Clergy abuse victim found dead in homeEBENSBURG — A man who spoke out against clergy abuse after publicly identifying himself as a victim of a predator priest has killed himself, authorities said.Brian Gergely, 46, was found hanged in his home in Ebensburg on Friday, Cambria County Coroner Jeffrey Lees told The Associated Press on Tuesday.Gergely went public in 2003 while suing Monsignor Francis McCaa and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, saying he was abused as a 10-year-old altar boy.“It takes a great deal of courage to step forward, and even more courage to go public and give your identity instead of a pseudonym. Brian overcame that because he felt so strongly about the sexual abuse of children,” Richard Serbin, the Altoona attorney who represented Gergely said Tuesday. “Tragically, the demons he’s been dealing with since he was molested by Monsignor McCaa finally won out.”Gergely and other plaintiffs settled their lawsuit against McCaa, other priests and the diocese in 2005. McCaa died in 2007.

Railroad blasts rock from Pittsburgh hillPITTSBURGH — Norfolk Southern has blasted loose rock from a hillside that was threatening to tumble onto its railroad tracks and a busy city road below.The blast went off a few minutes before its scheduled 6:15 a.m. start time Wednesday.The rock has been a problem since a boulder tumbled down onto West Carson Street and was struck by a car last week.Railroad spokesman Rudy Husband says that incident made it clear that other rock slides were threatening its freight tracks at the foot of Mount Washington.The tracks carry about 50 to 60 trains daily and are a key link between New York and Chicago.

Cell phone/tunnel effort under wayPITTSBURGH — State officials and four major phone carriers have begun working to prevent calls from dropping at several Pittsburgh tunnels.AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon all have new leases or are currently negotiating leases to pay the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to reinstate service by the end of September for the Liberty Tunnel and the Fort Pitt and Squirrel Hill tunnels.Each had similar systems in place. Construction three years ago took them out of service.