May 14, 2025 4:18 am
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, in a face-to-face with the onetime insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by U.S. forces after being captured in Iraq. The White House says Trump has agreed to “say hello” Wednesday to al-Sharaa before the U.S. leader wraps up his visit to Saudi Arabia and moves on to Qatar. Trump is also scheduled to attend a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the grouping of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. He then sets off Wednesday for Qatar, the second stop in his Mideast tour. Trump will be honored with a state dinner in Qatar.
May 14, 2025 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tax breaks tallying more than $5 trillion. But also sizable reductions in Medicaid health care, food stamps for older Americans and green energy strategies to fight climate change. Those all faced sharp debate as House lawmakers pushed through marathon public hearings overnight into Wednesday on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Republicans are working on Trump’s signature legislative package over mounting opposition from Democrats, advocacy groups and even some wary Republicans themselves. The first hearing was disrupted by protesters shouting against health care cuts. House Speaker Mike Johnson hopes to send the Senate the bill by Memorial Day.
May 14, 2025 4:12 am
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities. Federal prosecutors charged Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in April with concealing an individual to prevent arrest and obstruction. A grand jury affirmed the charges after convening Tuesday to determine whether there was enough probable cause to continue the case. FBI agents arrested Dugan at the Milwaukee County courthouse a week after authorities said she directed Eduardo Flores-Ruiz out a back door in her courtroom when she learned immigration agents were in the courthouse searching for him. According to court documents, Flores-Ruiz illegally reentered the U.S. after being deported in 2013. Dugan’s attorneys say she maintains her innocence.
May 14, 2025 4:08 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Erik and Lyle Menendez will have a new shot at freedom after 35 years behind bars for murdering their parents. A judge ruled Tuesday to reduce the brothers’ sentences from life without parole to 50 years to life. They were convicted of murdering their entertainment executive father and mother in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. The brothers’ attorneys said their clients have worked hard over the decades to better themselves and give back to the prison community. Prosecutors opposed their resentencing, arguing that the brothers had not taken full accountability for their crime.
May 14, 2025 4:01 am
Pennsylvania State Representative Natalie Mihalek (R-40) is fighting for food safety for her fellow Pennsylvanians. She is the sponsor of the Health PA Package of legislation aimed at changing the way foods are processed and grown in order to limit obesity and severe illness caused by chemicals, dyes and pesticides used by food manufacturers. The package of bills is made up of House Bill 1130, and it takes aim at the “Generally Recognized As Safe” or GRAS loophole that allows food companies to introduce chemicals to foods without FDA approval or independent review. House Bill 1131 is the Healthy Students Act that targets harmful food dyes. House Bill 1132 seeks to create a statutory definition of “ultra processed foods” that are made up of substances not commonly found in culinary preparations. House Bill 1133 targets BHA, a chemical compound classified as a carcinogen since 1991. It is commonly found in cereals, frozen pizzas and sodas. House Bill 1134 is aimed at explicit labeling of foods containing dyes. House Bill 1135 is designed to ban the use of the pesticide Paraquat. Mihalek and her co-sponsors outlined statistics that show obesity in the United States at 40%, a Type 2 diabetes increase of over 200% in adolescents, and ADHD diagnoses doubling in the last 20 years. Mihalek is the primary sponsor of the package and she has enlisted nearly 40 other representatives on both sides of the aisle to enact the Healthy PA package.
May 14, 2025 3:59 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania voters would get more than a week of early voting and county election officials more time to start processing mail-in ballots under a wide-ranging election law proposal that advanced out of the state House. The bill passed on Tuesday by a single vote, with all Republicans opposed. It addresses a range of election-related matters, including rules for ballot drop boxes, electronic lists of registered voters for election workers to consult, in-person early voting and voter registration. It was sent to the Republican majority state Senate.
May 14, 2025 1:37 am
Two weeks ago, Washington County Commissioners voted to withhold hotel tax revenues to the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency. The vote did not count because notice of the action did not appear in an online agenda 24 hours prior to the vote being taken violating Sunshine Law requirements. Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman vowed to have the vote taken again at the next voting meeting. At Tuesday’s agenda setting meeting, the item was on the agenda and Sherman requested that it be removed. Sherman stated that interim conversations with he and commissioner Electra Janis and WCTPA president Jeff Kotula, produced more clarity on the concerns that they had with the use of taxpayer funds by the WCTPA. When asked about the change of plans, Kotula said he was pleased to hear the news that the vote will not take place. He said it is important to him that an open dialogue continues with commissioners. Commissioner Larry Maggi is confused as to why commissioners continue to go down this path. He said that he has studied audits from the organization previously and this audit accurately reflects the financial position of the agency and is in line with state law and county requirements. Sherman did state that additional meetings with the WCTPA are scheduled in the near future.
May 13, 2025 5:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s agreement with China to temporarily slash tariffs for 90 days offered the world a bit of welcome relief. But what persists is a sense of uncertainty and the possibility that the damage from the trade war could already be done. Trump declared the de-escalation of the trade war a victory, saying he would soon chat with Chinese President Xi Jinping about how to preserve the financial relationship between the world’s two largest economies. Regardless, the tariffs are now elevated from when Trump took office and the scramble to respond to the White House’s mix of threats and olive branches might leave CEOs, investors and consumers unwilling to take risks.
May 13, 2025 5:05 am
A federal judge is refusing to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S. In a win for the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a preliminary injunction Monday in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups. They argued that undocumented immigrants who pay taxes are entitled to the same privacy protections as U.S. citizens and immigrants who are legally in the country. The decision comes after former acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause resigned over the deal allowing ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.
May 13, 2025 5:03 am
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A day after China and the U.S. agreed to a 90-day truce in their tariffs stalemate, China is moving to strengthen its alliances as a counterweight to President Donald Trump’s trade war. President Xi Jinping warned against bullying and said he was ready to join hands with Latin American countries to block protectionism. He was addressing a regional forum where he was joined by the presidents of Brazil, Chile and Colombia and other Latin American and Caribbean officials. Meanwhile, the head of the WTO appealed to Japan to champion global free trade. The realities of Trump’s global trade offensive overshadowed an initial burst of optimism over the China-U.S. deal among investors, as rallies in stocks and oil prices faded.
