Mummers parade goes on as planned despite cold

PHILADELPHIA » Thousands of marchers are braving bone-chilling temperatures and wind chills as they take part in the annual Mummers Parade in Philadelphia.

Organizers had considered postponing the event due to concerns over the weather conditions.

But they voted Saturday to go ahead with the parade that features performers dressed in colorful costumes adorned with sequins and feathers marching down the city’s main northsouth thoroughfare.

Temperatures were in the single digits when the parade started Monday. Concerns had been raised that the bone-chilling temperatures could be dangerous for parade participants and some instruments used by string bands that march in the event.

Heating tents and warm buses have been set up along the route for the Mummers.

Authorities: Overdosing driver hits home, injures man inside

BRISTOL, PA. » Authorities say a driver who apparently overdosed crashed into a Pennsylvania home and injured a man inside.

The crash in in Levittown occurred around 6 p.m. Sunday.

Authorities say the driver was unconscious when he left the road, hit a tree stump and went airborne, crashing into a fence and then through the home’s back sliding glass doors.

A man in the home was sitting near the doorway when one of the glass doors hit him in the head. He was treated at a hospital for a serious head laceration.

Authorities say the family’s yellow Labrador retriever got out of the house during the chaos and was struck and killed by another car.

The driver who struck the home was treated at a hospital. Charges against him are pending.

Police: Shooting at home leaves 1 dead, 1 critically wounded

ALLENTOWN, PA. » A New Year’s Day shooting at an Allentown home has left one man dead and another wounded.

Police found the two victims at the Turner Street home around 12:40 a.m. Monday. One man was found inside the home while the other one was discovered outside.

The pair were both taken to a hospital, but one man was pronounced dead there a short time later. The second was hospitalized in critical condition.

The names of the two men have not been disclosed. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation.