An Amber Alert has been issued by the Philadelphia Police Department. Keep an eye out for a 2007 Burgundy Scion TC coupe with Pennsylvania license plate LKV-1067. Police say that car was stolen outside a Philadelphia pizza shop Tuesday night with six-year-old Sahara Little in the back seat. The child was last seen wearing a pink puffy jacket with tan khaki pants.
The Northampton County DA says the driver of an Easton Area school bus wasn't at fault in a crash that sent the bus down an embankment and into the Bushkill Creek. Terry Houck says a student making some sort of noise distracted the driver, which led the driver to swerve and lose control of the bus while driving on Bushkill Drive on November 8th. The driver and about a dozen students were injured in the crash. Houck says the driver will face no charges.
It has now been 50 weeks since the first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine were sent out to states. New federal records show just under 77-percent of allocated vaccines have been administered to residents in Pennsylvania as of December 2nd. That's lower than the national average of 80 percent and also amounts to the 14th smallest share of all states. Also, a little over 67-percent of adults in the Keystone State who have not yet received the vaccine report that they will probably not or definitely not get a vaccine in the future. That's the 16th largest share of any state. The most common reason cited for not wanting a vaccine is being concerned about possible side effects.
Lehigh Valley Health Network says it batted nearly 100-percent after implementing a vaccine requirement for all employees. A LVHN spokesman says nearly 97-percent of all network employees are fully vaccinated and less than one-percent of the network's 20,000 employees quit instead of getting the COVID shot. The other employees either got medical or religious exemptions or a temporary exemption due to having natural immunity after getting COVID-19. Earlier this year, St. Luke's University Health Network announced 155 of its 17,000 employees quit rather than getting vaccinated.
New Jersey's total coronavirus case count is nearing 1.2-million since the beginning of the pandemic. It comes after the state reported 2789 additional cases yesterday. Health officials also confirmed 29 additional people died because of the virus. If New Jersey puts up similar numbers today, the state will surpass 1.2-million total cases.
Pennsylvania gas prices took bit of a dip for the second straight week, according to AAA East Central. The statewide average price as of Tuesday was $3.56 a gallon, down two pennies from the previous week, but still $1.03 more than one year ago. In the Lehigh Valley, the average price dropped by three cents to #3.54 a gallon, which is $1.02 higher than last December 7th.
Lehigh Valley Health Network is getting $4.5 million in state grant money to expand two of its intensive care units. $3.5 million will go to Lehigh Valley Reilly Children's Hospital to expand its NICU from 32 beds to 46-50, as well as negative pressure rooms and special procedure rooms. The remaining $1 million will go to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg to add eight new ICU beds, bringing the total to 28.
Workers at Coca-Cola's distribution center in Bethlehem are on strike. The strike started Sunday and workers say they're prepared for this to go on for weeks. The local union is asking people in the Lehigh Valley not to buy Coke products until the strike is over. The president of the local Teamsters union says the strike centers on pension and health care issues.
Easton City Council will vote tonight on Mayor Sal Panto's 2022 no-tax-increase budget. As it stands now, the mayor's budget will keep property taxes unchanged for the 13th straight year if council approves.
Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter says Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner's statement that the city doesn't have a crime crisis is ridiculous. In a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed, Nutter wrote, "It takes a certain audacity of ignorance and white privilege to say that right now. As of Monday night, 521 people, souls, spirits have been vanquished, eliminated, murdered in our City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, the most since 1960. I have to wonder what kind of messed up world of white wokeness Krasner is living in to have so little regard for human lives lost, many of them Black and brown, while he advances his own national profile as a progressive district attorney."
Former Lehigh University star C.J. McCollum is out indefinitely after suffering a collapsed lung in the Portland Trail Blazers' game against Boston Saturday night.