The execution of a Lehigh Valley mass murderer is being stayed once again. Saying Pennsylvania should not be in the business of executing people, Governor Josh Shapiro suspended a notice of execution issued by the Department of Corrections last month for Harvey Robinson. The 51-year-old Robinson was scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the rape and murder of Jessica Forney and Joan Burghardt and 15-year-old Charlotte Schmoyer in the Allentown area in the 1990s. He was also convicted of trying to rape and kill a woman and a young girl in 1992 and 1993. The the last execution in Pennsylvania was in 1999.
Two women have dropped their challenge to signatures on the petition submitted by state Rep. Ana Tiburcio. Candidates for state representative must collect 300 valid signatures from voters who are members of the candidate's political party and residents of the district in which they are running. Tiburcio turned in 578 signatures, but the challenge claimed several hundred of them were not valid, putting her below 300 valid signatures. There's no word on why the challenge was dropped.
Lehigh County needs to find a new person to oversee its elections and voter registrations. Timothy Benyo, Lehigh County’s chief clerk of elections and registrations, has quit to take a job with the Committee of Seventy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that focuses on issues impacting voters. Benyo had held that job since January 2010. Interviews to find his replacement begin today.
Gas prices in Pennsylvania are not getting any less expensive. According to the new AAA East Central Gas Price Report, the average price for a gallon of gas in Pennsylvania is at $3.94, up 24 cents from a week ago. That number is 72 cents more than one year earlier. In the Lehigh Valley, that price is $3.92 a gallon, also up 24 cents from a week ago and 71 cents more than on the same date last year.
An attorney in the Lehigh Valley is being suspended after authorities said they left a bag containing cocaine in juvenile court. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania announced a temporary suspension against Stanley Margle the Third yesterday for the incident last year. Authorities said a sheriff's deputy found two small baggies of cocaine inside a Coach bag Margle left in the attorney waiting room at the Northampton County Juvenile Justice Center. Margle was ordered to be paroled last month to an inpatient treatment facility.
It's 30 years in prison for a 63-year-old man who Tuesday admitted to luring a man to a Monroe County property and then shooting and killing him. Kip Morgan pleaded guilty Tuesday to the August 2012 murder of Stephen Lepore in Barrett Township. Prosecutors say Morgan and Sonny Hewson lured the victim to the property, where Morgan killed him. The two then hid the body inside a steel drum before moving it to a property in Wayne County, where it was found in 2023. Hewson remains in custody in Florida, where he's charged with trying to kill a law enforcement officer who was trying to arrest him for Lepore's death.
The Pennsylvania House is passing a measure that would set up a statewide increase in minimum wage. House Bill 2189 passed with bipartisan support in a 104-to-95 vote yesterday. The legislation would have the statewide minimum wage raised in increments from seven-25 to 15 dollars by 2029, with annual cost-of-living adjustments to come each year after. The measure will now go up for consideration in the state Senate.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday to help address Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner had a message to those ICE agents. "This is how it works. If you commit a crime in the jurisdiction that is the city and county of Philadelphia, I prosecute you," Krasner says. And the DA says President Trump can't pardon those ICE agents if they violate the law.
Community members gathered in West Reading on Tuesday to mark the three-year anniversary of the RM Palmer factory explosion. A memorial was held near the factory site to honor the seven workers who were killed in the blast on March 24, 2023. Investigators later determined the explosion was caused by a gas leak. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission filed a court order this month seeking $2.6 million in fines against UGI, alleging 27 state and federal safety violations related to their natural gas distribution system at the time of the explosion.
The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service is issuing a public health alert for a ground beef product. According to officials, White Oaks Pastures' "Radically Traditional Farming Grassfed Ground Beef" produced on February 26th may have been contaminated with foreign material, specifically metal. The product was shipped to retail locations in Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Anyone who has purchased the ground beef is urged to avoid consuming it and throw it away or return it to the place of purchase.
Mayor Cherelle Parker has a new plan to raise money for the School District of Philadelphia. Her latest proposal includes a $1 per ride tax for rideshares. She said the move would generate nearly $48 million for the school district. If it is approved, the tax would take effect next January.