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.
November 19, 2025 2:27 am
The Shapiro Administration is highlighting $343 million in infrastructure projects in Southwestern Pennsylvania. PennDot District 12, that covers Washington, Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties paved 77 miles and repaired or replaced 106 bridges. In Washington County, PennDot reconstructed the intersection of Bebout Road and East McMurray Road in Peters Township. They replaced the bridge carrying Rt. 18 over Chartiers Creek in North Franklin Township. Also on Rt. 18 the bridge that carries the road over Catfish Creek in Washington was replaced. PennDot Assistant District 12 Executive for Construction Bill Beaumiriage said that “District 12 is proud of the bridge and roadway improvements completed across our region in 2025. Each project represents the commitment of our team and parters to deliver safe, reliable and lasting infrastructure for the communities we serve.”
November 19, 2025 2:19 am
A panel of three federal judges has blocked Texas from using a new congressional map that Republicans drew in hopes of picking up five U.S. House seats. That map had touched off a nationwide redistricting battle and is a major piece of President Donald Trump’s efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority ahead of the 2026 elections. In a 2-1 ruling Tuesday, a panel of federal judges in El Paso sided with opponents who argued that Texas’ unusual summer redrawing of congressional districts would harm Black and Hispanic residents. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed a swift appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and defended the map.
November 19, 2025 2:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is dismissing U.S. intelligence findings that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely had some culpability in the the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The comments came as Trump warmly on Tuesday welcomed the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia on his first White House visit in seven years. The U.S.-Saudi relationship had, for a time, been sent into a tailspin by the operation targeting Khashoggi. But now, years later, Trump has tightened his embrace of the 40-year-old crown prince, who he said is an indispensable player in shaping the Middle East in the decades to come. Prince Mohammed, for his part, denies involvement in the killing of Khashoggi.
November 18, 2025 3:11 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Both the House and Senate acted decisively Tuesday 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 the House bill is sent to the Senate.
November 18, 2025 10:52 am
A widely used Internet infrastructure company said that it has resolved an issue that led to outages impacting users of everything from ChatGPT and the online game, “League of Legends,” to the New Jersey Transit system early Tuesday. Around 10 a.m. ET, Cloudflare said it was “continuing to monitor for errors to ensure all services are back to normal.” Others platforms that experienced outages Tuesday included the social media site X, Shopify, Dropbox, Coinbase, and the Moody’s credit ratings service. Moody’s website displayed an Error Code 500 and instructed individuals to visit Cloudflare’s website for more information.
