Free Republic

(The Center Square) — Pennsylvania’s energy future hangs in the balance amid a federal pause on liquified natural gas production, leaving taxpayers on the hook for more costly and less reliable power. At least, so say the critics of President Joe Biden’s decision to temporarily block LNG exports – which they say has a particularly devastating impact in the commonwealth. “We have to put our natural gas to work,” Robert Bair, president of the Pennsylvania State Building and Construction Trades said during a House Republican Policy Committee hearing on Monday. If Pennsylvania doesn’t do the work, he argued, that other...

By this point, it’s clear to everyone that Bill Barr was a dirty pawn of the Deep State, installed to undermine President Trump from the inside. Yet, we’ve now got a rare look at just how evil he truly was. Barr wasn’t merely “concerned” about the 2020 election; he was outright “irate.” Not over the injustice of it all, mind you, but because he was incensed by any investigations into the sham. If this doesn’t scream his direct involvement in the coup against Trump, what does? Here’s what Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington had to share about “irate” Bill Barr and...

John Sabo and Josh Thieler grew up in Pittsburgh-area communities that were hit hard as 200,000 steel and manufacturing jobs disappeared from the region, upending their parents’ generation and leaving main streets pocked with empty storefronts. Sabo, the son and grandson of mill workers, says his father rarely found steady work after losing his job in a U.S. Steel mill, leaving Sabo to “know what government cheese tastes like.” Thieler spent part of his childhood in a trailer park in a small city that shed nearly half its population as families hunted elsewhere for work. Today, both men have good...

Representative Madeleine Dean (D-PA) said Friday on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports” that a two-state solution must come out of the Israel-Hamas war started by the October 7 Hamas terror attack. Dean said, “I would tell you the meeting with the prime minister began and we were warned of this, began with a 20-minute video compilation of the brutality and the horror of a fraction of what happened on October 7. Images that I’ll never forget. Just the absolute barbarism, the burning of people, the beheadings, and then we began our conversation with the prime minister. And so when it came...

Representative Madeleine Dean (D-PA) said Friday on CNN’s “News Central” that former President Donald Trump “would be a useful idiot” to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Dean said, “When we’re talking about this very critical subject, I can’t think of anything more starkly clear. Mr. Netanyahu, I believe, is waiting his days out because he would like to have the return of what I believe is a useful idiot to people like Mr. Netanyahu.” She added, “Mr. Netanyahu, after all, let’s think about this, he was not honest about how he was going to prosecute this war. He told us...

On October 16, 2020, a number of plaintiffs, including Madison Lara, the Second Amendment Foundation, and others, filed a lawsuit claiming Pennsylvania law, which forbids 18-20-year-olds from obtaining a concealed carry permit or from openly carrying outside of the home during an emergency was an infringement of the rights protected by the Second Amendment. This was nearly two years before the Supreme Court decision of Bruen. On April 16, 2021, the District Court ruled against them. On April 21, 2021, the plaintiffs appealed the decision by the Pennsylvania District Court to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The...

Donald Trump slightly expanded his lead over Joe Biden in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to the ... BIG DATA POLL ...

WASHINGTON — Small businesses in Fayette County affected by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore are eligible to apply for U.S. Small Business Administration low-interest loans. Fayette is one of eight Pennsylvania counties where small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses, and private nonprofit organizations now are eligible for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which carry interest rates of 4% (3.25% for private nonprofit organizations) and have terms of as long as 30 years. Businesses can borrow up to $2 million to pay operating expenses if their revenues dropped due to the disaster. Businesses in Maryland;...

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey (D), who is fighting for his U.S. Senate seat in 2024 against Republican candidate David McCormick, joined President Joe Biden in declaring Easter Sunday “Transgender Day of Visibility.” “I’m proud to recognize Transgender Day of Visibility and support all those who are living as their authentic selves. I’ll always fight to make sure that trans and nonbinary kids, students, and adults are protected and respected in America,” Casey posted on X.

Top staffers for Democrat John Fetterman are leaving his office for more progressive jobs as the Pennsylvania senator moves more to the center on key issues. The everyman Democrat, who loves Carhartt hoodies and dawning a disheveled goatee, has staunchly supported Israel's war on Hamas and denounced calls for a ceasefire. He's also expressed support for increased U.S. border security, another position that puts him at odds with his party. The freshman Democrat was elected after securing support from some of the most liberal members of Congress in 2022. The towering 6 foot 8 inch senator, previously supported Democrat Socialist...

Four years after bureaucrats tried to usurp the Pennsylvania legislature’s authority by counting ballots that violated state law, a panel of Democrat-appointed judges upheld a state law that says such ballots are invalid. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Wednesday that mail-in ballots that arrive in envelopes with a missing or incorrect date are not valid, overturning a lower court’s decision.“This is a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and nationwide,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “Pennsylvanians deserve to feel confident in the security of...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that Pennsylvania may enforce state law requiring envelopes for mail-in ballots to be dated and include the voter's signature. In Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP v. Chapman, the plaintiff sued the then-acting secretary of the commonwealth in 2022 regarding Pennsylvania’s decision to void mail-in ballots that are either missing a date on the outer return envelopes or have an incorrect date. Pennsylvania counties were ordered by a lower court following a Republican lawsuit in 2022 to reject undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots. The issue was then appealed...

Jesse is the mother of a 7-year-old transgender child from northeastern Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, she traveled from her home, her kids in tow, to lend her voice and support to the Trans Day of Visibility, and to call for safe and equal public schools for all children, but in particular, transgender children.

President Joe Biden and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) hold slight leads over former President Donald Trump and businessman Dave McCormick in general election match-ups in Pennsylvania, according to a poll. The Susquehanna Polling and Research poll, published Monday, found Biden with a five-point lead over Trump in a two-way presidential race. He registered 50 percent of support to Trump’s 45 percent. Another four percent of respondents were unsure who they would back, and one percent preferred someone else. Here is a screen shot of SP&R's last two polls in the PA POTUS race – Trump is down by 5 which...

The Meltdown of Commercial Real EstateIn case you’ve still got money in a bank, Bloomberg is warning that defaults in commercial real estate loans could “topple” hundreds of US banks.Leaving taxpayers on the hook for trillions in losses.The note, by Senior Editor James Crombie, walks us through the festering hellscape that is commercial real estate.To set the mood, a new study predicts that nearly half of downtown Pittsburgh office space could be vacant in 4 years. Major cities like San Francisco are already sporting zombie-apocalypse downtowns, with abandoned office buildings baking in the sun.So what happened? The Fed’s yo-yo interest...

An unruly passenger aboard an American Airlines flight was detained by police after being put in a headlock then thrown off the plane for hurling anti-Semitic slurs at an attendant. The fracas happened on American Airlines Flight 2506, destined for Philadelphia, and started before the plane left the airbridge at Tampa International Airport on Tuesday afternoon. In a video of the incident, the passenger can be seen verbally assaulting staff and fellow passengers as the unrest developed.

The hate-spewing American Airlines passenger seen in a viral video being put in a headlock and marched off a flight also drunkenly ranted about “blue-eyed white devils” — and threatened to “take this plane down with all you ------–kers on it,” according to court documents. The passenger, identified as 29-year-old Florida man Shail Patel, had already been accused of hurling an antisemitic slur at a flight attendant during the wild scuffle on American Airlines Flight 2506 from his hometown of Tampa to Philadelphia on Tuesday. He had bloodshot eyes and reeked of alcohol — and yelled at other passengers, “F–k...

JOHNSTOWN — Joe Burkhart is busy working at his job as a maintenance manager at a processor here in Cambria County. Like many people who have spent their career working with their hands, he knows that unexpected layoffs and companies who have been around for decades suddenly shuttering their doors is part of today’s technological revolution.Like many people around here born in the 1960’s, Burkhart says he was born and raised a Democrat. “Everyone in my family was a Democrat, its just what you did,” he said, adding when he first started looking for work as an adult being a...

A Drag Queen Story Hour event at Lancaster Public Library that sparked both protests and an outpouring of support has been canceled after a suspicious package was discovered nearby. "We regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances, the Lancaster Pride event: Drag Story Hour with Miss Amie in collaboration with the Lancaster Public Library has been canceled," the LGBTQ+ group stated on social media. "The safety and well-being of our community are of utmost importance to us. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding." Lancaster Pride Director Tiffany Shirley said around 9 a.m....

An 18-year-old transgender woman has pleaded guilty to the brutal murder of a 12-year-old girl she allegedly had a sexual relationship with. Ash Cooper will spend at least 15 years in prison after she admitted to the shooting death of Morgan Connors in the trailer she shared with her father in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, in November 2022. Police say the teen called a female friend on Instagram video after the murder and showed off Connors' body covered in blood and asked for help disposing of it. When she was arrested Cooper reportedly told cops the murder was an accident and that...