[naviga:h3]Pennsylvania may lose House seats[/naviga:h3]

HARRISBURG — A new report says Pennsylvania could lose one, and possibly two congressional seats after the 2020 census.

Virginia-based Election Data Services, a political consulting firm, named Pennsylvania as one of nine states that stand to lose at least one seat in the House.

Pennsylvania also lost a seat after the 2010 census.

Congressional seats are apportioned based on population. A Philadelphia Inquirer analysis of census data shows that Pennsylvania lost nearly 7,700 residents from 2015 to 2016, its first population loss in 31 years.

Republicans hold 13 of Pennsylvania’s 18 House seats.

[naviga:h3]Homicide, kidnap suspect arrested[/naviga:h3]

READING — An alert citizen helped police capture a homicide suspect who allegedly kidnapped his 8-month-old daughter and fled with her across the state.

Reading police arrested Antonio Velazquez-Rupert, 36, on Saturday afternoon after a citizen spotted his SUV and called 911. Police say the citizen noticed the vehicle matched the description in an Amber Alert issued by state police.

Police say Velazquez-Rupert abducted the baby from Sharpsville, in northwestern Pennsylvania near the Ohio border.

Velazquez-Rupert was charged Saturday night in the death of a woman in Mercer County and the abduction of the girl.

[naviga:h3]Jail elevator will be examined[/naviga:h3]

WILKES-BARRE — A group of inspectors, engineers, attorneys and videographers is scheduled to examine a jail elevator where a corrections officer and an inmate smashed through a door during a scuffle and plunged down an open shaft to their deaths.

Investigators have said correctional officer Kristopher Moules was trying to handcuff Timothy Gilliam Jr. during a July altercation at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Wilkes-Barre when the inmate pulled the guard backward into the closed elevator door, which gave way.

The elevator remains out of service.

[naviga:h3]Accused ex-mayor wants artifacts back[/naviga:h3]

HARRISBURG — A former Harrisburg mayor charged with stealing historic artifacts from the city is demanding the return of some of the items seized by prosecutors, saying they have nothing to do with the case.

Attorneys for former Mayor Stephen Reed argue that the state attorney general’s office had no reason to take some of the nearly 1,800 items that agents seized in 2015 from several locations, including Reed’s home and a storage facility.

Reed was charged in July 2015 with nearly 500 counts. A judge in May threw out hundreds of charges, saying they were too old to prosecute. Reed now faces 112 charges. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 23.