April 26, 2024 5:13 am
BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China are butting heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials. Friday’s meetings started with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and then Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong. Talks between the two sides have increased in recent months even as differences have grown. Blinken and Wang underscored the importance of keeping lines of communication open, but they also lamented that divisions were becoming more serious. Their opening comments hinted at a long list of differences to be discussed, including Taiwan, the South China Sea, trade, human rights and China’s support for Russia.
April 26, 2024 4:59 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is again delaying a sweeping plan to ban menthol cigarettes. The decision is certain to infuriate anti-smoking advocates but could avoid angering Black voters ahead of November elections. Biden’s top health official said Friday the administration would take more time to consider feedback on the ban. The announcement is another setback for the health officials at the Food and Drug Administration. They drafted the ban and predicted it would prevent hundreds of thousands of smoking-related deaths.
April 25, 2024 5:24 pm
(WPXI) – Multiple kids were on board when a school bus and a pickup truck collided in South Fayette Township on Thursday. The crash happened near the intersection of Robinson Run Road and Battle Ridge Road at 3:55 p.m. A school bus and a pickup truck were involved in the crash. The school district confirmed four children and two employees were on the bus at the time of the crash. Minor injuries were reported.
April 25, 2024 12:45 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan says new rules that would force power plants fueled by coal or natural gas to capture smokestack emissions or shut down are targeting pollution that’s “pushing our planet to the brink.” The new limits unveiled Thursday on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-powered electric plants are the Biden administration’s most ambitious effort yet to roll back planet-warming pollution from the power sector. The rules are a key part of President Joe Biden’s pledge to eliminate carbon pollution from the electricity sector by 2035 and economy-wide by 2050. The National Mining Association claims the EPA is “dismantling the reliability of the U.S. electric grid.″
April 25, 2024 4:53 am
A standing room only crowd addressed North Strabane Township Supervisors at their non-legislative meeting Wednesday night to register their objections to a housing development bordering Peters Lake Park. Nearly a dozen residents told supervisors that they oppose the 41 unit development proposed to be built on North Spring Valley Road. Residents of North Spring Valley Road are concerned for their well water quality because construction may foul their drinking water. Currently, there is no provision to run public water to those residents. Traffic safety is also a concern because North Spring Valley’s construction is far from current township road standards and sight lines are being called into question. Residents that are adjacent to the lake registered emotional testimony asking supervisors to deny the application of the project so that the serenity they enjoy from the lake will not be disturbed. Supervisors did list more than a half dozen additional conditions that the developer, Laurel Communities, LLC would need meet. Terry Bove, of Laurel Communities says that he appreciates the community’s input and will study the proposed conditions when he receives them. Supervisors are expected to vote on the measure on April 30.
April 25, 2024 2:36 am
UPMC has announced that it will be laying off part of its workforce. In a statement, Paul Wood, the vice president and chief communication officer, said the health care system “continues to face the realities of a still-evolving, post-pandemic marketplace” and as a response to the ongoing challenges says “limited reductions are occurring.” Wood says the reductions are primarily taking place among non-clinical, non-member-facing, administrative staff through attrition, closing of open positions and elimination of redundancies, among other actions. “This realignment will not alter UPMC’s investments in our communities, facilities, commitment to clinical care and research, strategic growth, or to offering those throughout our workforce industry-leading benefits. Wood says the actions impact just over 1% of staff among its more than 100,000-person workforce, meaning at least 1,000 people are being impacted by the layoffs. Meanwhile, Republican State Representative Tim O’Neal issued a statement saying: “While I have great empathy for the UPMC staff who will be laid off, I have spoken to UPMC leaders, and its commitment to Washington Health System (WHS) will not change as a result of this announcement. “UPMC promises to retain all WHS staff for at least 10 years if the merger is approved. While today’s news is upsetting, without this merger, we risk losing local access to health care. I again urge Gov. Josh Shapiro to encourage the attorney general to approve the plan.”
April 24, 2024 2:33 am
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday morning for the four-point-five-million-dollar Char House Renovation Project at 251 Ninth Street in Charleroi Borough. Washington County Commissioners, along with federal, state and local officials were on hand to celebrate the project, which involved the replacement of the building’s electrical, plumbing and sanitary systems; new common area flooring and painting, the renovation of the community room kitchen and public restrooms, along with the kitchens, bathrooms, patio doors and windows of the apartments. In addition, the parking lot was also paved. Char House was built in 1979 on the site of the former Charleroi Ninth Street School. Residents of Char House must be sixty-two-years of age of older or persons with a disability, and their annual income cannot exceed 56-thousand-700-dollars for an individual or sixty-four-thousand-eight-hundred-dollars for two people.
April 25, 2024 4:10 pm
(WPXI) – A man is facing charges in the shooting death of his wife in Morgantown. Forty-nine-year-old Rick Cordes is charged with first degree murder for the death of his wife, 39-year-old Jennifer Hribar. The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office said officers were called to Falling Water Lane for a shooting on April 19th at around 8:30 p.m. First responders found Hribar with an apparent fatal gunshot wound, the sheriff’s office said. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The investigation is ongoing.
April 25, 2024 5:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court have ended after more than 2 1/2 hours in Donald Trump’s bid to avoid prosecution over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. The arguments had been scheduled to last for an hour Thursday but ran more than double the allotted time. The immunity case delved deep into the nuances and immunity, and key questions of when the high court might rule remain unclear. The court usually releases its opinions by the end of June, and the timing of the ruling could be as important as the outcome.
April 25, 2024 11:27 am
NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s highest court has overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial. The Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the judge at the disgraced movie mogul’s landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced him with improper rulings, including by letting women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case. The 72-year-old Weinstein is serving a 23-year sentence in New York. He’ll remain imprisoned because a 2022 conviction in a Los Angeles rape case resulted in a 16-year prison term. Weinstein’s lawyer called the reversal a “tremendous victory.” A dissenting judge called it part of a “disturbing trend” of reversals in cases involving sexual violence. (Photo: AP)
