Northampton County Council has blocked a $100,000 grant to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. County Council had already given the IronPigs $200,000 from the county's hotel tax fund, but the baseball team hoped for $300,000 to help the team pay for $6 million in renovations to Coca-Cola Park. That work has been ordered by Major League Baseball. The $100,000 was to be part of $2.28 million distributed to charities from the county's federal American Rescue Plan COVID-19 aid. But in a 6-2 vote, Council gave the idea a thumbs down, with one member saying a baseball team is not a charity and another saying since the ballpark is in Lehigh County, it should be Lehigh County helping pay for the work.
The husband of a woman shot to death by police during a Poconos standoff earlier this week now faces charges. 77-year-old Nello Tibaldi is charged with recklessly endangering another person and illegally possessing a gun. Tibaldi allegedly gave his wife, Betty Jane, a gun before he left the couple's pickup truck at the end of a police chase on Route 611 near Scotrun. His wife then shot at police, who returned fire, killing her. Nello Tibaldi has reportedly told police he and his wife believed police officers kidnap, rape and kill people, prompting the incident.
Lehigh County's 9-1-1 center is being accused of being a hub of racism and negligence in a new federal lawsuit. The lawsuit says that in July of last year, a Spanish-speaking man reported that his Allentown home was on fire and he was hung up on by a dispatcher from the center because she did not understand Spanish. The man and his 14-year-old nephew both died in the fire and this is only one of many instances of negligence according to the lawsuit. Seven former employees of the center filed the lawsuit against Lehigh County, County Executive Phil Armstrong and six other current or former county officials. The former employees say their First Amendment rights and others were violated after they publicly revealed these issues at the call center.
Thursday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health added 4998 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 1,525,813 since the pandemic began. There were 94 new COVID-related deaths reported, leaving the state with 30,815 deaths attributed to the virus. There are 2929 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, 668 of whom are in the intensive care unit.
A water line break and sinkhole has closed a Bethlehem Township road. Oakland Road is closed between Hecktown Road and Harvard Place until further notice. Oakland Road runs along the Northampton Community College campus.
A Pottstown woman died in a crash Thursday on Route 663 in Milford Township, Bucks County. 28-year-old Steffani Greco was driving a truck on 663 when another vehicle tried to turn onto the road, causing Greco to swerve to avoid the other vehicle, causing the truck to roll over and catch fire. She died at the scene. It happened around 11:30 a.m. at the Brinkman Road intersection, about a mile west of the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange. Police say the other vehicle didn't stop at the scene.
The annual Prescreption Drug Take Back Day is set for Saturday. Robert Torres, who heads up the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, says getting rid of pills no longer needed is a big health issue. "These medications can be stolen, sold or abused by others for whom they are not prescribed. They can be accidentally ingested or abused by other family members including children, particularly for grandparents who are raising grandchildren," Torres says. Since 2015 more than 942,000 pounds of prescription medication has been destroyed across more than 880 take-back boxes in Pennsylvania.
In an effort to help the state deal with its nursing shortage a student loan forgiveness program for Pennsylvania nurses is opening up in early 2022. About $5 million from federal coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds will be used for this one-time program. Eligible nurses could get up to $2500 of loan forgiveness for each ensuing year of work starting from march of last year, for a maximum of three years.
A man is accused of raping a woman on a Philadelphia train. the attack seen as especially horrible because police said bystanders were on that train and didn't help the victim. But Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer says it's not true that people sat on the train and did nothing. "There is no reason to think that there are large groups of people, who for their own gratification, videotaped this and just watched this happen. That's simply not what happened," Stollsteimer says. He said people were getting off and on the train and may not have noticed anything was wrong.
Early voting in New Jersey starts tomorrow as a new survey shows the race for governor is tightening. Polls open Saturday and will open every day through October 31st.
Former President Barack Obama is coming to Newark tomorrow to campaign for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. According to a poll, Murphy now leads Republican challenger Jack Ciatterelli by six points. The survey released Thursday reports Murphy has the support of 50-percent respondents, Ciatterelli has 44-percent, and seven-percent of voters are still undecided.
The Philadelphia Eagles are likely to have tight end Dallas Goedert in their lineup on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders. The team activated Goedert from the reserve/COVID-19 list on Thursday after the tight end spent nine days on the sideline.