March 28, 2025 2:53 am
The Washington County Chamber of Commerce held their annual Municipal Leaders Panel Discussion and managers from five municipalities offered their views on challenges and opportunities that are presented to each of their areas. Chartiers, North Strabane, South Strabane and Peters Townships along with the Borough of Charleroi all weighed in. Jodi Noble from Chartiers Township says that her district tries to make sure they manage residential development and maintain the rural nature of Chartiers. Jeff Ziegler from South Strabane Township said that their township is really concentrating on the recreational aspect of the township by managing park development and private recreation sources such as the Epi-Center that is slated to be built at Tanger Outlets. Industrial commerce was also discussed. Joe Manning from Charleroi discussed the ongoing difficulties his borough is facing with the impending closure of the Corelle glass plant and the efforts in trying to re-purpose that site. On the other hand, Chartiers’ Jodi Noble told of the recent purchase of a decade old Allegheny Ludlum brownfield in her township by Alumicore, LLC as a second site to recycle aluminum. All five municipalities spoke of how important recreation is to their districts and their plans to enhance and expand on already existing recreation areas.
March 27, 2025 11:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will eliminate 10,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring plan. The agency made the announcement Thursday. The agency is responsible for monitoring infectious diseases, inspecting foods and hospitals and overseeing health insurance programs for nearly half the country. The agency says it will decrease its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 positions. The cuts include layoffs, early retirements and voluntary separations, encouraged through buyout offers from the Trump administration. Layoffs are 10,000 workers, and the other 10,000 are early retirements and buyouts.
March 26, 2025 2:46 am
Members of the horse racing community gathered at Hollywood Casino and Racetrack at the Meadows Wednesday afternoon to honor 27-year-old Hunter Myers. Myers, an up and coming young harness racing driver suffered fatal injuries last week during a race in which six horses were involved in a multi-chain reaction crash. A tribute walk was held around noon and drivers, groomers, trainers, horse owners and caretakers, along with family and friends, walked the track and conducted a short ceremony. A moment of silence was also held in the Winner’s Circle. Myers leaves behind a fiance’ and young son.
March 27, 2025 4:54 am
MANHEIM, Pa. (AP) — Democrat James Andrew Malone has narrowly won a special election for a Pennsylvania state Senate seat in a stretch of Republican-leaning suburbs and farming communities. It’s an upset in a county that a Democrat hasn’t represented in the chamber for over a century. Malone’s victory over Republican Josh Parsons in Tuesday’s special election might provide a light in the darkness for Democrats struggling to counter President Donald Trump. Democratic state Sen. Vince Hughes says Malone’s success shows the value of Democrats talking to people about protecting Social Security and health care access amid the chaos he says Trump’s administration is sowing. The Associated Press called the race Wednesday.
March 27, 2025 4:59 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is placing 25% tariffs on auto imports. The White House says the move will foster domestic manufacturing, but it could also put a financial squeeze on automakers that depend on global supply chains. Trump told reporters on Wednesday that “this will continue to spur growth.” The tariffs could be complicated as even U.S. automakers source their components from around the world. That means they could face higher costs and lower sales. Shares in General Motors fell roughly 3% Wednesday. Ford’s stock was up slightly. Shares in Stellantis, the owner of Jeep and Chrysler, dropped nearly 4%.
March 27, 2025 4:56 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel may not have been part of a Signal chat in which other Trump administration national security officials discussed detailed attack plans. But that didn’t spare him from being questioned by lawmakers this week about whether the nation’s premier law enforcement agency would investigate. Patel (pictured) made no such commitments during two days of Senate and House hearings, instead testifying that he had not reviewed text messages inadvertently shared with the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic. Even as President Donald Trump insisted that “it’s not really an FBI thing,” the reality is the FBI and Justice Department for decades have been responsible for enforcing Espionage Act statutes governing the mishandling of national defense information.
March 27, 2025 5:00 am
TECOLUCA, El Salvador (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang have been held since their removal from the U.S. Noem’s trip Wednesday to the prison where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.” The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that it was justified in sending the Venezuelans to El Salvador, while activists say the prison is rife with human rights abuses.
March 27, 2025 5:01 am
SOMERVILLE, Mass. (AP) — A lawyer for a Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University says she has been detained by Department of Homeland Security agents without explanation. The lawyer for 30-year-old Rumeysa Ozturk says she had just left her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday when she was stopped by agents. Surveillance video obtained by AP appears to show six people whose faces are covered taking her phone as she yells and is handcuffed. A judge ordered that she not be moved out of Massachusetts and gave the government until Friday to respond. But as of Wednesday evening, she was listed in online records as being at processing center in southern Louisiana. The DHS confirmed Ozturk’s detention and the termination of her visa.
March 26, 2025 9:29 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Atlantic has released the entire Signal chat among Trump senior national security officials. It shows that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact times of war plane launches, strike packages and targets — before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen’s Houthis this month on behalf of the United States were airborne. The disclosure follows two intense days during which Trump’s senior most Cabinet members of his intelligence and defense agencies have struggled to explain how details that current and former U.S. officials have said would have been classified wound up on an unclassified Signal chat. That chat included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
March 26, 2025 4:53 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is downplaying the texting of attack plans to a group chat that included a journalist as “the only glitch in two months” of his administration. Trump told NBC News on Tuesday it “turned out not to be a serious one.” Top national security officials including Trump’s defense secretary texted plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic. This was reported by the magazine Monday. The National Security Council says the text chain “appears to be authentic.” Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg says two hours after he received the details of the attack on March 15, the U.S. began launching airstrikes.
