The 20-year-old arraigned for his alleged part in the May 14 incident in Pennico Park, was also wanted for a March 2011 burglary after his DNA was found at the scene, according to court documents.

A Knowlton Township man accused of threatening two men with a knife in a Bangor park was arraigned today on those charges as well as burglary charges stemming from a break-in in Washington Township, Northampton County.

Christian Edward Blomquist, 20, of the 1100 block of Hainesburg River Road in Knowlton Township, was armed with a knife May 14 in Pennico Park in Bangor along with his co-defendant Thomas Patrick O'Sullivan, authorities say. The pair terrorized two men in the park, court papers say, asking if the victims wanted to be jumped before mimicking a gunshot as they left.

"Don't worry, we will get you," O'Sullivan allegedly said.

Blomquist was arraigned before Senior District Judge Sherwood Grigg on two counts each of simple assault and reckless endangerment, three counts of terroristic threats and a single count of harassment. He was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $30,000 bail.

Blomquist was also arraigned for his alleged part in a March 6, 2011, burglary of a business in Washington Township. Court records say Blomquist and an unnamed man forced their way into Penn Jersey Mart, 232 Blue Valley Drive, causing $1,700 worth of damage.

Police say the pair stole cash, incense, calling cards and various tobacco products valued at $22,856. Investigators were able to identify Blomquist through DNA results after finding his blood on a counter in the store. Police say the results were confirmed on June 6.

Blomquist was arraigned in that case on charges of burglary, criminal trespassing, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief. His bail was set at $40,000.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, signed on as a co-sponsor to the bill.

The Senate acted today to help thousands of military veterans enduring long wait times for VA medical care, as the FBI revealed it has opened a criminal investigation into a Veterans Affairs Department reeling from allegations of falsified records and inappropriate scheduling practices.

The Senate bill, approved 93-3, makes it easier for veterans who have encountered delays getting initial visits to receive VA-paid treatment from local doctors instead. The measure closely resembles a bill approved unanimously Tuesday in the House, prompting optimism among lawmakers from both parties that a compromise version could be on its way soon to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The White House said today that Obama supports the Senate bill.

The Senate bill would authorize about $35 billion over three years to pay for outside care for veterans, as well as hire hundreds of doctors and nurses and lease 26 new health facilities in 17 states and Puerto Rico.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, signed on as a co-sponsor to the bill.

"This ongoing scandal with the management of the VA has been outrageous," Toomey said in a conference call this afternoon. "(The bill is) an important step in the right direction."

The Veterans Affairs Department released an audit this week showing that more than 57,000 veterans have had to wait at least three months for initial appointments. Another 64,000 veterans who asked for appointments over the past decade never got them.

"The cost of war does not end when the last shots are fired and the last missiles are launched," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "The cost of war continues until the last veteran receives the care and the benefits that he or she is entitled to and has earned on the battlefield."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who drafted the bill with Sanders, called the bill "a beginning — not an end — to the efforts that must be taken" to address the crisis affecting veterans' health care.

"Make no mistake: This is an emergency," McCain said.

McCain's comments came in response to complaints from Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and other Republicans that the bill was a "blank check" to spend billions of dollars with little or no way to rein it in.

"Money Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said the VA has "plenty of money" adding: "It's management and accountability and honesty in treating the veterans" that is needed to improve care for veterans.

The Senate vote came as the FBI revealed it has opened a criminal investigation into the VA. FBI Director James Comey said today that the investigation was being led by the FBI's field office in Phoenix, which he described as the "primary locus of the original allegations" being investigated by the VA's Office of Inspector General.

"We're working with the VA IG to follow it wherever the facts take us," Comey told the House Judiciary Committee.

The inspector general said in a report last month that 1,700 veterans seeking treatment at the Phoenix VA hospital were at risk of being "lost or forgotten." The VA has confirmed that at least 35 veterans died while awaiting treatment in Phoenix, although officials say they do not know whether the deaths were related to long waiting times for appointments.

The Justice Department had said that federal prosecutors were reviewing documents from the inspector general to determine whether to launch a full-fledged investigation. The involvement of the FBI represents an escalation into concerns of possible criminal conduct by VA employees, though it remains unclear whether investigators will find any basis for prosecution.

Richard Griffin, the VA's acting inspector general, issued a scathing report last month that confirmed allegations of excessive waiting time at VA hospitals and inappropriate scheduling practices. He told lawmakers his investigators were probing for wrongdoing at 69 agency medical facilities, up from 42 two weeks ago

The VA, which serves almost 9 million veterans, has been reeling from mounting evidence that workers falsified reports on wait times for medical appointments in an effort to mask frequent, long delays. An internal audit released this week showed that more than 57,000 new applicants for care have had to wait at least three months for initial appointments and an additional 64,000 newly enrolled vets who requested appointments never got them.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned May 30, but the situation remains a continuing embarrassment for Obama and a potential political liability for congressional Democrats seeking re-election in November.

The Senate bill, like the House measure approved Tuesday, would let veterans facing long delays for appointments or living more than 40 miles from a VA facility choose to get care from non-agency providers for the next two years. Some veterans already get outside care, but the process is cumbersome and riddled with delays, veterans and their advocates say.

The Senate bill also would restrict controversial bonuses given to VA employees for meeting certain performance goals and would make it easier to fire top VA officials. Legislation approved in the House would ban bonuses outright through 2016 and would not include employee safeguards provided in the Senate bill.

Capt. Jason Jones, 29, of Orwigsburg, was killed by small-arms fire June 2 in Jalalabad.

The body of a Pennsylvania soldier killed in Afghanistan was escorted through his hometown today as hundreds of people lined the route, paying their respects to the former standout athlete and West Point graduate who belonged to an Army Special Forces unit.

Capt. Jason Jones, 29, of Orwigsburg, was killed by small-arms fire June 2 in Jalalabad.

Led by a contingent of motorcycles, a hearse carrying Jones' body rolled through Orwigsburg on an overcast, drizzly day. It rolled to a stop underneath a gigantic American flag strung between the crossed ladders of two firetrucks, and the crowd fell silent as an honor guard saluted. Then the procession continued on, winding up at a Pottsville funeral home.

His father, Jay Jones, thanked residents for turning out.

"I cannot describe in words how appreciative we are of all this," he said. "The support for us has been unbelievable and has really helped us get through this extraordinarily difficult time."

Jason Jones was a star high school soccer player and a co-captain of his basketball team. He graduated from the United States Military Academy with a nuclear engineering degree in 2007. His family said he graduated from U.S. Army Ranger School and U.S. Army Airborne School in 2008 and was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division.

He served in Iraq in 2008-09, earning a Bronze Star.

Jones, who had been married less than a year, qualified as a Green Beret last year and was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

"I think there's two things that I'd like people to remember. First, is how humble he was. He received awards from West Point and during his military career that we never knew about. And that's the way he was. He was so modest," Jay Jones said.

Jones also said his son "loved his school, he loved his sports, he loved his military. He had so many happy days. And he was happy doing what he was doing."

A memorial service was held Saturday in Pottsville. Jones will be buried at West Point in New York on Tuesday.

Board reallocates federal grant money.

The Warren County Police Chief's Association couldn't convince freeholders tonight to change their minds and purchase an armored personnel carrier with federal money.

Warren County freeholders voted to reallocate $254,672 in Homeland Security grant money originally intended to purchase a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle. The county will now use the money to purchase an emergency disaster response trailer, which will include emergency medical supplies and other emergency response gear such as turnout gear, boots, hoses and ventilators.

A portion of the grant will be divided among a handful of municipalities to pay for maintenance and upkeep of the law enforcement database system. About $60,600 will be allocated for the county's reverse 911 system, and $31,000 will be returned to Hunterdon County, its share of the multi-county grant.

James McDonald serves as the Washington Township police chief and president of the chief's association.

McDonald said a group of emergency management officials tasked with deciding how to spend the grant money, known as a working group, decided over a two-year period that the armored vehicle — which he described as an armored rescue vehicle — made sense for the area. He cited a handful of incidents in Warren County over the years that involved standoffs and gunfire.

Law enforcement can use an armored vehicle to protect officers and civilians, he said.

"It's not just to deliver police to an area," McDonald said. "It's to remove victims safely from an area."

Freeholder Director Ed Smith said he remained opposed to the purchase because it skirted a generally followed practice that sees freeholders approving grant applications early in the process, not right before the grant is spent.

He continued to raise logistical concerns about sharing such a piece of equipment among Warren, Hunterdon and Sussex counties and reiterated that freeholders in the other counties did not support the purchase.

Reallocating the money allows the county to keep the grant and address public safety, Smith said.

In defense of the process, McDonald repeatedly noted that the group that decided to purchase the armored vehicle included the county administrator and that freeholders were free to attend. He also noted that freeholders in the past did not seem concerned about approving other purchases the working group recommended, such as generators.

Freeholder Jason Sarnoski acknowledged that the board must keep abreast of the group's decisions and attend their meetings, but he remained opposed to the purchase. He agreed with Smith's concerns and added that using a portion of the grant money for the law enforcement database system is a better benefit to taxpayers as it eases, at least temporarily, a burden on the municipal budgets.

"To use the grant in any other way than to offset taxes is irresponsible," Sarnoski said.

Tempers flared momentarily as Freeholder Rick Gardner explained why he supported reallocating the grant money.

Easton police would have had access to the vehicle, which concerned Gardner along with the remote prospects that the vehicle would be needed in two separate municipalities at the same time.

"You don't care about our lives," replied an officer standing in the back of the freeholders' meeting room.

"That's not true," Gardner quickly and forcefully responded. "I disrespect that comment, sir!"

Calm was restored, and Gardner said going forward freeholders and the working group must be on "the same page."

Investigators arrested four alleged dancers and a club manager Wednesday.

It's a tawdry tale of New York City strippers on the prowl for men with money, drinks spiked with illegal synthetic drugs and runaway credit card charges at topless clubs.

Some of the men say they have little or no memory of any of it. But investigators filled in the blanks for them on Wednesday by announcing the arrests of four women -- all described as professional strippers -- and a club manager on charges including grand larceny, assault and forgery.

The five were accused of teaming up to rip off a combined $200,000 from a New Jersey doctor, a banker, a hedge fund executive and a real estate attorney in a credit card scam during the last four months of 2013.

None of the victims were named in court papers. But a lawyer for Dr. Zyad Younan, a cardiologist at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, identified his client as one of them.

One of the women, Karina Pascucci, and the manager, Carmine Vitolo, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in state court in Manhattan. The other three defendants, including suspected ringleader Samantha Barbash, were arraigned on Tuesday.

Barbash's attorney, Stephen Murphy, said Wednesday that his client denies the charges. Pascucci's lawyer, Patrick Parrotta, said his client is a college student with no criminal record who worked as a waitress at Scores in Manhattan but never stripped there. A lawyer for Vitolo, Murray Richman, denied charges the club manager helped set up the men.

According to Drug Enforcement Administration and New York Police Department investigators, the scheme began with the women going on "fishing" expeditions at bars in midtown Manhattan and on Long Island to lure in victims. On follow-up dates, they secretly dosed the victim's drinks with the stimulant methylone, commonly known as "molly," or the tranquilizer ketamine.

The dazed and confused victims were driven to Scores and the RoadHouse in Queens, where their credit cards were swiped and unauthorized charges recorded, some as high as $50,000. The clubs paid the women a fee, but the establishments were not facing criminal charges, authorities said.

The men reported waking up in their cars or in hotel rooms, wondering how they got there. Those who tried to dispute the strip club bills received texts from the strippers threatening to go public with their transgressions, authorities said.

"The defendants were banking on the victims being too afraid to contact the police, but as the indictment and arrests show, they made a serious miscalculation," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said.

Last month, Scores sued Younan, saying he owed the club $135,303 for unpaid services. According to the lawsuit, the doctor disputed the charges by saying "he was drugged by plaintiff's employees and thus did not authorize the charges" -- a claim the club says is contradicted by security video showing him freely showing up there on four separate occasions.

The arrests exposed how "my client was preyed upon by this ring and not responsible for charges to his credit card," Younan's attorney, Michael Weinstein, said Wednesday.

There was no immediate response to phone messages left Wednesday at Scores and the RoadHouse.

One lane is opened eastbound after a four-hour closure in that direction.

View full sizeThis image provided by the New Jersey Department of Transportation shows the traffic backup at 5:56 this morning following a fatal accident that has closed the upper level into New York City on the George Washington Bridge. This camera is on Route 4 at the I-95 approach to the George Washington Bridge. AP Photo via New Jersey Department of Transportation 

UPDATE: George Washington Bridge fully reopens more than nine hours after fatal crash

Officials reopened one eastbound upper lane after roughly four hours. But the other three lanes are closed while officials remove the victim's body and work to separate the trucks.

The bridge's lower lanes and westbound lanes are open, but drivers are warned to expect major delays around the Fort Lee toll plaza. Truck traffic was banned from the bridge, the New Jersey Department of Transportation reports.

Traffic is backed up for miles.

The "Trial of the Century" was lurid, star-driven and racially charged, with elements of glitz, sex and domestic violence all wrapped in mystery and supercharged with who-will-win suspense.

O.J. TV was a national pastime.

The O.J. Simpson Show — with its centerpiece a former football great on trial for double homicide — commandeered the media, especially television, along with a spellbound audience for nearly 16 months.

It began as little more than a juicy crime story: the ex-wife of a celebrity and a male acquaintance slain outside her home on June 12, 1994.

Then things took a shocking turn: Simpson, initially seen as the grieving former husband, became the accused.

But O.J. TV erupted in full force late in the afternoon of June 17, with Simpson (charged with the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman) the focus of a slow-speed police chase in his white Ford Bronco, apparently considering suicide en route.

More than 90 million Americans watched, thunderstruck, as TV helicopters tracked this beyond-bizarre motorcade along the freeways of Los Angeles, then, after some 90 minutes, witnessed Simpson surrender in the driveway of his Brentwood home.

"You didn't dare turn away," says Greta Van Susteren, now a Fox News Channel host, who became a legal analyst for CNN's trial coverage. "Everybody was watching it, live, wondering if O.J. was going to blow his brains out. That's when the hook was set for everything that followed."

What followed was labeled the "Trial of the Century," with TV perfectly poised to give it the full treatment, serving as its primary dispatcher and enabler. Endowed with cameras in the courtroom, this was the first big TV trial. It was lurid, star-driven and racially charged, with elements of glitz, sex and domestic violence all wrapped in mystery and supercharged with who-will-win suspense.

And it had the perfect headliner.

"Here was a man who had transcended sports and even race, a guy who had achieved single-name status," says Jack Ford, now CBS News Legal Analyst, who covered the trial for NBC News.

O.J. TV kept viewers hooked with jury selection that fall, through the trial's start in January 1995, then through months of proceedings, carried gavel-to-gavel by numerous networks and recapped daily on numerous shows.

It swamped the airwaves, from network evening newscasts (where the Simpson case was the most heavily covered story of 1995) to magazine shows, talk shows and CNN, whose ratings increased eight-fold.

"At the beginning we knew it was a big story," says Ford, "but I don't think any of us anticipated how the public would be so invested in it."

The case, with all its constituent parts, became second-nature to viewers: Nicole's front walkway on Bundy Drive and O.J.'s towering hedge on Rockingham Avenue. Ron Goldman's father's upturned mustache. O.J. houseguest Kato Kaelin's flowing locks. Judge Lance Ito on the bench pecking at his laptop. Robert Kardashian (the father of future TV dominatrices Kim, Khloe and Kourtney) as O.J. lawyer and hanger-on. And so many more, including O.J., of course: somber, stone-faced, always leading-man handsome.

The jury was unseen, out of camera range, but it, like the rest of Simpsonalia, was scrutinized, analyzed and argued about. And not just by the scores of on-air commentators. The Simpson case was Topic A among the watching hordes, and television welcomed their opinions. Thus was O.J. TV a forerunner of today's interactive media.

Geraldo Rivera's nightly CNBC talk show, all-consumed with the Simpson case, invited viewer call-ins. E! solicited viewers' faxes, one of which, shown on camera, advised prosecutor Marcia Clark to "take a pill and chill, or O.J. will walk."

Then on Oct. 3, 1995, the jury's shocking verdict was pronounced. Identical courtroom video was carried by ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The WB broadcast networks, and by cable channels CNBC, CNN, Court TV, E! Entertainment, ESPN and Headline News, with 91 percent of all TVs in use tuned to this bombshell.

O.J. TV came to an end with the audience deeply divided on his guilt. But there was unity on something else: Viewers wanted more and since then, have joined the media in hopefully framing each new trial (Timothy McVeigh, Scott Petersen, Casey Anthony, Oscar Pistorius) as the Trial of the Century.

Yet none has been. As tawdry, tragic melodrama, nothing has come close to O.J. TV, the first and only of its kind.

"It was a freak event in television," says Van Susteren.

Other news stories have seized society and rattled the culture. News will never lose its capacity to startle, grip and horrify its audience en masse. But such seismic TV stories as 9/11 and Katrina didn't unfold in a courtroom.

With a bland, cramped LA courtroom its main stage, O.J. TV boasted characters, theatrics and novelty ensuring its reign as the trial for the ages. To expect it to be equaled by a future trial is to imagine that, someday, four young Liverpool lads could spark another round of Beatlemania.

The fire is out within 30 minutes and no one is hurt, authorities say.

A man who fights forest fires was the first to arrive this morning at a home blaze in Washington Township, N.J., and used a tank on the rear of his "brush truck" to quickly begin the battle, a township detective said this morning.

The home, at 45 Hillcrest Ave., had significant damage to the front from a fire that appeared to start on the front porch about 6:40. No one was injured, authorities said.

"He got water on it," Detective Walter Koch said of the firefighter, whose full name Koch didn't know. Koch said the firefighter lives in the area and is a member of a local department, but works for New Jersey's forest service.

Washington Fire Chief Bob Cammarota said the firefighter "was here," but the chief wouldn't confirm the name or say anything more about it.

A neighbor, who didn't want his name used, said the man's red forest service truck was parked two doors down from the fire.

"He had a hose going out (of the truck) and was fighting the fire with it," the neighbor said.

Cammarota said firefighters had the blaze under control "pretty quickly," knocking it down in about 30 minutes. The bulk of the damage was on the front porch and the front of the home, he said.

"They did a great job," Koch said of the firefighters.

"They did a hell of a job," the neighbor agreed. "We only have 10 to 12 feet between the houses. It could have spread."

Warren County fire Marshal Joe Lake was at the home and investigating along with Koch, the detective said.

The home is owned by Stephanie Schoemaker, of that address, property records show. The neighbor said five people live in the home: a grandmother, a mother, twin boys and a girl. The name he knew the family by was Felici and online records showed a Stephanie Felici living there.

Cammarota said he did not know if smoke detectors alerted the residents, who safely got out of the home. Adjacent homes did not appear damaged, Koch and Cammarota said.

The neighbor said he didn't hear any alarms.

Two dogs were saved, Koch said.

Work was being done on the home for the past month, the neighbor said, but workers were not there early this morning.

"Who knows how long it's going to take to get it fixed," he said as he looked at the damage to the front of the home. "... It's a shame."

The home had a chimney fire about 10 years ago, the neighbor said.

Fire crews from Washington Township, Washington, Oxford Township, Mansfield Township, Franklin Township, Warren County; and High Bridge responded as we as Oxford Township EMS. The neighbor said he saw Glen Gardner and Hampton firefighters as well.

It's the second time this month.

Swimming has been banned again at Beltzville State Park in Carbon County after high bacteria counts were found a water test done Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reports.

The beach will be closed until further notice, but other activities, including boating and fishing, will continue as normal, the department said.

The popular beach was closed earlier this month for the same reason.

'I'm coming for you,' the 53-year-old allegedly said in a voicemail left with the confidential police source.

A Bushkill Township man left threatening voicemails for an individual police say has helped with Northampton County Drug Task Force investigations, according to court records.

Dean Tomsic, 53, of the 300 block of Old Allentown Road, called the confidential source twice Sunday morning in Plainfield Township, police say.

"Yo, brother you (expletive) up this time. I'm coming for you," he allegedly said in first message.

"You are one dead (expletive)," Tomsic allegedly said in the second message.

Police say the confidential source is concerned for their safety and the safety of their family because of Tomsic's mental instability.

Tomsic was arraigned Wednesday evening before on-call District Judge James Narlesky on two counts each of terroristic threats and harassment. He was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.

The delay is in removing the victim's body and separating thye two trucks, authorities say.

View full sizeThis image provided by the New Jersey Department of Transportation shows the traffic backup at 5:56 this morning following a fatal accident that closed the upper level into New York City on the George Washington Bridge. This camera is on Route 4 at the I-95 approach to the George Washington Bridge. AP Photo via New Jersey Department of Transportation

The George Washington Bridge is fully reopened more than nine hours after a fatal crash snarled traffic in New York and New Jersey.

Officials reopened one New York-bound upper lane several hours later. But the other eastbound upper-level lanes remained closed until 11:30 while officials removed the victim's body and separated the trucks.

The wreck caused a domino effect with traffic backed up for miles and for hours along alternate routes.

The 37-year-old was acquitted Tuesday during his second trial in the case. The first time the case went to trial in November it ended with a hung jury, prompting a second trial.

A Nazareth man accused of sexually assaulting two Monroe County girls was cleared of all charges following his second jury trial in the case.

Larry Franklin Derohn Jr., 37, of the first block of Mauch Chunk Street and formerly of Effort, Monroe County, faced more than 90 charges in the case that dated to 2011. When the case first went to trial, it ended Nov. 21 in a hung jury.

Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Michael Rakaczewski, who prosecuted the case, said the second trial started Monday and lasted two days. Among those who testified were family members and counselors of the minors who Derohn was accused of abusing, aged 3 and 8 at the time. Rakaczewski said the girls did not testify.

The jury returned with a not guilty verdict for every one of the charges, which included rape of a child and aggravated sexual assault of a minor.

Rakaczewski declined to comment about the verdict.

A message left with Derohn's attorney Jennifer Bathon was not immediately returned.

Police said the officer was pointing him in the direction of the restaurant when he smelled the odor of alcohol coming from him breath.

An Easton man was arrested on a nearly 14-year-old warrant after he flagged down an officer and asked for directions to McDonald's, authorities in Hunterdon County say.

Police in Readington Township said the officer was pointing Ariel Perez Jr., 32, in the direction of the Route 22 restaurant shortly before 1 a.m. June 5 when he smelled the odor of alcohol coming from Perez's breath.

Perez passed field sobriety tests, police said, but a license check revealed he had a $130 warrant for his arrest, according to a recent news release from police.

The warrant had been issued in December 2000. Police did not indicate what the charges were.

Perez was arrested but later released after posting bail.

The United Way announced the awards this evening.

The United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley today announced it's awarding $5.1 million toward 112 community investment projects.

The award announcements are the first as the nonprofit embarks on its new investment plan, which maps where United Way funding will go for the next eight years. 

The plan divvies the money amongst three community impact goals -- $3.6 million for education, $549,000 for healthy aging, $352,000 for food access -- plus $600,000 for emergency services.

After one year, recipients will be evaluated to see if they are meeting goals. If they are, the funding will be extended for another three years. 

Sixty-one nonprofits will receive funding to enact programs, such as one that boosts support for at-risk students in the Slate Belt and a food access program for senior citizens through the Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley in Bethlehem.

Hope for funding

Proposal requests for funding were almost double the available funds but those proposals aren't out of luck. If the nonprofit raises more money, those projects will be revisited.

"We have 1.5 million dollars of solutions we would have funded -- and they were good solutions -- that we could not afford to fund," said Bill Coles, a United Way board member, in an interview at the nonprofit's Allentown headquarters. "We have them on a shelf."

This investment plan represents a shift that has been many years in the making, Coles said. The United Way used to collect money and distribute it "a mile wide and an inch deep," he said. Recipients were held accountable but that method doesn't produce deep measurable change, Coles said.

The new plan allows the United Way to put its resources to the Valley's areas of greatest need and clearly spells out objectives for the partner agencies. There's a huge focus on education because if students are not reading on grade level by third grade they are more likely to drop out and face a host of issues, Coles said.

"We're in conversations with so many leaders and boots-on-the-ground workers so we can see everything that needs to happen and connect everyone," said Lenore Mohr, United Way spokeswoman.

The Hispanic Center is a major success story this year, said Marci Ronald, vice president for community impact at the United Way. The center was not selected during the last funding cycle and it became a call to action this year, she said. The center was awarded $78,000 for its food pantry, its senior center food access program and for bi-lingual case management. 

"We're very proud of them," Ronald said. "They really came in very strong."

Community schools

The United Way has identified 22 schools in the region that it hopes to turn into community schools, a model that turns schools into neighborhood hubs while connecting families with resources through a corporate and lead partner. The United Way facilitates and provides funding for the partnerships.

Three new community schools are coming online this fall, including William Penn and Paxinosa elementary schools. This year's funding cycle triples the number of students being served in priority schools, officials said.

"The only thing stopping us from going from 11 to 22 community schools is resources, seed dollars," said David Noel, chairman of the United Way board.

United Way officials are excited to welcome Diakon's Girls on the Run 5k program as partner. The program combines fitness with character building.

The Boy Scouts of America Minsi Trail Council was another winner in this funding round.

"Thanks to the valuable support provided by the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, Minsi Trails Council is able to provide quality scouting programs to over 1,200 of our area's most at-risk youth," Craig Poland, CEO of the council, said in a statement.

While there are more needs than dollars, United Way President David Lewis said so many people in the Lehigh Valley couldn't be helped without the generosity of current donors.

"It's pretty remarkable how they're giving," Lewis said.

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The point, just off Exit 1 of Interstate 80 in Hardwick Township, is a popular destination because of its proximity to the highway.

Federal park officials are cracking down on illegal parking and swimming in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area off Interstate 80 in New Jersey.

Park Superintendent John J. Donahue today announced new regulations at Kittatinny Point, just off Exit 1 of I-80 in Hardwick Township and at the southern end of the 70,000-acre national park.

Its location at the base of two mountains along the Delaware River and along the interstate makes Kittatinny Point a popular destination for visitors, park officials said in a news release this afternoon. With limited parking, the point has an intended use of providing visitor information, restroom facilities, a canoe launch and short-term picnicking.

In what the park bills as an effort to provide a more enjoyable and safer experience for park visitors, parking regulations will be strictly enforced this summer. Kittatinny Point can accommodate 140 vehicles, but rangers on busy days have counted five to six times that number -- most parked illegally along access roads and highway interchange ramps, officials said.

Illegally parked vehicles will be ticketed and towed at the expense of the owner. When the parking area is full, visitors will be directed to other locations in the park.

"The site simply was not designed for, nor can it continue to accommodate, the high numbers of visitors who flock there on weekends," Donahue says in the release.

One of the new regulations prohibits swimming at Kittatinny Point, which is neither designated for swimming nor lifeguarded. River conditions at that location include swift currents, steep drop-offs, underwater hazards and river depths of up to 30 feet just a few yards from the shore, the park said.

Since 1971, 11 people have drowned while swimming in the Delaware River at Kittatinny Point, the park said; more people have lost their lives to drowning at that location than anywhere else in the 40-mile stretch of Delaware River within the recreation area.

Visitors who come to Kittatinny Point to swim will be directed to the park's lifeguarded beaches:

• Turtle Beach, about eight miles north of Kittatinny Point on Old Mine Road in New Jersey.
• Smithfield Beach, six miles away on River Road in Pennsylvania.
• Milford Beach at the opposite end of the park outside Milford, Pa.

A vehicle ran a stop sign on Folk Road, causing the 44-year-old Northampton County man to drive a Toyota into a field, police say.

A 44-year-old Nazareth man was not hurt Thursday night when his car swerved off Hamilton Boulevard into a field in Upper Macungie Township to avoid a car that blew through a stop sign on Folk Road, township police report.

Thomas Stauffer, 44, was wearing a seat belt as he was driving a 2013 Toyota Venza south on Route 222 when the incident occurred at 8:20, police said.

Police don't have information on the other vehicle and ask anyone who has information on the accident to call 84-661-5911.

Thirteen regional rail lines serve about 126,000 passengers each weekday in the Philadelphia suburbs of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

View full sizeSEPTA commuter train service to Philadelphia's suburbs is at risk of being shut down by a strike.Matt Rourke 

Federal mediators have asked the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to meet with the two unions representing about 400 engineers and electricians.

Stephen Bruno, vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said workers will strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday if no deal is reached. He says "a chasm" separates the parties.

Thirteen regional rail lines serve about 126,000 passengers each weekday in the Philadelphia suburbs of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

Buses, trolleys and subways into Philadelphia would still operate in the event of a walkout.

If a walkout occurs, riders will be directed to the nearest non-commuter rail transit hub, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said.

A spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers did not return a call for comment Thursday.

The engineers have been working without an agreement since 2010, while the electricians' contract expired in 2009. Their negotiations with SEPTA have been supervised by federal mediators for the past four years.

The conflict came to a head this week after SEPTA announced it would impose a deal beginning Sunday. Terms include raising electrical workers' pay immediately by an average of about $3 per hour; the top wage rate for locomotive engineers would rise by $2.64 per hour.

"The contract that we've given them is fair and fiscally responsible," Williams said.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected the rest of today and into tonight before giving way to a lovely weekend, the National Weather Service says.

A workweek full of rain or the threat thereof culminated this morning with downpours that led to accidents and minor flooding in the Lehigh Valley and northwest New Jersey.

More than an inch and a quarter of rain fell since 7 Thursday night, as measured at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Hanover Township, Lehigh County. A spotter in Greenwich Township said 2.5 inches fell there and there were several examples of flooding in the Stewartsville neighborhood.

Highways and roads across the region had significant ponding this morning.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected the rest of today and into tonight before giving way to a lovely weekend, the weather service says.

He says the Sunni insurgency is plotting against American and Western interests.

The U.S. is contemplating military action in Iraq to quell the fast-moving insurgency because it has spent years investing in Iraq's future, Secretary of State John Kerry said today.

Kerry said the Sunni insurgency, which has swept to control of several cities in Iraq's west and north, is also plotting against American and Western interests.

Known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the brutal insurgency has brought Iraq back to the forefront of U.S. foreign policy as the Obama administration debates how deeply to intervene halfway around the world. President Barack Obama has touted his decision to end the war in 2011 as one of his administration's key successes.

Kerry said no decision had been made as of today  as to whether the U.S. military would help Iraq beat back the insurgency. The Iraqi government has asked for U.S. airstrikes to target terrorists, and the Obama administration is weighing whether to do so.

Kerry said a decision would be made soon.

"Iraq is a country we've had a very direct relationship with, very direct investment and engagement with, not to mention the lives of our soldiers who were lost there, providing this opportunity to them," Kerry told reporters at the end of a conference in London on combating sexual violence in conflict zones. "And I don't think anybody in the region, or in this administration, believes it is in the interest of the United States to turn our backs on that."

He said the U.S. is "laser focused" on helping Iraq.

Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in the war that began with a 2003 invasion led by the U.S., and the conflict cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

The deal could garner the city $72,000 annually and officials are hopeful for agreement with the Northampton Borough Municipal Authority, which has the legal right to provide water to the site.

Bethlehem hopes to be the water provider for the proposed FedEx megahub in Allen Township, a deal which could garner the city $72,000 annually.

The Willowbrook Road land is within the Northampton Borough Municipal Authority's service area, but Bethlehem has the better water infrastructure to service the property, said Ed Boscola, Bethlehem's water and sewer resources director.

Bethlehem has a tentative deal with Northampton where the city would get to provide water service to the FedEx complex and all other future development east of Willowbrook Road, while Northampton would service land west of the road, Boscola said.

Gerald Deily, Northampton Borough Municipal Authority's general manager, confirmed the tentative deal. Officials are working to set up a meeting for later this month to finalize the agreement, he aid.

"It was sort of agreed to but it's not formal," Deily said. "We'll work out a gentlemen's agreement I'm sure."

New York-based The Rockefeller Group is seeking to open a 1.1-million-square-foot FedEx Ground distribution facility on 253 acres along Willowbrook Road. The developer also has an option to buy another 281 acres in the area.

The Rockefeller Group is in need of 50,000 gallons of water a day for both properties, Boscola said. That amount of water would bring Bethlehem about $72,000 a year, he said.

Bethlehem officials say they have the better end of the deal with Northampton because much of the future development in the area is expected to be east of Willowbrook Road, Boscola said. He presented the plan Thursday to the Bethlehem Authority, which oversees the city's watershed lands.

Bethlehem will need approval from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to service the area, but it's usually a smooth process if the competing water servers agree, Boscola said.

Bethlehem also recently applied for PUC approval to provide water to four new warehouses in ProLogis Park 33 in Lower Nazareth Township. That land is within Easton Suburban Water Authority's territory but Bethlehem, again, has better-suited infrastructure to service the site, Boscola said.

Bethlehem obtained an agreement from Easton Suburban on servicing the property, Boscola said. The four warehouses are expected to need 20,000 gallons of water a day, which would bring Bethlehem about $30,000 in annual revenue.