National Roundup

Colorado
Family sues over  woman’s death in reality TV project
DENVER (AP) — The survivors of a woman killed during the production of a reality TV show pilot have filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit against Discovery Communications Inc. and Anthropic Productions Corp.
Terry Flanell’s husband and daughter filed the lawsuit last week in federal court in Denver.
It says the companies were producing a pilot focusing on the family’s Colorado Springs business, Dragon Arms Inc. The suit says the opening sequence was to have employees walk through a cloud of smoke, but pyrotechnic devices that were used to create the smoke malfunctioned, and one struck Flanell.
The lawsuit alleges no licensed pyrotechnics operator was on scene last year for filming of the “Brothers In Arms” pilot.
A phone number for Anthropic wasn’t listed. A Discovery spokeswoman did not return a phone.

Rhode Island
Old sword stolen years ago on way back to Brown U.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Brown University spokesman says a Virginia antiques collector has turned over a Civil War-era sword that was stolen from the Ivy League school in the 1970s.
Last week, a federal judge in Virginia ordered Williamsburg collector Donald Tharpe to surrender the Tiffany silver sword to Brown. Tharpe bought it for $35,000 in 1992 after it had passed among dealers for years.
A Brown spokesman told The Providence Journal on Monday that Tharpe has given the sword to a Virginia attorney who represented the university, and it’s being shipped to Providence.
Brown officials say the sword was stolen from the Annmary Brown Memorial at the school. The sword was given to her husband, Col. Rush Hawkins, in 1863 for his service to the Union during the Civil War.

Pennsylvania
Former teacher faces charges for piercings in class
DILLSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former teacher in central Pennsylvania is facing charges after police say she allowed a student to perform body piercings in class.
Police in Carroll Township allege 34-year-old April Beard allowed a student to pierce Beard’s ear and then pierce another student’s stomach without parental consent at Northern York County High School. She’s charged with endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.
Police say the student had a piercing kit.
The school district says that Beard, a family and consumer science teacher, did not return to the classroom after the April 16 incident. She resigned a month later.
Beard’s attorney, Robert Daniels, says she’s a good person and was a good teacher. He says she recognizes her “lapse of judgment.”

New York
Feds fire, demote employees over NY killing, rape
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Federal authorities have fired and demoted U.S. probation officers in the monitoring of a man charged with raping a 10-year-old girl and killing her mother during a carjacking at a New York mall.
The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports the changes made at the federal probation office in Syracuse were detailed in a letter Monday from U.S. courts administrators to U.S. Dan Maffei.
The probation officers came under fire in March after authorities said David Renz quickly removed and reassembled an electronic bracelet so monitors didn’t immediately realize he’d taken it off. Authorities say Renz then strangled and stabbed a woman in her car and raped the woman’s daughter during an attack outside Syracuse.
Renz has pleaded not guilty.
He had been required to wear the monitor because of an earlier child pornography arrest.

Pennsylvania
McDonald’s franchise sued over payroll cards
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — A single mother who worked briefly at a northeastern Pennsylvania McDonald’s franchise is suing the owners after she said she was given a fee-laden debit card and told that she must use it to access her earnings.
A lawyer filed a lawsuit Thursday in Luzerne County on behalf of Natalie Gunshannon and other employees, The Citizens’ Voice and the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre reported.
Gunshannon was hired April 24 at the McDonald’s in Shavertown and worked for a month before quitting. She was given her first paycheck and, along with it, the debit card. She said she did not sign the debit card or enroll in the payroll system because she believed the fees would reduce her future earnings to below minimum wage.
According to the lawsuit, the J.P. Morgan Chase payroll card carries fees for numerous transactions. They include a $1.50 minimum charge for an ATM withdrawal, $5 for an over-the-counter cash withdrawal, $1 to check the balance, 75 cents per online bill payment and $15 to replace a lost or stolen card.
State law entitles employees to choose to be paid by options including check or cash, said the lawyer, Mike Cefalo.
The lawsuit seeks damages against the franchise owners, Albert and Carol Mueller, who own 15 other McDonald’s locations throughout northeastern Pennsylvania, and accuses them of illegally padding their profits with the payroll card system. McDonald’s was not named as a defendant.
In a statement to the Times Leader, the Muellers said they value their employees and want to provide the best possible work environment for them.
State officials have endorsed payroll cards as a legal form of wage payment, according to the American Payroll Association, the Citizens’ Voice reported.
But in a 2008 letter to the trade association, the state Department of Labor and Industry advised employers to get an employee’s permission before paying wages with payroll cards or through direct deposit, the newspaper reported.

California
Man charged with tossing ex-wife off cruise ship
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California grand jury has indicted a Florida man on charges he strangled his ex-wife and tossed her off a cruise ship in Italy.
The Orange County Register says 55-year-old Lonnie Kocontes, of Safety Harbor, Fla., didn’t enter a plea at his arraignment Monday. He was indicted Friday on a charge of murder for financial gain.
He’ll try to have the case dismissed at a June 26 hearing, arguing that local authorities lack jurisdiction to prosecute.
Kocontes and 52-year-old Micki Kanesaki were divorced but had lived together on and off in Mission Viejo. They were sharing a cabin on a 2006 cruise when she went overboard. Her body later washed ashore.
An investigation began after Lonnie Kocontes began taking money from her accounts. He was arrested earlier this year.g