Republican State Rep. Gary Day, who represents Lehigh and Berks counties, wants Pennsylvania's acting Secretary of State to resign. Day accuses Leigh Chapman of encouraging election fraud due to her criticism of Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin's plan to monitor ballot drop-boxes this election cycle. Martin had said his office found that many voters had dropped off more than one ballot during the November election, which violates state law.
Lehigh County DA Jim Martin says he and acting Secretary of State Lehigh Chapman have ironed out their differences over Martin's plan to have detectives monitor election ballot drop boxes. Martin tells the Morning Call, "On balance, the secretary of state and I are OK." Chapman said she was concerned the detectives may be intimidating and dissuade voters from casting their ballots. Martin says the detectives will keep watch to make sure voters cast one and only one ballot, as mandated under state law.
An Allentown police officer has been arrested for a DUI crash in Carbon County. His attorney says Joseph Krebs is charged with driving under the influence and two traffic offenses stemming from the crash in February. Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca said in a statement that the department can't comment on the case because it's a personnel matter. The job status of Krebs, who is from Jim Thorpe, is unclear.
A teenager is accused of trying to run over a person with her vehicle. Witnesses say 18-year-old Calan Smith threatened to run over a man with her vehicle and tried several times to hit him. Hellertown police say it happened just after midnight back on April 21 in the 100 block of Northampton Street. The man was not hurt, and Smith fled the scene before police arrived. Police did not say if the suspect and victim knew each other.
A Bethlehem fireman is accused of injuring two people in a Bethlehem crash and then leaving the scene to go drink in the firefighter’s union office. Bryan Bokan, of Bethlehem, is charged with the April 18 crash on Route 378 near the Eaton Avenue overpass in Bethlehem. Two other vehicles were involved in the crash, with one individual in each vehicle getting injured. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 8.
The race for Pennsylvania governor could be changing as soon as today. Two Republican candidates, former Congressman Lou Barletta and state Sen. Jake Corman are set to hold an event together in Harrisburg today. Barletta's campaign team is billing the event as a "major announcement" and there are reports Corman will drop out of the race and back Barletta. GOP state leaders are reportedly concerned front-runner Doug Mastriano cannot win against Democrat Josh Shapiro in November and have asked several Republican candidates to drop out of the race and consolidate support behind one candidate to torpedo Mastriano's candidacy.
PennDOT officials say traffic deaths increased by nine percent last year. There were 1230 deaths due to driving statewide in 2021. PennDOT says crashes involving lane departure incidents accounted for nearly half of highway fatalities. Speeding, impaired, and distracted driving are leading factors in lane departure crashes.
A Pennsylvania state representative has introduced a bill to exempt people who are older than 70 from serving jury duty. Currently, seniors can apply for exemptions at age 75. The measure has been recently introduced by St. Rep. Pam Snyder of Greene County.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is introducing new legislation to protect abortion rights and expand access to reproductive health care in New Jersey. In the coming weeks, the governor says, "A conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court will likely take a wrecking ball to 50 years of its own precedent. It's the very first time in American history, a decision has been overturned in order to diminish our rights," the governor says. Murphy says abortion is health care and health care decisions should be left up to the individual.
New Jersey's health commissioner says the Garden State is in the middle of another COVID surge. During a virtual briefing Wednesday, Judith Persichilli said New Jersey's positive test rate is at 12-percent. On Twitter, Gov. Phil Murphy said hospitalizations related to COVID are on the rise as well, with 720 people currently being treated for the virus.