HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania probation officials say they've begun using Global Positioning System devices to track the people they supervise.

The state Board of Probation and Parole announced Thursday that training has been completed for its employees and now about 50 people are being monitored by GPS.

The system requires the parolees to wear a receiver on their ankle that indicates whether they are where they should be, or have entered areas where they are prohibited.

Parole agents are able to get up-to-the-minute information on their computers regarding the whereabouts of the people they supervise. The system alerts the agency when an issue arises that requires its attention.

Corrections industry experts say the GPS devices can be a valuable tool, but caution that they aren't a cure all.

GETTYSBURG — U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will be a keynote speaker at an event marking the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.Officials at Gettysburg National Military Park said Thursday that President Barack Obama will not attend the Nov. 19 sesquicentennial, but that Jewell will represent the administration.Jewell and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson will share the role of keynote speaker. Other events include a reading of the Gettysburg address by a Lincoln portrayer.It's being held on the day that marks the dedication of the national cemetery where more than 3,500 Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg are buried.

HARRISBURG — The state attorney general's office is intervening in a foreclosure case involving the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh.Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Thursday that her office filed a petition with the Allegheny County Orphans' Court seeking an accounting of the center's charitable assets since 2006. Orphans' courts have jurisdiction over nonprofits and charitable assets.A judge also granted the state's motion to consolidate its petition with a pending foreclosure action by Dollar Bank, the center's main creditor, Kane said. Dollar Bank claims it stopped making mortgage payments in January on a $7 million debt.The center is named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, a Pittsburgh native whose plays chronicle black culture.A telephone message left at the center's offices was not immediately returned.Backers of the center raised a substantial amount of funding through charitable donations totaling $35.9 million beginning in 2006, Kane said. They entered into a loan agreement with Dollar Bank in 2007 to finance its construction and the center opened in 2009, she said.Kane said the state actions are an effort to restore the center's financial stability and preserve its mission.

TOWANDA — A northern Pennsylvania mother has admitted keeping her 12-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy, in a makeshift cage and in a locked closet.Mary Beth Frankenfield of Dushore pleaded guilty Thursday in Bradford County Court to a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment. She will be sentenced Nov. 25.Investigators said starting in December 2010, Frankenfield and her husband, Richard Frankenfield, routinely locked the 10-year-old girl in a cage made from a crib and plywood and forced her to stay there for extended periods. Police said the girl was also locked in her parents’ bedroom closet for long periods.The parents told police they wanted to protect her from getting into things.Richard Frankenfield is due in court for a preliminary hearing Nov. 8.