February 21, 2025 4:50 am
Canon-McMillan School District has announced the appointment of Krystal Lorenzato as its new School Board Director filling in Bernard Price’s position. President Liz Gump states that the board welcomes the incoming school board director and intends to cooperate with them. According to Lorenzato, as a parent, she has wanted to engage with the board since COVID-19 began, wanting her voice to be heard alongside other parents who want to get involved. Krystal Lorenzato intends to focus on continuing the improvement of educational experiences, with the district focusing on graduation presentations as part of its five-year plan. As part of this plan, Lorenzato intends to expand the job shadowing program for students. Lorenzato’s term runs through December 1. In other board activity, the 2025-2025 school calendar was adopted. Under the newly approved calendar, school will begin on August 21 and end on June 5. Students will also see winter break from December 22 to January 2.
February 21, 2025 2:43 am
Students in the Charleroi Area School District will be home tomorrow – thanks to the Flu. District officials say that due to a continued and rapid increase in student, teacher, and district support staff absences caused by Influenza A (Type A) and Strep illnesses, the Charleroi Area School District will pivot to remote learning on Friday, February 21st. Officials say the decision has been made in consultation with district administrators and school nurses, with the well-being of the school community being their top priority. As a result, students will attend classes following their remote learning school schedule. Teachers will provide instruction and assignments through the online learning Google Classroom platform, all after-school extracurricular activities scheduled for Friday though, will proceed as scheduled, and district offices will remain open, and there will be limited staff availability to assist with any urgent needs.
February 21, 2025 12:45 am
Citing his more than thirty-five-years in local and federal law enforcement, Charles A. “Chuckie” Tenny has announced his candidacy for Magisterial District Judge for the communities of Canonsburg Borough, Houston Borough and North Strabane Township. The fifty-five-year-old says he plans to cross file for both the Democratic and Republican ballots in the upcoming May 20th Primary. Tenny is a native of Canonsburg who started his career as a police officer for both North Strabane Township and East Washington Borough. Tenny has been with the Canonsburg Police Department as a detective Sergeant for Narcotics and Intelligence as well as a task force officer for the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
February 20, 2025 3:50 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as President Donald Trump’s FBI director. The 51-49 vote Thursday puts the Trump loyalist atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency despite Democrats’ doubts about his qualifications and concerns he’ll do Trump’s bidding and go after the Republican president’s adversaries. Patel has fiercely criticized an agency that’s now gripped by turmoil. Trump’s Justice Department has forced out a group of senior FBI officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
February 20, 2025 2:38 pm
Long-time KDKA-TV reporter John Burnett has died. KDKA officials say Burnett, who was seventy-one, died of complications from suspected Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Burnett was hired by KDKA in 1982 as the new co-host of Evening Magazine. Burnett was a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, but came to be a much-loved Pittsburgher. In 1985, he also began co-hosting Pittsburgh 2Day. And, when both Evening Magazine and Pittsburgh 2Day ended in the early 90′, Jon returned to his roots as a weather forecaster. He retired from KDKA IN 2019. (Photo: Courtesy of KDKA Facebook Page)
February 20, 2025 1:15 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fellow senators have clapped for Mitch McConnell after he announced he won’t seek reelection next year. The Kentucky Republican is ending a decadeslong tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce populism of President Donald Trump. McConnell chose his 83rd birthday on Thursday to share his decision to retire when his current term ends in January 2027. McConnell is the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history. McConnell helped forge a conservative Supreme Court and steered the Senate through tax cuts and presidential impeachment trials. McConnell says he still has “some unfinished business to attend to.” (Photo: AP)
February 20, 2025 5:12 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Relations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump are deteriorating rapidly. Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space,” and Trump called Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections” in comments that were sure to complicate efforts to end the war. Zelenskyy also said he would like Trump’s team “to be more truthful” as he offered his first response to a series of striking claims that Trump made a day earlier, including falsely suggesting that Kyiv was to blame for the war, which enters its fourth year next week.
February 20, 2025 5:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly installed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told agency employees that a commission formed by President Donald Trump will investigate the childhood vaccine schedule and other issues as a way to examine the rise in chronic diseases. The announcement on Tuesday raises questions about the promise he made during his confirmation hearings to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician. Cassidy harbored deep misgivings over Kennedy’s anti-vaccine advocacy, but said Kennedy had promised not to change the nation’s current vaccination schedule. Cassidy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
February 20, 2025 5:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS plans to lay off roughly 7,000 workers in Washington and around the country beginning Thursday. That’s according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to discuss them publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The layoffs affect probationary employees with roughly one year or less of service at the agency and largely include workers in compliance departments. Compliance work includes ensuring that taxpayers are abiding by the tax code, filing their returns and paying their taxes, among other duties. It’s unclear how the layoffs may affect tax collection services this year. The IRS has roughly 90,000 employees total across the United States.
February 20, 2025 5:04 am
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas has handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who have long been feared dead and had come to embody the nation’s agony following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The militant group said it released the remains of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted. Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day. Hamas has said all four were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
