Free Republic

Students at Duquesne University are petitioning their school to reconsider a plan to bring Chick-fil-A to campus, arguing the fast-food restaurant’s support for traditional marriage would create an unsafe environment for gay students. . . . Rachel Coury, president of the Duquesne gay-straight alliance, said she fears Chick-fil-A will roll back efforts to create a safe environment for gay students on campus. “I’ve tried very hard within the last semester and a half to promote this safe environment for the LGBTQ+ community,” Ms. Coury told The Duke. “So I fear that with the Chick-fil-A … maybe people will feel that...

It turns out that multiculturalists--teachers and demonstrative students alike--cannot even expound on their area of expertise accurately. "Take hoop earrings, which date to ancient Assyria," Jonathan Zimmerman, who teaches education and history at Penn, writes in The Chronicle of Higher Education. "In Nimrud, located in present-day Iraq, there’s a depiction of King Ashurnasirpal II (884-859 B.C.) wearing thick hoop earrings." "The ancient Greeks and the Romans wore them, too; so did pirates in many parts of the Western world, who believed that hoop earrings contained healing powers or would protect them from drowning." "And, yes, hoop earrings were eventually adopted...

Two Pittsburgh men will spend up to one year in jail for assaulting police officers during an anti-Donald Trump protest in Downtown Pittsburgh last year , according to District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.'s Office. Kennon Hooper, 32, of West Oakland, and Maxwell Yearick, 30, of Perry South, were each sentenced to three to 12 months in jail for their part in the April 13 protests that injured several officers. Both men pleaded guilty to one count each of simple assault and resisting arrest.

First Ivanka’s clothing line, now Yuengling. Just prior to the presidential election, the owner of Yuengling beer Dick Yuengling, Jr. endorsed Donald Trump. Immediately, liberals called for a boycott of the company.   The New York Times wrote about the endorsement and questioned the wisdom of Yuengling’s statements, “Will a Yuengling Executive’s Endorsement of Trump Hurt Beer Sales?” But according to the company owner, the boycott failed to harm his business. Yuengling joined a March 30, panel discussion at an event called "Meeting of the Malts VI" in Bethlehem, Pa. Danya Henninger, culture editor for the Billy Penn website, reported...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)–A Sunday drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike nearly turned deadly for Tracy Andrews.“I noticed a guy standing near the concrete barrier with a rock, throwing it across the barrier. He hit my windshield,” said Andrews.The damage left behind: a sizable crater, shards of glass and shock.“I was horrified,” Andrews said. “It could’ve killed me very easily.”Corporal Steven Ranck with the Pennsylvania State Police confirms around 5 p.m. Sunday near mile marker 357, at least two men hurled rocks and steel rebar at passing cars in the westbound lane.Photo/ Anita Oh The two were reportedly standing at ground level behind...

A Pennsylvania man used a homemade, high-pressure air gun to fatally shoot a neighbor with whom he had an affair, a prosecutor and police said. Josef Raszler, 35, was charged Wednesday with criminal homicide in the Sept. 13 shooting of 46-year-old Stephanie Roof. She was shot with a homemade metal projectile about 1 a.m. in the driveway of her home across the street from Raszler’s in Lower Macungie Township. Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said investigators haven’t found the weapon Raszler allegedly used, but they have evidence he researched making it and practiced with it at his parents’ lake...

A Villanova student claims that shaving her head helped her confront her “hair privilege,” as well as “society’s oppressive gender norms.” “I’m not a big fan of being oppressed, and I don’t like it,” said Yvonne Nguyen in a Facebook live video where she shaved her head on camera to Beyoncé songs. Since this article’s publication, she has taken down the video.

Arcadia University flies a “Civility Flag” on campus that is apparently lowered any time an incident of bias or hate is reported. According to an email obtained by Campus Reform, the Pennsylvania college recently announced that it would be lowering the Civility Flag for a period of five days after a professor reportedly used “an offensive stereotype” during an interaction with a student.

By Lukas Mikelionis | 6:39 am, April 4, 2017 A Black Lives Matter chapter in Philadelphia has banned white people from attending an event, claiming it’s a “black only space.” According to the “April Open Meeting” event page on Facebook, the gathering, scheduled for April 15, is aimed at discussing future initiatives and projects of the movement in which only black people are allowed to participate. “Please note that BLM Philly is a Black only space,” claims the event description. Some people supporting the movement but who happen to not be black have requested an explanation from the group. “Is...

Officials said an intruder was shot by a homeowner during an apparent home invasion Monday evening. Authorities said crews were called just after 9 p.m. to the 400 block of Marshall Avenue in Pittsburgh's Perry South neighborhood. Channel 11's Steven Fisher reported that the 51-year-old resident heard someone rummaging around the first floor of his home. He grabbed his gun and confronted the intruder, who police identified as 56-year-old Darrell Bettis. Police said Bettis charged at the man and struck him with a crowbar. After a struggle, police said the homeowner shot Bettis in the upper right thigh. Bettis was...

A federal judge has thrown out a $4.24 million jury verdict against one of the largest natural gas producers in Pennsylvania and ordered a new trial in a lawsuit alleging Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. contaminated the well water of two families. U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson on Friday set aside the verdict reached a year ago by a jury in Scranton, saying the evidence presented by the Dimock homeowners “was spare, sometimes contradictory, frequently rebutted by other scientific expert testimony, and relied in some measure upon tenuous inferences.” Carlson also said the plaintiffs presented no evidence that would...

New arts program will connect student artists to PA Turnpike New partnership, Art Sparks, will develop public art created by local students HUMMELSTOWN, PA. (March 30, 2017) — Today, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) and Pennsylvania Council for the Arts (PCA) announced a new partnership that connects student artists with art being developed for stops along the PA Turnpike. The new program, called Art Sparks, will utilize the PCA’s Arts in Education residency program to develop student-created, original pieces of art for Turnpike service plazas across the 550-mile system. These public art pieces will be on display in service plazas...

Delaware River Turnpike Bridge to Reopen Late Tonight Crossing was closed for seven weeks as fractured truss member was repaired. Officials from the PA Turnpike Commission (PTC) and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) today announced that they expect to reopen the jointly owned Delaware River Bridge sometime late tonight. The 1.25-mile-long bridge, which carries traffic between the two states, first closed Jan. 20 when a complete fracture was discovered in the superstructure beneath the westbound lanes on the Pennsylvania side in Bristol Township, Bucks County. “Many people were greatly inconvenienced by this closure over the last seven weeks, and...

PA Turnpike Commission Stops Work on Mon-Fayette ExpresswayCommissioners freeze project spending due to apparent lack of support.HIGHSPIRE, PA. (March 21, 2017) — The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced today that it will stop engineering-design activities on the 14-mile Mon-Fayette Expressway project in Allegheny County in light of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s recent decision to table the project. “The PA Turnpike has a legislative mandate to develop the Mon-Fayette Expressway, but our role is not to serve as an advocate for the project,” said PA Turnpike CEO Mark Compton. “This is a regional project, and the decision as to whether it is...

Before the week’s headline Supreme Court debate, senators are poised to get the Delta Queen back cruising America’s waterways. The legendary riverboat has been barred from carrying overnight passengers since an exemption to the 1966 Safety of Life at Sea Act for the largely wooden vessel lapsed back in 2008. Lawmakers from Cincinnati to St. Louis have pushed for the Delta Queen to get a new lease on life since then, and the Senate has scheduled a Monday evening vote on passage of a bipartisan bill that would do just that... Sen. Rob Portman, who hails from Cincinnati, remembers the...

The Butler County District Attorney’s office on Monday charged a 20-year-old man with homicide and rape in the death of his girlfriend's son. Keith Jordan Lambing also faces multiple assault charges in the death of 4-year-old Bentley Miller. Mr. Lambing was captured by authorities about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday after he was found hiding with his mother, Kristen Herold, in the attic of an abandoned home in Butler. He was being sought by authorities after Bentley died from "severe injuries" that District Attorney Butler Rich Goldinger described as "horrible." Ms. Herold, 43, of Butler is charged with hindering apprehension and endangering...

Park service invokes separation of church and state: The shining symbols on the Knob will stay muted unless NPS and Lions Club come to agreement. MILFORD — The cross and star that shone for year over Milford, from high on the hill known as "The Knob," may have to go. The Knob used to be private land. But in October 2015 it was transferred to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area under the National Park Service (NPS), which comes under federal regulations. Displays of religious symbols on government property are not allowed, although special use permits can be granted. Up...

Refugee children in Lancaster can choose to attend the city’s main public high school instead of the privately run alternative academy to which the school district had funneled them, according to the settlement of a nine-month legal announced Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. The agreement, approved by the Lancaster School Board on Tuesday night, opens the way for newly arrived 17-to-20-year-old immigrant students with little or no English fluency to attend a newcomer program at J.P. McCaskey High School, and restricts the district from outplacing them to the for-profit Phoenix Academy, which plaintiffs in a federal...

The Drexel University professor who tweeted that “all I want for Christmas is white genocide” is now encouraging Philadelphians to shut down Charles Murray’s next lecture. “The theories put forward by Charles Murray…are violent theories that encourage violent harassment and action.” Tweet This “Philly! white supremacist ideologue @charlesmurray will be speaking @VillanovaU on Thursday,” Prof. George Ciccariello-Maher tweeted Tuesday night, adding, “please do what you can to make this impossible!”