Free Republic

No, the United States isn’t trying to build a military force of centenarians. It just seems that way after the Selective Service System mistakenly sent notices to more than 14,000 Pennsylvania men born between 1893 and 1897, ordering them to register for the nation’s military draft and warning that failure to do so is “punishable by a fine and imprisonment.” The agency realized the error when it began receiving calls from bewildered relatives last week. Chuck Huey, 73, of Kingston, said he got a notice addressed to his late grandfather Bert Huey, a World War I veteran who was born...

Police end investigation into Jamal al-Jamal's death in a mysterious explosion, say blast the result of explosives 'hidden in a book'. Czech Police have announced their decision to shelve the investigation into the blast that killed the Palestinian Authority ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jamal al-Jamal, after the investigators concluded that no crime or deliberated assassination was committed. The decision to call off the investigation was made in a joint statement issued by the Czech Police Spokeswoman, Andrea Zoulova, and the state attorney Jindra Janacova. According to the statement, the explosion in the Palestinian embassy at the beginning of January...

A Pennsylvania bill that would legalize AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles for hunting is being criticized by hunters themselves. The bill proposed in 2013 by Republican Rep. Rick Saccone claims that rapid follow-up shots will increase the odds of harvesting game. Saccone says only two states have banned their use and that there is nothing “frightening or extreme in this proposal.” A deer hunter of 54 years who wrote an op-ed for YDR.com says the proposal will make hunting unsafe and unethical. “Marksmanship is the essence of an ethical deer hunt. Spraying 11 shots at a deer (or group of deer)...

PITTSBURGH — Former U.S. Attorney General and former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh has been hospitalized in Pittsburgh after suffering a mild stroke. His wife, Ginny Thornburgh, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review the stroke happened Saturday at their weekend home in Ligonier. She said a doctor told her that 81-year-old Dick Thornburgh "will do well from a recovery point of view." She says he's resting comfortably at UPMC Presbyterian hospital. As governor in 1979, Thornburgh led the state during the Three Mile Island nuclear crisis. The Republican later served as U.S. attorney general under both presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush....

STATE COLLEGE — A spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a statement this morning about the raid that took place Thursday at several State College restaurants. “Last week,” spokeswoman Nicole Navas wrote in an email to the Centre Daily Times, “ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents conducted an enforcement action at numerous locations in the State College, Pa. area. During the execution of federal search warrants, HSI special agents encountered and detained 10 individuals from China, Guatemala, Thailand, Mexico and Indonesia, who were identified as being unlawfully in the United States and/or illegally re-entering the country after...

Israel Minister of Intelligence Dr. Yuval Steinitz: Will PA, Hamas Honor Agreements, Destroy Missiles In Gaza?By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel --- Part of the following was communicated by the Israel's Minister of Intelligence's Media Adviser to the Israel News Agency. Israel Minister of Intelligence Dr. Yuval Steinitz has, today (Thursday, 5 June 2014), released the following statement: "Pursuant to US Secretary of State John Kerry's statement to the effect that the new Palestinian government is 'committed to previous agreements', we must ask: Is it his intention to now demand that Abu Mazen and his government publicly reiterate their...

Lewis Katz, 72, co-owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily News and Philly.com, died Saturday night in the crash of a private jet at a Massachusetts airfield. Katz's death was confirmed by Inquirer editor Bill Marimow, who said he learned the news Sunday morning from close associates. All seven people were killed aboard the private aircraft that crashed at Hanscom Field and erupted into a fireball, authorities said Sunday. The Gulfstream IV crashed about 9:40 p.m. Saturday as it was departing for Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey, said Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which...

Israel must allow Palestinians complete freedom of movement, which requires removing all roadblocks and checkpoints in the West Bank. In particular, Israel should dismantle the security barrier erected throughout the last decade to defend against Palestinian terror attacks... – Naftali Bennett, “A New Plan for Peace in Palestine,” The Wall Street Journal, May 20 The proposals from the Israeli right-wing, however inadequate… add a little bit to that hope [of bringing an end to Jewish Israel]… We should watch how this debate develops and engage and encourage it.... – Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the vehemently anti-Zionist “Electronic Intifada,” on Al...

Exhibit shows parts of classical paintings of biblical scenes merged with photos of Palestinians. Official PA presidential committee requested the exhibit. For Pope Francis' visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority next week, the PA has commissioned an art exhibit that includes works of art portraying Palestinians as Jesus. The exhibit consists of visual displays merging classical paintings of biblical scenes with photos of Palestinians and have been "designed by the Palestinian Museum at the request of the Presidential Higher Committee for Church Affairs." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 20, 2014] As Palestinian Media Watch has documented, the PA has misrepresented Jesus...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A recent ruling from Pennsylvania’s highest court could have a big impact on your privacy rights during a car stop. Pennsylvania traditionally provided broader privacy protection than the US Constitution. For decades, police in the Commonwealth had to get obtain warrant from a judge before they could do a car search unless time was of the essence or the evidence could be lost or destroyed. But now, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s 4 to 2 decision in Commonwealth v. Gary changes the rule.“There’ll be lesser protection of privacy in Pennsylvania,” says Dave Rudovsky, a professor at Penn Law...

'In God We Trust' motto makes comeback By Bill Vidonic Published: Saturday, May 10, 2014, 9:00 p.m. The phrase, “In God We Trust” celebrates an anniversary this year and is enjoying something of a revival in being displayed in public places, but there's irony in that, a Duquesne University law professor said. Courts allowing In God We Trust in places like city council meeting rooms means that the motto has become “a historical and ceremonial phrase” devoid of religious meaning, said Nick Cafardi of New Sewickley, dean emeritus of the university's law school. So, too, has prayer before public meetings,...

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said on Monday he had asked world powers to classify Israeli settler groups who attack Palestinian communities and holy sites as terrorist organizations. The move comes as part of a Palestinian drive to refer their demands for an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory to more international bodies since U.S.-backed peace talks collapsed last month. Malki said militant settlers known as the "Hilltop Youth" and vigilantes who use the "price tag" slogan "practice terror ... constantly against the Palestinian people, their land, holy places and property." "Price tag" refers to retribution the settlers say they will...

National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen has sent protest letters in the last two weeks to the White House as well as various other Western governments, in which he argues that the Palestinian Authority (PA) planned the failure of peace talks. In the letter, Cohen states that the PA deceived US Secretary of State John Kerry regarding its intentions in the talks. Haaretz published the letter on Wednesday, after having received a copy on April 22. A 65-page document submitted to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas by PA Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat on March 9 is attached to the letter. The date places the document...

The NCAA suffered another blow Wednesday in its challenge of a 2013 state law that would prevent millions of dollars in sanctions imposed against Penn State from leaving Pennsylvania. In a one-sentence decision, the Commonwealth Court denied the NCAA’s request to re-argue its preliminary objections in the case. The organization wanted the court to reconsider its April 9 decision that backed the constitutionality of the Endowment Act.The act was passed last year by state legislators to determine how to spend the fine money levied against Penn State over the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. The law calls for...

Israel will gradually annex Area C of the West Bank now that the negotiations with the Palestinians have failed, Economic Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday afternoon. “We will be gradually attempting to apply Israeli law on Israeli controlled areas of Judea and Samaria,” Bennett told reporters as he stood in the Gush Etzion settlement of Neveh Daniel and looked out at the surrounding green and brown hilltops. Bennett blamed the break down of the talks on the unity deal between Fatah and Hamas. “The cabinet has taken a unanimous decision not to negotiate with a government that includes Hamas,”...

A senior Fatah official said Monday that the Palestinian leadership has put forward seven terms by which they would extend peace talks with Israel beyond their April 29 deadline. Amin Maqboul, a member of the Fatah revolutionary council, told the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds that the Palestinian Authority would agree to an extension of negotiations if Israel agreed to: announce the basis on which future talks will be held; draw the outline of the borders of a Palestinian state within the next three months; halt settlement construction; withdraw Israeli troops from the West Bank’s Area C to the lines held before...

hen Frazier Glenn Cross is convicted of murder for gunning down physician William Corporon, his 14-year-old grandson Reat Griffin, and occupational therapist Terry LaManno, at the Jewish community facilities of Kansas City on Sunday, he will, at the very least, be jailed for life with no possibility of parole. The capital murder charge with which he has been indicted also carries the possibility of the death penalty. When the gunman who opened fire indiscriminately on Israeli vehicles outside Hebron on Passover eve a day later, killing Baruch Mizrahi, is tracked down and arrested [...]he will face a very different set...

Cannot excerpt from phone. City demanding that citizens pay up to $10,000 for sidewalks in a crime ridden city. Watch as more people leave and the tax base dries up further. There is a special place in hell for people who impose things lime this on hard working citizens.

Approximately 4,000 participants took part in the Paterno Family Beaver Stadium Run on April 13, 2014. The event consisted of a 3 Mile Run and 1 Mile Family Fun Walk. The entire course was on the Penn State campus; finishing inside Beaver Stadium after running through the players’ tunnel. Sue Paterno, wife of the late Penn State coach Joe Paterno, was on-hand at the event, encouraging participants. Former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steeler great Franco Harris and former Lions' defensive coordinator, Tom Bradley, greeted runners as they crossed the finish line. The event raised an unofficial total of around $400,000...

HARRISBURG — State Sen. Lisa Boscola was kicked out of a bar here Tuesday night after a heated argument with one of the Legislature's top Republicans. But in a statement issued Wednesday evening, the longtime Democratic lawmaker from Bethlehem Township did not mention a physical altercation that a woman alleged on Facebook, saying Boscola hit her in the bar, the Brick Haus on North Second Street, blocks from the Capitol.