A former Allentown School District teacher is accused of selling drugs. Back in April, Jennifer Bennis resigned for what school district records showed as personal reasons. However, the Morning Call is reporting that Bennis had been arrested following a raid of her Whitehall Township home on a variety of drug charges, including intent to manufacture or deliver methamphetamine. Her arrest was never made public by the school district, which says it does not reveal arrest records of employees, especially when an alleged offense happens off school property. Bennis had been a social studies teacher at Allen High School and had been in the district since 2005.
Lawyers for a woman who pleaded guilty to plotting to kill her mother back when she was 14 years old have withdrawn a petition asking for her plea, conviction and 35 years to life sentence to be tossed. Jamie Silvonek, who's now 22, claimed her attorney was ineffective when she pleaded guilty to her role in the murder of her mother, Cheryl, in the family's Upper Macungie Township driveway. Her then-boyfriend was 20-year-old Caleb Barnes, who carried out the actual killing and is serving a life sentence. The Juvenile Law Center, which filed the petition on behalf of Silvonek says they withdrew it in consultation with Silvonek.
Today is the third straight day the Lehigh County Courthouse will be closed due to a power outage caused by a Tuesday night fire. An electrical issue caused a small fire in a supply room in the basement/parking garage level of the main courthouse around 11:30 Tuesday night. Sprinklers quickly put the fire out, but not until the fire caused problems with the building's electrical system.
Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCcormick says the U.S. needs to reduce its dependency on China. "I've laid out a vision of very tough actions that we could do to reduce our dependence on China and ensure that we're not supporting the techno-authoritarian nation there," McCormick says. His call notably targeted electric vehicle batteries and lithium batteries manufactured in China.
Pennsylvania's gasoline tax is dropping next year. The tax will drop from 61-cents to 58-cents per gallon and marks the first time since 2018 that the tax has dropped from the previous year. The tax on diesel fuel will also drop by a few pennies. A state law ties in the tax with the average wholesale price of gasoline. According to AAA, Pennsylvania has the highest average price per gallon of any state east of the Mississippi River.
The 168th Cadet Class of the Pennsylvania State Police graduates later this morning. After nearly six months of training, 74 graduates will take their oaths to officially become state troopers. The ceremony is this morning at 10:30 at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Harrisburg.