Two arrests have been made in a weekend shooting in Allentown that left a 27-year-old Bethlehem man dead. It happened Sunday night around 9:30 in the 400 block of Tilghman Street. Police say they have arrested 45-year-old Adalberto Morales-Ortiz, of Bethlehem, and 21-year-old Axel Fontanez-Morales, from Whitehall. The victim's name has not yet been released.
The Northampton County district attorney says 59-year-old Walter Whaley Jr. was the person shot and killed at a home on Sandy Shore Drive in Upper Mount Bethel Township early Sunday morning. DA Terry Houck says that the shooting was believed to be domestic in nature, but has not released any further information.
A 20-year-old old Middle Smithfield Township man has been identified as the person who died in a weekend motorcycle crash in Monroe County. William Hill died Sunday morning at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg from injuries sustained in the crash that happened Saturday night just after 8:30 on Milford Road. Police are still investigating.
The Chick-fil-A on Hamilton Boulevard in Trexlertown is closing Thursday for renovations. It's likely to remain closed until the middle of August. A Chick-fil-A in Richland Township, just north of Quakertown closed last week, also for renovations and is also expected to reopen sometime this summer.
Primary Election Day has arrived with several hotly contested races in the Lehigh Valley. In Northampton County, current DA Terry Houck is being challenged by former judge Stephen Baratta. In Easton, longtime Mayor Sal Panto faces a Democrat primary challenge from Easton City Councilman Peter Melan. In Lehigh County's commissioners race, seven Democrats are battling for four spots on this November's ballot. Also up for grabs today are dozens of school board positions across the Lehigh Valley. Voters across Pennsylvania will choose their party's nominees for both Pennsylvania's Supreme Court and Commonwealth Court, while Democrats will be voting to whittle three candidates for Superior Court down to two. Polls remain open until 8 o'clock tonight.
There are two special votes taking place today for seats in Pennsylvania's House of Representatives. The outcome of those votes will either leave Democrats with a slight voting majority or Republicans regaining control of the House. As it stands, the 203-member legislative body has Democrats with a 101-100 edge with two vacancies. One of the districts had previously been represented by a Republican while the other was represented by a Democrat.
Mail voting has remained popular with Pennsylvania voters. They are on track to request roughly the same number of mail ballots this municipal primary as they did in the latest one. For the May 2021 election, 800,000 Pennsylvania voters requested mail ballots. This year, 787,000 voters asked for one, of which 420,000 had been returned as of Friday.
A new report shows that tourism in Pennsylvania is bouncing back from the COVID epidemic in 2021 but has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels. The state Department of Community and Economic Development's annual tourism report shows that Pennsylvania had nearly 180-million visitors in 2021 who spent 38-billion-dollars. The number of tourists was up more than 28-million compared to 2020. State officials say tourism is a significant economic driver in Pennsylvania and helps to fund transportation, infrastructure, education and public safety programs.
House Democrats have a package of gun control bills poised for a possible final vote when lawmakers return to the Capitol next week. That package includes House Bill 731, which would create new penalties for gun-owners who don't safely store their long-gun firearms. Long guns include rifles, carbines, shotguns and submachine guns. Current state law mandates that a licensed firearm seller is required to provide a locking device with sales of handguns. However, that requirement doesn't apply to long guns.
The Senate Transportation Committee has approved a bill that would allow more cities to pass ordinances for the use of low-speed electric scooters. Those are small vehicles with two or three wheels that can be stood upon while riding. They weigh less than 100-pounds and are made to go no more than 20 miles per hour. Many programs offer them to be rented with a credit card. The state created a pilot program in 2021 that allowed electric scooters to be used as street-legal vehicles in Pittsburgh. But that program is set to be phased out this summer unless lawmakers act.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is signing a Seinfeld inspired law aimed at combatting telemarketers. "This is a bill that requires telemarketers who are calling you to, within the first 30 seconds of the call, identify who they are and why they're calling," Murphy says. The law also lays out consequences for telemarketers who lie and misrepresent information on sales calls.
An NFL playoff game will soon air exclusively on a streaming service for the first time ever. The league announced Monday that one of this season's postseason games will be broadcast only on NBCUniversal's Peacock. It'll be played in prime time during Wild Card weekend on Saturday, January 13th, 2024. The deal between the NFL and NBCUniversal is reportedly for one year.