By Jim Martin, Erie Times-News, Pa. Jul. 31--Careful readers of their monthly bills might already have noticed a change in their Verizon statement. It's on page 3 under the heading under that of the Pennsylvania Gross Receipts Tax Surcharge.

More than 600 Verizon customers in Homestead, West Mifflin, Munhall and Whitaker were left without service Tuesday because of rain water that soaked four underground cables, Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski said.

By Sharon K. Wolfe and Nick Heynen;nick.heynen@lee.net DWIGHT - Workers digging Wednesday cut fiber-optic cables in two locations in Illinois a few hours apart, triggering telecommunications problems over a three-state area and affecting thousands of customers in Central Illinois.

By Greg Edwards Verizon has begun restoring service to roughly 140 customers in the Highland Springs area whose phones were knocked out by rains on Sunday and Monday.

By Jennifer Reeger A few hundred Verizon telephone customers in Perry are without phone service thanks to some copper wire thieves. Someone climbed telephone poles along Cemetery Road on Friday night or Saturday morning and cut down two 700-foot sections of copper telephone wire.