It's 22-75 years in state prison for a man who pleaded guilty to molesting five children at a home in West Easton. 54-year-old Ronald Raisner Jr., of Stroudsburg, was also sentenced to a dozen years on probation and declared a sexually violent predator and will have to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life. Raisner pleaded guilty to molesting the children, all of whom he knew, from 2012 to 2019.
Lehigh Valley residents have new options to get to three major nearby cities. Beginning today, FlixBus is beginning service from Allentown to the Port Authority in New York City, Newark Penn Station and the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. All passengers will be picked up and dropped off at the Allentown Transportation Center on North Sixth Street.
Police are looking into the dog treats found with fish hooks buried inside along the Appalachian Trail over the weekend. The folks at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center say they believe all of the treats have been picked-up, and it doesn't look like any dogs ate the treats. Still, hikers say dogs could have. Authorities say they are looking for anyone who may know anything about the dangerous treats. The Lehigh Gap Nature Center says until they have some answers, they're warning hikers with dogs to be careful.
Gov. Josh Shapiro spent part of his Wednesday in Allentown to announce more than $10.6 million in grant funding awards via the PA SITES program. It's a program that funnels tax dollars to help sites across the state become 'shovel ready' in order to draw more businesses and create more jobs. Shapiro says the state is playing catch up when it comes to this. "Our neighboring states have been moving full steam ahead at getting more sites ready," the governor says. Shapiro says about $1.1 million of that money will be used to run utilities and sewer to an Allentown waterfront property, with the hope of turning the vacant property into a small manufacturing location.
Governor Josh Shapiro is expected to sign a bill soon that prohibits the use of hand held cellphones while driving a car. Philadelphia Democratic St. Rep. Ed Neilson led the push to get the legislation passed and says technology changes constantly and the law will likely have to be tweaked in the future because of that. However, he says for now, the bill is needed. "We don't know where it's going take us 10 years from now, but this is a great fix now. Even if we can cut those 10,000 crashes from distracted driving in half, that's 5,000 accidents. We can save someone's life," Neilson said. The new law would allow police to issue a $50 fine for a first offense. No points would be added to a driver's record, however. Assuming Shapiro signs the bill no fines would be given out for two years because a new law doesn't take effect for a full year after it's been signed and because for the first year the law is in effect, police will only issue warnings and no fines.
A $13 billion tax cut is halfway there at the Pennsylvania Capitol. The State Senate has approved the package that would roll back the 2004 personal income tax increase, and eliminate the gross receipts tax on electric bills. Eight Democrats joined 28 Senate Republicans to get the plan through the Senate. It now heads to the Pennsylvania House where lawmakers are expected to ask for some changes.
A bill creating new rules for children's social media use has passed the Pennsylvania House. The move Wednesday came after an extensive re-write of the bill. Its original directives reportedly upset some lawmakers for the way it proposed that social media companies could monitor minors' accounts in order to flag content that could be seen as sensitive or graphic. The companies would have been able to report such use to parents. The measure passed on a vote of 105-to-95 in the House, with 10 Republicans voting in favor and seven of the more progressive Democrats voting against it.
Yuengling is ready with new red, white, and blue cans for the Memorial Day weekend. The brewery released the cans this week. They feature a stars and stripes shield on the back, and once again partner with Team Red, White, and Blue. The cans are part of Yuengling's longtime support for America's veterans. You can find the limited edition cans wherever Yuengling is sold.
More charges have been filed against a man accused of trying to shoot a pastor in a Pennsylvania church on Sunday. A video recording captured the moment when authorities say that 26-year-old Bernard Polite stepped up in front of Pastor Glenn Germany at the Jesus' Dwelling Place Church and tried to shoot him. Polite was tackled by a church deacon and was later arrested and charged with attempted homicide. Sunday night, authorities found Polite's cousin, Derek Polite, shot to death at the suspect's home. Bernard Polite has now been charged with homicide in connection with that killing.