Last night's storms have left thousands in the dark this morning. PPL reports more than 3500 customers were still without power after another line of nasty thunderstorms blew through the eastern part of Pennsylvania. The hardest hit as of this morning was in Bucks County, where more than 900 customers were without power. About 100 Lehigh County PPL customers were still without service today.
Accu-Weather's Heather Zehr says there's a chances we'll see rough weather again today, but she says we appear to be right on the edge of the most serious trouble. "It's looking like the main focus today might shift a little farther to the south. So we might be close to the northern edge of where the really rough stuff comes through," Zehr says. Wednesday's thunderstorms brought down trees, delivered large hail and caused power outages that are lasting into today.
The National Weather Service says an EF Two tornado touched down in the Morgantown, Berks County area Tuesday. A team of surveyors visited the impacted area Wednesday and determined the tornado was on the ground for 2.6 miles with a maximum wind speed of about 120 miles per hour. The twister damaged about 100 homes and a manufacturing plant. However, no serious injuries are reported.
The purchase of the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem by an Alabama-based Native American tribe is almost complete. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has approved the change of control from Sands Bethworks Gaming to Poarch Creek Indians Gaming Authority. That greenlights the PCI Gaming Authority to buy the casino for $1.3 billion, perhaps as soon as Friday. PCI was also granted a license Wednesday to operate in Pennsylvania.
Taxes are going up in the Easton Area School District. The school board has voted unanimously in favor of a budget that will raise property taxes by 1.89%. That means a home assessed at the district average of $62,000 will see $74 more tacked onto the tax bill. The budget total is $162.7 million.
Prosecutors are appealing a decision by a judge to throw out a misdemeanor child endangerment conviction against former Penn State President Graham Spanier. Attorney General Josh Shapiro made the announcement Wednesday. Spanier had his conviction tossed out the day before he was set to begin serving a two-month jail sentence. The judge gave prosecutors three months to retry Spanier under a previous version of the state's child endangerment law. Spanier was convicted two years ago of failing to act on a report of sexual abuse by ex-Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
Lawyers at Harrisburg’s Independence Law Center are disappointed the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal of their case involving students in the Boyertown Area School District. They were arguing against allowing transgender kids the right to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. Randall Wenger's the chief counsel at the Independence Law Center. "We were proudest of our clients, six students in the Boyertown Area School District, who said 'I don't like this. We hope the Supreme Court will take one of the cases like this,'" Wenger says. Wenger argued that allowing transgender students to use the same facilities violated their clients' right to privacy.
New Jersey's Office of Emergency Management is reminding residents that hurricane season is kicking off this weekend. As of June 1st, the 2019 hurricane season will begin and officials are advising New Jerseyans that they should make sure to have their emergency plans worked out. Families with special needs members and pet-owners are also being urged to be ready for the big storms. A new state hurricane survival guide is now available online at www.ready.nj.gov.
Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles was absent from Jacksonville Jaguars' OTA's this week. Foles' wife announced on Instagram she had gone into "sudden labor" over the weekend at 15 weeks and suffered a miscarriage. The quarterback went onto social media to thank everyone for the support they received.