Free Republic

Federal agents launched another raid at the Local 98 electricians’ union headquarters in Philadelphia between spells of rain on Friday morning. This is the second such raid on the Spring Garden Street building since the federal investigation into the union’s activities exploded into public view four years ago. An FBI spokesperson confirmed to the Inquirer that agents arrived around 7 a.m., and the paper later reported that the search warrant related to union leadership allegedly making threats of violence “against dissidents in their ranks.” The raid comes as union leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty, City Councilmember Bobby Henon and a...

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed a key bill that would loosen restrictions on restaurants and bars in the state. House Bill 2513 would set minimum capacity for restaurants and taverns at a minimum of 50% and even beyond that if the premises allow. It further would allow establishments to permit patrons to sit at bars, provided they socially distance, and would eliminate the requirement that a meal must be purchased to buy an alcoholic beverage. “This bill jeopardizes public health and safety as it permits eating establishments, including restaurants, bars, clubs and banquet halls, to operate up to 100%...

Why has Marc Elias, the Democratic National Committee’s election lawyer, filed more than 50 lawsuits around the country challenging state election laws in advance of next month’s presidential election? Elias says he’s fighting against “voter suppression.” But most of the state laws he’s challenging have been in place for years — including when he was the legal adviser to the John Kerry and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns. Why is Elias suddenly asking courts to overrule state election laws and count ballots that come in after Election Day, or force states to have unattended ballot collection boxes? Someone who knows Elias...

Pennsylvania state lawmakers in both parties have a message for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, and it goes something like this: No taxation without representation! That message came through loud and clear in September when the General Assembly passed legislation that would prohibit the governor from joining a multi-state climate change agreement without legislative approval. The Senate vote was just one vote shy of a veto-proof majority with five Democrats joining with Republicans to support the bill. On the House side, seven Democrats served as co-sponsors of the bill, which passed by a wide margin in July. Wolf, taking inspiration from...

The two largest U.S. energy firms, Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp, have increased their share of campaign donations to Democrats this year, according to latest filings, amid a looming battle over fracking. The vast majority, 85% of all oil and gas donations this election, have flowed on behalf of U.S. President Donald Trump, other Republican candidates and conservative causes, according to data from campaign researcher the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). However, oil majors have put more money into Democratic coffers as some polls show Democratic challenger Joseph Biden with an as much as 10 percentage point lead and...

... TWENTY MILES AWAY, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Philip Rosenzweig invited a few fellow Jewish Republicans to his office to discuss the upcoming election efforts. Rosenzweig is the chairman of the Republican Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth, which encompasses the first 14 towns of the Eastern Main Line of Philadelphia. He is also a co-founding partner of a law firm. He says that the Jewish vote in the area is significant. “The counties surrounding Philadelphia have approximately 200,000 Jewish households of about 450,000 people. This is the third-largest suburban Jewish population in the US.” “There are very few...

Winding through green forested hills, the road to Meadowbrook Mobile Home Park in York County is nestled with brown-paneled trailers and potholes half-filled with jagged concrete. Sue Ritter has lived here for more than 40 years, before the pipes began to break, leaving faucets dry for days and causing sewage backups to soak the floors. Several trailers, constructed with cheap material and wood additions, have caught fire in recent years. When workers in large trucks began barreling down these roads in 2017, hollowing out part of the forest for Sunoco’s Mariner East pipeline project, it seemed like another nuisance the...

Tens of thousands of voters in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania will receive reissued mail-in ballots after being sent the wrong ones, officials said. About 28,879 voters in Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, were impacted due to an error made by Midwest Direct, the company tasked with printing, collating and mailing the ballots. A mapping error is said to have resulted in voters’ information being matched to the ballot for the next person in the batch, county officials said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden mistakenly declared that a factory in Erie, Pennsylvania, was closing down — triggering panic among workers and forcing management to send a company-wide email reassuring employees that their jobs were not currently in danger. Erie News Now reported Tuesday that Biden’s comments earlier in the week about a local locomotive factory shutting down caused the confusion:

Health Department Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine cautioned on Wednesday Pennsylvania is facing a fall resurgence of coronavirus. “It’s very hard to predict what the future will bring, but we have been talking for months that we were concerned that as we entered the fall season, as the weather started to change, that we would see a resurgence in terms of the numbers of COVID-19,” she said during a news conference at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency offices. Over the past nine days, Pennsylvania has reported more than 1,000 daily new cases after its latest update said that there were 1,276...

10/6 to 10/13: D +24,174 R +27,324

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) –A Montgomery County bakery is offering a sweet spin on the traditional presidential poll. Voting never tasted so good. “We started our election cookie poll,” said Lochel’s Bakery owner, Kathleen Lochel. Lochel’s Bakery in Hatboro is allowing customers to show their political preference by buying Trump or Biden butter cookies. “The decorated cookies are always $4.49,” said Lochel. “They’re iced, an edible image with the candidate’s name with 2020 put on the cookie, and it’s put into the red or blue jimmies.” For each cookie sold, the staff marks it on a board. So far, Trump...

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday called for marijuana use to be legalized, which he said could help shore up the state’s economy. Wolf said on Twitter that he would be renewing calls on the state legislature to legalize adult-use to provide a new revenue stream as the state battles a multibillion-dollar coronavirus-related budget deficit. During a press conference on Tuesday, Wolf acknowledged that so far there has been no movement among Pennsylvania lawmakers to advance corresponding legislation.

Neighbors says the special agents confiscated eight large garbage bags of suspected undelivered mail. BALDWIN, Pa. — Special agents from the United States Postal Service raided the home of an Allegheny County mail carrier over the weekend. At a time when public confidence in mail delivery is low, a mail carrier is suspected of putting out his deliveries with the morning trash. Special agents from the United States Postal Service raided the carrier’s home in Baldwin on Sunday night, confiscating eight large garbage bags of suspected undelivered mail, according to neighbors. From inside his house on Meadowcrest Road, mail carrier...

When Philadelphia officials gathered for an Election Day planning session in the city’s Emergency Operations Center last month, they gamed out a range of concerning scenarios. One stood out the most. What if in-person votes suggest President Donald Trump is winning Pennsylvania after the polls close, but the slow counting of mail ballots in Philadelphia flips the tally in favor of Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the days after? And what happens if Trump then wrongly claims the election is being stolen from him and calls on supporters to storm elections offices?

Tuesday, October 13, 2020: Join the RSBN crew for live coverage as President Donald J. Trump holds a Make America Great Again event at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Johnstown, PA Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. announced that President Donald J. Trump will deliver remarks at Make America Great Again Rallies in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, October 13th, 2020 at 7:00 PM EDT and in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday, October 14th, 2020 at 6:00 PM CDT.

Kevin McCullough is predicting 333 electoral votes for Donald Trump and 208 for Joe Biden. Biden wins Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Illinois. He wins Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, and — not, New Hampshire. Not New Hampshire. Vermont. And everything else on this map is red. Pennsylvania is red. Ohio is red. Florida is red. Arizona’s red. Texas is red. Nevada is red. Arizona is red. Now, he hasn’t been wrong since 2006. And, by the way, have you heard people saying, “Man, this year feels a lot like 2016”? Meaning,...

Joe Biden deepened the rift within the Democratic Party Saturday with an emphatic embrace of Pennsylvania’s energy industry. “I am not, not, not banning fracking, period,” he assured union members at a plumbers’ training facility in Erie, Pa., a crucial swing county in the battleground state. Hydraulic fracking of oil and natural gas has fueled a job boom in the Keystone State — but is despised by proponents of the Green New Deal. Both Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, said repeatedly during their primary campaigns that they hoped to do away with the extraction method. But they have...

This story took place over the past week or so but it’s just bubbling to the surface outside of the local news beat. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mayor Danene Sorace (D) held an extremely short press conference on October 2nd to announce the retirement of their Chief of Police, Jarrad Berkihiser. After briefly thanking him for his service, the Mayor took no questions from the press and departed. The Police Chief did not attend the event and issued no comment. Lancaster’s police chief was forced to retire because his wife posted positive comments about President Trump on Facebook, according to the...

From a commentator (Boog) at The Hedgehog Report, a site that looks at polls: Take a look at this electoral map: Trump has a floor of 259 EVs. ... ... What the map shows is that Trump only needs one of WI, MN, PA or MI. He could even win by plucking VA (which is admittedly unlikely), or by taking some mix of NH, ME-2 and NV. On the other hand, Biden has to SWEEP almost all of the remaining states. ... Trump is a candidate who the pollsters are finding it increasingly difficult to poll, and that is why...