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SCRANTON — A Minnesota woman tripping on LSD Monday morning stole a car in Scranton, city police said.

Police found Millisa Ann Marie Smith, 29, of 311 Roosevelt Road in Bemidji, Minnesota, reading paperwork in the car on the 800 block of Cherry Street at around 4 a.m. She told police she took a hit of the hallucinogenic earlier, police said.

The car owner, Charles Peter, told police Ms. Smith was at his home Monday with his cousin, Miguel Maleno Jr., and she stole his Hyundai Elantra, which he left running on the 1300 block of South Webster Avenue.

Ms. Smith is charged with a general impairment count of driving under the influence, receiving stolen property and theft by unlawful taking. She is in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 30.

— JOSEPH KOHUT

SCRANTON — Two vehicles caught fire this morning on Montage Mountain Road while idling in traffic to enter the Vans Warped Tour, Scranton Fire Chief Patrick DeSarno said.

The calls came in around 10 a.m. The chief did not have further details on the fires but said that no injuries have been reported.

The fires appeared accidental, the chief said.

Vans Warped Tour, an annual rock music festival, is being held today at The Pavilion at Montage Mountain.

— JOSEPH KOHUT

CARBONDALE - City Council unanimously approved selling for $30,000 a 1.44-acre property on Enterprise Drive to Mayor Justin Taylor’s development firm, which was the sole bidder, city Clerk Michele Bannon said Tuesday.

The city had put the property up for sale with a Monday bid deadline. Carbondale-Roundhouse, owned Mr. Taylor and Robert Grimm, was the only bidder, she said.

Council voted 7-0 Monday night, with Joseph Marzzacco, Kathleen Connor, Jerry Arnese, Francis Lagana, John Masco, John Gigliotti and Walter Martzen all in favor, to accept the bid. The land is next to 6.6 acres on Dundaff Street that Carbondale-Roundhouse bought last year from a private owner for $130,000.

— JIM, LOCKWOOD

SCRANTON — Crews rescued a man who fell off a cliff into the gorge at Nay Aug Park this afternoon.

Rescue workers took the man, who was not identified, out of the water about 3:15 p.m. He was on a backboard, and crews used an ATV to transport him to a waiting ambulance. Fire officials said the victim was stable, alert and conscious after the rescue.

Witnesses at the park said the man may have been a camper at a local facility.

Check back for updates.

A man who Scranton police sought as a “person of interest” in an arson that ravaged a West Scranton home Saturday was found dead with severe burns Sunday at a housing project across town, Scranton police Chief Carl Graziano said.

Aurelio Ceballos, 57, died from his burns, Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland said after a forensic autopsy Tuesday. He was found dead in an apartment at the Valley View Terrace apartment complex at 8 p.m. The manner of his death is pending further investigation. He declined to comment further.

Police wanted an interview with Mr. Ceballos because his vehicle had been impounded in front of 319 12th Ave., which was destroyed by a natural gas line-fueled fire early Saturday morning. Authorities declared it arson.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com; @jkohutTT on Twitter

A forensic audit could not pinpoint any fraud in the County of Lackawanna Transit System’s inflated senior ridership reporting over several years.

The COLTS board of directors hired Harrisburg-based accounting firm Maher Duessel in November to study exaggerated figures the transit agency reported to the state Department of Transportation. COLTS provided the written report on Tuesday.

The accounting firm confirmed COLTS generally reported the same data to PennDOT that bus drivers reported to the administration since the transit system started using computer software that tracks ridership.

“We cannot confirm if drivers were accurately recording ridership throughout the time period,” auditors wrote. “As a result, we were unable to determine if illegal acts occurred related to senior ridership.”

PennDOT last year ordered COLTS to pay back $5.7 million and forfeit $771,000 in capital improvement money for exaggerating its senior ridership numbers over a six-year period. Public transit usage helps drive state funding.

The penalties nearly resulted in major service cuts.

Contact the writer: kwind@timesshamrock.com, @kwindTT on Twitter

DUNMORE — For the first time since 2012, the Scranton-Abingtons Planning Association held a meeting to discuss the group’s future and move forward with an intergovernmental agreement.

The association voted to send an ordinance to member municipalities — Clarks Green, Clarks Summit, Dalton, Dunmore, Scranton, Glenburn Twp., Newton Twp., South Abington Twp., Waverly Twp. and West Abington Twp. — for adoption by Oct. 1.

The intergovernmental cooperative implementation agreement allows for greater options for a region as opposed to a single city, township or borough.

Instead of one city being required to offer all types of zoning, the plan shares the zoning and is a policy guide for future land use, economic revitalization, open-space conservation and historic resource preservation among SAPA members.

When drafting the plan, each member municipality created their own part of the map and worked on the text regarding their own community, said SAPA coordinator Denise Prowell.

Movement on the association stalled when Scranton backed out of the group in 2010. Scranton was key to the municipalities working together since all member communities must touch. The Electric City connected Dunmore with the Abingtons, said Ms. Prowell.

After the agreement is sent out, the group will ask for request for qualifications and request for proposals for consultants to update the municipalities’ zoning.

Member municipalities do not have to update their zoning to reflect the plan.

Each SAPA municipality also retains its own zoning hearing board, planning commission, zoning ordinances and subdivision and land development ordinances and can withdraw from the group at any time.

Contact the writer:

kbolus@timesshamrock.com, @kbolusTT on Twitter

Republican Pike County District Attorney Raymond J. Tonkin plans to accept the Democratic nomination for the post, setting up a fall rematch with attorney Kelly A. Gaughan.

In the May primary election, Ms. Gaughan won the Republican nomination by 190 votes, but Mr. Tonkin had 113 more Democratic write-in votes than she did, according to unofficial results. He had the option to reject the Democratic nomination, but did not.

“I had a lot of contact from citizens urging me to continue pursuing the election,” he said Tuesday.

Mr. Tonkin said he would not change his voter registration to reflect his ballot status.

“I’m a registered Republican and I’m still a registered Republican,” Mr. Tonkin said.

Contact the writer:

bkrawczeniuk

@timesshamrock.com

Scranton Councilman Wayne Evans decided in the end he could not just walk away.

Mr. Evans confirmed he will accept the Republican nomination he earned through write-in votes during the May primary and seek a full, four-year term on city council in the Nov. 3 general election.

It was something of an about-face for the 61-year-old South Scranton resident, who had said when he was appointed to fill a council vacancy last July that he would not run for the seat in 2015.

“The city is at such a critical juncture right now that I kept on thinking to myself, ‘How do you walk away?’” he said Tuesday. “I’ve been involved in community service all my life and to walk away now is just something I don’t think I can do. That’s really what it came down to.”

Mr. Evans said he has already filed the paperwork needed to make his candidacy official with the Lackawanna County Department of Elections.

He joins David Burgerhoff on the GOP council ticket. They will battle Democrats Bob McGoff and Tim Perry for the two council seats available in November.

Although Mr. Evans chose not to place his name on the May ballot, a Draft-Wayne-Evans effort orchestrated by supporters in the final days before the primary gave him 120 Republican write-in votes, 20 more than he needed to secure a nomination.

He suspects he also received the vast majority of the 673 write-in votes for council cast by Democratic voters.

“I think I kept my word — I didn’t run for the office,” he said. “But when that many people write your name in just to convince you to run, you have to respect the process. In a way, it’s democracy to the core when people do something like that.”

Contact the writer:

dsingleton@timesshamrock.com

Abingtons

Church bazaar: Churches of Our Lady of the Snows/St. Bene­dict’s annual bazaar, Aug. 6-8, grounds of the Church of St. Benedict, Newton-Ransom Boule­vard; entertainment, 40-plus booths including Ameri­can/ethnic foods, hay rides, games, Coffee House for Young Adults; theme basket raffles, bargain barn, books, plants, bingo, vintage collectibles.

Childs

Clam bash: Meredith Hose Company 1 clam bash, Aug. 21, 22, 5-11 p.m., live music, food, games, beer tent, wine.

Dickson City

Stormwater meeting: Storm­water meeting, today, 6:30 p.m., Municipal Building, Eagle Lane.

Dunmore

Reservations due: Dunmore High School class of 1965 50th anniversary reunion reservations close Sunday; prereunion social, July 31, 8:15 p.m., Ragnacci’s.

Lackawanna County

Endowment events: Cody Bar­rasse Scholarship Endowment “The Cody Barrasse 3 ON 3 Memorial Basketball Tourna­ment,” Aug. 8, tip off, 10 a.m., Scranton Prep’s Xavier Center; $90/team by Friday, $100/after, athttp://codybarrasse3on3.com/; benefits Memorial Schol­arship Endowment at Scranton Prep; and “Continue Cody’s Commitment” organ donor awareness event, Aug. 8, 8-10:30 p.m., the Leonard, 335 Adams Ave, Scranton; music, light fare, open bar; $50, http://codybarrasse3on3.com/, or at the door; proceeds will help defray expenses for families of patients waiting for transplants; sponsorships available; http://codybarrasse3on3.com/ or by checks made payable to Scranton Prep, 3-on-3 Tourna­ment, c/o Chris Boland, 1000 Wyoming Ave, Scranton, PA 18509; donations to scholarship fund make checks payable to Scranton Prep and send to Mr. Boland; details, https://www.facebook.com/events/

371841716358106.

Lake/Salem Twps.

Chicken barbecue: Community Library of Lake/Salem Twps. takeout chicken barbecue, Aug. 2, noon-3 p.m., library, Route 191; $10/adults, $5/under 12, $5/chicken only (pre-sold dinners until 2 p.m.)

Scranton

Class reunion: Central High School class of 1980 reunion/art show, alumni art show Aug. 7, 6-9 p.m.; classmates only, 9-11 p.m., Connell Building 129 N. Washington Ave.; Liturgical Celebration for Fallen Eagles, their families, the community, and classmates, Aug. 8, 2 p.m., Madonna Della Strada Chapel, Rock Hall, Monroe Avenue, Uni­ver­sity of Scranton; reunion and dancing, Aug. 8, 7-11 p.m., POSH at the Scranton Club; $45 for both events; reservations: Marty Toth, martytoth@netzero.net, 717-571-7667; Kitsy Hart Curtin, 570-498-4537; mail to 911 Longview Terrace, Clarks Summit, PA 18411 on Facebook at “Scran­ton Central Class of 1980.

Dinner club: St. Mary’s Interna­tional Dinner Club, Tastes of the Orient, Aug. 6, 5:30 or 6:30 p.m. seatings, 320 Mifflin Ave., vegetable egg roll/sweet chili sauce, Pad Khi Mao (stir fried noodles with pork, garlic, sweet basil, coconut milk, carrots, green onion and fresh ginger), mango and green tea pudding, cash bar available; $20 by Aug. 3, 570-343-5151.

South Scranton

Prayer shawl: St. Paul of the Cross prayer shawl group meeting, Monday, 6 p.m., parish center, Prospect Avenue.

Wayne County

Linen fair: Wayne Memorial Hos­pital Auxiliary summer linens fair, Thursday, 7 a.m.-to 5 p.m., Friday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m., David Katz Conference Center, hospital’s second floor; blankets, throws, sheet sets and pillows.

Wayne Highlands

School registration: Honesdale High School new student registration form due by Aug. 14 at www.waynehighlands.org, required appointments made after form completed; details/registration packets, contact Mrs. Wagner at school, 570-253-2046.

CLIPBOARD ITEMS may be sent to yesdesk@timesshamrock.com or Clipboard, c/o YES!Desk, 149 Penn Ave., Scranton, PA 18503. YES!Desk, 570-348-9121.

BRIDGEWATER TWP. — One person was killed and another taken to the hospital by helicopter following a head-on collision about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday on Route 4007 northeast of Montrose.

State police have not identified the victims pending family notification.

The crash happened when the driver of a southbound vehicle crossed into the northbound lane, state police said.

The investigation into the crash remains open, state police said.

Name incorrect

“Dawn Barletta” was listed incorrectly as “John Barletta” in a list of criminal sentencings published on Page A5 in The Sunday Times on July 19.

Cartwright talk

A story on Page A6 in Tuesday’s editions incorrectly summarized topics covered during U.S. Rep Matt Cartwright’s town hall meeting Monday. The story should have said Planned Parenthood allegedly has profited from the sale of fetal organ tissue.

SCRANTON — A candlelight vigil to raise awareness about veterans’ suicides throughout the nation will be held tonight at 8 at St. Francis Commons in the 500 block of Penn Avenue.

Advocacy group Vocal Veterans, which formed in March, is hosting the vigil, said organizer John Wharton.

It will be the group’s fourth candlelight vigil. Held on the 22nd day of each month, the vigils are called “Shining the Light on 22,” a reference to a recent national statistic that some 22 veterans commit suicide each day, Mr. Wharton said.

— JIM LOCKWOOD

Minions are taking over.

The pill-shaped servants of a cartoonishly evil master debuted in “Despicable Me.” The 2010 film earned nearly $550 million at the box office. The sequel sold nearly $1 billion in tickets. The third installment, “Minions,” arrived July 10 and has generated $625 million at theaters. None of these numbers account for the astronomical profits reaped from merchandising the little yellow money bombs.

Minions are everywhere, from Happy Meals to hotel ads. They are cute, goofy and harmless. Computer-generated henchmen do imaginary damage. Real-life minions pose a clear and present danger to real people.

Casino and landfill magnate Louis DeNaples has deployed his minions — who look, talk and cash checks like average humans — all over Northeast Pennsylvania and beyond. He has taken maximum advantage of the neediness of local governments and the paranoia of state officials who fear he might bankroll an opponent.

You can’t buy what isn’t for sale.

The latest example of Mr. DeNaples’ outsized influence was exposed in The Sunday Times by staff writer Jim Lockwood. A trucking company owned by Mr. DeNaples was operating outside the lines in Roaring Brook Twp. on a parcel zoned for conservation.

The business is related to fracking, a process that ruins fresh water to harvest natural gas. It sits upstream from Lake Scranton, which supplies drinking water for about 160,000 people. Anyone aware that water is essential to survival would naturally be concerned — if they knew about the fracking-related business operating outside the lines upstream from Lake Scranton.

Roaring Brook Twp. officials knew, but did nothing. They planned to change the zoning for Mr. DeNaples, but never bothered. Official actions draw unwelcome attention. So the business grew further outside the lines, and somehow no one in government noticed. The township’s total land mass is 21.4 square miles. The business is on 664 acres owned by Louis DeNaples. Do the math.

Fewer than 2,000 people live in Roaring Brook. They are represented by three supervisors who looked the other way as a trucking business related to fracking ballooned upstream from the source of drinking water for 160,000 people. Township zoning officer Paul Kozik at least admitted he didn’t do his job. He shut down the business after Jim Lockwood called him on it.

Mr. Kozik thanked the newspaper for bringing it up.

“It was a good phone call. You woke me up,” he said. Trucks from the site hauled water involved in “gas drilling” to Keystone Sanitary Landfill, he said. Keystone is also owned by Louis DeNaples, who is seeking an indefensible 50-year expansion for his trash mountain in Dunmore and Throop.

Chief DeNaples apologist Al Magnotta told Jim Lockwood the tanker trucks on the Roaring Brook property hauled water, not fracking waste. How he knows that is a mystery, since he claimed no knowledge of how large the operation had grown. I called Mr. Magnotta on Tuesday. He didn’t call back.

He did thank Jim Lockwood, though.

“In a way, I have to thank you for alerting us and alerting the township,” Mr. Magnotta said. “It’s going to be taken care of.”

That’s right, folks. Nothing to see here. It will all be cleaned up before you know it.

When a government official exposed as failing to do his job and a representative of a company caught operating a business outside the lines thank a journalist for pushing them to action in the public interest, it should be a signal to law enforcement and regulatory agencies to take a closer look. State police, the state attorney general and the Lackawanna County district attorney’s office should be clamoring to investigate this fiasco.

Mr. Kozik said the tankers were empty when he visited. He also said the trucks hauled water “related to fracking” to Keystone Sanitary Landfill. What was in those tankers, and where was it dumped?

Al Magnotta said the tankers carried water. Where did that water come from? Is it possible it was drawn from Lake Scranton or a tributary? Did Pennsylvania American Water — which manages the water supply of 160,000 people — OK withdrawals for fracking? Consumers deserve answers.

And if those tanker trucks crossed state lines, the FBI should launch a probe, too. You would think the discovery of a business operating outside the lines upstream from the water supply of 160,000 people would spur some action. The aforementioned agencies’ collective complacency so far raises an obvious question: Just how many minions does Louis DeNaples have?

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, would love to be pill-shaped. Contact the writer: kellysworld@timesshamrock.com, @cjkink on Twitter. Read his daily blog at blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/kelly.

A teenage girl from West Scranton died today in South Carolina from injuries suffered in a Saturday car crash, according to the Florence County Coroner's Office in South Carolina.

Her family is torn and also frustrated because they don’t know why she was there in the first place.

Serena “Retta” Caramanno, 14, was one of six people involved in a one-vehicle crash Saturday morning. The crash occurred about 8:15 a.m. on Interstate 95 in Florence County, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

The girl’s father, James Caramanno, said she died Monday shorlty after noon. The coroner's office said that is when she was declared clinically brain dead, at 12:50 p.m. Monday.

“Ms. Caramanno is still on life support at this time,” Florence County Coroner Keith von Lutcken said in an email Tuesday night. “I cannot release information until support is withdrawn and she has expired.”

This afternoon, Mr. von Lutcken confirmed she died.

According to the coroner’s office, 23-year-old Darhon Marquis McEachern of Charlotte, North Carolina, died at the scene of the crash. Times-Tribune records show Mr. McEachern once lived in Scranton, but Serena Caramanno’s family said Tuesday they did not know who he was. The other passengers’ conditions are not known.

“I’m destroyed, and I’m just so angry,” said Serena Caramanno’s older sister, Samantha Caramanno, 26. “It makes absolutely no sense that people who were so much older than her would take her without her parents’ consent.”

Serena is a freshman at West Scranton High School.

She grew up with Samantha Caramanno’s own children and helped care for them, her big sister said.

Samantha Caramanno remembered giving her little sister the nickname “Retta.”

“I was only 12 years old when she was born,” she said. “That one stuck with everybody, and everyone continued to call her that.”

The vehicle Mr. McEachern was driving was northbound and left the road before striking trees near mile marker 170, about 20 miles away from the North Carolina border, according to the highway patrol.

The crash is under investigation by the highway patrol and the coroner’s office.

Contact the writer:

joconnell@timesshamrock.com,

@jon_oc on Twitter

Editor's Note: This article was changed to correct errors.

WILKES-BARRE — Ted Jackson Sr.’s federal civil rights lawsuit over his 2012 ouster as Dallas High School football coach will proceed toward a trial, according to a decision Tuesday from Senior U.S. District Judge James M. Munley.

The judge rejected a motion to dismiss the claim that the Dallas School Board violated Mr. Jackson’s First Amendment right to free association and dismissed the suit’s free speech claim.

According to Mr. Jackson’s suit, six school board members moved to open his position and appoint Bob Zaruta, a less qualified political ally, as head coach in 2012. Last February, the board voted 6-3 to replace Mr. Zaruta with Rich Mannello.

Mr. Jackson claims a Republican majority on the school board wanted Mr. Zaruta as head football coach in 2012 because he was a Democrat and Mr. Zaruta was a Republican who displayed campaign signs on his lawn for three school board members in 2011.

DUNMORE — A Northampton man is facing charges of terroristic threats and simple assault after police said he pointed a gun at another driver near the Tigue Street exit on Interstate 84.

Just after 10 a.m. Monday, troopers interviewed Christopher Rivera, who said he was driving a Honda on Interstate 380 North when a blue Toyota Tundra pulled up behind him and flashed his lights. After Mr. Rivera moved into the right lane, the Toyota passed him and then swerved into his lane, nearly hitting his Honda.

On I-84 West near mile marker 2, he passed the Toyota again. The driver pulled up alongside him and pointed a gun at him before taking the Tigue Street exit.

A Dunmore police officer stopped John Stephen Szazdi, 51, a short time later. After Mr. Szazdi told the officer the gun was in the center console, the officer removed it and found that it was loaded with one round in the chamber.

Mr. Szazdi was also charged with recklessly endangering another person and harassment. He was released on $200,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Former Mid Valley School District superintendent James Tallarico misappropriated nearly $12,000 from the school district for personal use over his roughly one year tenure as the district’s top administrator, the state Attorney General’s Office said today.

Of that total, $4,110 has been paid back, leaving an outstanding $7,582.44 owed to the district, which covers Olyphant, Dickson City and Throop.

The new details are listed point by point in a 22 count criminal complaint filed against Mr. Tallarico, 55. Mr. Tallarico admitted he defrauded the district when confronted by special agents because he has been financially overwhelmed “the past few years.” He couldn’t pay his bills and at one point had his gas and water turned off. He added he paid medical bills for his wife and daughter. As superintendent, his salary in 2014 was $105,000.

Mr. Tallarico turned himself in today next to his lawyer, Gerard Karam, to face the charges, which include theft, forgery and official oppression. Magisterial District Judge John. P. Pesota arraigned the former schools chief executive and released him on $50,000 unsecured bail. Mr. Tallarico and his attorney did not speak as they entered the courtroom and promptly left after processing.

He served as Mid Valley’s superintendent from Jan. 1, 2014 until February this year, when a sudden email to school officials abruptly announced his resignation for “personal reasons.”

The Mid Valley School Board initiated the investigation after school officials found irregularities and possible improper activity, which they turned over to law enforcement.

Check back for updates.

Integrity. Courage. Honor.

The three words are inscribed across the base of the Samuel W. Pennypacker Police Memorial outside Scranton Police Headquarters.

A fourth is absent but understood.

Sacrifice.

On Wednesday, 10 days after his death from injuries suffered while helping to apprehend three armed robbery suspects in West Side, Patrolman John Wilding’s name became the 13th added to the memorial’s honor roll of officers killed while protecting the citizens of Scranton.

“We had hoped we would never have to put another name on there,” Police Chief Carl Graziano said. “It really reminds us of the risk that is there for the position that we’re in, and it’s a permanent reminder now.”

A small knot of onlookers watched silently as Dean Holbrook, an engraver working for Monuments by Parise of Carbondale, knelt beside the memorial and carefully sandblasted Patrolman Wilding’s name into the Bahama Blue granite stone using a pre-affixed stencil.

It took just minutes.

City Controller Roseann Novembrino, who co-headed the committee that erected the memorial 10 years ago and stopped by to watch Patrolman Wilding’s name added, said she never realized “so much sorrow would be attached to it.”

Patrolman Wilding, 29, a husband and the father of two young children, served as the beat officer for West Scranton, where Mrs. Novembrino lives.

“What a loss it is to our community,” she said. “When you know them, it hurts even more.”

The police department conducted no ceremony at the memorial Wednesday. Chief Graziano said a formal remembrance service for Patrolman Wilding will take place during National Law Enforcement Memorial Week next May.

He expressed his gratitude to the community for the outpouring of sympathy and support for the department and Patrolman Wilding’s family.

“With John’s death, it takes a lot of wind out of your sails,” the chief said. “It really deflates you, and the support of the public is energizing and really helps you get through this. I cannot thank the public enough.”

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com