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.

The state Office of Open Records has ordered the Allentown School District to release records connected to BusPatrol, the contractor responsible for administering the district’s stop-arm camera enforcement program.

Thursday marked five years since U.S. Rep. John Lewis' death from stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old.

The rescission bill affects public media and foreign aid and now heads back to the U.S. House, which previously passed a different version of the funding cuts. President Donald Trump must sign the legislation before midnight Friday to eliminate the previously approved funding.

Held at DeSales University’s Gerald White Conference Center, the day-long event drew several dozen participants, including students, teachers and local environmental advocates and leaders.

Lehigh and Northampton counties are again under a flood watch, this time from 3 p.m. Wednesday through 3 a.m. Thursday.

In the Lehigh Valley, 22 out of just the last 30 days have seen dew points at or above 70, meaning nearly three-quarters of recent days have been sticky enough to feel more like Florida than eastern Pennsylvania.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie is sitting on $1.19 million in his campaign coffers. Meanwhile, Democratic hopefuls Ryan Crosswell, Lamont McClure and Carol Obando-Derstine raised a combined $616,675 toward their own campaigns in the past three months.

A project of the Pennsylvania Municipal League and Sustainable Pittsburgh, Sustainable Pennsylvania is a voluntary program focused on helping municipalities improve sustainability to save money, conserve resources and improve residents’ lives.

Pennsylvania state lawmakers have failed to pass a spending plan for the year ahead — more than two weeks past the deadline. This week's Political Pulse looks at what the holdups are.

All three of the Lehigh Valley's state senators backed a bill that would make cities liable if they don't clear out homeless camps deemed to be public nuisances. However, House consideration of the measure seems unlikely, according to one lawmaker.

This week, Brad Klein and Marty McGuire talk about an observatory making waves in the astro-photography world: the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for Lehigh and Northampton counties — along with much of eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey — from Monday afternoon through the evening.