WJPA News

The vast majority of people were pleased to hear that the Washington County Commissioners struck a deal to demolish the Washington Mall with funds from their Blight Mitigation and Demolition Fund. However, some residents asked why county tax dollars were being used. Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman clarified where the money came from to set up the fund. According to Sherman, the fund was seeded by $13 million of the $98 million the county received in American Rescue Plan Act funding. He called it a textbook example of what the blight mitigation program is designed for. He said the county is pleased to be able to develop shovel ready pads for developers to build on. Those projects will bring in well paying construction jobs that will then develop long lasting jobs once the projects have been completed. Sherman said there is no Tax Increment Financing or TIF funding program involved with development. He said that the economic development derived from the demolition of the mall will more than recoup any funds spent by the county for the work. Demolition is expected to begin in the spring.

Students in the Charleroi Area School District will be home tomorrow – thanks to the Flu.  District officials say that due to a continued and rapid increase in student, teacher, and district support staff absences caused by Influenza A (Type A) and Strep illnesses, the Charleroi Area School District will pivot to remote learning on Friday, February 21st.  Officials say the decision has been made in consultation with district administrators and school nurses, with the well-being of the school community being their top priority.  As a result, students will attend classes following their remote learning school schedule. Teachers will provide instruction and assignments through the online learning Google Classroom platform, all after-school extracurricular activities scheduled for Friday though, will proceed as scheduled, and district offices will remain open, and there will be limited staff availability to assist with any urgent needs.

Citing his more than thirty-five-years in local and federal law enforcement, Charles A. “Chuckie” Tenny has announced his candidacy for Magisterial District Judge for the communities of Canonsburg Borough, Houston Borough and North Strabane Township.  The fifty-five-year-old says he plans to cross file for both the Democratic and Republican ballots in the upcoming May 20th Primary.  Tenny is a native of Canonsburg who started his career as a police  officer for both North Strabane Township and East Washington Borough.  Tenny has been with the Canonsburg Police Department as a detective Sergeant for Narcotics and Intelligence as well as a task force officer for the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Canon-McMillan School District has announced the appointment of Krystal Lorenzato as its new School Board Director filling in Bernard Price’s position. President Liz Gump states that the board welcomes the incoming school board director and intends to cooperate with them. According to Lorenzato, as a parent, she has wanted to engage with the board since COVID-19 began, wanting her voice to be heard alongside other parents who want to get involved. Krystal Lorenzato intends to focus on continuing the improvement of educational experiences, with the district focusing on graduation presentations as part of its five-year plan. As part of this plan, Lorenzato intends to expand the job shadowing program for students. Lorenzato’s term runs through December 1. In other board activity, the 2025-2025 school calendar was adopted. Under the newly approved calendar, school will begin on August 21 and end on June 5. Students will also see winter break from December 22 to January 2.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators pushed a $340 billion budget framework to passage over Democratic objections after a nearly all-night vote. The early Friday vote was a key step toward providing money the Trump administration says it needs funds for mass deportations and security measures that top the Republican agenda. Senators chugged through the “vote-a-rama” considering dozens of amendments before the package was approved on a largely party-line vote. But it still needs to be merged with one from the House. House Republicans are preparing President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that includes some $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and up to $2 trillion less spending. With Republicans in control of Congress, they are using the budget process to advance Trump’s agenda.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Experts say the layoffs of roughly 7,000 IRS probationary workers likely mean the end of the agency’s plans to go after high-wealth tax dodgers and could spell disaster for revenue collections. The majority of employees shown the door at the federal tax collector this week are newly hired workers focused on ensuring taxpayers are following the tax code and paying debts. But Thursday’s layoffs upend previous efforts to collect from high-income tax cheats and cut off a revenue generating stream at a time when Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is trying to shrink the size of the federal workforce to cut spending and restructure the government’s priorities.

A federal judge is refusing to temporarily block the Trump administration’s mass layoff of federal workers while a lawsuit brought by five unions moves forward. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found the unions must bring their claims under federal employment law rather than in district court. Earlier Thursday, the Senate narrowly confirmed Kash Patel as director of the FBI. The confirmation places him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency despite doubts from Democrats about his qualifications and concerns he will do Trump’s bidding and go after the president’s adversaries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell has announced that he won’t seek reelection next year, ending a decadeslong tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of President Donald Trump. McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, chose his 83rd birthday to share his decision not to run for another term in Kentucky and to retire when his current term ends. The scramble for McConnell’s seat intensified soon after McConnell spoke Thursday. Former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, says he’s in the race to succeed his one-time mentor.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A news conference that was planned to follow talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy has been canceled. The cancellation happened Thursday as political tensions deepened between the two countries over how to end the almost three-year war with Russia. The event was originally supposed to include comments to the media by Zelenskyy and retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg. But it was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity where two leaders posed for journalists. They did not deliver statements or field questions. A Ukrainian presidential spokesman said the change was requested by the U.S. side.