Free Republic

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Court challenges seeking to knock Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich off the Pennsylvania primary ballot have been scheduled for hearings in March. The challenge to Kasich was filed by a Marco Rubio activist and will be heard March 9. It questions the signatures collected to get Kasich on the April 26 ballot. Two Cruz challenges will be heard March 10. One was filed by Carmon Elliott, a Pittsburgh Republican, who says Cruz isn't qualified to run for president because he was born in Canada. The other challenges the signatures collected to put Cruz on...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday it was joining a criminal investigation of lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan, exploring whether laws were broken in a crisis that has captured international attention. Federal prosecutors in Michigan were working with an investigative team that included the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General and the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit said. An FBI spokeswoman said the agency was determining whether federal laws were broken, but declined further comment.

A bi-partisan attempt to reform a little-known immigration program that offers wealthy foreigners access to visas and U.S. Green Cards but has been beset by allegations of fraud and abuse. The EB-5 program, called so due to its visa designation, allows rich foreign nationals a shortcut to a Green Card as long as they invest $500,000 in a designated job-creating project in the U.S. Designed to spur the American economy, the program is also feared to have been exploited by spies, money launderers and other criminals, as revealed in an ABC News investigation earlier this year. "There are well-documented national...

PITTSBURGH — Channel 11 News has learned that several people were arrested or issued citations after an incident in downtown Pittsburgh Wednesday afternoon. According to Port Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph, the incident started in the Wood Street T Station around 3:30 p.m. Brandolph said two Port Authority police officers "attempted to identify a Brashear High School student who was tampering with escalator equipment when the student kicked them." According to Brandolph, four other people attempted to intervene in the initial arrest. He now appears to be in bigger trouble than any of those who were apprehended. One adult was taken...

Mixed martial arts' Ronda Rousey's mind may be focused on her upcoming bout but she has already weighed in on the 2016 presidential race ahead of her weigh in for a fight on Saturday. The undefeated UFC champion, 28, has said that she is supporting Vermont's senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination and the White House. Rousey told Maxim that she voted for comedian Roseanne Barr for president in 2012, and is supporting the democratic socialist this election because he does not take corporate money for his campaign.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA - Channel 11's Joe Holden confirmed Monday that a regional maintenance supervisor for Allegheny County Region 1 has been charged with theft and receiving stolen property. According to the criminal complaint, James Schrott is accused of stealing more than 11,000 pounds of aluminum signs. County police said the signage is valued at more than $21,000. Schrott has been suspended without pay, a county spokeswoman said. The criminal complaint named Steven Beswick as Schrott's accomplice. According to arrest papers, county workers set up a sting and were able to track the aluminum to a local scrap yard. Investigators...

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — An Amish resident of central Pennsylvania is challenging the photo identification requirement to purchase a firearm, saying his religious beliefs prevent him from being photographed. Andrew Hertzler argues in a suit filed Friday in U.S. Middle District Court that the requirement violates his religious freedom and his constitutional right to possess a firearm. Hertzler said his beliefs as a member of an Amish community in Lancaster County bar photographs being taken of him, but he was prohibited from buying a gun in June for self-defense purposes.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – State officials have launched Pennsylvania’s online voter registration system. The online registration application, hosted by the Department of State, is available for use by eligible citizens at register.votesPA.com. The new site also allows registered voters to easily update their voter record with a change of name, address or party affiliation, and voters may use the site to ask for help at their polling place. Governor Tom Wolf, who promised online registration when he ran for the office last year, said it will make the voting experience more convenient and accessible.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane was charged Thursday with crimes related to leaking secret court documents to embarrass a political foe and covering up her directive to do so. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said she'll prosecute Kane for violating grand jury secrecy laws and lying about her actions under oath to a statewide grand jury in November. Kane leaked information to a political operative to pass to a Philadelphia newspaper “in hopes of embarrassing and harming former state prosecutors she believed, without evidence, made her look bad,” Ferman said at a news conference announcing the charges. Kane is...

The NFL is going to reject Tom Brady’s appeal and uphold the four-game suspension he is facing for his alleged role in Deflategate, according to one report. Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN’s “First Take” Tuesday morning that a source told him Roger Goodell will not reduce or overturn Brady’s suspension. Perhaps more shocking, Smith cited a separate source who told him Brady actually destroyed his own personal cell phone rather than just refusing to turn it over.

Attention, voters: Bernie Sanders is just like you, which is to say he’s tired of paying too much for cable. The independent Vermont senator and 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful joined three fellow senators Thursday in asking the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the “ridiculous prices” charged by pay-TV and broadband services. In a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Sanders -- along with Democratic Sens. Al Franken of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts -- said American consumers are being burdened by ever-increasing monthly bills and a thicket of hidden fees. Citing lack of competition and increased...

NBC has canceled A.D. The Bible Continues after just one season, Deadline reports. The miniseries, created by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, was a follow-up to their record-breaking miniseries The Bible, and chronicled the early days of modern Christianity. A.D., which premiered on Easter, was positioned as an event series at NBC, but Downey, Burnett and the network had indicated that subsequent seasons were part of the plan. It's possible that the show will continue on another platform

Authorities confirm to Channel 11's Rick Earle that a man who worked at Kennywood was arrested last Wednesday on child pornography charges. Agents with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office arrested Nicholas Lancos at the amusement park with the help of Kennywood police. Investigators say they found child pornography on a computer owned by Lancos at his Greenfield Avenue home. Lancos was a seasonal employee who worked in the park's rides department.

A Pittsburgh-area school district is investigating allegations of harassment involving students. Several parents and students from McGuffey High School in Washington County have reached out to Channel 11 News voicing concern about a so-called “Anti-Gay Day” allegedly organized by some students. A group of students allegedly spread the news that if they were “Anti-Gay,” they were to wear a flannel shirt and write “Anti-Gay” on their hands. Below is a statement from Dr. Erica Kolat, the superintendent of McGuffey School District. “Yesterday afternoon, April 16, 2015, allegations of harassment were brought to the attention of our administration. McGuffey School District,...

A man convicted of fatally stabbing a Pittsburgh police dog has been sentenced to 17 years, 9 months to 44 years in prison. A judge said Tuesday that John Lewis Rush must also serve 8 years of probation following his release. Channel 11's Jennifer Tomazic reports the judge sentenced John Rush on each charge and the sentence will run consecutively. The 22-year-old Stowe Township resident was convicted in December of torturing a police animal, aggravated assault on the dog's handler, who was stabbed in a shoulder, and three other officers and other offenses. Police say Rush stabbed the dog in...

Two “Stop the Violence” organizers in Washington County allegedly beat one of their colleagues so severely that he vomited blood and was left unconscious in critical condition. Nikole Ardeno and Emanuel Velez, both 30, accused their former roommate of stealing their property, and allegedly punched and kicked him in the street until he had seizures. Arrested moments later, Ardeno was still wearing the same “Stop the Violence” T-shirt she had on the night before when she coordinated a march protesting two recent shootings, Washington Police Chief Chris Luppino said. The victim, Joshua Magraff, also is a community organizer with the...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state legislator exchanged gunfire with a would-be robber near the state Capitol in Harrisburg, city police said Wednesday. Rep. Marty Flynn and another lawmaker were walking to their residence after a late dinner with other legislators when two males accosted them and demanded their wallets just before 11 p.m. Tuesday, police said. Flynn is a former Lackawanna County prison guard who is licensed to carry a handgun. He drew his pistol and fired during the attempted holdup. At least one of the two would-be robbers was armed, police said, but neither Flynn nor the...

For decades, free high-school education helped strengthen the middle class and generate prosperity. So isn’t it time to extend the same thinking to college? The idea might seem impractical, since college costs more than high school and higher education isn’t for everybody in the first place. Yet it’s also obvious that a high school education alone isn’t nearly as valuable as it used to be, which is why some researchers and policymakers are now studying ways to make college as accessible as high school for those who want it. College is free in Scandinavian countries and highly subsidized in much...

Right now in the United States, there are more 23-year-olds than people of any other age. This seemingly trivial fact of demographics is an anomaly more than 50 years in the making. According to U.S. Census data, since 1947, the most represented age in the United States has always been a member of the group born in the 20 years after WWII, the baby boomers. In 1950, it was age 3. In 1990, it was 29. In 2010, it was 50. [snip]

Twenty-eight years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, its effects are still being felt as far away as Germany – in the form of radioactive wild boars. Wild boars still roam the forests of Germany, where they are hunted for their meat, which is sold as a delicacy. But in recent tests by the state government of Saxony, more than one in three boars were found to give off such high levels of radiation that they are unfit for human consumption. [snip]