Free Republic

The productivity of oil and natural gas wells is steadily increasing in many basins across the United States because of the increasing precision and efficiency of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in oil and natural gas extraction. Many resource-producing basins are experiencing an increasing yield over time in either oil (Bakken, Eagle Ford, Niobrara) or natural gas (Marcellus, Haynesville). The geology of each oil and natural gas resource play is diverse, and individual rig or well performance can vary dramatically. However, drilling activity in U.S. shale plays is now generally producing greater quantities of oil and/or natural gas than in...

.... Jay Paterno was on the field with his dad as an assistant coach at Penn State. Now he wants to be lieutenant governor. So when he sat down with KDKA political editor Jon Delano for his first TV interview since announcing, the basic question was--why? "Having had a career in education for two decades, education is an issue I fell very passionately about... I felt like a lot of different people talked about doing a lot of different things politically, and I looked at it and thought this is where I can do the most good for the most...

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge has ordered philly.com to reveal the name of an anonymous commenter, in a defamation suit brought by electricians’ union leader John Dougherty. An attorney in the case says it could have a broad impact on incendiary online comments and those users, sometimes called “trolls,” who post them anonymously. The anonymous defendant in the suit, disguised by the nonsense name “fbpdplt,” called Dougherty a name in the comments section of an article on the website, one of the properties in the media group that also owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.

A neighbor of two East Liberty sisters found slain inside their home early last month has been arrested and charged with killing them. Allen Wade, 43, a convicted felon, faces charges of homicide, burglary, robbery, theft, access device fraud and carrying a gun without a license. - The foyer was in disarray, police said, and the walls, floor and basement doorway were spattered with blood. In the basement, police found Susan Wolfe naked, and bleach and laundry detergent had been poured on her. Sarah was found clothed with a blanket over her head and liquid detergent had been poured on...

A group of five U.S. senators have joined the growing chorus of influential voices, telling the Kellogg Co. to end its nearly five-month lockout of more than 220 workers at its Memphis, Tenn., cereal production facility.The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 252G members who make Frosted Flakes®, Froot Loops® and other breakfast favorites were locked out as part of the drive by the company to replace steady, middle-class, full-time jobs with casual part-time employees who would make significantly lower wages and substandard benefits.In a letter to Kellogg’s CEO John Bryant, Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Robert Casey Jr....

It still makes him shake just thinking about it, said Jenkintown police Chief Albert DiValentino, as he recalled an incident that occurred last year in the borough during a Gun Violence Prevention Forum Feb. 27. He was transporting a man his officers arrested after they found him sleeping in the back of vehicle with a gun tucked in the front of his pants. On the way up to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, DiValentino said he asked him a question. “I said, ‘If you were awake … you wouldn’t have used your gun would you?’ The man said, ‘Officer, it’s...

Last year, Harry Reid invoked the nuclear option in the Senate in order to get Barack Obama’s appointees confirmed over Republican opposition. His latest appointee might be doomed anyway. Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) announced on Friday that he will oppose the confirmation of Debo Adegbile to run the Civil Rights Division at Justice on account of Adegbile’s activism for convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal: Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) said Friday he will vote against Senate confirmation of Debo Adegbile, an Obama administration nominee who has been criticized for his role in trying to overturn the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal,...

The city’s school district has been accused in a federal lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice of discriminating against an employee who said he couldn't trim his beard for religious reasons. The complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, alleges the School District of Philadelphia in October 2010 instituted a grooming policy preventing school police and security officers from having beards more than a quarter of an inch long and discriminated against Siddiq Abu-Bakr and other people by failing to accommodate their religious beliefs. …

Former Black Panther leader Marshall "Eddie" Conway walked free Tuesday after spending four decades behind bars for killing a Baltimore police officer — making his one of the highest-profile cases affected by a high court decision that has cut short prison sentences for dozens of felons in recent years. ... Sager's son, who was 7 at the time of his father's death, said he was devastated. David Sager said he was warned of the outcome more than a month ago ... "My mother passed away two years ago, and in a way I'm glad that she's not around to see...

PEOPLE FROM all over Philadelphia came together Saturday to tell their stories about gentrification at the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. Organizers had issued fliers calling for an "emergency town hall" to confront a "crisis facing black Philadelphia: the demise of our neighborhoods." In gentrification, some neighborhoods are targeted for revitalization - but the new development leads to huge rent or property-tax increases that often force longtime residents out.

Much has been said and written in favor of and opposition to gun control since the Sandy Hook tragedy unfolded. The heinous crime has cracked the half-century-long gun debate wide open, bringing the discourse from the margins to prime time and center stage. On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden issued a set of gun control recommendations to the president, and I hope, simply, that common sense prevails. It is not my intention to mitigate the significance of the recent atrocities in any way, nor do I intend to minimize the severity of the events that took place, but I wish...

Giant Eagle won't say much about the information it collects on people who enroll in its rewards program to earn savings on food and fuel, but it knows who has a weakness for Goldfish crackers. GNC can see when your New Year's resolution ended. And Dick's Sporting Goods has a pretty good idea who will return to its stores this spring to gear up for baseball or softball season. Consumers willingly — if unwittingly — provide trillions of “data points” to companies about their purchases, intimate habits and even where a computer mouse hovers on a computer screen without clicking....

Welcome to Navy Live blog coverage of USS Somerset’s commissioning on Saturday at 11 a.m. EST at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. Somerset is named in honor of the courageous passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed near Shanksville, Pa., in Somerset County during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The last of the three U.S. ships named in honor of victims and first responders of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Somerset will join USS New York (LPD 21) and USS Arlington (LPD 24) that are already a part of the Navy’s combat force. Designated LPD-25, Somerset is...

Despite President Obama's focus on the soaring costs of a college education, area universities are poised to again raise their prices in excess of the core rate of inflation. Costs at the University of Pennsylvania in 2014-15 will exceed $60,000 for the first time, under a fee increase announced at the board of trustees meeting Thursday. That's a 3.9 percent increase over last year's overall tuition, fees, and room and board. Several other private colleges and universities around the region also have set their cost increases for next year

The Northeastern U.S. is struggling to keep the heat on during this year’s frigid winter which has caused a propane shortage, but a union-supported federal law is preventing abundant domestic propane supplies from getting to where consumers need it the most. The 94-year-old Jones Act has prevented Northeasterners from getting cheap, abundant propane from Texas, instead forcing them to pay more than $100 a metric ton for propane from Europe — 4,000 miles away. The Jones Act makes it illegal for non-U.S. ships from transporting goods between U.S. ports, and is backed by labor unions, shipyards and shipowners. The law’s...

The first housing development designed specifically for low-income seniors in the LGBT community had its “official” opening today in center city Philadelphia. The John C. Anderson Apartments, at 249 South 13th Street, was temporarily swathed in rainbow-colored banners ---SNIP--- Bill Lowden, who used to live in Northern Liberties because he couldn’t afford to live in what’s commonly called “the gayborhood,” now lives in the heart of Philadelphia’s gay community and he loves it.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) — Same-sex couples legally married in another state may face extra time filling out their tax forms in Pennsylvania.Pennsylvania doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, so if a couple was legally married in another state, the partners can not file a joint state tax return here. “Typically, if folks file jointly or separately, they most times would not have any difference in the tax liability in Pennsylvania,” notes Rosalind Sutch, a CPA with the firm of Drucker & Scaccetti, in Philadelphia, “so the requirement that Pennsylvania has recently noted on its web site that folks of the same sex...

HOUSTON, TX – The nation’s leading labor union will plan to spend $300 million in 2014 trying to unseat Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and four other Republican Governors. More: AFL-CIO to Target Walker, Other Governors People’s World reported that the AFL-CIO announced on Thursday morning during a press conference in Houston that they would spend money trying to unseat Governor Walker. Other Governors that the labor organization is targeting are John Kasich (R-Ohio), Tom Corbett (R-Pennsylvania), Rick Snyder (R-Michigan), and Rick Scott (R-Florida). The American Federation of Teachers backed the AFL-CIO’s plan. President Randi Weingarten said: “In many ways it...

A new Jersey man was found guilty Friday of illegally trafficking and smuggling imported whale tusks. A federal jury in Bangor, Maine, also found Andrew L. Zarauskas, 60, of Union, N.J., guilty of money laundering crimes associated with the purchase and attempted sale of tusks from narwhals, a medium-sized whale with an extremely long tusk that is much-sought by collectors. The conviction was announced in a U.S. Department of Justice statement. An indictment by a federal grand jury in Maine had named Zarauskas and an alleged co-conspirator: Jay G. Conrad of Lakeland, Tenn., who pleaded guilty in January. "Zarauskas and...

Feds Charge Philadelphia Ironworkers with Extortion, Arson and Racketeering Federal prosecutors today announced an indictment charging 10 members of the Philadelphia Ironworkers Union Local 401 with extorting and forcing businesses to hire their colleagues and defending their turf from non-union workers with violence. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Zane Memeger announced the charges at a press conference this morning after the 10 union members named in the indictment were arrested. According to the indictment, members of the Ironworkers would approach foremen at construction sites where iron work was being done and “implicitly or explicitly threaten the foreman...

The federal government on Tuesday indicted multiple union members for burning down a Quaker church in 2012. Ten members of a Philadelphia ironworkers union face charges of arson and racketeering in connection with a fire against the church, which was employing non-union workers. . . . . . The group of self-described THUGS—an acronym for “Those Helpful Union Guys”—allegedly burned down the meetinghouse as part of a wider campaign of violence against non-union work sites across the city.

If the White House and the EPA is permitted to implement the MATS regulation the economy will dramatically decline. Life in America will resemble that of third world nations. It is entirely based on lies

Orange cones and flashing police lights confronted Ricardo Nieves as he rounded a bend on the way to his mother’s house. Before he knew what was going on, Nieves said a man working for a government contractor stepped in front of his car and forced him to turn into a parking lot. There, a woman repeatedly tried to question him about his driving habits and asked for a mouth swab that would detect the presence of illegal or prescription drugs in his system. Nieves refused. Then he sued, contending his rights were violated. His Dec. 13 experience has been repeated...

They called themselves "the Helpful Union Guys" - "THUGS" for short - and woe awaited any contractor who dared cross them by hiring non-organized workers. For, federal authorities alleged Tuesday, this "goon squad" of members of Ironworkers Local 401 set fires, started riots, and took crowbars to the competition in an effort to protect union jobs. FBI agents arrested 10 of the union's leaders Tuesday morning, including longtime head Joseph Dougherty, in a racketeering conspiracy case that appeared to affirm long-standing business complaints over the tactics employed by Philadelphia unions.

Electrical workers’ union posted signs outside the Trolley Car Diner protesting Weinstein’s organization Philly Office Retail’s decision to hire non-union workers. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) placed signs outside the Trolley Car Diner and handed out fliers charging Ken Weinstein, the president of Philly Office Retail, of “helping to destroy wages and benefits” on Thursday, Feb. 6. The labor union objects to Philly Office Retail hiring McCoubrey/Overholser, a Mt. Airy based general contractor, to convert the former St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, located at the corner of Wayne Avenue and Harvey Street into a private school....

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A group of community leaders expressed their support today, for a teacher evaluation system within the Pittsburgh Schools. The evaluation system is being funded by a $40 million grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But the money is in jeopardy because of opposition by the teachers union. Gathering in the cold, community leaders and parents called on the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers to adopt high standards of evaluation — saying lower standards hurt teachers, parents. “And most especially, lowering the bar isn’t good for our children who deserve the highest quality education we can provide...

When his past in a Pennsylvania corruption case surfaced recently, Homeland Security chief of staff Christian Marrone’s defenders insisted he was a victim of a crooked politician who took advantage of his inexperience as a young legislative aide. Some even suggested that Mr. Marrone was a whistleblower for helping prosecutors convict his former boss. But emails and documents obtained by The Washington Times from court files show Mr. Marrone initiated some of the very activities that captured prosecutors’ interest and led to the downfall of his former boss, state Sen. Vincent Fumo. Some of those activities even personally benefited Mr....

SUNBURY — Nineteen-year-old satanist Miranda Barbour admits to killing Troy LaFerrara of Port Trevorton. In a prison interview Friday night, she said that she considered sparing his life until he said the wrong thing. She also said LaFerrara was one of dozens of such victims she killed in the past six years. Barbour, with her husband, Elytte Barbour, 22, of Selinsgrove, has been charged by Sunbury police in the Nov. 11 fatal knifing of LaFerrara. She requested an interview that was recorded by the Northumberland County Prison on Friday night.

SUNBURY, Pa. — I’ve only murdered bad people — dozens of them — accused Craigslist thrill killer Miranda Barbour said in a jailhouse interview Friday. “When I hit 22 [murders], I stopped counting,” the teen terror said, claiming she began her killing spree as a 12-year-old runaway caught up in a Satanic cult in her home state of Alaska — and just kept on killing. “It was never random,” she said. “When I found out they were bad people, they don’t need to be here anymore.”

A teen satanist in a Pennsylvania prison claims she has killed nearly two dozen people in different parts of the country, according to a report in a local newspaper. "When I hit 22, I stopped counting," Miranda Barbour said in an jailhouse interview with local newspaper the Daily Item in Sudbury. She added in the interview that ran on Saturday that she just wanted to be honest. Barbour, 19, has been charged with the murder of a man allegedly lured to a rendezvous through Craigslist. She said she participated in killings in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California, the newspaper...

A Pennsylvania woman has admitted to killing a man she met through a Craigslist advertisement and claimed to have killed more than 20 other people across the country. Miranda Barbour, 19, claims in an interview with the Daily Item of Sunbury, Pa., to have killed at least 22 other people in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California in the last six years. Barbour reportedly claimed it was part of her involvement in a satanic cult, though she offered few details of the murders she claimed to have participated in. “I can pinpoint on a map where you can find them,”...

Imagine going to the dentist for a free regular checkup, and getting a free $25 gift card in return. It’s happening right here in Pennsylvania, and taxpayers are paying for all of it. Every year, Pennsylvania spends $20 billion to provide medical care to low-income and disabled residents. But one of the biggest problems the state has is getting people to use those medical services for preventative care. Now a new program designed to address that problem has some people outraged. "I am upset." Michelle Tonkin is seeing red thanks to a Walmart gift card, which she recently got in...

The relentless snow and ice storms this winter have led to the highest number of flight cancellations in more than 25 years... U.S. airlines have canceled more than 75,000 domestic flights since Dec. 1, including more than 14,000 this week. That's 5.5 percent of the 1.37 million flights scheduled during that period.

HARRISBURG — Former Acting Attorney General William H. Ryan Jr., a top aide to Tom Corbett when the governor was attorney general, changed the period for retaining the office's emails from five years to six months, according to a document released on Friday by Attorney General Kathleen Kane. The revelation was disclosed as Kane reviews whether Corbett's investigation of serial predator Jerry Sandusky was slowed for political purposes. It took almost three years until Sandusky's arrest in November 2011 — 11 months after Corbett became governor. “I can assure you it had nothing to do with protecting anybody,” Ryan said...

The next president of Penn State will be a familiar face on campus here — Florida State President Eric Barron, a source confirmed Friday. Barron, a 20-year faculty member and a former dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, has been chosen to be Penn State’s 18th president. Penn State’s board of trustees will vote to hire Barron during a special board of trustees meeting at noon Monday at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. The board’s compensation committee also must approve his contract. Barron will succeed Rodney Erickson, who delayed retiring and opted to lead the university...

Several multi-vehicles crashes, involving as many as 100 cars and dozens of tractor-trailers stretched over several miles of icy highway, shut down the eastbound lanes of the Pennsylvania Turnpike for six hours today.

A 120-car Norfolk Southern Corp train carrying heavy Canadian crude oil derailed and spilled in western Pennsylvania on Thursday, adding to a string of recent accidents that have prompted calls for stronger safety standards. There were no reports of injury or fire after 21 tank cars came off the track and crashed into a nearby industrial building at a bend by the Kiskiminetas River in the town of Vandergrift. Nineteen of the derailed cars were carrying oil, four of which spilled between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons of oil, Norfolk Southern said. The leaks have since been plugged. The two other...

About 1,000 local jobs will be affected when Verizon Wireless closes its customer contact centers in Cranberry and Warrendale in May as part of a national realignment of 5,000 employees, the company announced Wednesday. Verizon Wireless said a total of five customer contact centers will close in May. For the 1,000 local customer service employees affected, options are to apply for other positions locally, to relocate to one of 26 out-of-state customer contact centers or to accept a severance package. Employees eligible for out-of-state relocation will receive a $10,000 relocation assistance package. The company also is offering employees seeking to...

By Sarah Fruchtnicht, Wed, February 12, 2014 A Pennsylvania substitute teacher claims he was wrongfully terminated after he reported suspicion of child sexual abuse to police. Meadville Area High School teacher Christopher Harmon insists he was threatened for reporting his suspicions to authorities, instead of the principal, and was fired the day after he made the report. Harmon filed suit in federal court against the Crawford County School District, its Superintendent Charles Heller and MASH Principal John Higgins on Feb. 3. The lawsuit states that Higgins "attempted to intimidate and dissuade Harmon from making any additional reports of suspected child...

Highmark Inc. laid off 132 workers in information technology and sales on Tuesday, including 65 in Pittsburgh, saying that it needed to align its workforce with its changing business.

The following Republicans voted Tuesday to raise the government's borrowing limit: John Boehner, R-Ohio. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy,R-Calif. Chief Deputy Whip Pete Roskam, R-Ill. Ken Calvert, R-Calif. Dave Camp, R-Mich. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Hal Rogers, R-Ky. Dave Reichert, R-Wash. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. Howard Coble, R-N.C. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. Pete King, R-N.Y. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J. Buck McKeon, R-Calif. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa. Gary Miller, R-Calif. Ed Royce, R-Calif. John Runyan, R-N.J. John Shimkus, R-Ill. Chris Smith, R-N.J. David Valadao, R-Calif. Frank Wolf,...

A few antagonistic words can go a long way toward deepening the divide between transgender Philadelphians and the people sworn to protect them. It's the little things that tend to sting: a police officer who uses "sir" instead of "ma'am," or declines to use one's chosen name. "It's enough to put fear into you or make you feel uncomfortable or uninvited," said Samantha Dato, director of Philadelphia's Trans Health Conference, which promotes health in "mind, body, spirit, and community" for the city's transgender residents. Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey says he hopes to alleviate that fear in an unprecedented policy...

That lousy groundhog has doomed us all. As much as I'd love to write about the top groundhog-hunting techniques, the hunting pressure would just force the meteorological marmot underground and doom us to an even longer, colder winter. Even if you wanted to brave the cold and the snow to get in the woods this week, there were days when it was downright dangerous. After weeks like this, I don't need to tell you it's been a harsh winter. That's bad news for the area's outdoors enthusiasts, but great news for the folks behind the Great American Outdoor Show, which...

Elisabeth Smith is not a navigator hired by the Maryland's health exchange. She can't help anyone sign up for health insurance. Please stop emailing her. Smith isn't sure who is handing out her personal email address, a Gmail account, and she asked exchange officials to stop months ago. But the messages kept coming, peaking in December at up to a dozen a day. Similar pleas for help have finally stopped at the pottery supply business run by Sue Lunz in Seattle. She also was pressed into serving frustrated insurance shoppers in Maryland when her phone number was inadvertently listed on...

South Jersey Congressman Rob Andrews, a Democrat who said this week that he is resigning to take a job that will help pay for his daughters’ educations, had more than $500,000 in family income in 2012, public records show. Andrews’ House salary is $170,000. In 2012, his wife, Camille, made roughly $167,000 as an associate dean at the Rutgers School of Law-Camden, according to public data published by Gannett New Jersey. ---snip--- Andrews announced his sudden departure Tuesday. He has said the ethics inquiry had nothing to do with his decision

HOW WOULD YOU like to work at a place where most employees take about eight weeks off every year? Look no further than the city of Philadelphia, where the typical municipal worker gets almost 50 days of paid leave and uses an average 38 days per year - more than the average state or local government employee and far more than private-sector workers, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. "We have an inefficient system of delivering services, and this is one element of that," said Sam Katz, who chairs the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority fiscal-oversight boar

A western Pennsylvania heating and refrigeration contractor said it was the victim of a "sophisticated cyberattack operation" that is being investigated by the Secret Service and possibly linked to the data breach that enabled hackers to access millions of credit card numbers belonging to Target store customers. Fazio Mechanical Services Inc., of Sharpsburg, issued the statement after Internet security bloggers identified it as the third-party vendor through which hackers accessed Target's customer information. Target had previously told reporters the store believed hackers accessed 40 million of its customers' card numbers through a vendor's system.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen Democrats raise the idea of adding a new revenue source to supplement the gas tax, as revenues have declined from this stream due to increased fuel efficiency thanks to mandates to that effect imposed by Congress. One bad idea that never seems to die is a mileage tax, which would force Americans to track their travel — or have government do it for them. That idea got shelved along with the Democratic House majority in 2011, but now it’s crept across the aisle (via Instapundit):

Last month Maureen Faulker, the widow of murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, requested a chance to give testimony against President Obama's nominee to head the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Her husband was killed in 1981 by former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of murder in 1982. Thirty years after the conviction, nominee Debo Adegbile voluntarily took up Abu-Jamal's case and the cause in the name of race during his time as the head of NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley asked for Faulkner's request to present testimony be granted, but Democrats have blocked...

The man who Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto tapped to head his newly formed Office of Management and Budget owes the Internal Revenue Service tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes, records show. The mayor announced today that he was hiring Edward Kiely, who heads a consulting firm based in Pittsburgh, to lead the department, citing his extensive experience in helping businesses. Mr. Kiely was hired through Talent City, a foundation-backed initiative intended to take the politics out of hiring by using outside committees to cull top candidates for a position, giving the mayor the final word. Mr. Kiely owes...