PITTSBURGH — An issue that cropped up before state Sen. Jane Orie’s corruption trial last year has again become an issue for her retrial set to begin Feb. 27: Should her constituents be allowed in the pool of prospective jurors.

Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning barred people who lived in the Pittsburgh-area Republican’s district from serving on the jury last year. The judge is being asked to do the same this year because prosecutors say Orie sent a letter to some constituents soliciting character witnesses.

The 50-year-old lawmaker and her sister, Janine, are set to be retried on campaign corruption charges and new charges that the senator perjured herself and used forged documents during last year’s trial — including a document that prompted Manning to declare a mistrial in March.

Manning hasn’t scheduled a hearing on the jury question.

Woman hosted party before deadly crashGREENSBURG — A Western Pennsylvania woman has pleaded guilty to serving a half-keg of beer to teens at her son’s graduation party, before three of them were killed in a crash about a mile away.A report says 60-year-old Susan Sanders-Watt of Greensburg pleaded guilty to four counts each of corruption of minors and reckless endangerment and 17 citations of serving alcohol to minors. Sanders-Watt wasn’t charged with involuntary manslaughter, because prosecutors couldn’t prove the beer she served caused the crash on June 26, 2010. That’s because the driver, 19-year-old Michael Simpson, had been drinking at another location before the defendant’s party.Simpson was legally drunk when he and two passengers were killed.