An Allentown charter school's future is very much in doubt after Allentown City Council unanimously rejected a bill to amend the city’s zoning ordinance to allow the proposed school to occupy a South 12th Street office building. The amendment would have created a special exception for schools to operate in industrial zones if located next to a residential district. Founding members of Lehigh Valley STEAM Academy Charter School want to lease the building on South 12th Street for the school, but the building is in a district where schools are prohibited. Council's vote is another obstacle for the school, after its application was denied earlier this year by the Allentown School Board. STEAM leaders plan to appeal that ruling with eyes on opening in time for the 2024-2025 school year.
The Lehigh Valley will be getting nearly 100 full-time jobs. Schless Bottles, which makes plastic jars and bottles will be moving to Allentown and bringing 98 new jobs with it within the next three years. The company says its investing more than $7.5 million in the move. Helping entice the company to the Lehigh Valley were a $300,000 Pennsylvania First grant and a $194,000 grant to train new workers. The company is currently based in New Jersey.
An 81-year-old man was killed in a crash in Bethlehem on Wednesday afternoon. Bethlehem police say the crash happened around 4pm at the intersection of Easton Avenue and Montgomery Street. A car driven by 81-year-old Rong Chin Kuo, of Bethlehem, had left the road and struck a tree. Kuo was taken to the hospital, but was declared dead less than two hours later. No one else was injured in the crash, which remains under investigation.
If you have outdoor activities planned for this weekend, Accu-Weather's Heather Zehr says they may or may not go off without a hitch. "As we go through this weather pattern, it really just stays pretty unsettled," Zehr says. And that means showers and potentially heavy thunderstorms are possible today through the weekend and really extending through Tuesday.
Gov. Josh Shapiro and PennDOT say a section of I-95 in Philadelphia that collapsed June 11th due to a tanker truck fire below it will reopen today at noon. These area residents couldn't be happier. "That's awesome. It's terrific they got it done so fast," one driver said.
The crew at the Pocono Raceway is helping the state reopen I-95. A stretch of I-95 collapsed earlier this month after a tanker truck carrying gasoline crashed and caught fire. A truck with a jet engine dryer used to dry the track at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond reached Philadelphia to help with the reconstruction. Governor Josh Shapiro claims I-95 will reopen with a temporary fix tomorrow or Sunday.
Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced Thursday that he officially certified the final results of the 2023 Primary Election. County election officials conduct two reviews to confirm the results accurately reflect the outcome of every contest, Schmidt says.
A new report released this week puts the oil and gas industry's economic effect in Pennsylvania at more than 75-billion-dollars. Figures released this week by the American Petroleum Institute in Pennsylvania show the oil and gas industry supported more than 423-thousand jobs and contributed over 75-billion-dollars toward the state's economy in 2021. Researchers say the data stemmed from the period when the state was still recovering from the pandemic-fueled recession. Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. Over half of the households in the commonwealth rely on natural gas as their primary home-heating fuel.
A state Senate committee has approved a bill that would eliminate the list of qualifying conditions used to determine when patients can legally obtain medical marijuana. Senate Bill 835 would also remove a requirement that patients pay an annual fee to renew their medical marijuana cards . The same committee also approved a separate bill that would allow the state's dispensaries to begin selling edible products.
The sentencing phase in the Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting trial begins Monday. The jury handed down guilty verdicts on all 63 counts last week against Robert Bowers. He was convicted of murder and other charges for shooting and killing eleven worshipers in October 2018. In the first part of the sentencing phase, the jury will consider aggravating circumstances to determine if Bowers is eligible for the death penalty. They'll then decide whether he should be sentenced to death.
The NTSB today will continue a set of 2-day public hearings on February's train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. In Thursday's session held at East Palestine High School, information was released about concerns shared by a Norfolk Southern engineer prior to the derailment about the size of the train that, in the end, saw many cars leave the rails with some containing hazardous chemicals. In addition, fire officials testifying about the response to the accident said crews had difficulty communicating with one another in the early-going due to a lack of uniformity with radios. Crews also were unable to quickly learn what cargo and chemicals were being trafficked by the train.