May 6, 2023 3:59 am
The Washington County Chamber of Commerce held a luncheon on Friday to announce their 2023 Athena Leadership Award winner. Dr. Kacey Marra was honored this year. Marra is the Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. She also is an instructor in the Department of Bioengineering. Marra is also the founder and CEO of the medical device company Nerve Repair Technologies. Her company is focused on developing a biodegradable device that will revolutionize nerve regeneration for those with traumatic injuries. Marra has mentored over 300 students in high school, college, graduate and medical students. Kacey lives in Canonsburg with her husband and three children. The Athena Award is presented by Chambers of Commerce, women’s organizations and universities to individuals who demonstrate leadership qualities consistent with the Athena Leadership Model and have attained the highest level of professional excellence.
May 5, 2023 3:26 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is resigning. Dr. Rochelle Walensky says the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic is a good time to make a transition. She sent a resignation letter to President Joe Biden and announced the decision at a CDC staff meeting Friday. Her last day will be June 30. Walensky was previously an infectious-diseases specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She had no experience running a government health agency when she was sworn in on the first day of the Biden administration. (Photo: AP)
May 5, 2023 12:53 pm
(WPXI) – Gateway High School students were evacuated and then dismissed early – due to two threats received this morning. According to a notice on Gateway’s website, the school received a Safe to Say alert – indicating a social media threat was circulating across western Pennsylvania that didn’t specify a district or school. That threat was determined to be a swatting incident. Then, the high school principal received a follow-up Safe to Say alert indicating a bomb was placed inside the high school. The building was then evacuated around eleven o’clock and Monroeville police were called in to search the building.
May 5, 2023 9:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers added a healthy 253,000 jobs in April, evidence of a labor market that still shows surprising strength despite rising interest rates, chronically high inflation and a banking crisis that could weaken the economy. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, matching a 54-year low. But the jobless rate fell in part because 43,000 people left the labor force, the first drop since November, and were no longer counted as unemployed. The government said that while hiring was solid in April, it was much weaker in February and March than it had previously estimated. And hourly wages rose last month at the fastest pace since July, which may alarm the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve.
May 5, 2023 4:28 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has met with the heads of Google, Microsoft and two other companies developing artificial intelligence. President Joe Biden briefly dropped by the meeting in the White House’s Roosevelt Room and told the CEOs, “What you’re doing has enormous potential and enormous danger.” The Biden administration is rolling out initiatives meant to ensure the rapidly evolving AI technology improves lives without putting at risk people’s rights and safety. The Democratic administration announced a $140 million investment to establish seven AI research institutes. The White House Office of Management and Budget intends to issue guidance in the next few months on how federal agencies can use AI tools.
May 5, 2023 4:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group have been convicted of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election. A jury in Washington, D.C., found Tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy after hearing from dozens of witnesses over more than three months. It is one of the most serious cases brought in the stunning attack that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, as the world watched on live TV. Jurors cleared a fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, of the sedition charge, though he was convicted of other serious felonies.
May 5, 2023 4:24 am
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police said early Friday they had arrested a suspect in a series of shootings that killed at least eight people and wounded 14, the nation’s second such mass shooting in two days. The arrest followed an all-night search by hundreds of police, who sealed off an area south of Belgrade where the shooting took place. The shooting came a day after a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns to kill eight fellow students and a guard at a school in Belgrade in the nation’s first mass shooting in ten years.
May 5, 2023 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Month after month, the nation’s job market has stood its ground against howling headwinds — rising interest rates, chronic inflation, major bank failures and economic uncertainties across the world. Hiring has gradually slowed, along with pay growth and job openings. Yet by historical standards, the labor market has remained surprisingly strong, with an unemployment rate still hovering near half-century lows. When the Labor Department issues the April jobs report Friday morning, it’s expected to show that the trend has continued: Forecasters have predicted that employers added 182,000 jobs last month. That would be a respectable gain that would show that many employers still need to fill jobs.
May 5, 2023 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican donor paid two years of private school tuition for a child raised by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Thomas didn’t disclose the payments. That confirmation of a published report comes from a lawyer who’s represented Thomas and his wife, Virginia. The revelation of tuition payments made by Dallas billionaire Harlan Crow is the latest example of Crow’s generosity to Thomas and his family. And it’s raising more questions about Thomas’ ethics and disclosure requirements in general. The payments, along with the earlier examples of Crow’s financial ties to Thomas, were first reported by the nonprofit investigative journalism site ProPublica.
May 5, 2023 4:20 am
Consumers who used TurboTax may soon get reimbursement from a $141 million multi-state settlement. About 4.4 million consumers will receive checks in the mail as a result of the multistate settlement with TurboTax’s owner, Intuit. Pennsylvania will receive more than $4.76 million for the 158,779 consumers who paid to file their federal tax return for a service that should have been provided for free, state Attorney General Michelle Henry announced. Eligible consumers will be contacted by email about the settlement, and checks are expected to be mailed in May. In 2022, attorneys general from Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Texas, and Washington announced the agreement with Intuit for deceiving millions of low-income Americans into paying for tax services that should have been free. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have signed the agreement. Eligible consumers include those who paid to file their federal tax returns through TurboTax for 2016, 2017 and 2018, but were eligible to file for free through the IRS Free File Program. Those who are eligible will receive a check in the mail automatically, without filing a claim. The amount each consumer receives will be based on the number of tax years for which they qualify. Most who are eligible will receive $29 to $30. For more information, visit www.AGTurboTaxSettlement.com.
