State & Regional News

A crowd gathered — and cheered — as Luani the otter at Lehigh Valley Zoo made his Super Bowl LVII pick during the 12th annual Otter Bowl a day before the big game between the Eagles and Chiefs.

Anyone enrolled in Pennsylvania's Medicaid or CHIP programs will soon start getting information about benefits renewal – a process that’s been on hold for the last several years because of the pandemic.

The new senator from Pennsylvania was discharged from the George Washington University Hospital, his office said.

Lehigh County Coroner Dan Buglio said the official pronouncement will be completed by the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

A judge in Pennsylvania found the public school funding system to be unconstitutional. But that doesn't guarantee change for poorer school districts.

Crews released and burned toxic chemicals from a wrecked train in Ohio near the Pennsylvania border, but residents remain in the dark about what toxic substances could be lingering in their evacuated neighborhoods.

Members of the Valley's Syrian and Turkish communities issue concerns for family overseas. They'll gather today at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Allentown and the Muslim Association of Lehigh Valley.

Lehigh Valley lawmakers and educators were quick to react. One lawmaker said it was a victory for children in poorer school districts such as Allentown.

Easton Area Neighborhood Centers Inc. and the Seed Farm in Upper Milford Township are getting $50,000 and $27,754 respectively to put toward their greenhouses.

Independence and Bailey’s Island are now state forest lands.

Allentown’s Cedar Creek Park was covered Thursday in lesser celandine, a low-growing, mat-forming flower that’s been flagged by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

It’s not unprecedented, but it is a little bit too early for the kind of warmth the Lehigh Valley will see next week, said meteorologist Bobby Martrich.

Pa. Governor Josh Shapiro wants to create a new bank account to fund the State Police without taking money away from road repairs.

Crystal methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and fentanyl were confiscated. Cash and firearms were involved, as well.

The Pa. Chamber of Business and Industry had its own bracket: “Coolest Thing Made in Pa.”

A line of storms that spared the Lehigh Valley on Saturday raked the Philadelphia region and surrounding areas, with eight tornadoes confirmed by the National Weather Service.

The recall of the 42-volt Jetson Rogue hoverboards comes after a 10-year-old girl and her 15-year-old sister died in a fire last year. Investigators determined the hoverboard was the fire's point of origin, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The Lehigh Valley is under a severe weather threat Saturday that includes the possibility of tornadic activity in the region.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after six weeks of inpatient treatment for clinical depression, with plans to return to the Senate in mid-April.

A woman pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught fire as flames engulfed the ruined building — and then she fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate.

Rep. Peter Schweyer, chair of the House Education Committee, said a short timetable will likely limit how much lawmakers can change basic education funding in Gov. Josh Shapiro's first budget.

In addition to the introduction of a bill that would automatically return some unclaimed property, a local representative is holding a session that would help residents to find their unclaimed property.