When the school year begins at Easton Area High School this month, it will be the first time students are under what's known as "flexible scheduling." Approved by the school board in February, the schedule switches the typical school day from nine 41-minute periods to five 80-minute periods.  The schedule would include a mix of classes that meet 90 days out of every semester, and those that would meet every other day. School officials have said it will allow students more time to put what they've learned into practice. But the new scheduling has caused some administrative hiccups at the …

Easton police arrested 32 people at a large drinking party near Lafayete College's campus over the weekend. Police Chief Carl Scalzo told the Express-Times that the number seemed higher than usual for the weekend of the Lafayette's end-of-semester All-College Day. Of the arrests, 11 of them were for underage drinking. These arrests occurred on the same day that Lafayette freshman Everett Glenn died after being found unresponsive. Glenn's mother has said her son died as a result of drinking alcohol, although that hasn't been confirmed by authorities. "He did sound like he had been drinking," …

In the 14 months since we launched, we've profiled quite a few new businesses in and around Easton. And we've written a lot about existing Downtown landmarks and other merchants and restaurants. But sometimes I think there are under-the-radar businesses that we miss. They're not highly visible, or they don't draw in tourist traffic. I began thinking about it this morning during my regular YouTube search for Easton related videos, which turned up a clip about Hal's Vacuum Cleaner shop in Wilson. So I'll put the question to our readers: What are some other local businesses that have been sort …

There's been a number of stories this year about efforts in the city to improve blighted properties. The city put out a most wanted list earlier this year of properties it wants to see fixed.  We've written about the Easton Redevelopment Authority's efforts to rehab homes in the West Ward. And the Express-Times reported today on a similar program by the Lehigh Valley Community Land Trust, which is also renovating homes in the West Ward, one at 1201 Bushkill Street, the other at 31 N. 9th St. So we're asking you: Are there homes in your neighborhood that can benefit from this sort of program? …

As I write this, we're a little less than a month away from a pretty somber anniversary. This year will mark 10 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and we're looking to tell the stories of how that event affected you. We're not necessarily looking for stories about that day -- although we certainly want to hear those -- but its fallout as well. As my boss put it, it can be "anyone who's been deployed or had a family member deployed, who's switched political parties, started volunteering, stopped driving an SUV, marched in a rally, or felt profiled." In the next few weeks, we'll …

Earlier this week, the city announced what amounted to a "Most Wanted" list for vacant and neglected -- in other words, blighted --  properties. Some of them are more visible, like the Armory building on Northampton Street, and the massive Stewart Silk Mill on the South Side. (If you look it up on Google Earth, you can see that the building is basically a shell.) We posted a list of all the properties the city is looking at on Thursday, complete with pictures, as well as a map of the top seven on the list. But it got me thinking: are there other properties people want to see cleaned up? That'…