December 19, 2024 5:05 am
Workers at seven Amazon facilities are on strike. The union said that the workers are joining the picket line Thursday after Amazon ignored a Sunday deadline the union set for contract negotiations. The workers had authorized strikes in the past few days. It will take place in New York, California, Illinois and Georgia. Amazon says it doesn’t expect an impact on its operations. The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at ten Amazon facilities. Amazon employs 1.5 million people in its warehouses and corporate offices.
December 19, 2024 2:13 am
The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission stopped by in Charleroi on Wednesday to conduct one of their “No Hate In Our State” town hall meetings. Members of the PHRC, local government and two activist organizations participated in a round table discussion on how to foster community and eliminate hate among varied community groups. Chad Dion Lassiter, Executive Director of the PHRC feels that community comes from within. Everyone knows inside of them the type of community in which they wish to live. They just need to live those values. Charleroi Borough Manager Joe Manning stated that one can not simply enact policies to diminish hate. He said that people need to elect officials that will lead the community in the type of society that they wish to live. Emily Holmes is the State Program Officer for Common Ground USA. She says that community gatherings attended by all groups are necessary to foster understanding, “it is hard to hate someone that you are having dinner with.” An audience participation segment spurred divergent opinions. John Lunt a Charleroi business owner feels that immigrants, Haitians in particular, are handed everything to them, especially drivers licenses. Jimmy Alexandre operates the Haitian Resource Center and he said his organization is looking to develop real relationships with residents of Charleroi. Borough Councilman Larry Celaschi indicated that information about the meeting was not well disseminated. He also pointed out that he would prefer that a panel be more diverse including members of the business community, residents and members of the minority communities. Prior to the meeting, information was released that up to 100 protestors would be at the meeting. Those protestors never showed.
December 18, 2024 5:48 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown. Instead, he’s telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate — days before a deadline when federal funding runs out. Trump’s sudden decision on Wednesday to make new demands sent Congress spiraling as lawmakers are trying to wrap up work and head home for the holidays. It leaves Johnson scrambling to salvage a new plan, days before Friday’s deadline to keep government open. “Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a statement.
December 18, 2024 5:14 am
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Community members in Wisconsin are continuing to wrestle with grief and calling for change in the aftermath of a school shooting that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others. Investigators are trying to determine a motive. The police chief says it appears to be a “combination of factors.” He’s urging anyone who knew the 15-year-old shooter’s feelings to reach out. The shooting occurred Monday at Abundant Life Christian School. The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Barnes said police are talking with the shooter’s father and other family members, who are cooperating.
December 18, 2024 5:13 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO is charged with murder as an act of terrorism. Prosecutors disclosed the indictment Tuesday as they worked to bring Luigi Mangione to New York from a Pennsylvania jail. The 26-year-old already had been charged with murder in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson. But the terror allegation is new. New York law allows prosecutors to bring such a charge when an alleged crime is “intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion and affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping.” Mangione’s New York lawyer declined to comment.
December 18, 2024 5:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point — its third cut this year — but also signaled that it expects to reduce rates more slowly next year than it previously envisioned, mostly because of still-elevated inflation. The Fed’s policymakers projected that they will cut their benchmark rate by a quarter-point just twice in 2025, down from their estimate in September of four rate cuts. Their new projections suggest that consumers may not enjoy much lower rates next year for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. The Fed’s expectation of just two rate cuts in 2025 rattled Wall Street, sending stock prices plummeting in the worst day for the market in four months.
December 18, 2024 5:10 am
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas official who’s an informal adviser to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team on immigration issues doesn’t expect mass deportations to prompt arrests of migrants at sensitive locations such as schools and churches. But Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach does expect Trump to take action that will spark a legal challenge over the citizenship status of children born in the U.S. to immigrants living in the country illegally. He also expects Trump to encourage local and state law enforcement officers to help with efforts to arrest and detain migrants. Kobach said Wednesday during an Associated Press interview that he’s in regular contact with Trump’s team.
December 18, 2024 5:09 am
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — Indiana has carried out its first execution in 15 years by putting to death a man convicted of killing four people decades ago, including his brother and his sister’s fiancé. The Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement that 49-year-old Joseph Corcoran was pronounced dead at the state prison in Michigan, City Indiana. Corcoran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention that drug. Court records indicate that before Corcoran fatally shot the four men, he was under stress because the forthcoming marriage of his sister and her fiancé would necessitate him moving out of the home he shared with his brother and sister. (Photo: AP)
December 18, 2024 5:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has delivered a likely death blow to bipartisan congressional budget negotiations. He’s rejecting the measure as full of giveaways to Democrats. Billionaire ally Elon Musk whipped up outrage toward the bill and cheered on Republican lawmakers who announced their opposition. Trump’s joint statement Wednesday with Vice President-elect JD Vance, which stopped the bill in its tracks, punctuated a daylong torrent of social media posts by Musk attacking the budget legislation as full of excessive spending. “Kill the Bill!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X as he dangled primary challenges against anyone who voted for the budget deal, a threat Trump later echoed in a post of his own.
December 18, 2024 5:06 am
Washington County Commissioners are expected to vote Thursday on a new policy that will determine how to respond to any future cyber attack. It comes after a ransomware attack crippled County government back in January. Russian hackers got into the county’s network and Commissioners then approved a payment of some $400,000 in February to allow the county to restore its computer system. At Tuesday’s agenda meeting, County Solicitor Gary Sweat asked Commissioner’s to consider a ‘Business Continuity and Disaster Contingency Plan’. No details were released. Commissioners meet Thursday morning at ten in the public meeting room at the Crossroads Building.
