Free Republic

Time and again we hear politicians from different parts of the country profess the virtues of a soda tax. Their reasoning ranges from wanting to improve the public health, by cutting back consumption of unhealthy drinks, to talking about how much revenue it will bring in. This proclivity of nanny statists to push policies to change people’s behavior hues quite closely to Einstein’s definition of insanity: Trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Policy makers of all stripes need to abandon their affinity for soda taxes. Put simply, soda taxes just don’t work. Take Berkeley, California, as...

President Trump attacked Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb (D) in a pair of tweets Saturday morning that endorsed Lamb's opponent, Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.), in the battle for the state's newly drawn 17th District. Trump tweeted his support for Rothfus on Saturday as Vice President Pence headed to the state to campaign for Rothfus. He also resurfaced a nickname for Lamb, "Lamb the Sham." The two congressmen are dueling for the newly drawn district, currently held by Rep. Matt Cartwright (D), who himself was redistricted to Pennsylvania's 8th District. ".@VP Pence is heading to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where we have both strongly...

CNN) - The unarmed 17-year-old who was shot and killed by police in East Pittsburgh earlier this week died of a gunshot wound to the "trunk," the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said Friday. The manner of Antwon Rose's death was listed as homicide. The medical examiner's brief report did not specify in what side of the "trunk" Antwon was shot. Witnesses said the African-American teen was fleeing police when he was struck by bullets. The officer who fired the fatal shots was identified by Allegheny County officials on Thursday as Michael Rosfeld, according to an email from the county's...

An openly gay Pennsylvania lawmaker has drawn backlash after he “welcomed” Vice President Mike Pence to Philadelphia with a picture of himself flipping the bird. “Get bent, then get out!” state Rep. Brian Sims, of Philadelphia, wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday ahead of Mr. Pence’s visit to a fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner. “Vice President Mike Pence, let me be the first person to officially welcome you to the City of Brotherly Love, and to my District in the State House!” Mr. Sims wrote. “To be clear, we’re a City of soaring diversity. We believe in the...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — U.S. Marshals are searching for a Central Pennsylvania man accused of threatening President Trump and other officials. WNEP reports that Marshals are looking for 26-year-old Shawn Christy of McAdoo, Pennsylvania. Authorities say he should be considered armed and dangerous. Christy reportedly posted a social media post threatening to “put a bullet in the head of President Trump.” The post has since been deleted. Christy also posted about Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli. WNEP also reports that this isn’t the first time Christy has been in trouble for making threats. He and his father were sentenced to...

With national attention focused on the forced separation of families at America's southern border, this week isn't a very good week to be a Trump administration official (not that most are, of course). So it's not surprising that Veep Mike Pence was greeted by vocal protests when he swung through Philadelphia on Tuesday night to campaign on behalf of Republican governor candidate Scott Wagner. Some, such as state Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, were slightly more emphatic in their opposition.

Manhunt Underway For Pennsylvania Man Accused of Threatening to ‘Put a Bullet in President Trump’s Head US Marshals are searching for 26-year-old Shawn Christy of McAdoo, Pennsylvania after he threatened to ‘put a bullet in Trump’s head,’ in a social media post. The man is considered armed and dangerous. CBS Pittsburgh reported: U.S. Marshals are searching for a Central Pennsylvania man accused of threatening President Trump and other officials. WNEP reports that Marshals are looking for 26-year-old Shawn Christy of McAdoo, Pennsylvania. Authorities say he should be considered armed and dangerous. CBS Pittsburgh reported: U.S. Marshals are searching for a...

Police shot and killed an unarmed teen who ran away from a traffic stop Tuesday night in East Pittsburgh, authorities said. Authorities identified the dead teen as 17-year-old Antwon Rose, a Woodland Hills High School student who district officials said was one English class shy of graduating. He had been riding in a car linked to a non-fatal shooting 13 minutes earlier on North Braddock's Kirkpatrick Avenue, according to Allegheny County police. A 22-year-old man wounded in the North Braddock shooting was treated and released from a hospital. The deadly shooting in East Pittsburgh happened at 8:40 after borough police...

The Ignorance Cultural Revolution continues. The glorious cultural warriors against literacy have triumphed at the University of Pennsylvania where Shakespeare was declared a non-person and purged by what was formerly known as the English Department. Then he was swiftly replaced with an angry black illiterate lesbian racist womanist.

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (WPVI) -- A wreath laying ceremony was held at Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the historic Patriots of African Descent Monument. This is the first monument on federal ground to honor black soldiers who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

HARRISBURG — Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday moved to capitalize on the political momentum behind adopting a less partisan redistricting system to overhaul how state appeals judges are elected, drawing howls of protest from Democrats. The GOP majority muscled provisions into a redistricting bill so that appeals court judges would be elected by district, rather than statewide. The measure would address long-standing Republican complaints that candidates from the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions win a disproportionate share of statewide judicial races, compared to candidates from the rest of the state. The vote was 31-18, with every Democrat and two...

A professor who has called Dr. Jordan B. Peterson an “incel” wrote a post Sunday saying that she “will not be silenced.” Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania philosophy professor Wendy Lynne Lee seemed not to be aware of the existence of Peterson’s wife and kids when she called him a “misogynist incel” on Twitter. An incel, or involuntary celibate, is shorthand for a man who has trouble attracting sexual partners and often checks out of the dating scene. Lee, who authored “Contemporary Feminist Theory and Activism: Six Global Issues,” reportedly has not stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, which she terms...

When private companies close thousands of stores for an afternoon to conduct anti-bias training it usually doesn’t affect American taxpayers, but in Starbucks’ case it does. In addition to approximately $400,000 in U.S. government contracts, the global coffeehouse chain has received millions of dollars from Uncle Sam for a coffee yield improvement project in Colombia, records uncovered by Judicial Watch show. Additionally, the anti-bias curriculum that was recently forced upon 175,000 employees was designed by a nonprofit that’s largely funded by leftwing billionaire George Soros. The group’s (Perception Institute) leadership has close ties to Democratic party politics, including Planed Parenthood...

City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart released a report Tuesday night stating $33.3 million is missing from the City of Philadelphia's main cash account. Besides financial discrepancies, the report also found issues ranging from outdated technology to inadequate staffing. "My office has opened a fraud investigation," Rhynhart said. According to the report, the discrepancy dates back several years. The report states other city accounts have not been reconciled by the Treasurer's Office, some since 2010.

The majority of the 99 seats in the House of Representatives identified by the Cook Political Report as “competitive” in 2018 are in eight states: California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Michigan. Of the 435 seats in the lower chamber of Congress, 336 are not competitive–180 held by Democrats, 156 held by Republicans, according to the Cook Political Report’s ratings. Only 15 of the 99 competitive seats are currently held by Democrats, while 84 are held by Republicans. The simple math–24 more non competitive seats are held by Democrats than are held by Republicans–and the Republicans...

As you depart Manhattan on the George Washington Bridge, a brief interval on I-95 takes you to Exit 69 for I-80, the access point to New Jersey’s third-largest city, Paterson, and ultimately to the Delaware Water Gap, a geologically arresting gateway to Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Following Pennsylvania’s toll bridge, you’ll pass billboards for resorts, outlet stores, and chain restaurants along a highway lined by hemlocks, mountain laurel, and birch trees. Westward, all road signs direct drivers toward Hazleton, a small city located near the crossroads of I-80 and I-81, one of the East Coast’s busiest intersections for truck traffic.

In 2018, black voters are finding out just what the hell they had to lose. Nazis and Klansmen march openly and proudly, and hate crimes appear to be on the rise. Police killings of people—especially black people—remain largely the same year to year, and this iteration of the Justice Department has largely abdicated any federal responsibility in reducing brutality. An infant-mortality crisis is tightening its grip on the most marginalized communities, and across many economic metrics—from evictions, to generational wealth, to segregation—disparities are either stagnating or trending in the wrong direction. Fifty years after the Kerner Commission’s report said the...

The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia isn’t exactly the kind of place where you’d expect to find a lot of drama brewing. After all, the popular Fairmount Park museum is geared toward kids aged six months through 7 years and features things like a kid-sized grocery store, a century-old carousel, and a room where kids can build and launch their own rocket ships. Controversial it is not. But then the Please Touch Museum invited the drag queens. In honor of Pride Month, the Please Touch Museum is hosting a Pride Family Festival this Saturday, and the main event is Drag...

Remember Jill Stein’s shoddy 2016 recounts? Remember how she raised more for this nonsense effort than for her entire 2016 campaign? She raised over $7 million for this effort, and she seems to be spending it on her staff. Not in a lavish sense, but they told Daily Beast it’s because they’re continuing the recount initiative. A bit odd since Stein promised that there would be a vote on how the rest of the fund raised would be distributed. So far, that has not happened.As liberals licked their wounds, with some still recovering from the shock of Trump’s win, Stein...

The White House on Thursday slammed the mayor of Philadelphia’s “disgusting” celebratory dance after a court ruled in favor of the city in a fight with the Trump administration on its sanctuary city status. U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration cannot cut off grants to the city over policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Baylson said the conditions the administration placed on the city were unconstitutional, “arbitrary and capricious.” Video tweeted by Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney’s deputy chief of staff showed him dancing with chief of staff Jane Slusser. “Sanctuary city, yeh!” a giddy...