During a Tuesday night rally in Hershey, President Trump said his impeachment is all about politics. "The impeachment hoax is about overturning your great 2016 vote or in the alternative, trying to win the 2020 election. That's not going to happen," President Trump said. The President called charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress flimsy, pathetic and ridiculous. He said he actually expected more than those two articles of impeachment.
Vice President Mike Pence wants Pennsylvanians to give President Trump another four years in office. The vice president was on the campaign trail in Rochester Tuesday, where he met with restaurant employees before speaking to more than 250 veterans. Pence called the ongoing impeachment hearings a disgrace while urging the pro-Trump crowd to vote for him in 2020.
Lehigh Valley Congresswoman Susan Wild says she will vote for two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. In a statement, Wild says, "After thoroughly reviewing the testimony and evidence presented over the past several weeks, from career professionals and Trump Administration appointees alike, it is beyond clear to me that President Trump, through his interactions with Ukraine-an ally under attack by Russia-abused the powers of his office to put his own political interests above the interests of the American people. "President Trump then deliberately obstructed Congress’s constitutional oversight responsibilities-an egregious violation of our system of checks and balances," the Democrat said.
The chairwoman of the commonwealth's Democrat Party is responding to President Trump's rally in Hershey Tuesday. Nancy Patton Mills said the president has broken promises to stop the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs. Patton Mills added that the President is an ineffective leader and nothing he said in Hershey changes that.
The Lehigh Township Board of Supervisors has adopted the 2020 budget by a 4-0 vote. The $5.6 million spending plan contains no property tax increase.
An ordinance governing operations at the Easton Fire Department is adopting gender-neutral terminology. City Council's Public Safety Committee approved the changes Tuesday, which convert "men" to "firefighter" and "he" to "the Fire Chief" in policy guidelines. Fire officials say they'll take a closer look at other possible revisions at a later date. The city administrator says policy language needs to be precise due to possible future grievances.
The new parking kiosks in Kutztown are being suspended until further notice. Fees won't be collected at the municipal parking lot on South Whiteoak Street because of payment processing technical difficulties. There's no timeline on when the problem will be resolved. In the meantime, drivers are asked to use the kiosks to enter their license plate number.
A Pennsylvania court is rejecting Bill Cosby's appeal to overturn his sexual assault conviction. The comedian had claimed that additional accusers should not have been allowed to testify during the trial because they were "strikingly dissimilar" to the main accuser. The original judge said in post-trial testimony the additional woman showed "chilling similarities." The appeals court agreed with the judge because all of the cases showed distinctive similarities. Cosby is serving a three-to-ten year sentence in a state prison near Philadelphia.
Penn State University police say there is no immediate threat to the school following a post on social media. Investigators found the person behind the threat referencing the school this week and deemed it to not be credible. The investigation involved state and federal authorities because of an "abundance of caution," police say. There is no word if any charges were brought against the person who made the threat.
Pennsylvania still has the Christmas spirit. The state ranked seventh in a CenturyLink study which measured how festive Americans are based on online activity and area culture. These categories included Google searches, shopping trends, streamed Christmas songs and holiday tweets as well as Christmas tree farms and charitable donations locally. Tennessee tops the list. Nevada ranks at the bottom for Christmas cheer.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is offering condolences to the families of a police officer and three civilians killed in a Tuesday shootout in Jersey City. "We offer our condolences to their families, especially at this time of year when families should be coming together in celebration, not coming together in grief," Murphy says. The two gunmen were eventually killed during that shootout.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is doubling down on the assertion that there is a "Central Jersey." Murphy tweeted out Monday a basic sentence in which he declared that as governor there is a Central Jersey, not just a north and south. Some responded back on social media that this was not accurate. Murphy in kind released a diagram Tuesday that states Monmouth and Ocean counties fall within the boundaries of Central Jersey, as do Middlesex, Somerset, Union, Mercer and Hunterdon counties. The governor further claimed these boundaries are defined by state law.