State & Regional News

Two men face felony charges for stealing nearly $100,000 from Lowe's stores across the state. Investigators say the men used self-checkout kiosks to make purchases with their cell phones using information stolen from Lowe's customer accounts.

Lehigh County Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo said off-year elections are "a little more complicated for county officials," as opposed to a presidential election. This week on Political Pulse, Benyo tells host Tom Shortell about what goes into municipal elections behind the scenes.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has a book coming out in January, touching upon everything from his swift political rise to the trauma of his home being set on fire.

Forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center say the region faces “equal chances” for above, near, or below-normal precipitation from December through February — meaning the odds of any outcome are roughly even.

The voter registration deadline to vote in the Nov. 4 election is Monday, Oct. 20, while the last day to request a mail-in ballot is Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Protesting President Trump, marchers took to Broad Street in Bethlehem after a half-hour rally at Rose Garden Park, ending outside City Hall at Payrow Plaza. It was one of thousands of rallies across the nation Saturday that the president's supporters decried as "Hate America" rallies.

Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Longswamp Township, Berks County, has installed 10 new fully automated “state-of-the-art” snow guns that adjust automatically to weather conditions, “maximizing snow production when temperatures drop,” the resort said in a release.

Jeani Garcia, who took the helm at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley this year, was recently named to serve on the executive committee for the state’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie led the field in political fundraising for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District over the past three months. Democratic candidates Ryan Crosswell and Bob Brooks were not far behind, each raising more than $300,000 over the same time period.

Gov. Josh Shapiro's office says without the federal payments for SNAP — the food stamp program — more than $366 million in monthly benefits could be put on hold starting Nov. 1. The federal government shutdown is in its third week.

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.

Early Tuesday, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who has a home in the Lehigh Valley, launched into space for a second time as part of a mission dubbed Polaris Dawn. The launch was visible in the area.

American investors are endangering national security by empowering adversaries like China and Russia to develop technology such as artificial intelligence and quantum information science, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said. He's looking to limit how American companies invest in key industries in "countries of concern" and how they can in turn invest in American businesses.

This week on Political Pulse, Tom and Chris talk about public opinion polling at a state and national level — and what that means to voters.

A microcosm of Pennsylvania, Northampton County's urban areas, rural farms and middle-class suburbs make it a melting pot of different political stripes.

"I've never seen traffic in the Lehigh Valley and the aggressiveness that we've seen in the past couple of years like it is now. It’s absolutely [expletive] bananas," one Lehigh Valley lawmaker said.