State & Regional News

As tariff talk raises concerns over the impact on the fireworks industry in America, retailers and production companies report this year is going well, but the future may not be so bright.

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.

More than two years after the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, the former Northampton Community College and DeSales University student pleaded guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

The city is the third major city in the Lehigh Valley to become certified through Bird Town Pennsylvania, an annual designation focused on community-based conservation.

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.

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

President Donald Trump campaigned on immigration enforcement and recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations have gained national and local attention. This week on Political Pulse, host Tom Shortell and political scientist Chris Borick look into the public's reaction to these raids.

After Monday brought rounds of thunderstorms and heavy rain, more severe weather is expected to target the region on Tuesday, forecasters say.

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.

Multiple media outlets report Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students as part of a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. A change of plea hearing is set for Wednesday. Kohberger’s trial had been set to begin in August

State senators have begun hearing testimony in that chamber’s latest round of election investigation hearings.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Elected officials met Friday to promote a plan to expand the existing passenger rail service statewide. For that to happen, Congress…

Sharon Serra was a federal law enforcement official working in Manhattan when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. At the time, the Northampton County resident was just about three years into her now decades-long career in law enforcement.

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. President Joe Biden is expected to visit Shanksville, Somerset County, on Saturday, the site of the Flight 93 crash.

PALMER TWP, Pa. - Patrick Cartier of Palmer Township said two decades later, he still feels the trauma of 9/11. “I look at it like it’s a part of me,”…

Tuesday was the start for Pennsylvania’s K through 12 masking mandate. The order was issued last week by Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam, not Gov. Wolf. Sarah Anne Hughes, deputy editor for SpotlightPA, a nonpartisan investigative newsroom which has been covering these issues, recently joined us by phone to discuss the move by the Wolf administration.

The office of state Sen. Pat Browne announced Thursday the senator was injured in a motorcycle crash on Aug. 31.

Newly released FBI data show hate crimes in the U.S. hit a 12-year high in 2020.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - With a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy now in effect in Texas, and rampant speculation that a conservative U.S. Supreme…

Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives is mulling a legislative challenge to the Wolf administration’s latest mask mandate for schools. A group of state senators, meanwhile, is readying a bill to change the state’s constitution to prevent those mandates.

A Pennsylvania State Police Officer recalls when United Flight 93 crashed into a Somerset County field on September 11th, 2001.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A state Senate panel will soon hold its first hearing on investigating the last two elections even though both contests have already…