April 1, 2025 5:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker has held the Senate floor with a marathon speech that lasted more than 25 hours. He set the historic mark to show Democrats’ resistance to President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions. Booker took to the Senate floor Monday evening and finished Tuesday evening. He broke a record set 68 years ago by then-Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a segregationist, to filibuster the advance of the Civil Rights Act in 1957. Booker invoked the civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, arguing that changing history requires the public to get involved.
April 2, 2025 2:51 am
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation partnered with the Highway Safety Network and State Farm to announce on Tuesday that Bentworth High School is the winner of the 2025 “No Excuses” Distracted Driving Billboard Design Contest. The State Farm sponsored contest was open to all high school students in Washington, Westmoreland, Fayette, and Greene counties. Students from seven local schools submitted 13 designs for judging. The first-place winner is from Bentworth High School (Washington County) and will receive $1,000; Bentworth High School will also receive $1,000. The second-place winner is from Greater Latrobe Senior High School (Westmoreland County) and will receive $500; Greater Latrobe Senior High School will also receive $500. The third-place winner is from Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center (Westmoreland County) and will receive $250; Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center will also receive $250. The winning design will be viewed by motorists on a billboard near Bentworth High School throughout the month of April. The second and third place winners will also be presented their prizes in April. April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. According to PennDOT data, there were 11,225 crashes in Pennsylvania involving a distracted driver in 2023, resulting in 65 deaths.
April 2, 2025 5:03 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Val Kilmer has died at age 65. The versatile actor played flying ace Iceman opposite Tom Cruise in “Top Gun,” Batman in “Batman Forever” and singer Jim Morrison in the biopic “The Doors.” Kilmer’s daughter says he died Tuesday in Los Angeles from pneumonia. He had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. The Los Angeles-born Kilmer studied acting at the elite Juilliard School and had his big break in the 1985 spy spoof “Top Secret.” He was sometimes regarded as a difficult presence on film sets but said in his memoir that he always put the art first.
April 1, 2025 5:50 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his tariff announcements slated for Wednesday will amount to a “Liberation Day” for the United States. But American businesses and financial markets are unlikely to be freed from the uncertainty generated by his often stop-and-go trade policy. Some big questions will be resolved when Trump announces what are expected to be reciprocal tariffs that involve raising U.S. import duties to be equal to the levies that other countries impose on U.S. goods. Economists say questions will swirl around trade and tariffs for months to come.
April 1, 2025 1:22 am
When Washington City Council meets Thursday, they will take disciplinary action against four firefighters. Two will be terminated. One will be demoted and another will be suspended for two weeks. Neither Mayor Burgess or Fire Chief Chris Richer would comment on the infractions causing the disciplinary measures. Council will also say good bye to their city administrator. Donn Henderson will attend his final meeting before heading off into retirement. City officials are wishing him well and are appreciative of his efforts since he came on board in 2022. Henderson is proud of the modernization efforts that he accomplished over the previous three years. Councilman Ken Westcott pointed to those efforts and thanked him for his experience in other municipalities and bringing that knowledge to Washington. Mayor JoJo Burgess praised Henderson for being able to shepherd him along in his early stages of being Mayor and thanked him for his cooperation. Rich Cleveland is the new city administrator and has been working with Henderson getting to know the arena.
April 1, 2025 5:04 am
BENTLEYVILLE, Pa. — An investigation continues into a cell phone fire Monday in the Bentworth School District. Superintendent Scott Martin says a classroom was evacuated after a students phone caught fire around 9 a.m. The statement said “Due to the fire originating from a lithium-ion battery, a Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal arrived on-site to investigate, and Washington County Haz-Mat personnel were also called to properly handle the disposal of the cell phone,” the statement said. No hazardous materials were found in the air and all students returned to their classrooms. (Photo: Bentleyville Fire-Rescue)
April 1, 2025 4:57 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge says enforcing the requirement that Pennsylvania mail-in ballots include an accurate exterior envelope date violates the federal Constitution. Judge Susan Paradise Baxter ruled Monday that election boards in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties can’t invalidate mail-in ballots simply because they lack accurate, handwritten dates on their exterior return envelopes. It’s the latest in a long-running legal dispute over what is a small percentage of votes cast in the state. Baxter says there’s no compelling state interest that outweighs invalidating thousands of ballots. The envelope dates aren’t used to check whether votes are received on time.
April 1, 2025 5:12 am
Employees across the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have begun receiving notices of dismissal in a major overhaul expected to ultimately lay off up to 10,000 people. The notices came Tuesday just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announced a plan last week to remake HHS, which, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, monitoring the safety of food and medicine, and administering health insurance programs for nearly half of the country.
April 1, 2025 5:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — With President Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” of tariff implementation fast approaching, Senate Democrats are putting Republican support for some of those plans to the test by forcing a vote to nullify the emergency declaration that underpins the tariffs on Canada. Republicans have watched with some unease as the president’s attempts to remake global trade have sent the stock market on downward swings. But they have so far stood by Trump’s threats to levy taxes on imported goods. A resolution from Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine offers them a potential off-ramp to the tariffs levied on Canadian imports. But Republican leadership is trying to keep senators in line.
April 1, 2025 5:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Harvard University has become the latest target in the Trump administration’s approach to fight campus antisemitism. The federal government said Monday it is reviewing billions of dollars in grants and contracts with the Ivy League college, saying it will ensure the school is following civil rights laws. A federal antisemitism task force is reviewing more than $255 million in contracts and $8.7 billion in grant commitments. The same task force cut $400 million from Columbia University and threatened to slash billions more if it refused a list of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration. Columbia agreed to many of the changes this month.
