November 18, 2024 5:16 am
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has named the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Brendan Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel,” including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk.
November 18, 2024 5:12 am
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Some Arab Americans are expressing concern over Donald Trump’s picks for key positions in his next administration. The picks have been described as a pro-Israel “dream team” by a conservative group that helped with his outreach in the Jewish community. Arab Americans in Michigan helped Trump become the first Republican in over 20 years to win Dearborn, the nation’s largest majority-Arab city. Republicans who helped with Trump’s outreach with Arab Americans say it’s too soon to judge him based solely on the picks for his Cabinet and that he will be the final decisionmaker on policy. The two Trump advisers who led his outreach to Arab Americans have not secured appointments yet in Trump’s next administration.
November 18, 2024 1:52 pm
(AP) -The United States Postal Service might have found a way to unite a nation bitterly divided after this month’s election: It’s releasing a Betty White stamp. The beloved actor known for roles in “The Golden Girls,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Boston Legal,” and others will be on a 2025 Forever stamp. White died in late December 2021, less than three weeks before her 100th birthday. The Postal Service called White “an icon of American television” and said she “shared her wit and warmth with viewers for seven decades.” The stamp will depict a smiling White based on a 2010 photograph by celebrity photographer Kwaku Alston. (Photo: AP)
November 17, 2024 5:10 am
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Man-yi has left at least seven people dead in a landslide, destroyed scores of houses and displaced large numbers of villagers before blowing away from the northern Philippines, worsening the crisis wreaked by multiple back-to-back storms. Man-yi was one of the strongest of the six major storms to hit the northern Philippines in less than a month. Disaster response officials said Monday they are checking if the reported deaths of two other villagers were directly related to Man-yi’s onslaught in eastern Camarines Norte province. They say a search is underway for a couple and their child after their shanty was swept away in rampaging rivers in northern Nueva Ecija province.
November 17, 2024 6:15 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. antitrust watchdogs that pounced on Big Tech and deterred dealmaking throughout corporate America during President Joe Biden’s administration may be tamer and kept on a shorter leash by President-elect Donald Trump after he returns to the White House next year. Although regulators began to crack down on Google and Facebook during Trump’s first term as president, most experts are expecting his second administration to ease the Biden-era crackdown that resulted in additional cases targeting Apple and Amazon as abusive monopolies. And the Trump administration is expected to clear be more receptive to big businesses becoming bigger after the hypervigilance of Biden’s antitrust team squelched many deals from getting done.
November 17, 2024 6:11 am
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Tropical Storm Sara is the third named storm to emerge this November, serving up a reminder that the Atlantic hurricane season isn’t quite over. Sara has dumped torrential rains in Central American since it made landfall Thursday on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. Scientists say we are seeing an unusually active end to the 2024 hurricane season that officially ends Nov. 30. The National Hurricane Center says November generally has one tropical storm every year or two and a hurricane roughly every other year. University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy says 66 hurricanes have been recorded during November since 1851.
November 17, 2024 6:07 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russia has launched 120 missiles and 90 drones in a large-scale attack across Ukraine targeting its energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia deployed various types of drones including Shaheds, cruise and ballistic missiles. He said Ukrainian defensed shot down 140 air targets. Russian strikes have hammered Ukraine’s power generation capacity since Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, prompting repeated emergency power shutdowns and nationwide rolling blackouts. The combined drone and missile attack was said to be the most powerful in three months.
November 17, 2024 6:04 am
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide. That’s according to excerpts from a new book, “Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims towards a better world” by Hernán Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the pope. The book will be published on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 jubilee. Francis had editorial control over the book. He said in excerpts published by Italian daily La Stampa on Sunday that some experts say “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide” but that we “should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
November 17, 2024 3:57 am
Washington County Commissioners released a statement on Friday indicating that there will be no tax increase in the county for the 2025. The proposed budget is a balanced budget and comes in at $132,362,650. The statement says that commissioners have been monitoring the growth of government and has been limiting department budget increases. Evaluations of jobs and the necessity of filling vacant positions has been closely studied. Additionally, out of state travel for county employees has been banned as a cost savings measure. The county has seen $215 million in new property assessments. Chief among those assessments is the addition of 2500 new residential units. The budget will see a 4% increase in the Human Services department. According to commissioners, the increase is a result of the expansion and increased access to the Human Services department. Capital improvements that will be in progress this year will be the county 9-1-1 emergency radio system and a new public safety building. The final budget will be approved in December.
November 17, 2024 4:04 am
After years of planning and development the Mon Valley Business Resource Center is officially open. The center aims to help support future and existing small businesses within the mid Mon Valley region expand and grow through training, collaboration and support. The BRC is designed as both a program and a physical space, providing educational opportunities and support for local small organizations to succeed. The programs range from a partnership for business ideas with W&J College, job training, networking opportunities and access to resources. The BRC says the center will help local businesses bridge the geographical gap the Mon Valley faces being about 30 mins from both Pittsburgh and Washington – where a majority of the region’s business transactions occur. The center is located in the former Community Bank Building at 235 West Main Street in Monongahela and is open Monday through Friday from 9a to 5p.
