If you have Christmas shopping to take care of, Accu-Weather's Joe Lundberg says Thursday won't be the ideal day to do it. "I think we'll get a little bit of everything. Some snow, some sleet and some rain. The fact that there's going to be some rain should limit accumulation in our immediate area. But, there's going to be some slippery travel to contend with developing Thursday and maybe even carrying over into part of Friday," Lundberg says. He says we could get a coating to an inch worth of snow and sleet before things wrap up.
A part of Route 611 in the Poconos will remain closed for a couple of months. The part of the road is located south of the Delaware Water Gap borough and it's expected to stay closed for months following a rock slide last week. PennDOT officials say they discovered additional rock that's loose and they decided to close the road down for safety for all motorists.
Taxes will remain flat in Palmer Township for the sixth straight year after the Board of Supervisors adopted the 2023 township budget Monday night. The next budget holds the line on taxes at 8.25 mills.
Allentown Police say a bomb threat Monday at the PPL Center was deemed non-credible. Just after 4:30 Monday afternoon, officers were called to the PPL Center for a report of a bomb threat. Officials say precautionary measures were taken while the threat was investigated and the threat was deemed non-credible.
Two more Wind Creek Steel Stage headliners have been announced for Musikfest's 2023 run. On the night of August 4th, pop brothers AJR will be in Bethlehem and two nights later, three time country Grammy winners Dan & Shay will be at the Steel Stage. Tickets for both shows go on sale to the general public this Friday morning at 10 o'clock.
Democrats won 102 state House races in November. Republicans won 101. However, House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler says that doesn't mean they're now the minority party. Three of those Democrat wins are essentially nullified, one due to the death of Tony Deluca, one due to Austin Davis being elected lieutenant governor and the third due to Summer Lee winning a seat in Congress. Cutler says that makes the majority clear. "It is the math that makes me the majority leader, at 101-to-99," Cutler says. He says that all leaves Republicans with the majority until special elections are set for those three seats. Democrat Joanna McClinton, who says she's the House Majority Leader, set February 7th as the date for those special elections, but Republicans are suing, claiming she doesn't have that authority since they and not Democrats hold the current membership edge.
The Wolf administration is trying to put an end to a request by state Senate Republicans to give them sensitive voter information. The data was as part of an inquiry into the 2020 election, which GOP lawmakers falsely charged was fraudulent. In a motion filed Monday, the Pennsylvania Department of State and attorney general's office asked a state court to dismiss the request to turn over voters' partial Social Security and driver's license numbers. The governor's office argues that because the most recent legislative session ended on Nov. 30, the state Senate committee's authority has effectively expired. An attorney for the Republicans says they'll challenge the motion.
State health officials say COVID cases have jumped nearly 30 percent in a week. They say some 70 percent of the new cases have been caused by subvariants B-Q point one and B-Q one point one. Those variants are resistant to some antibody treatments, so the FDA withdrew the use of that booster. State officials say that's likely the reason for the increase in cases. Federal experts say the new boosters, including Paxlovid and Veklury, will still prevent severe illness.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey and most of the rest of the country are experiencing a shortage of Type O blood, which is the universal blood type. The shortage means blood suppliers cannot meet the demands and provide enough blood to local hospitals. The need is especially acute as the state heads into the holidays.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has put a new policy in place that says employees and their relatives can't participate in its limited-release lotteries. The ban comes after a former board member and four of the agencies' top executives got first dibs on buying bottles left over from lotteries three years ago, before the public was aware of any bottles were still available to buy. The chief council for the PLCB says the agency is within its rights to impose such a policy, despite vocal protests from employees.
The convenience store chain Wawa is reportedly considering expanding in several northcentral Pennsylvania counties. A company spokeswoman says potential sites for new Wawa stores could come to State College, as well as Lycoming, Union, and Snyder counties. She says the company continues to work on developing locations for potential sites and adds that they hope to open the first of the new stores in 2024.
Although New York City is recommending residents wear masks indoors again, Governor Phil Murphy says he does not expect to issue any mask mandates for New Jersey. The state has not mandated masks for private businesses for more than a year and the mandate for schools ended earlier this year. Meanwhile, New Jersey reports almost 12-hundred new COVID-19 cases and ten more fatalities. The statewide transmission rate stands at one-point-12, down from one-point-44 on Friday. Anything above one means the outbreak continues to spread.
New Jersey is allocating more than 24-million dollars for improvements in and around public transit facilities. Two of the programs -- the Safe Streets to Transit Program and the Transit Village Program -- will provide money to municipalities to improve access to transit facilities and public transportation. The Local Bikeway Program will provide more than eight-million dollars to 17 municipalities for projects that promote cycling as an alternative mode of transportation.
An Assembly committee has approved a set of bills that would shield the home addresses of elected officials and political candidates in New Jersey. The measures are similar to those that shield the home addresses of judges and are meant to protect political officials from attacks. The law that shields judges' home addresses stemmed from an incident two years ago in which a gunman found the North Brunswick home of federal Judge Esther Salas and murdered her son.