January 20, 2026 4:46 am
South Strabane Township Supervisors held a three hour budget workshop that was witnessed by a residents, employees and community volunteers that filled their council chambers. Supervisors reopened their 2026 budget and went line by line with public works, police, fire and administration department heads to search out ways to weed out excessive spending. The current budget is set at $8.772 million. Revenues exceed expenses by $34,000. The session was not one where hacksaws were taken to each department budget. Thoughtful discussion was held between supervisors and department heads to justify spending or to agree to offer additional methods of budget savings. Newly elected supervisor Zack Morgan manned the computer making calculations, and on several occasions suggested increases to some line items if he thought they were needed. In all, supervisors are confident that they will accomplish their goal of decreasing township spending and establishing proper procedures for spending and establishing concrete reasons for spending. Department heads were pleased that supervisors took their needs into account. Not all were happy. Parks and Recreation Director Michelle Wrubleski was unable to get a final determination if her all volunteer department will be funded. Supervisors will further study that allocation. A final budget meeting will be held on Thursday January 22. Supervisors must approve any changes to the budget by February 15.
January 20, 2026 5:10 am
There is a battle within the Republican party between the State GOP party and the Washington County group. Last week, the County party voted 21-3 on a ‘no confidence’ vote for State Senator Camera Bartolotta. State party Chairman Greg Rothman, however, dubbed the move ‘null and void’. In a release provided to WJPA News, the County party says its executive committee exercised its lawful authority to express a political position on behalf of its membership. Bartolotta has announced her candidacy for a fourth term and will face a primary challenge by Al Buchtan. The County party recently posted that Bartolotta undermined President Trump during his re-election campaign in regards to Charleroi’s Haitan immigrant population. They also claimed that Bartolotta co-sponsored and helped push through Pennsylvania’s election reform bill that expanded the use of mail-in ballots which the County party claims “damaged the integrity of our elections”. Bartolotta told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the County party is “this tiny little group of people who are in an echo chamber” and are “anti-everything”. She called the developments “nonsense” and a “distraction from the party’s intent”.
January 20, 2026 2:42 am
In the wake of this extreme cold snap, some Warming Centers across Washington County will be open and operating for the next few days. Washington County Emergency Management officials say they have been notified that various senior centers around the county will be open along with warming centers in fire departments in Cecil Township, Bentleyville, Charleroi, Denbo and Richeyville.
January 20, 2026 5:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — On the anniversary of his inauguration, President Donald Trump is heading to the World Economic Forum in Davos, an annual gathering of the global elite. He plans to use a key address there Wednesday to lay out his plans to make housing more affordable. The Swiss mountain town, where ski chalets go for $4.4 million, is a strange backdrop for the speech. But Trump — who has spent a lot of time surrounded by billionaires during his first year back in the White House — is counting on wealthy business leaders to create economic growth. However, headlines about Trump’s push to acquire Greenland threaten to overshadow his proposals.
January 20, 2026 5:16 am
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has slammed Europe’s response to U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Newsom told Europeans to stand up to Trump for the U.S. president’s tariff threats over support of Greenland.
January 20, 2026 5:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has refused to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing a new policy requiring members of Congress to give a week’s notice before they can visit immigration detention facilities. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb concluded that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t violate an earlier court order when it reimposed a seven-day notice requirement for congressional oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. Cobb said she wasn’t ruling on whether the new policy passes legal muster. Rather, she said, plaintiffs’ attorneys representing several Democratic members of Congress used the wrong procedural vehicle to challenge it.
January 20, 2026 5:14 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Federal immigration agents have detained a U.S. citizen in Minnesota at gunpoint without a warrant. That’s according to ChongLy “Scott” Thao, who says agents forced open his door, entered with guns drawn and led him outside in his underwear in freezing conditions. The detention is part of a larger surge of federal agents in the Twin Cities, leading to backlash over warrantless arrests and aggressive tactics. The Department of Homeland Security says the operation targeted two sex offenders. Thao disputes this, saying he lives with his family, none of whom are listed as offenders. Thao plans to file a civil rights lawsuit.
January 20, 2026 5:18 am
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Parliament has begun debating new anti-hate speech and gun laws after two shooters killed 15 people at a Jewish festival in Sydney last month. The proposed laws would restrict gun ownership and introduce a government-funded buyback scheme. Anti-hate speech laws would also target groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the alleged gunmen, Sajid Akram and his son Naveed, would not have had guns under the new laws. Parliament is expected to pass the legislation by Wednesday. The states of Tasmania and Queensland and the Northern Territory are resisting the federal push for a new gun buyback.
January 19, 2026 5:42 pm
HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (AP) — More than 100 vehicles smashed into each other or slid off the interstate in Michigan as snow fueled by the Great Lakes blanketed the state. The massive pileup Monday prompted the Michigan State Police to close both directions of Interstate 196 just southwest of Grand Rapids. The State Police say there were numerous injuries but no deaths reported. The crash is just the latest impact of the major winter storm moving across the country. The National Weather Service issued warnings about either extremely cold temperatures or the potential for winter storms across several states.
January 19, 2026 10:33 am
(AP) – U.S. Donald Trump has linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last year’s decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, telling Norway’s prime minister that he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace.” That’s according to two European officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump’s message to Jonas Gahr Støre appears to ratchet up a standoff between Washington and its closest allies over his threats to take over Greenland. But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer sought to de-escalate tensions on Monday.
