6 cars swallowed by sinkhole under mall parking lot

LANCASTER, PA. » Six cars are trapped by a sinkhole that’s opened up in the parking lot of a Pennsylvania outlet mall.

WGAL-TV reported that the hole swallowed the vehicles at about 4:30 p.m. Friday at Tanger Outlets just east of Lancaster City.

A woman tells the station she was inside one of the vehicles during the collapse, and described it like an earthquake. Bystanders helped her get out safely.

WGAL says no one is hurt, but the vehicles can’t be removed until the area is stable.

A woman who answered the phone at the mall office said “the photos don’t lie” about the incident, then hung up.

Lancaster is about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Philadelphia.

Health aide sentenced for scalding disabled man

ERIE, PA. » A Pennsylvania health aide who authorities say poured scalding water on a disabled man in his care, leaving him with burns on 20 percent of his body has been sentenced to serve up to five years in prison.

The state attorney general’s office has announced that 27-yearold Akeem Nixon of Erie, Pennsylvania, was sentenced Thursday to serve between two and a half and five years in prison. Nixon had pleaded guilty in June to neglect of a care-dependent person and aggravated assault.

Officials say Nixon poured scalding water over the 38-year-old man with cerebral palsy, causing him to be hospitalized for 17 days with second-degree burns.

His lawyer says it was an accident made worse because Nixon didn’t immediately summon help or report it. She says he has accepted responsibility.

Pennsylvania restoring welfare payments after court ruling

HARRISBURG, PA. » Pennsylvania plans to restore general assistance cash payments this fall for poor or disabled Pennsylvanians following a state Supreme Court decision.

The Department of Human Services said Friday it’s updating internal systems and training employees in how to determine eligibility and process benefits.

The agency will post information at county assistance offices, and people can also call a helpline at 800-692-7462.

Applications will be accepted online or through county offices .

The high court last month unanimously struck down a 2012 law ending state cash welfare benefits, ruling lawmakers violated constitutional requirements that bills be considered in each chamber for at least three session days before being voted out.

When the program ended, it had been distributing about $150 million a year, typically in $205-a-month cash payments, to some 60,000 people.

Officials: Beaver that attacked kayaker, daughter was rabid

BIGLERVILLE, PA. » Authorities say a beaver that attacked a man and his daughter during a kayak trip in Pennsylvania was rabid.

State health officials said Thursday that the beaver tested positive for virus after it was sent for testing by the state game commission

Dan Wherley and his 7-year-old daughter, Layla, were kayaking Sunday on the Conewago Creek with their dog when the beaver relentlessly gnawed on his paddle and eventually swam right for his daughter. He fought off the animal while his daughter made it to land.

Wherley said he initially intended to retreat and not harm the beaver, but he eventually killed it to protect himself and his child. No one was bitten in the attack, but Wherley is getting rabies shots as a precaution.

Authorities: Pizza deliveryman shoots, kills would-be robber

BEAVER FALLS, PA. » Authorities say a pizza deliveryman fatally shot a would-be robber after a struggle on a western Pennsylvania street.

Beaver Falls police say the shooting occurred around 12:20 a.m. Friday.

The deliveryman told police he had delivered a pizza and was returning to his vehicle when a man approached him and tried to rob him. The driver was stabbed during the ensuing struggle, but he was able to get a handgun from his vehicle and fired a single shot at the attacker.

The wounded man fled on foot but was found by police about a block away on a porch. He was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

The deliveryman was being treated at a hospital. But his name and further details on his condition were not disclosed.