Here's something we haven't heard all that often this winter. "We have a winter weather advisory from 5pm tonight through 5am tomorrow," says Accu-Weather's Joe Lundberg. He expects a rain/snow mix to arrive toward evening here in the Lehigh Valley with it changing over to a snow/sleet mix later tonight, leaving behind 1-3 inches in the immediate Lehigh Valley. Up in the Poconos, the snow and sleet begins earlier and is expected to leave behind three-to-six inches before everything wraps up overnight tonight into Tuesday morning.
Lehigh Valley residents gathered Sunday evening at Bethlehem's Payrow Plaza to remember Ukraine and pray for those still under fire one year after Russia invaded the country. "You're always worried about that after a year people start to put this in the back of their minds and it's not as timely," one man said. Last Friday marked the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion.
Authorities are looking into what caused a fire that burned a home down in Monroe County. The blaze broke out yesterday evening at a home located along Route 115 in Saylorsburg. The homeowners were hosting a party at the time of the fire, but everyone was able to make it out safely. The cause of the fire is undetermined, but officials don't believe the fire is suspicious.
The Morning Call will no longer publish the comic strip “Dilbert.” Last week, citing a recent survey in which only 53 percent of Black people agree with the phrase “It’s okay to be white,” strip creator Scott Adams said, "Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people. Wherever you have to go, just get away. Because there’s no fixing this. This can’t be fixed. So I don’t think it makes any sense as a white citizen of America to try to help Black citizens any more." The Morning Call says Adams' comments were mean-spirited and racist and the newspaper will not tolerate hate and will not endorse it.
Pennsylvania Congressman Matt Cartwright is putting some of the blame on the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment on the Trump administration. "Regrettably, some safety protections were abandoned in the last administration, having to do with freight rail. You don't want to go that way. People like to use the word 'regulations'. Regulations are no good they say. You shouldn't use that word, 'regulations.' You should use the word 'protections'," Cartwright says. He says Congress needs to revisit the Department of Transportation mandate reversed in 2018 that required safer brake systems on trains carrying hazardous materials.
The wife of Senator John Fetterman is explaining why she took her children to Canada when her husband was hospitalized for clinical depression. Gisele Fetterman recently posted online about what she called their getaway, claiming she was trying to escape all the news trucks circling her home. She says she wanted to help her kids decompress and have heart-to-heart talks about how their father's health made national headlines. Senator Fetterman is reportedly still receiving treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center.
In light of Governor Josh Shapiro vowing not to issue any execution warrants during his term, Representative Chris Rabb says he'll also try again to repeal the death penalty. The Philadelphia Democrat has tried three times since he's been in office to get such a bill passed. Should Pennsylvania enact Rabb's measure, the state would join nearly two dozen others that have abolished the death penalty. In Pennsylvania, the number of new death penalty sentences reportedly has steadily declined over the last 30 years.
Pennsylvania will start checking the eligibility again of everyone on Medicaid. Over the next year, people will have to fill out forms to verify their address, income and household size. Federal officials say this is necessary because during the pandemic, states weren't allowed to kick anyone off Medicaid, even if they were no longer eligible. Now, the government wants to ensure people aren't making too much money to qualify for the program, or check if they gained health care coverage through their employer or moved into a new state.
The president of the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation says he's found a 50-year-old message in a bottle. It was discovered at Fowlers Hollow State Park in Perry County, and Joe Fresetta said at first he thought it was just trash. When he and his wife pulled it out, they found a receipt for camping as well as notes on a paper plate that detailed experiences of people who stayed at the campground. Fresetta has turned to social media to try to find the families who wrote the messages, in hope of returning their memories to them.
The water park at the American Dream Mall in New Jersey is back open after a large decorative helicopter crashed into a swimming pool last Sunday. Four people were hurt but not seriously. State inspectors found a damaged rope caused the decoration to break loose from the ceiling. The water park was closed as the state conducted its investigation and approved the park's re-opening this past Saturday.