Free Republic

A Pennsylvania fracking mogul bid more than $1 billion for the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday — making it likely the team will attract a record sales price for an NFL team, The Post has learned. Terrence Pegula, who owns the NHL Buffalo Sabres, is one of only two known bidders for the storied football franchise, which was put on the block last spring following the March 25 death of owner Ralph Wilson Jr.. Donald Trump also made a first-round bid for the Bills — bids were due by 5 p.m. Tuesday. It could not be learned whether other bids were...

The chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) is refusing to campaign for the GOP's nominee for New York governor. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is heading the GOP's gubernatorial efforts across the nation, was campaigning in Connecticut when reporters asked him whether he would campaign on behalf of Rob Astorino in his race against sitting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. According to Christie, the answer is a nearly-unqualified no.

I’m frankly surprised that this has been going on for so long.Details: For the better part of 40 years in churches across the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, clergy ceded the floor to laypeople for the delivery of the homily — the sermon that follows the reading of the Gospel at Mass.The practice, which dated to the mid-1970s and was simultaneously derided by the faithful for running afoul of church law and praised for its inclusiveness, has come to an end.In an extensive interview, Bishop Salvatore Matano said he has been confronting the issue on a case-by-case basis since his...

Tumbling rocks north of New York City have damaged a stretch of train tracks in the nation's second-largest commuter rail system, suspending service and leaving hundreds of passengers without rides. ... The rock slide is the latest headache for a railroad recovering from two major accidents and myriad service disruptions. In December, a Metro-North Hudson Line train derailed in the Bronx, killing four passengers and injuring more than 70 others. In May 2013, a train heading east from New York City to New Haven derailed and was hit by a westbound train outside Bridgeport

Gun confiscation has started in NY. This video highlights two cases out of NY state where guns are being confiscated under the NY SAFE Act.

A Brooklyn man was sentenced Monday to 18 years ​behind bars for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter — who kept the sickening sex attack a secret until revealing it in a college-application essay nearly a decade later. Albert Tarrats, 62, remained mum throughout his sentencing in Brooklyn Supreme Court, but prosecutor Anna Krutaya read a statement from his victim, who ​wrote that she’s still haunted by his monstrous crimes. “Getting closure and justice on this horrific situation is the best thing I could have gotten from this experience,” the now-18-year-old woman wrote.

In a stunning reversal, infamous Cannibal Cop Gilberto Valle will likely have his conviction for a bizarre kidnapping conspiracy scheme overturned on Tuesday after a judge decided to revoke the guilty verdict in the flesh-eating fetish plot, a source said. The disgraced NYPD veteran, who was convicted of hatching a “heinous” plan to cook, kill, and eat several women — including his own wife — was facing life in prison for the crime. But Valle will likely have the major charge of conspiracy overturned and the sentence vacated with only a misdemeanor charge of using police computers to track down...

NEW YORK (AP) — A state lawmaker pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges in a deal that requires her to resign from office, admitting that she obtained legal residency and ultimately citizenship through a sham marriage and then lied to bankruptcy authorities years later to erase $30,000 of debt. Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa, 47, told U.S. District Judge Denise Cote that she "falsely got married" to a U.S. citizen and referred to it as a real marriage when she became a citizen in 2005. **SNIP** Although the two false statements charges carry a combined potential penalty of 10 years in prison,...

More whistleblowers are coming forward from the VA, but this woman from North Carolina gives a special insight into the way that wait-list fraud propagated within the system. Paulene DeWenter makes clear that the use of secret wait lists was no spontaneously-occurring method for front-line workers to deal with overstressed resources, but a deliberate strategy employed by VA management. DeWenter tells WITN that her boss told her to use the secret wait list method, or else she would buy DeWenter a bus pass — one way out of town ... DeWenter blew the whistle after one of the patients on...

Former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth won an initial skirmish against Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney on Tuesday by beating her successor in an Independence Party primary, giving her a third ballot line for their general election fight in November. Unofficial results showed the Republican about 80 votes ahead in the low-turnout contest, in which around 1,400 Independence Party voters went to the polls – around 6 percent of those enrolled in the 18th Congressional District, which includes all of Orange and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess. The state Board of Elections had Hayworth ahead, 729-649.

How do you spell "sidesplitting chutzpah"? In New York's 22nd congressional district, it's spelled: R-I-C-H-A-R-D H-A-N-N-A. He's the liberal GOP incumbent trying to cling to public office by smearing the Marine mom, small-business owner, lawyer and conservative state assemblywoman poised to take his seat next week. Claudia Tenney is as rock-solid of a Republican as they come: pro-life, pro-limited government, pro-Second Amendment, pro-entrepreneur, pro-American worker. As one of New York's top conservative legislators, Tenney has been unafraid to challenge the powers that be in both political parties. As an attorney, she has fought valiantly against cronyism and corruption. She has...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a tough new plan Wednesday to address the heroin problem in New York. Just one day before the Legislative session ends, New York lawmakers struck a deal with Cuomo on a series of bills that take aim at the growing heroin crisis, WCBS 880′s Alex Silverman reported. New York Lawmakers, Gov. Cuomo Announce New Plan To Combat Heroin Use The governor said the first step in dealing with the drug problem “is to admit the reality, right? Denial is not an option.” And the reality is “New York has a much more...

Let's play a game. Let's say you've done something wrong and will therefore be punished. Here's your punishment: You must retire from your job. You will receive a full pension. Your days will be free for whatever your heart desires. Hey, stop smiling. You're being punished! In the real world, of course, retirement is generally seen as a good thing, especially if the retiree will be financially comfortable. But when a cop misbehaves, retirement is treated like the guillotine. Consider the plea deal for Schenectady Detective John Hotaling. His road-rage charges will be essentially dropped if he trades his badge...

Shortly after John J. O’Connor became Archbishop of New York in March 1984, he found himself in a battle with the state’s governor, Mario M. Cuomo, which not only made national headlines but also had a profound impact on the abortion debate in America.It began when the archbishop said during a press conference: “I do not see how a Catholic, in good conscience, can vote for an individual expressing himself or herself as favoring abortion.” That didn’t sit well with Cuomo.  The governor, who in the early 1970s had been publicly pro-life, changed his position after losing a primary for lieutenant governor...

A Queens (gym) teacher was charged today with raping a second student, an apparent rebound from an affair with another 16-year-old boy that ended when he took someone else to the school prom. Joy Morsi, 38, was back in court for a second day in a row after prosecutors hit her with more rape and child endangerment charges for alleged abuses that happened right under her husband’s nose. A day earlier, prosecutors said the Grover Cleveland High School teacher had been carrying on a months-long affair with a student, and flipped when she learned he was taking someone else to...

Eastside Gynecology is located in a neighborhood in New York City where very important people live in close proximity. That’s why it seems fitting that the high-end abortion clinic would appeal to nearby potential clientele by offering VIP Abortion Services.For women with discriminating tastes, Eastside Gynecology offers “exclusive and VIP surgical services” for early and late-term abortions, surgical abortions, and manual vacuum aspirations (MVA) “for any patient who requires the utmost in service, comfort, and confidentiality.”According to the Eastside Gynecology website: Our VIP rooms are designed to make you feel at home, with a luxurious mahogany bed, oil paintings,...

WATERVLIET - Firefighters in Watervliet spent Thursdsay morning, not fighting fires but raising money for the World War II veteran who had his benefits slashed to just $6 a month. They're hoping to raise at least $3,000 for 89-year-old Joseph Teson. As NewsChannel 13 first told you over the weekend, the Department Of Veterans Affairs told Teson he was overpaid by more than $3,000. So, they're withholding most of his benefits until they get the money back. Teson's relatives say he relies on the money and is now selling some of his coin collection just to pay the bills. “The...

WATERVLIET – On this Memorial Day weekend, World War II veteran Joseph Teson is thinking about his fallen comrades – and his personal finances. Teson, a D-Day survivor, told NewsChannel 13 the federal government has reduced his veterans benefits to just $6 per month in order to recoup an overpayment. “I don’t know how they did it, but they did it,” Teson, 89, said Saturday. “I didn’t say nothing. I just let it go. Everybody else complained but me.” Teson said he used to receive about $300.00 per month in veterans benefits, about a third of which he donated to...

New York is losing the battle to lure outsourced jobs now slowly trickling back to the US — and more competitive regions are poaching Gotham’s jobs. The tax breaks and incentives to stem New York’s slide? Too little, too late, critics say. “If you’re a businessman thinking of bringing jobs back to one of the 50 states, then New York is at the bottom of that list,” said Neal Asbury, a manufacturer who grew up in Morristown, NJ, and has studied New York’s high cost base. “You have a governor telling the world he doesn’t want conservatives in his state...

Carl Paladino, the conservative businessman who pulled off an upset to win the Republican primary in the 2010 New York's governor's race, is counting on Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney to pull off a similar upset in the state's 22nd Congressional District. Paladino said today he will back Tenney, R-New Hartford, in her GOP primary campaign against U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, the two-term Republican who faces his second consecutive challenge from his party's conservative base.