public-sector pension plans, for teachers and state government employees.

Wolf’s task force will make recommendations on the municipal plans, which can be very small and cover township, borough, city or county employees.

Plea must stand for girl’s rotten teeth

EASTON — A judge has ruled that the father who authorities say let his daughter’s teeth rot so badly her life was endangered can’t withdraw his guilty plea.

The judge said Thursday that Kenneth Wanamaker Jr. knew what he was doing when he admitted to reckless endangerment and false swearing.

The 37-year-old said after he entered his plea that he never endangered his 6-year-old’s life and didn’t understand the charges.

Wanamaker’s attorney, Gary Asteak, says his client will challenge the judge’s ruling.

Authorities allege that Wanamaker allowed his daughter’s teeth to become so infected that a doctor said it could have killed her.

Man gets 3 years for neighbor’s death

PITTSBURGH — A man has been sentenced to up to three years in prison for punches that killed a neighbor trying to break up an argument between the defendant and a woman.

Thirty-one-year-old Danny Washington, of Turtle Creek, was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in prison on Thursday, and given credit for 10 months he’s already spent in jail.

Washington was sentenced after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter for punching 58-year-old James Payne in the face on July 25. That’s when police say Payne tried to break up a fight between Washington and his girlfriend.

The punches caused Payne to fall onto an iron railing on his front steps. Payne refused medical treatment, not knowing he had a brain injury, then never woke up after falling asleep later that day. He died two days later.

Man jail for joyride on stolen scooter

SHARPSBURG — A Pittsburgh man has been jailed on charges he stole a mobility scooter from a woman who recently had a knee replacement, then abandoned it after a joyride.

Sharpsburg police say surveillance video publicized by Pittsburgh TV news shows helped identify 19-year-old Robert Gizler. He was arrested Wednesday.

Police say Gizler used a universal remote to enter Carolyn Krebs’ specially equipped van outside her Sharpsburg home and steal the scooter inside about 4:30 a.m. May 8. They believe Gizler drove it for several miles to Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, where it was found.