Free Republic

Two women who got into a fight with an airline employee were arrested on Tuesday. A Pennsylvania man was arrested after attempting to bring an explosive device on a flight on Feb. 27. Marc Muffley, 40, was arrested by FBI agents on Monday night after he allegedly attempted to bring an explosive device onto an Allegiant Airlines flight from Lehigh Valley International Airport headed to Orlando Sanford International Airport on Feb. 27. After staff with Allegiant Airlines checked Muffley's bag, TSA agents were alerted to the "presence of suspicious items," an affidavit states. When TSA agents physically inspected the bag,...

On Saturday, Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman was in the Lehigh Valley to make his case for U.S. Senate. Fetterman is doing all he can to rally supporters to vote for him in the upcoming election, and even after recovering from a stroke, he says he’s ready, willing and able to become a United States senator. “I’m so grateful to be here today,” said Fetterman, as he addressed his supporters. This time, his campaign made a stop at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, and people came out in droves to hear what the Democratic candidate had to say. Supporters were...

Congressional leaders passed a new stimulus package meant to alleviate the financial pain of the coronavirus, but it won’t cure all that ails PennDOT’s pocketbook. PennDOT press secretary Alexis Campbell said Monday afternoon it wasn’t clear if the relief plan will cover the $600 million funding gap plaguing PennDOT. Early media reports indicate that $10 billion of financial relief could be distributed to the 50 states’ highway systems, though it’s unclear how much would come Pennsylvania’s way. State Sen. Pat Browne, a Lehigh County Republican and longtime chairperson of the Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday that transportation-specific wording included in the...

Tractor-trailer loads of undelivered letters and parcels were rerouted from the Lehigh Valley’s central post office to a facility in Scranton, postal workers concerned about ongoing efforts to delay the mail told U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. Casey in a statement Tuesday called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for answers after he pledged in August to reverse policy changes that caused mail to go undelivered. Casey cited photos provided by postal workers showing dozens of containers loaded with priority mail dating back to at least Sept. 17 that were rerouted from the Lehigh Valley to Scranton.

With a flashy name and speed-tracking equipment, state police cracked down on leadfoots in PennDOT construction zones last week in western Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that state police with Troop A issued 171 citations and 70 written warnings to alleged speedsters in Indiana County as part of Operation Yellow Jacket. Under the crackdown, a trooper gauged vehicle’s speeds in a construction zone. The officer then radioed ahead to other officers, who pulled over the offending drivers. Generally speaking, speed limits are 10 mph lower in a construction zone as a safety precaution for road crews. The officers were enforcing...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Hookah smoke drifted through the restaurant as Elias Shetayh and Aziz Wehbey spoke intently about their support for President Trump, whose temporary halt on immigration from war-torn Syria — their homeland — had touched off a political firestorm. Nearby, a waitress carried out several platters of Mediterranean food to a large Arab American family. Trump is right, in a way, to do what he’s doing,” Shetayh said, discussing the executive order banning certain immigrants from entry into the United States. “This country is going into a disaster. Allentown and surrounding Lehigh County have one of the country’s...

The family of Angela Steigerwalt burst into sobs Tuesday in a Lehigh County courtroom as jurors found an Allentown man guilty of strangling her and setting her body ablaze. The Lehigh County jury deliberated for more than 5 hours before convicting Anthony Heath of all the charges against him: murder in the first degree, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, theft, receiving stolen property and access device fraud.

At 67 years old, William Hardenburg would still jump out of bed in the middle of the night to respond to a fire. "He's irreplaceable," said his stepson Dan Van Fossen, who is fire chief of the Pattenburg Volunteer Fire Co. in Union Township, Hunterdon County. "He was right there, every call." Hardenburg, who was emergency management coordinator for Bethlehem Township, N.J., was struck by a vehicle and killed this morning, authorities said. He was clearing damage from Superstorm Sandy in front of a home on Route 617 when he was hit, authorities said. Van Fossen said his stepfather worked...

The road from Reading to Easton, now Route 222, was called King's Highway in 1776. It was a critical artery for the movement of troops and supplies during the American Revolution. Indeed, there's strong evidence that Gen. George Washington himself traversed the road on his way to upstate New York in 1782, stopping off in the Moravian town of Bethlehem. Revolution, however, was not on the minds of most colonists when the Reading-to-Easton road was proposed by Conrad Weiser, William Parsons and other leaders in 1753; Indians were. There had been massacres of settlers pushing north from Philadelphia to settle...

Al-Qaeda Threat in Philadelphia? Philadelphia, PA June 27, 2002 — David Henry reports from the Action Newsroom. An Action News investigation reveals that a chain of jewelry stores operating in the Delaware Valley is being investigated by the FBI for possible connections to the Al Qaeda terror network. A series of raids were carried out yesterday in Philadelphia and across the state of Pennsylvania. The stores are mostly kiosks in shopping malls operating under the name "Intrigue Jewelers." They are all owned by Pakistanis under franchise agreements with a company called Gold Concepts, based in Pennsacola, Florida. Intrigue operates stores...

Some details are still sketchy, but here is what we have been able to confirm thus far: Obama's">Obama's visit to LCCC (Lehigh Carbon Community College) on Route 309 in Schnecksville seems confirmed for 11:45AM from a multitude of sources. This is the most well-known and the biggest stop on Obama's">Obama's tour on Friday. Link to a Google Map is below: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Lehigh+Carbon+Community+College&hl=en&cd=1&ei=BLwVS_mfNaqWyASo1-1d&sig2=lUw8cN3JIvO6wT9KcqbraA&sll=40.662619,-75.610855&sspn=0.410356,0.72791&ie=UTF8&view=map&cid=5481696212949119388&ved=0CBQQpQY&hq=Lehigh+Carbon+Community+College&hnear=&ll=40.66508,-75.61085&spn=0.026368,0.076818&z=14 Plan on being there early (9:00am). Dress warm! We'll be outside for a while! Details on potential parking locations and staging areas will be forthcoming. WATCH YOUR EMAIL ON THURSDAY!!! After leaving LCCC, we understand that Obama will be...

The Morning Call to outsource its customer serviceThirty employees will lose their jobs in cost-cutting measure.By Kurt Blumenau Of The Morning Call The Morning Call will outsource its customer service call center later this year as part of a companywide cost-cutting effort by its corporate parent, Tribune Co. of Chicago. Starting in mid-December, customer service calls to the Lehigh Valley's largest newspaper will be answered by a call center in the Philippines owned by APAC Customer Services of Deerfield, Ill. Tribune's largest paper, the Los Angeles Times, has already switched: It has used APAC for customer service calls since 1998,...

Authorities to consider charges against man By Keith Mayer Reading Eagle A Reading shopkeeper on Friday fatally shot a knife-wielding man who had robbed him of an undetermined amount of money, city police said. Gregorio Zarzuela, 58, the owner of Gregory's Market, 12th and Green streets, ran out the front door, turned and fired once at the fleeing robber about 12:30 p.m., investigators said. Zarzuela killed the man, who fell face up onto the sidewalk on the west side of the street, authorities said. Officials had not determined the identity of the dead man; he was checked for identification, but...

John M. Morganelli has gone global with his fight against illegal immigrants, drawing criticism from immigrant advocates. Northampton County's outspoken district attorney recently formed an Internet political action committee, with which he hopes to support like-minded candidates for political office. The Web address for Us Securing America PAC is http://www.usapac.us . Morganelli said he registered the site a few weeks ago. ''Hopefully, if it catches on, we'll be able to support candidates'' who are concerned about the growing number of illegal immigrants in the country, he said.