A mother and her daughter are believed to be behind the deaths of five family members. Investigators in Bucks County say Shana Decree murdered her own daughter, teenage son, sister and nine-year-old twin nieces and that her other daughter helped her do it. All five relatives were found in a bedroom apartment. Decree reportedly told police everyone wanted to die and spoke of suicide, including the young children. Some family members are now saying the family may have become involved with some sort of online cult, perhaps leading to the killings.
The victim in a Sunday night Lehigh County murder was shot to death. The Lehigh County Coroner's Office has completed an autopsy on 44-year-old Nestor DeLeon, of Allentown, and determined DeLeon was shot to death outside Customized Distribution Services along Industrial Boulevard in Breinigsville. No arrests have been made.
A recent theft in Bath is being investigated by state police. The theft reportedly happened sometime between February 17th and February 24th at a home on East Main Street. Police say someone stole $159,200 worth of money, coins and jewelry from the home.
Travelers may soon have a new option for overnight lodging and business meetings. The Lehigh Valley International Airport says they are currently looking to develop an upscale hotel on airport property. The executive director of the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority says a hotel and possible retail shops could be open by as early as 2021.
Bieber Transportation's headquarters in Kutztown is now listed for sale. The property is listed for $1.95 million. According to the real estate listing, the property has five buildings, a hair salon rental and two apartments.
A teacher in Schuylkill County is accused of having sex with a 13-year-old boy. 71-year-old Dale Schimpf is a music teacher at Nativity BVM High School in Pottsville who claims the boy posed as a 30-year-old on the Grindr dating app. Police say the two met in person over a month-and-a-half ago and that Schimpf should have known the boy was not actually 30 years of age.
Flu activity remains on the rise in Pennsylvania. Department of Health officials say they've noted about 6000 new flu cases in each of the past three weeks statewide. Lehigh County has the fifth most flu cases at 2208 and Northampton County ranks seventh with 2106. Montgomery County has, by far, the most flu cases in the commonwealth this flu season. So far, 56 adults and one child have died because of the flu this season.
Pennsylvania's top Republican state lawmaker says he's open to discussing an increase to the commonwealth's minimum wage with Gov. Tom Wolf. Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman says while he believes the governor's goal of $15-an-hour is too high, he's open to talking about bringing the wage up. Right now, Pennsylvania is set at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and has been there for ten years.
Beginning Friday, PennDOT officials will begin to issue Real IDs, allowing holders to fly commercially and enter some secure federal facilities next year. It's reported some 170,000 people pre-qualified to get theirs online. The Federal Real ID standards go into effect in Pennsylvania in October 2020.
What does ex-Pennsylvania Gov. and former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Ed Rendell think of the much-ballyhooed Green New Deal? "The aspirations in the Green New Deal are excellent. We all would like to see some of those things achieved," Rendell says. However, Rendell says, "They can't be achieved in the timeline the Green New Deal sets nor would they be affordable for the country at this point," Rendell says. He tells Fox News Democrat lawmakers should only tell voters they can achieve something they actually can achieve.
The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office says an elderly man was apparently assaulted for wearing a Make America Great Again hat. Authorities say the 81-year-old man was assaulted at a grocery store in Franklin Township on Monday. He suffered only minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is taking his presidential campaign to South Carolina. He'll speak at a Baptist church Friday. Booker says next year's presidential election is a campaign for the country. In a video posted on his Twitter page, Booker said it's a choice to be a fractured nation or to put the indivisible back in this one nation under God.