February 23, 2024 4:59 am
The Canon-McMillan School Board met Thursday and began planning for the next school year. Directors adopted the school calendar for the 2024-2025 school year. The first day of school is slated for August 22. The last day of school will be June 2, 2025. Christmas break will take place from December 23 through January 1. In other board activity, Director Julie Chandler (pictured) was honored by the Pennsylvania School Board Association Trust Initiative. She was chosen as one of fifteen school directors to take part in a one week international study group to tour Germany and study educational practices of German schools and make recommendations to school districts in Pennsylvania. She will travel to Bonn, Cologne and Dortmund. This is the first international study group that has been formed in cooperation with the PSBA. Chandler filled out an application, provided a biography along with a letter of interest and statement of her involvement in education. Chandler announced the honor during the meeting saying she is quite humbled to be selected.
February 22, 2024 4:39 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former talk show host Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with the same form of dementia that actor Bruce Willis has. A statement released on behalf of her caretakers Thursday says the 59-year-old’s diagnoses of primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia “have already presented significant hurdles in Wendy’s life” and have behavioral and cognitive impacts. The announcement came a day after a cover story in People magazine quoted Williams’ family about the nature of her struggles, ahead of a Lifetime documentary set to air Saturday. A representative listed on the release referred questions back to the statement. (Photo: AP)
February 22, 2024 4:34 pm
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors say negligence by a movie weapons supervisor in handling ammunition and weapons during the filming of the Western “Rust” contributed to actor Alec Baldwin fatally shooting a cinematographer during a rehearsal. They delivered an opening statement Thursday as the trial began for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed on charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the October 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintains she’s not directly to blame for Hutchins’ death. Baldwin also has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. A trial date has not been set for him. (
February 22, 2024 7:52 am
(AP) – AT&T says it has restored wireless coverage after an outage knocked out cellphone service on its network across the U.S. for hours. A statement from the Dallas-based company Thursday says it has service to all its affected customers. Outage tracker Downdetector noted that outages began at about 3:30 a.m. ET and peaked at around 73,000 reported incidents. AT&T had more than 58,000 outages around noon ET, in locations including Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. The carrier has more than 240 million subscribers, the country’s largest. By 3:30 p.m. ET, the reports were down to fewer than 3,000.
February 22, 2024 5:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is considering using provisions of federal immigration law repeatedly tapped by former President Donald Trump to unilaterally enact a sweeping crackdown at the southern border. That’s according to three people familiar with the deliberations. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing White House deliberations. The administration has been exploring options that President Joe Biden could deploy on his own without congressional approval after House Republicans blocked a bipartisan border bill. But the plans are nowhere near finalized and it’s unclear how the administration would draft any such executive actions in a way that would survive the inevitable legal challenges.
February 22, 2024 5:15 am
LONDON (AP) — Yulia Navalnaya used to avoid the cameras, staying in the background while her husband, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, rose to become President Vladimir Putin’s greatest foe. But following his death in prison last week, she vowed that Putin and his allies would be brought to justice over his death. And she solemnly vowed to continue her husband’s work. It was an ambitious statement from a woman who once said in an interview that her “key task” was caring for the couple’s children and home. Yulia Navalnaya’s new job will be leading the Russian opposition through one of its darkest and most turbulent times.
February 22, 2024 5:03 am
Pastors of twelve Disciples of Christ churches in Washington County published a letter in support of the City Mission’s Women’s Shelter. The letter is in response to the recent denial of Local Share Account Grant money that originally seemed to be granted to the City Mission for this cause. The letter praises the high quality services it delivers to homeless women and calls the City Mission uniquely qualified to deliver these services. According to Rev. Dr. Arthur Keys of the First Christian Church of Washington, it is the hope of the group that the funding be restored.
February 22, 2024 5:01 am
FAYETTE COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – Nearly 160 inmates were escorted from the 131-year-old Fayette County Jail to their new facility on Wednesday. Warden John Lenkey tells our news partners at Channel 11 that he and his team have been preparing for this transfer for a long time, including help from several police agencies. “We managed to move successfully without any issues whatsoever, went very smooth today. Close to 160 inmates were moved from our old facility to our new facility,” Lenkey said. The new jail is located on the former site of the US Army Reserve Center, which sat vacant since the early 2000s. The Fayette County Prison Project Team decided they’d demolish the building and build a state-of-the-art new facility, which has more rooms, space for double the inmates, and focus on rehabilitation. The former jail is a historic landmark and was built in 1892. The warden said it wasn’t large enough or safe enough for the guards or inmates. Commissioners haven’t made any decisions on the future of the former jail, but say their options are limited because it’s a historic landmark.
February 22, 2024 4:58 am
Officials from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission held an open house to allow residents to see plans on the next segment to be completed on the Mon-Fayette Expressway. The newest segment is two miles long and connects Rt. 51 in Jefferson Hills with Rt. 837 in West Mifflin. Ground was broken this week on the $165 million project that will be completed at the end of 2026. When finished, the Mon-Fayette Expressway will connect the Parkway East and the Pennsylvania Turnpike to West Virginia. Funding to complete the project from Rt 837 to Monroeville has yet to be obtained. The project was mandated by Pennsylvania Legislature in 1985 for the purpose of boosting the economy in the Monongahela Valley. State Senator Jim Brewster said that the economic impact of the road is significant. This section, in particular, will possibly bring back the value of the Century III Mall since commuters will be able to access that site from two different exits that will be built during this phase of construction.
February 22, 2024 4:55 am
The Cokeburg Dam was developed over 100 years ago and residents of the area have used it as a water source and recreation area. According to Cokeburg Borough Council President Holly Detts-Dranzo, the community has been trying to satisfy state Department of Environmental Protection Agency requirements to repair the dam since it was deemed a high hazard dam back in 1981. Detts-Dranzo and Cokeburg Volunteer Fire Company Chief Dave Lambert testified before the Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee about the frustrations that the borough has with the DEP on their never-ending bureaucracy on never approving any measures that they themselves require for repair. Detts-Dranzo told of hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on designs demanded by the DEP only to have them turn around and change the plans. She said that she had to return a DCED grant because the time limit expired because of DEP delays. Lambert told of how the water in the dam is used by the fire department to fight fires. He pointed to the 2015 fire at the Century Inn where water from the dam was transported to the fire and was used to extinguish the fire. Representative Tim O’Neal called the testimony “the most egregious example of the failure of government oversight that he has ever seen.” Representative Bud Cook sponsored the meeting and is calling for Governor Shapiro to work with the DEP to reign in the constant delays that projects like this experience, not only in Cokeburg, but throughout Pennsylvania.
