ERIE — Swimmers will have to be more choosy this week when visiting Presque Isle State Park because three beaches will be closed through Thursday so crews can replenish sand on them. Beaches 9 and 10 and a third at the Sunset Point area are affected by the work.

The beaches are being closed primarily because there will be a lot of truck traffic in the area to bring the sand to those beaches. All the park's beaches will remain open on weekends while the sand replenishment work continues.

Crews have been replenishing sand at other beaches since July 6. The work should be done by August.

CHESWICK — Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said there is "no definitive word yet" on what caused a fatal explosion at a natural gas and oil well last week.Hanger said the agency hopes to announce its findings within 45 days and is working closely with the Allegheny County fire marshal. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the well's owner, Huntley & Huntley of Monroeville, also are investigating the cause of Friday's explosion that killed two workers in Indiana Township.

ELKINS PARK — Officials in suburban Philadelphia said a kitten is being treated after someone left it in the book drop of a community center.Staffers said the striped male brown tabby was shoved into the book drop at the La Mott Community Center in Cheltenham Township sometime after closing at 9 p.m. Thursday. A maintenance man found the kitten at 7:30 a.m. Friday when he heard mewing.The kitten was taken to the Montgomery County SPCA, where director Carmen Ronio said the six- to seven-week-old animal was being treated for dehydration, diarrhea and an eye infection. Ronio put the kitten's chances of survival at 70 percent.

PHILADELPHIA — A lawyer for the mate piloting the tug that crashed into a duck boat in Philadelphia fears his client could face felony charges for simple negligence.Lawyer Frank DeSimone said he hopes his client can someday speak with investigators despite his silence to date about the July 7 crash. DeSimone said his client feels terrible about the deaths of two Hungarian students aboard the duck boat. But he said prosecutors need only accuse his client of simple negligence to bring involuntary manslaughter charges under federal law. State law typically requires a tougher gross negligence finding.

ALBION — Officials at a state prison in northwestern Pennsylvania prison say they're having a hard time keeping geese out of the facility.Officials at the State Correctional Institution at Albion said an abundance of geese droppings are creating a sanitary problem inside the prison and in the parking lot outside.The inmates have been cleaning up the mess, but it's so big the U.S. Department of Agriculture is being asked to help.