January 19, 2023 9:56 am
Washington County Commissioner Nick Sherman has officially announced his bid for reelection. The Republican, in a release, says conservatives in the County have recognized his “first term as resoundingly successful.” He pointed to a charge against harmful lock-downs and mandates during the pandemic, as well as filing a multi-county lawsuit against Governor Tom Wolf. Sherman says he “fought to safeguard the voting process, eliminating unsecured ballot drop boxes and cleaning the county voter rolls of 26,000 deceased and ineligible voters.” Sherman went on to say “he strongly opposed the referendum vote to form a Local Study Commission in Washington County. The commission would have studied the adoption of a Home Rule charter or other governmental systems. Sherman was born and raised in Washington County and currently resides in North Strabane Township.
January 19, 2023 8:49 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to their lowest level in 16 weeks, defying the Federal Reserve’s attempts to slow the economy and bring down inflation. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of Americans applying for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 14 fell by 15,000 to 190,000, from 205,000 the week before. The four-week moving average of claims, which can even out the week-to-week volatility, declined by 6,500 to 206,000. About 1.65 million people were receiving jobless aid the week that ended Jan. 7, an increase of 17,000 from the week before.
January 19, 2023 5:54 am
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has bared his frustration about not obtaining enough tanks from some Western countries to help Ukraine’s defend against Russian forces. The Ukrainian leader, at a breakfast Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, offered a veiled critique of countries like Germany, Poland and the United States – crucial supporters of Ukraine – that have nonetheless hesitated about sending tanks. Speaking by video link, Zelenskyy bemoaned a “lack of specific weaponry” and said that to win the war, “we cannot just do it with motivation and morale.” He thanked allies for the military aid so far but urged them not to hesitate on tanks.
January 19, 2023 5:51 am
A lifelong Washington County resident is looking to become the first female District Attorney in the County. Christina A. DeMarco-Breeden has announced her candidacy for the office and will seek the Democratic nomination in the May primary. She currently serves as a Deputy District Attorney in Somerset County and operates a private law practice here in Washington County. She previously served as a prosecutor in both Greene and Fayette Counties. DeMarco-Breeden is originally from Carroll Township and graduated from Ringgold High School. She attended Temple University and received her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She currently resides in Washington.
January 19, 2023 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court says an eight-month investigation has failed to find who leaked a draft of the court’s opinion overturning abortion rights. That investigation included more than 120 interviews and revealed shortcomings in how sensitive documents are secured. The court says 97 employees, including the justices’ law clerks, swore under oath that they didn’t disclose a draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade. It’s unclear whether the justices themselves were questioned about the leak. The court says its investigative team “has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
January 19, 2023 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Treasury Department says it has started taking “extraordinary measures” as the government has brushed up against its legal borrowing capacity of $38.381 trillion. The Department sent a letter to congressional leaders Thursday to that effect. Frictions between President Joe Biden and House Republicans are raising alarms about whether the U.S. can sidestep a potential economic crisis. Markets so far remain calm, as the government can temporarily rely on accounting tweaks to stay open. That means any threats to the economy are several months away. But this particular moment seems more fraught than past brushes with the debt limit.
January 18, 2023 3:31 pm
(AP) – Anti-abortion activists will have multiple reasons to celebrate – and some reasons for unease – when they gather Friday in Washington for the annual March for Life. The march has been held since January 1974 – a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision established a nationwide right to abortion. This year’s gathering will be the first since the high court struck down Roe in a momentous ruling last June. Since then, 12 Republican-governed states have implemented sweeping bans on abortion. But in the same period, abortion opponents were defeated in votes on ballot measures in Kansas, Michigan and Kentucky. And state courts have blocked several abortion bans from taking effect. (Photo: marchforlife.org)
January 18, 2023 3:28 pm
(AP) – Microsoft is cutting 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, as it joins other tech companies in a scaling back of their pandemic-era expansions. The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that the layoffs were a response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.” The company said it will also be making changes to its hardware portfolio and consolidating its leased office locations. The loss of employees is far less than how many Microsoft hired during the COVID-19 pandemic as it responded to a boom in demand for its workplace software and cloud computing services as people worked and studied from home.
January 18, 2023 11:35 am
A man was shot and killed in Greene County after a domestic situation ended with troopers exchanging gunfire with him. Forty-seven-year-old Frederick Lee Fonner Jr. allegedly fired a rifle at a family member at 334 Water Dam Road, Washington Township, Tuesday afternoon. Troopers say they responded and obtained an arrest warrant for Fonner just before 5 p.m. He allegedly refused to exit the home, so the Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team was called. According to officers, around midnight, Fonner started firing a gun from inside the home at them. They returned fire and entered the home to find Fonner dead. The investigation is ongoing.
January 18, 2023 8:39 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Wholesale prices in the United States rose 6.2% in December from a year earlier, a sixth straight monthly slowdown and a hopeful sign that inflation pressures will continue to cool. The latest year-over-year figure was down from 7.3% in November and from a recent peak of 11.7% in March. On a monthly basis, the producer price index, which measures costs before they reach consumers, dropped 0.5% from November to December. The producer price data can provide an early sign of where consumer inflation might be headed. The data reflects the prices that are charged by manufacturers, farmers and wholesalers, and it flows into an inflation gauge that the Federal Reserve closely tracks.
