Phil Gianficaro

Pennsylvania

Journalist at LehighValleyNews.com

Reporter at https://t.co/Jq97V8qFQx. Former award-winning columnist for USA Today Networks. Have a [email protected]

Articles

'A couple of weeks': Couple charged with starving teen sons ordered to face trial

1 week ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Had the boys remained at home in that environment, they would likely have died. That was the testimony of two pediatricians from Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital on Wednesday at a preliminary hearing for a Lower Macungie Township couple charged with conspiracy to commit murder by trying to starve their twin teenage boys. Dr. Kristen Predergast and Dr. Lindsey Kudenchak testified before District Judge Michael J.
Catasauqua-Northampton Thanksgiving Day football game to go on

1 week ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

CATASAUQUA, Pa. — The Catasauqua-Northampton Thanksgiving Day football game lives on. The Catasauqua Area School Board on Tuesday night voted 6-2 (with one board member absent) to continue the school’s annual football game against neighboring Northampton Area in a meeting at Sheckler Elementary School.
Whitehall Township retirement community expansion hits roadblock

1 week ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — A retirement community’s plans to construct 24 luxury apartments over three buildings on its 67-acre campus has hit a roadblock. That roadblock: Funding. The township board of commissioners at a workshop session Monday agreed to consider a request by Fellowship Community to complete the expansion along Mauch Chunk Road and Schadt Avenue in three phases instead of one, as originally proposed.
Emmaus grid star to get shot at Ravens camp

1 week ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

EMMAUS, Pa. — The visual would be deceiving: A young man driving alone with no cargo except his luggage and his dreams. But in the heart and soul of Sone Ntoh, his trip to Baltimore Ravens’ rookie training camp Friday is one crowded ride. As Ntoh, a former Emmaus High and Monmouth University star running back made his way to Owings Mills, Maryland — with a stop at Harvard in between — he did so thanking more people than he could almost mention.
Three-building apartment expansion planned for Whitehall retirement community

1 week ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

WHITEHALL TWP, Pa. — A Whitehall faith-based continuing-care retirement community has announced plans to build three luxury apartment buildings on its 67-acre campus. Fellowship Community announced on Friday its expansion plans for Mauch Chunk Road and Schadt Avenue. Each of the buildings at The Suites at Fellowship Community would include 24 apartments ranging in size from 1,050 to 1,450 square feet and featuring smart home technology.
Trump order to cut PBS, NPR funding to have impacts in Lehigh Valley

1 week ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro |Jim Deegan

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — An executive order by President Donald Trump to halt federal funding to PBS and NPR will have an impact on the Lehigh Valley. But Lehigh Valley Public Media Interim CEO Laks Srinivasan said the public media organization will go on. “We’re not going anywhere,” Srinivasan said Friday. “This will impact the things we’re doing. But we want the community to know we will continue to deliver news and content.
'I'm set in my job': Apprenticeship awards given at Northampton Community College event

2 weeks ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — As a senior at Allentown's Dieruff High School, Melody Rodriguez-Ventura would often find her career dreams zooming across the sky. Future destinations beckoned: New York, London, Paris, Munich, so how could she possibly refuse it? Yet she did. But today, while a vocation as a commercial airline pilot never left the runway, her career is soaring above the clouds as an electrician.
Residents oppose proposed property tax hike in Whitehall-Coplay School District

2 weeks ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

WHITEHALL, Pa. — On a night when Whitehall-Coplay School Board unanimously approved the district’s $103 million budget for 2025-26, some taxpayers held tight their wallets and pocketbooks. But not their tongues. Board members told angry residents at Monday’s meeting the 5.3% property tax increase is merely a working figure that allows the board to proceed with the work of finalizing the budget.
'Damning of what we are:' Proposed budget cuts endanger youth mental health, officials say

2 weeks ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — State Rep. Mike Schlossberg was in a place Friday that he cared not to be. Schlossberg, who has personally experienced devastating mental health challenges as a youth, stood at a podium at Valley Youth House and spoke his truth about proposed federal budget cuts that would cripple intervention services for at-risk children in the Lehigh Valley. "We’ve been in a mental health crisis for a number of years and it’s getting worse. We’re at a crisis point and can’t hope to backfill it.
PGA Tour Champions event coming to Lehigh Country Club

2 weeks ago | lehighvalleynews.com | Phil Gianficaro

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A new professional golf tournament will be held annually at Lehigh Country Club in Allentown, it was announced Thursday. Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic will debut on the PGA Champions tour schedule in fall 2026 and be held at least the next five years, sponsor Jefferson Health and PGA officials said at a news conference. Jefferson and PGA Champions said they have signed a five-year partnership to hold the new tournament. Lehigh Country Club has never held a PGA event.