May 1, 2019
Church arson suspect arrested
Police
arrested a man allegedly responsible for two fires at a Pembroke Road church
last week. Forty-three-year-old Wilmer J. Ortiz Torres of West Chew Street in
Allentown, arrested Friday, is a former member of the Iglesia Pentecostal de
Bethlehem (Pentecostal Church of Bethlehem) and faces charges of trespassing,
burglary and arson. Photo: Pastor Carmen L. Cruz says the church is
fully paid off and they do have insurance. She expects the rebuilding process
could take two to three months, but additional help has been arranged by
parishioners using a fundraising site, gofundme.com/iglesia-pentecostal-de-bethlehem.
By Nate Jastrzemski
‘Walk a mile in her shoes’
Penn State
Lehigh Valley’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event kicked off on April 16. This was
the fifth annual walk hosted by the campus’s RISE club, a national organization
with the mission to “rise up against sexual violence, abuse, trafficking, and
exploitation in the community, through awareness prevention, action and
aftercare.” Photo: The organziation’s iconic red heels were worn by all who
participated in the Walk a Mile event.
By Alli Poczak
Judge Zito stepping down
It’s hard to think of anyone more closely connected to Northampton
County government than Leonard Zito has been since he first began practicing
law in 1971. As a lawyer in Bangor, his hard-hitting style attracted attention
from both the public and other lawyers. For many years, he was the man to see
if you were from the Slate Belt and had a problem. He’s been chief public
defender, county council’s solicitor and was both appointed and then
overwhelmingly elected as judge. On the bench, he quickly reorganized criminal
court and developed a reputation as the hardest-working judge in the Lehigh
Valley. But if you talk to him, he still considers himself an “outlier” from
Roseto. “We came from nothing,” he said, but is very proud of the “fierce
independence” of the Slate Belt, and Roseto, in particular. Photo: Judge Leonard Zito in the “boiler
room” with secretary Anne Goetz.
By Bernie O’Hare
CLASSROOM
Fukashima documentary
Forty years ago, on March 28, 1979, there was a partial meltdown of the
Unit 2 core at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor on the Susquehanna River
south of Harrisburg. Advances in
scientific assessments over the four decades have confirmed that 50 percent of
the core had been destroyed, and ionized radiation was released as steam into
the atmosphere. The “but” in this, however, is that experts from the federal
government and the nuclear industry have remained steadfast in their assessment
that the exposure levels of 100 millirems of radiation from TMI were far below
the average annual rate of 620 millirems of radiation that most people are
exposed to from x-rays, medical treatments and flying in commercial airplanes.
Photo: 2018 Charter
Arts graduate David Jerry demonstrates some of the technical methods used by
his fellow students to produce “The Fukushima Legacy.” The students worked
under the direction of broadcast production teacher Damian Righi, seen here
with Jerry.
By Carole Gorney
BC closes in on play-off berth
While Liberty may be on cruise control heading into the final two
weeks of the baseball regular season, Bethlehem Catholic will be fighting for
every last drop with four games left on the calendar. The Golden Hawks (8-7)
squeezed out a 5-4 win over Dieruff on Saturday afternoon, scoring a bottom of
the seventh inning victory off a Nate Petke RBI double to push them a game over
the .500 mark. The win also increased their chances of solidifying themselves
as a District 11 4A playoff qualifier and kept them sneaking around the eighth
and final playoff spot in the East Penn Conference standings.
By Peter
Car
Car
Polka rocks on
The Alex Meixner Band performs a celebration of the “Roots of the Lehigh
Valley,” 7:30 p.m. May 7, Rodale Community Room, Miller Symphony Hall,
Allentown. The
multi-talented Meixner, a Lehigh Valley native, literally learned music at his
father’s knee. He represents the fourth
generation of the Meixner family in the music business. Starting piano at age
three, he made his stage debut in his father’s band at age six playing the
accordion. There followed multiple gigs on multiple instruments: drums, bass,
keyboards, piano, accordion and trumpet.
Then he was off to Ithaca College.
By George Van Doren
OTHER STORIES
Bethlehem: Candidate address local issues in NAACP forum
Bethlehem: New members join HARB
Lehigh County: Former coroner Grimm honored
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