A multisport stadium to be built near Coca-Cola Park has moved forward. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission approved a land use proposal put forth by the Executive Academy Charter School for a 126,000-square-foot stadium to be built along Union Boulevard. The plans are to build the stadium on top of the school’s parking lot, which is also used by the IronPigs as a lower-level lot for Coca-Cola Park. The lot has 1,286 spaces, and 26 would be eliminated to accommodate the supports for the stadium. IronPigs co-owner Joe Finley says, “The Executive Education Charter School is great people, great friends, great neighbors. But we have very genuine and real concerns about the proposal, and we’ve been trying to work with the charter school to resolve those issues.”
A former Allentown policeman already in trouble for alleged sex crimes is now in even hotter water. New charges have been filed against 47-year old Jason Krasley. He's now is accused of raping a 35-year-old woman multiple times in 2012 and 2013, while she was under the influence of drugs as well as sexually assaulting a different woman in 2018. Earlier this year, Krasley and fellow policeman Evan Weaver were charged with raping a prostitute.
A man is pleading guilty to charges stemming from the overdose death of his toddler son in Allentown almost four years ago. Investigators say the 22-month-old died from fentanyl toxicity in April 2021 shortly after his parents used heroin. The child's father, Jorge Suarez-Santiago, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter yesterday and faces up to twenty years in prison. The child's mother pleaded guilty last November.
Firefighters from multiple departments were called to a brush fire in Lehigh County on Thursday. Officials say the blaze started at the KOA campground in Lowhill Township and spread about two acres before crews were able to put it out. Nobody was injured. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Accu-Weather's Heather Zehr says we'll flirt with a record high temperature tomorrow. "We'll get all the way up to 82 degrees and will only be a few degrees off from the all-time record high for the day," Zehr says. That record is 86 degrees set back in 1945.
A father and son critically injured in a plane crash in Lancaster County earlier this month are continuing to recover in the hospital. Lehigh Valley Health Network says Matt and Judah White are now in fair condition following the crash on March Ninth. The two were taken to the Lehigh County Burn Center after a small plane that Matt was piloting went down in the parking lot of the Brethren Village retirement community. The crash remains under investigation.
A bill that would provide self-serve options at New Jersey gas stations has been introduced, again, in the General Assembly. State Senator Jon Bramnick, who's also running for governor, has re-introduced a bill to let motorists pump their own gas. A similar bill failed to pass last year. New Jersey remains the only state in the nation that prohibits self-service gas pumps. Supporters have said it's in the public's interest for attendants to pump the gas, which they say also reduces fire hazards. The law has been in effect since 1949.
The NCAA Hockey Tournament comes to Allentown tonight with a doubleheader scheduled at PPL Center. In the first game, Connecticut will play Quinnipiac at 5. The second half of the doubleheader features Penn State playing Maine. The first game is broadcast on ESPNU and the Penn State/Maine game will be aired on ESPN2.
Before the Flyers beat Montreal 6-4, general manager Danny Briere announced head coach John Tortorella had been fired. "It's not one thing. It's a series of things that have happened and probably a little more in the last three weeks it had escalated," Briere said. Tortorella is being replaced for the remainder of the season by assistant coach Brad Shaw.