A second teenager is facing arson charges for causing a fire at the old Nazareth Speedway. Colonial Regional police say a 15-year-old male student at Nazareth Area Middle School has been placed in juvenile detention on arson and related charges. The teen, along with a previously charged 14-year-old boy, allegedly stole a lighter and Jiffy Pop popcorn from a grocery store before setting a fire in a building at the speedway. The two were identified from a Snapchat video which showed them trying to cook the popcorn over the fire they allegedly set.
Bethlehem police are looking for a man who allegedly sexually assaulted an unconscious woman at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem. Bethlehem Township's Traver Tilley has been charged with indecent assault of an unconscious person. Tilley allegedly attacked the woman last March in a restroom of the casino's nightclub. Police say she didn't remember the assault but an examination at St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill confirmed that she was.
A Monroe County school bus driver is heading behind bars for driving kids to school while drunk. Lourdes Torres, of East Stroudsburg, was sentenced to 11-to-23 months in jail for picking up students headed to Smithfield Elementary School while intoxicated. She had already pleaded guilty last February to counts of child endangerment and for driving under the influence. State police arrested her in May last year after determining she was drunk behind the wheel.
The northbound lanes of the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Lehigh Tunnel were closed yesterday and are again today from 8am to 2pm for inspection. Traffic will be diverted through the southbound tunnel.
Gov. Tom Wolf was among those remembering the holocaust Wednesday. He said Americans need to learn from history. "It's become standard to look back at the holocaust and ask why didn't the Germans do anything to stop it. Well, here we are facing our own anti-Semitism, our own bigorty and our own hate. And we need to ask ourselves what we are going to do to stop this right now," Wolf said. The governor made special reference to the recent mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Democrat St. Rep. Katie Muth is among three lawmakers introducing legislation in Harrisburg to abolish the death penalty. Muth says after seeing six death row inmates completely exonerated since 1978, the state cannot run the risk of killing an innocent person. "We want a justice system that advocates fairness and that's fairness for victims and fairness for due process and those who are accused or wrongly accused specifically," Muth says. Muth and two Democrats in the Senate are introducing legsilation to prohibit the death penalty here. They claim since 2010, states with the death penalty have an 18-percent or higher increase in murder rates over states without the death sentence.
Hersheypark officials say their newest ride will be ready to open Memorial Day weekend. Reese's Cupfusion will open to the public Saturday, May 25th. The target shooting ride features six ways to play and is said to have the most targets in the world. Hersheypark opens for the 2019 season this weekend.