A man wearing a black North Face-like jacket and red ski mask, walked into the Turkey Hill Minit Market in Hometown, Rush Township at about 2:30 this morning, then pointed a gun at the teller and demanded money.

Less than an hour and a half later, a gunman fitting the same description held up the Exxon Mobile Uni-Mart Convenient Store at gunpoint in Frackville. The robber was last seen running north on Garfield Avenue in Frackville.

On March 24, 1898, Robert Allison a 70-year-old Schuylkill County industrialist, became the answer to a huge part of early automobile trivia. That day, he purchased the first commercially manufactured automobile at the Winton Motor Carriage Company in Cleveland.

Allison was born in Middleton, Teesdale, Durham County, England, on Dec. 25, 1827. When the Scottish immigrant first came to Port Carbon, the place had very few inhabitants.

Uncertainty prompts me to write that as a doctor, I do not know what to tell Pennsylvania patients when they ask me if hydraulic fracturing – fracking – in their neighborhood or region might affect their health.

I've seen anecdotal stories in the media. I've read as much as I could find about how the hydraulic fracturing process works. But I'm still uncertain because we lack data and research on the matter.

A kind-hearted widow is brutally murdered in the quiet village of South Tamaqua.

The killing is so savage that people are shaken to the core. But so far, the culprit hasn't been identified and answers have been hard to come by.

Sgt. George Durilla, deceased, headed the Pennsylvania State Police probe and kept in touch with the victim's family. A Tamaqua resident, Durilla was diligent in pursuing the case, even if leads were few.

Deeds recorded

East Penn Township

Sheriff of Carbon County to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Fort Mill, S.C., property at 62 Sherwood Forest Drive, $1.

Cartus Financial Corporation to David S. Keck, 3237 Mahoning Mountain Road, Lehighton, property at 3237 Mahoning Mountain Road, $178,500.

Donald E. Neamand to Dennis Wayne Neamand Sr., Sunbury, Pa., property along Bake Oven Road, $1.

Franklin Township

Fay Ann Shoemaker to Kay K. Kasick, 2625 Stoney Ridge Road, Palmerton, property at 240 Fairview St., $70,000.