Pennsylvania News Briefs

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Cops’ families offered counseling after deaths

Philadelphia police families are being offered psychological help after the on-duty deaths of five officers.
The counseling comes as officers say they are more concerned about their children’s fears than their own.
About a dozen parents and children attended a first-of-its-kind counseling session in Northeast Philadelphia this weekend. More will be held if needed.
The five on-duty deaths since October 2007 came from both gunfire and traffic accidents.

Firefighter injured, owner dies in blast
A cabin exploded in Lancaster County, killing the homeowner and injuring a firefighter battling the intense two-alarm blaze that engulfed the structure.
Shortly after neighbors called 911 at 4:50 p.m. Saturday, firefighters arrived to find “heavy fire throughout” the single-family cabin in Salisbury Township, said Gap Fire Co. Chief Brad Kurtz.

Fundraising focus: 1915 gun barrels
A fundraising campaign is under way to bring a pair of 66-ton gun barrels removed from the USS Pennsylvania battleship to a central Pennsylvania museum.
The 53-foot barrels sat for decades in a field at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., waiting to be melted down, until the Navy approved a deal to send them to the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, Centre County.
Built in 1915, the USS Pennsylvania survived Pearl Harbor and a Japanese torpedo. The gun barrels, once capable of hurling a 1,500 pound armor-piercing shell 20 miles in less than a minute, were removed in 1945 during an overhaul and were not on the ship when it was scuttled in 1948.

Paper’s new publisher comes from Altoona
An executive at the Altoona Mirror has been named publisher of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.
Bernard A. Oravec takes the helm in Williamsport on Jan. 1.
The Pennsylvania State University graduate has been Altoona’s advertising sales director and director of the Central Pennsylvania Newspaper Network in Centre County.

Brew Works closed a few days after fire
A kitchen fire Saturday night left the Bethlehem Brew Works with smoke and water damage that will likely keep it closed for at least a couple days during the busy holiday season.
The fire, at 569 Main St . in the Main Street Commons building, started in the Brew Works kitchen around 5:30 p.m., said Bethlehem Fire Commissioner George Barkanic . No one was injured.

Cops: Argument leads to fatal stabbing
A fight over an admission fee to a party after a punk-rap concert led to the fatal stabbing of a 33-year-old man at a popular South Side restaurant early Saturday, police said.
John Piso of the South Side Slopes was found shortly after midnight, lying on a landing between the second and third floors of Paparazzi Restaurant, 2100 East Carson Street.
Police charged a Brookline man, Brian Schaub, 25, with one count of criminal homicide.