February 6, 2025 2:20 am
It took just over two hours for a jury to deliver a verdict in the trial of Jamil Carr who was convicted of killing 18 year old Antonio Martinez of Centerville, Tennessee during a fight at Jollick Manor in July of 2022. Carr was facing a criminal homicide felony charge. The jury returned a guilty verdict on a third degree murder charge. Carr was also convicted of a felony prohibited possession of a firearm charge. Reactions from family members were understandably diverse. Israel Cruz, father of Antonio Martinez said he is “glad justice was served.” Ciera King is the sister of Jamil Carr and she called the verdict “bogus” citing what she said was a lack of evidence to convict Carr. Carr will be sentenced in April.
February 5, 2025 4:49 pm
HONG KONG (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service is reversing course a day after placing a ban on all inbound packages from China and Hong Kong. The post office had announced Tuesday that it would no longer accept parcels from the China and Hong Kong after the U.S. imposed an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods and ended a customs exception that allowed small value parcels to enter the U.S. without paying tax. The Postal Service reversed course Wednesday but gave no reason. The post office pointed to the short prepared statement on the reversal when asked for more details about the reversal Wednesday by The Associated Press.
February 5, 2025 5:03 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The Waffle House restaurant chain is putting a 50 cent per egg surcharge in place temporarily because of the biggest bird flu outbreak in a decade. The restaurant, typically a reliable spot for a cheap breakfast, said that the resulting egg shortage has led to a dramatic increase in its costs. Bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. The chain’s two-egg breakfast, which comes with toast and a side, was listed at $7.75 on Tuesday.
February 5, 2025 5:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general. Her confirmation puts a longtime ally of Donald Trump at the helm of a Justice Department that has already been rattled by the firings of career employees seen as disloyal to the Republican president. Bondi is a former Florida attorney general and corporate lobbyist. She is expected oversee a radical reshaping of the department that has been the target of Trump’s ire over the criminal cases it brought against him. Bondi has sought to reassure Democrats that politics would play no part in her decision-making, but she has refused to rule out investigations into Trump’s adversaries.
February 5, 2025 4:59 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Donald Trump’s proposal that the United States “take over” the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents has been swiftly rejected and denounced by American allies and adversaries alike. Saudi Arabia weighed in quickly, noting the kingdom’s long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.” Similarly, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters that his country has long supported a two-state solution in the Middle East and that nothing has changed. the militant Hamas group, which sparked the war with its attack on Israel, called the proposal a “recipe for creating chaos” in the region.
February 5, 2025 4:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn’t waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation building. But just weeks into his second go-around in the White House, the Republican leader laid out plans to use American might to “take over” and reconstruct Gaza, threatened to reclaim U.S. control of the Panama Canal and floated the idea that the U.S. could buy Greenland from Denmark, which has shown no interest in parting with the island. The rhetorical shift from America First to America Everywhere is leaving even some of his allies slack-jawed — and wondering if he’s really serious.
February 5, 2025 4:50 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The deadline for federal workers to receive financial incentives to quit is approaching. More than 2 million employees have until Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET to decide what to do. Administration officials have been increasing their pressure on workers to leave, saying that furloughs or layoffs could come next. They also said that workers would have fewer civil service protections and higher scrutiny if they remain. The attempt to downsize the federal workforce has been spearheaded by Elon Musk, and it’s part of President Donald Trump’s effort to overhaul Washington. Democrats and unions have warned against accepting the deal, saying workers could be stiffed.
February 5, 2025 4:38 am
(AP) – President Donald Trump has signed an executive order designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in women’s or girls’ sporting events. Wednesday’s order, which Trump signed the document during an afternoon ceremony, marking another aggressive shift by the president’s second administration in the way the federal government deals with transgender people and their rights. The president put out a sweeping order on his first day in office last month that called for the federal government to define sex as only male or female and for that to be reflected on official documents such as passports and in policies such as federal prison assignments.
February 5, 2025 2:49 am
A local attorney says they are waiting on a response from a Washington County judge regarding a lawsuit filed against him alleging that he fired an employee in a retaliatory move after she raised concerns about some of the decisions he made regarding defendants who appeared before him. Attorney Noah Geary says his client, Elizabeth Sullivan, filed the lawsuit this week against Washington County Judge John DiSalle and former court administrator Patrick Grimm, accusing them of eliminating her job overseeing DiSalle’s problem-solving court two years ago, when she told judicial officials that DiSalle denied many veterans in the specialty court, the right to have an attorney present and even sentenced some to serve jail time. Geary says DiSalle and Grimm have twenty days to respond to the suit. Geary says Sullivan took her concerns to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) who said they found the allegations credible and they had taken appropriate action. Geary claims that shortly after that notification, DiSalle announced that he was stepping down as President Judge, but would remain a judge. The suit claims that the AOPC directed DiSalle to step down from the President Judge’s position. The suit seeks sizeable compensation and a return of Sullivan to a job at the county. Calls to Judge DiSalle have not been returned and Grimm no longer works for the county.
February 5, 2025 2:41 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will seek more money for public schools and public transit in his new budget proposal to lawmakers. The Democrat’s proposal unveiled Tuesday also reprises his support for legalizing marijuana and introducing taxes on skill games. Shapiro’s spending proposal requests $51.5 billion for the 2025-2026 fiscal year beginning July 1, or 9% more. About $2 billion more would go to toward human services, including medical care for the poor, and another $1 billion more would go toward K-12 schools and higher ed. The proposal holds the line on personal income and sales tax rates, but uses about $4.5 billion in reserve cash to balance the budget. Passage will require legislative approval. Local lawmakers are responding to the Governor plan. Republican State Senator Camera Bartolotta called it ‘ludicrous’ and ‘insane’ saying “he was claiming numbers that no one knows where he came up with them”. Republican State Representative Tim O’Neal called it ‘more of the same’. O’Neal says ‘instead of tightening the reins for the coming fiscal year, the governor wants to increase spending by 7.5%. This makes no sense and is not sustainable”. Bud Cook, the Republican State Representative in the 50th Legislative District questioned the 7.5% increase but also called out the governor’s “trend of pushing harmful energy taxes that kill jobs here in Western Pennsylvania and could directly tax coal and natural gas power plants, which would force customers into higher energy bills”.
