Free Republic

Kudos for Sheriff David Clarke for reminding us of the double standard practiced by the self-righteous guardians of social justice such as Starbucks, who flagellate themselves in public over the injustice of denying non-paying patrons use of their facilities – patrons who happen to be black: Not too long ago a Philadelphia Starbucks refused to let a police officer use the restroom telling him it was for paying customers.  Don't remember Starbucks closing 8000 stores for sensitivity training toward police. In 2015, an unnamed Philadelphia police sergeant entered a downtown Philadelphia Starbucks and asked to use the restroom.  He might have been the one...

Former Starbucks manager Holly Hylton, who called the cops and got two law abiding Black men arrested inside the coffee shop, is being called out by a former employee who says that Hylton’s a controlling racist who targeted and demoted Black employees, reports the Daily Mail. Ieshaa Cash says last year Hylton was hired on as a manager at the 18th and Spruce Starbucks in Philadelphia and employees warned her that her new boss was “controlling, aggressive, and emotional.” That Starbucks location is under fire because that is where two Black men were arrested while sitting and waiting for a...

ROXBOROUGH (WPVI) -- According to sources, the Philadelphia police homicide unit, the Philadelphia district attorney, the Attorney General's office and the health department are all investigating the death of former National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster's father 84-year-old H.R. McMaster, Sr. It is being investigated as a suspicious death. McMaster died on April 13 at Cathedral Village in the 600 E. block of Cathedral Rd in Roxborough. He was receiving care there after suffering a stroke. The allegations are that McMaster fell, hit his head, was put in a chair and then died. He allegedly did not receive proper care....

PHILADELPHIA — A Southwest Airlines jet apparently blew an engine at about 30,000 feet and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window and damaged the fuselage Tuesday, killing a passenger and injuring seven others, authorities said. The plane, a twin-engine Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia just before noon as passengers breathing through oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling said their prayers and braced for impact. "I just remember holding my husband's hand, and we just prayed and prayed and prayed," said passenger Amanda Bourman, of...

Starbucks coffee shop managers will have trainings for combating "unconscious bias," its CEO said Monday, after police arrested two black men at a Philadelphia branch of the chain. "I'll say the circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome at our store on Thursday were reprehensible," Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson told ABC News on Monday. Johnson added that the incident called for "more training that we're going to do with our store managers, not only around the guidelines but training around unconscious bias." Witnesses posted a video to Twitter on Thursday of two black men escorted out of a Philadelphia Starbucks...

--SNIP-- Since Trump took office, deportation officers have been unshackled, as the White House describes it, from an Obama-era mandate to focus limited enforcement resources on deporting immigrants with serious criminal convictions. Across the country, they have been rounding up people like Franco who have sunk roots in this country, living for years, if not decades, with little fear of apprehension. Nowhere, however, have federal agents more aggressively embraced their newfound freedom than in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware, an investigation by ProPublica and the Inquirer and Daily News foun

div class="article_body top mrf-hidden">A video of two black men being arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia has gone viral, leading to charges of racism by the city's police department, and eliciting a statement from the mayor and an apology from Starbucks. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The arrests were defended by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who said the officers were responding to a 911 call from employees. Los Angeles Times: Commissioner Richard Ross said Starbucks employees called 911 to say the men were trespassing. He said officers were told that the men had come in and asked to...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — For one police officer in Philadelphia’s 15th District, a report involving a 12-year-old boy armed with an assault rifle will be a call he’ll never forget. Police say 19-year-old Michael Mitchell was armed with a handgun when he was arguing with his neighbor on the 2200 block of Kennedy Street over the weekend. During the altercation, police say Mitchell asked his 12-year-old brother to go grab an assault rifle.

CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) — Incarcerated rapper Meek Mill is getting big-time support in his fight for justice. The hip-hop artist is receiving a high profile visit in prison as he awaits a bail ruling from Pennsylvania’s highest court. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin entered the doors at the medium-security state prison in Chester on Tuesday afternoon.

Soda will cost you more in Philadelphia, Seattle, Boulder, Colorado, and a bunch of California cities because politicians in those places voted to tax it. The social engineers claim soda taxes will "reduce obesity," "lower diabetes rates," "reduce medical costs," etc. But the politicians' main goal is to bring in money. Philadelphia city council members applauded wildly when their tax passed. But store owner Melvin Robinson says, "It's a bad tax." Robinson, who runs Bruno's Pizza, says the soda tax punishes his business. His customers quickly agreed. One I interviewed for my new YouTube/Facebook/Twitter video angrily said, "Who should pay...

Great job nova! Philly city of champions!

She went to prison for fraud and bad checks. Then courts around Philly let her manage the finances for elderly residents. ( Full title ). ... Relatives of Edmund and Margareta Berg were shocked to learn, a little more than a year ago, that the court-appointed guardian handling the Fox Chase couple’s finances had a record of fraud, bad checks, and forgery. Around that time, Marie Frisby began questioning the guardian appointed to help her husband, Hank. They contend that his bills weren’t being paid and, as a result, they had to sell their home in Wyncote, Montgomery County. Meanwhile,...

In his first week on the job, he fired 31 prosecutors from the DA’s office because they weren’t committed to the changes he intended to make. “Change is never easy, but DA Krasner was given a clear mandate from the voters for transformational change,” his spokesperson said at the time. “Today’s actions are necessary to achieve that agenda.” Next, Krasner obeyed a court order to release a list of 29 officers from the Philadelphia Police Department that were on a “do-not-call list” — meaning that they were so tainted that they would be considered unreliable as witnesses. The police officers...

Truth in Accounting .. based on fiscal year 2016 comprehensive annual financial reports .. found that 64 cities do not have enough money to pay all of their bills, and in total, the cities have racked up $335.4 billion in unfunded municipal debt. ... Government reports are lengthy, cumbersome, and sometimes misleading documents ... taxpayers and citizens deserve easy-to-understand, truthful, and transparent financial information from their governments. ... to balance the budget, elected officials have not included the true costs of the government in their budget calculations and have pushed costs onto future taxpayers. ... TIA was unable to rank...

Offer shorter prison sentences in plea deals. Decline certain classes of criminal charges. And explain, on the record, why taxpayers should fork over thousands of dollars per year to incarcerate people. Those are some of the instructions that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has outlined for the office’s 300 prosecutors — perhaps the boldest set of policies yet of his busy two-month tenure, and in line with his campaign promise to reduce the number of people behind bars. --SNIP-- The cost of imprisoning a criminal — estimated by Krasner’s office to be at least $42,000 annually — is roughly equivalent...

•President Calvin Coolidge was born in Plymouth, Vt., on July 4, 1872. He is the only president born on July 4; however, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe all died on the Fourth of July. •One lucky Philadelphian purchased a $4 picture at a flea market. Behind the picture was an original 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence. It was sold to TV producer Norman Lear for $8.1 million. •After the war, King George III rationalized that Washington would become a dictator and make the Americans yearn for royal rule. When he was told that Washington planned to...

Two women have accused state Rep. Nick Miccarelli of sexually or physically assaulting them in separate incidents over the last six years, The Caucus and The Philadelphia Inquirer have learned. Top House leaders have launched an inquiry into the allegations, which the accusers leveled in a confidential complaint in early February, according to documents reviewed by the newspapers and interviews with multiple sources. Miccarelli strongly denied the accusations. The women allege in the complaint that the Delaware County Republican threatened, stalked, intimidated or sexually assaulted them. One is a state official and the other is a political consultant. The accusers,...

A first honors student at Mastery Charter Thomas Campus, the 12-year-old loves baseball, but Joey can’t shake the troublemakers at school. “They don’t like me, they never did,” he says. Overnight, this seventh-grader’s schoolyard differences followed him home, spray-painted for all to see on his South Philadelphia home where he lives with his parents and two younger siblings.

Philadelphia’s top prosecutor said Wednesday his office will stop jailing people who cannot afford to pay cash bail in minor criminal cases, affirming the commitment of the country’s fifth-largest city to a national movement that argues the practice targets poor Americans. District Attorney Larry Krasner said his decision to instruct city prosecutors not to seek a bail payment in a number of misdemeanor and non-violent felony crimes will correct a criminal justice system that discriminates against African-Americans, Latinos and poor people. “There is absolutely no reason why someone who will show up for court, is not a risk of flight,...

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania's high court issued a new congressional district map for the state's 2018 elections on its self-imposed deadline Monday, all but ensuring that Democratic prospects will improve in several seats and that Republican lawmakers challenge it in federal court. The map of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts is to be in effect for the May 15 primary and substantially overhauls a congressional map widely viewed as among the nation's most gerrymandered. The map was approved in a 4-3 decision. Most significantly, the new map likely gives Democrats a better shot at winning seats in Philadelphia's heavily populated and...