SHILLINGTON, Pa. About 200 Verizon customers in the Shillington area have had phone service disruptions.

PHILADELPHIA The applause thundered through the cathedral Friday as hundreds of people mourned a Philadelphia police officer killed in the line of duty - and rooted for his favorite team.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. Pennsylvania State Police have charged an escaped convict with homicide in the 2006 slaying of his former boss.

WAYNESBURG, Pa. A farmhand was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl whose body was found buried on a horse farm.

PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers says last week's fire that destroyed a church building was caused by faulty wiring in the basement.

PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers says last week's fire that destroyed a church building was caused by faulty wiring in the basement.

PITTSBURGH The mayors are doing it. So are congressmen. Even the zoos have gotten into it.

PITTSBURGH The Allegheny County Medical Examiner says tests linked a handgun found when a man was shot dead by police to a slug taken from a dead police dog.

PHILADELPHIA Journalists need to do a better job of explaining to readers why they should be concerned about expanding "secretocracy" in government and how it directly affects their lives, a former investigative reporter told a coalition of open government and press groups Friday.

PHILADELPHIA The applause thundered through the cathedral Friday as hundreds of people mourned a Philadelphia police officer killed in the line of duty - and rooted for his favorite team.

CALIFORNIA, Pa. The Washington County Coroner says acute alcohol intoxication killed a California University of Pennsylvania student found dead in an off-campus apartment.

HARRISBURG, Pa. Health care costs for retired state workers are now projected to be $8.5 billion in the long term, about 40 percent lower than originally estimated, Pennsylvania's budget chief said Friday.

PHILADELPHIA A man described by Berks County authorities as a "person of interest" in a stabbing death has been arrested on a parole violation warrant.

LATROBE, Pa. Latrobe Specialty Steel Co. has rejected an offer from striking steelworkers to return to work unconditionally.

EDWARDSVILLE, Pa. A northeast Pennsylvania woman who allegedly named her husband, daughter and niece in a fatal 2005 robbery is now charged in the plot herself.

NEW YORK Lenny Dykstra speaks six languages.

HARRISBURG, Pa. A state senator criticized the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for stopping a $70 million data center expansion in western Pennsylvania.

MCKEESPORT, Pa. Some McKeesport buildings have been evacuated after a structure collapsed, leaving wooden debris and glass strewn across a city street.

HARRISBURG, Pa. A proposal to privatize the management of Harrisburg's parking garages, lots and street meters could run into opposition from union officials.