Pennsylvania

Four people died on a rural Pennsylvania highway Friday when a gunman killed three people and later died in a shootout with police, authorities said. Three state troopers were injured, one of whom was saved from worse wounds by the bulletproof vest he wore. The incident comes as the nation remained on edge a week after a gunman invaded a western Connecticut elementary school, killing 20 children and six adults before committing suicide in the building. It also comes as gun control remains a major topic on the political agenda with the Obama administration and some Democrats seeking to craft tougher federal proposals while the National Rifle Assn., the lobbying group, vowed it would continue to fight new restrictions and insisted the better path was to increase armed security.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday named a vocal advocate of shorter sentences and community treatment to run the state's crowded and troubled prison system. Brown announced the selection of Jeffrey Beard, 65, the retired former Pennsylvania prisons chief, to succeed Matthew Cate, who stepped down last month after four years as secretary of corrections in California. Cate is now leader of the California State Assn. of Counties. Beard, whose appointment is subject to Senate confirmation, spent nearly four decades in corrections in Pennsylvania, starting as a counselor and advancing to prison warden, eventually spending nine years as department head.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found that retailer Wet Seal Inc. discriminated against a former African American store manager. It's just the latest problem plaguing the struggling Foothill Ranch company, which in the space of five months has fired its chief executive, overseen a board overhaul and revamped its strategy to bolster flagging sales. Now, the federal agency tasked with enforcing laws against workplace discrimination has determined that Nicole Cogdell, a former manager of a Wet Seal store in Pennsylvania, was "subjected to a hostile work environment" because of her race.

HATFIELD, Pa. - With negotiations in Washington apparently going nowhere, President Obama took the fiscal fight outside the Beltway on Friday, restaging it in a toy factory where he tried to pile public pressure on Republicans to accept his tax proposals. In remarks filled with St. Nick puns and yuletide jokes, Obama stood on the factory floor flanked by workers taking a break from the holiday rush, and executives who support his plan to raise taxes on top earners. The message: Take my plan before the year-end deadline or risk damaging the economy.

A section of York County Prison in Pennsylvania remained off limits to inmates Friday after nearly 50 prisoners were hospitalized with what appears to be carbon monoxide poisoning, county officials told the Los Angeles Times. On Wednesday night, 49 female inmates were taken to the hospital after showing symptoms related breathing in the colorless, odorless gas. Prison officials believe the gas came from a leak in that unit's heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The unit was shut down and the area was ventilated Wednesday and Thursday.

Philadelphia has had its share of wild weather of late, but it's still a great place to visit even bundled up or huddled under an umbrella. Now Southwest makes it less expensive to see the City of Brotherly Love: $242 round trip, including all taxes and fees, for travel between Nov. 28 and May 31 (although holiday blackouts apply). It is subject to availability, but there is no minimum stay. You can travel any day of the week. Info: Southwest , (800) 435-9792. Source: Airfarewatchdog Follow us on Twitter @latimestravel , like us on Facebook @Los Angeles Times Travel.

A shifting district and waves of outside cash have put Democrats at risk of losing their foothold on Western Pennsylvania, where the 12 th Congressional District race has seen more outside money than in any other U.S. House race. After the 2010 census, Pennsylvania saw its 12 th Congressional District get rejiggered by state Republicans to include more conservative voters. That presents a challenge for Democratic incumbent Mark Critz, who has distanced himself from President Obama and the president's signature healthcare reform.

BOSTON -- Mitt Romney voted near his Belmont home Tuesday morning before heading to Ohio and Pennsylvania for last-minute appearances to court voters as they head to the polls in those battleground states. Romney said he feels “very, very good” about his prospects against President Obama. When asked by reporters whom he voted for, he said, "I think you know. " Romney, wearing a dark suit, and his wife Ann, wearing a long sapphire jacket, arrived at the Beech Street Center at 8:41 a.m. and were greeted by a large crowd of cheering supporters and pro-Obama demonstrators.

In one Florida county, voters were wrongly told they could vote the day after the election. In storm-racked New Jersey, emergency plans to allow email voting proved too popular for election officials to handle. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, a variety of problems raised questions about the integrity of the vote. Although most Americans cast ballots without incident Tuesday, there were enough glitches to cause concern among voting rights activists and to provide work for some of the thousands of lawyers who were standing by, representing parties, candidates and nonpartisan voter advocacy groups.

PITTSBURGH - Stumping in a state considered safe for the Democrats until recently, Bill Clinton rallied a midday crowd in western Pennsylvania for Barack Obama, calling the president a unifier who will continue an economic recovery across the country. “Who's more likely to restore the middle class?” he asked the crowd in Pittsburgh's Market Square. “I think it's the candidate that got off the campaign trail and went to work on Hurricane Sandy with Republicans and Democrats.”  “If you saw President Obama working with Democratic governors of New York and Connecticut, the Republican governor of New Jersey, the independent mayor of New York City - who just endorsed him by the way - you saw the guy who left the door open for the Republicans for four years, and they wouldn't walk through,” he said.