Factory Jobs Drop 39% in Decade
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CMYK Adifferent view Ataste for all $ of childhood things Greek 20 VOUCHER ’Wild Things’ author Maurice Church’s annual food FOR ONLY Sendak dies at age 83. festival begins today. $10 NATION & WORLD, 5A TASTE, 1C 755222 The Times Leader WILKES-BARRE, PA timesleader.com WEDNESDAY,MAY 9, 2012 50¢ SPORTS SHOWCASE Audit: County overbilled $60,000 By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER vens is actually vens duplicated charges in bills she fied are less clear. Stevens did not [email protected] owed about submitted for representing parents in Stevens contracted with Silver- attempt to Aforensic audit of invoices submit- $20,000 because of Children and Youth cases from June stone’s firm to conduct a forensic audit tedbyattorneyAngelaStevensreveals certain credits she 2010 to February 2012. to determine if the findings of a Times “intentionally she overbilled the county nearly is due. Her attor- Silverstone concluded errors were Leader investigation reported in Feb- conceal” $60,000 for legal work, but she does ney,MarkRaspanti, made, but he found no evidence to in- ruary were accurate. information, not owe Luzerne County any money told county officials dicate Stevens attempted to “inten- The newspaper cited evidence that because the overcharges have already Stevens she will not seek to tionally conceal” information from the showed Stevens repeatedly charged says accountant been repaid. collect the money. county.Heblamedpartoftheproblem the county travel time for each individ- who did audit. The audit, performed by Howard Theaudit,whichwaspaidforbySte- on the manner in which bills were ual fee petition she delivered to the Silverstone of Forensic Resolutions vens, confirmed findings of a Times processed in her office, but explana- Inc. of New Jersey, determined Ste- LeaderinvestigationthatrevealedSte- tions for other billing issues he identi- SeeSTEVENS, Page 2A PENS 3, ICECAPS 2 AVERAGE MANUFACTURING In the third period of WAGES, LOCAL VS. NATIONAL Tuesday’s Game 5 be- Area woman takes on Pa. Medicaid cuts National average Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro area tween the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre national ranking Scranton Penguins and Very high-tech manufacturing St. John’s IceCaps, Simon Despres inadvertently hit $56,745 80 his goaltender, Brad Moderately high-tech manufacturing Thiessen, in the face with $55,936 77 his stick. Two OT periods later, Despres hit the back All manufacturing of the St. John’s net. 1B $44,958 96 All jobs DEVILS POSSESS $36,709 96 SERIES WITH WIN $0 $40,000 $80,000 Source: Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program Bryce Salvador, David Mark Guydish/The Times Leader Clarkson and Ilya Ko- valchuk scored to lift New Factory Jersey to a 3-1Game 5 win over Philadelphia on Tues- jobs drop day, sending the Devils into the Eastern Confer- ence Finals. 1B 39% in AMERICAN LEAGUE YANKEES 5 decade RAYS 3 DON CAREY/ THE TIMES LEADER Aldona Smith, 94, of Wilkes-Barre, beams Tuesday as she gets a round of applause from a large group of nursing Manufacturing still bigger IL BASEBALL home workers who gathered in Harrisburg to ask legislators to restore a 4 percent cut in Medicaid funding. part of job market than in all CLIPPERS 1 but 15 largest metro areas. SWB YANKS 0 GAME 1 By ANDREW M. SEDER Twisting arms [email protected] SWB YANKS 4 The greater Wilkes-Barre/ CLIPPERS 3 Scranton region has experienced GAME 2 a39 percent decline in manufac- By STEVE MOCARSKY turing jobs over the past decade, [email protected] but the industry is still a larger ARRISBURG – Aldona Smith part of the employment market stood in the center of the state here than in all but 15 of the 100 INSIDE HCapitol building rotunda and de- largest metropolitan areas na- ANEWS livered a message that reverberated loud tionwide. Obituaries 2A, 8A and clear. And while the sector still em- Local 3A “Do not meddle with ploys one out of every 10 workers Nation & World 5A Medicaid!” the 94-year-old IN- locally, well ahead of the national Editorials 11A Wilkes-Barre resident SIDE: Bud- rate, manufacturing wages are BSPORTS: 1B pleaded. get plan among the lowest in the nation, a While she may have would status explained by the type of BUSINESS: 7B been preaching to the restore Weather 8B manufacturing done here. The “choir” of about 500 nurs- millions, report finds more than one-third CTASTE: 1C ing home employees and 6A. of manufacturing workers nation- Birthdays 4C advocates surrounding ally engaged in “moderately high Television 8C herandapplauding,herremarks were di- tech” or “very high-tech” work, Crossword/Horoscope 9C rected at legislators and Gov. Tom Cor- with its accompanying high sala- DCLASSIFIED bett, whose 2012-13 budget proposal in- DON CAREY/ THE TIMES LEADER ries. In this area only about 16 cludes a 4 percent cut to Medicaid 94 year old Aldona Smith speaks to a large group of nursing home workers percent of jobs fit those defini- that gathered at the Rotunda in the capitol Harrisburg to ask legislators to tions. WEATHER SeeSMITH, Page 12A restore the 4 percent Medicaid cut in the proposed state budget. The details are included in a re- Adrienne Wren. Partial port released today by the Brook- clearing, showers. High 73, ings Institution Metropolitan low 56. Details, Page 8B Policy Program that compares the state of manufacturing in the nation’s top 100 metro areas by Complaint: Ostrowski enticed minor, transmitted threat population. Penny Cannella, president of By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER duct, which he ify what type of device – such as is set 9:30 a.m. May 23. the region’seconomic develop- and MARK GUYDISH then transmit- acomputer or cellphone – Os- Ostrowski’s attorneys, Frank ment conduit Penn’s Northeast, [email protected] ted via some trowski allegedly used to trans- Nocito and Philip Gelso, de- said the report’s findings do not [email protected] sort of elec- mit the image or images or his clined to comment on the case. surprise her but noted while SCRANTON – A federal judge tronic device. hometown. It also does not iden- Ostrowski has been suspend- manufacturing jobs have fallen on Tuesday ordered a Holy Re- He also is tify the person whom Ostrowski ed from his post at Holy Re- over the past few years, the indus- deemer football coach charged charged with allegedly enticed or the person deemer, where he was the head try is by no means losing its grip with producing child pornogra- Ostrowski using an elec- whom he allegedly threatened. coach of the varsity football on the region. phy to remain incarcerated tronic device An affidavit in support of the team. Scranton Diocese Spokes- Walter Niziolek, senior vice pending a hearing Thursday to to transmit a threat to ruin a per- complaint, which contains more man Bill Genello said in an email president of global manufactur- determine whether he will be son’s reputation with the intent detail, remained sealed Tuesday. that Ostrowski’s only job at the ing for Exeter-based electric entitled to bail. of extorting money or things of Ostrowski was arraigned on high school was football coach. scooter maker Pride Mobility, Joseph Ostrowski, 28, was ar- other value from them, accord- the charges Tuesday before U.S. He also said “per diocesan pol- said manufacturing is still strong rested Monday by agents with ing to the complaint. District Judge Thomas Blewitt, icy, a background check was con- but technology and the economy the FBI. A criminal complaint The complaint, which initially who ordered him held pending a ducted. Mr. Ostrowski had the have played roles in limiting 6 0981510011 says Ostrowski enticed a minor was filed under seal, was re- detention hearing set for 3 p.m. to perform sexually explicit con- leased Tuesday. It does not spec- Thursday. A preliminary hearing SeeOSTROWSKI, Page 12A SeeJOBS, Page 12A K PAGE 2A WEDNESDAY, MAY9,2012 ➛ timesleader.com THE TIMES LEADER www.timesleader.com which she was not paid, and es, the invoices appear to correctly worked on the cases, in addition to by several people. $31,321fortwochecksshereceived portray the services Stevens per- her. When the information was en- The report does not clearly artic- DETAILS STEVENS from the county, but never cashed. formed and there was no evidence tered into the billing system, it was ulate possible explanations for Those checks have since been void- that Stevens or her staff “intention- entered under her name only, overcharges for other casework ed. ally concealed” information from which indicated she performed all Continued from Page 1A LOTTERY His analysis determined Stevens the county. the work when in fact it was done SeeSTEVENS, Page 9A courthouse, even though the pet- was owed $153,586.77 (the As to what caused the billing er- MIDDAY DRAWING itions were delivered in a single $212,629.27 billed less overcharges rors, Silverstone pointed to an ac- DAILY NUMBER – 2-3-8 trip. of$59,042.50).Thetotalamountof counting issue that may have con- Eugene J. Valentine The newspaper also questioned county money Stevens actually re- tributed to some of the billing is- BIG 4 – 7-0-8-5 excessive charges for certain days, ceived and deposited into her sues. May 5, 2012 QUINTO – 7-5-8-6-7 including instances in which Ste- firm’s account was $132,953.22, Regarding cases that included ugene J. (Geno) Valentine, 91, a 8-0-2-2-6 DOUBLE vens claimed to have worked more leaving a balance of $20,633.55 excessive casework hours, Silver- E native of Glen Lyon, and former- DRAW than 24 hours in a single day. Ste- that is owed to her. stone noted he found several in- ly of Redford and Detroit, Mich., TREASURE HUNT venspreviouslyadmittedshemade In a letter to county officials, stances in which Stevens billed for passed away Saturday morning, mistakes, but maintained the er- Raspanti said she will not seek pay- 11 hours or more on a single day, May 5, 2012, at the home of his son 2-10-12-22-23 rors were caused by an oversight.