By Wayne Laepple
Editor's note: This is the second in a series of four stories focusing on some of the top local stories of 2008. Today, we look at April, May and June.
In April, state police apprehended Chester Cyphers, 52, of Washingtonville, in the act of setting a fire along a rural road in Montour County.
Cyphers subsequently was charged with setting several fires in Montour County, including one in November 2007 in which Wayne Hawley, a Turbotville firefighter, was seriously injured.
Cyphers later pleaded guilty to all charges and is awaiting sentencing. Hawley, who remains paralyzed from the waist down, returned home in May from rehabilitation in Philadelphia to a tumultuous welcome from firefighters in northern Northumberland County. Many people from the Watosntown and Turbotville area attended a variety of fundraisers for Hawley and his family, while others modified his home, widening doorways and buildings ramps to help him get around in his wheelchair.
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Throughout the spring, the price of gasoline kept climbing, reaching a peak of nearly $4 a gallon in this region as the price of oil skyrocketed to $147 a barrel. People began carpooling and combining trips in an effort to save money, and by the end of the year, the price had dropped back to less than its early 2008 level.
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A longtime political activist in the region, Eleanor Kuhns, of Coal Township, died at the end of April. She was active in Democratic politics on the Northumberland County and state levels and had served a term as a county commissioner.
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Jack Harclerode, a retired Bucknell University biology professor, was charged with possession of child pornography and later found guilty by a Union County judge. He is awaiting sentencing in Columbia County in the indecent sexual assault of a boy, 10, and faces other molestation charges in Union County.
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Over the Memorial Day weekend, a number of all-terrain vehicle accidents in the Trevorton area resulted in one death and numerous injuries.
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The state Department of Transportation announced in May that the Central Susquehanna Valley Thruway project was being placed in "hibernation" until money to complete the project could be found, disappointing officials and drivers throughout the region. A few weeks later, federal officials made a presentation before the Appalachian Regional Commission in an attempt to persuade the commission to include the project in its scope.
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Following a four-day trial, Richard C. Curran, 34, formerly of Mount Carmel, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Tina. Curran shot her seven times on an outdoor loading dock at Shamokin Area Community Hospital, where she worked. Curran, former police chief of Bernville, Berks County, fled after the slaying and was arrested as he tried to cross the border into Canada. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
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Pfc. James Yohn, 25, of Coal Township, was killed in Iraq on June 24 by an improvised explosive device.
He was the eighth soldier from the Valley to die in the Middle East.
