Free Republic

HAZELTON — The West Virginia Department of Transportation has entered into a consent order with the state Department of Environmental Protection for violations of the water pollution control permit at the Interstate 68 Welcome Center near Hazelton. The order, signed March 10 by Division of Highways District 4 Engineer/Manager Michael Cronin, calls for the DOT to pay up to a total of $75,175 in civil administrative penalties and to hook onto the public sewer system, eliminating the treatment facility at the welcome center. Half the penalty, $37,587.50, is to be paid to the DEP within 30 days of the effective...

A man from Sugarloaf Township charged with fleeing the scene after striking a construction worker who died on Interstate-81 waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday. Zachary Gerbino, 27, appeared before District Judge James M. Dixon where he waived charges of accidents involving death and tampering or fabricating evidence to Luzerne County Court. Gerbino remains free on $25,000 bail. State police at Hazleton allege Gerbino was traveling north in a 2005 Hyundai Accent on I-81 when he struck Kevin DenDulk, 30, of Royersford, Montgomery County, at about 1:15 a.m. on Aug. 1. DunDulk was part of a construction crew...

Health professionals say the majority of Luzerne county's coronavirus cases are in the Hazleton area and the numbers are growing quickly. The mayor of Hazleton will enact a curfew for residents on Saturday at 8PM along with other rules that will be enforced by police. Luzerne County has asked the governor to send in the National Guard...there are many factors that led to Hazleton being a hot spot for COVID-19... ...Hazleton is really going to be ground zero for this... Rep. Toohil says there are many factors that may have led to this including commuters to New York and New...

WILKES-BARRE — As soon as Hector Berberena-Soto explained it was a “mistake” he sexually assaulted two girls, a stern Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough directed him to stop talking. Berberena-Soto was sentenced Thursday to spend between four years, six months and 14 years in state prison. “See it was a mistake,” Berberena-Soto said before he was shut down by Vough. “It was a mistake sexually assaulting two girls? Stop!” Vough said before handing down the lengthy prison sentence. Hazleton police arrested Berberena-Soto in August 2017 after investigating claims he had sexually assaulted the girls for six years. The youths...

HAZLETON, Pa. — Federal authorities suspect a man accused of having threatened President Donald Trump and other officials may have stolen a truck overnight from the same northeastern Pennsylvania business he is believed to have burglarized earlier this month. U.S. Marshals, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service have been searching for 27-year-old Shawn Christy of McAdoo for more than two months, saying he has threatened to use “full lethal force on any law enforcement officer that tries to detain me.” ~snip~ The Maple Shade, New Jersey native’s parents said Thursday that Christy sent a Facebook message to them saying...

As you depart Manhattan on the George Washington Bridge, a brief interval on I-95 takes you to Exit 69 for I-80, the access point to New Jersey’s third-largest city, Paterson, and ultimately to the Delaware Water Gap, a geologically arresting gateway to Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Following Pennsylvania’s toll bridge, you’ll pass billboards for resorts, outlet stores, and chain restaurants along a highway lined by hemlocks, mountain laurel, and birch trees. Westward, all road signs direct drivers toward Hazleton, a small city located near the crossroads of I-80 and I-81, one of the East Coast’s busiest intersections for truck traffic.

As soon as Aida Gell moved here in 2006 with her two young sons, she wondered if she had made a mistake. Born in the Dominican Republic, she had immigrated in 1987 to Westchester County, N.Y., where she drove a bus. But this old coal city had housing she could afford and a growing Latino presence. --snip-- The population of this Luzerne County city has held steady at about 25,000. But the Latino portion has surged from 4.9 percent in 2000 to about 46 percent today. A veteran police official estimated 10 percent are undocumented. What happened here?

George Irizarry will get his guns back. The Hazleton man known for wearing a gun on his hip to demonstrate his Second Amendment rights had all charges dismissed stemming from a Feb. 3 incident in which he drew a gun on a man walking through yards near his home on West Maple Street. After dismissing the charges following a preliminary hearing Friday afternoon, Magisterial District Judge James Dixon instructed police to return weapons Irizarry surrendered under Dixon's order in July. Michael Andrejco testified he had walked between homes and reached a sidewalk on West Maple Street when Irizarry put a...

HAZLETON, Pa. – A mayor whose get-tough policies on illegal immigrants attracted national attention years before the immigration debate shifted to Arizona resigned Tuesday to take a job in Congress.

Two men and a woman who identified themselves as members of the Democratic National Committee were asked to leave an election poll in the City of Hazleton on Tuesday. Eileen Whitaker, the election judge in Ward 8, which has its polling place in Hazleton City Hall, said the men, one of whom identified himself as Edmund F. Brown, were escorted out when they told poll workers they didn't reside or vote in Hazleton. Whitaker said Brown appeared at the poll as it opened at 7 a.m., but became a nuisance. "He was obnoxious, but a nice obnoxious," Whitaker said. "He...

. . . . . Looks like show producer Dave Logan did all the heavy lifting to let everyone know about tonight's radio program! Lou Barletta, mayor of Hazleton, Pa, will be Andrea's guest this evening. Mayor Barletta is running for congress in PA's 11 district and is up against a 13-term incumbent. The latest polling shows Barletta leading his opponent.Mayor Barletta rocketed to national fame with his strong stance on illegal immigrants in the city of Hazleton; a stance that brought with it attacks from all sides. Today, illegal immigration is just one of the important issues that must...

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Hazleton, Pa., may not enforce its crackdown on illegal immigrants, dealing another blow to 4-year-old regulations that inspired similar measures around the country. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said that Hazleton's Illegal Immigration Relief Act usurped the federal government's exclusive power to regulate immigration. "It is … not our job to sit in judgment of whether state and local frustration about federal immigration policy is warranted. We are, however, required to intervene when states and localities directly undermine the federal objectives embodied in statutes enacted by Congress," wrote Chief...

While the national debate over illegal immigration plays out in Arizona, lawyers across the country are still waiting for a federal appeals court decision on a lower court ruling that invalidated Hazleton's immigration law. Today is the third anniversary of the ruling by U.S. District Judge James M. Munley that grabbed national attention in finding the Luzerne County city's immigration law was unconstitutional. Lawyers in the case say they have no idea when the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will rule. The case grew out of Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta's attempt to clamp down on illegal immigration through a...

A Hazleton doctor is resigning from the medical staff of St. Luke's Miners' Memorial Hospital, Coaldale. Dr. Frank C. Polidora, a longtime Hazleton orthopedic surgeon, blames the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March for his decision. He has been on the hospital's staff since 2003. "The Democrats' 'passage' of OBAMACARE on March 21, 2010, was the final straw," Polidora wrote in his resignation letter to William Crossin, chief executive officer of St. Luke's-Miners. The resignation is effective Saturday. Contacted Thursday, Polidora said his decision to leave had nothing to do with the hospital, a facility...

Citing tough economic times and a lack of funding, Planned Parenthood of Northeast and Mid-Penn closed its Hazleton office Friday and will now look to pool resources with its larger office in Wilkes-Barre. ...Planned Parenthood served women in the Hazleton community for nearly 30 years, offering numerous services including Pap smears, breast exams, pregnancy tests, STD tests, birth control and emergency contraception. "The decision to close is a difficult one, and one that we regret having to make," President and CEO Kim Custer said in a press release. "As a result of inadequate funding for the services provided, Planned Parenthood...

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta who is seeking a rematch with Democratic incumbent Paul Kanjorski to represent the 11th District of Pennsylvania in Congress has endorsed Tom Corbett for governor. Corbett is getting a tenacious battle in the GOP primary from underdog Sam Rohrer, who represents the 128th District in the State House.

The Republican aiming to derail Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta's latest run for Congress is a recently converted Democrat who contributed to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign last year. Christopher Paige registered in Monroe County as a Democrat in September 2006 and did not switch to the Republican Party until March 30, 2009, according to county records. All told, he contributed almost $5,000 to state and federal Democratic candidates since 2004, according to a review of records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics and the Pennsylvania Department of State. Mr. Paige contributed $2,300 to Mrs. Clinton's campaign last year; $250 to...

Area Hispanics are observing a milestone with the arrival of National Hispanic Heritage Week next week: Luzerne County tops the nation for Hispanic population growth over the past year. Among counties with Hispanic populations higher than 10,000, Luzerne County saw the greatest percentage increase in Hispanics between July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Hispanic population here leapt 15 percent – from 12,083 to 13,912. As for actual growth in population size, the county ranks in the nation’s top 6 percent with an increase of 1,829 Hispanics. Los Angeles County saw the largest...

BLOOMSBURG (PA)— A man mistakenly jailed for three months says his imprisonment was a blessing because it resulted in a $77,500 lawsuit settlement. Eric Delvonne Smith, 36, of Hazleton, was arrested in January 2006 after he called police to witness him picking up two of his sons from their mother’s house. He was in a custody battle with the boys’ mother. An officer arrived and ran Smith’s name and date of birth through a federal database of criminals, then arrested him on a warrant issued in King County, Wash., for Edgar Michael Smith, the Press Enterprise of Bloomsburg reported Sunday....

SCRANTON, Pa. -- During the Republican primaries, John McCain delicately balanced his record of pushing for immigration reform with satisfying his party's new appetite for harsher restrictions. Now in a general election against an opponent who broadly shares his views on the issue, McCain is showing greater ease asserting his distance from the anti-immigration right.