State & Regional News

With Memorial Day behind them, lawmakers are heading toward summer recess amid questions about what, if anything, they will be able to accomplish before voters return their attention to the fall elections.

Pennsylvania lawmakers moved closer to establishing a statewide restriction on student cell phone use in public schools, as the state House passed legislation requiring "bell-to-bell" phone bans during the school day.

The study, released late last week by the Delaware River Basin Commission, detected per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in surface water, sediment, fish and blue crab tissue collected throughout the basin, including along the tidal Delaware River.

On this week's Lehigh Valley Political Pulse, host Tom Shortell and political scientist Chris Borick break down the 2026 primary election results.

Electric customers across Pennsylvania will see higher supply rates beginning June 1, adding new pressure to household budgets just as air conditioning demand starts to climb.

Firefighter union boss Bob Brooks swept each municipality in Lehigh County and nearly each one in Northampton County en route to his nearly 20-point victory in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District's Democratic primary Tuesday.

Jack Pletz, 24 and his father, Matthew Pletz, have been arrested. Seventeen explosive devices were found inside their pickup truck.

The district, now represented by Sen. Jarrett Coleman, a first-term Republican, covers much of Lehigh County's rural and suburban communities and the northern part of Bucks County.

Bob Brooks has declared victory in the Lehigh Valley's Democratic primary for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District.

Tuesday is Primary Election Day in Pennsylvania. Lehigh Valley Democratic voters will cast ballots in the 7th Congressional District, 16th District state Senate, the 22nd District state House of Representatives and 187th District state House. Republicans have no races for those seats; GOP candidates in them are unopposed.

WLVR's Megan Frank talks with reporters Tom Shortell and Julian Abraham.

It’s becoming increasingly probable that a subtropical storm develops off the Southeast coast this weekend, forecasters say, but expected impacts to the Lehigh Valley remain in question.

Released Tuesday, results from Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion’s National Surveys on Energy and the Environment show Americans want to prevent future global warming, and also believe adaptation to climate change will require major lifestyle changes.

Under the new format, prompts on the computer screens in driver’s license centers in Pennsylvania will take the user to a template to register to vote.

The biggest differences between tropical and subtropical storms are in the way they form and in the broad impacts. A subtropical system could target the region this weekend.

Nine juveniles who escaped from a detention center in Berks County and were at large for less than a day have been captured, state police said Monday.

A heat map generated from PennDOT crash statistics shows a high rate of collisions involving deer and vehicles — the Lehigh Valley included. Pennsylvania also ranked No. 3 overall for the likelihood of having an animal-vehicle collision.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey is rallying bipartisan support to restore federal funding for hunter safety and archery courses in schools, citing a misinterpretation of the Safer Communities Act.

Several Lehigh Valley residents reported witnessing a string of lights in the sky in the Allentown and Bethlehem areas on Saturday night, Sept. 16.

Congresswoman Susan Wild is advocating for $16 billion in additional dollars to support the sector.

The mud-colored salamander–also known as a snot otter, mud devil, and Allegheny alligator–can grow to be two feet long, and can live up to 30 years.

In the wake of a jail escapes in Chester and Warren counties, state Republican lawmakers are planning to introduce a set of bills to improve county jail security, infrastructure and staffing.