Free Republic

Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania threw a few elbows at several potential rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, calling possible contenders Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas “bomb throwers” with little experience.“Do we really want someone with this little experience?” Mr. Santorum said, referring to Mr. Paul, Mr. Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, The New York Times reported. “And the only experience they have basically — not Rubio, but Cruz and Paul because I don’t think Rubio is going to go — is bomb throwing? Do we really want somebody who’s a...

Severe weather has shut down a 132-mile stretch of the Thruway in western New York for the second time since the epic November snowstorm. The Thruway Authority closed Interstate 90 at midnight Thursday from Exit 46 outside Rochester to Exit 61 at Ripley, on the Pennsylvania border 60 miles southwest of Buffalo.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police barrack in Chambersburg are looking for two women suspected of stopping a vehicle on Interstate-81 and damaging it with a baseball bat. Police said the incident occurred shortly after 4 p.m. on January 2, near mile marker 17.5 on I-81 Southbound. The suspect vehicle, which was being driven by a white woman who is 5'2", about 120 lbs. with black hair, swerved between both southbound lanes to prevent the second vehicle from passing. The second vehicle was being driven by a 47-year-old woman from Chambersburg, who had a girl with her....

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.

A grand jury has recommended criminal charges against Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane. The grand jury found that she leaked secret grand jury information to a newspaper in an effort to smear political enemies. PJ Media has been covering Kane’s refusal to prosecute Pennsylvania Democrats who took bribes in order to oppose photo voter identification legislation in Pennsylvania. Philly News : For about six months, Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Carluccio has been directing the grand jury as it has heard testimony from numerous witnesses, including Kane and many of her top aides, to determine how details of a long-ago investigation...

Abortions reached a historic low in 2013 in Pennsylvania [32,108–a decline of 7%], as unsafe abortion centers shut down and women had better access to life-affirming pregnancy resources. A lot of the credit goes to the thousands of dedicated pro-life volunteers across the state who work to protect every child and mother from the devastation of abortion. Still, 32,108 abortions happened in 2013, and that means we have a lot of work to do. The report from the state Department of Health points to key areas where we can focus our efforts. Here are ten important facts from the report:...

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

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Rick Santorum says he's in for 2016. Rick Santorum has invited former aides to Washington next week for a "private briefing" on his plans for a possible 2016 presidential bid. The "Personal Invitation from Senator Santorum," provided to CNN by a Republican who received it, was sent by a Santorum aide to more than two dozen "friends and former colleagues" from past campaigns and his time in the U.S. House and Senate. "As you probably know, RJS is seriously considering a run for the White House in 2016," Santorum adviser Matt Beynon wrote in the email, using Santorum's initials. "With...

Scott Ritter, the former United Nations weapons inspector who was arrested and imprisoned for unlawful contact with a minor, has returned to Bethlehem. Ritter was paroled from state prison in Pennsylvania in September. A call to his home wasn't returned on Thursday. A vocal critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ritter has resumed his trenchant writing on U.S. policy in the Middle East: He has authored at least three online articles for Huffington Post since October, including one warning that the creation of a U.S.-backed "Free Syrian Army" represents a "figment of American creative thinking."

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has landed himself in hot water after he was caught enthusiastically celebrating a victory for the Dallas Cowboys. Christie was filmed hugging Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones and his son Stephen in a garish orange sweater after Dallas defeated Detroit Lions in a match yesterday. A native of New Jersey, Christie follows the Cowboys despite his team having a long-standing rivalry with the New York Giants in his own state as they play in the same NFL conference every year. He also cheers for the Cowboys ahead of his state's other NFL team, the New York...

From the first day of 2011, Mitt Romney was the favorite to win the 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign. No one else was even close. The 2016 outlook could not be more different. Offered the choice to bet on one single candidate to win the nomination versus the rest of the field, the choice would have to be "the field." For the first time in years, there is no one next in line. And without a former vice president or powerhouse former candidate looking likely to run, Republicans are shaping up to spend the next year and a half fighting...

The Hill reports: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will headline the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention this month, joining a pair of other potential presidential candidate[s] also weighing bids to enter the 2016 field. . . . The roster of speakers also includes former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who ran for president in 2012, and Ben Carson, the Tea Party favorite and former neurosurgeon who’s debating entering the fray. It’s not uncommon for Cruz to play to this sort of crowd. He is a favorite among the most conservative members of the GOP, where he doles out one-liners (Abolish the...

TEXAN LOOKING TO SHORE UP “CONSERVATIVE” SUPPORT IN PALMETTO STATE. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz will attend the 2015 South Carolina Tea Party convention next month, sources close to the event tell FITS. The Texan – who along with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is seeking to emerge as a leading alternative to the GOP “establishment” – is the third presumptive “Republican” presidential prospect to commit to the event, which is being held in mid-January in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Also attending? Social conservative Rick Santorum – who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 2012 – and neurosurgeon/ author Ben Carson, who...

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...

<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former ironworkers boss is the only man left standing as a union racketeering trial gets set to start Monday in Philadelphia.</p> <p>Federal prosecutors say a dozen Ironworkers Local 401 members threatened and sabotaged non-union contractors and rival unions in the Philadelphia area.</p>

Archaeologists helping to excavate the World Trade Center site have uncovered a second piece of the more than 200-year-old ship that was discovered there last summer. The find, made last Friday, came as workers began digging up the east side of the construction area, which once housed the World Trade Center complex... Archaeologists first noticed remnants of the ship -- curved pieces of wood buried 25 feet below street level -- last July and spent two weeks excavating the artifact, which turned out to be a 32-foot-long section of the boat's hull. The piece that was found last Friday belongs...

Lucky coin? Ever since the 2nd century B.C. -- not long after Romans began minting coins -- shipbuilders have been slipping a coin into the structure of their ships. It's a tradition that continues today. In fact, the USS New York -- made partially from steel recovered from the World Trade Center towers -- did it as well (see "What is Stepping the Mast?"). For the ancient Romans it was likely a continuation of religious customs. Now it's just a tradition and done for good luck. So we didn't find it during the five days we were actually excavating it....

The ship was buried as junk two centuries ago - landfill to expand a bustling little island of commerce called Manhattan. When it re-emerged this week, surrounded by skyscrapers, it was an instant treasure that popped up from the mud near ground zero. A 32-foot piece of the vessel was found in soil 20 feet under street level, amid noisy bulldozers excavating a parking garage for the future World Trade Center. Near the site of so many grim finds - Sept. 11 victims' remains, twisted steel - this discovery was as unexpected as it was thrilling. Historians say the ship,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Workers at the World Trade Center site are excavating a 32-foot-long ship hull that apparently was used in the 18th century as part of the fill that extended lower Manhattan into the Hudson River.....