GOP senator seeks distance from Trump in re-election bid

VILLANOVA, PA. >> The U.S. Senate’s most moderate female Republican is helping Sen. Pat Toomey (TOO’-mee) make an appeal to suburban Philadelphia women, a voting bloc crucial in the close Pennsylvania race.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins held up Toomey on Tuesday as an independent thinker who’s made extraordinary efforts to break partisanship.

Toomey is one of the Senate’s most vulnerable Republicans. He’s being challenged by Democrat Katie McGinty.

Toomey needs to persuade Democrats to split their votes and win independents to overcome the roughly double-digit advantage Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton holds over Republican Donald Trump.

Toomey has distanced himself from the GOP presidential nominee and on gun control from his party. But Toomey hasn’t ruled out voting for or endorsing Trump.

McGinty says Toomey’s “talking out of both sides of his mouth.”

Jury picked in excoach’s suit over Penn State abuse scandal

BELLEFONTE, PA. >> A panel of nine women and three men is in place for the trial next week of a former assistant coach’s claim that he was improperly terminated from Penn State’s football program.

Pennlive.com reports that jury selection wrapped up Tuesday in Mike McQueary’s defamation, whistleblower and misrepresentation lawsuit against the university.

Opening statements are scheduled for Monday in the county courthouse near campus.

The panel includes two current Penn State employees, a secretary and a physical plant worker.

The school put McQueary on paid leave shortly after Jerry Sandusky was first charged with child molestation in November 2011.

Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts and is appealing.

McQueary was a key witness at Sandusky’s trial, describing that he saw him abuse a boy in a team shower in 2001.

Butler man awarded nearly $9M in medical malpractice suit

BUTLER, PA. >> A jury has awarded nearly $9 million in damages to a western Pennsylvania man in a negligence lawsuit filed against Butler Memorial Hospital’s parent company three years ago.

Todd Wogan and his wife, Beverly, filed suit in 2013 against Butler Health System and a surgeon after he lost his lower legs following what the couple’s attorneys alleged were poor decisions that led to prolonged septic shock.

Attorneys said the blood flow was cut off to Todd Wogan’s legs, causing gangrene in both feet, which were both amputated at midcalf at another hospital along with parts of fingers on his left hand.

A jury cleared the surgeon of liability after a three-week trial in Butler County but ordered the hospital’s parent company to pay $8.78 million.

A hospital spokeswoman declined comment.

New charges against man accused in daughter’s death

HARRISBURG, PA. >> A central Pennsylvania man charged in the death of his 12-yearold daughter, who was shot by a constable serving eviction papers, is now facing charges that he obtained guns illegally by lying about a mental health commitment.

Authorities in Perry County accuse 58-year-old Donald Meyer of pointing a loaded rifle at the constable, who fired a shot that went through Meyer’s arm and struck Ciara Meyer in January.

State police now allege that Meyer knowingly made false statements for gun purchases when he answered “no” to questions about whether he had been subject to an involuntary mental health commitment.

Meyer has blamed the constable for his daughter’s death and pleaded not guilty in May to criminal homicide and related charges. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

Teacher accused of sexual contact with girl, 16, in 2008

WILKES-BARRE, PA. >> A northeastern Pennsylvania teacher and soccer coach has been charged with having had sexual contact with a female student eight years ago.

Thirty-six-year-old Robert Havard of Plains was arraigned Tuesday in Luzerne County on three counts of corruption of minors.

Authorities allege that while he was a teacher at Coughlin High School in 2008, he had sexual contact with the 16-year-old at a party. The girl told investigators that he had been texting and flirting with her for nearly a year.

Officials said Havard currently works at Solomon-Plains school and coaches high school boys soccer. Solicitor Ray Wendolowski of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District said he had been suspended effective Tuesday.

Court documents don’t list an attorney for Havard and a listed phone number for him couldn’t be found Tuesday,

3rd suspect arrested in 2013 home invasion robbery slaying

PITTSBURGH >> Federal authorities say they have arrested the third suspect being sought in a 2013 home invasion robbery slaying in a Pittsburgh suburb.

The U.S. Marshals Service said 26-year-old Rasheim Wallace was taken into custody Tuesday at a nail salon in Mokena, Illinois, where he had been working. Officials said the Wilkinsburg resident would be taken to Cook County jail pending extradition to Pennsylvania.

Allegheny County authorities said earlier that 21-yearold Tanika Paul of Pittsburgh was arrested in August during a traffic stop in Wilkinsburg. Twenty-two-year-old Bradley Kemp of Wilkinsburg was taken into custody in October 2014.