ERIE -- The state has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a lawsuit by a convicted murderer who alleged she was raped and assaulted by state prison staff.

In a 1996 lawsuit, Lisa Michelle Lambert, 34, accused administrators at the State Correctional Institution at Cambridge Springs of doing nothing to prevent the assaults. She also alleged that she was videotaped during a strip search.

Lambert alleged that the assaults happened while she was serving her life sentence for the 1991 murder of 16-year-old Lancaster high school sophomore Laurie Show. Lambert stalked and murdered Show because she thought the teen was romantically involved with Lambert's boyfriend.

One guard was convicted of indecently assaulting Lambert in 1996 and sentenced to 1½ to 3 years in prison.

SOMERSET -- A judge will decide by next spring whether to uphold $10,000 in fines levied against two companies following the Quecreek Mine accident, which left nine miners trapped underground for more than three days.In a hearing that ended Friday, PBS Coals and Musser Engineering argued they did all they could to ensure the miners' safety.The miners, working for Black Wolf Coal Co. at PBS Coal's Quecreek Mine, became trapped on July 24, 2002 when they breached the abandoned Saxman mine. They had been relying on outdated maps that showed the mine was 300 feet away.All nine were rescued.In August 2003, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration cited PBS Coals, of Friedens, and Musser Engineering, of Central City, and ordered each to $5,000. Musser Engineering helped prepare the mine maps in support of the PBS Coals' state permit.

HARRISBURG -- Dozens of party-goers were jailed after a man drowned during an unauthorized, weekend-long bash on an island in the Susquehanna River.The organizers — who advertised the party through the Internet — did not have a permit to hold the gathering on city-owned McCormick Island, authorities said.Christian Yanez, 27, of Harrisburg, left a city tavern with a friend after learning of the bash and drowned trying to swim to the island, according to Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed.

ERIE -- A woman whose body was found in her apartment — along with her dehydrated, malnourished toddler — died of a seizure, a coroner said.Tammy Lynn Graves, 36, of Erie had a history of grand mal seizures, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said. She probably died three or four days before her body was found on June 24, he said.Police investigating reports of a foul odor discovered her decomposed body along with her 2-year-old son, Thomas.