Free Republic

A juvenile thought to be involved in the robbery of a pizza delivery man in Penn Township will be charged as an adult, according to an affidavit. Sheldon Isaiah Cheese, 17, of York, is one of two people allegedly involved in the incident. He and Logan Matthew Alexander, 18, of Littlestown, allegedly robbed the man on Jan. 24 as he was delivering pizzas to them, according to the affidavit filed with District Judge James Miner. Alexander is a senior at Delone Catholic High School, which was confirmed by Delone Catholic Principal Maureen Thiec. A member of the basketball team, he...

AS FORMER U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah prepared to move in to a federal prison last week, his son offered a bit of advice: Bring an extra pair of glasses. "If they get broken or stolen in there," the younger Fattah explained, "it can take three to six months to get them replaced." And Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr. - a self-styled "entrepreneur, socialite, and lifestyle mogul" and outspoken offspring of the man who represented Philadelphia in Congress for more than two decades - should know.

Republican lawmakers are meeting this week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Loews Hotel near City Hall. Protesters have been targeting the hotel since the Republican lawmakers came to town. Welcome to Philadelphia @realDonaldTrump #lgbtq #queerrager protest outside the Loews Hotel #philly video sent to me by a friend pic.twitter.com/x0IczPgh4B — MK (@mytweetjawn) January 26, 2017 But it gets worse. Their room is bugged. Someone was taping the GOP lawmakers’ discussions and sent copies to the liberal media. The Washington Post reported: Republican lawmakers aired sharp concerns about their party’s quick push to repeal the Affordable Care Act inside a closed-door...

The cost of driving in Pennsylvania is going up on two fronts in the new year. First, the state tax on wholesale motor fuels will increase Jan. 1 — 8 cents for gasoline and nearly 11 cents for diesel fuel. Those costs are expected to be passed on to retail prices at the pump. A week later, tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will increase for the ninth year in a row, this time by 6 percent. The change will increase the cost of a trip from Ohio to New Jersey from $48.90 to $51.85 for cash and from $34.93 to...

More than 1,000 people came out for the “Queer Rager” dance party outside the Loews Philadelphia Hotel last night to protest President Donald Trump and the GOP retreat, which will occupy the hotel until Friday. The protest brought a steady throng of dancers and demonstrators who voiced their concerns about a wide range of issues surrounding Trump and GOP policy on the Affordable Care Act, LGBTQ issues, law enforcement, immigration, climate change and more. Philly is in the national spotlight right now – and protestors are showing up. The demonstrations will continue into today and likely grow in size, as...

Theresa May will say that Britain and America can “rediscover our confidence” and “lead together again” in the wake of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. The Prime Minister will address the annual congressional Republican Retreat in Philadelphia and say that the UK and USA will “renew the Special Relationship” now that President Trump is in the White House. Her address will come just hours before she becomes the first foreign leader to meet Mr Trump on Friday. Mrs May will present Mr Trump with an engraved Quaich - an ancient Scottish artefact – and give his wife, Melania,...

A Crawford Central School Board member is facing backlash for trading insults on social media and posting critical comments about President Donald Trump, including using variations of the phrase "clean head shot." A member of the public used the comment period at the end of Monday’s school board meeting to call out the social media activity of board member Glenn Tuttle. “One of our school board members made very inappropriate remarks on Facebook,” Bonnie Van Nort began without identifying Tuttle by name. “We are all entitled to our opinions, but as an elected school board member, I would think that...

Philadelphia may be turning into the new San Francisco under Mayor Jim Kenny, complete with all of the bizarre laws we’re used to seeing crop up on the west coast. Just last night we were talking about his plans for certain bars in the “Gayborhood” and the sketchy legal grounds for those proposals. Now there’s another new initiative rolling out which is going to put the screws to every employer in the city. The City of Brotherly love will now bar employers from asking job applicants about their salary history during the hiring process. Despite a threat from cable...

For the third time since Sept. 15, controversial Christian preachers littered Locust Walk with speech railing against Muslims, the LGBTQ community and Jews — but the University’s response appeared to be slightly more aggressive this time. Just before 3:00 p.m., the protesters were stationed in front of Van Pelt Library, and an orange vehicle — often used around campus by Facilities and Real Estate Services employees — was parked in front of them on Locust Walk. A Daily Pennsylvanian editor approached a FRES employee manning the vehicle and asked if the University requested he be there to drown out the...

At the Modern Language Association (MLA) annual convention in Philadelphia this year, we got to see some of the "Creative Responses to Black Lives Matter." They included: • A filmed street theater presentation on "The Shooting of Africa," presented by Kimberly Welch of UCLA, and featuring actors with signs. • A group called #Justice for Flint, that did a rap & music video which featured such lyrics as "Flintstones, yabba dabba do is a negro spiritual" and "Ready for your poison, the girls and boys in…," which was presented by Elizabeth Anne "Betsy" Wheeler of the University of Oregon. •...

An apparent construction error six decades ago could have caused the fracture discovered Friday in a steel beam that forced the closure of the Delaware River Bridge, an engineering expert who viewed pictures of the cracked truss said Sunday. An image of the cracked truss - a supporting piece - on the bridge that runs between Bucks County in Pennsylvania and Burlington County in New Jersey shows signs of holes that had been mistakenly drilled into the steel beam and then filled with plug welds, a typical solution in the 1950s when the bridge was built, said Karl Frank, professor...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) – Police say a man bit the ear off another man in Pittsburgh as they argued about President Donald Trump. Victim Marco Ortiz, 30, was bitten at his apartment at around 6:45 a.m. Monday in the city’s East Liberty neighborhood after a verbal argument turned physical. He ran to a gas station for help. According to Ortiz, the roommate bit off part of his ear, twisted his finger and threatened to kill him. Not because of anything Ortiz did, but because his roommate feared that Trump will try to send him back to Mexico.

Brenda Thompkins awoke early Sunday morning to find a stranger standing near the bed in which she and her ex-husband, Christopher Thompkins, were sleeping on the second floor of his Larimer home. *snip* When officers tried to enter the house from the front porch, someone inside began shooting in their direction, Toler said. Officers returned fire, killing the 57-year-old homeowner later identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office as Christopher Thompkins.

Beginning Monday, the Black Lives Matter movement could become a curriculum topic in classrooms across the city. A Philadelphia School District teachers' group has planned six days of action this week, encouraging educators to introduce optional curriculum and activities - from "The Revolution Is Always Now" coloring pages for very young students to a science lesson about the biology of skin color for older ones. "This is a critical issue of our time - in our society, but also in our students' lives," said Charlie McGeehan, an English and history teacher and member of the Caucus of Working Educators, an...

Not everybody made a lousy prediction on this year's election results. In introducing Penn Professor David Eisenhower at the University Club on January 19, 2017, Hadley Arkes of the James Wilson Institute noted that the man for whom Camp David was named was confident in April of last year that the Donald could win. Professor Eisenhower noted that "all the women I know are defending Trump." That turned out to be a more scientific barometer than whatever the mainstream media were using. It should be noted that Professor Eisenhower is the grandson of one president and the son-in-law of another—Richard...

...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 1 PM TUESDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BINGHAMTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR SNOW AND SLEET...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 1 PM TUESDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. * LOCATIONS...CENTRAL NEW YORK AND THE NORTHERN TIER OF PENNSYLVANIA. * HAZARD TYPES...HEAVY WET SNOW... SLEET... AND STRONG WINDS. * ACCUMULATIONS...4 TO 9 INCHES OF HEAVY WET SNOW AND SLEET. THE HEAVIEST ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN. * TIMING...RAIN WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA LATER THIS MORNING...

The first time Donald J. Trump stepped onstage in Pennsylvania in April 2016 at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, it was clear something very different was going on in this state, with this candidate. It was not because the rally was massive, or because it was boisterous, or that it was poorly organized, though all those things were true. Having already attended 18 of his rallies throughout primary states across the country, I found, in fact, that it looked very familiar. It was different because it was in Pennsylvania. It was a campaign that was designed to fail from...

In an interview with Politico, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney says the uncertainty cities face with the incoming Trump administration leaves him feeling that he would "take George W. back in a minute." "If it was [George W.] Bush, [Ronald] Reagan, [Mitt] Romney, [John] McCain, you’d kind of know what to get ready for," the Democrat said, referring to two past Republican presidents and two losing GOP presidential candidates. "I don’t know what to get ready for." Kenney gave the interview Tuesday while in Washington for the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting

--SNIP-- “What message does this ornament send to those who drive on Lancaster Avenue?” asked Roberta Winters, president of the Radnor League of Woman Voters. The world has changed since the days when public school students would start the day with a prayer, she said. She wondered if the crosses would send a “welcoming” message to motorists as they pass through Radnor. “Symbols can bring both positive and negative connotations to individuals and groups,” said Winters. “Are there less ostentatious ways to reflect a Catholic institution?” Winters also wondered what precedent this would set in the township if approved. Rick...

Duncan Lloyd, the assistant city solicitor who was caught on camera with a second man seen vandalizing a Chestnut Hill grocery store with anti-Donald Trump graffiti in November, was nominated for Above the Law's "Lawyer of the Year." Lloyd was not charged with any crimes and remains employed with the city but his story went national where he became known as 'the wine swilling vandal.' His friend, Evan Brown, 33, who police say did the actual spray painting of an obscene anti-Trump phrase on the wall of the Fresh Market on Germantwon Avenue, was charged with a misdemeanor. The national...