A 22-year-old Emmaus man died in a Tuesday night motorcycle crash in Lehigh County. It happened in the area of Lehigh Street and the 600 block of State Avenue in Salisbury Township. The Lehigh County coroner said the man's identity is known but is not yet being released.
The latest chapter in the saga of landfill expansion in Lower Saucon Township was written Tuesday morning, when a Northampton County Judge ruled the township failed to give the public proper notice before rezoning 275 acres for expanding the Bethlehem Landfill along Applebutter Road. The ruling means the company and township will have to start the rezoning process over again and it also means the conditional use hearing, that has already included more than two months of testimony, is no longer valid. Seven residents sued to block the expansion. Those seven hope the renewed process will make approving landfill expansion tougher.
The Diocese of Allentown's third bishop has died. Retired Bishop Edward Cullen died Tuesday morning at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest at the age of 90. Cullen served as bishop from 1998-2009, before resigning that May at age 76. Current Bishop Alfred Schlert says, "He was visionary in spiritual, pastoral, and temporal matters,” and called Cullen “a faithful servant of Jesus Christ and his Church.”
Judge Craig Dally has been chosen as the next president of the Northampton Court of Common Pleas. Dally will succeed President Judge Michael Koury Jr. who was elected to the the position in 2017. The president judge, who is in charge of providing administrative oversight to the courts, serves for a five-year term. Dally takes on his new role next month.
Authorities are releasing more information on a deadly crash that took place in the Poconos this week. It was announced yesterday 51-year-old Ryan VanGorden of Stroudsburg was the victim of a motorcycle accident that occurred this past Monday in Hamilton Township. Authorities say VanGorden failed to stop when they were trying to apprehend him for a traffic violation and he sped off before striking a utility pole.
According to AAA East Central, the average price for a gallon of gas is 4.1 cents lower this week when compared to last week. Tuesday's average price stood at $3.68 a gallon, down from $3.73 one week earlier and 82 cents lower than May 9, 2022. In the Lehigh Valley, the average price is seven cents lower than a week before, at $3.58 a gallon. That's a full dollar below last year's price.
A Republican state senator from York and a Democratic state senator from Philadelphia want to give parents more control over their kids' social media. The bi-partisan proposal is from Senator Vincent Hughes from Philadelphia and Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill. They're seeking co-sponsors for the legislation that would require minors to get their parents' permission to open social media accounts. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 16-percent of high school students reported being electronically bullied in 2021 with 10-percent of female students reporting that they attempted suicide because of what they'd read and experienced online.
State Republican Senator John DeSanto has introduced a bill that would allow the state to automatically return unclaimed property. The Senate Finance Committee had its first hearing of the S-B 24 Tuesday. The lawmaker from Dauphin County says the program called Pennsylvania Money Match would authorize the treasury department to automatically return unclaimed property if the state can locate its rightful owner with a thorough verification process. DiSanto says that State Treasurer Stacy Garrity supports the legislation.
Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman is speaking out about online criticism and attacks on his family. Fetterman appeared Tuesday on MSNBC and talked about what he called a 'social media blowtorch.' The senator says that he expects criticism to come his way but that mocking of his children is something that he previously could not have imagined.
A report released last week by the state's Independent Fiscal Office shows more older residents are moving out of Pennsylvania. The report used data from the IRS to show that over 14-thousand more people left Pennsylvania than moved to the state in 2020-21. Officials say the largest disparity came from people who are nearing retirement-age. There were nine-thousand more people over the age of 55 who moved out of Pennsylvania than people of the same age who moved into the state. The majority of those former residents moved to Florida and North Carolina.
The 76ers played their best game of the playoffs Tuesday night and beat Boston 115-103 to take a 3-2 lead in their playoff series. Tyrese Maxey score 30 and said Joel Embiid inspired the team. "When your best player is adamant about winning and is on his teammates and calling his teammates out and leading by example, you have to raise your level of intensity," Maxey says. Embiid scored 33 in the win. Game six of the series is tomorrow night in Philadelphia.