The Lehigh Valley spent Sunday digging out from Saturday's major snowfall. The hardest hit areas were in the Poconos, where some areas like Tobyhanna, Stroudsburg and Albrightsville all picked up more than a foot of snow. In the immediate Lehigh Valley, the National Weather Service reports snow totals from four inches in Emmaus, Macungie and Lower Saucon Township to nine-and-a-half inches in Upper Mount Bethel Township. The official snowfall total at the airport was 5.8 inches.
Local skiers at Bear Creek say Saturday's snow brought smiles to their faces. "It's absolutely wonderful. We were waiting so long for it to snow," one skier says. The bad news for those skiers comes Tuesday when several inches of rain is expected and that will likely wash away most, if not all, of Saturday's snow.
A murder trial opens Tuesday in Northampton County Court. 19-year-old Jakiye Taylor, of Harrisburg, is charged with the August 2021 murder of 20-year-old Elijah Johnson at the Lower Nazareth Commons shopping center. Prosecutors say the incident began as a drug deal that turned into an armed robbery and eventually Johnson's death. 24-year-old Kevin Littles, also of Harrisburg, also faces charges in the killing and investigators say he is the man who actually killed Johnson during shopping hours that day. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Littles, but not for Taylor. Littles is expected to go on trial later this year.
Fire crews were called to a house fire in Upper Macungie early Sunday morning. The fire was reported just after 2:30 Sunday morning at a home in the 600 block of Independent Road in Breinigsville. There's no word yet on what caused the fire.
Two Lehigh Valley Rite Aid stores will be closing over the next week. The Rite Aid store at 104 E. Third St. on Bethlehem’s South Side will close Wednesday. Another local Rite Aid store, at 6822 Hamilton Blvd. in Lower Macungie Township, is set to close next Monday. It's all part of Rite Aid's plans to close almost 200 stores across the country, including nearly three dozen in Pennsylvania.
The Eagles head into the playoffs losers of five of their last six games after being blown out 27-10 by the Giants Sunday. Head coach Nick Sirianni says his team needs to turn the page. "Yes, you have to flush it. Yes, you have to move on. You have to flush this last month. But, lots of teams want to be in our position. Everybody's 0-0 to start this thing off. Flush this game, but also learn from it, just like you do every opportunity you get on the field," Sirianni says. The Eagles play Tampa Bay Monday night in Florida. Those teams have played five previous playoff games, with the Eagles winning three of them.
Primanti Brothers is sending sandwiches to the Tennessee Titans as a 'thank you' for the Steelers' playoff berth. The Titans defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars in yesterday's Week 18 contest, putting Pittsburgh in line to face Buffalo in the first round of the AFC playoffs. Primanti Brothers CEO Adam Golomb says sandwich kits are on the way to Nashville containing Italian bread, meats, provolone cheese, tomatoes, and their signature fries and coleslaw. Golomb says there will be plenty of food to feed the whole Titans crew, including head coach and former Steelers linebacker Mike Vrabel.