Plenty of local roads remain flooded and closed due to Tuesday's heavy rainfall. There's no word yet on when all local roads will be cleared of flood water and travel can resume as normal.
Tuesday's heavy rain and strong wind is causing problems today with power outages reported. As of 8:30am, First Energy reported more than 31,000 of its customers were without service. 500 of them were in Northampton County, 117 in Monroe and more than 2800 in Berks County. PPL says nearly 13,000 of its customers were in the dark as of 8:30 this morning. More than 1000 of them were in Lehigh and Northampton counties. 1500 more were in Schuylkill and Monroe counties.
Many local school districts are either operating on a two-hour delay today or are closed entirely thanks to Tuesday's storm. You can always get the complete Operation Snowflake list by searching for the word 'snowflake.'
Accu-Weather's Joe Lundberg says we don't need it, but we're going to get it. More rain is on its way later this week. "I think it's a shorter duration storm, less impactful overall, but there still be gusty wind with it and an inch of rain is an inch of rain. We've got enough as it is," Lundberg says. The next rain is expected Friday evening into Saturday morning. Whatever falls will be on top of the 2.25 inches of rain officially recorded at the airport Tuesday.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit the Allentown area Friday. According to the White House, the President Biden will tout his economic agenda. The time and location of the visit haven't been released yet. It'll be the president's second stop in Pennsylvania in a week. He was in Montgomery County last Friday. His most recent Lehigh Valley visit came in the summer of 2021 when he visited Mack Trucks in Lower Macungie Township.
It looks like another Wawa is coming to Lehigh County. The Allentown Planning Commission gave its conditional approval for a Wawa on Lehigh Street, formerly the home of the Brass Rail. If the Wawa is eventually built, it won't be alone. There's a Sheetz and Turkey Hill in neighboring lots. A Turkey Hill attorney told the commission his client objects to the new Wawa because of traffic, safety and and health issues but the commission gave the project a thumbs up despite that.
Gunshot detection devices have been installed in various places in Allentown. The devices can pinpoint the location of gunshots and send it to police in under a minute. The devices can "listen" for a quarter-mile radius, locating gunshots within 90 feet of where they happen. Promise Neighborhoods Executive Director Hasshan Batts welcomes the new technology. "I think it gets us information faster so we can be more helpful to the people who are left, to pick up the pieces," Batts says. The devices were paid for $1.5 million in grant funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. While the devices are installed, they won't be operational until later this month.
A new bill filed in Harrisburg would freeze the pay for all lawmakers and top state leaders should another budget impasse happen. The "no budget, no pay" bill comes from State Representative Jill Cooper, a Republican from Westmoreland. She was one of a dozen House legislators who didn't cash their paychecks during Pennsylvania's six-month budget impasse last year. House Bill 1935 is now with the House Appropriations Committee.
A bill that would make cursive writing instruction mandatory in state schools now rests with the state House Education Committee. Representative Joseph Adams, a Republican from Wayne County, is the sponsor of House Bill 1934. He says the idea is needed because writing in cursive can activate areas of the brain involved in executive function, fine motor skills and working memory. Adams also says cursive can help students become less dependent on digital devices. PA's Education Secretary is among those who reportedly don't consider cursive instruction to be vital.
New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is pushing back against the indictments against him for alleged corruption. "By filing three indictments, it allows the government to keep the sensational story in the press. It poisons the jury pool and it seeks to convict me in the court of public opinion," Menendez said. While speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Democrat claimed he's being persecuted by federal law enforcement. The embattled senator denied charges he allegedly worked as a foreign agent for Egypt and used his power to aid the government of Qatar.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is announcing several initiatives to make the state more affordable for families. While delivering his 2024 State of the State Address Tuesday afternoon, Murphy outlined plans to provide medical debt relief and more affordable housing. "We will aim to build new housing options where they are needed most, not just anywhere, in locations that are close to jobs, transit hubs and main street businesses," the governor says. Murphy vowed to continue to make New Jersey the best place to raise a family, by improving literacy rates among students and upholding gun safety laws.