Democrat Dan Goughnour is the winner of a special election in western Pennsylvania, keeping majority control of the state House in his party’s hands. Goughnour pulled in over 63 percent of the vote in yesterday's special election, with Republican Chuck Davis getting support from roughly 35 percent of voters in the election southeast of Pittsburgh. The seat became vacant in January when Democratic state Rep. Matthew Gergely died. Goughnour’s victory means Democrats hold the House by a single vote, 102 members to 101, meaning Democrats can keep House Speaker Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia as the chamber’s presiding officer. Goughnour will be sworn into office in a week or two after voting results are certified by local elections officials.
The results of an audit of Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone will not become public. All Democrats on the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee voted against releasing the findings and all Republicans voted in favor of it. As a result, the report will remain unpublished. The Senate previously voted unanimously to authorize the audits of the NIZ and the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority board, which manages the NIZ district. Lehigh Valley Republican St. Sen. Jarrett Coleman has been leading the push to release the audit and says, “The public deserves transparency and that’s why I voted in favor of releasing the interim report.”
The Easton Area School District's proposed $220 million budget includes a deficit projected to be anywhere from $7.5 million to $14.5 million. The district is proposing a 2 percent tax increase to help fill in that gap and another 1.5 percent tax increase to pay for capital projects. The district will also consider using $7 million in tax incremental financing money and offering health insurance buyouts to eligible employees. The current budget, passed last year, included a 2.25% tax increase on property owners, which provided the district with an additional $3 million.
Students at Ramapo College in New Jersey have solved a mystery. Investigators had been unable to determine whose bones were found in a shoe discovered along River Road along the Delaware River in Pohatcong Township in 2017. Ramapo's Cairenn Binder explains what made the process so difficult. "This case was a bit unusual because only the foot of this woman was found and so they were unable to determine her age because foot bones apparently don't provide the best age estimates for individuals," Binder says. However, 20 students in Ramapo's Investigative Genetic Genealogy program worked on ID'ing the bones and eventually determined they belonged to Maria Quinones-Garcia, who went missing in Allentown in 2014. Allentown police say they have no further information on the circumstances of the woman's disappearance and death.
Gas prices both across Pennsylvania and in the Lehigh Valley have gone higher over the past seven days. AAA East Central says Pennsylvania's average price for a gallon of gas went up by nearly two cents to $3.21 as of Tuesday. That's 44 cents below last year's number. In the Lehigh Valley, gas prices jumped up by one nickel to $3.12 a gallon, which is 40 cents less than one year earlier.
Prosecutors in Idaho say they may call family members of defendant Bryan Kohberger at trial. Kohberger is charged in the 2022 killings of four university students. A month after the killings, he was arrested at his parents' home in Monroe County. Prosecutors are asking the court to keep Kohberger's family out of the courtroom until after they have testified.
One person is dead after a Tuesday evening collision between a bicycle and a car in Carbon County. The accident happened at around 5 p.m. on Spring Mountain Road in Banks Township. Police say the car's driver hit the bicycle leaving its rider with fatal injuries. The victim's name has not yet been released.
The Shapiro Administration is challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture's termination of a program that provides funding to Pennsylvania farms that send produce to local food banks. The governor says he directed Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding to appeal the USDA's decision to end the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program. The department reportedly canceled a 13-million-dollar contract meant for 189 farms and 14 food banks in the commonwealth. The appeal states there is "no articulated or reasonable basis for terminating the agreement."
Senators John Fetterman and Dave McCormick are being joined by their wives for an appearance in downtown Pittsburgh this weekend. The event is an introduction to the book "Who Believed In You?" written by the McCormicks, and it will feature a discussion on mentorship with the Fettermans. An Eventbite listing has tickets on sale for the Saturday session, but the exact location has not yet been revealed. Fetterman has faced criticism from some fellow Democrats for his openness to working with Republicans, including McCormick, and for his support of some Trump cabinet nominees.
Two New Jersey businessmen convicted of bribing former Senator Bob Menendez will now report to prison May 19th. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein granted the two men a 45-day extension yesterday so they could testify against Menendez's wife -- Nadine Menendez. The two, developer Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe, were convicted last year for their roles in the bribery case. The trial of Nadine Menendez began this week in Manhattan.
A beachfront property worth 25 million dollars is on the market in Atlantic City, awaiting a developer to build a resort that already has been approved for the project. The Soleil Resort covers two acres and will be located on Ocean Avenue. It will feature condos priced at one-million dollars. The current owners are looking for a regional developer to handle the project because previous sales efforts have fallen through.
Despite efforts by fans of the so-called "Doo Wop" architecture that made Wildwood popular in the mid-20th century, the Chateau Bleu Motel in North Wildwood is coming down. The motel is considered a classic example of Wildwood's doo-wop architecture, known for its bright colors and retro neon signage. It's listed on the National Historic Register, but it wasn't enough to prevent the North Wildwood Zoning board from approving a plan to replace the motel with single-family homes.