Council members urge Allentown mayor to quit

ALLENTOWN - City council members in Pennsylvania's third-largest city are calling on the mayor to resign in the wake of an FBI probe of government contracting.The Allentown City Council voted 7-0 on a no confidence resolution Wednesday night against Democratic Mayor Ed Pawlowski.The resolution, which is only symbolic, cites the subpoena served last summer at Allentown City Hall as well as criminal charges and subsequent guilty pleas by three former city officials.Pawlowski has not been charged in the case, and has denied any wrongdoing.The mayor did not attend the Wednesday night meeting, but sent an email to council members. In it, he says he remains "committed to serving the city and its residents." He also asks for "patience with this process."Three are charged in $400,000 casino scamWILKES-BARRE - A casino vice president plotted with a cocktail waitress and a gambler to steal more than $400,000 from a northeastern Pennsylvania casino, orchestrating a scam involving stolen identities and free slots play, authorities said.Robert Pellegrini, a former executive at Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, was charged along with server Rochelle Poszeluznyj and patron Mark Heltzel. They each face more than 170 counts including theft, identity theft and criminal conspiracy.State police allege Poszeluznyj collected players' casino card numbers and personal identification numbers when they paid for drinks and passed them along to Pellegrini to make duplicate cards. Pellegrini added fraudulent free slots play to the duplicates and gave them to Heltzel to play at the machines, according to court documents. They split $418,793 in winnings from May 2014 through April 2015 on $478,100 worth of fraudulent free slots play, police said.Trial ordered in 1998 slaying of store clerkALLENTOWN - A man has been ordered to stand trial in the shooting death of an eastern Pennsylvania convenience store owner almost two decades ago.Forty-four-year-old John Edinger of Emmaus is charged with homicide and robbery in Lehigh County in the death of 59-year-old Adel Malek. The victim died after he was found with multiple gunshot wounds inside his Apotheca Store in Allentown in July 1998.A witness testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday that Edinger woke him on the day of the slaying and said he had been stabbed during a robbery and then shot the clerk.Wolf administration to tighten methane rulesA proposal to require natural-gas drillers to reduce methane emissions will help make Pennsylvania a "national leader" in efforts to combat global warming, the Wolf administration said on Wednesday.Requiring the industry to reduce methane leaks at well pads, compressor stations and processing facilities in the Marcellus Shale could result in a 40 percent reduction in emissions, Environmental Secretary John Quigley told reporters.The Department of Environmental Protection said it will develop a new general permit for operators that would require them to use "best available technology" to detect and plug leaks of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to warming.AG reaches $450,000 settlement with CVSHARRISBURG - The CVS drugstore chain has agreed to pay $450,000 to Pennsylvania to settle allegations that it sold over-the-counter drugs, infant formula and dairy products after their expiration date.In a consent decree filed Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said CVS agreed to step up its screening of expired products and training of store managers and employees.- The Associated Press