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• While FBI agents party, their cars are robbed
  The FBI and Pittsburgh Police are looking for thieves who stole several GPS units and an armored vest from four cars belonging to federal agents.
• 'Professional' burglars get $13,000 from Giant Eagle
  EBENSBURG, Pa. -- Police are hunting for burglars who broke into a Cambria County Giant Eagle on Christmas Eve and made off with $13,000 in cash.
• Gun-control advocacy group picks new leader
  HARRISBURG -- Joe Grace, a lawyer and a former journalist, knows what it's like to be on the hot seat. He's been communications director for Philadelphia Mayor John Street for the past 2 1/2 years.
• Texas A&M apologizes for Joe Paterno 'death bed' remarks
  SAN ANTONIO -- Texas A&M officials have apologized to Penn State leaders over an Aggie yell leader's references to needing a "casket" for coach Joe Paterno.
• Divers search river for missing Elizabeth man
  Divers and a boat equipped with sonar searched the murky Monongahela River in Monongahela yesterday but did not find the body of a 71-year-old Elizabeth Township man missing since Dec. 10. ...
• Random acts of kindness
  Chronicling the good deeds by good folks
• Butler County commissioners OK new budget
  Butler County commissioners approved a 2008 budget yesterday with a 2.5-mill property tax increase that brings the county to its state-imposed cap of 25 mills. ...
• City Council approves two bills targeting bad landlords
  Landlords will need to register with the city and could be billed for repeat police calls at their properties under two ordinances approved by Pittsburgh City Council yesterday. "The No. ...
• New Year's gift: County to begin Rankin Bridge repairs early
  On a scale of 1 to 10, the patched, deteriorated deck of the 56-year-old Rankin Bridge rates a score of 4, making it one of many structurally deficient bridges in Allegheny County. ...
• Moonda defense cost taxpayers $483,000
  Taxpayers spent almost $483,000 to provide a legal defense for Donna Moonda, the Pennsylvania woman convicted of arranging her husband's murder on the Ohio Turnpike. U.S. ...
• City focuses on fund raising for 'Promise'
  City parents might not want to blow the kids' college fund yet, but with a key impediment out of the way, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl turned his attention yesterday to the next step in making the ...
• Pittsburgh Pakistanis saddened, fear chaos yet to come
  As she does every morning, Nuzhat Malik woke up before 7 a.m. yesterday and turned on the Pakistani television station she gets via satellite in her Monroeville home. ...
• Specter was set to meet with Bhutto
  U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., had been scheduled to meet with Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto less than three hours after she was assassinated yesterday. Mr. ...
• U.S. presidential candidates weigh in on Bhutto's death
  GUTHRIE CENTER, Iowa -- The assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto yesterday pushed foreign policy to the U.S. ...
• Ruling awaited on new drink tax
  With Allegheny County's 10 percent drink tax set to take effect on Tuesday, restaurateurs and bar owners yesterday asked a Common Pleas judge to block it. Judge W. ...
• Unrepentant murder convict gets life term
  Sameania Carey, convicted of first-degree murder, locked eyes yesterday with each of the victim's relatives who took the stand at her sentencing hearing. ...
• Health care, pensions put Port Authority in the red
  A "pay-as-you-go" approach for liberal health and life insurance benefits for retirees has caught up with the Port Authority and portends an accrued obligation of $690.5 million for the future, ...
• N. Huntingdon bank robbed
  Authorities were searching for the man who robbed a North Huntingdon bank yesterday morning while brandishing what appeared to be a handgun. ...
• N. Versailles apartment fire blamed on smoking in bed
  The Allegheny County fire marshal's office has ruled that a fatal blaze at a North Versailles independent living center was accidental. ...
• Skeletal remains found in Somerset County
  Skeletal remains presumed to be human were found Wednesday evening in Somerset Township, state police announced yesterday. The remains were discovered in a wooded area along Industrial Park Road. ...
• Senate leader hatching new plan for transportation funding
  HARRISBURG -- In recent months, three plans have been devised to generate the billions of dollars needed to repair Pennsylvania's deteriorating roads, bridges and mass transit systems. ...
• Media challenge juror secrecy in Wecht case
  Three local news organizations yesterday filed a challenge with the federal appeals court, arguing that withholding jurors' names in the criminal case against former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. ...
• Obituary: Dale Baird / Thoroughbred racing's winningest trainer
  Trainer Dale Baird's life was thoroughbred racing, and it was in that world that he forged a career of North American firsts while based off the beaten path at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & ...
• Obituary: Felix J. Bombara / Co-founder of engineering firm
  Earlier this month, Felix Joseph Bombara of Bethel Park was still working full time at the firm he co-founded more than 50 years ago, Galletta Engineering Corp. ...
• Latest deaths
  From around the region:
• North Irwin budget includes tax increase
  North Irwin residents will see a real estate tax millage hike for the first time since 1988. ...
• Goodfellows donations near $185,000
  As of yesterday, donations to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Goodfellows Toy Fund totaled $184,919.37, with contributions still arriving. ...
• New judges to be sworn in
  Over the next few weeks, the region's newly elected judges will be sworn into office. The first was Common Pleas Judge Michael E. ...
• City Council clears way for new North Side library
  Pittsburgh City Council voted yesterday to allow the sale of land for a new North Side Carnegie Library. ...
• Penguins beat Capitals, 4-3, in overtime
  Sergei Gonchar's goal in overtime gave the Penguins a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals tonight at Mellon Arena.
• Verizon ups cable rates
  Verizon is raising the rate on its FiOS TV premiere package by $5 a month for new customers after Feb. 15.
• Specter was to meet with Bhutto in Pakistan today
  Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter had been scheduled to meet with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan today.
• Steelers' Smith has back surgery, retu