Free Republic

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.