Federal magistrate rejects Orie appealPITTSBURGH — A federal magistrate in Pittsburgh has rejected former state senator Jane Orie’s appeal of her campaign corruption and forgery convictions.Orie, who represented part of Butler County, appealed in September after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal.The Pittsburgh-area Republican was convicted in 2012 and served 22½ months in prison for using her state-paid Senate staff to run her re-election campaigns. She was also convicted of introducing forged defense documents during her first trial in 2011, resulting in a mistrial.U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Mitchell rejected six other arguments.

Friars to surrender in predator caseHOLLIDAYSBURG — Three Franciscan friars charged with allowing a suspected sexual predator to hold jobs where he molested more than 100 children in Pennsylvania are set to surrender on child endangerment charges.Robert D’Aversa, Anthony Criscitelli and Giles Schinelli have arraignments scheduled for 10 a.m. today.State prosecutors say Schinelli assigned Brother Stephen Baker to Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown where he molested students from 1992 to 2000.D’Aversa and Criscitelli, who also headed Baker’s Franciscan order based near Hollidaysburg, are charged because they allegedly continued to allow Baker to teach or have access to the school and its students.Baker killed himself in January 2013 when Ohio church officials announced he’d molested students there in the 1980s.