Bethlehem Area School District to host listening sessions on school boundaries as enrollment falls
By Jai Smith
Lehigh Valley, the day so far
Bethlehem woman posts doorbell video of police entry, says jury sided with officers
Katrina Godbey says a federal jury sided with three Bethlehem police officers in her excessive-force lawsuit over how they entered her home in March 2024, when she says officers pushed through her door and knocked her into a staircase.
By Jai SmithAlso new
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School cellphone ban heads to Shapiro’s desk after 47-3 Pa. Senate vote
Only three of the Lehigh Valley's 17 school districts, Allentown, Easton Area and Whitehall-Coplay, have posted rules barring phones during the school day in every grade. The rest would have to change theirs by the 2027-28 school year.
By Jai Smith
Pharmacy tech who sat on a Pa. township board charged with stealing nearly 90,000 opioid pills
Alyssa R. McDowell, 34, a pharmacy technician at Sheffield Pharmacy, took 80,926 oxycodone pills and 8,744 hydrocodone pills between January 2022 and May 2026, investigators allege, according to the attorney general's office. The 89,670 pills work out to about 1,700 a month over that span, based on the office's figures.
By Jai Smith
Bethlehem Area board votes 7-0 for bus driver contract union first rejected
The terms are the ones a fact-finder, an outside expert the state labor board appointed after talks stalled, recommended Aug. 31. "Nothing changed from the FF report," district Communications Manager Jennifer LoConte-Kugler said in an email Wednesday.
By Jai Smith
Bethlehem mayor weighs adding firefighters to 2027 budget after fire study
The study, Bethlehem's first since 1995, recommends adding 28 firefighters over several years at about $3.1 million a year, we reported Saturday. Last December, when council rejected adding four firefighters to this year's budget, the administration pointed to this study instead. Reynolds said he believes the 2027 budget comes out "two weeks from Friday," which is Nov. 6.
By Jai Smith
Bethlehem passes data center limits 6-1, but two proposals get in under old rules
Laura Collins, the city's director of community and economic development, told council that the city reviews any land development submission filed before the ordinance passed under current zoning. Besides the Industrial Drive project, which she called publicized, she told council that "another proposal" in the city's industrial zone had come in and has just begun internal review.
By Jai Smith
Pa. House passes school cellphone ban with 7 Lehigh Valley members opposed
The bill would require every public and private school to bar students from using their phones all day, lunch and hallways included, starting in the 2027-28 school year. Only three of the Valley's 17 school districts already go that far in every grade, their policies show.
By Jai Smith
Giant brings website and app back online after cyberattack outage
The return ends a stretch in which Giant's stores, including 15 in Lehigh and Northampton counties, stayed open while the chain pointed online shoppers to DoorDash, Instacart and Uber Eats. Two of the deals Giant offered during the outage end Thursday, and Ahold Delhaize's investigation of the attack is still open.
By Jai Smith
Whitehall Township man to face trial in fatal stabbing of his father
A judge's ruling at a preliminary hearing Tuesday sends the homicide case against Daniel Latorre Jr. to Lehigh County Court. Court records show he is due there Dec. 10 at 1:30 p.m. for formal arraignment before Judge Douglas G. Reichley.
By Jai Smith