>>Winter Weather Advisory Issued For Harrisburg Area In Effect Until Noon Friday At Noon
(Harrisburg, PA) -- National Weather Service forecasters have issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the area. They say several inches of snow will greet you as you head out Friday morning, along with some bitterly cold air. Three to five inches of snow are predicted in total through the noon hour. Wind chills will be near zero degrees for a good part of the day, as well.
>>PennDOT Has Many Vacancies for Permanent, Temporary Drivers for Road Clearing
(Harrisburg, PA) -- The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation says it's struggling to hire drivers, particularly seasonal workers that can keep the roads clear of snow especially during major storms. Officials say the PennDOT district that covers the Susquehanna valley has 57 vacancies among its permanent drivers and they're still looking for about 50 temporary drivers. Starting pay is more than 19-dollars per hour.
>>UPDATE: Christmas Tree Believed To Have Caused Deadly Philly Fire
(Philadelphia, PA) -- A Christmas tree is believed to be the cause of a deadly rowhome fire in Philadelphia that broke out Wednesday. At least 12 people, including eight children, were killed when their duplex in Philly's Fairmount neighborhood went up in flames. Two others were critically injured. The Fire Marshal's Office is looking into reports that someone lit the Christmas tree on fire. The building was operated by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which reportedly did not know over two-dozen people were living between the two units.
>>Multi-Factor Authentication To Be Added To Access Unemployment Compensation Benefits
(Harrisburg, PA) -- Pennsylvania's Department of Labor & Industry says it has detected an increase in attempts to steal unemployment compensation benefits through more sophisticated schemes. A news release from L and I says in order to try to prevent that, a two-step process will be added for claimants to offer another level of protection. The agency encourages people to remain vigilant about guarding their personal and confidential information and to monitor for signs that their information is being used fraudulently.
>>Court Ruling Throws Out More Than 250 Mail-In Votes In Lehigh County
(Harrisburg, PA) -- A Pennsylvania appeals court has reversed a lower court's ruling to count hundreds of mail-in ballots in Lehigh County that did not include a date on the return envelope, as required by law. The case centers on a challenge to the November 2nd municipal election by Republican David Ritter, a candidate for a judgeship on the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas who holds a narrow lead over Democrat Zachary Cohen for the last of three open seats. A trial court affirmed the board's decision in an order issued November 30, but the Commonwealth Court reversed that ruling Monday in an opinion authored by Judge Patricia McCullough. McCullough cited a 2020 Supreme Court case on similar issues in ruling the ballots must not be counted.
>>Butter Sculpture Revealed Ahead Of Pennsylvania Farm Show
(Harrisburg, PA) -- A Pennsylvania Farm Show tradition has continued in Harrisburg with the unveiling of this year's butter sculpture. This year's theme of the 106th farm show is "Harvesting More," so the one-thousand-pound sculpture depicts urban and rural communities coming together and toasting each other with a glass of milk. The sculpture, which was unveiled Thursday, will then be display for the duration of the nine-day event. The Pennsylvania Farm Show runs January 8th through the 15th.
>>PA Breaks Covid Hospitalization Record Again
(Harrisburg, PA) -- Data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health show the state has broken its coronavirus pandemic hospitalization record. On Thursday, state hospitals recorded a little under 65-hundred patients, surpassing the previous daily record of a little over 63-hundred patients set on December 16th of last year. Officials reports one thousand and 57 people in intensive care, with nearly 650 of those on ventilators. Statewide, hospitalizations have increased nearly 22-percent in the last week and are up over 43 percent in the last month.
>>Pennsylvania Jobless Claims on the Rise
(Washington, DC) - Officials with the U.S. Labor Department say Pennsylvania is one of the states where jobless claims have risen the most in the past month. The Labor Department says 207-thousand Americans filed initial unemployment claims for the week ending on New Year's Day. That's a jump of seven-thousand from the previous week's revised total. The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is now at about five-point seven percent, the 10th highest ranking in the country.
>> Search Warrant At Dauphin County Home Nets $6K Worth Of Crack Cocaine
(Steelton, PA) -- Police in Dauphin County say two people have been taken into custody after a search warrant netted six-thousand-dollars worth of crack cocaine at their home. Richard Blazevic Junior and Toni Diller, were taken into custody Thursday after the search at the home in the three-hundred-block of South Fourth Street. Steelton police were assisted by the Dauphin County Drug Task Force and the Dauphin County Crisis Response Team executing the warrant. Officials also seized marijuana, a handgun and an assault rifle.
>>New President Named For President Of Pennsylvania College Of Technology
(Harrisburg, PA) -- A former Harrisburg educator has been named the eighth president of the Pennsylvania College of Technology. Michael J. Reed has been provost and vice president of academic affairs of the school, which is a subsidiary of Penn State. He will replace Davie Jane Gilmour who is retiring June 30th after having been president for more than 23 years. The Penn College board voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a five-year contract effective July 1st for Reed. The head of the search committee says there were at least 100 applicants for the position.
Pennsylvania Farm Show Starts This Weekend
(Harrisburg, PA) -- The 106th Annual Pennsylvania Farm Show starts this weekend and promoters say it'll have both virtual and in-person features because of the coronavirus. Besides the always-popular food court area, new attractions include the Canine Spectacular, a demonstration of the skills and intelligence of farm dogs. Officials say last year's popular animal display, a water fowl habitat, will be viewable both in-person and online . The show offers visitors a tiny slice of the industry that employs nearly half a million people and contributes 185-billion-dollars to Pennsylvania's economy every year. The show begins January 8th and runs for one week in Harrisburg.