The Morning Call Podcast

Michael Davis' murder had nothing to do with who Michael was, but where he worked: a Verizon store in Forks Township.

We covered the case and the trial that sent his killers to prison for life.

In this episode, we learn who Michael Davis was.

Special thanks to Russ and Noreen for sharing his story. Morning Call reporter Riley Yates and Assistant District Attorney Patty Mulqueen recount the details of the investigation.

The Morning Call Podcast is a production of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Kayla Dwyer is the host and producer.

Jonathan Wallace was up atop the blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel plant for more than 21 hours, risking his own life and that of the first responders who ascended the hazardous hunks of metal to try to get him down.

But authorities say he has a history of serious mental health issues, and suspect that they had a lot to do with the nearly day-long ordeal.

If that’s the case, what’s the appropriate punishment?

On The Morning Call Podcast this week, we explain what crisis negotiators did to get him down. Then, we look at what prosecutors are considering for his fate: mental health court.

The Morning Call Podcast is a production of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Kayla Dwyer is the host and producer.

Reporter Riley Yates contributed to production.

Four years ago this week, FBI agents swarmed Allentown City Hall for documents related to a then-unknown investigation into the city’s mayor, Ed Pawlowski. Today, Pawlowski is serving a 15-year prison sentence for federal corruption crimes.

The lead investigator on the case, Scott Curtis, used to investigate mafia bosses in New York City. He rounded out his career with the Allentown corruption case.

This week on the podcast, guest host Emily Opilo's interview with Curtis on the snags the case hit, the sheer manpower involved with making thousands of secret recordings, and how dangerously close the case was to being outed.

Emily Opilo is The Morning Call's former Allentown City Hall reporter. Now she is on the investigations team.

Donating a kidney is a life-preserving procedure. Donating a uterus is a whole different story.

On this week's episode, health reporter Binghui Huang explains why one local woman decided she wanted to go through this procedure to give another woman the ability to become pregnant. Plus, is there a potential for this to become as mainstream as in-vitro fertilization?

The Morning Call Podcast is a production of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Kayla Dwyer is the host and producer.

One of the Lehigh Valley's last known D-Day veterans arrived at Omaha Beach 75 years ago to find it covered with rows of bodies.

Despite the carnage, he remembers most distinctly the human moments that occurred before and after, even with the Germans he fought against.

For most of his adult life, Kenneth Happel didn't talk about these stories.

The Morning Call Podcast is a production of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Kayla Dwyer is the host and producer.

Is it just another fad, or America’s next favorite drinking game?

For a game involving very sharp objects, axe throwing has a remarkable safety record. Even when paired with alcohol.

Lately you’ve been seeing them pop up around the country. Where did it all begin? The answers on this week’s podcast.

Guests:

Kelly and Stuart Josberger -- Stumpy’s Hatchet House

James Belisle -- Betty Borden’s House of Whacks

Bob Shupp, Ryan Savage, Chuck Makatura -- Skeggy’s Axe House

"I root for games to end quickly enough so I can make deadline, and I root for a good story. I don’t care who wins."

Banquets and halls of fame inductions are usually reserved for athletes and coaches. In April, about 250 members of the Lehigh Valley sports community packed a DeSales University hall to honor two journalists that have covered them for decades: Morning Call sports columnist Keith Groller, and Paul Reinhard, former sports editor who still freelances for The Morning Call.

Though Keith has covered the Eagles and the Sixers and the Indy 500, his heart remains with high school varsity sports.

On the podcast this week, he tells us why. (He's not retiring.)

The Morning Call Podcast is a production of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Kayla Dwyer is the host and producer.

Picture the Manhattan treatment -- doormen, lobbies of marble, elevator operators -- and take out the bustling surrounding metro.

Martin Tower, the former headquarters of Bethlehem Steel, was a scene plucked from an urban downtown and plopped into the flat suburbia of West Bethlehem. Or it was a giant symbol of corporate culture's "inward thinking" and the "deindustrialization of America."

Now it’s a hollow shell, soon to be reduced to rubble.

From start to finish, we remember the history of Martin Tower, including memories from a former chairman and a former employee.

Special guests:

Curtis “Hank” Barnette, former chairman and CEO of Bethlehem Steel

Marian Hough, former administrative assistant

Alicia Karner, director, Community and Economic Development in Bethlehem

Nicole Mertz, Bethlehem City Hall reporter, The Morning Call

A policy that would allow teachers to volunteer to carry guns at Tamaqua Area School District was approved quietly by the school board, then garnered a loud community reaction. There were two lawsuits, and the school board suspended the policy pending the outcome of lower court decisions.

Just as quietly, the policy is back on, by the interpretation of the school board president in the public comment section of a school-board meeting.

Reporter Sarah Wojcik explains.

The Morning Call Podcast is a production of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Kayla Dwyer is the host and producer.

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman has been stopping in every county to field public feedback on the possibility of legalizing recreational marijuana in the state. His "listening tour" is expected to wrap up in May.

But while recreational marijuana remains criminal in the state, what happens when local municipalities try to decriminalize it?

We explored this question when the Lehigh Valley's three cities had such proposals on the table last year. This episode originally ran May 7, 2018.

Guests: Emily Opilo, former Allentown City Hall reporter for The Morning Call; Joshua Vaughn, cops and courts reporter at The Sentinel, a newspaper in Cumberland County that partially covers Harrisburg; and Jeff Riedy, executive director of the Lehigh Valley chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.