Bethlehem police are searching for a man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend. Authorities say 45-year-old Jose Ramirez-Duran forced his way into the victims home on June 9th, assaulted her, and stabbed her several times. Ramirez-Duran fled after the stabbing and is still at large. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact Bethlehem P-D.
The Allentown City Council is considering a lawsuit against Mayor Matt Tuerk. WFMZ-TV reports the council will vote tonight on authorizing funds to sue the mayor over the investigation into allegations of discrimination at City Hall. Mayor Tuerk claims the council did not properly follow the law when hiring former FBI agent Scott Curtis as an outside investigator. Councilman Ed Zucal says the mayor is obstructing the investigation.
The Easton Area School District Board of Directors approved the final 2024-25 general fund budget Tuesday night at the administration building. The $208 million spending plan includes a 2.25% tax increase on property owners. The tax increase is expected to provide the district with an additional $3 million.
Lafayette College will not host a vice-presidential debate this fall. The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced it is canceling the V-P debate set for September 25th along with its three presidential debates. Lafayette officials say the decision was made after the presidential nominees scheduled debates outside of the C-P-D. The college added that it learned a great deal while preparing for the debate, and is "well-positioned" to host major events in the years to come.
We don't yet have all of the details about a kidnapping case that the State Police say brought them to a shipping container at a property in Monroe County. The State Police said last night that the case began with a 911 call from someone who followed an SUV to the Walmart in Pocono Mountain. Troopers say they found one kidnapping victim and one suspect inside the SUV, and found another suspect and another victim walking out of the store. From there, the State Police say the suspects took troopers to a property in Smithfield Township, where they found a shipping container that was used to hold the women who were kidnapped. Prosecutors are moving ahead with a host of charges including kidnapping and rape. The State Police say the case remains open, and there are some questions they have not yet answered.
The Country Club of the Poconos has a new owner. Leaders in Middle Smithfield Township say the group Rise Select this month offered to buy the course for just over a million dollars. The township got the golf course back in 2010 in a deal that also saw the township buy nearly 200-thousand gallons of capacity to treat raw sewage. Rise Select says it plans to keep the course as a golf course. The final details of the sale are still being worked-out.
Geisinger says as many as one million patients may have had their information exposed in a data breach. The hospital says it caught a former third-party, IT employee looking through patient accounts. Geisinger says the former worker was caught two days after they were fired. The hospital then shut off access to patient accounts, and is now warning patients that their date of birth, address, admit and discharge or transfer codes, medical record number, race, gender, and phone numbers may have been taken. Geisinger says it doesn't look like social security numbers or credit card information was taken. Geisinger says federal prosecutors are now looking into the case.
Gas prices are heading a bit lower over the past week. According to AAA East Central, the average price for a gallon of gas in Pennsylvania was $3.62 as of Tuesday, down nearly two cents from the previous week and two cents lower than one year earlier. In the Lehigh Valley, the price stands at $3.52 gallon, three cents less than a week ago and a nickel cheaper than June 25, 2023.
Thousands of Pennsylvania residents will receive more money thanks in part to an expansion of the property tax/rent rebate program. Gov. Josh Shapiro promises it'll deliver the largest targeted tax cut for seniors in nearly two decades. "Last year, before we changed the law, before we heard our seniors and got it done for all of you, only 283,000 seniors got help, instead of the 432,000 so far this year," the governor says. The expanded program takes effect July 1st.
The final report from the NTSB on the toxic train derailment in East Palestine is revealing more information on what led up to the incident. The document states that a wayside detector in Salem, Ohio inaccurately recorded the temperature of a burning wheel bearing, sending a non-critical alert to a Norfolk Southern help desk that was not forwarded to the train crew. By the time the operators onboard the train learned of the overheating bearing it was too late for them to avoid the disaster, according to investigators. The report also states that the controlled burn of the hazardous chemicals that were in some of the train cars was not necessary.
A staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- Sarah Arkin -- continued her testimony in the corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez yesterday. She had testified she saw a change in the senator's attitude toward Egypt. Federal prosecutors say the change came about because of bribes Egypt gave the senator in the form of cash and gold bars. But the defense argued the senator's attitude toward Egypt was one of quiet engagement and was a normal interaction with Egypt. The prosecution is expected to rest its case this week and then the defense takes over.