August 13, 2025 5:05 am
Billionaire SpaceX, Tesla and X owner Elon Musk says he plans to sue Apple for not featuring X and its Grok artificial intelligence chatbot app in its top recommended apps in its App Store. Musk posted the comments on X, saying, “Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?” He added that “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action.”
August 13, 2025 5:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of the 800 National Guard members deployed by the Trump administration to assist with law enforcement have begun arriving in Washington, D.C. The city’s police and federal officials took the first steps Tuesday in an uneasy partnership to reduce crime in what President Donald Trump called — without substantiation — a lawless city. Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to work alongside the federal officials Trump has tasked with overseeing the capital city’s law enforcement. Bowser insists the police chief remains in charge of the department and its officers. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said about 850 officers and agents fanned out across Washington on Monday and arrested 23 people overnight.
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 4:52 am
In the late 1970s, 9-year-old Kimberly Sever of Brookline was caught up in the Pittsburgh pride sparked by Myron Cope’s “Terrible Towel.” Though not a football fan, she noticed how Steelers mania transformed the city, with black-and-gold “terrible” versions of everything. She thought a “Terrible Trolley” would be very cool and, encouraged by her grandmother, wrote Mayor Caliguri with her idea. The mayor replied that he would pass the suggestion to the Port Authority, which ran Pittsburgh’s trolleys. Decades later, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum contacted Sever to tell her she had inspired the original Terrible Trolley, streetcar 1713, which ran from Pittsburgh to Charleroi starting in 1949. The trolley’s restoration took just over two years, one of the fastest projects in the museum’s history. Restoration manager Michael Buchta said the car was in rough shape with rust, corrosion, and chipping paint. Prime Collision Center donated paintwork using PPG Paints from ATI, helping raise over $90,000, with more funds still needed. Now part of the museum’s operating fleet, the Terrible Trolley will run regularly or be on display for visitors.
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.
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 13, 2025 1:06 am
North Franklin Township Supervisors were greeted by a crowd of approximately 50 residents for their meeting on Tuesday. Scheduled speakers included Ridgewood Road resident George Leasure who spoke for the whole street. He employed a power point presentation to describe back yard flooding that occurred on June 14 and July 26. Some of that flooding affected people’s basements. He showed how a cross drain needs maintenance to clear out silt that holds water and limits the flow of the pipe during heavy rains. He also called into question the maintenance of a pond in Walnut Ridge. His presentation prompted more than a dozen other complaints from residents in other areas of the township, particularly from Cario Drive and Holiday Hills residents. Supervisor Bob Sabot sympathized with residents as he described his own dealings with flood waters. He pledged to work to get infrastructure failures addressed either temporarily or as in the case of Ridgewood Drive, totally next year during the road paving season. Sabot made an interesting comment about development. He said the board is concentrating on supporting the Washington Crown Center Mall redevelopment and addressing current infrastructure deficiencies before approving more housing to add to the existing problems with water and adding more cars to create traffic problems.
August 12, 2025 8:21 am
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders have urged U.S. President Donald Trump to defend their security interests at an upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting, set for Friday, focuses on the ongoing war in Ukraine. European leaders are concerned about being sidelined and fear that Putin might secure favorable concessions. Trump has suggested that Ukraine may need to give up some territory, which has disappointed U.S. allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected this idea. Meanwhile, Russia appeared close to capturing a key city in the Donetsk region on Tuesday, complicating the situation further.
August 12, 2025 8:14 am
Sections of Alaska’s capital city are bracing for the arrival of what could be record floodwaters due to rainwater and snowmelt flowing downstream from a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier. Residents in some parts of Juneau have evacuated. Flooding from the basin has become an annual concern for residents. On Tuesday, officials confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam and was flowing downstream, with flooding expected into Wednesday. In past years the flooding has swept away houses and swamped hundreds of homes. The Mendenhall Glacier is a thinning, retreating glacier that acts as a dam for Suicide Basin, which fills each spring and summer with rainwater and snowmelt.
August 12, 2025 6:57 am
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel plans to widen its coming offensive beyond Gaza City to the last areas not yet under Israeli control. Most of Gaza’s 2 million residents have sought shelter in those areas as the territory slides toward famine. The mobilization of forces is expected to take weeks, and Israel may be using the threat of a wider offensive to try to pressure Hamas. Any expansion of Israeli operations is likely to bring even more death and destruction to the war-ravaged territory. The plans have also sparked controversy in Israel, where many fear for the lives of the remaining hostages.
