January 19, 2025 8:44 am
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump will choose to lead the U.S. Secret Service one of the agents who covered him after a gunmen opened fire at the candidate during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump Jr. said his father will be naming Sean Curran, who heads the president-elect’s personal detail as special agent in charge, to be Secret Service director. “Sean is a great patriot and will stop all the insanity once and for all. There’s not a better person to be in this position!” Trump Jr. posted on X on Friday. The agency has been under scrutiny and pressure after Trump was wounded in the assassination attempt at a July 13, 2024 ,rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and after a second failed assassination attempt at his Florida golf course on Sept. 15. In the first attempt, Trump’s right ear was grazed by a bullet. He wasn’t injured in the second one. One of the main criticisms was that local and federal law enforcement agencies weren’t communicating effectively and that the lapse allowed the Pennsylvania gunman to climb to a rooftop and open fire on Trump. A counter-sniper shot and killed the gunman. (Photo: AP)
January 19, 2025 8:31 am
Steady, light snow is still expected from Pittsburgh to points south and east. Accumulation will generally be light in Pittsburgh, but because it’s so cold, roads could turn slick. Several inches are expected south and east toward the mountains, where impacts from snow will be highest. PennDOT is putting several speed and vehicle restrictions in place for expected snowfall. Steady snow is expected to fall in the Western Pennsylvania area over the next twenty-four hours. The restrictions will reduce roads to a 55 mph or 45 mph speed limit. Commercial vehicles will only be allowed to travel in the right lane. Several restrictions are planned to go into effect to keep the roads safe during the snowfall.
Sunday morning, the speed limit on I-79 from the West Virginia line to I-70 South Junction was reduced to 45 mph. That restriction ended approximately 1;30 pm Sunday.
Central & eastern Pennsylvania restrictions began Saturday evening, based on PennDOT’s 5-tier system. Tier 1 guidelines are in effect for:
- PA Turnpike I-76 from Carlisle (Exit 226) to Morgantown (Exit 298).
- I-81 from the Maryland border to I-78 (Exit 89).
- I-83, entire length.
- I-283, entire length.
Under Tier 1 restrictions, the following vehicles are not permitted on affected roadways:
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- Tractors without trailers.
- Tractors towing unloaded or lightly loaded enclosed trailers, open trailers or tank trailers.
- Tractors towing unloaded or lightly loaded tandem trailers.
- Enclosed unloaded or lightly loaded cargo delivery trucks/box trucks that meet the definition of a CMV.
- Passenger vehicles (cars, SUV’s, pickup trucks, etc.) towing trailers.
- Recreational vehicles/motorhomes.
- School buses, commercial buses and motor coaches.
- Motorcycles.
January 19, 2025 5:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump used a raucous rally on the eve of his inauguration to promise swift Day 1 action remaking the federal government, shifting federal priorities at breakneck speed and ensuring that “the curtain closes on four long years of American decline.” Supporters filled a 20,000-plus-seat arena in downtown Washington for a “Make America Great” victory celebration. They cheered as Trump said he’d take quick action on everything from cracking down on the U.S.-Mexico border to promoting oil drilling, reining in the federal workforce and eradicating diversity programs. He told the crowd: “We’re going to give them the best first day, the biggest first week and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history.”
January 18, 2025 8:47 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Millions of TikTok users in the United States are no longer able to watch videos on the social media platform as a federal ban on the immensely popular app takes effect. The company’s app was removed Saturday evening from prominent app stores, including the ones operated by Apple and Google, while its website told users that the short-form video platform was no longer available. The blackout began just hours before the law took effect. Apple said in a statement on its website that TikTok and ByteDance apps are no longer available in the U.S. and visitors to the country could have limited access. (Photo: AP)
January 18, 2025 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly eight years since its historic first march, the Women’s March is returning to the nation’s capital just before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Rebranded and reorganized, Saturday’s rally has a new name — the People’s March — as a means to broaden support. The march is expected to be about one-tenth that size of the first Women’s March in 2017 and comes amid a restrained moment of reflection as many progressive voters navigate feelings of exhaustion, disappointment and despair after Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in November. A goal of the organizers is to help progressive voters find their political homes in various participating organizations at the local, state and national level.
January 18, 2025 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — TikTok says it will have to “go dark” this weekend unless the outgoing Biden administration assures the company it won’t enforce a shutdown of the popular app after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal law banning the app unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company. The court ruled Friday the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the U.S. The court’s decision means new users won’t be able to download the app and updates won’t be available, but it won’t disappear from users’ phones.
January 18, 2025 4:08 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital with a barrage of drones and missiles Saturday, leaving at least four people dead, while industrial sites in Russia were set ablaze by Ukrainian strikes. Four people were killed in the Shevchenkivskyi district, said Kyiv City Military Administration head Timur Tkachenko on Saturday. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, also said that windows were broken and there was smoke at the entrance of a residential building. He also said the Lukyanivska metro station was shuttered after the attacks damaged its glass entrance.
January 18, 2025 4:06 am
CAIRO (AP) — Qatar’s foreign ministry says the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will go into effect at 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Sunday. Early Saturday morning Israel’s Cabinet approved the deal for a ceasefire in Gaza that would release dozens of hostages and pause the 15-month war with Hamas, bringing the sides a step closer to ending their deadliest and most destructive fighting ever. Under the deal, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The remainder, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second phase that will be negotiated during the first.
January 18, 2025 3:59 am
Freedom Transit is announcing that its Washington Transit Center will be closed on Monday, January 20, 2025, in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. All fixed route and shared ride services will operate on a normal schedule.
January 18, 2025 1:54 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will again consider whether voters should have to write the accurate date by hand on return envelopes used to send their completed mail-in ballots to be counted. The justices said Friday they will decide whether the dating rule for absentee and mail ballot return envelopes violates a state constitutional provision that elections must be free and equal. The exterior envelope dates aren’t used to verify whether a ballot has been received before the deadline. The case involves 69 mail-in ballots from two state House special elections that a Philadelphia judge had said should be counted even though they lacked the handwritten return envelope dates.
