Allentown's former human resources director is threatening to sue the city. Nadeem Shahzad, who was hired for the position in June, claims he was illegally fired Friday without valid cause. He has reportedly sent an e-mail to Mayor Matt Tuerk in which he said he intends to pursue legal action. The city says Shahzad was not terminated but resigned and will not comment any further because it's a personnel issue. The action comes at a time when Allentown's City Hall is facing scrutiny by the NAACP over how it treats minority employees.
A man is dead after he drowned in Monroe County. The body of twenty-six-year-old Isham Huq of New Jersey was recovered this past Saturday afternoon after his kayak flipped over on Lake Dresser near Tobyhanna. Authorities say the lake runs eight-feet-deep in some sections, but the kayak flipped just a few yards off the shoreline in more shallow water. The incident is still under investigation.
A former state wrestling champion from Nazareth has been the victim of a shooting. Police say Sammy Sasso, a current two-time NCAA wrestling runner-up for Ohio State University, was shot in the stomach Friday in Columbus. Police say it happened during a robbery attempt in the University district of the city. A family friend has said the wrestler's surgeon told his family that he should make a full recovery and be able to wrestle again. During his time at Nazareth, Sasso was a two-time Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association champion and additionally was a two-time Big Ten wrestling champ.
Police are on the lookout for a woman who allegedly led officers on a high-speed chase through Monroe County. The incident happened this past Saturday morning when Jamisa McIvor allegedly led police on a high-speed chase along Route 611 near Pocono Township. McIvor is wanted on reckless endangerment charges. Anyone with any information is being asked to contact the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department.
Two Democrats in Harrisburg are pushing separate bills to create a four-day workweek in the state. St. Rep. Dave Madsen's bill would create a three year pilot program for 70 businesses to gauge what a four-day workweek would mean. "We'd give them $5000 per worker. The max is 50 and minimum is 30 to participate in the program," Madsen says. That bill would carry a $15 million price tag. A second bill, pushed by St. Rep. Roni Green would mandate all Pennsylvania businesses with 500 or more employees to shift to a 32 hour workweek. Republican St. Rep. Dawn Keefer isn't a fan of either idea. "Government is interjecting itself into an area that I don't think they belong," she says. Keefer says, "When the government continues to give you more and incentivizes you not to work, I think we create the problem.”
Some House Republicans are calling for an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. They accuse him of participating in his son Hunter's overseas business dealings while he served as vice president and making policy decisions based on much his son got paid. Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Dan Meuser explains why it's important. "We've got to know whether or not if our president was involved and is compromised," Meuser says. The House Oversight Committee is demanding the National Archives turn over previously unredacted e-mails, claiming the president used aliases in emails. President Biden maintains he didn't have any involvement in his son's business deals.
Pennsylvania is among two-dozen states where the number of new COVID hospitalizations is going up. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the Commonwealth saw a nearly 24-percent increase over the past week.
Health insurers want to boost premiums for people and small businesses that are buying policies under the Affordable Care Act in 2024. But insurers are asking for lower increases than they sought in 2023. The Pennsylvania Department of Insurance says they're asking for an average hike of four-point-two-percent for individual policies and four-point-one-percent for small-group policies.
A nonprofit that counts the number of homeless in New Jersey says there has been a 17 percent increase in the number of homeless in the state over the last year. The nonprofit -- called Monarch Housing Associates -- attributes the increase to a couple of factors. First, an eviction moratorium that had been in place during the pandemic was lifted last year. Second, there's a housing crisis in the Garden State that was prompted by household incomes not matching the cost of living in New Jersey -- adding up to a lack of affordable housing.
Authorities are saying the young Humpback Whale that washed ashore earlier this month in Long Branch likely died due to multiple boat strikes. Officials with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine are saying the animal was killed following a boat strike, which was the second occurrence on the whale since late last year. The whale was first reported to Long Branch police on August 12 and was taken the next day for a necropsy, before being buried on the beach. Officials are saying the twenty-seven-foot whale was just a few years old.