The Times Leader from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania • 1

Holy Toledo! A peek at the future Electronic voting machines displayed at the courthouse. Story, Page 7A. To find out more, go to www.timesleader.com The Mud Hens shoot down the Red Barons' offense in a 2-1 victory. Sports, 1B BACOiJS: (M rr-TimTTTnTTTTrrrrn WILKES-BARRE, PA WWW.TIMESLEADER.COM 25C TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2005 TIMER I iK ATDRR -A- JJLXV JJLll Ak? I 1 I A JJA J-iL Vy WVBCS courhiffi lercy workers General's parent offering sign-on bonus up to $10K PRISON HIRING Check doesnt reveal 2 DUIs Recently hired correctional officer had two arrests that didn't show up, officials say. By JERRY LYNOTT jlynottleader.net WILKES-BARRE Want ads usually don't name names, but Wyoming Valley Health Care System is directly appealing to Mercy Hospital employees to consider working for their cross- icant number of phone calls from Mercy employees" since the June 29 announcement of the $10,000 to come work at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, "Certainly this is unusual," said James Carmody, vice president of resources at town competitor.

The health care system ran an advertisement over the weekend that offered Mercy staff incentives and sign-on bonuses up to Wyoming Valley Health Care System. "It's in response to several factors." WVHCS has received what Carmody described as "a signif- 1 See MERCY, Page. 10A MILITARY MEDAL CEREMONIES Long-ago heroics saluted a Wilkes-Barrc i I r- Sen. Santorum attends medal ceremony to honor Army men with area ties for WW II and Korea action. 1 By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER tmorganleader.net WILKES-BARRE A man with two drunken-driving convictions was recently hired as a guard at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility after a background check failed to reveal his criminal record.

Warden Gene Fischi confirmed Monday. Angelo Manganello 30, of Horton Street, Wilkes-Barre, was hired in March as a correctional officer trainee. At the time, Fischi said he was unaware Manganelio had pleaded guilty in May 2002 to four counts of drunken driving in connection with two separate incidents that occurred within weeks of each other in 200L Information on the cases was easily obtained from the Luzerne County Clerk of Courts office. But Fischi said the prison does not check applicants through the clerk's office. It utilizes the National Crime Information Center, a computerized database maintained by state police.

Fischi said the system is supposed to contain all convictions from every county statewide. He does not know why the check on Manganello, which he said was performed on Feb. 25, did not reveal the convictions. Manganello was not required to report the convictions because the employment application only asks I TIMES LEADER STAFF PHOTOSS. JOHN WILKIN Korean War veteran Joseph Hart right, laughs at a question directed at U.S.

Sen. Rick Santorum. Hart received a Silver Star for gallantry Monday during a ceremony In Plains Township. Veteran Eugene Mulreaney beside him accepted a Bronze Star medal on behalf of his brother Pfc. Robert Mulreaney, who saved Mulreaney's life in Italy in 1944.

By BONNffi ADAMS badamsleader.net- PLAINS TWP, Eugene Mulreaney wiped his eyes Monday as the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs awarded him the Bronze Star his late brother earned in 1944 in Italy for saving Mulreaney's life. Secretary James Nicholson saluted Mulreaney, 81, after he pinned Robert Mulreaney's medal for valor on his brother's navy blazer. The soldier was killed when he threw his body onto his wounded brother during an air attack. "He saved Eugene, but he lost his own life," Nicholson told a crowd at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

He and U.S. Sen, Rick Santorum visited the medical center to present the Bronze Star medal to Mulreaney and the Silver Star to Joseph Hart Sr. of Nanticoke for his heroism during the Korean War in 1951. Santorum, R-Pittsburgh, helped the men to finally receive the overdue honors from the Army. "How sweet it is," said Hart, 73.

"I went through 50 years of trying to get it." The senator presented the Silver Star to Hart for his heroism on Jan. 30, 1951, on Hill 256 in Korea. Hart fired his Browning automatic rifle at the enemy for hours. "I just thought, I had to do it, and I did it." Santorum focuses on Sherwood's record By BONNIE ADAMS badamsleader.net PLAINS TWP. Sen.

Rick Santorum said Monday that the public should wait until all the facts come out regarding a woman's allegations of abuse against fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood before passing judgment. Constituents also should consider Sherwood's job performance. Earlier this year, Cynthia Ore, 29, of Maryland said she had been romantically involved with Sherwood, who is married, for five years and claimed I 1 Illl I I See GUARD, Page 10A that he tried to choke her in September.

She has U.S. Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs James Nichol son pins a Bronze Star medal on Eugene Mulreaney. He accepted the medal on behalf of his late brother, Pfc. Robert Mulreaney. See HEROICS Page 10 A See SHERWOOD, Page 10A INSIDE A NEWS: Nation World 4A Obituaries 6A Birthdays 8A Editorials 9A SPORTS: 1B Comics 8B BUSINESS: 1C Stocks 3C HEALTH: ID SERVICE: IE CrosswordHoroscope 2E Movies 3E Television 4E CLASSIFIED: IF When the black gold is gone Governors gripe about feds' new license rules 4 If Vrsi raw.

1( i Fees will soar, jobs will be more demanding under new federal mandates, some say. WEAllIEIl AlyslaSitar A Treubb Pennsylvania's abandoned mines PART TWO Of TWO Sun, with a t-storm. High 90, low 71. Details, Page4C j-j a land Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at a Monday meeting. It's outrageous to pass this off on the states," said Republican Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, incoming chairman of the National Governors Association.

"You're essentially asking the front line clerks at the DMV to become an INS agent and a law enforcement agent." The law that passed in June goes beyond an earlier measure that sought to standardize state driver's licenses, requiring that states verify license applicants are American citizens or legal residents. Chertoff assured governors his agency will work with them Mining companies abandoned towns like Shamokin when coal grew scarce. By MICHAEL RUBCMKAM Associated Pitss Writer SHAMOKIN You can stand on a bridge over Shamokin Creek in the center of town and on a sunny day see clear to the bottom. It would be a lovely sight, except that the water is tinted orange and the creek appears to be utterly lifeless no plants, no fish, nothing. "It's pretty hot," explains Mike Ferko, meaning too polluted to sustain life.

Over his shoulder, a black mountain looms. It is waste coal, perhaps the largest such pile in the nation, and it is smoldering. So is the abandoned mine underneath it. These fires will likely burn for some time, feeding on an almost limitless supply of anthracite coal. At one time, this plentiful and relatively cheap fuel source heated millions of homes and powered the Industrial Revolu- Vv '1 'f" By ROBERT TANNER AP National Writer DES MOINES.

Iowa In the name of homeland security, motorists are going to see costs skyrocket for driver's licenses and motor vehicle offices forced to operate like local branches of the FBI, the nation's governors warn. The new federal law squeezed this spring into an $82 billion spending bill had Republican and Democrat governors fuming at their summer conference, with several bringing their complaints to Home AP PHOTO Acidic discharges from abandoned coal mines stain Shamokin Creek In Shamokin causing orange discoloration. tion. A century ago, Pennsylvania mines employed hundreds of tlmusands of workers, many of them irnmfgrants, and pro 5" 1 001 1 See DRIVERS, Page 10A See MINES, PeqeWA D3 itrrrnmi utu.yi ant.