One of the GOP Senate candidates in Pennsylvania sues to make sure the state follows a legal decision in counting votes in the tight race. David McCormick has now sued to have all 67 counties and the secretary of state count undated mail-in ballots toward the final tally. The lawsuit states, "These ballots were indisputably submitted on time. They were date-stamped upon receipt and no fraud or irregularity has been alleged." McCormick trails Mehmet Oz by roughly 1000 votes with unofficial results due today.
Northampton County's election office says it will count 380 undated mail-in ballots received in last Tuesday's primary election unless the county is told not to. Those votes could decide a tight 14th Senate District Democratic primary, where Nick Miller leads Tara Zrinski by 101 votes. How many of those 380 ballots were cast by Democrats is not yet known. Lehigh County elections officials say they have 40 undated Democratic mail-in ballots, but it's not known how many of them fall within the 14th District. State law says undated mail-in ballots should not be counted, but in the latest turn in a six-month long legal fight, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that requirement was immaterial.
The general election race for governor of Pennsylvania is already underway with Democrat Josh Shapiro going after Republican Doug Mastriano on attempts Shapiro says he faced to get the 2020 presidential election overturned. "We won every single time to protect the will of the people and protect the sanctity of the vote. My opponent, Sen. Mastriano, wants to take us to a divisive and dark place where he has openly talked, if he were governor, about with the stroke of a pen, being able to do away with voting machines that had votes on it that he didn't agree with," Shapiro told CNN.
Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has been sentenced for violating her parole by being arrested for driving drunk. She was on probation after serving time for leaking grand jury material and lying about it when in March she was arrested for drunk driving. On Monday, she was sentenced to two months to a year of jail time, but was given credit for time served and was to be paroled to a residential treatment center for alcohol use. Prosecutor Kelly Lloyd says the judge got it right. "She clearly has some substance abuse issues that she's battling, alcohol-related. She did those in-patient treatments immediately after the DUI occured and then the judge is having them continue even further," Lloyd says. Kane is expected to spend three to six months in the treatment center.
The murder trial for a Monroe County man is continuing in Stroudsburg. Michael Horvath's trial resumed yesterday as several witnesses including an excavator who found bones on Horvath's property and his sister-in-law took the stand. Horvath is being accused of stalking and killing a coworker at Allen Organ, Holly Grim, in 2013. he's facing a bench trial which means the judge will make the final decision, not a jury.
Lehigh Valley Dr. John Mitchell is being accused of illegally prescribing controlled substances. He was arrested Monday and charged with nine felony counts for that and four counts for prescribing to a drug-dependent person. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office says an investigation into his prescribing started after one of his patients was found dead and the prescriptions were traced back to him. The A.G.'s office filed other complaints against him while investigating that case.
Fire damaged a building in Bethlehem. It broke out just after midnight Monday morning in the 800 block of West Broad Street. Fire officials have not commented on what happened or if anyone was hurt.
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed a bill that would purge deceased voters from the rolls. The bill will allow for the use of information provided by the Election Registration Information Center, or ERIC, to update the information. Current law did not allow ERIC information to be used. ERIC is run by a nonprofit organization that helps states make their voter rolls as accurate as possible. House Bill 2507 now goes to the Senate for consideration.
New Jersey's gambling industry is booming. The Gaming Enforcement Division released first quarter figures for 2022 and pulled in nearly $720 million in net revenue. That's up by over 27-percent compared to the same time period last year. People are also returning to casino hotels since occupancy was just over 63-percent for the first quarter, which is nearly 11-percent higher than the first three months of 2022.
The Philadelphia Eagles will become the first NFL team with commercial rights in Africa. The "Sports Business Journal" reports the arrangement comes under an expansion to the NFL's international marketing program. The Eagles will become the 19th team to join the program, and get rights in Ghana, Australia and New Zealand, as well. There are no current plans to play regular season games there.