February 2, 2025 7:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Government Efficiency, run by President Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has gained access to sensitive Treasury data including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems. That’s according to two people familiar with the situation. DOGE, which is assigned to find ways to reduce federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations, would have wide leeway to access important taxpayer data, among other things. Senate Finance Committee member Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday. He expressed concern that “officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs.”
February 2, 2025 7:01 am
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will discuss “victory over Hamas,” countering Iran and expanding diplomatic relations with Arab countries in his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Tuesday’s meeting at the White House will be Trump’s first with a foreign leader since returning to office. It comes as U.S. and Arab mediators begin the daunting work of brokering the next phase of an agreement to wind down the war in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of militant-held hostages. Hamas, which has quickly reasserted its control over Gaza since the ceasefire took hold last month, has said it will not release many of the remaining hostages without an end to the war.
February 2, 2025 6:58 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Competing claims have emerged over a deadly attack on a boarding school in Sudzha, a city in Russia’s Kursk region that has been under Ukrainian control for five months. The Ukrainian military reported four deaths and four people seriously injured, with over 80 people rescued from the rubble. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said the attack was a Russian airstrike on a school where civilians were sheltering and preparing to evacuate. However, Russia’s Ministry of Defense blamed Ukraine, claiming missiles were launched from Ukraine’s Sumy region. Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Poltava rose to 14, including two children.
February 2, 2025 6:52 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — At least seven people were killed and 19 were injured when an air ambulance crashed to the ground on a busy Philadelphia street, creating what witnesses described as a massive fireball and a chaotic street scene. The dead from Friday’s accident include a child who was receiving treatment at a Philadelphia hospital. All six on board the medical transport jet were from Mexico. None survived, while one person in a car was killed. Hospitals say most of the injured have been released. NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy called it a “high-impact crash” that left the plane “highly fragmented.” Officials say the impact area is blocks-long, and it could take weeks to recover the debris.
February 2, 2025 6:20 am
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Punxsutawney Phil’s team of top-hatted associates says he has seen his shadow and is predicting six more weeks of wintry weather. The prognosticating woodchuck made his forecast as the sun rose Sunday in western Pennsylvania. The annual ritual goes back more than a century and has far older roots in European agricultural life. The event’s date of Feb. 2 doesn’t just divide the calendar between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It’s also a time of year that figures in the Celtic calendar and the Christian holiday of Candlemas.
February 2, 2025 5:03 am
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump says Americans could feel “some pain” from the emerging trade war triggered by his tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China. He’s also claiming that Canada would “cease to exist” without its trade surplus with the United States. The trade penalties that Trump signed Saturday at his Florida resort are causing a mix of panic, anger and uncertainty. And they’re threatening to rupture a decades-old partnership on trade in North America while further straining relations with China. But by following through on a campaign pledge, Trump may have simultaneously broken his promise to voters in last year’s election that his administration could quickly reduce inflation. The tariffs are set to launch on Tuesday.
February 2, 2025 3:52 am
(WPXI)-Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were out in Washington County on Friday. According to our news partner Channel 11, Tiffany Enamorado was approached by ICE agents as she was transporting some of her employees for her subcontracting business. She just picked up three of her employees, who she admits are undocumented immigrants. One of them is 17, and the two others both have been previously charged with crimes. All three were taken to ICE headquarters in Pittsburgh. She is unaware what has happened to the men. The sister of the 17 year old was told to have them enrolled in school or they will be back. ICE enforcement has been active in Washington County as it has been described by commissioners as a county that is not a Sanctuary County
February 1, 2025 10:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio embarks this weekend on his first foreign trip in office. He’s heading to Central America to press President Donald Trump’s top priority — curbing illegal immigration — and bring the message that the U.S. wants to reclaim control over the Panama Canal despite intense resistance from regional leaders. It’s an unusual destination for the maiden voyage of America’s top diplomat and reflects not only Rubio’s personal interest in the region but also the Trump administration’s intent to focus much of its foreign policy energy close to home. Limiting immigration and fighting narcotics smuggling are major elements of that effort, but another priority will be curbing China’s growing influence in the Western Hemisphere
February 1, 2025 10:13 am
President Donald Trump has fired the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, in the latest purge of a Biden administration holdover. Chopra was one of the more important regulators from the previous Democratic administration who was still on the job since Trump took office on Jan. 20. During Trump’s first term, he had picked Chopra as a Democrat member of the Federal Trade Commission. Chopra was notified of his firing in an email from the White House. That’s according to a person familiar with the notice who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
February 1, 2025 4:24 am
Hamas has freed three hostages as part of the ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip. Two released hostages, Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas, arrived in Israel and were on their way to an initial reception point. Along the road leading to the military base, small groups of supporters waited for the convoys waving Israeli flags. Later Saturday, American-Israeli Keith Siegel was handed over to the Red Cross. The six-week phase one truce calls for the release of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 prisoners, as well as the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid to the devastated territory. Israel and Hamas are set next week to begin negotiating a second phase of the ceasefire.
