John Kalynych, the former director of Lehigh County Emergency Management, died Sunday at the age of 50. During his career, Kalynych served as LCEM's director, the coordinator/chief of Lehigh County Special Operations, deputy chief for Catasauqua fire and was a current safety officer for Lower Saucon Fire Rescue. Most recently, he worked with the Municipal Emergency Response Team of the Lehigh County District Attorney's office. Kalynych's cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Weeks after a ribbon cutting, Lehigh Valley International Airport will open its new TSA checkpoint and terminal connector this Wednesday. LVIA says the new facility addresses critical needs such as an extra lane for TSA processing and separate areas for arriving and departing passengers. The opening also marks the first time a new filtration system will be used. LVIA is the first airport in the world to install the LifeAire System, which is made in the Lehigh Valley. It's designed to reduce airborne pathogens, including COVID-19, more than 99-percent. Officials say it's also been shown to reduce 96-percent of harmful surface germs.
Police in Upper Macungie Township are looking for information related to a "loud, ground-shaking thud". The incident was reported Friday morning by many residents in Old Towne near Grange and Ruppsville Roads. Some say the vibration was so strong it caused items to shake off the walls inside area homes. Officials say they have not been able to find the source of the boom either despite a search of the area, which included drones, or by information provided by utility company UGI. The United States Geological Survey also reported no notable seismic activity in the area at that time either.
The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will be the first speaker at a new program at Lehigh University. School officials say Theresa May, who was prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2019, will speak October 24th as the first lecturer of a new series called Compelling Perspectives. Lehigh President Joseph Helble says the goal of the series is to present diverse viewpoints on important social issues.
Members of the Easton City Council are asking for the public's help in identifying people buried at a plot discovered beneath a city park. The city says the graves were discovered by an outside consultant who used ground-penetrating radar after southside residents told them a cemetery was rumored to be at the park on Nesquehoning Street. Several of the bodies are believed to have been members of the Buffalo Soldiers. They were Black members of Army regiments formed during the 19th century that served on the frontier. These regiments served until the army was desegregated in the 1950s. The committee is also seeking further information and suggestions about what to do with the space, including potential memorials or shrines.
The USDA has put out a public health alert for a Wegmans product that was shipped to stores in Pennsylvania. The raw jerk chicken may have unlabeled allergens such as milk, soy and wheat. Officials say the marinade in a specific batch may have been cross-contaminated by an equipment malfunction in during processing. The USDA says a recall wasn't issued because the products are no longer available for purchase, but if you have Wegmans jerk chicken in your fridge or freezer, you'll want to check the expiration date.
A new safety feature is in place inside hundreds of University of Pittsburgh classrooms as students return for the fall term today. Pitt officials say they have installed "panic buttons" as part of a campus emergency response review that was prompted by a hoax active shooter call at the Hillman Library in April. The buttons allow many classroom doors to be automatically locked while an alert is sent to campus police. Around one-hundred students participated in a "die-in" protest outside the Cathedral of Learning after it took the university well over an hour to send out an emergency alert when the swatting call was made earlier this year.
Recent Canadian wildfire smoke is being blamed for a significant rise in asthma-related trips to the emergency room. The CDC says researchers found that ER visits were 17-percent higher than usual in areas where wildfire smoke enveloped the region, triggering air quality alerts between April and August. Those alerts covered states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which had one of the highest proportion of emergency room visits.
New Jersey's sales tax Holiday is now in effect for school supplies. The holiday began starting on Saturday and runs through September 4th. Parents will be able to buy school supplies tax free during the period, which will include laptops under three-thousand dollars, art supplies, recreational equipment and more. All without the usual six-percent sales tax. The discounts apply both in person and online.
GOP presidential hopeful Chris Christie says he's worried about a Donald Trump nomination. "What is will mean for folks across the country, is four more years of Joe Biden," Christie said. Speaking on ABC's This Week, the former New Jersey governor said the GOP nominee needs to be someone who "can beat Democratic incumbents" and that he's the only candidate who has done that.