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 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 5:11 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.
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 5:09 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 1, 2025 5:08 am
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Chinese military has announced large-scale drills around Taiwan as it again warned the self-ruled island against seeking formal independence. A spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said the joint drills involve navy, air ground and rocket forces. The exercises are meant to be a “severe warning and forceful containment against Taiwan independence,” the spokesperson, Shi Yi, said in a statement. Tuesday’s drills comes just two weeks after a large-scale exercise in mid-March, when Beijing sent a large number of drones and ships toward the island. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence said it had tracked 19 Chinese navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island in a 24-hour period from 6 a.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday.
April 1, 2025 5:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to launch a barrage of so-called reciprocal tariffs on friend and foe alike. Wednesday’s tariffs come on what Trump has dubbed “Liberation Day” to free the U.S. from what he has said are years of unfair trade practices. By most economists’ assessments, the risky move threatens to plunge the economy into a downturn and mangle decades-old alliances. The White House is exuding confidence despite the political and financial gamble being undertaken. Importers would likely pass along some of the cost of the taxes on to consumers. The Budget Lab at Yale University estimates a 20% universal tariff would cost the average household $3,400 to $4,200.
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 2:40 am
A former long-time fixture in Washington County politics has died. Seventy-nine-year-old Scott Fergus, an attorney who had been dealing with health issues for the past few years, passed away on Monday. Fergus, who was often referred to as “the fourth commissioner,” was himself, a county commissioner in the 1990’s, after being appointed to the position to replace Joe Ford. Fergus, however, when he ran for re-election, lost the race. He was then appointed to fill a vacancy on Washington City Council and won re-election to a full four-year term, but later resigned to become the county’s Director of Administraton for the next fifteen-years. Visitation will be held on Thursday, April 3rd from one to three p.m. and 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Piatt and Barnhill Funeral Home in Washington. A funeral service will be held at eleven o’clock in the funeral home on April 4th. (Photo: Facebook)
