Pennsylvania State Police were forced to shoot and kill a suspect during a standoff Sunday afternoon in Potter County. Troopers say they were called to 200 School Street in Harrison Township where a man was reportedly inside his residence with a gun.  Police set up a perimeter and made numerous attempts to resolve the situation peacefully, but were shot at by the suspect on four separate occasions. The final time, police returned fire, killing 30 year old Joshua Wheeler.  State Police say no officers were hurt in the incident. At this point, it is unclear why Wheeler was shooting at police. The investigation is ongoing.

U.S. SKEPTICAL OF ARREST… U.S. officials remain skeptical that a man arrested by Pakistani intelligence agents was al Qaeda’s U.S.-born spokesman. The Pakistanis have identified the man they arrested as Abu Yahya Majadin Adam, which is a name listed on the FBI’s Web site as an alias for Adam Gadahn. However, a U.S. military intelligence official said yesterday that he doesn’t believe the man arrested is Gadahn.

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR MILITARY FUNERAL PROTEST CASE… The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case pitting First Amendment protection against the privacy and religious rights of a father grieving the death of his Marine son in Iraq. Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder of Westminster, Maryland, was killed in March 2006. Members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, picketed his funeral with inflammatory signs condemning the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuality. Snyder’s father initially won an $11 million judgment for emotional distress and invasion of privacy, but the amount was reduced to $5 million and the case ended up being thrown out by a federal appeals court.

HAITI RELEASES U.S. MISSIONARY… Haiti has freed one of two Baptist missionaries who were being held on kidnapping charges in Port-Au-Prince but continues to hold the group’s leader. 24-year-old Charisa Coulter was flown to Miami yesterday more than a month after she and nine other Americans were accused of trying to smuggle 33 children from earthquake-ravaged Haiti into the Dominican Republic. 40-year-old group leader Laura Silsby remains behind, but says she expects to be released soon.

CHARGES IN CRANE DEATHS… Prosecutors in New York have filed manslaughter charges against a construction crane owner and a former mechanic stemming from the deaths of two construction workers in May 2008. Owner James Lomma and mechanic Tibor Varganyi allegedly hired a Chinese company over the Internet to weld a critical component on the crane, rather than follow rules to ensure a repair was solid. The weld failed after a month of use, and pieces of the 200-foot-tall crane fell onto an apartment building in Manhattan’s East Side.

OLDEST LIVING AMERICAN DIES… A New Hampshire woman who was certified as the oldest living person in the U.S. and the second-oldest in the world died Sunday. Mary Josephine Ray was 114, 294 days old. Survivors include two sons, eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. The oldest living American is now thought to be Neva Morris of Ames, Iowa, age 114 years, 216 days. The world’s oldest person is Japan’s Kama Chinen, age 114 years, 301 days.

ENTERTAINMENT
OSCARS SCORE BIG… Sunday night’s Academy Awards telecast was the most-watched in five years. The Nielsen Company says an estimated 41.3 million viewers tuned in to watch the show, which marked a 14 percent increase over last year. Viewership hasn’t been higher since 2005, when the audience was estimated at 42 million people.

LIL WAYNE GETS ONE-YEAR SENTENCE… Lil Wayne was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail for carrying a loaded gun aboard a tour bus. The Grammy-winning rapper was arrested in July 2007 after a concert in New York and entered a guilty plea in October to attempted criminal possession of a weapon. Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, will serve his sentence in New York’s Rikers Island jail complex. He could be released in eight months with good behavior.

D’ANGELO ARRESTED… NYPD officers arrested D’Angelo early Saturday morning after he allegedly offered $40 to have sex with an undercover cop posing as a prostitute. The 36-year-old R&B singer was driving his Range Rover at the time. D’Angelo, whose real name is Michael Archer, vows to plead not guilty and fight the charge.

LEIBOVITZ GETS FINANCIAL HELP… Annie Leibovitz has reportedly arranged a deal to sort out her debts. The real estate investment firm Colony Capital has agreed to take over as a sole creditor in helping the celebrity photographer gain control of her finances and market her work. As a result, Leibovitz will be able to retain the rights to more than 100,000 of her photographs and is already planning to host traveling photographic exhibitions. Last year, Art Capital Group threatened to sue the photographer and take control of her photographic collection and two properties after she violated the terms of a $24 million loan.

GNR TO PLAY PRIVATE SHOWS… Guns N’ Roses is planning to perform at three private shows in Brazil and Argentina during the band’s current South America tour. The shows are planned for Sao Paulo on Thursday, Buenos Aires on March 20 and Rio De Janeiro on an unannounced date. Guns N’ Roses launched its 11-date tour in Brasilia on Sunday. Singer Axl Rose is the only remaining member left from the band’s heyday during the 1980s and 1990s