With 99-percent of the vote counted, one local mayoral race is extremely tight, while the other isn't. In Bethlehem, William Reynolds earned 62-percent of Tuesday's vote and holds a 1540 vote edge of Dana Grubb in the Democratic primary. In Allentown, the results aren't nearly as clear. The number of votes separating the leader Matt Tuerk and the fourth place candidate Ce-Ce Gerlach is only 246. Tuerk leads incumbent Mayor Ray O'Connell by 115 votes and City Councilman Julio Guridy by 141.
99-percent of the vote is counted in the races for Lehigh County Judge, with Maraleen Shields and Zachary Cohen separating themselves from the field on the Democratic ballot while Rashid Santiago holds a narrow edge over Patricia Mulqueen for the third spot on this November's ballot. On the Republican side, Tom Caffrey, Tom Capehart and David Ritter appear to have advanced to the general election this fall. Ritter holds a roughly 1900 vote edge over Mulqueen for the third and final spot.
71-percent of the votes on four statewide voter referendum questions has been counted. 54-percent of voters favor a constitutional amendment which would allow state lawmakers to end a disaster declaration with a majority vote. A second question asking voters if state of emergency declarations should be ended after 21 days unless the governor consults with the legislature has about the same level of support as question one. A third proposed constitutional amendment the would ban discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity has more than 70-percent support. The fourth referendum question asking if fire departments with paid personnel and EMS companies should be eligible to apply for loans from a state loan program saw 72-percent of voters cast 'yes' ballots.
Initial results are in for contested Democrat and Republican races for the state Supreme Court, Superior Court and Commonwealth Court. Republican Kevin Brobson leads his race with more than 50-percent of the vote. In the Democratic race for state Superior Court, Tikia Lane leads with nearly 48-percent of the votes going her way. In the Commonwealth Court races, Democrat Lori Dumas and Republican Stacy Wallace hold leads in their respective races.
Pittsburgh is going to have a new mayor. Incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto has conceded the Democratic primary race to St. Rep. Ed Gainey. On a Twitter post, Peduto said, "Thank you Pittsburgh for the honor of being your mayor these past eight years. I will remain forever grateful."
Kutztown University is hosting a COVID-19 vaccination clinic next Monday. The university will be offering the Pfizer vaccine to students, employees, and community members ages 12 and older, at the Student Recreation Center. Vaccines are free of charge and no registration is required.
All New Jersey schools will be required to offer in-person learning next year and no remote-learning programs will be maintained. Gov. Phil Murphy is allowing an order to expire at the end of this school year, meaning full-time in-person classes beginning this coming fall. "We are facing a much different world than one year ago when we had to begin planning for this school year," Murphy says. That means parents will no longer have the option to choose full-time remove learning for their children.
A man is dead after he and four others tried robbing someone in the Poconos Monday evening. A group of five entered a home around 5:45 p.m. in the 900 block of McKinley Way in Smithfield Township to rob the person there. The victim, a 26-year-old man, fought back and used a gun during the altercation. One of the assailants, a 23-year-old New Jersey man, was killed. Another was seriously injured and three others, who are known suspects, fled the scene, authorities said. Police did not release the name of the man killed.
Gas prices in Pennsylvania continue to trend higher. AAA East Central says the price for a gallon of regular unleaded jumped up to $3.15, up six cents from a week ago. That price is $1.01 higher than this time one year ago. In the Lehigh Valley, the price for a gallon of regular unleaded was up three cents in the past week and now sits at $3.10, which is $1.08 more than a year earlier.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board says combined total gambling revenue last month set an all-time record of $404,105,692. That beats the previous record month which was the month before. The Wind Creek Bethlehem Casino pulled in the fifth-most revenue, $36,912,700.
Penn State University is moving away from using male-centric academic grouping titles like freshmen. Tuesday, the Penn State Faculty Senate voted to use inclusive language and non-gendered terms moving forward. Terms like freshman, sophomore and junior are recommended to be replaced with terms like first-year, second-year, third-year and so on. The university will also throw out terms like upperclassmen or underclassmen and they will use non-gendered pronouns when referring to students, faculty, staff or guests in degree program and class descriptions.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is less popular now among residents there. According to a new poll from Monmouth University, 19-percent of people who answered say Christie would make a good president. That's compared to 27-percent in 2015. Meantime, Tom Kean is still New Jersey's favorite former governor whiel Christie is the least favorite. Current Gov. Phil Murphy is listed as the favorite among 50-percent of respondents.
For the 22nd consecutive season, Penn State will play a primetime football game. The Nittany Lions' September 19th game at home versus Auburn has been set for 7:30 on ABC. Auburn is the first SEC team to visit Beaver Stadium since Alabama in 2011.