Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is breaking with progressives on hot-button issues with his fiery support for Israel and calls for Democrats to engage on tougher immigration laws, disappointing some on the left as he shows an independent streak. He’s also continually scolding Democrats for not pushing Sen. Bob Menendez out of office after he was indicted on federal charges of taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, which the New Jersey Democrat denies. In the 2022 campaign, Fetterman's ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., prompted GOP opponent Mehmet Oz to tell voters he’d be a...

I'm looking for a couple of pictures that have been on FR in the last week or so. One is a picture of the fat guy wearing a tan shirt standing next to the guy with the horns and fur. He had a hammer and sickle tat on his hand. The picture I want is the one that is in dark clothes, but it's labeled "phillyantifa". I've looked everywhere even in my history and can't find it. I should have downloaded it when I saw it, but you guy usually produce in 10 minutes so I'll give ya'll a try....

The defendant in a Jan. 6. 2021 Capitol Hill protests-related case denied a claim by federal prosecutors that a boyfriend was jailed for plotting to shoot up a synagogue. Riley Williams’ filing Thursday came in response to one last week by federal prosecutors objecting to her request to loosen restrictions pending her trial. She is wearing an ankle monitor and is under house arrest at her mother’s home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Prosecutors in that filing noted that Williams had lied last August about meeting a boyfriend; Williams was required to report all her meetings, and she had told people, including...

Gov. Josh Shapiro Thursday boldly called on legislators to abolish Pennsylvania’s costly, ineffective and immoral death penalty. In urging legislators to act, an unprecedented move, Mr. Shapiro showed some sorely needed leadership from the governor’s office. Unless Mr. Shapiro engages the legislature, the death-penalty statute will endure. He needs to take the lead in persuading the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate to approve bills that would repeal it. Former Gov. Tom Wolf refused to do that. In making his statement a month after his inauguration, Mr. Shapiro signaled that getting state government out of the business of killing people will...

From the hardscrabble hills of western Pennsylvania to the hardknock blocks of Northeast Philadelphia, children are getting inferior educations in underfunded school districts with low property values and incomes. Crowded classrooms in the state’s 100 most poorly funded districts deny children, who may enter kindergarten a year behind their more affluent peers, the attention they need. Those districts, including South Allegheny, East Allegheny, New Castle, Sharon and Philadelphia, educate one-third of the state’s 1.5 million students, two-thirds of its Black students, and nearly 60% of its poor students. Leaky roofs, obsolete and unsafe buildings, and broken laptops plague many of...

HARRISBURG — When Republican state legislator Jim Gregory nominated his Democratic friend and colleague Mark Rozzi to be speaker of the Pennsylvania House this month, the move stunned close political observers and seemed to offer new hope for bipartisanship. As with the nation, politics in this critical swing state, the country’s fifth-most populous, have become bitterly divided in recent years along ideological, geographical and racial lines. Donald Trump won the state in 2016, and Joe Biden took it back in 2020. False claims over the legitimacy of the 2020 contest became prominent Pennsylvania GOP rallying cries in 2022 and reinforced...

An experiment in bipartisan government in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives is less than a week old, and cracks are beginning to appear. If the compromise falls apart, the chamber will be plunged into chaos. Republican and Democratic leaders, at Speaker Mark Rozzi’s request, must find a way to move forward together, if they plan to serve the people of Pennsylvania this session. It’s time for Mr. Rozzi to honor the commitments he made in accepting the role of speaker, especially his pledge to change his registration from Democrat to Independent as a symbol of unity. After last week’s display...

HARRISBURG — If House Republicans are successful in getting the special elections for two Allegheny County-based House districts delayed until May, the results of a Senate special election could lead to a whole new level of chaos in the power struggle in the state House. Republicans are clinging to a 101-99 advantage, with three special elections looming in seats vacated by Democrats. If Democrats win all three of those races, as expected, the Democrats will reclaim the majority in the chamber for the first time in more than a decade. One of those special elections — to fill the vacancy...

Why has Gov. Tom Wolf’s Office of General Counsel paid nearly $400,000 of taxpayer money to several private law firms? It’s a simple question, and there may be a simple and reasonable answer. But the administration’s failure to answer it raises questions about what causes and activities the governor has used state resources to pursue, and why he didn’t use the state’s attorneys to do it. Secrecy always raises suspicions, even if they are entirely unwarranted. In terms of legal bills for complex institutional litigation, $367,500 spread across six firms is a pittance. The Office of General Counsel employs hundreds...

HARRISBURG – The General Assembly has sent the governor legislation that will create a new program to encourage the development of technology to convert fracked gas into hydrogen through $141.6 million a year in tax credits. The approval of House Bill 1059 came over the objections of environmental groups and some Democrats who said that the plan will keep Pennsylvania invested in fossil fuel production for decades even as much of the world turns toward renewable energy. “State lawmakers have clearly not learned from example after example of broken promises,” said former Secretary of Environmental Protection Patrick McDonnell, now the...

As if high school weren’t scary enough: a Harrisburg building once used as a secondary school will host a haunted house this fall. The Bridge Eco Village, which is located in a building that was once the Bishop McDevitt High School, has announced a haunted attraction in partnership with Rotten Concepts. The attraction will be called The Unholy Schoolhouse, and plays into the building’s past as a parochial school under the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg. “We wanted to keep the theme of the school,” said Dennis Miller Jr., founder of Rotten Concepts. “We wanted to capitalize on what it was.”...

New York City Police are hunting a 22-year-old man who attacked two officers trying to arrest him in Manhattan after he allegedly raped four-year-old twins in Pennsylvania. Isaiah John Metz, 22 - also known as Decklyn McBride - of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, allegedly raped two four-year-old twins in Goldsboro, Pennsylvania, while on parole for assaulting an officer. Metz currently has 115 counts of sex-related charges against him in York County, including three counts of raping a child under 13, and 99 counts of sexual abuse involving picture and video, according to public records. Police received a tip that Metz was staying...

A man accused of raping 4-year-old twins in Pennsylvania attacked two officers who tracked him down to a Midtown homeless shelter Tuesday and then escaped, cops said. Suspected fiend Isaiah Metz, 22, was at the Antonio Olivieri Drop-In Center on West 30th Street near Eighth Avenue in Manhattan when an NYPD detective and an investigator from the city Department of Investigation – both part of the Regional Fugitive Task Force – showed up to arrest him about 4:15 a.m., police said. Metz fought the two officers – punching both in the head multiple times and biting the investigator on the...

Truckers with the so-called “People’s Convoy” that disrupted traffic in the D.C. metro area for the last three weeks took a detour to Harrisburg Monday, causing traffic issues for morning commuters. Capitol Police blocked off part of Commonwealth Avenue behind the Capitol as about 10 tracker trailer cabs flying American flags and pickup trucks parked out front. Several convoy members posted on social media that they were taking a detour on their way back to California after camping in Hagerstown to support Sen. Doug Mastriano’s Medical Freedom Rally, scheduled Monday morning on the Capitol steps. The Franklin County Republican and...

Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled state legislature have found something to agree on: Pennsylvania’s corporate net income tax, the second-highest in the nation, costs the state more in lost business than it collects in revenue. The legislature should immediately pass the outgoing governor’s proposal to cut the corporate tax from 9.99% to 7.99% starting in 2023. That would move the state outside the top 10 highest CNI states, although it would still leave Pennsylvania at a disadvantage compared to nearby competitors like New York (6.5%) and Virginia (6%). After that, there are two ideas on the table for lowering...

The Catholic churches in the Harrisburg area are among the many establishments that are relaxing mask requirements for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In a press release, the Diocese of Harrisburg announced that “in continued alignment with local, state, and federal health guidelines, effective immediately, all fully vaccinated parishioners no longer need to wear masks when attending Mass.” “This move comes after the state of Pennsylvania immediately adopted the recent recommendations from the CDC regarding fully vaccinated people,” the press release said, referring to the Center for Disease Control’s announcement last week that fully vaccinated people are safe...

The holiest date on the Christian calendar is taking on even more potency and poignancy amid the blossoming signs of emerging from the coronavirus, a Harrisburg pastor says. His church is welcoming back its congregation for in-person worship for the first time in a year this Easter, and his Sunday sermon draws a direct parallel between Jesus’ resurrection and society’s rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. “You can’t have Easter without good Friday,” said Kristopher R. Sledge, lead pastor of The Journey Church of Harrisburg. “Jesus was persecuted. Jesus was murdered. Jesus took on the sins and the suffering of mankind....

The Great Bend-Hallstead exit (230) off Interstate 81 in Susquehanna County is due for repair in the next few years and PennDOT has proposed installing an electronic toll, that would use E-ZPass or pay-by-plate collection for drivers who pass through the area. The funds collected would be used to pay for the construction, maintenance, and operation of that bridge. We spoke with several people who use this section of highway about the proposed idea. "I guess to raise taxes to everybody is really hard, so I guess for the people using the road, then maybe that's a good idea," said...

Congressional leaders passed a new stimulus package meant to alleviate the financial pain of the coronavirus, but it won’t cure all that ails PennDOT’s pocketbook. PennDOT press secretary Alexis Campbell said Monday afternoon it wasn’t clear if the relief plan will cover the $600 million funding gap plaguing PennDOT. Early media reports indicate that $10 billion of financial relief could be distributed to the 50 states’ highway systems, though it’s unclear how much would come Pennsylvania’s way. State Sen. Pat Browne, a Lehigh County Republican and longtime chairperson of the Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday that transportation-specific wording included in the...

Stop the Steal rallies in several states today!