State & Regional News

Voters are increasingly breaking with the Republican and Democratic parties. One national poll found a record 45% of Americans consider themselves politically independent.

The forum is set to start at 6 p.m. Monday at Resurrected Life Church in Center City Allentown.

Democratic voters in Pennsylvania's 16th and 18th Senate districts may have contested races this spring. Meanwhile, Republican Zach Mako is seeking re-election in Pennsylvania's 183rd House District.

Joining host Tom Shortell on this week's Political Pulse, Ryan Crosswell said his campaign is focused on two priorities: lowering costs for families and defending democratic institutions.

The early LIHEAP crisis numbers already represent a notable share of last winter’s total in the Lehigh Valley, according to data provided by the Department of Human Services.

An extreme cold warning, combined with a wind advisory also in effect, could mean wind chills as low as 20 degrees below zero for the region this weekend.

Lawmakers voted 46-1 on Senate Bill 1014, bipartisan legislation that would require public schools to adopt "bell-to-bell" policies restricting student use of smartphones and other internet-connected devices throughout the entire school day.

The rich got richer in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District race at the close of 2025. Campaign finance reports show Ryan Mackenzie, Bob Brooks and Ryan Crosswell raised nearly $1.4 million while Lamont McClure, Carol Obando-Derstine and Mark Pinsley each saw their campaigns lose money.

Amazon driver Troy Johnson, 30, of Philadelphia, also was ordered to face court on a felony count of accidents involving death and misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter and recklessly endangering another person.

Gov. Josh Shapiro billed the agreement as the largest-ever investment by a pharmaceutical company in Pennsylvania history and the “largest-ever investment in the Lehigh Valley.”

SpaceX’s capsule Polaris Dawn splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico in the predawn darkness early Sunday. Returning to Earth were two SpaceX engineers, a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot and tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman of the Lehigh Valley. Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk.

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.