Free Republic

Saudi Arabia has provided $60 million in direct support for the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) budget, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Egypt Ahmad Abdulaziz Qattan said Tuesday, according to the WAFA news agency. Qattan reportedly said that the Saudi Fund for Development had transferred $60 million to the PA Finance Ministry’s bank account. The Saudi diplomat noted in a press release that amount covers Saudi Arabia’s financial contribution to the PA’s budget for October, November and December 2014. The total PA budget for 2014 was estimated at $4.21 billion with a $1.25 billion deficit; when the $350 million deficit in development budget

Image from frontpage magazine. The current AG in Pennsylvania is Kathleen Kane.  She was elected in 2012, and is an avid disarmist.   She has gone so far as to say that she will not defend the recently passed gun reform bill from a lawsuit filed by PA cities.  The law targeted cities  that violate Pennsylvania gun law and citizens second amendment rights. She has been under investigation for leaking information from a Grand Jury in order to undercut a probe into corruption involving the head of the NAACP in Philadelphia.  From post-gazette.com: The investigation involved alleged financial improprieties of...

Gun owners’ groups are threatening to file a lawsuit against the City of Harrisburg in January, if the city does not take steps to rescind its gun ordinances. The group Firearm Owners Against Crime is one of the four groups that joined together to hire a lawyer. The lawyer sent a letter of intent to Harrisburg city officials.

A new state law is taking aim at Pennsylvania municipalities that have their own gun laws, and Reading is taking heed. Council members told 69 News that they intend to soon repeal the ordinance that requires people to report lost or stolen guns within 24 hours. "At the advice of our solicitor, we will now have on our agenda to introduce, an ordinance to repeal the current firearms ordinance," said Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz, D-Reading.

David asks Congressman Tom Marino about who he’s supporting in SpeakerFight 2015. The Congressman believes he “doesn’t have any options”… except Boehner.

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, on Sunday said that the PA will not agree to maintain the status quo and threatened that the PA will dismantle itself and “hand the keys” back to Israel. Speaking to Army Radio, Erekat referred to Israel’s decision to withhold the tax money it collects on behalf of the PA, which came in response to the PA’s request to join the International Criminal Court, and called it “collective punishment” and a “war crime”. “This is our money, Palestinian money that the Israeli government collects in exchange for 3%,” he said. “This is...

Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom on Saturday called on Israel to use the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) tax money it froze to pay off the PA’s enormous debt to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC). “Following the decision to freeze half a billion shekels in Palestinian tax money, I have asked that the funds will be transferred to cover the Palestinian debt to the IEC, which continues to rise every month,” Shalom wrote on Facebook.

Acting Head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, has filed a request to the Minister of the Interior Gilad Erdan demanding he immediately expel the American Consulate staff members who entered the Samaria village of Adei Ad Friday and threatened Israeli Jews with an M-16. "As revealed through Wikileaks few years ago, these supposed 'officials' are intelligence agents and spies in every respect," said Dagan, adding "this time, they went too far and participated in a provocative tour with the Palestinians in the southern Samaria and north Binyamin, without any coordination as required with the IDF and police, and...

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) representative to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) criticized Nigeria on Wednesday over its abstention during a UN vote on Palestinian statehood on Tuesday. In a statement quoted by the Ma’an news agency, the representative Muhannad al-Akluk, said Nigeria’s move was a "big disappointment", adding that voting against “Palestine” despite being a member of the OIC was a "clear contradiction." He also claimed that Nigeria’s abstention violated numerous resolutions passed at the Islamic organization's summits. The PA’s resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria by 2017 was defeated in the Security Council when...

The NCAA turned over 150 documents for Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey to review this week, as ordered before Christmas. But the order was for 163 documents to be reviewed. “Upon further review in preparing the materials for the court, and in the spirit of cooperation and trying to make the maximum information available for discovery, the NCAA determined that 13 documents were not protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine,” NCAA attorney Everett Johnson wrote in a cover letter to Covey on Monday. “The NCAA promptly produced these documents to plaintiffs without any privileged content withheld.” The...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Megan Courtney and Aiyana Whitney each had 11 kills, and Penn State defeated Brigham Young 25-21, 26-24, 25-14 Saturday to win their second consecutive NCAA women’s volleyball championship. Micha Hancock had 36 assists and five digs for the Nittany Lions. The senior from nearby Edmond won in front of family and friends in her final college match. Her expert setting helped the Nittany Lions neutralize the nation’s No. 1 blocking team. Penn State (36-3) won its sixth title in eight years and No. 7 overall to break a tie with Stanford for the most titles. Jennifer Hamson...

McDonald’s and its franchisees illegally retaliated against employees for participating in union-related activities, the National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer alleged Friday in a case with sweeping industry implications. NLRB general counsel Richard Griffin announced Friday he will issue 13 complaints involving 78 charges against franchises and McDonald’s USA, LLC. Though many of these alleged labor violations were committed by independent franchise owners, Griffin ruled earlier this year that McDonald’s can be held liable for those actions as a so-called joint employer, leaving the corporatrion — and potentially other franchisors — exposed to such claims. McDonald’s said the decision will...

BLOOMSBURG — Leaders in Bloomsburg have decided against going ahead with plans for a controversial law at a meeting Monday night. With a narrow vote of four to three, Bloomsburg town officials voted not to draft an ordinance that would make it illegal for businesses to discriminate against people based on sexual orientation. Council met with a packed room and heard hours of input on whether the town needed such an ordinance. “Lacks constitutional weight both federally and at a state level, being carried along more by emotion than reason,” said one speaker who opposed the ordinance. “Many members of...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced on Sunday that the draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council that would set a two-year deadline for Israel to “end its occupation” will be submitted on Wednesday. "The Palestinian leadership took a decision to go to the Security Council next Wednesday to vote on their project to end the occupation," senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) member Wassel Abu Yussef told AFP after a meeting in Ramallah. The Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment ahead of Monday's meeting in Rome between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry...

After losing a landmark decision on November 20 allowing them to be tried for terrorism charges in a $1 billion case, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) have now filed a very rare appeal to the Second Circuit of courts trying to squash the case. Shurat Hadin (Israel Law Center) is leading the legal charge against the PA and PLO. In a press release on Thursday they noted that the appeal, known as a motion for a writ of mandamus, "concerns personal jurisdiction and should have been filed months ago." "This is a desperate attempt by the...

The district atttorney said Scheuermann also had self-inflicted knife wounds to the neck. which were "contributing causes to his death. " Pennsylvania state police are investigating the shooting. Morganelli met Tuesday with Atty. Josh Karoly, the lawyer of Scheurmann's family and is asking for any and all information Karoly uncovered during his own investigation to be brought forth, including additional witnesses. He plans to meet again early next week with the family's lawyer. The district attorney wants to know all the information before making any decision about possible charges. His said his decision may be to refer the case to...

But when the protest neared its conclusion, they were joined by university President Eric Barron, who held up his hands in the “don’t shoot” pose has become a gesture of solidarity with the movement.

Lincoln and McKeesport are on CeaseFirePA's list of towns with such resolutions. Others urging state action are Heidelberg, Brentwood, Baldwin, Charleroi, Ambler, Easton, York, Swarthmore, West Conshohocken, Bridgeport, Catasauqua, Sharon Hill and West Chester, and Abington, Radnor and Upper Merion townships. “It's a great public relations stunt,” Stolfer said of the resolutions. “It stigmatizes gun owners.” He said it has nothing to do with prosecuting criminals because significant laws exist — if district attorneys are willing to enforce them.

In Pennsylvania, second amendment advocates have been fighting for years to reform Pennsylvania preemption law.   State law forbids local governments from passing a maze of local ordinances that infringe on the right to keep and bear arms.   All 50 states have some form of state firearm preemption; if they did not have it, residents would never know if they were breaking the law or not by being on one side of the street or another. The problem in Pennsylvania is that the Legislature did not provide any penalties for local scofflaw governments when they break the law.   This year,...

Bring an English gentleman into a conversation between a coupla DelCo kids debating the IgglesÂ’ handling of DeSean Jackson or their favorite hoagies downtheshore, and watch the gentleman recoil and pray for the Queen. Drop a proper publican onto a Kenzo barroom dartboard and expect the same reaction. For just as Philadelphia claims its own brand of the English language, so too does our city wield a distinct take on the classic tavern game of darts. The origins of darts, like baseball, is murky and filled with legend. Lore suggests that the game grew from the practice of throwing...