Easton News

The Eerie Easton Walking Tour is underway, and while there are no creepy clowns, there are plenty of real-life horror tales of murder and mania.

Graze Craze is a charcuterie store offering curated grazing boards and boxes at 4612 Broadway Road in the Tilghman Square shopping center in South Whitehall. More locations in the Bethlehem and Easton areas are planned.

Take a look at stories that ran throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

The grand opening of a new Jersey Mike's in the Easton area is set for Wednesday, Sept. 27. The store is celebrating the event with a fundraiser for a local nonprofit.

This weekend marks the 119th anniversary of Greater Shiloh Church of Easton, featuring a music-infused night of worship, a day of community service, and a ceremonial mortgage burning.

The Coop Sports Bar & Kitchen opened Thursday at 2722 Freemansburg Ave. with plans for a neighborhood sports bar and new menu. It's in the building that had been Fat Jacks' since 1991.

The Sigal Museum's "Forged by Fire" exhibition opens at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 21, featuring relics from Northampton County's long history of firefighting.

The average price for a gallon of gas in the Lehigh Valley was $3.87 this week. That's below the Pennsylvania average of $3.92 per gallon but up slightly more than 11 cents from last week, according to AAA.

Family Connection and Easton Area School District hosted "Reading Under the Lights" on Tuesday, with student athletes reading to children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

Thirteen of the Lehigh Valley's seats in the General Assembly look like they'll have a contested November election. State Senate races in Lehigh and Northampton counties will have contested primaries, as well.

Gary Lewis & The Playboys and The Lovin' Spoonful will perform as part of The My Generation Tour at 7:30 p.m. March 13 at Easton's State Theatre. Joining them will be Terry Sylvester of The Hollies, one of those British groups with which they competed, and which had five Top 10 hits of their own in the 1960s.

"The entire regiment deserves some sort of reconsideration, whether it’s by BusPatrol or by legislative change,” PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

A Multi-Agency Resource Center will be open from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Gallery at the State Theatre for victims of the Hampton Hotel fire in Easton.

Broadway's "Rock of Ages" Band features the musician case of the Broadway show playing what it calls playing "the greatest rock hits from the glam metal bands of the '80s."

The United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, in coordination with Greater Easton Development Partnership, has established the fund to help victims of Friday's devastating fire at the Hotel Hampton building, 462 Northampton St. Also, a Red Cross emergency shelter operation has been relocated.

One firefighter suffered serious injuries when he fell off a ladder escaping the fire. Several others received minor injuries. Authorities said the coroner was on scene Saturday "out of an abundance of caution" because they did not have an accurate count of people living in the Hotel Hampton building.

In December alone, there were 676 eviction filings and defaults in Lehigh County — the highest monthly total since August 2023.

In counties such as Lehigh, eviction filings have reached their highest point in years, even as rental vacancy rates have fluctuated. That apparent contradiction — rising vacancy estimates alongside persistent eviction volume — is part of a broader housing dynamic playing out across the region.

Xiaomin Fei, 34, on Thursday entered the plea in the June 3 shooting deaths of Robert and Gretchen Ackerman, Northampton County District Attorney Stephen G. Baratta announced.

Officials signed off on plans that call for 73 condominiums — 15 one-bedroom units, 36 two-bedroom units and 22 three-bedroom units — and about 2,500 square feet of commercial space.

Jack Bennett grew up in the family hardware business and went on to lead it for nearly 25 years. He was one of Easton's most prominent business leaders in the 1970s and '80s. He died Jan. 29 at age 98. Friends say he left an impression on the Downtown business community that still can be felt today.