January 18, 2023 3:28 pm
(AP) – Microsoft is cutting 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, as it joins other tech companies in a scaling back of their pandemic-era expansions. The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that the layoffs were a response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.” The company said it will also be making changes to its hardware portfolio and consolidating its leased office locations. The loss of employees is far less than how many Microsoft hired during the COVID-19 pandemic as it responded to a boom in demand for its workplace software and cloud computing services as people worked and studied from home.
January 18, 2023 11:35 am
A man was shot and killed in Greene County after a domestic situation ended with troopers exchanging gunfire with him. Forty-seven-year-old Frederick Lee Fonner Jr. allegedly fired a rifle at a family member at 334 Water Dam Road, Washington Township, Tuesday afternoon. Troopers say they responded and obtained an arrest warrant for Fonner just before 5 p.m. He allegedly refused to exit the home, so the Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team was called. According to officers, around midnight, Fonner started firing a gun from inside the home at them. They returned fire and entered the home to find Fonner dead. The investigation is ongoing.
January 18, 2023 8:39 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Wholesale prices in the United States rose 6.2% in December from a year earlier, a sixth straight monthly slowdown and a hopeful sign that inflation pressures will continue to cool. The latest year-over-year figure was down from 7.3% in November and from a recent peak of 11.7% in March. On a monthly basis, the producer price index, which measures costs before they reach consumers, dropped 0.5% from November to December. The producer price data can provide an early sign of where consumer inflation might be headed. The data reflects the prices that are charged by manufacturers, farmers and wholesalers, and it flows into an inflation gauge that the Federal Reserve closely tracks.
January 18, 2023 5:56 am
CHARLEROI, Pa. — (WPXI) – A father and son from Charleori died in a tragic crash over the weekend. 15-year-old William Stupar and his dad 49-year-old Greg Stupar were killed in a tractor trailer crash on I-83 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Sunday night. William’s mom, Nathasha said William was a freshman at Charleroi Area High School and didn’t have school on Monday so he went with his dad to make a delivery. Greg was a truck driver for JA Trucking. But on their way there, state police said the truck went off the road, hit a guardrail, slid down a hill and caught on fire. Natasha is heartbroken. William was the oldest of their four kids. “He loved going with his Dad to work. He loved fishing and loved going on the boat with his Dad,” said Nathasha. A GoFundMe page was created to help the family through this tough time. At school on Tuesday, students started a memorial at William’s locker to remember him. They shared flowers and placed messages on his locker. Counselors were also on hand for kids. School leaders said William will be very missed.
January 18, 2023 4:14 am
ZURICH (AP) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to sit down with her Chinese counterpart in Switzerland on Wednesday. It’s the highest-ranking contact between the two countries since their presidents agreed to look for ways to ease strained relations. Yellen’s first face-to-face meeting with Vice Premier Liu He comes as the U.S. and Chinese economies grapple with differing but intertwined challenges on trade, technology and more. The Chinese economy is reopening after a COVID-19 resurgence killed tens of thousands of people and shuttered countless businesses. The U.S. is slowly recovering from 40-year high price inflation and is on track to hit its statutory debt ceiling.
January 18, 2023 4:13 am
SYDNEY (AP) – A Qantas flight traveling from New Zealand to Sydney has landed safely on a single engine after it issued a mayday call over the Pacific Ocean. Flight 144 with 145 passengers aboard landed at Sydney Airport on Wednesday after a 3.5-hour flight from Auckland. Qantas says the Boeing 737 experienced an issue with one of its two engines about an hour from Sydney. Qantas said the pilot shut down the engine, but did not specify the problem. The mayday was downgraded to a PAN-PAN, meaning possible assistance was needed, before the flight landed. Sydney Airport says emergency crews were put on standby as a precaution, including firefighters, ambulances, and police. Some passengers told reporters they heard a bang and a slight shudder.
January 18, 2023 4:12 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A shooter stood over a 16-year-old mother clutching her 10-month-old baby and pumped bullets into their heads in a brazen attack in a central California farming community that left six dead at a home linked to drugs and guns. That’s according to the Tulare County sheriff during a news conference Tuesday. Law enforcement is seeking at least two suspects and there is a $10,000 reward for information leading to their arrests. Deputies responded around 3:30 a.m. Monday to reports of multiple shots fired at the residence in unincorporated Goshen, just east of Visalia. Goshen is a rural community in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley.
January 18, 2023 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House is brushing aside criticism of its fragmented disclosures about the discovery of classified documents and official records at President Joe Biden’s home and former office. Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office, told reporters Tuesday the White House may withhold information to protect the Justice Department’s investigation and was releasing information as it deemed it “appropriate.” Responding to questions about the piecemeal disclosures, Sams said the White House has been trying to be mindful of the “risk” in sharing information “that’s not complete.”
January 18, 2023 4:08 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The chief of Ukraine’s National Police says a helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb has killed 17 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and two children. Ihor Klymenko says Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his deputy Yevhen Yenin and Yurii Lubkovych, State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, were among those killed Wednesday. There was no immediate word on whether the crash was an accident or due to the almost 11-month war with Russia. Nine of those killed were reportedly aboard the emergency services helicopter that crashed in Brovary, an eastern suburb of the Ukrainian capital. A total of 22 people were injured, including 10 children.
January 18, 2023 4:07 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two decades after a teacher’s aide was suspended for wearing a cross necklace at school, Pennsylvania lawmakers are looking to remove a provision in state law that bars educators from wearing religious garb while in the classroom. The Senate approved the legislation by a 49-0 vote on Wednesday. The measure now goes to the House. The bill would uphold a 2003 Pennsylvania federal court decision in which an Indiana County teacher was reinstated and provided backpay after she had been suspended for refusing to remove her cross necklace. Under the current language in the public school code in state law, an educator wearing religious garb must be suspended for one year and will be fired after multiple offenses. Administrators who don’t enforce the law could be fined and could lose their job. The cosponsors — Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York, and Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Berks — said Pennsylvania is the last state to strike such language, and that it applies to expression of all faiths.
