Four teens are facing charges in Allentown after they allegedly made false threats to schools in the area. The threats were made anonymously through the district's Safe2Say Something program. The teens have been charged with making terroristic threats and false alarms to agencies of public safety. The threats, which were all found to be bogus, caused early releases and lockdowns at several schools over the past two weeks.
Make it three school days in a row for a threat disrupting classes at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute. LCTI was locked down Tuesday morning after receiving reports of an alleged threat directed at the school. The threat was reported around 8:30 a.m., prompting the lockdown, which was lifted shortly after 10 a.m. Separate bomb threats closed LCTI on Friday and Monday.
Classes were disrupted at a Bucks County high school Tuesday morning. Smoke triggered a fire alarm at Palisades High School around 6:30 Tuesday morning. It was determined it was coming from a HVAC issue. The building was not damaged and the smoke was cleared a short time later, but all staff and students reported to the nearby middle school until the building was cleared.
A 57-year-old Lower Macungie Township man has died as a result of a fire last week. Richard Grim died early Tuesday morning, one week after a November 9th fire at his home. The Lehigh County Coroner says Grim died as a result of severe burns, which were caused by the victim smoking while using oxygen.
Bethlehem residents will likely be paying more for recycling services next year. City Councilors Tuesday night heard the first reading of an plan to increase recycling fees by 20-dollars for 2023. If approved, the fee would be 90-dollars for single-and multi-family homes effective January first. The collection would also change to single-stream recycling, meaning residents could combine all recycling into one bin.
The Lehigh Valley area will soon be getting its ninth Aldi. Officials with the discount grocer say their store in South Whitehall will open Thursday at 9 a.m. at 3235 Hamilton Boulevard. The new store is part of the company's more than three-billion-dollar expansion of its more than 22-hundred stores in 38 states.
AAA East Central says gas prices in both Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley essentially held steady over the past seven days. AAA says Pennsylvania's average price for a gallon of unleaded stood at $4.08 on Tuesday, down one cent from the prior week, but up 42 cents from one year earlier. In the Lehigh Valley, the price dropped two cents from $4.09 to $4.07 a gallon. That's still 48 cents higher than November 15, 2021.
AAA says the upcoming Thanksgiving travel period will nearly reach pre-pandemic levels. AAA predicts 54.6 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home between November 23 and November 27, which would be the third busiest for Thanksgiving travel since AAA began tracking the number in 2000. In the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, AAA expects 6.6 million total travelers, with almost 6 million of them traveling via automobile. The easiest times to navigate the roads are early morning on Wednesday or before 11am on Thanksgiving Day. The busiest times are Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 4pm-and-8pm.
In the 2022 midterm election cycle, the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania fielded more legislative candidates than in the past three decades. Those Libertarian candidates received more votes than any previous midterm and maintained official party status through a midterm for the first time in 20 years by receiving at least 2% of the vote in at least 10 counties. The two largest Libertarian candidates running in Pennsylvania were Erik Gerhardt for U.S. Senate and Matt Hackenburg for Governor. Pennsylvania election law says that a political party must receive 2% of the largest vote in a statewide election and do so in at least 10 counties to receive official party status. The LPPA accomplished that in 42 of Pennsylvania’s sixty-seven counties.
A new law is now in effect to make sure drivers clear all the snow and ice off their cars. It says you have 24 hours after wintry weather stops to clear your hood, trunk and roof of any accumulation. While the law doesn't apply to vehicles when they're on the road, police may still pull you over if they believe the snow and ice build-up might be a threat to others. You could be fined up to 15-hundred dollars if your accumulation hits another car or injures a pedestrian.
Earlier this year dozens of vehicles were involved in a snow-squall-related crash on I-81 in Schuylkill County. Six people were killed. Now PennDOT's asking motorists to be aware of when snow squalls are in the forecast this coming winter. PennDOT's Mike Keiser says on some highways they're rolling out electronic speed limit signs to help slow down traffic when required. "Earlier this year the program was active in 14 locations along I-80 in Clearfield County. Preliminary results show when needed, this low-cost initiative effectively slowed traffic and reduced or eliminated crashes," Keiser says. The electronic signs will also be used this winter along I-81 in Lebanon and Schuylkill counties.
A bus full of migrants is expected to arrive in Philadelphia today. City officials had been expecting this for the past several days. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said around 30 people were on the bus when it left his state on Tuesday. City leaders are now working to make sure the individuals have access to shelter, food and other essential items when they arrive. Mayor Jim Kenney has made it clear the migrants will be welcomed with open arms.
In a party line 14-8 vote, the state House Judiciary Committee has approved articles of impeachment against Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Philadelphia Republican St. Rep. Martina White is spearheading the move. "Mr. Krasner has proven himself derelict in his duties as district attorney in Philadelphia, appropriately using prosecutorial discretion," White says. St. Rep. Jason Dawkins was among the eight Democrats voting against moving forward with Krasner's impeachment and says the people of Philadelphia clearly don't want it. "Larry Krasner has been not only elected as district attorney in the City of Philadelphia, but he was also re-elected," Dawkins says. Krasner issued a statement that read in part, "Instead of learning a single lesson from the historic trouncing they took on Election Day, PA House Republicans are spending their final days in a lame duck majority fighting a lost cause."
New Jersey is reinstating its black bear hunt, against the wishes of environmentalists. Governor Phil Murphy previously opposed the hunt, but requested the move after reports of bear encounters spiked by 237-percent this year compared to last. After hearing from the public, the New Jersey Fish and Game Council voted Tuesday to approve an emergency rule and allow the bear hunt to happen from December 5th to the 10th, which is at the same time as the annual six-day shotgun season for dear. If the first hunt doesn't reduce the bear population by 20-percent, another hunt will be allowed from December 14th to the 17th.
Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and TCU are the top four teams in the new college football playoff rankings. Penn State is 11th. The Nittany Lions play at Rutgers this Saturday afternoon.