March 7, 2025 2:57 am
Washington City Council hired their new city administrator. Richard Cleveland has been appointed to the position that is being vacated by Donn Henderson next month. Cleveland will begin work with the city on March 18 and his salary will be $74,000. According to Mayor JoJo Burgess, Cleveland brings a wealth of experience to the city from the private sector as he performed work for several municipalities in Washington and Greene Counties. There will be an approximate 30 day overlap with Henderson to allow Cleveland to get on his feet quickly. As anticipated council adopted changes to the property maintenance ordinance adopting the 2021 edition of the International Property Maintenance Code. They also adopted changes to the quality of life ordinance raising the $25 dollar fine to $50 to cover increased costs of enforcement. At the end of the meeting, Mayor JoJo Burgess made a statement that asks all residents to treat city employees with respect. He indicated that a recent event alarmed an employee when a resident became irate with them over a policy enacted by council. Burgess simply stated that if a resident has a complaint about policy or law, come to the mayor and council. City employees only perform the tasks assigned. The argument that you have belongs between the residents and council and employees are not to receive the thrust of frustration over something they had no control over implementing.
March 7, 2025 1:52 am
An addition to the agenda to the Washington County Commissioners voting meeting shortly after the scheduled agenda meeting has caused some confusion among the board. Commissioners voted 2-1 to cancel a maintenance contract with MRA Inc. That company is the vendor for the current emergency radio system in the county. According to Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman, the contract with MRA Inc was cancelled over cost and timeline regarding a move of an antenna from the Courthouse Square Building to the Crossroads Building to allow demolition of the Courthouse Square Building to begin. Cost was also an issue according to Sherman. Though no figures were disclosed, Sherman said that the new vendor, Capital Communications, can perform the work more quickly and at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper than MRA Inc. Sherman says that Capital Communications is already under contract with the county to work on the new emergency radio system installation. Sherman went on to say that Capitol Communications is fully capable of performing the work and maintenance of equipment that MRA Inc was contracted to perform. Commissioner Larry Maggi voted against the measure, stating that this contract was cancelled last August without proper vetting, only to be reinstated in October. He says that he has not seen any figures that Sherman reports and wonders why the contract was not put out for bid.
March 7, 2025 4:53 am
Trinity Area School Board authorized awarding a bid proposal of $458,623 from Blueprints for developing and implementing a preschool program during the 2025-2026 school year. The program will be funded through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a federal initiative for local education. The programs will be located in Trinity East and Trinity South Elementary Schools. Another adjustment which will be done at Trinity South is the baseball field of the school has had drainage problems during heavy rainstorms and will be leveled prior to the beginning of the season. In a separate motion, the board authorized the district’s administration to reset the bidding process on a new Visual Emergency Notification System. The district would like to acquire a system with additional features of digital signage, wireless screen mirroring, and general announcements capability. The new system will be merged into the district’s existing technology infrastructure, 280 Promethean ActivPanels and 40 display/televisions used for digital signage in six buildings. In other matters, the board also approved the purchase of a new Fusion Epilog Laser Engraver from Allegheny Educational Systems, Inc at the cost of $15,636.40. The machine is funded from General Funds of Pennsylvania Education Purchasing Program for Microcomputers and will be installed in Trinity Middle School.
March 7, 2025 12:13 am
Incumbent Magisterial District Judge James Saieva Jr. has announced he will seek reelection. He has served in that capacity for the past five years for the Canonsburg area. He ran for office in 2019 after retiring from the Canonsburg Police Department after more than twenty-five years as a police officer. He also worked for both the Hanover Township and Houston Borough Police Departments. In his announcement, Saieva points to instituting a campaign promise and changing office hours to accommodate citizens when scheduling their hearings and extending office hours on Monday’s until 6 p.m. He is a graduate of Canon-McMillan High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Edinboro University. He also is a graduate of the Municipal Police Academy at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Saieva is a Republican but plans to cross-file.
March 8, 2025 1:42 am
Washington and Jefferson College Students and business leaders in Washington County were treated to a rare program. Jose Miguel Aleman Healy, Panama’s Ambassador to the United States shared his views on the history and current relationship between Panama and the United States. He stepped back in history to when business titans in the U-S negotiated with Panama in the 1850’s to build the Panama Railroad that preceded the Panama Canal by nearly fifty years. He detailed the business relationship with the U-S describing Panama’s trade deficit with the U-S as a 10:1 ratio in favor of the U-S. His description of Panama’s economy is one based in logistics. He detailed diverse business opportunities available in his county. He was particularly adamant about the United States maintaining its lead in creativity in innovations both in business and technology. He admires the United States Education system for that creativity and says the creativity is what keeps the United States as a world leader over other countries such as China that copy other country’s innovations. He says that Panama is looking to tap into that innovation by having American universities expand into their country. Panama has recently met with Carnegie Mellon University for that reason. Attorney Frank Botta is a graduate of W&J and invited Ambassador Aleman Healy to speak. He hopes that the visit will open an opportunity for W&J to take advantage of the expansion plan.
March 6, 2025 2:48 am
A man charged with attempted homicide who was mistakenly released from the Washington County Jail is back in police custody. Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh says numerous Washington County police units swarmed a house on Murtland Avenue Wednesday afternoon and captured a fugitive who had been released from the Washington County Jail by mistake last December. Walsh says that Samuel Valle who was to appear in court last week on attempted homicide charges is now in custody. Walsh says a woman associated with Valle was arrested and she faces a criminal charge of harboring, among others. Authorities say the Sheriff’s Fugitive Unit, along with Washington County Detectives, State Police, City of Washington Police and Washington County SWAT were all involved in the apprehension. Valle was in jail – charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment after police say he shot at a man following a house party and gunfight at a home in Charleroi in September of 2023. He was accidentally released from custody in December, but the Washington County District Attorney’s Office wasn’t aware until late February. Washington County commissioners say they will be collaborating with the county courts to identify where the mistake occurred and ensure it doesn’t happen again.
March 7, 2025 5:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expressing uncertainty that NATO would come to the United States’ defense if the country were attacked. That’s despite the alliance doing just that after Sept. 11 in what was the only time that the Article 5 defense guarantee has ever been invoked. He also suggested Thursday that the United States might abandon its NATO commitments if member countries don’t meet defense spending targets. Trump mentioned France during his remarks, saying if he called them and said, “We got a problem,” he’s “not so sure” they would protect the United States. French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying that he and his country are “loyal and faithful allies” to the U.S.
March 7, 2025 4:59 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has given the Trump administration until Monday to speed up payment toward some of nearly $2 billion owed to partners of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. Thursday’s decision thaws the administration’s six-week funding freeze on all foreign assistance. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled in favor of nonprofit groups and businesses that sued over the funding freeze, which has forced organizations around the world to slash services and lay off thousands of workers. Ali issued his order a day after a divided Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to freeze funding that flowed through USAID.
March 6, 2025 5:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump acted illegally when he fired a member of an independent labor agency, and the judge ordered that she be allowed to remain on the job. National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox sued Trump after he fired her and the agency’s general counsel. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., found that Trump did not have the authority to remove Wilcox. Government attorneys argued that NLRB members should be “removable at will to ensure democratic accountability.” Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on the five-member board in its 90-year history.
March 7, 2025 5:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s ever-changing, on-again, off-again tariff war with America’s three biggest trading partners – Mexico, Canada and China — is baffling businesses and causing them to delay or cancel the investments that help drive economic growth. Trade wars complicate the decisions businesses have to make – which suppliers to use, where to locate factories, what prices to charge. During Trump’s first-term trade battles, U.S. business investment weakened late in 2019, convincing the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate three times in second half of the year to provide some offsetting economic stimulus. Trump 2.0 is proving even more unnerving to business.
