STATE
DUQUESNE — Two neighboring school districts are making plans to welcome nearly 200 Duquesne high school students who will be attending their schools this fall.
A state control board voted earlier this year to close Duquesne High School due to declining enrollment, financial problems and low test scores.
About two-thirds of the Duquesne students will attend West Mifflin High School, which welcomed the former Duquesne students during an information session Wednesday.
The East Allegheny School District plans to use a buddy system to help the former Duquesne students adjust. The district is also hosting a spaghetti dinner to welcome the new students.
SOMERSET — A stretch of Route 219 in Somerset County was renamed Thursday in honor of the victims of Flight 93."Everyone who travels this route will never forget the bravery and unselfishness of those on the flight," PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler said during the unveiling of Flight 93 Memorial Highway.Flight 93 was en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco on Sept. 11, 2001, when it crashed as passengers apparently tried to rush the cockpit of the hijacked airliner. All 33 passengers, seven crew members and the hijackers died.Construction of a $58 million permanent memorial and national park is scheduled to begin by 2009.
ELIZABETH — A house where a 13-year-old girl shot her father to death last month is unfit for human habitation and would probably take more money than it's worth to fix up, a newspaper reported.The girl charged with killing Matthew Booth Sr., 34, of Elizabeth, on July 31 remained in a mental health facility Friday, and will eventually will be tried in juvenile court on a criminal homicide charge. The girl's defense attorney contends she shot her father in the face with a shotgun to end years of physical and sexual abuse.District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said he hopes to help find funding to tear down the house.
