Leaders at Lehigh Valley Health Network and Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health have signed off on a merger agreement, five months after a nonbinding letter of intent to merge. The deal is expected to be wrapped up later this summer and when it happens, the new system would include 30 hospitals, more than 700 outpatient sites and more than 62,000 employees. The revised corporate flow chart will have CEO of Jefferson, Dr. Joseph Cacchione remain in that position. Dr. Brian Nester, CEO of LVHN will be his executive vice president and president of what's being called "the legacy Lehigh Valley Health Network."
A now ex-Bethlehem policeman and school resource officer at the East Hills Middle School in the Bethlehem School District is charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student. Stephen Baratta is the Northampton County DA and says after this incident, there needs to be new policies put into place. "I believe that our school administrators and perhaps law enforcement should consider an absolute, no-exception policy that school resource officers are forbidden to be in an office or any other isolated areas to meet privately with a child," Baratta says. 43-year-old Costas Alestas allegedly assaulted the student during a school dance while Alestas was on duty, and in uniform, according to investigators, who say Alestas sexually assaulted the girl in the boy's locker room during the dance. Police say an upskirt video of a second student was found on Alestas's phone. Alestas, who also a soccer coach at the school, was fired according to Bethlehem Police Chief Michelle Kott.
The father of a man charged in connection with a Lehighton murder is now facing charges of his own. Zak Moyer is charged in the March killing of Edward Whitehead Jr with reports saying that Moyer was wearing a mask inspired by the movie Scream at the time of the killing. A woman who lives in the neighborhood where the crime happened called police on Tuesday to say that Moyer's 68-year-old father was standing in his doorway waving a mask like the one worn during the commission of the homicide. The elder Moyer was arrested on a charge of intimidation of a witness and police say they recovered the mask.
The Saucon Valley School District Board of Directors has approved a millage increase. The 5-to-4 vote came after nearly an hour of debate on the merits of a 2.65 percent hike, and later a 2.375 percent increase, as well as zero percent increase. A zero percent increase in the district's $4 million budget would have required the schools to dip into the reserves. The school district currently has a more than $1.5 million deficit.
A new report by the PA Prison Society says state inmates are undernourished and their food is quoted as being "abysmal." The organization conducted a survey and say it found that 80 percent of male inmates say they're going hungry every day. The report says the state spends about $9 per person per day on food. But in more recent years the figure was just about $3.
The federal corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez continues today, now that a jury is seated and both sides have made their opening statements. Yesterday, federal prosecutors called Menendez a senator who put his power up for sale and took bribes in the form of gold bars, cash and a Mercedes. Menendez has served in the senate for the past 17 years, but now he's facing 18 counts, including obstruction of justice, bribery and fraud, with the maximum being 45-years in prison. Menendez's attorney said there are innocent explanations for the gold bars and cash. He says the gold bars were allegedly kept in his wife's locked closet, unknown to the senator.