Politics Election category, Page 60
AOC trades barbs with Fetterman, apologizes to Conor Lamb
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York reached out publicly to apologize to fellow Democrat and former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb. In a post on the social media platform X, AOC tweeted a response to Lamb’s post critiquing Democrat Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. Lamb, of Mt. Lebanon, lost to Fetterman...
Rosie O’Donnell wrote apology letter to Irish PM after his Trump meeting
Comedian Rosie O’Donnell revealed she wrote an apology letter to Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin after her name came up during his meeting with President Donald Trump in the White House. O’Donnell, 63, moved to Ireland after Trump was reelected as president. The two have famously feuded for years. During...
Emboldened Trump signals long court fight to expand power
President Donald Trump has ramped up his fight with the judiciary as he racks up losses in court over his administration’s efforts to reshape the U.S. government and its approach on everything from immigration to federal spending. Two months into his term, Trump is already fighting more than 150 lawsuits...
Second lady Usha Vance to visit Greenland as Trump talks up U.S. takeover
WASHINGTON — Second lady Usha Vance plans a trip to Greenland, the self-governing, mineral-rich territory of American ally Denmark that President Donald Trump has suggested the United States should take control over. Vance will leave on Thursday and return Saturday, according to her office. Vance and one of her three...
2 veteran Hempfield Area school board members decide not to seek reelection
Hempfield Area school board will see at least two new faces next year, as veteran members Paul Ward and Diane Ciabattoni are opting not to run for reelection. Board President Jerry Radebaugh and Vice President Scott Learn will seek another term, according to Westmoreland County records. The former Westmoreland County...
3 candidates vie for state House in Mon Valley special election race
A special election in the Mon Valley will determine control of the state House. The chamber has been gridlocked, with 101 Democrats and 101 Republicans, since the January death of state Rep. Matt Gergely, D-McKeesport. Gergely had represented the 35th Legislative District for just under two years. Looking to fill...
Some protest Musk’s DOGE efforts while others celebrate them outside North Hills Tesla dealer
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has too much power as he advises President Donald Trump and spearheads efforts to slash the size of the federal government through his DOGE Service, Isaac Elias said Saturday. It’s the reason Elias, 43, of Baden in Beaver County, helped organize a series of protests outside...
Legal experts weigh whether Trump has triggered constitutional crisis
President Donald Trump has long sought to flex the power of the presidency. Now that he is, some scholars say, Trump’s vision of a muscular executive branch has forced the nation into a constitutional crisis — or at least brought it to the brink of one. Erwin Chemerinsky, a leading...
Trump sketches the start of a roadmap for winding down the Education Department
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday began sketching a roadmap for dismantling the Education Department, with other agencies taking over responsibility for federal student loans and programs serving students with disabilities. The executive order Trump signed Thursday to do away with the department did not offer a timeline or...
Trump’s call to dismantle Education Department shows Republican rightward lurch and his grip on GOP
WASHINGTON — A little more than 23 years ago, Republican President George W. Bush sat at a desk at a high school in Hamilton, Ohio, and signed a law that would vastly expand the role of the Education Department and transform American schooling. On Thursday, his Republican successor, President Donald...
Trump has ordered the dismantling of the Education Department. Here’s what it does
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moving to fulfill a campaign promise, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, an agency Republicans have talked about closing for decades. The order says Education Secretary Linda McMahon will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by...
Trump orders a plan to dismantle the Education Department while keeping some core functions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing...
Here’s how some human rights and LGBTQ+ groups prepared for major foreign aid cuts under Trump
In early 2024, Matthew Hart took a hard look at the upcoming elections around the world and worried that the outcomes did not look promising. “What we knew was that the winds were not in our favor. The winds were not in our sail, and we saw all around the...
The release of a 1961 plan to break up the CIA revives an old conspiracy theory about who killed JFK
A key adviser warned President John F. Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the agency behind it, the CIA, had grown too powerful. He proposed giving the State Department control of “all clandestine activities” and breaking up the CIA. The page of Special...
Government cannot deport Georgetown scholar until court rules, judge orders
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered immigration officials not to deport a Georgetown scholar that the government detained until the court has had a chance to rule. U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that Badar Khan Suri “shall not be removed from the...
Pittsburgh leaders push back as possible HUD field office closure threatens low-income housing
As a single mother of five, Jala Rucker has depended on low-income housing to help to support her family. But with the federal government reportedly poised to close numerous U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development field offices — including Pittsburgh’s — through reorganization, the future of low-income housing hangs...
Pine-Richland School Board candidate pulls out of race amid accusation of falsifying petition signatures
A lawyer from Pine has withdrawn her candidacy in both primary races after a legal objection to her Democratic election petition alleged that several signatures were falsified. The objection, filed on March 17, questioned the authenticity of five signatures — 10 are required to run— on the petition of Kathleen...
Trump’s bluntness powered a White House comeback. Now his words are getting him in trouble in court
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s shoot-from-the-lip style kept Americans on the edge of their seats during last year’s campaign. But now that he’s speaking as a president and not as a candidate, his words are being used against him in court in the blizzard of litigation challenging his agenda. The spontaneity...
‘It was home’: Pittsburgh-area Ukrainian family hopes to someday return to Kyiv
Natalia Rusyn can still recall the terror she felt at the sound of air raid sirens and explosions shortly before she fled Ukraine in late 2022. “It was so stressful,” she said, quietly mourning her home country, under assault from Russia. “I was so scared.” Rusyn, 52, a pastry chef...
Trump orders a plan to dismantle the Education Department while keeping some core functions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing...
Trump will order a plan to dismantle the Education Department, advancing a campaign promise
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to eliminate an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However,...
What you need to know about Social Security policy changes
Several significant policy changes affecting Social Security recipients and applicants get underway this month. One of the changes is designed to help the Social Security Administration more quickly recover money from people it overpaid. Another aims to limit fraudulent claims. A third could speed up the time it takes to...
Carnegie Mellon, Reed Smith subjects of federal DEI crackdown
Two venerable Pittsburgh institutions are among those caught in the crosshairs of a governmentwide crackdown on efforts to provide equal opportunities for people. And unless they can credibly attest their efforts at inclusion are part of a plan to compensate for past discriminatory practices, they may be in violation of...
Legal showdown as Justice Department resists judge’s demand for more details on deportation flights
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is resisting a federal judge’s demand for more information about flights that took deportees to El Salvador, arguing on Wednesday that the court should end its “continued intrusions” into the authority of the executive branch. It’s the latest development in a showdown between the Trump...
Judge blocks Trump administration from terminating $14 billion in ‘green bank’ grants
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from terminating $14 billion in grants awarded to three climate groups by the Biden administration, saying the government’s “vague and unsubstantiated assertions of fraud are insufficient.” The order by U.S. District Judge Tonya Chutkan prevents — for now —...
