State & Regional News

Officials and residents of several New Jersey shore towns say the state’s law decriminalizing marijuana use is having an unintended effect: emboldening large groups of teenagers to run amok on beaches and boardwalks, knowing there is little chance of them getting in trouble for it.

Pennsylvania received $7.3 billion in state and local pandemic relief funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. That money came with an expiration date: Funds must be allocated by 2024 and spent by 2026. Any funds that remain unused by that deadline will be returned to the federal government.

Speakers accuse public school officials, teachers' unions of trying to "sexualize children" or indoctrinating them. Some called for restricting LGBTQ books. Protestors traveled from the Lehigh Valley and beyond to stand against the Moms for Liberty's "extremism" and in support of LGBTQ people.

House Bill 1257 was signed into law as Act 74 of 2022. Effective September 9, 2022, it made some noteworthy changes to the state fireworks law residents should be aware of.

Experts say this latest round of Canadian wildfire smoke in the Lehigh Valley will not be the last, and that millions should prepare for this new normal.

Monday was the first time in decades there were no pink envelopes for Pennsylvania hunters looking to buy antlerless licenses. Here's how the launch of online sales went.

High school seniors in Pennsylvania would be required to fill out a form that determines eligibility for financial aid for postsecondary programs under a bill passed by the state Senate.

Public school advocates worry vouchers will divert money from public education into charters or private schools.

Former state Sen. Pat Browne, one of Governor Josh Shapiro’s cabinet nominees, has officially become Secretary of Revenue. He represented the Lehigh Valley for nearly three decades.

A yearlong study conducted by the state Department of Aging, found seniors are conned out of ten million dollars a year in Pennsylvania. And as WLVR’s Megan Frank reports, in many cases the scams come from people they know.

Nearly nine million voters have registered so far to cast their ballots in November, in person and by mail. But Pennsylvania officials say they’re still concerned about getting every vote counted on Election Day.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) is accusing the Trump Administration of hampering postal service deliveries. Casey says he has evidence of large containers of priority mail meant for the Lehigh Valley have been sitting for weeks in a Scranton postal facility.

American financial turmoil was front and center in the first debate between the Lehigh Valley’s candidates for the 7th congressional district.

“There’s something freeing about downsizing, and not having so much stuff to worry about.” In 2018 Sarah Branchide and her boyfriend Alex Lorkowski decided to move out of their three bedroom home in Philadelphia and into: a short school bus.

State lawmakers are temporarily suspending in-person activities at the Capitol after a Republican lawmaker tested positive for the coronavirus.

Two Democratic state lawmakers want to punish any Pennsylvania electoral college member who votes contrary to the popular vote in the presidential election.

New COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Pennsylvania. State Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine says she is nervous about the impacts of COVID-19 in the fall and winter seasons.

Governor Tom Wolf is calling on the General Assembly to halt evictions through the end of the year. This week, he asked the legislature to provide relief for struggling families, saying the pandemic has created a lot of hardships for Pennsylvanians.

Lehigh County election officials say they are more prepared for an onslaught of mail-in ballots than they were in the spring. But where you’ll be able to drop off your ballot is still up in the air.

Proceedings are scheduled to begin Tuesday in an election lawsuit filed in Commonwealth Court by the Pennsylvania chapter of the NAACP.

As civil unrest flares up in some cities, the presidential election nears and the coronavirus pandemic enters its sixth month, more Pennsylvanians are arming themselves.