PITTSBURGH — The parents of a 2-year-old boy who was fatally mauled after falling into a wild African dogs exhibit last fall filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, claiming officials had ample warning that parents routinely lifted children onto a rail overlooking the exhibit so they could see better.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Jason and Elizabeth Derkosh seeks unspecified damages in the Nov. 4 death of their son, Maddox. The boy fell from a wooden railing after his mother lifted him up to get a better look at the painted dogs.

The bespectacled boy, who had vision issues, became the only visitor in the zoo's 116-year history to die when he unexpectedly lunged out of his mother's grasp atop the wooden railing and into a net meant to catch falling debris and trash, bouncing from it and down into the dogs' enclosure about 10 feet below.

According to the lawsuit, Elizabeth Derkosh tried to climb into the exhibit after her son but was restrained by another zoo visitor.

The boy suffered more than 220 injuries, mostly bites, and bled to death in the attack, the lawsuit said.

HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Corbett has nominated William Harner to be Pennsylvania's next education secretary.The posting of Harner's nomination, announced Thursday, sets the stage for a Senate confirmation hearing and vote.The Republican governor had announced last week that Harner, superintendent of Cumberland Valley School District in Mechanicsburg, is his choice to succeed Ron Tomalis as secretary.Harner is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He holds a doctorate in educational leadership and two master's degrees. He is slated to take over as acting secretary on June 3.

PITTSBURGH — A young black man who claims he was wrongly beaten by three Pittsburgh police officers in January 2010 is to have a new trial on two of his three civil rights claims starting Nov. 4.Miles’ new attorneys, Joel Sansone of Pittsburgh and Robert Giroux, an associate of Detroit-based Geoffrey Fieger, requested a delay because they’ve not had time to review the transcript of the first trial.Jordan Miles was an 18-year-old performing arts student when he was arrested by officers who claimed they thought he was prowling with a gun bulging in his coat pocket. The police say the gun turned out to be a soda bottle — though Miles denies having even that and says he was walking from his mother’s house to his grandmother’s, one street over, while talking on his cell phone.An eight-member federal jury in August found the officers didn’t maliciously prosecute Miles but couldn’t decide whether Miles was wrongly arrested or subjected to excessive force.