5 Things to Know Today

Good morning Bethlehem. Today is Tuesday, November 22, 2011. We are 33 days from Christmas in the Christmas City – and all of them are shopping days.

1. Get out the umbrellas, raincoats and galoshes, folks. The National Weather Service is calling for rain pretty much through the day and into Wednesday. As much as an inch-and-a-half may fall today and cause some localized flooding, according to the forecast.
2. Once again, today is a half-day of school for students in elementary and middle schools. Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled.
3. Kids, if mom comes away from that teacher conference scowling, you might want to consider visiting either the or the branch of the Bethlehem Area Public Library for some . Tutors are available at both locations between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
4. The Bethlehem Zoning Hearing Board meets at 6 p.m. tonight to discuss controversial developer Abraham Atiyeh’s third plan for developing 1838 Center St., a 5-acre lot at Center and Dewberry Avenue. This time, Atiyeh proposes to build three apartment buildings and a total of 96 units. Neighbors have been unhappy with the previous two proposals – one of which was a 125-bed nursing home. The meeting will take place in the second floor conference room of the ’s main branch.
5. On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. It was the first in a series of events that marked a tumultuous and often violent decade in our nation’s history. To this day, the conclusions of the official investigation into the president’s murder remain controversial and conspiracy theories abound. Whatever you believe, it marks a defining moment in time for those who were around when Walter Cronkite broadcast the news to a stunned nation. For people of a certain age, it is regarded similarly to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks or, to an even older generation, the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. “Where were you when you heard?” remains a topic of discussion.