Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

HARRISBURG – A House Education Committee public hearing Tuesday on proposed legislation to bring community college programs to rural Pennsylvania identified both support for and concerns with the concept, said Reps. Martin Causer (R-Turtlepoint) and Kathy Rapp (R-Warren). House Bill 1701 seeks to create a rural community college pilot program serving an 11-county region of northwest and northcentral Pennsylvania. “Two things became very clear during today’s hearing,” Causer said. “One, every single person who testified recognized the need for additional education and training opportunities in our region. And two, some in the education establishment see my proposal as one that infringes on their turf and their funding. “That’s unfortunate, because the discussion really should be about our students in rural Pennsylvania and ensuring accessibility to affordable education and training programs,” he added. “This is about providing the students of rural Pennsylvania with the...

A Steuben County, New York, woman arrested Friday in Pennsylvania is accused of assaulting a corrections officer, escaping from a hospital, kidnapping a woman and her baby, and holding the baby at knifepoint. 35-year-old Billie Jo Ribble was wanted for breaking into a home in October and stealing $12,000 worth of property, including more than a dozen guns. She was picked up Friday at a Wal-Mart in Mansfield, PA. While she was awaiting extradition to New York she complained of pain due to her pregnancy, so she was taken to a hospital in Wellsboro, where she allegedly assaulted the corrections officer, jumped from a third-story window, to a second-story rooftop, and then used a catwalk to get to the ground. Sheriff’s deputies say she then broke into a house near the hospital, and took a 19-year-old woman and her six-month-old baby hostage. She demanded that the woman drive her to New York, and held the baby at knifepoint during the trip. Before getting out of the car, Ribble took the...

A former Mansfield University professor who distributed child pornography has been sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison and 10 years’ probation. Daniel McKee McKee accepted a plea deal last year after being charged with distributing child porn. Police searched his Mansfield home and learned that he download the porn to his home computer. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

A Tioga County teenager is dead after driving his car into the opposite lane of traffic early Sunday morning. Police say 18-year-old Tyler Fleming of Mansfield was driving his Ford Ranger on South Main Street in Mansfield when he crossed the road and went into the State Route 15 overpass, rolled over and landed on its passenger side. Fleming was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say he was not wearing a seat belt. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

Coudersport resident Stanley R. Goodwin has received a Letter of Commendation from Pennsylvania State Police for his efforts and community service, particularly involving state police. Goodwin has donated countless hours of his time, as well as materials and heavy equipment in the design and construction of a shooting range behind the Troop F Coudersport station, according to a news release sent by Cpl. Michael Murray. This was at a time in which the private shooting range used during the spring and fall firearms qualifications by members of Potter, Tioga and Cameron County law enforcement was being closed. After a search for a sutibale replacement range was unsuccessful, Goodwin offered to design and build a shooting range. The range is used state police from Coudersport, Mansfield and Emporium and is, or has been, used by every municipal police department in Potter County, as well as member of the state Game Commission, Fish & Boat Commission, DCNR and other law enforcement. It i...

A Wellsboro man is in jail in connection with several thefts in Potter County in December. 42-year-old Michael Rosenbloom was arrested following an on-going investigation by Coudersport and Mansfield state police and New York State Police. Rosenbloom is accused of stealing two guns from a camp on Loucks Mills Road, another gun from Shumway Hill Spur Road in Tioga County, as well as ammunition, a knife and an iPod Nano; a firemen’s radio owned by the Genesee Volunteer Fire Department; and other iPod Nano from Loucks Mills Road. Rosenbloom is in Tioga County Jail on $75,000 bail.