January 21, 2025 3:51 pm
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order Monday to keep TikTok operating for 75 days, a relief to the social media platform’s users even as national security questions persist. TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance was supposed to find a U.S. buyer or be banned on Jan. 19. Trump’s order could now give ByteDance more time to find a buyer. Former President Joe Biden declined to enforce the bipartisan measure that he signed into law, while Trump has pledged to keep TikTok open after crediting it for helping his 2025 election victory. Trump’s legal authority to preserve TikTok is unclear under the terms of the law recently upheld unanimously by the U.S. Supreme Court. (Photo: AP)
January 21, 2025 1:45 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Garth Hudson, the Band’s virtuoso keyboardist and all-around musician who drew from a unique palette of sounds and styles to add a conversational touch to such rock standards as “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight” and “Rag Mama Rag,” has died at age 87. Hudson was the eldest and last surviving member of the influential group that once backed Bob Dylan. His death was confirmed Tuesday by The Canadian Press, which cited Hudson’s friend, Jan Haust. Additional details were not immediately available. Hudson had been living in a nursing home in upstate New York. No matter the song, Hudson summoned just the right feeling or shading, whether the tipsy clavinet and wah-wah pedal on “Up on Cripple Creek,” the galloping piano on “Rag Mama Rag” or the melancholy saxophone on “It Makes No Difference.” The only non-singer among five musicians – Hudson mostly loomed in the background, but he did have one showcase: “Chest Fever,” a Robbie Robertson composition for which he devised an introductory organ solo (“The Genetic Method”), an eclectic sampling of moods and melodies that segued into the song’s hard rock riff. (Photo: AP)
January 21, 2025 5:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed Marco Rubio as secretary of state, giving President Donald Trump the first member of his Cabinet. The vote was unanimous. Senators went back to work Monday night in the Capitol after Trump’s inauguration. Rubio is among the least controversial of Trump’s nominees. Another pick, John Ratcliffe for CIA director, is also expected to have a swift vote, as soon as Tuesday. Action on other Trump Cabinet picks, including former combat veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, is expected later in the week. It’s typical for the Senate to confirm some of a new president’s top Cabinet positions on Inauguration Day.
January 21, 2025 5:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has passed a bill that would require federal authorities to detain migrants accused of theft and violent crimes. It’s the first measure that President Donald Trump likely will sign into law and gives more weight to his plans to deport millions of migrants. Trump has made a broad crackdown on illegal immigration his top priority. The Laken Riley Act is named after a Georgia nursing student whose murder by a Venezuelan man last year became a rallying cry for Trump’s White House campaign. The bill now heads back to the Republican-controlled House, which passed its version earlier this month and will need to approve changes made in the Senate.
January 21, 2025 5:11 am
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Officials in Turkey say that a fire has raged through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in the northwestern part of the country during a school holiday, killing at least 76 people. They said at least two of died when they jumped from the building to escape the flames. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says at least 51 people also were injured in the fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, in Bolu province’s Koroglu mountains, some 300 kilometers east of Istanbul. The fire occurred near the start of a two-week winter break for schools, when hotels in the region are packed.
January 21, 2025 5:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s action Monday paves the way for the release from prison of people found guilty of violent attacks on police, as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep the Republican in power after he lost the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden. The pardons are a culmination of Trump’s yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack that left more than 100 police officers injured.
January 21, 2025 5:07 am
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Officials in Turkey say that a fire has raged through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in the northwestern part of the country during a school holiday, killing at least 76 people. They said at least two of died when they jumped from the building to escape the flames. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says at least 51 people also were injured in the fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, in Bolu province’s Koroglu mountains, some 300 kilometers east of Istanbul. The fire occurred near the start of a two-week winter break for schools, when hotels in the region are packed.
January 21, 2025 5:00 am
A search for a man involved in a one-vehicle crash early Tuesday morning has been called off. Washington County 9-1-1 dispatchers say a woman called and reported that she was talking to her boyfriend when he was involved in a crash. Dispatchers say the unidentified man was traveling from Bridgeville and they were able to locate a pickup truck on its side in the 3000 block of Reissing Road in Cecil Township around 2:30 a.m. The man had fled on foot when first responders arrived and dispatchers say he continued to run from them as they searched for him. The search was called off just after 4 a.m. No other information is available at this time
January 21, 2025 4:47 am
PITTSBURGH — A Cold Weather Advisory remains in place until early Wednesday afternoon. The worst of the wind chills will be Tuesday morning with many areas feeling like 8 to 15 degrees below zero. It will feel as cold as -25 degrees below zero in the mountains. Scattered snow showers will be in the area after lunch making untreated surfaces slick. While the wind eases Tuesday night, actual air temperatures could drop to double digits below zero to start Wednesday morning in parts of the area. This bitter cold air should begin to lift out of the area by the end of the week. Make sure to be prepared for the cold weather. Use caution when traveling, make sure to have extra layers and a blanket with you, limit time outdoors, and keep pets inside. Don’t forget to protect pipes as they could freeze in this extended cold stretch.
January 21, 2025 4:39 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has defended his decision to pardon people convicted of assaulting police officers during the attack on the Capitol and suggests there could be a place in U.S. politics for the Proud Boys extremist group, quickly evoking some of the controversies of his first term. Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to use his first hours in office to pardon hundreds of people who participated in violence at the Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021, including the former leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy charges but released from prison after Trump signed his order.
