A.M.BRIEFING: Wednesday

State College bar cited for writing bad checks

797 Lounge, the downtown State College bar formerly known as the Sports Cafe and Grille, has been cited by the state police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement for writing bad checks Feb. 27 for payment of alcohol.

The charge will be brought before an administrative law judge who could impose penalties ranging from $50 to $5,000, and can impose a license suspension or revocation, or mandate training.

Woman killed in crash died of head trauma

A Port Matilda woman killed in a car crash Monday on North Atherton Street died of head trauma, Coroner Scott Sayers found after an autopsy Tuesday.

Catherine A. Richards, 61, died after a deer thrown by another car hit her SUV’s windshield, causing her to drive off the road into a tree.

Sayers pronounced her dead at the scene of the 4:45 p.m. crash. He said Tuesday that the manner of her death was accidental. She was wearing a seat belt, he noted in a press release.

The crash happened on the 3600 block of North Atherton Street across from the Matternville school.

The driver of the other vehicle wasn’t hurt.

Police arrest man in aggravated assault case

State police have made an arrest in an April 20 aggravated assault in Philipsburg, during which police say a man was beaten with a metal post from a trampoline, then robbed of his wallet and $372.

Michael Gene Beish, 31, was arrested by state police in Philipsburg, arraigned by District Judge Daniel Hoffman, and sent to Centre County jail on $15,000 cash bail.

Police say Beish struck a 23- year-old Philipsburg man, Joshua P. Miller, with a metal support post from a trampoline, then forced his way into Miller’s home and hit him again.

Miller told police he lost consciousness and when he woke up, he found his wallet and cash were stolen. He had a large laceration and swelling on his right cheek and arm. He was taken to Clearfield Hospital and later released.

Beish is due in court May 13.

Man shoots himself accidentally

A 32-year-old man from Bigler accidentally shot himself with a handgun about 3 p.m. Monday, state police in Clearfield reported.

The man, who was not identified, was trying to clean the gun, and “while doing so, the victim discharged the weapon into his thigh,” police wrote in a press release.

The incident happened along Bigler Road in Bradford Township, Clearfield County, police said. The man was taken to Altoona Hospital where he underwent surgery for his injury, police said.

SCASD board OKs proposed budget

The State College Area school board voted 7-2 to approve a proposed 2009-10 final budget at a meeting that ran until early Tuesday morning.

The district has until the end of June to submit its final budget to the state.

With a 3.3 percent real estate tax increase, the average homeowner would see a $79 increase in his or her bill.

The budget marks $108.56 million for operating expenses and $1.03 million for a Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System fund. Local school districts are expecting to pay a much greater percentage into the fund in the 2012-13 school year. The budget also sets aside $3 million from the $8 million general fund for the PSERS increase.

Staff levels at the high school will remain flat, as will the amount spent on technology. Board members cut a halftime Chinese language position from the budget and added one principal to serve either Corl Street or Ferguson Township elementary schools. The two schools have shared a principal in recent years.