February 23, 2025 7:38 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have little more than 48 hours to explain what they accomplished over the last week. The order is part of billionaire Elon Musk’s crusade to slash what he describes as “waste everywhere” in the federal government. Musk, who serves as President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, shared the extraordinary request on his social media network on Saturday. He said that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” Shortly afterward, federal employees received a three-line email telling them to share “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.” Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce during the first month of Trump’s administration.
February 23, 2025 7:47 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Donald Trump says he may put the U.S. Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department in what would amount to an executive branch takeover of the independent agency. Trump made the remarks Friday at the swearing-in of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He called the move a way to stop losses at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has struggled to balance the books with the decline of first-class mail. The Post Office was created during the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin became the first postmaster general. In recent years, the Postal Service has fought calls from Trump and others that it be privatized. (Photo: AP)
February 23, 2025 7:36 am
ROME (AP) — The Vatican says Pope Francis is still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen after doctors earlier said that the 88-year-old pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, was in critical condition. On Saturday morning, he suffered a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis while being treated for pneumonia and a complex lung infection. He also had blood transfusions to treat a low platelet count. He had a peaceful night and rested. The Vatican said he was still receiving supplemental oxygen on Sunday and more clinical tests were being conducted. (Photo: AP)
February 23, 2025 7:42 am
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked Congress to approve nearly $40 billion in aid to help the Los Angeles area recover from January’s devastating wildfires. Newsom sent a letter Friday asking for support from lawmakers. Newsom vowed that the funding would be used to rebuild homes, infrastructure, business, schools, churches and health care facilities. More than 16,200 structures were destroyed as flames ripped through Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Pasadena and Altadena. The governor said the fires could become the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Estimates of the total economic loss have been estimated to top $250 billion. (Photo: AP)
February 23, 2025 7:44 am
PARIS (AP) — Thieves used a stolen card to buy a winning French lottery ticket worth 500,000 euros or $523,000. But they vanished before cashing in. And now they’re among France’s most famous fugitives. The man whose card was stolen is offering to split the cash with the lucky winners. Prosecutors could try to seize the winnings by considering them illegally obtained gains. The thieves meanwhile face the risk of arrest if they turn in the ticket. The victim’s lawyer has launched a national appeal asking them to come forward so that they can share the money. France’s state lottery operator said that no one had submitted the ticket to cash out as of Saturday.
February 23, 2025 7:21 am
YORK, Pa. (AP) — A man armed with a pistol and carrying zip ties entered a Pennsylvania hospital’s intensive care unit Saturday and took staff members hostage before he was killed by police in a shootout that also left an officer dead, authorities said. Three workers at UPMC Memorial Hospital, including a doctor, a nurse and a custodian, and two other officers were shot and wounded in the attack, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said. A fourth staffer was injured in a fall. Gunfire erupted after officers went to engage the shooter, whom Barker identified as Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49. He said Archangel-Ortiz was holding at gunpoint a female staff member who had her hands bound with zip ties when police opened fire. “This is a huge loss to our community,” Barker said at a press conference following the shooting. “It is absolutely clear, and beyond any and all doubt, that the officers were justified in taking their action using deadly force.” Barker added that while the investigation is in its early stages, it appears Archangel-Ortiz had previous contact with the hospital’s ICU earlier in the week for “a medical purpose involving another individual” and he intentionally targeted the workers there. (Photo: UPMC)
February 23, 2025 7:28 am
(WPXI) – A high-profile mystery in Butler County remains unsolved years after 8-year-old Cherrie Mahan vanished. Janice McKinney is still haunted by unanswered questions about what happened to her little girl 40 years ago Saturday. “Nobody understands how much I would love to have my daughter back in my life,” McKinney said. On February 22, 1985, Cherrie mysteriously disappeared near her home in rural Butler County after getting off the school bus. There’s been no trace of the 8-year-old ever since. After four decades of exhaustive searches, tips and leads turned up empty, Cherrie’s mom has never given up hope. “Never, ever,” McKinney said. “Not until I have a bag of bones, not until I have that child standing in front of me. And I know that she’s not a child but until I know for sure, I’m never giving up. Friends, family and even strangers packed the VFW in Saxonburg Saturday to try to breathe new life into a case that’s gone cold. Trooper Jim Long with Pennsylvania State Police said they’re still actively investigating every lead they get. “It’s been decades, so the information that we have, a lot of it is the same information we’ve had before – misidentification of vehicles, things like that, so the more time passes the more difficult it gets.” State police said there is nothing new in the case. They are asking anyone with information on Cherrie’s disappearance to call PSP Butler at 724-284-8100.
February 22, 2025 4:30 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The move Friday sidelines a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a targeted campaign to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks. Brown is only the second Black general to serve as chairman. His 16 months in the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East. But Brown’s future was called into question during the Senate Armed Services Committee’s confirmation hearing for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
February 22, 2025 4:24 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas freed the first two of six Israeli hostages due to be freed Saturday under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The two hostages — Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39 – were put into Red Cross ambulances after being brought out onto a stage by masked and armed Hamas fighters in front of a crowd in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The ambulances then headed toward a nearby crossing into Israel. The latest hostage release, to be followed by the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, is going ahead after tensions mounted over a heart-wrenching dispute triggered this week when Hamas initially handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys.
February 22, 2025 4:27 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As Ukraine approached the three-year mark of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the country’s hoped-for path to a favorable and lasting peace has been upended in a matter of days by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Kyiv had benefited from years of staunch support by its allies in the United States and Europe which had provided crucial military and financial support to help defend against Moscow’s grinding incursions. But when Trump held a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week — undoing years of U.S. policy to isolate the Russian leader — it was taken as a signal in Kyiv and other European capitals that their alliance to contain Moscow was fraying.
