logo
Allegheny County confirms appointment of new at-large Republican to fill vacant seat

Allegheny County confirms appointment of new at-large Republican to fill vacant seat

CBS News12-02-2025
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Allegheny County Council has confirmed the appointment of a new at-large Republican.
Mike Embrescia will fill the seat that was vacated by Sam DeMarco. DeMarco stepped down from council in January to become U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick's southwestern Pennsylvania regional director.
In a news release, council described Embrescia as "a seasoned executive with a distinguished career in technology and commercial real estate." Embrescia, who is the chief development officer at Carnegie Robotics, lives in Mt. Lebanon with his wife Jessica and their two young daughters.
"I am honored to be appointed to Allegheny County Council and am committed to serving the residents of Allegheny County. I look forward to bringing my experience and enthusiasm to Council, and working collaboratively to make our community stronger," Embrescia said in a news release.
He told council that he would bring his knowledge of real estate development, business creation and company management to the job as well as energy and enthusiasm.
Embrescia lost an election for the District 5 seat in 2023 but still continued "his positive stewardship in the community," council said.
Council President Pat Catena welcomed Embrescia, saying, "Mike's passion and dedication to improving our community are evident, and I look forward to working with him to achieve our shared goals. His diverse experience and collaborative approach will be invaluable to the council."
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

I Watched the Senate Break Down. Here's How to Fix It.
I Watched the Senate Break Down. Here's How to Fix It.

Politico

time3 minutes ago

  • Politico

I Watched the Senate Break Down. Here's How to Fix It.

But any senator could still object and delay the process, placing a hold on a nominee and extracting concessions in exchange for lifting it. While presidents never liked horse-trading over personnel, they understood the game. During the Reagan administration, Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts lifted his eight-month hold only after surgeon general nominee C. Everett Koop promised to keep his personal religious views out of public health policy. In the 1990s, Sen. Jesse Helms of South Carolina brought the entire Foreign Relations Committee to a standstill until the Bill Clinton administration relented on an up-or-down vote on his plan to reorganize the State Department. Holds were powerful — wielded strategically — but never for routine obstruction. That balance began to unravel during the Obama years, when Republicans filibustered judicial picks to the D.C. Circuit, demanding a roll-call vote and a 60-vote threshold for confirmation. In 2013, Democrats responded by invoking the so-called 'nuclear option,' eliminating the 60-vote threshold for most executive branch and judicial nominees, thus making it easier to confirm nominees with only one party's support. In response to Democrat-orchestrated slowdowns during Trump's first term, Republicans expanded the same rule to include Supreme Court nominees and also cut debate time for most others from 30 hours to two hours to make it easier to get their own nominees through. By the end of the first Trump administration, a majority of votes taken in the Senate, 64 percent, were nominations. At the outset of Biden's term, it was clear that with the slimmest of Democratic majorities, we couldn't vote through 1,200 confirmed positions one by one. There wasn't enough floor time, not even close. We had to reawaken Washington's dormant dealmaking culture. That meant negotiating, and it started at the top. Sen. Mitch McConnell didn't support most of our agenda. But as Republican minority leader at the time, he cared deeply about protecting the Senate's prerogatives, especially when it came to Republican-designated seats on independent boards and commissions. While that norm had already started to erode during Trump's first term, we stuck to it. We put forward McConnell's picks. In return, he helped move ours. It wasn't always popular in the West Wing. Some White House colleagues bristled at the idea of naming Republicans who weren't aligned with Biden's policies. But we weren't handing out favors. We were honoring an old Senate practice to keep the confirmations moving. With an agreement in hand, we revived the art of pairing nominees: bundling a Democrat and a Republican as a negotiated package. Tying their fates together gave both sides something to gain, helping us expedite confirmations at regulators like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Pairing was the easy part. The trickier work was getting through the individual holds that came from all corners of the Senate. Some members were repeat players. Sometimes they had real concerns. Often, they didn't. Our job was to find out what they wanted anyway.

Don't California my Ohio: Cincinnati mob attack shows state is heading in a dangerous direction
Don't California my Ohio: Cincinnati mob attack shows state is heading in a dangerous direction

Fox News

time30 minutes ago

  • Fox News

Don't California my Ohio: Cincinnati mob attack shows state is heading in a dangerous direction

As an Ohioan, I've watched with horror as my home state, the heart of the heartland faces a crisis ripped straight from California's playbook. On July 26, 2025, a mob in downtown Cincinnati brutally attacked four people including Holly, a single mom now suffering from severe brain trauma. Violent crimes like these are a wakeup call to our national conscience. "Don't California My State" has become a national warning, but even in Republican strongholds like Ohio, weak local leadership has invited in California-style chaos fostering victim-shaming and mob rule. It's time to reject this betrayal and restore law and order. The viral footage from Cincinnati's Fourth and Elm is chilling as four victims attacked by a mob while 100 bystanders watched, some filming, and only one calling 911. Holly, celebrating a friend's birthday stepped in to help someone being assaulted and was knocked unconscious. Her life has changed forever. And instead of leadership, Councilwoman Victoria Parks shamelessly claimed online that the victims "begged for that beat down." This kind of victim-shaming is pulled straight from California's soft-on-crime script where leaders deflect blame instead of jailing violent offenders. Parks' words aren't only heartless but represent a complete collapse of moral and civic responsibility. The Cincinnati crisis is a direct result of the Democrat-led policy failures that began in 2020. Soft on crime policies emboldened criminals and endangered communities. Cities like Los Angeles, Minneapolis and now Cincinnati are paying the price. And even in Republican-led states like Ohio, Texas and Florida, we're not immune when local leaders import this failed ideology. Cincinnati's police force has been gutted by nearly 200 officers due to the "defund the police" movement. Democrat Mayor Aftab Pureval was vacationing in Canada as the attack went viral, issuing a weak response only after immense public pressure and outrage days later. His inaction mirrors California's Proposition 47, which downgraded retail thefts to misdemeanors and fueled a wave of retail crime. Now Ohio is experiencing the same pattern of complacency from weak budgets, and understaffed police departments to a justice system that coddles criminals. As Republican Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno and Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently warned, Democrat policies are turning our cities into war zones. Beyond the leadership failures, the silence of nearly 100 bystanders with only one calling 911 reveals a total breakdown of public trust. Weak leadership has left citizens feeling powerless. In California, lax enforcement normalized shoplifting; in Cincinnati, it's normalized mob violence. Mayor Pureval's delayed response and Parks' shameful victim-blaming send a dangerous message: criminals won't face consequences. Even in a red state like Ohio, local Democrat leaders are importing this "Californication" and abandoning the safety and justice we once took for granted. This isn't just about pointing fingers, it's a call to action. Cities like Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Denver and New York saw homicides decline in 2025 after local lawmakers voted to increase police budgets despite pressure from local activists. Ohio must follow suit by fully funding law enforcement, empowering prosecutors to lock up violent offenders, and rejecting leaders who excuse crime. The six suspects in the Cincinnati attack facing charges of felonious assault and aggravated rioting must face real justice and not leniency. And Parks' disgraceful remarks demand accountability; she should either resign or be removed. Any elected official who mocks and shames victims of violent crime has failed the very people they were elected to serve and does not belong in public office. As an attorney and proud Ohioan, I'm done with the excuses. Holly's brain trauma is a direct result of failed leadership. We deserve safe streets, where moms can celebrate and businesses don't fear the next mob. We're not California yet but without action, Cincinnati's chaos will become America's new norm. Holly's story and the silence of 99 bystanders should serve as America's wake-up call.

Democrats make a Trump-inspired U-turn on redistricting
Democrats make a Trump-inspired U-turn on redistricting

Politico

time44 minutes ago

  • Politico

Democrats make a Trump-inspired U-turn on redistricting

The last time House Democrats held the majority, they made a sweeping package of good-government reforms — including an attempt to end partisan gerrymandering — a centerpiece of their legislative agenda. 'The people should choose their politicians,' then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in 2021, moments before the House passed the bill that would later die in the Senate. 'Politicians should not be choosing their voters.' Now, as President Donald Trump pushes Republicans in red states to redraw congressional district lines to their benefit, some Democrats are abandoning their past push for reforms. Instead, they're cheering on leaders like California Gov. Gavin Newsom who say their party must fight fire with fire. Pelosi, in a statement to POLITICO, said she backs Newsom's effort to overrule a bipartisan California map and counter GOP attempts to 'rig the elections in their favor.' Her U-turn is emblematic of the larger rethinking underway within the Democratic Party, where leaders who once embraced anti-gerrymandering initiatives and feared a race to the bottom in partisan warfare between red and blue states are now increasingly willing to set aside their lofty goals — at least temporarily. It's another facet of the dilemma that's vexed Democrats since Trump first won the presidency. They've tried to present themselves to voters as 'adults in the room' willing to set aside partisanship for the public good. But now that they're being confronted with a potential existential threat to regaining power in 2026 or beyond, they're entertaining bare-knuckle tactics. That includes some groups who have long advocated for high-minded changes to the political system, such as the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group founded in 2017 by former Attorney General Eric Holder. 'This organization is taking a posture that we're not going to oppose states taking corrective and temporary measures,' said its president, John Bisognano. And it's happening in the House, too, where the reform agenda promoted under Pelosi has fallen by the wayside. While Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and members of his leadership team continue to advocate for voting rights advancements and other key policies, they've not made them central to their opposition to Trump and his Republican allies in Congress. Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the committee overseeing federal elections, called Trump an 'anomalous figure' requiring an emergency response — including when it comes to gerrymandering. 'I will be an advocate for continuing to try to create national standards, but until those national standards are agreed to by everyone, I think it's going to make it increasingly difficult for states to continue to engage in a more nonpartisan system of redistricting,' he said in an interview. 'As with so many things, Donald Trump shatters the norms and the standards that we have lived for, and as we try to improve our democracy, he is just shattering it. We have no choice but to respond in kind.' The rethinking has been prompted by Texas Republicans' decision to respond to Trump's push to launch an unusual mid-decade redrawing of congressional lines in a special legislative session called last month by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott. The effort is now on hiatus with Democratic state lawmakers having fled the state to deny Republicans a quorum in protest of what they see as a partisan power grab. Other Republican-controlled states such as Missouri, Ohio and Indiana could follow Texas' lead and rework their own congressional maps to shore up the three-seat House GOP majority ahead of next year's midterm elections. Confronted with claims of partisan overreach, Republicans gladly point to Democratic states that have drawn their own gerrymanders. Illinois' 14-3 map in a state where Trump won 44 percent of the vote has been excoriated by good-government advocates. New York's move to sidestep an independent map ended up in the courts and threw the 2022 midterms into chaos. Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley, asked by a POLITICO reporter Thursday at an event in his hometown of Chicago, said he is "aware that our maps in Illinois are gerrymandered." "Look, in an ideal world, these maps are drawn by nonpartisan commissions, and they represent what the Constitution said we should do," he said. "We're not there yet. ... So you can't be a Boy Scout in a situation like this — you have to be as tough as they are." Enter Newsom, who has triggered the effort to expand Democrats' advantage in California by overriding the map and sifting as many as five seats away from Republicans — which could entirely offset the Texas redraw. The effort has rekindled the war over redistricting inside the Golden State, which has been done by an independent citizens commission since a successful 2010 ballot initiative. Before the vote, Pelosi and other prominent California Democrats — including then-Rep. Adam Schiff, then-state Sen. Alex Padilla, who are now both U.S. senators — opposed stripping line-drawing power from elected officials and backed a measure to maintain state lawmakers' control. Foes of independent California redistricting, like Pelosi, tried to persuade voters it wasted tax dollars on unaccountable bureaucrats. But their opponents countered that officeholders were motivated to protect their turf. 'Elected officials don't like to change the system that got them elected unless they can be super sure about what comes out of that and that they're going to be okay,' said Eric McGhee, a Public Policy Institute of California expert who has written extensively about redistricting. Only later did California's most prominent Democrats embrace independent redistricting as a national matter. Now, they're back on familiar ground, defending their party's right to undertake its own power play in the face of GOP efforts elsewhere. 'While we continue to support enacting legislation to create nationwide independent redistricting commissions, Democrats must respond to Republicans' blatant partisan power grab,' Pelosi said in her statement. 'Democrats cannot and will not unilaterally disarm.' Her fellow House Democrats don't have any remorse about the political capital spent trying to pass the voting rights legislation in previous Congresses, though some are wistful about their failure in light of their current predicament. Both their sweeping campaigns-and-elections package, dubbed the For the People Act, and a narrower measure aimed at restoring the 1965 Voting Rights Act, named after the late Rep. John Lewis, ran headlong into the Senate filibuster and now have zero path to passage under the GOP trifecta. 'This is an example of why we need it,' said Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, whose Kansas City–area district could be redrawn by the state GOP in the coming weeks. Quigley said that Democrats should continue "pushing and advocating" for national redistricting standards, "educating the public of where we can be and why it matters" — even as they pursue their own partisan lines. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, also argued for reviving Democrats' voting bills in a future Congress and for eventually going even further by implementing multi-member congressional districts and ranked-choice voting. But he acknowledged the reality of the situation Democrats face. 'I would rather fight fire with water and put gerrymandering out of business,' he said. 'But if the Republicans are going to plunge us into a race to the bottom, then we have to fight back with every means at our disposal.' Shia Kapos, Nicole Markus, Jeremy White and Liz Crampton contributed to this report.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store