Allentown City Councilwoman Cynthia Mota says there's one more week for Allentown City Council and Mayor Matt Tuerk to come together on a 2026 budget. "It's mainly, at this point, up to the president of City Council to hold a meeting before the end of the year," Mota says. Tuerk says the city can either raise taxes a little now or a lot later. "We can do small increases every so often or we can have massive catastrophic to households increases. That's what I'm trying to avoid for the benefit of our residents," the mayor says. Tuerk continues to push his budget that would raise property taxes by nearly four percent, while decreasing the trash fee by $50. If City Council and Tuerk can't strike a deal by the end of the year, Tuerk's budget will take effect.
A former school resource officer in Bethlehem is being sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting a student. Costas Alestas was sentenced to between ten-and-twenty years behind bars yesterday after pleading guilty to multiple charges. Authorities said Alestas was in an inappropriate relationship with a student at East Hills Middle School and also recorded up an eleven-year-old girl's skirt without her knowledge. Alestas initially pleaded guilty to the charges back in April, but filed a motion in September to withdraw that plea. Last month, a judge denied that motion. Alestas will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
The trial of two Allentown police officers accused of sex crimes is being delayed. A judge has pushed back the January trial date for former officer Jason Krasley and current officer Evan Weaver after their defense team said they needed more time for discovery. Weaver and Krasley face several charges including rape for alleged incidents while they were on the APD Vice Squad. Their next court appearance is set for February.
A Midstate bus driver's termination after she put up a sign banning Spanish will be investigated by the Department of Justice. Diane Crawford was fired by the Juniata County School District earlier this year after posting a sign that read "Out of respect to English-only students, there will be no speaking Spanish on this bus." Crawford says she put the sign up because of a "rowdy bilingual student who had a history of riling up others in Spanish." Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon posted on social media over the weekend that she has directed the department to open an investigation into what she called a "situation implicating DEI wokeness."
The Powerball jackpot is rolling over again with no grand prize winner on Monday night. It's now sitting at a whopping $1.7 billion with the next drawing on Christmas Eve.