Lehigh County News

A new ArtsQuest festival that will bring three days of family-friendly music, games, food and amusements to Upper Macungie Township, announced in February as a paid-ticket event, now will be free, organizers announced.

The Borough of Emmaus has chosen to take the steps to treat its own water supply after spending over a year seeking a solution to the municipality's PFAS contamination issue

Since it's not a presidential or midterm election, the 2023 municipal primary election may have snuck up on folks. If that surprises you, here are some other things you may not know about how our local elections are run.

Gavin Holihan, the uncontested candidate for Lehigh County district attorney, has been endorsed by incumbent Republican Jim Martin and Democratic County Executive Phil Armstrong, among others.

Three candidates for the local office said they focused on juggling campaign tasks around full-time jobs in the lead-up to the primary election. All were driven by a desire to educate voters and help people understand county government and its services.

They have been working without a contract since last summer and say they are overworked and short-staffed.

National issues are seeping into local races, turning elections into proxy partisan fights over race and gender.

Local elections rarely get the same level of participation as presidential races, but the outcomes often have greater impacts on voters' quality of life.

Like all the other major cities in the Lehigh Valley, Allentown is a patchwork of neighborhoods, some with good tree cover and some without any. Officials plan to use a mapping tool as a starting point to make planting trees city-wide more equitable.

Former journalist Ann Wlazelek pays tribute to her mother in a new book.

Three industrial buildings in Upper Macungie have plans to expand: Americold Logistics' cold storage warehouse, XPO Logistics' trucking terminal and ATAS International's manufacturing facility.

Francis Malofiy of law firm Francis Alexander on Friday filed a writ of summons for a class action suit against LVHN. Malofiy said this lawsuit will be similar to another filed last week, which alleges 12 families were falsely accused of child abuse.

The Parkland School District has been designated as a Great Pennsylvania School through a new initiative of the Pennsylvania School Board Association to recognize high-quality districts across the state.

More than 100 businesses, officials, organizations and environmental advocates statewide — including two from the Lehigh Valley — signed a letter to Shapiro arguing his economic development plan, “Pennsylvania Gets It Done,” fails to prioritize sustainable industries and instead doubles down on fossil fuels.

LANTA and UGI Energy Services have signed a three-year deal that will provide the transportation authority with compressed natural gas collected from landfills in eastern Pennsylvania.

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission last week released a draft of its Priority Climate Action Plan, a document almost a year in the making aimed at tamping down the region’s carbon emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Five farms, three in Lehigh County and two in Northampton County, were the latest to be included in the commonwealth’s Farmland Preservation Program, along with more than a dozen others across the state.

Francis Malofiy of law firm Francis Alexander on Tuesday filed a complaint for a class action lawsuit on behalf of 12 families who all say they were falsely accused of child abuse by LVHN doctors.

After months of debates, amendments and rewrites, a wide-spanning non-discrimination law has been passed, covering all of Lehigh County.

South Whitehall Township recently launched Transportation PLAN, a comprehensive transportation planning initiative.

A Lehigh Valley resident was recognized as a “Volunteer of the Year” for 2023 by Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, a statewide nonprofit that focuses on litter cleanups and community improvements.

Tuesday served as a preview of the political campaigns to come as candidates filed paperwork to appear on the April primary ballot. Voters will decide races for president, Congress and the General Assembly among others this year.