As you might imagine, former President Donald Trump's campaign appearance tonight at the PPL Center will have a major impact on downtown Allentown. The city says both 7th Street and 8th Street will be closed to all traffic from Turner to Walnut streets. Linden Street and Hamilton Street will each be closed to traffic from 6th to 9th streets. LANTA says its Platform C at the at the Allentown Transportation Center will be closed for the remainder of the day beginning at 8am. In addition, Allentown School District announced it would be closing all its schools after what it calls thoughtful consideration and out of an abundance of caution.
One night before his father campaigns on his own behalf in Allentown, Donald Trump Jr. campaigned for his dad in North Whitehall Township at Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays. He told his father's supporters they not only have to vote for his father, but campaign for him too. "What we need you to do is we need you to get out there and we need you to talk to your friends and we need you to call everyone in swing states, not just Pennsylvania," Trump said. Several hundred attended Trump's visit.
While former President Trump will be in Allentown tonight, former President Obama was campaigning at Temple University on behalf of Kamala Harris Monday. "You won't find somebody you agree with on everything. Here's one thing you have to think about and you can count on with Kamala. If you elect Kamala Harris, she will see you. She will hear you. She will have your back every single day," Obama said. Harris returns to Pennsylvania tomorrow with an event planned in Harrisburg.
Time is running out for Pennsylvania residents who would like to vote by mail in this year's general election. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is today at 5 p.m. Those ballots must be completed and received by county election officials by 8 p.m. on Election Day, next Tuesday, November 5th, in order to be counted.
Doug Emhoff is telling Pittsburgh supporters that antisemitism will only increase if Donald Trump reclaims the White House. The second gentleman made the comments while addressing a group of roughly 100 people in the city's Oakland neighborhood last night. Emhoff is Jewish and he says his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, has a long track record of supporting him and his religious community. Officials with the Pittsburgh Jewish Community Center have been sounding the alarm over an increase in antisemitic incidents over the last few years and since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas last fall, in particular.
Pennsylvania Republican Party State Committeewoman Val Biancaniello says she was encouraging voters to stay in the early voting line in Delaware County and cast their vote when she was taken away in handcuffs Monday. She claims county election officials were telling those in line to go to another voting location because the line there was shorter, but when voters arrived at the other location, they were told they were out of mail in ballot applications. Biancaniello calls it voter suppression and says she did nothing wrong except to encourage voters to stay in line and vote. It's unclear what, if anything, Biancaniello was charged with.
District Attorney Larry Krasner wants to put a stop to Elon Musk and his political action committee. NBC Philadelphia reports the DA's Office has filed a lawsuit that would stop Musk from giving registered voters money in swing states. Pennsylvania, of course, is a swing state and Krasner's office said the committee is trying to influence voters ahead of a critical presidential election. Musk, who is supporting Republican nominee Donald Trump for president, first announced the giveaway at a rally in Harrisburg.
In was almost business as usual at East Stroudsburg University Monday after five gunshots were fired on campus overnight Saturday into Sunday. Ralph Elick is East Stroudsburg's campus police chief and says the Zimbar Gym was being used Saturday night to host a Halloween party for students, overseen by faculty. "They noticed a number of non-students entering the facility at Zimbar Gym, and they notified the police department for assistance. Officers arrived and began to disperse the crowd," Elick says. Police took two people into custody, but say they were not involved in the gunfire. No buildings were hit by bullets, and no one was reported to be hurt. Elick says they're looking through video from nearly 500 cameras on campus and are encouraging anybody who may have cell phone video from that night to share it with them.
The Mahoning Valley Interchange in Carbon County will be closed in both directions early Wednesday morning. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says The interchange in Franklin Township will be closed from midnight to 5 a.m. so crews can safely install an overhead sign.