DNA is a powerful tool that can link perpetrators to crimes or free them from suspicion.Yet, in a 5-4 ruling that can only be described as cruelly short-sighted, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month ruled that inmates do not have a constitutional right to demand DNA testing of evidence that rem...

It's no secret Lancaster Area Habitat for Humanity partners with many local businesses.But for some companies, the extent of that involvement is deeper than the public realizes, with support for Habitat manifesting itself at many levels.Susquehanna Bank is a perfect example. While it supplies fi...

A dozen McCaskey East High School students are enjoying a nine-day summer camp at Millersville University.Since Saturday, the students have been frolicking in the Pucillo Gymnasium pool, lounging in the lobbies and halls of their dorms and basking in the sunshine around MU's pond.But a closer lo...

Three people were injured Sunday night in a violent two-car wreck on a winding stretch of road in Warwick Township.One woman was flown by helicopter from the scene to an undisclosed hospital. The occupants of the second vehicle, a man and a woman, were transported by ambulance to Lancaster General H...

Karen Puracan is on a mission.The naturalist at Lancaster's Central Park is determined to help average homeowners realize how easy — and affordable — it is to create a wildlife habitat right in their own backyard."The habitat around us is being swallowed up, day by day, acre by ...

The earrings that Kenyan Mike Muchilwa sells to Ten Thousand Villages started as cans that otherwise would be thrown away.Soda cans or food cans — their metal is not only the basis for the earrings, it's income for the people in Kisumu and Nairobi who collect them. Collectors sell the cans...

Marelly Guzman liked to play with LEGO® when she was younger, but her dream job was to become a model.The high school junior later realized she was "too shy" for modeling, but still enjoyed "building stuff, creating different stuff."That love of tinkering led Marelly to enrol...

The mayor was there, and two county commissioners.U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts sent a staffer, too.The event was a breakfast meeting to address worrisome trends in the Latino community.And so it was a good thing elected leaders or their representatives attended, but let's be honest. It's probably the...

Remember August 1999?That's when civic and business leaders unveiled an ambitious plan.Where the landmark Watt & Shand building had stood empty for years, they envisioned a luxury hotel and convention center.It took 10 stormy years, but developers are about to deliver. Time will tell whether...

Fred Kent lives and works in New York City and loves to ride the subway and watch people.The subway gets Kent to where he needs to go, but also important to him is how it adds fun and variety to his life.The subway station and the interior of a subway car are public spaces that have utility. But the...

With a backlog of local public works projects, county officials didn't have to look far to find a place to spend $903,494 in federal stimulus money.But picking projects that were ready to go right away was a little harder.This morning, Lancaster County Commissioners signed off on plans to use money ...

Large shards of glass sparkle green, purple and blue in the windows. Mason jars filled with colored glass line the shelves. Rainbows are sponge-painted on the walls.Lindy and Philip Malin of Lancaster are in their studio, Rainbow's End, where the couple has helped to transform something broken a...

Lancaster artist Constantine "Gus" Kermes died Tuesday morning at the age of 86.Kermes was well-known for his paintings of the Amish and in more recent years his painting of abstract water colors.A native of Pittsburgh, he moved to Lancaster in 1955 to work in the design department of the ...

Through no effort of their own, Pennsylvania Amish and the Ephrata Cloister will be represented at Swann Auction Galleries' annual spring auction of Modernist Posters on Thursday.Ironically, posters of these two Lancaster County groups, are being sold during an economic recession, and they were ...

Some found objects become art; others inspire art.Lancaster artist Gail Gray didn't so much find the object that inspired her most recent series of paintings as rediscover it.Gray's sister had been cleaning out their mother's house upon her death when she came across a purse Gray had che...

Jim Murray has worn a lot of hats throughout his lifetime.The 70-year-old worked in the St. Louis Cardinals baseball organization, led the Philadelphia Eagles as general manager for more than nine years, served in the Marine Corps Reserve, co-founded the first Ronald McDonald house in 1974 and now r...

After reading Christian author Rick Warren's best-seller "The Purpose Driven Life," Lawrence Wilson said he and his wife felt an urgency to act."We came away from it wanting to express our faith more in our community and to use the gifts that we believe God has given to us to help...

After a good quarter-century of working with volunteers, a smiling Conni Yoder says that it's "always good to remember that you're dealing with" people who are choosing to help."So you have to try and fit their schedule a little bit. … You can't really tell them, &#...

Thanks to an initiative from the state, it might be a little easier for blind and vision-impaired people to enjoy an evening at the theater.Ermyn King, the manager of the Pennsylvania Cultural Access Project, will be talking about the new initiative during a regional meeting of the Pennsylvania Coun...

Fourteen-year-old Jeffery Doll is still amazed he's a published artist.The Reynolds Middle School eighth-grader submitted several illustrations for "My Lancaster County: A Coloring Book for Kids" after being encouraged by his art teacher.Jeffery was shocked when his illustration of the...