ERIE — GE Transportation in Erie says it has sold 300 locomotive kits to China, where the engines will be assembled with some other parts manufactured there.

The deal comes on the heels of Canadian National Railway's order last month of 35 high-horsepower Evolution series locomotives.

GE Transportation officials haven't revealed the value of either deal. But despite the new business, about 1,500 company layoffs will still take effect by the end of this month, 200 of which will occur at the Grove City engine plant. After the layoffs, the Grove City plant will have 700 workers instead of 900. Diesel engines for locomotives and boats are manufactured there.

GE officials say the company already knew about the Chinese deal when the layoffs were first announced in September. However, the new business should help maintain the remaining jobs at the plant.

WEST LAWN — With a message of low taxes and resisting what he calls an overbearing federal government, state Rep. Sam Rohrer has declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor.Rohrer, 54, is a fiscal conservative who says tax reform and fiscal management will be his central campaign themes.In the Legislature, Rohrer has unsuccessfully championed a plan to replace local property taxes with broader-based levies such as income or sales taxes. He faces competition in the GOP primary from state Attorney General Tom Corbett and U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach.

KITTANNING — Hundreds of rotting deer carcasses in a southwestern Pennsylvania man's yard are causing a stink among the neighbors.Randy Good of Armstrong County has a contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to remove the animal carcasses from the roadways in five counties.Good says he has been picking up 50 to 100 a day, and to cope with demand, he has been dumping a few hundred at a time in the yard of his North Buffalo Township property. He says weekend landfill closures and a broken truck have worsened the backlog.Neighbors a half-mile away say they have resorted to burning candles in their homes to mask the stench.Good says he has gotten a trash container that will help, but it will take a week or two to remove them all.