March 20, 2025 2:15 am
Washington County Commissioners will work through a rather day to day agenda Thursday evening when they meet for their final meeting for March. There is an agenda item that will see continued progress for the new Public Safety Building. Commissioners will vote on a measure to award a demolition contract to Adamo Demolition of Detroit, Michigan. The contract is for $1,555,700 to demolish the Courthouse Square Building. No date has been set for the demolition. Commissioners will also vote on a measure to approve an agreement between the Redevelopment Authority of Washington County and the North Strabane Township Municipal Authority to extend sanitary sewer service to Somerset Township. The project is budgeted for $10,000 and will be financed by Pennsylvania Act 13 Marcellus Shale funds. Thursday’s evening meeting will begin at 6:30 PM.
March 20, 2025 4:50 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Education Department. The Republican president announced his plan Thursday. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979. And the White House says the department would not close completely right now. It is to retain certain critical functions, like managing federal student loans and Pell grants.
March 20, 2025 4:43 am
SOUTH FAYETTE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – The treasurer of a local youth football organization is facing charges after police say she stole nearly $65,000. In October 2024, the president of the South Fayette Township Youth Football Association reported suspicions to the police. The president said Treasurer Jaella Starr Richard, 41, of Bridgeville, provided an Excel spreadsheet showing the association’s finances in June 2024 but told the board she was still working on updating it at every meeting after that. A statement from the organization’s Key Bank account showed only $745 remained but the president said Richard last reported over $60,000 in the account. Officers went through the bank statements from the account for November 2023 through October 2024. Court documents said those statements showed several Venmo transactions had been made to Richard’s husband, payments had been made to Amazon and checks had been written to an apparent relative. In total, police said $64,742.75 was taken from the football association’s account. The 70 Venmo payments made to Richard’s husband totaled $56,450 and another $1,855.82 was sent to Amazon. Authorities believe the money was used to make mortgage, credit card and utility payments and pay for entertainment, like Netflix, and food. Richard faces six different felony charges including dealing in the proceeds of illegal activity, theft by unlawful taking and unlawful use of a computer.
March 20, 2025 4:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged Wednesday and signaled that it still expects to cut rates twice this year, though more policymakers forecast fewer cuts. The Fed also now expects the economy to grow more slowly this year and next than it did three months ago, according to a set of quarterly economic projections also released Wednesday. It also expects the unemployment rate to tick higher, to 4.4%. Policymakers also expect inflation will pick up slightly by the end of this year, to 2.7% from its current level of 2.5%. Bother are above the central bank’s 2% target.
March 20, 2025 4:58 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Social Security Administration’s plan to require in-person identity checks for millions of new and existing recipients has drawn ire from lawmakers, advocacy groups and program recipients who are concerned that the government is placing barriers in front of people seeking to access their benefits. The agency announced Tuesday, that beginning March 31st, those who cannot properly verify their identity through an online service will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process. To complicate matters, Social Security field offices across the country will also be closing.
March 20, 2025 4:54 am
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Lawyers for Joshua Roshua Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud University in Minnesota who is believed to be the last person to see missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki in the Dominican Republic, say he has left the Caribbean country. Following a trial exceeding five hours, Judge Edwin Rijo ruled that Riibe, classified as a witness in a disappearance case, should have full rights under Dominican law and unrestricted freedom of movement.It was not immediately clear where Riibe traveled after leaving the Dominican Republic.
March 20, 2025 2:37 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has suspended approximately $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania over the participation of a transgender athlete in its swimming program. That word comes Wednesday from the White House. The Ivy League university has been facing an Education Department investigation focusing on in its swimming program. That inquiry was announced last month immediately after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports. But the federal funding was suspended in a separate review of discretionary federal money going to universities.
March 20, 2025 4:56 am
CHAMPAGNE, France (AP) — The number 200 is top of mind across wine country in France, Italy and Spain, Europe’s top producers of wine. That’s because last week, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a tariff of 200% on European wines, Champagne and other spirits if the European Union didn’t back down from imposing retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. products. Europe’s wine industry is the latest to find itself in the crosshairs of a possible trade spat with the U.S. For now, many producers are hoping that Trump’s threat doesn’t come to fruition.
March 19, 2025 5:21 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged Wednesday and signaled that it still expects to cut rates twice this year, though more policymakers forecast fewer cuts. The Fed also now expects the economy to grow more slowly this year and next than it did three months ago, according to a set of quarterly economic projections also released Wednesday. It also expects the unemployment rate to tick higher, to 4.4%. Policymakers also expect inflation will pick up slightly by the end of this year, to 2.7% from its current level of 2.5%. Bother are above the central bank’s 2% target.
March 19, 2025 5:17 pm
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Donald Trump has suggested to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the U.S. should take ownership of Ukrainian power plants to ensure the critical facilities’ security. According to a White House statement, Trump told Zelenskyy during a call Wednesday that the U.S could be “very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise.” Trump added that “American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure.” The idea was floated even as the Trump administration looks to finalize an agreement to gain access to Ukraine’s critical minerals as partial repayment for U.S. support for Ukraine during the war. Wednesday’s call, which both sides say went well, comes weeks after Zelenskyy’s disastrous White House visit.
