STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Russ Rose retired Thursday as Penn State’s women’s volleyball coach, ending a 43-year run that featured seven NCAA titles, 109 straight wins from 2007-10 and the Division I career victory record. The 68-year-old Rose will remain in an advisory role within the athletic department. Katie Schumacher-Cawley will serve as interim head coach. Rose finished with a 1,330-229 record, the most victories in Division I history. He led Penn State to national titles in 1999, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014 and 25 conference championships — 17 in the Big Ten and eight in the Atlantic 10. As a player, Rose helped George Williams College win the 1974 NAIA title.

Five teenagers face charges in Delaware after they were found in a vehicle that was stolen at gunpoint in Philadelphia from U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon. State police say Scanlon’s blue Acura MDX was located Wednesday night in Newark, Delaware. That’s about 45 miles from Philadelphia. The FBI charged a 19-year-old man with carjacking, a weapons charge, and aiding and abetting. A 14-year-old girl and three boys, ages 13, 15 and 16, are charged with receiving stolen property. The 15-year-old also is charged with resisting arrest and criminal mischief. Scanlon was unharmed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will lift travel restrictions on eight southern African countries that it imposed to try to blunt the spread of the COVID omicron variant. The White House says the temporary travel bans bought scientists necessary time to study the new virus variant first discovered in South Africa. The World Health Organization and leaders in southern Africa criticized the travel ban as ineffective. The ban had barred entry to all non-U.S. citizens who had been in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Namibia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. It will be lifted on New Year’s Eve.

(File Photo)
Thursday, December 23, 2021 at 6:43 AM
(Jackson Twp., Butler County, Pa.) A 14-year-old 8th Grade Seneca Valley student has been arrested and charged with terroristic threats and disorderly conduct after a threat to the school on a TikTok post forced the district to learn remotely last Friday.
Jackson Township police and TikTok’s safety team worked together to identify the student.
The district also said the student is facing discipline, though it did not say what actions would be taken against the unnamed student.
The threat was deemed not credible.

Thursday, December 23, 2021 at 5:51 AM
By MARK SCOLFORO and MARC LEVY Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s top state election official is warning that delays in drawing new legislative districts boundaries may require pushing back next year’s spring primary election. That’s as a group of voters asked Pennsylvania’s highest court to pick a new map of congressional districts if Gov. Tom Wolf and lawmakers fail to agree on one soon. Pennsylvania must redraw state legislative districts and congressional districts to account for a decade of demographic shifts, but partisan disagreements are threatening to delay both processes. Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid told the Legislative Reapportionment Commission in a letter Tuesday that its current schedule will not work with the current primary deadlines.

Thursday, December 23, 2021 at %;48 AM
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is using his veto on a bill that would have required school districts to post information about textbooks, course material and state academic standards online. The Democratic governor said Wednesday the legislation “politicizes what is being taught in our schools” and that state regulations already require public schools to provide similar material upon request. It  would have required links or titles for every textbook and course summaries to be posted on district websites, starting with the next academic year. Both legislative chambers were split nearly along party lines in votes on the measure. Republicans supported the bill and Democrats were opposed.