Storm threatens East Coast
A developing nor’easter headed up the East Coast on Saturday with a threat of heavy snow, canceling flights and putting road crews on overtime but cheering up skiers in a region spared harsh weather for most of this season.
Blizzard warnings were posted from the New York City area into eastern New England, where up to 15 inches of snow was possible, and a winter storm warning was issued for most of New Jersey, the National Weather Service said. Heavy snow warnings were in effect from eastern Kentucky to New England.
More than 100 flights were canceled at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the New York area’s major airports. There were scattered cancellations at New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports.
Delta said it canceled its arrivals and departures for today at several other airports in the storm’s path.
Snow began falling Saturday afternoon in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, slowing traffic and putting road crews into action.
Harrisburg, Pa.
Swann running for governor
Pennsylvania’s Republican Party leaders endorsed former Pittsburgh Steelers star Lynn Swann for governor Saturday, virtually guaranteeing that he will be the candidate to face Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell this fall.
“I haven’t cried this much since I was inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Swann told the applauding crowd as he wiped tears from his eyes.
Swann, 53, was unopposed for the endorsement, which came in a unanimous voice vote during a meeting of the 300-plus-member Republican State Committee.
Swann is seeking to become Pennsylvania’s first black governor. Though he has revealed little about his political philosophy, he has said the Democratic Party has “taken the African American vote for granted.”
He didn’t shed any new light on his platform Saturday, but castigated Rendell as too willing to raise taxes to finance his initiatives.
Rendell’s spokeswoman Patricia Enright dismissed Swann’s comments as “vague platitudes and baseless attacks.”
Sacramento, Calif.
Governor proposes moving inmates
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed moving 40 percent of the state’s nonviolent female inmates into neighborhood correctional centers, a plan that could help ease the state’s severely overcrowded penitentiaries.
The plan, buried in the governor’s proposed state budget, would allow about 4,500 female inmates to live closer to their families and get job training and drug and alcohol counseling. Some prisoners would be allowed to have their children live with them.
Most of the governor’s plan requires legislative approval. Officials acknowledge that some neighborhood residents may be alarmed and that the powerful guards union long opposed to prison privatization is likely to resist.
The state now houses 11,400 women inmates, almost twice the 1990 level.
Phillipsburg, Ohio
Police investigate killing of family
A woman and her three children were found shot to death in their western Ohio home on Saturday, officials said.
A handgun was found in the neat and orderly home, and investigators were interviewing the woman’s boyfriend, who had recently moved out, Montgomery Sheriff’s Maj. Ed Copher said.
“I wouldn’t call anybody a suspect at this time,” Copher said.
Tonya Hawks, 31, and her three sons, aged 2, 4 and 5, had moved into the rented house last summer.