February 10, 2023 3:39 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — When a giant Chinese balloon made an uninvited visit to the United States, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin turned to a hotline system set up with Beijing to defuse the situation. Austin ran into one problem with U.S.-China crisis communications in his Feb. 4 call, however. Often, as happened with Austin last week, top Chinese military officials refuse to get on the line. Sometimes, Chinese officials don’t even pick up. Former U.S. defense officials and other China experts cite fundamental differences in the way U.S. and Chinese leaders view the value of crisis hotlines.
February 10, 2023 3:38 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — A Washington-area mother and special education teacher has announced her candidacy for Register of Wills in May’s Republican Primary. South Strabane resident Christi Wiles Thomas made the announcement official Thursday. Wiles Thomas is a former county real estate broker and graduate of W&J College and Chatham University. She has served as a special education teacher with Agora Cyber Charter School for 10 years. Wiles Thomas says she chose to run at this time to do what she enjoys most — being around the people of the county and to be the conservator of such unique times of peoples’ lives. The candidate says she intends to honor what is going well with honest communication, as well as tweak what needs to be tweaked for the benefit of the residents.
February 10, 2023 3:30 am
KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey (AP) — A teenager was pulled largely unscathed from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Gaziantep early Friday, in a dramatic rescue that belied the reality four days after a catastrophic earthquake that killed more than 20,000, that the possibility of finding many more survivors was increasingly unlikely. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the border region between Turkey and Syria, an area home to more than 13.5 million people. Bodies lay wrapped in blankets, rugs and tarps in the streets of some cities, with morgues and cemeteries overwhelmed.
February 10, 2023 3:25 am
The Canon-McMillan School Board held their agenda meeting Thursday night and special attention was paid to the recent Auditor General Special Performance Audit that was released recently. Director of Business and Finance Joni Mansmann prepared a report for school directors to give context to what was included in the district’s response to that report. In it Mansmann points out that the district is within acceptable guidelines for fund balances especially when the report incorrectly included construction bond money as a part of the fund balance for the year in question. Mansmann pulled her report that includes all traditional school districts and cyber schools and charter schools from data supplied by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Mansmann’s report showed that as a percentage of revenue for the year in question Canon-McMillan’s fund balance was 9.7% of revenue. That placed them at 578 out of 672 schools in the state. The item that drew great attention, in the top 25 schools that have what could be termed excessive fund balances only six schools were traditional brick and mortar school districts. The other 19 are either cyber schools or charter schools. The Bryn Athyn School district is carrying the largest fund balance at 338% of revenue. Four cyber schools are next with fund balances of 85% to 150% of revenue. Mansmann stated that it is critical to have a fund balance in case of unforeseen repairs that are not budgeted for. She also pointed out that not one cyber or charter school was selected for the report and that their fund balances far outweigh anything that many brick and mortar districts carry.
February 10, 2023 1:25 am
The man accused of shooting and killing a McKeesport police officer and wounding another has been released from the hospital. Morris is accused of killing Officer Sean Sluganski (pictured) and injuring Officer Charles Thomas Monday. Police were responding to a call from his mother, who said the military veteran was having a PTSD episode. Morris allegedly fled from police when they tried talking to him, ending up in a yard in the 1300 block of Grandview Avenue. Witnesses driving on Grandview Avenue told police Morris approached them and told them police were trying to kill him. He asked them to film him, which they did, according to court documents. The witnesses told police that soon after, Officer Thomas, driving a police car, pulled into an alley off 1300 Grandview Avenue, and Officer Sluganski arrived on foot. Morris pulled out a gun and shot Officer Thomas and then shot Officer Sluganski, according to court documents. Morris was shot in the leg when Officer Thomas returned fire. He fled to a nearby convenience store, where a man applied a tourniquet to his leg before more officers arrived and took Morris into custody. Morris was taken to the Allegheny County Jail after being released from the hospital. He is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, assault of a law enforcement officer and criminal attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
February 10, 2023 1:21 am
All regular county functions are expected to resume as normal Friday after Washington County officials called for the evacuation of the Courthouse and several adjacent buildings Thursday. Commissioner Chairwoman Diana Irey-Vaughn, in a press conference confirmed that four suspicious packages were delivered to one elected official and three other county offices on Thursday morning. One of those packages was opened and seemed to contain a powder substance. Out of an abundance of caution the person that opened the package was taken to an unnamed hospital. Commissioners immediately evacuated the courthouse, Courthouse Square and Crossroads Commons. The county jail was put on lockdown. Washington County Public Safety was able to perform an initial analysis of the opened package and determined that it did not contain any harmful substances. Another unofficial report indicates that some of those packages may have been delivered to common pleas court judges’ chambers. The incident is under investigation by the FBI and the United States Postal Service Inspector.
February 10, 2023 1:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has been hospitalized after feeling lightheaded while attending a Senate Democratic retreat. Fetterman suffered a stroke last year while campaigning. In a statement Wednesday night, the office of the Pennsylvania Democrat says initial tests do not show evidence of a new stroke. The senator’s communications director, Joe Calvello, says in the statement that doctors are running more tests and that the senator remains at George Washington University Hospital for observation. Fetterman’s defeat of celebrity heart surgeon Mehmet Oz was critical to Democrats maintaining their Senate majority.
February 9, 2023 10:48 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Popular composer Burt Bacharach has died at 94. Working with lyricist Hal David, Bacharach penned a long run of hit songs, many of them for Dionne Warwick. They include “Walk On By” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose.” The Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning Bacharach also helped write the themes for such films as “Arthur” and “What’s New, Pussycat?” Bacharach died Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, publicist Tina Brausam said Thursday. Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivaled his genius for instantly catchy songs that remained performed, played and hummed long after they were written.
February 9, 2023 9:17 am
More Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, but layoffs remain historically low despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate policy intended to cool the economy and bring down inflation. Applications for jobless aid in the U.S. for the week ending Feb. 4 rose by 13,000 last week to 196,000, from 183,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It’s the fourth straight week claims were under 200,000. Jobless claims generally serve as a proxy for layoffs, which have been relatively low since the pandemic wiped out millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.
February 9, 2023 4:22 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Walt Disney Co. says it will cut about 7,000 jobs as part of a “significant transformation” announced by CEO Bob Iger (pictured). The job cuts amount to about 3% of the entertainment giant’s global workforce and were announced Wednesday after Disney reported quarterly results that topped Wall Street’s forecasts. Iger returned as CEO in November following a challenging two-year tenure by his handpicked successor, Bob Chapek. The company says the job reductions are part of a targeted $5.5 billion cost savings across the company. In its latest results, solid growth at Disney’s theme parks helped offset tepid performance in its video streaming and movie business.
