Limeport News

Bridgette Lang, 7, of Limeport squeezes the soap from a wool ball she is felting during an Arts and Nature Class at the Katie Stauffer Memorial Art Center on Broad Street, Quakertown, last Thursday.

ALLENTOWN WILL CONDUCT street sweeping in the following areas: Friday -- 19th Street west to the city line from Tilghman Street to the northern city line.

ALLENTOWN will conduct street sweeping in the following areas: Friday -- S. Bradford Street to S.W. 31st Street south of Emmaus Avenue; S.W. 26th Street to S.W. 32nd Street north of Emmaus Avenue including the ... via The Morning Call

Categories: Pennsylvania A 25-year-old Lehigh Township woman died in Allentown early Sunday morning after she was struck by a car, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said. via Easton Express-Times

The fight for Pennsylvania's democratic presidential nominee is heating up in the Lehigh Valley. via WFMZ

There is now only one more day left before Tuesday's decisive Pennsylvania primary, and again today Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton weren't letting any grass grow under their feet. via WPVI-TV Philadelphia

With just three days to go before Pennsylvanians head to the polls, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are in a statistical dead heat in the political harbinger of Lehigh and Northampton counties, a new Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll has found.

Clinton holds a 47 percent to 46 percent lead in the phone poll of 322 likely voters.

The poll was conducted between April 10 and Thursday, a time that saw the two candidates exchange jabs over Obama's observations on the tribulations of small-town Pennsylvania voters. Read more

Before Mount Airy Casino Resort owner Louis DeNaples was awarded a slots license in 2006, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said in a suitability report that he was thoroughly vetted by the board's investigators, who even contacted the state attorney general and FBI.

But the report, released to two state lawmakers last week, failed to mention a crucial piece of information: The attorney general and FBI both refused to provide any criminal information on DeNaples.

The report, used by gaming board members to award slots licenses, also omitted $25,000 in political contributions from DeNaples in 2005 and 2006 when, as a slots applicant, he was barred from giving. Read more

“We must have five or six companies of different types showing very strong interest in that building”

CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park East get new flex structures. JENKINS TWP. Home sales may be facing a headwind, but demand for the right kind of commercial property is promising enough in Northeastern ... via Times Leader

The committee formed to study Allentown's new pre-sale housing inspection law intends to have its first public meeting next month.

City Council, led by Councilman Michael Donovan, created the committee to review the impact of the law and set goals to measure whether it is working.

''This is just a good process for government to use,'' committee member Geoff Brace said. ''When you're enacting legislation and public policy in general, you should be providing regular reviews of it, fix what's not working so well and continue to do what's working well.'' Read more

Meet Sunny Knockout.

Bred to be ''chemical free,'' this rose needs no pesticides to naturally resist rust, mildew, blackspot, Japanese beetles and rose midge. Looking good with bright yellow flowers and dark green foliage, Sunny is extremely hardy and can withstand extra cold winters and hot, arid summers. Planted alone, mixed or massed, even as a hedge, Sunny also does well in containers and can bloom in partial shade, emitting a sweet, heady scent.

''It's intensely fragrant, unlike other Knockout roses,'' says Michael Bowell, a garden designer from Chester County who will introduce Sunny and other stellar garden plants Monday in Bethlehem. Read more

“At this point we're trying to get control or it will get dissolved”

Administrators of Hogar Crea International Inc. of Pennsylvania won an injunction in Northampton County Court after claiming in a lawsuit the dissident workers physically occupied the treatment centers last ... via Dailyitem.com

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is bringing his campaign back to Pennsylvania. via Cbs3.com

“The last time we were close to this was September '05.”

Gas prices in the Lehigh Valley have hit a record high, according to AAA. The average price so far in April is $3.26 a gallon for regular-grade unleaded gasoline, AAA Northampton County President Steve ... via Easton Express-Times

Bethlehem photographer Judith Joy Ross is no stranger to the meaningful or the significant.

In 1992, she spent several months photographing Hazleton school children being taught in the classrooms she attended decades ago.

She spent two years making portraits of visitors to Washington's Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

She's made portraits of everyday people, children in parks, fuel oil deliverymen, guardsmen preparing to ship off to war. Her photos -- she works exclusively in black-and-white -- have been collected by a major German art-book publisher and some are part of permanent collections in museums such as New York's Museum of Modern Art . Read more

Less than a month after Pennsylvania 's newest slots parlor -- Hollywood Casino at Penn National outside Harrisburg -- opened its doors, four machines have skyrocketed to stardom and become some of the casino's biggest moneymakers.

The machines feature a game many thought wouldn't see the inside of a Pennsylvania casino anytime soon: blackjack. Or, to be more precise, virtual blackjack.

While the traditional card game is banned at Pennsylvania casinos, where table games are forbidden, state gaming regulators have approved its electronic counterpart. Read more

“She feels so bad about signing the contract, but she just didn't think anyone cared”

A hand-carved 1909 carousel that graced a Luzerne County amusement park until 1984 has been put up for auction, but locals hope to raise money to keep it in northeast Pennsylvania. via Times Leader

The crowds of customers have thinned at the Federal Grill and Cigar Bar in recent months and the prices the restaurant pays for its goods, from steaks to breads, have increased.

Owner Iris Konia has altered the menu with more affordable dishes and launched promotions, attempting to entice customers whose household budgets are squeezed by rising gas prices and food inflation.

''Its a difficult situation here,'' Konia said. ''Things have skyrocketed and you hesitate and don't want to raise prices, but in some instances we have had to.'' Read more

As the federal government moves closer to requiring seat belts on at least some school buses, a Morning Call survey shows more than 200 injuries to regional schoolchildren since 2000 might have been prevented if they had been properly belted in their seats.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has all but concluded that the ''optimum passenger crash protection'' is a lap/shoulder seat belt, along with another safety feature already on school buses -- high-backed, heavily padded seats.

The government late last year said it was drafting rules to mandate lap/shoulder harness belts on small ''Type A'' school buses that carry up to about a dozen passengers, updating a 31-year-old regulation. The government also intends to give local or state officials the option to add them to large buses carrying 70 or more passengers. Read more

“Initially, this thing was going to be a Double-A franchise, then a Single-A franchise”

If the founding fathers of a movement to bring professional baseball back to the Lehigh Valley had their way, a Class AA team would have long ago moved to the area from elsewhere in Pennsylvania. via Easton Express-Times