After being held at the Monroe County Correctional Facility since Friday, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students returned to Idaho yesterday. Pennsylvania State Police escorted Bryan Kohberger to Scranton where he was then flown to the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport and booked into the Latah County Jail in Idaho. Kohberger was arrested at his family's home in Chestnuthill Township this past Friday after he was accused of killing four student in November.
The Northampton D-A's office says a 38-year-old Nazareth man has received a lengthy prison sentence for trying to stab his wife to death two years ago. Michael Graves was sentenced Wednesday for a term of 19 to 40 years behind bars. He pleaded guilty in August to the knife attack that critically injured Elizabeth Graves at their home on Union Street. The attack happened in front of the couple's child, who told police at the time "My daddy hurt my mommy."
It took 11 rounds of votes across two separate meetings, but Allentown City Council has chosen the person to fill a council seat that was vacated when Joshua Siegel was elected to the state House. In a Wednesday night vote, council appointed local business owner Santo Napoli to the position. Napoli owns Assembly88, a downtown Allentown mensware store.
Lehigh Valley Health Network has purchased the Venel Institute Medical Education and Research Center in Hanover Township, Northampton County. LVHN says Venel can serve as a training ground and education facility for LVHN's institutes to help further its teaching programs.
The Lehigh Valley Mall's outdoor lifestyle center is losing an original tenant. When the lifestyle center opened 15 years ago, Williams-Sonoma opened as well. Now, the store's general manager says Wiliams-Sonoma will be closing either this Sunday or Monday due to a shift from in-store shopping to shopping online. All remaining inventory is on sale for 30-to-50 percent off.
A prominent lawyer is returning to the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office after years in private practice. Gavin Holihan will take over Jan. 9 as first assistant district attorney. He was an assistant district attorney from 1992 to 1997.
Firefighters in Berks County say they've raised over ten-thousand-dollars for the families of two fallen colleagues. New Tripoli volunteer firefighters Zack Paris and Marvin Gruber both died fighting a fire in Schuylkill County in December. The Shoemakersville Fire Company held a special shrimp dinner to raise the funds and they sold over 800 meals. The money will be split between the Paris and Gruber families.
Gas prices across Pennsylvania are creeping up a bit. According to AAA East Central, the average price of a gallon of unleaded on Tuesday stood at $3.63, four cents higher than one week earlier and 11 cents more than last January 3. In the Lehigh Valley, the price held steady at $3.50, which is nine cents more than one year ago.
After six rounds of voting over two days, Republicans have still failed to elect a new Speaker of the House. About 20 Republicans are opposing California's Kevin McCarthy. Among them is Pennsylvania's Scott Perry, who tells Fox Business Network the process doesn't make the party look good, but it's necessary. "It's not great for the party, but we're either going to figure it out now or be fighting amongst each other for the next two years," Perry says. In order to be elected speaker, McCarthy must receive 218 votes. In Wednesday's final vote, he earned only 201, with 20 Republicans backing Florida's Byron Donalds and another voting 'present.'
Pennsylvania State Police are reporting no fatal accidents over the New Year's holiday. PSP says troopers assisted in five-hundred crashes during the three-day reporting period, but all those involved survived. State law enforcement made three-hundred-65 arrests for DUI and wrote over 12-thousand citations. PSP administrators do note that those statistics only include calls where their agency responded and do not include incidents handled by other law enforcement operations.
The Pittsburgh-area police officer injured in Monday's Brackenridge shootings has been released from the hospital. Officer Jordan Schrecengost was shot in the leg by suspect Aaron Swan during a pursuit. Swan also shot Brackenridge Police Chief Justin McIntire who died. Swan was shot and killed during the firefight. McIntire's funeral will take place on Wednesday.