Tom Fontaine stories, Page 4
Long day of Senate budget votes no ‘trip to the beach’ for Fetterman
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, would rather be anywhere than Washington. On Monday, Fetterman and his Senate colleagues began considering a series of proposed amendments to President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts. The process was expected to take all day. “Oh my God, I just...
Pa. lawmakers to miss budget deadline, but don’t expect lengthy impasse
Pennsylvania’s state government is expected to start the new fiscal year Tuesday without a spending plan in place. That’s not unusual. The state budget has been adopted by the statutory June 30 deadline just eight times in the past 21 years. Legislative leaders say they are confident this budget impasse...
Deluzio, Lee support proposal to give Congress control over military action in Iran
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio supports a proposal that would prevent President Donald Trump from ordering the further use of military force in Iran without authorization from Congress. Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, and 11 fellow House Democrats — all of them veterans — wrote a letter to the White House indicating their...
Poll: Majority of Democrats want new party leadership
Nearly two out of three Democrats think their party needs new leadership, according to a poll released Thursday. The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that 62% of Democrats surveyed agreed with the statement that “the leadership of the Democratic Party should be replaced with new people,” while 24% disagreed and 14% weren’t...
‘It’s a scary time in politics,’ state Sen. Kim Ward says following Minnesota shootings
Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward spent part of her Saturday afternoon installing more security cameras around her Hempfield home. Another act of political violence inspired the home project. And yet, in today’s turbulent political climate, Ward says no amount of home security will be able to put her...
U.S. House votes to pull $1.1B in funding for NPR, PBS
The U.S. House voted Thursday afternoon to slash nearly $1.1 billion in federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports local NPR and PBS stations such as Pittsburgh’s WESA-FM radio and WQED-TV. The Rescissions Act, which also would cancel $8.3 billion in foreign aid spending, passed the Republican-led...
President Aaron Rodgers? Bookmaker gives Steelers QB a 500-to-1 shot
So you’re saying there’s a chance? Newly signed Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has the best odds among current and former professional sports stars to become the next president of the United States, according to betonline.ag. At 500-to-1, he shares the same odds as LeBron James, Peyton Manning, Steve Garvey...
Fetterman: Dems lose ‘moral high ground’ when they don’t condemn protest violence, vandalism
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman slammed fellow Democrats who have not condemned incidents of violence and vandalism that have marred protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s immigration raids there. “I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations and immigration — but this is not that,” Fetterman, D-Braddock, said in...
Trump looks to sell Tesla after feud with Musk
It was a costly spat. As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk feuded on social media Thursday afternoon, shares of Musk’s Tesla Inc. plummeted more than 14% — erasing $150 billion of the electric vehicle maker’s value. Investors weren’t the only ones looking to dump Tesla. Trump is looking to...
U.S. Rep. Deluzio hopes Trump-Musk rift sinks Trump’s budget
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, said he hopes Thursday’s social media spat between President Trump and his former senior adviser Elon Musk prompts senators to rethink Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “Folks might be surprised that Elon Musk agrees with me: this is a bad bill,” Deluzio said...
Summer Lee grills U.S. Education secretary on DEI policiesVideo
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, grilled Education Secretary Linda McMahon over her department’s DEI policies and accused the Trump administration of trying to rewrite history on Wednesday during a congressional hearing. During a tense exchange, McMahon refused to give a “yes” or “no” answer when asked if teaching students that...
John Fetterman loses another top staffer in Senate office
Another top aide is leaving U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s staff. The departure of chief of staff Krysta Sinclair Juris, first reported by Axios, is the latest in a string of departures from the Braddock Democrat’s office staff. “I’m grateful for Krysta’s work. She’s been an invaluable member of the team...
Fetterman, McCormick find common ground on many issues, split on budget plan
U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick have found common ground on a number of key issues during their first five months working together in Washington, but they acknowledge it’s unlikely they’ll agree on President Trump’s budget plan. Fetterman, D-Braddock, and McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, appeared together Monday at a forum in...
Rocky Bleier names Trump ‘honorary Steeler’ during West Mifflin event
President Donald Trump called an audible early in his speech Friday night in West Mifflin, temporarily shifting focus away from a $14 billion agreement between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel to recognize a trio of Pittsburgh Steelers. Former Steelers legend Rocky Bleier, who was joined on stage by current Steelers...
Madonna-Emmerling, Adams earn Democratic nominations for Allegheny County Council
A pair of Democrats looking to replace incumbents on Allegheny County Council won convincingly Tuesday night in the only two contested primary races for council. In District 1, Moon’s Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling collected 76.1% of the votes counted as of 11 p.m. compared to 23.5% for Carl Villella of Moon, according...
What you need to know for the primary election in Western Pa.
Six months ago, more than three-quarters of Pennsylvania’s registered voters cast ballots in the general election after being bombarded for months by campaign ads and seemingly nonstop news coverage of the presidential race. This year’s primary election, culminating Tuesday with in-person voting across the state, has been low-key by comparison....
Turnout for Western Pa. primaries gets bump from mail-ins, but still draw fewer than 1 in 3 voters
Fewer than one in three registered voters in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties are expected to cast a ballot in this year’s primary. That may seem paltry, particularly compared with November’s hotly contested presidential election when voter turnouts in the two counties approached or exceeded 80%. But this year’s projected turnouts...
Eddie Vedder has special connection to Pittsburgh’s Clemente Museum. Here’s why.
Iconic Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has described Pittsburgh’s Clemente Museum as one of his “top five places on the whole planet Earth.” Vedder — who returns to Pittsburgh this weekend for a pair of sold-out shows at PPG Paints Arena — isn’t just an admirer of the late baseball...
Western Pa. universities work to address antisemitism on campuses as incidents soar nationally
The Anti-Defamation League asserts college campuses have become an “epicenter of American antisemitism,” with nearly 1,700 incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and violence occurring on campuses last year alone. Western Pennsylvania’s two largest universities — the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University — say they have been working to...
Where did all the Democrats go? In suburban Pittsburgh counties, they’re harder to find in elected office
Democrats are disappearing from elected office in the six counties surrounding Allegheny County. Just 13 Democrats combined serve as county commissioners or row officers in Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, compared to 57 Republicans. Only about a decade ago, nearly three times as many Democrats — 38...
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick reports Trump administration making progress on trade deals
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said Friday the Trump administration is making progress toward finalizing trade deals with multiple countries. McCormick said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told him during a meeting this week that “a number of countries had come forward with very specific proposals, in the dozens,” and the...
Carnegie Mellon president joins university leaders in condemning ‘unprecedented government overreach’
Presidents of nearly 200 U.S. colleges and universities, including a dozen in Pennsylvania, have co-signed a letter condemning what they called “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” by the federal government. Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian was the lone co-signer from a Southwestern Pennsylvania institution. A Carnegie Mellon spokeswoman...
Conor Lamb and Lindsay Powell ‘stand in’ for Fetterman and McCormick at Swissvale town hall
More than 200 people filled a Swissvale church basement Wednesday night for a town hall featuring what organizers called two stand-ins for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick. One of the stand-ins, former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, told TribLive prior to taking the stage that he felt the...
Trump’s new insult ‘Panican’ becomes part of tariff debate
Fresh from Donald Trump’s insult factory is a new word: Panican. Trump unveiled the linguistic invention Monday in social media posts calling out those critical of his newly imposed tariffs. “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t...
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick on Trump tariffs: ‘Let’s give it a little time’
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said Monday after touring an East Pittsburgh manufacturing facility that it’s too soon to pass judgment on the sweeping tariffs imposed last week by President Donald Trump. “There’s a lot of uncertainty (over the tariffs) right now. I think over the coming days and weeks a...
