Thanks to the very cold temperatures, it's an Operation Snowflake morning in the Lehigh Valley. Get the complete list of school delays and more by entering the keyword 'snowflake'.
Accu-Weather's Joe Lundberg says if you like your weather on the cold side, you'll be having a good week or more. "This is as cold as it's been this winter and I think it's going to be worse this weekend. I think Friday night and Saturday are going to be extreme across the area. Temperatures on Saturday are not getting out of the teens and I doubt they do on Sunday," Lundberg says. Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday might all see high temperatures eclipse the freezing mark, but after that the long term forecast has temperatures below freezing for the rest of the month.
Lehigh Valley warming stations expected to be full over the next week or two as very cold temperatures are expected to settle in nearly every day in that time span. Tami Unger runs the Allentown YMCA warming center on South 15th Street and says you can help keep supplies full. "We also have an Amazon wish list for things like handwarmers. They're very simple things that we can give to our guests when they come in here so that way when they leave in the morning, they're able to stay warm," Unger says. That shelter is open from 7pm to 7am, but Unger says it may open a bit earlier if possible.
Another Roman Catholic church in the Slate Belt is closing. The Allentown Diocese says Our Lady of Good Counsel church in Bangor is holding its final Mass on February 7th. The church merged with the nearby Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Roseto in January 2023, but remained open as a worship site with one weekly Mass. The diocese says Our Lady of Good Counsel is in need of expensive repairs, including a new roof, the replacement of its HVAC system and plumbing. This closing follows the 2023 closing of The Chapel of St. Vincent de Paul in Portland and the 2008 closing of St. Roch's in West Bangor.
An 18-wheeler driver is being cited for a massive crash in Berks County last weekend. State Police said a tractor-trailer was going too fast on I-78 West in the icy conditions Saturday morning, lost control, and hit a concrete barrier. Ten more vehicles then crashed into the semitruck, including three other 18-wheelers. Troopers said six people were taken to the hospital, with one suffering serious injuries.
President Trump is continuing his push to crack down on illegal immigration as ICE steps up enforcement operations in major cities including Minneapolis and Chicago. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro offers his take on the protests happening in Minneapolis. "One of the things I understand as the former chief law enforcement officer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the way you create safe communities is by building trust between law enforcement and the community and investing in both," Shapiro says.
U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt is praising President Trump's tariffs when it comes to the steel trade. Burritt made the comments during a recent interview with CBS News. In that piece, Burritt called the additional fees on foreign products a "game changer", saying they strengthen national security and economic security. The CEO also spoke favorably of Nippon Steel's promised 14-billion dollars in investments into U.S. Steel, saying they should create as many as 100-thousand direct or indirect jobs.
New Jersey Governor-Elect Mikie Sherrill is being sworn into office at her 10 a.m. inauguration ceremony today at NJPAC in Newark-- a day after celebrating her 54th birthday. Her inaugural ball will be in the evening at the American Dream Mall and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands. Then she gets to work, since Sherrill promised on her first day in office to sign an executive order freezing utility rates. Sherrill also says she wants to help first time home buyers right away, and the Democrat has to start putting together a state budget proposal. That will be due in weeks, and Sherrill is inheriting a $1.5 billion deficit to fill.
In one of his final acts as Governor, Phil Murphy is bringing cursive handwriting back from the dead. He signed a bill Monday requiring all New Jersey schools to teach it in Grades three through five. Teachers will have to make sure that students not only know how to write legibly in cursive but can also decipher it. In recent years, it's been considered a lost art but proponents say you need cursive in order to sign legal documents and read historical artifacts or letters from Grandma. Murphy okayed the bill just days after banning cell phones in classrooms.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy used his last day in office to strengthen e-bike safety. The governor signed legislation updating regulation, licensing, and training requirements for electric bicycles following a slew of dangerous crashes. The measures introduced by Senate President Nick Scutari expands the types of bicycles that are covered, updating bike laws for the first time in six years. The legislation also requires motor vehicles use due caution when approaching e-bikes on the road. Governor Murphy says its clear we are in an age of increasing e-bike usage and making roads safer for all users has been for his administration.