November 20, 2025 1:22 am
Former Washington City Councilman Matt Staniszewski has been sentenced to house arrest for violating his probation for a DUI incident in Bedford County in 2022. According to court records on line, Staniszewski pleaded guilty to a DUI second offense charge in March of 2022 that saw him serve 30 days in jail with a three year probation sentence to follow. In June of 2024, Staniszewski was arrested for his third DUI in Allegheny County. He pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to seven years probation. That guilty plea triggered the probation revocation in Bedford County on November 17 and Staniszewski was sentenced to serve 30 days to 23 1/2 months confinement followed by 12 months probation. He was transferred to Allegheny County where he had a review hearing Wednesday and is now on house arrest. (File Photo)
November 19, 2025 4:27 pm
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal agents have now arrested more than 250 people during an immigration crackdown in North Carolina centered around Charlotte, the state’s largest city. Those totals released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are about double the arrest figures announced earlier this week. The operation that began over the weekend is the latest phase of Republican President Donald Trump’s aggressive mass deportation efforts. Military and immigration agents have converged on Democratic-run cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. The push to carry out arrests in North Carolina expanded to areas around the state capital of Raleigh in just the last day.
November 19, 2025 4:25 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Labor Department said Wednesday that it will not be releasing a full jobs report for October because the 43-day federal government shutdown meant it couldn’t calculate the unemployment rate and some other key numbers. Instead, it will release some of the October jobs data — most importantly the number of jobs that employers created last month — along with the full November jobs report, now due a couple of weeks late on Dec. 16. The department’s “employment situation″ report usually comes out the first Friday of the month. But the government shutdown disrupted data collection and delayed the release of the reports. For example, the September jobs report, now coming out Thursday, was originally due Oct. 3.
November 19, 2025 4:24 pm
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey has hit another hurdle. The Justice Department acknowledged in court Wednesday a possible lapse in how the case was presented to a grand jury. The revelation that the full grand jury didn’t review a copy of the final indictment came during a hearing where Comey’s lawyers asked a judge to throw out the case on grounds the government is being vindictive. Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of making a false statement and obstructing Congress. President Donald Trump’s Justice Department says Comey was indicted because he broke the law, not because Trump ordered it.
November 19, 2025 7:25 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Target’s third-quarter profit tumbled as the retailer struggles to lure shoppers that are being pressed by stubbornly high inflation. The Minneapolis company said Wednesday that it expects its sales slump to extend through the critical holiday shopping season. Investors have punished Target’s stock recently, sending it down 43% over the past year. Shares slipped in premarket trading.
November 19, 2025 5:58 am
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal agents have expanded their North Carolina immigration crackdown to the area around the state capital of Raleigh. The crackdown spread fear in at least one immigrant-heavy suburb where restaurants closed and many people stayed home. The North Carolina operation began over the weekend in the state’s largest city, Charlotte, where officials said more than 130 people have been arrested. Mayor Janet Cowell said she did not know how large the operation would be or how long agents would be present. Immigration authorities have not spoken about it.
November 19, 2025 5:57 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal agents are set to conduct a major immigration crackdown called “Swamp Sweep” in New Orleans in the coming weeks. The operation aims to arrest around 5,000 people across southeast Louisiana and Mississippi. People familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press the deployment is expected to start in early December. This is part of a series of nationwide immigration crackdowns under the Trump administration. Republican Governor Jeff Landry has fully supported aligning state policy with federal immigration. Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol commander known for large-scale immigration crackdowns, will oversee the operation. The plan includes agents fanning out across neighborhoods and commercial hubs, with staging sites planned at the FBI field office and a nearby naval base.
November 19, 2025 5:55 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Both the House and Senate have acted decisively to pass a bill to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It’s a remarkable display of approval for an effort that had struggled for months to overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership. Trump now says he will sign the bill. Just hours after the House passed the bill, the Senate approved a motion to pass the bill with unanimous consent once it is sent to the Senate. For survivors of Epstein’s abuse, passage of the bill was a watershed moment in a years-long quest for accountability.
November 19, 2025 4:31 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy says it’s loaning $1 billion to help finance the restart of the nuclear power plant on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island to supply power to data centers for tech giant Microsoft. The loan announced Tuesday will lower the borrowing costs for Constellation Energy, which owns Three Mile Island’s lone functioning nuclear power reactor. The reactor had been mothballed for five years when Constellation Energy announced last year that it would spend $1.6 billion to restart it under a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to buy the power. It hopes to bring the plant back online in 2027.
November 19, 2025 4:09 am
Washington County Commissioners will be looking to authorize a measure for a letter of intention submission to the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs in an effort to have Washington County Human Services department operate drug and alcohol addiction programs under a Single County Authority designation. During the agenda setting meeting, Cheryl Andrews, Executive Director of the Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission asked that the motion be removed from the agenda or at least tabled to have further conversation. At issue is Washington County’s plan to have the County Human Services Department be the lead organization for addictions programs. In Andrew’s view, that would be pushing aside the more than 20 years of work helping those with addiction performed by the WDAC. She feels that the County taking over an addictions program would add too much bureaucracy. Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman says that a report provided by the Hill Group supports the county becoming the Single County Authority for addictions programs. He says that centralization of human services programs is key to success. Many people that suffer other difficulties can trace those difficulties to addiction, therefore the need for centralization. Commissioner Larry Maggi disagrees with Sherman saying that he is concerned about the budget by adding approximately a dozen people to the county payroll. He also says that the WDAC has done a great job for more than 20 years and sees no reason for the county to absorb the work that they do.
