August 14, 2025 9:46 am
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell modestly last week, remaining in the historically low range since the U.S. economy emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 9 fell by 3,000 to 224,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s below the 230,000 new applications that economists had forecast. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years. The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Aug. 2 fell by 15,000 to 1.96 million.
August 14, 2025 4:56 am
CALIFORNIA, Pa. — Community members in California Borough are rallying around the families who were displaced in Saturday’s fire. The blaze on Liberty Street left six homes damaged — three destroyed, three partially — and four families, including several with young children, without a home. No one was hurt. On Wednesday, they had to stop accepting clothing donations after receiving more than they ever imagined. Donations filled the local volunteer fire department, and firefighters moved items to the elementary school library, where every table and corner was taken — and this was after the first batch had already been delivered to the families. Community members can still contribute food, toiletries and gift cards to help the displaced families. However, they are no longer accepting clothing. The fire’s cause is still under investigation.
August 13, 2025 2:24 am
(WPXI) – A family was able to escape when a massive fire broke out at their home in Upper St. Clair on Wednesday morning. The fire broke out shortly after 4:30 a.m. in the 1400 block of Old Meadow Road. Authorities say two adults, their one-year-old child and a dog were able to get out of the home safely – thanks to their dog who woke the family up and alerted them to the fire. Most of the fire was contained to the left side of the home, but the cause of the blaze and where it started from is still under investigation. Firefighters say they had the blaze under control in less than hour.
August 14, 2025 4:51 am
CLAIRTON, Pa. — Hospital officials confirm seven of the 10 people injured in Monday’s deadly explosion at the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works have been released. An Allegheny Health Network spokesperson tells our news partners at Channel 11 that all seven patients in AHN’s care have been discharged. A UPMC spokesperson says three patients are still being treated at UPMC Mercy. There was no update on their condition. In addition to those injured, the explosion at the plant killed two people. One of those was Timothy Quinn, and the other has not been identified. An unknown number of people were treated at the scene. United Steelworkers Local 1557 has set up a GoFundMe campaign to support the families of those who died or were injured. The explosion happened in Batteries 13 and 14, where routine maintenance had been scheduled. An investigation into the explosion is underway, and several batteries remain shut down in the meantime.
August 14, 2025 5:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Residents in one Washington, D.C., neighborhood lined up to protest the increased police presence after the White House said the number of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital would ramp up and federal officers would be on the streets around the clock. After law enforcement set up a vehicle checkpoint Wednesday along the busy 14th Street Northwest corridor, hecklers shouted, “Go home, fascists” and “Get off our streets.” Some protesters stood at the intersection before the checkpoint and urged drivers to turn away from it. The action intensified a few days after President Donald Trump’s unprecedented announcement that his administration would take over the city’s police department for at least a month.
August 14, 2025 5:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s meeting in Alaska with Vladimir Putin could be a decisive moment in the war in Ukraine and in the U.S. leader’s anomalous relationship with his Russian counterpart. Trump has long boasted that he’s always gotten along well with Putin and spoken admiringly of him, even praising him as “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine. But in recent months, he’s expressed open frustrations with Putin and called him “CRAZY” while threatening to impose sanctions on Russia. Still, Trump’s self-imposed deadline for sanctions came and went without any announced penalties or explanation from the White House and the Republican president, tempering expectations for their Friday summit.
August 14, 2025 5:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has put a personal touch on this year’s Kennedy Center Honors. Trump announced the honorees himself, naming George Strait, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, Kiss and Michael Crawford. Trump is now chair of the Kennedy Center and revealed the names during a Wednesday press conference at the Washington cultural institution. Unlike in Trump’s first term, when he didn’t attend an honors ceremony, this year he plans to host the awards himself. Trump says he was “98% involved” in choosing the nominees. At least some of this year’s winners have a history of backing Trump, though one member of Kiss, Paul Stanley, has often criticized the president. The ceremony is Dec. 7.
August 14, 2025 5:04 am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Rhode Island man accused of faking his death and fleeing the United States to evade rape charges has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in his first of two Utah trials. A jury in Salt Lake County found Nicholas Rossi guilty of a 2008 rape after a three-day trial. He is to be sentenced on Oct. 20. An obituary published online claimed Rossi had died on Feb. 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead. He was arrested in Scotland the following year and extradited to Utah in January 2024.
August 13, 2025 5:00 am
CLAIRTON, Pa. (AP) — Workers were heating coal and preparing for routine maintenance when an explosion rocked a U.S. Steel plant outside Pittsburgh. That’s according to a company executive who spoke to reporters Tuesday, a day after the blast killed two workers. The explosion was powerful enough to shake nearby homes. It also injured more than 10 other steelworkers, including one who spent hours trapped in rubble. Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and plant executives vowed to investigate and do whatever is necessary to prevent such an accident from happening again. The cause remains under investigation.
August 13, 2025 4:47 am
Washington County Commissioners were informed at their agenda meeting that their request for more detail in how the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency spends their money has been denied. According to Agency President Jeff Kotula, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records determined that the agency is a private, non-profit corporation, independent of county governmental control. That determination does not sit well with Washington County Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman who maintains that because the county allocates about $2.5 million per year to the agency, they deserve more transparency on how funds are spent. The Agency previously shared spending records with the county before the open records request was made. Sherman maintains that 80% of the money spent by the Agency is on administrative costs. Kotula says the reimbursement figure related to the tourism program is just over $700,000 and includes not only salaries and benefits, but operational costs like rent, insurance, telephones and copiers. He says that other peer counties spend in the neighborhood of $1.2 million on salaries alone. Sherman counters by saying that money could be better spent by adding additional events to attract tourism and have those tourists spend their money in county hotels, the casino and local businesses. He would like to see a sports complex and convention center developed. Sherman stated that the ruling will now be appealed to the common pleas court.
