Lehigh County News

Candidate for South Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners Ben Long wants to work with developers to make their plans into the best possible development for the township rather than trying to stop them.

The North Whitehall Planning Commission tabled one waiver for the Strawberry Acres 55-plus residential development plan and recommended denial for another.

Patient advocates protested Wednesday outside Lehigh Valley Health Network's Cedar Crest Campus.

Rep. Susan Wild will host a webinar Friday, March 10 with groups across District 7 about how to apply for grants under the Community Project Funding program.

A Dominican woman who is undocumented faces medical deportation in the Lehigh Valley. She was placed in a medically-induced coma after a procedure for an aneurysm. Now her family is fighting to keep her in the Allentown area.

Local state lawmakers are reacting to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s call for $1 billion in new public education spending for the state’s students and schools.

Candidates filed petitions ahead of Tuesday's deadline to appear on primary ballots in Lehigh and Northampton counties.

The first of the five championship events at Saucon Valley will be the 2026 U.S. Junior Amateur, followed by the 2032 U.S. Senior Open, 2038 U.S. Women’s Amateur, the 2042 U.S. Senior Open, and the 2051 U.S. Amateur. The U.S. Women's Amateur event will be a first for the club.

Michael Blichar Jr. will run as a Democrat in this year's race for at-large Lehigh County commissioner seats.

North Whitehall supervisors on Monday approved the proposed design of a renovation to the township municipal building that now is expected to cost more than $5 million.

The gunman showed up uninvited at a gathering outside a borough home late on the Fourth of July, borough police said. He fled after shooting three people as well as apparently accidentally shooting himself in the leg, the police chief said. The 18-year-old is being charged with several assault and weapons crimes.

There are 51 stops on this year’s trail. In its eighth year, the trail is focused on celebrating local creameries across the state while driving business during the summer months.

Legislators worked to establish penalties for xylazine use and trafficking in an attempt to lessen its presence in Pennsylvania's illicit drug supply. Some say doing so made way for a new, unclassified veterinary tranquilizer to take its place — medetomidine.

The tax and spending plan drew praise from Republicans for lowering taxes and funding border security, but Democrats condemned it for slashing Medicaid coverage and raising the deficit.

In a move that Santander Bank said aligns with the financial institution's digital shift nationwide, seven Lehigh Valley branches will be sold to Community Bank. Branches will remain open and employees will be offered continued employment during the transition, which is expected to complete by the end of the year,

South Whitehall Township's board of commissioners voted Wednesday to purchase upgraded radios for first responders in the township through a five-year payment plan provided by Lehigh County.

Nearly a year after the Biden administration designated xylazine as an "emerging threat" to the United States, Gov. Josh Shapiro classified it as a schedule III drug, making unauthorized possession a crime in Pennsylvania. Experts say the move has partly served to clear the way for new illicit substances to enter the drug market.

Allentown's Redevelopment Authority is applying for up to $2.5 million that could be used to rehab 10 single-family homes for low-income residents.

Despite not being approved for human consumption, veterinary tranquilizers are infiltrating the illicit drug supply in Pennsylvania. Harm reduction specialists and health care professionals say these overdoses can't be approached solely with naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug.

Newhard Farms Corn Shed opened Tuesday for sweet corn sales. While it opened a few days later than in recent years, there's expected to be a good supply this season.

The bill would limit the manufacture, sale, distribution and use of firefighting foam containing PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, beginning in 2026.

Xylazine, an animal-grade tranquilizer that's not approved for human use, has taken Pennsylvania's illicit drug supply by storm. Known on the streets as "tranq," it accounted for almost 1 in 4 overdose deaths in Pennsylvania by 2023. Last year in Lehigh County, it was a contributing cause of death in 20 of the 112 deadly overdoses, or 17.9 percent of cases.