State & Regional News

This week on Political Pulse, Tom and Chris discuss the latest trends emerging from science-based polls to break down local, state and national campaigns and issues.

U.S. Rep. Susan Wild and state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, both seeking the Lehigh Valley's seat in the next Congress, each cast themselves as a moderate facing a radical in a debate Sunday.

SpaceX’s capsule Polaris Dawn splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico in the predawn darkness early Sunday. Returning to Earth were two SpaceX engineers, a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot and tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman of the Lehigh Valley. Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk.

A Lehigh University graduate last year recorded a new species of mushroom at Wildlands Conservancy's South Mountain Preserve.

Monarch butterflies are starting to migrate through the Lehigh Valley. An annual tagging program, held at Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center, helps conservation efforts.

What feels like a local housing crisis is actually a “global phenomenon” across all income levels, state Rep. Josh Siegel, D-Lehigh, said at a housing summit Friday.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on procedural grounds that a lower court should not have taken up the case because it did not draw in the election boards in all 67 counties.

Called the Recovery in Nature initiative, two state departments have joined forces to create regional-specific partnerships to bolster substance use recovery efforts while strengthening all residents’ connection to nature.

Folks of older age and those with mobility troubles may already have enough of a hard time getting where they need to go, so a local panel is brainstorming how to get federal funding to make day-to-day transportation a smoother ride for them.

Democrats said they wanted Vice President Kamala Harris to provide more details about her policies while Republicans acknowledge she presents a more serious challenge to former President Donald Trump.

Much of the state is under a flash flood watch as the remnants of Hurricane Ida travel to the northeastern United States.

Masks will be required in all Pennsylvania public and private schools, as well as child care facilities, Gov. Tom Wolf was set to announce Tuesday, reversing course amid a statewide COVID-19 resurgence that is filling hospital beds just as students return to class.

Some medical professionals are hoping they see an uptick in vaccinations now that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has FDA approval.

A report from the center-left think tank Third Way shows some degrees at private Lehigh Valley colleges take graduates over a century to see a return on their investment.

Pennsylvania saw another spike in COVID-19 numbers Monday with more than 9,000 new cases reported over the weekend.

Federal unemployment and pandemic benefit programs are set to end on Saturday, Sept. 4.

Gov. Tom Wolf has called for an increase as all six states that border the commonwealth offer higher minimum wages.

The U.S. Department of Energy held an online public meeting on Tuesday to find out how frontline communities in Appalachia are impacted by the growing ethane and petrochemical industries. Ethane is a byproduct of natural gas development and can be used to make plastics.

Gov. Tom Wolf is asking Pennsylvania's legislature to quickly approve a new statewide mask mandate for schools because his administration is worried that students returning to schools are going back to an unsafe environment.

The CDC reported a 62% increase in the number of children being admitted to Pennsylvania hospitals in the past week bringing the total number of children hospitalized statewide this month to over 1,600.

Two Haitian-led organizations in Reading are gathering money to send to disaster-stricken Haiti after the country was hit by an earthquake and a tropical storm within a week.

The top Republican in Pennsylvania’s Senate said Monday that hearings will begin this week as he committed to carrying out a “full forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election.