The arrival of spring weather in Pennsylvania isn't slowing down the flu. The state is reporting there have been 115 flu-related deaths this flu season. 75 of those deaths are among people over the age of 65. The total number of flu cases reported across the commonwealth has risen to more than 91,000.
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier is about to serve his jail time for his role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. A judge gave Spanier three weeks to report to jail and said he could serve his two month minimum sentence in the jail near his home in State College. Spanier has remained free on bail since being convicted in 2017 for misdemeanor child endangerment.
A week after a serious crash in Northampton County, a Williams Township man has died from his injuries. 35-year-old Thomas Grube died at Lehigh Valley Hospital early Wednesday morning eight days after he was involved in a crash on Martins Creek Belvidere Highway in Lower Mount Bethel Township. Grube was the driver of one of two vehicles that crashed and rolled several times. Grube was ejected from his vehicle and flown to the hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the other car was rescued from her vehicle and taken to St. Luke's Hospital Bethlehem with unknown injuries.
An Allentown man is accused of strangling a woman who was trying to call police, allegedly while she was next to her daughter at a home in Bethlehem. Early Monday morning, 25-year-old Roberto Serrano allegedly pushed the victim down, covered her mouth with one hand while putting his arm around her neck and then began slapping and punching her in the face. The woman says she ran from Serrano, who caught her and strangled her to the point she stopped breathing, all while her daughter was sleeping nearby. Serrano was sent to Northampton County Prison under $25,000 bail.
An Allentown man is admitting to dealing heroin and crack in the Poconos. The United States Attorney's Office says Andrew Perez has pleaded guilty to his role in selling thousands of doses' worth of heroin in the Monroe County area and some crack and powdered cocaine as well. Perez could end up in prison for as many as 40 years.
A quadruple murder in Bucks County is the subject of a true crime series. "The Lost Boys of Bucks County" will premiere next year on the Investigation Discovery Channel. Cosmo DiNardo and his cousin Sean Kratz were charged with killing four young men at a rural property in 2017. The story will be told through the perspective of a Middletown police officer.
Hamburg police are searching for three men who are accused of stealing money from a series of Pennsylvania Skill video game machines. The theft happened Monday at the Hamburg Market, with the men entering the store and taking turns crowding around each machine so one man could pry open the cash box with nobody able to see. Police are investigating if the men are linked to other thefts in the region.
PennDOT has remembered roadworkers killed on the job with a display at the Capitol Complex. There were 89 displays set up in the lobby of the Keystone Building with each bearing the name of a PennDOT worker killed on the job in 1970. The name Missy Gensimore's husband, Bobby, is on one of those displays. "I would love everybody to be safe because I don't want another family to go what we've gone through in this past year. Because it is hell. But we have to keep going and keep driving home the message that you have to be careful in these work zones because these people have families that they need to come home to," Gensimore says. PennDOT has more than 1800 construction projects either beginning this year or going out for bid.
A law that strips guns from domestic abusers went into law Wednesday. The law is aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence and it also calls for police protection for alleged victims when a PFA is served. "We've seen instances where victims go back to their home after a PFA has been served to get their personal belongings and then they've been killed," says Julie Bancroft with the PA Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is appearing today in Trenton to sign mental health parity legislation. He'll be at the Capital Health Regional Medical Center to sign the bill into law. The bill is intended to enhance the parity laws involving the oversight of mental health conditions and substance use disorders.