All five teams in the National League East played on Opening Day Thursday and scored a grand total of four runs. If that’s a harbinger of the season to come, that’s probably good news for the Philadelphia Phillies and their fans. If the Phillies are to win their sixth consecutive division title, they will probably need to rely on dominant pitching to overcome what is expected to be an anemic offense. They will also be facing tougher competition: the Miami Marlins have a new ballpark and several new faces that have made them a trendy pick to unseat the Phillies. The young Washington …
With Friday night's Mega Millions jackpot now at a record $540 million, Pennsylvania Lottery desks and kiosks across the region are doing brisk business. Office lottery pools are swelling with member contributions. Did you buy a ticket? Are you excited? Hopeful? Well, good for you. Rich Smith of The Motley Fool thinks you're a sucker. "The truth is that getting rich from winning the lottery isn't just unlikely. It's (statistically) impossible," Smith writes. And he's not the only one. In fact, according to the folks at Bloomberg, Pennsylvania ranks ninth in the U.S. on the lottery "sucker …
This week, Bethlehem Township became the second municipality to decide to sue to stop the application of local earned income taxes to Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone. The NIZ, created in legislation written by State Sen. Pat Browne, R-16, is designed to provide a funding mechanism for revitalization of Allentown’s center city and western riverfront neighborhoods. The first project is to build a hockey arena that will be the home to the Phantoms, a minor league team to the Philadelphia Flyers. Under the law, state and local earned income taxes from the 130-acre zone will be put …
Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed and Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law a controversial new measure that will require voters to show a photo identification card at polling places beginning with the general election in November. Many are decrying the new legislation as a threat to disenfranchise as many as 11 percent of eligible voters who do not possess a government photo ID card, many of whom are senior citizens. "This legislation ignores the tremendous inconvenience it will create for seniors who don't have a driver's license,” said state Rep. Bob Freeman…
Join Bethlehem Patch for Sunshine Week 2012 as we celebrate, comment and debate and the importance of open government and the public’s right to know what government is doing and why. This year Sunshine Week is co-sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press and many other media industry partners, including Patch. The goal is to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in government …
Today, we are four days from Super Tuesday, the biggest day of primary elections during the nominating season of any presidential year. Seven states – including Pennsylvania’s neighbor to the west, Ohio – will hold primaries and three more will hold caucuses. Together, these contests will determine 419 delegates to the Republican National Convention – more than all four remaining candidates combined have won to date. That is also more than a third of the 1,144 needed to claim the nomination. Historically, some candidates have used Super Tuesday to assert dominance over the field and seal up…
When the Stone House Group appealed to the South Bethlehem Historic Conservation Commission last year for its blessing to put a solar collector atop the 100-year-old Flat Iron Building, building owners promised that the dish would, for the most part, be invisible from the surrounding neighborhood. But in the month or so since the dish was erected on the six-story building’s roof, the array has at once become one of the most visible features of South Bethlehem’s skyline. This week, some of the neighbors voiced their displeasure at City Council. Stephen Antalics brought copies of a black and …
Ash Wednesday today begins the season of Lent, a 46-day period of penitence for observant Christians leading to Easter. Abstaining from eating meat on Fridays is part of the tradition of self-denial, but many Christians also deny themselves another luxury during Lent -- chocolate, alcohol, etc. Will you be giving up something for Lent? Take our poll, and if you'd like, go into more detail in the comment section.
