Trexlertown News

WHAT GOES UP: New Zealand cyclist Eddie Dawkins training at World Health and Fitness in Invercargill yesterday.

ALLENTOWN WILL CONDUCT street sweeping in the following areas: Friday -- Hamilton Park, Union Terrace west to the city line from Hamilton Boulevard south to E. Texas Boulevard; 23rd Street west to the city line ...

The 15-year-old Lehigh Township girl didn't know the name of the man who had just raped her, but she had his e-mail address and a photo that he sent when he contacted her.

Australian bicycling coach Rick Lee is accused of raping a 15-year-old Lehigh Township girl.

Police are searching for a car that struck a three-year-old girl on the parking lot of the Bon Ton at the Trexlertown Mall in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County.

Retail Watch appears on Sundays. MAIL: RETAIL WATCH, The Morning Call, 101 N. Sixth St., Allentown, Pa.

Friday night, 6/27/08 was the Valley Preferred Cycling Center's 2nd race of the World Series of Cycling: U.S. Open Omnium.

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham will hold a news conference tomorrow to announce his plan to lease-county-owned land for a U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame.

When the price of electricity soars in a year and a half, its hefty cost will hit the consumer's pocketbook over and over again.

Homeowners will pay for the increase not just in monthly bills, which could be more than 30 percent higher, but at the grocery store, the pizza shop and the movie theater.

Because businesses, whose rates could go up even higher, will look to recoup their own energy costs, consumers can expect to see prices on goods and services surge.

It's a domino effect that consumers should be bracing for as electricity rates, which have been strictly regulated by the state since the 1930s, become deregulated, giving electric companies such as PPL Corp. the authority to set their own prices.

The 2008 World Series of Bicycling gets under way 7:30 p.m. Friday with the International Keirin Cup.

A Coplay man testified Tuesday that he and his 18-year-old girlfriend were on their way to the Trexlertown Wal-Mart when the relationship they had since the ninth grade abruptly ended.

Around 50 firefighters battled a stubborn house fire in an Upper Macungie Township development Wednesday morning. via The Morning Call

Around 50 firefighters are battling a house fire in the 200 block of Burrell Blvd. via The Morning Call

The Easton Area School District has 30 days to file an appeal of a Palmer Township zoning decision that would prevent buses from stopping on Edgewood Avenue in front of Easton Area Academy, the alternative education center.

The district had sought a variance of a requirement in the conditional use plan, approved in March 2007, that required the students to get off and on school buses behind the two story building -- a move that requires the use of a former Binney & Smith driveway that leads to the lower portion of the school. Read more

The economic news in recent months has been consistently bleak: stock market volatility, the mortgage crisis, record-high gasoline prices, layoffs. The list goes on and on.

But this is a story line being written largely by the national media. In the Lehigh Valley, the situation isn't nearly so grim. That's largely because the region's 10 biggest employers are holding their own -- and some are even doing much better than that.

Consider B. Braun, the Bethlehem medical device maker that, with about 2,000 workers, is the region's No. 7 employer. Construction crews are busy erecting not one, but two additions at the company's main manufacturing plant -- one on either end of the building. Next door, employees are attending a state-sponsored training program to prepare them for the more advanced work that will accompany the expansion. Read more

“They should have been done last year.”

As Yogi Berra once said, it's deja vu all over again. The city awarded two companies foot-in-the-door contracts for little more than $16,000 but on Monday tried to expand those contracts to more than $650,000 ... via Reading Eagle/Reading Times

The East Coast's largest bicycle swap meet is this Saturday May 3rd. in Trexlertown Pennsylvania. via BikeBlog

The U.S. economy might be in recession. The Lehigh Valley's is certainly slowing down.

But the region's top-ranked Fortune 500 company is rolling in dough.

Air Products and Chemicals posted on Wednesday a record quarterly profit -- $313 million, for its second quarter, which ended March 31. That's 38 percent more than the $228 million it earned during the same period last year.

The performance put the Trexlertown industrial gases and chemicals company on track to beat Wall Street expectations. It lifted its 2008 earnings forecast to $4.95 to $5.05 a share. Analysts were calling for $4.92 a share, on average, according to Thomson Financial. Read more

The sidewalks of the tiny town are cracked and some street signs are missing from their poles.

The historic buildings, many of which date to the 19th century, are showing their age.

Main Street in Alburtis, the scene of a thriving iron industry in the late 1800s, has seen better days.

But a streetscape plan overseen by a regional revitalization organization is under way to spruce up three blocks of Main Street and highlight the town's history.

Mike Schlossberg, a coordinator for the Borough Business Revitalization Program, said along with renovations could come markers placed at historic buildings explaining what purposes they originally served and when. Read more

FOUND Transport wheelchair: Gloria of Allentown, George of Bethlehem and Margaret of Walnutport all have transport wheelchairs they are willing to sell to Jane of Palmerton. via The Morning Call