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STATE

ALIQUIPPA — A Western Pennsylvania hospital still cannot accept new patients while it scrambles to provide financial information needed to renew its state license.

The state Health Department last week banned the 96-bed Commonwealth Medical Center in Aliquippa from accepting new patients and gave the hospital until Monday to provide the financial information. That deadline was extended until noon Tuesday, but state officials say some documents and other information are still missing.

The hospital remains open, but with few patients, and it still can't admit new ones. Hospital officials aren't commenting on the ban.

The state says the for-profit hospital's financial problems are putting patients' health and safety at risk.

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police are looking for an 89-year-old dementia patient they say walked out of a hospital wearing only a hospital gown and slippers.Police say Rose Lee Diggs walked out of UPMC Montefiore hospital on Tuesday and hasn't been seen since. They say she also suffers from heart problems.

UNIONTOWN — Bells aren't the only thing ringing near one Salvation Army kettle in southwestern Pennsylvania. A $2,000 diamond engagement ring is proving to be a welcome, if mysterious donation.Capt. Christopher Blessing said someone dropped the ring into a kettle outside a supermarket on Nov. 22.Blessing heads the Salvation Army's Uniontown Worship and Service Center.Blessing doesn't think the donation was a mistake, because Salvation Army officials have notified the supermarket and nobody has claimed the ring. It will soon be sold if nobody does.Blessing said the donation is welcome because his group's collections are $30,000 behind last year while its caseload increased 20 percent. The center served 26,000 people last year.

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