Free Republic

ITHACA, NY--Republicans are hoping to boost [Rep. Tom Reed] by battering his expected opponent, Martha Robertson, a Democratic legislator in Tompkins County, N.Y., for ...Robertson’s vague and dubious claim in a fundraising email that unnamed Republican operatives had hacked her campaign site. “Our web manager just caught GOP ops trying to shut down my website!” the September 30 fundraising email says. “I cannot believe it!” “They know we have less than 6 hours left to our major deadline at midnight! I need your help to fight back. Please click on the link below to help me reach our goal. We...

Students and administrators alike condemned Cornell Athletics for running what they say was a culturally insensitive, Cinco de Mayo-themed marketing campaign that included encouraging community members to don sombreros and ponchos. The marketing campaign, which was launched Wednesday to promote Cornell’s football game Saturday against Colgate University, was meant to “develop a festive atmosphere at the football game,” according to Jeff Hall, associate director of sales and marketing for Cornell Athletics. As part of the campaign, the University encouraged community members to participate in a “photobooth” activity that involved the person with the “best costume” winning a prize, according to...

Ithaca — A naked 29-year-old Missouri man was arrested for burglary early Friday morning, according to the Ithaca Police Department. After “exhibiting alarming behavior,” the man was hospitalized for mental health evaluation. Stephen C. Perll was arrested at 4:24 a.m. after Ithaca police saw him running naked from the 700 block of West Buffalo Street, where officers responded to a report of a front door of a business was reportedly smashed out. He is charged with third-degree burglary and fourth-degree criminal mischief. More charges are pending an investigation. Perll was handcuffed as he ran to a boat docked at the...

One of the central tenets of anti-shale gas activists—claims that carbon pollution from methane leaked during the hydraulic fracturing extraction process makes natural gas more polluting than coal—took another, likely fatal, hit this week. A University of Texas-Austin study released Monday found that methane emissions from new wells being prepared for production, a process known as completion, captured 99% of the escaping methane—on average 97% lower than estimates released in 2011 by the Environmental Protection Agency. It is the most comprehensive shale gas emissions study ever undertaken on methane leakage, covering 190 well pads around the United States. Methane is...

One of the two students removed from Oberlin College earlier this year for allegedly circulating virulently racist, anti-Jewish and anti-gay messages around campus is an ardent leftist and committed supporter of President Obama, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. Dylan Bleier, one of the two students, hosted a voter registration drive in a Walmart parking lot sponsored by Organizing for Action, the community organizing project that advances the agenda of President Obama. The Oberlin Police Department identified Bleier and his partner in the spree, Matt Alden, as two of the principal architects of a month-long spate of racist, anti-Jewish...

It’s never been used in its nearly 12 years in existence, but the pedestrian bridge over Route 13 near Buttermilk Falls is going to cost the City of Ithaca. The city has been reminded that it is obligated to pay for inspecting the bridge even though the sections of trail it was meant to connect have not been built. Because of that, the bridge is not being used and is sealed off by tall chain-link fences. A resolution authorizing the $15,000 expenditure, out of a $92,000 capital fund for bridges, was approved last month by the Common Council City Administration...

Ithaca, N.Y. - FBI agents arrested a 62-year-old man in Ithaca, N.Y. for attempting to extort Paula Deen. Thomas Paculis was taken into custody Friday morning by FBI agents and deputies from the Tomkins County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities say Paculis threatened to expose “true and damning” information about Deen if she did not pay him $100,000. Paculis was transported to the Onondaga County Jail and will appear in a Savannah, Georgia court on July 16.

ITHACA -- Many areas in New York State are calling for a repeal of new gun control laws. With over thirty counties asking for this to be overturned, the city of Ithaca is standing alongside Governor Cuomo The Ithaca Common Council knows that this is a step in the right direction as they passed a resolution unanimously Wednesday night. Being a liberal leaning city, some people are not surprised where their city stands with the new laws. Judy Scarpella has been a taxpayer with Ithaca for many years and she is used to the way that her city does business....

Though the suspected bomb in a box turned out to be a book, an Ithaca man may wind up behind bars for creating a scare last fall on The Commons. Following his arrest in October, Matthew Whitney, 37, told Ithaca Police and FBI investigators that he placed a brown cardboard Nike box marked “Bomb” on The Commons to promote his “free energy cause,” according to court records. The package was found just before 3 p.m. Oct. 11 outside the Bank of America building on The Commons. Ithaca police evacuated The Commons, and several businesses in the downtown area were forced...

Hubby snapped photo of some anti-fracking grafitti in the People's Republic of Ithaca.

We regularly report on campus restrictions that undermine students’ First Amendment rights to free speech. Now, in the wake of several well-publicized mass killings by mentally ill individuals, several university presidents have signed document that may target students’ Second Amendment rights as well. The Cornell Insider has the details about the head of its institution. "In response to the Newtown shooting, Cornell University’s own President David Skorton has joined nine other university presidents in signing a document advocating for “strong, meaningful action needs to occur in three domains: gun control, care of the mentally ill, and the culture of our...

ITHACA — Robberies in the city increased 27 percent during the first half of 2012, ending a three-year decline, according to the latest figures released by the Ithaca Police Department.... In another unsettling statistic, the number of burglaries committed in the first half of 2012 are already 71 percent of the level committed in all of 2011....

After seeing two consecutive years of double-digit growth, Cornell’s endowment return took a nosedive in the 2011-12 fiscal year, just breaking even with a 0.14 percent gain, the University reported Wednesday.... In explaining its financial performance, the University has cited turbulence in the economy: slowing growth in China, financial crisis in Europe and an impending “fiscal cliff” in the U.S. “While traditional measures of volatility are at historically low levels, it would be an error in judgment to think that all is well and there is nowhere to go but up,” [Chief Investment Officer A.J. Edwards] said at the end...

As the contentious and divisive 2012 presidential campaign draws to a close, Cornell students and professors say that this year’s election has not generated nearly the same level of excitement on campus as the one in 2008. During the 2008 campaign, Cornell’s campus was “abuzz,” said Prof. Theodore Lowi, government. “There was a lot of talk, a lot of chatter, among both faculty and students, on the issues,” he said. But this year, Lowi said, he has seen far less enthusiasm about the upcoming presidential election. “Walking around campus, I’ve seen no excitement, nothing energizing. I see it as a...

A jury has awarded Ithaca police officer Chris Miller more than $2 million in a federal discrimination lawsuit. After nearly a month of testimony and two days of deliberation, it's a win for suspended Ithaca police officer Chris Miller. "He works day by day to recover his reputation and I think it's been tarnished and I think it's been very difficult for him and his family. And I think this is a step along the way of recovering that," said AJ Bosman, Miller’s attorney. Miller sued the City of Ithaca and five of his superiors in the police department. He...

ITHACA — Journalists covering dictatorial regimes overseas often have ‘minders’ assigned ensuring the state controls access. In a move more familiar to China than a college campus, Ithaca College officials announced Friday future press contact with administrators must be cleared by the college. The change in policy was quickly denounced by IC faculty as a “potential public relations disaster.” Starting Oct. 1, members of Ithaca College student newspapers, radio and television must first clear any administrative contact with the college’s media relations department. The new policy affects student media “who are reporting on topics of college policies and developments must...

One afternoon in Ithaca, N.Y., my kids were playing on the swing sets in the park when a little tike wearing a football jersey ran into my daughter’s path. I lunged for the swing — I jerked the chain so abruptly that I feared whiplash — and shared a “wow, that was close” exchange with the kid’s mom. “How old is he?” I asked. The lady looked at me as she placed her kid on the swing and said with no trace of irony, “His name is Jill, and she’s three.” As I tried to match the pronouns and antecedents,...

The FBI, the New York attorney general and the Tompkins County district attorney are investigating allegations that an Ithaca Police Department officer may have tipped off drug dealers about impending drug raids, according to Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick.

About 50 of the estimated crowd of 400 people who 'occupied' Utica Thursday evening ended up spending the night. The diehard protesters say they will continue to 'Occupy Utica' 24 hours a day as long as the weather permits. One of the organizers, Ken Keplinger says he does not want to put anyone's health in jeopardy, so as soon as the temperatures drop overnight to a temperature the group believes is unsafe, the protest will then only take place during the day. Keplinger says they do plan to stay 24 hours a day, as long as they can. Keplinger, who...

Three Democratic organizers have joined together in Tompkins County to rally up voters for President Barack Obama’s re-election. Senior Veronica De Cesare, a member of Obama for America 2012 who is responsible for canvassing Ithaca College and its surrounding areas, held a meeting in her Circle Apartment last week to talk about re-election tactics and to celebrate the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prevented openly homosexual and bisexual individuals from serving in the military. De Cesare, Cornell University senior Brynn Leopold and Robert Chapman, an adjunct instructor at Tompkins Cortland Community College, met in mid-September during...