February 23, 2025 5:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Confusion and chaos loom as hundreds of thousands of federal employees begin their workweek on Monday. They’re facing an 11:59 p.m. EST deadline from President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk, to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing their jobs. Musk’s unusual weekend demand faced resistance from key U.S. agencies led by the president’s loyalists that instructed their employees not to comply. Lawmakers in both parties said that Musk’s mandate may be illegal, while unions are threatening to sue. Trump over the weekend called for Musk to be more aggressive in his cost-cutting crusade through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and posted a meme on social media mocking federal employees.
February 22, 2025 4:36 am
HONOLULU (AP) — A judge has ordered the release of a Hawaii man who was imprisoned for 30 years for a murder he has always denied committing. The judge says DNA test results and other new evidence would likely change the outcome of another trial against Gordon Cordeiro. The judge vacated his conviction and sentence and ordered his release. The prosecutor says he is disappointed in the ruling. He plans to appeal and seek to impose bail on Cordeiro’s release. The case involves the 1994 killing of Timothy Blaisdell during a drug deal robbery on the island of Maui. Cordeiro was found guilty of murder, robbery and attempted murder and sentenced to life without parole.
February 22, 2025 4:33 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A U.S. Border Patrol agent who was killed in Vermont during a traffic stop near the Canadian border is scheduled to be buried at a national cemetery in Minneapolis with full military honors. David Maland died Jan. 20. It was the latest in a series of deaths tied to a cultlike group called the Zizians. The driver of a stopped car is accused of opening fire on Maland and other agents, sparking a shootout that left her companion dead. Both belonged to the Zizians. Investigators say the group may be linked to six deaths in three states. Maland went by Chris and was an Air Force veteran who worked security duty at the Pentagon during the Sept. 11 attacks.
February 22, 2025 4:30 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The move Friday sidelines a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a targeted campaign to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks. Brown is only the second Black general to serve as chairman. His 16 months in the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East. But Brown’s future was called into question during the Senate Armed Services Committee’s confirmation hearing for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
February 22, 2025 4:27 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As Ukraine approached the three-year mark of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the country’s hoped-for path to a favorable and lasting peace has been upended in a matter of days by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Kyiv had benefited from years of staunch support by its allies in the United States and Europe which had provided crucial military and financial support to help defend against Moscow’s grinding incursions. But when Trump held a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week — undoing years of U.S. policy to isolate the Russian leader — it was taken as a signal in Kyiv and other European capitals that their alliance to contain Moscow was fraying.
February 22, 2025 4:24 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas freed the first two of six Israeli hostages due to be freed Saturday under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The two hostages — Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39 – were put into Red Cross ambulances after being brought out onto a stage by masked and armed Hamas fighters in front of a crowd in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The ambulances then headed toward a nearby crossing into Israel. The latest hostage release, to be followed by the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, is going ahead after tensions mounted over a heart-wrenching dispute triggered this week when Hamas initially handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys.
February 22, 2025 4:06 am
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — Aliquippa police have charged a third person in the January attack of a VFW patron. Ireland Brown is the third person to be charged in this case. Police said she was bar tending the night of the brutal attack on January 5th, stood by and watched. She is also accused of lying to investigators and hiding evidence. Police said she is seen on surveillance video watching while Brett Ours viciously beat Preston Coleman. According to police, Ours punched Coleman nearly 250 times in the head and face, kicked him about 50 times, choked and elbowed him, slammed a bar stool over his head and stood on his throat. Then she allegedly called her father to come to the bar. Police said Ronald Brown showed up and joined in on the attack. Police said Ireland waited until after her father and Ours left to call 911 and she tried to hide her hoodie that had blood on it. Police said Ireland knows Ours very well. Earlier this month, police found and arrested Ours who was on the run for weeks. Ours is in the Beaver County Jail and is charged with attempted homicide. Ronald Brown was charged and turned himself in to the police last month. Right now, there is an arrest warrant out for Ireland Brown. She is charged with hindering apprehension, tampering with evidence and aggravated assault.
February 22, 2025 3:57 am
Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that a Greene County man will spend the rest of his life in prison for fatally shooting two people in Waynesburg in 2022. Cortland Rogers, 31, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for killing Kevin Williford and Judy Hunter on Feb. 1, 2022. On Thursday, a Greene County Judge ordered Rogers to serve two mandatory life-in-prison sentences. The case was investigated by the Waynesburg Borough Police Department. Rogers was also sentenced Thursday to a concurrent 15-to-60-year prison term for kidnapping two other people, and assaulting the female victim, at a different home, near the time of the murders. Shawna Smith, Rogers’ girlfriend at the time, is charged with similar offenses. Her case is pending. On February 1, 2022, Rogers and Smith went to a home in Waynesburg and confronted Williford and Hunter about money they felt they were owed. Rogers shot Williford first, then Hunter, so as not to leave any witnesses, according to the investigation. The victims were found about two weeks later, the same day Rogers and Smith perpetrated the kidnapping. Those victims were lured to a home and held captive at gunpoint. This case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorneys General Kara M. Rice and Alicia S. Werner.
February 22, 2025 12:20 am
The vast majority of people were pleased to hear that the Washington County Commissioners struck a deal to demolish the Washington Mall with funds from their Blight Mitigation and Demolition Fund. However, some residents asked why county tax dollars were being used. Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman clarified where the money came from to set up the fund. According to Sherman, the fund was seeded by $13 million of the $98 million the county received in American Rescue Plan Act funding. He called it a textbook example of what the blight mitigation program is designed for. He said the county is pleased to be able to develop shovel ready pads for developers to build on. Those projects will bring in well paying construction jobs that will then develop long lasting jobs once the projects have been completed. Sherman said there is no Tax Increment Financing or TIF funding program involved with development. He said that the economic development derived from the demolition of the mall will more than recoup any funds spent by the county for the work. Demolition is expected to begin in the spring.
February 21, 2025 5:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Experts say the layoffs of roughly 7,000 IRS probationary workers likely mean the end of the agency’s plans to go after high-wealth tax dodgers and could spell disaster for revenue collections. The majority of employees shown the door at the federal tax collector this week are newly hired workers focused on ensuring taxpayers are following the tax code and paying debts. But Thursday’s layoffs upend previous efforts to collect from high-income tax cheats and cut off a revenue generating stream at a time when Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is trying to shrink the size of the federal workforce to cut spending and restructure the government’s priorities.
