Free Republic

Duquesne Light announced Thursday the creation of a new diversity strategy with the company’s first chief diversity officer: Sara Oliver-Carter. She starts Aug. 19. Oliver-Carter will focus on company culture, community partnerships and diversifying the suppliers with which Duquesne Light partners. “Our commitment to diversity and inclusion and its importance to our company, employees, customers and communities is unwavering,” Steve Malnight, Duquesne Light president and CEO, said in a statement. “Sara brings exceptional leadership experience and her approach to creating a company culture that truly values the uniqueness of its employees, customers and suppliers will add tremendous value as we...

It's that time of year again! The furries are taking over Pittsburgh for Anthrocon 2019

CANONSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) — A protest is planned for one of the area’s biggest Fourth of July events. Participants are pulling out of the annual Canonsburg Fourth of July Parade, fearing the planned protest. “We’re going to shut it down,” Trey Willis Sr. said on his Facebook Live video discussing the protest. Willis Sr. told KDKA that the demonstration will remain peaceful, but protesters want their voices heard. He expects 100-200 people will join him in protest on the morning of the parade. “We’re intending to just shed light on the practices coming out of the district attorney’s office,” Willis...

“The best news is when you call get ready for jihad,” Mustafa Mousab Alowemer wrote in a public housing project in Pittsburgh. “I will spill my blood for the victory of my religion.” Northview Heights, the low-income housing project, is 90% African-American. Or at least it was. Then a flood of Syrian Muslim refugees showed up. Obama had promised to admit 10,000 Syrian migrants in 2016. The terrorist who plotted a massacre at a black church was one of them. The Alowemer clan arrived at JFK airport in New York City. The same airport through which other terror refugees, including...

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday afternoon the arrest of a 21-year-old Syrian refugee who was allegedly assisting the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) with a terrorist attack targeting a Pittsburgh Christian Church. According to authorities, Mustafa Mousab Alowemer is a current resident of Pittsburgh but arrived in the United States from war-torn Syria in August 2016. A press release sent out today by the DOJ alleges that Alowemer used various social media and technological communications to coordinate an ISIS-style attack after pledging his support to the Islamic extremist organization. Apparently, the suspect believed he was speaking with...

Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to make false claims about President Donald Trump’s massive tax cut, saying Thursday it had not helped average Americans. “The God awful tax cut has not helped anybody who’s real, anybody out there breaking their neck trying to figure out how to make the next meal,” Biden said at a fundraiser. Since announcing his presidential campaign, Biden has continually attacked Trump’s tax cut. “There’s a $2 trillion tax cut last year. Did you feel it? Did you get anything from it? Of course not. Of course not,” he said during his April campaign launch...

One of the only things that can ruin hitting a home run is watching your ball fly over the fence and hit a car, but that made things even better for Milwaukee Brewer Mike Moustakas on Sunday. Moustakas slammed one into center field in the eighth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates that broke a 2-2 tie and landed on the roof of a Toyota Rav4. It wasn’t parked there by a clueless owner but was part of a promotion to give it away if a Brewer hit it with a ball, which Moustakas learned after the fact."I didn't know that I actually...

A third alligator has been found in a Pittsburgh neighborhood in less than a month. According to police, this one was found on a porch of a home south of Pittsburgh around 6:15 p.m. Police said they got the alligator into a box and took it to the police station, where they called animal control officers. Animal control then took the alligator to the Humane Animal Rescue. Police are investigating but said it appears to be unrelated to the previous two alligator incidents. The alligator was around 2 1/2 feet long. On Thursday, a 5-foot-long alligator was captured in Beechview....

An alligator was captured in Pittsburgh's Beechview neighborhood Thursday night. The animal was taken to the Humane Animal Rescue in Homewood. CEO of the shelter, Dan Rossi, said the animal is not happy and is stressed out. Rossi said officials are not sure yet if the alligator was male or female. He added the five-foot long reptile was a potential danger in the Beechview neighborhood. He said if people can no longer care for their exotic pets, call their helpline at 412-345-7300. This is the second alligator captured in Pittsburgh in less than a month. Another one was found in...

Walking through the Pittsburgh airport with his wife last October after a beautiful Hawaiian vacation, Matt Scoletti immediately felt the enormous shift that had happened in his hometown. The usual banter and laughter were gone, replaced by a heartbreaking heaviness. A huge sign that adopted the Pittsburgh Steelers logo read “Stronger Than Hate,” in response to the mass shooting in the city that occurred at the Tree of Life, Dor Hadash, and New Light House of Worship on October 27th. Scoletti stood in front of it, and a wave of resolve washed over him. “This was not only an attack...

The American Lung Association (ALA) has revived its smear campaign against the Pittsburgh region’s air quality with the release of its latest hyped up “State of the Air” report. “Fear-mongering” and “disingenuous” is an apropos way to characterize the ALA’s annual exercise in misrepresenting and/or ignoring data to issue dire health predictions, says the president-emeritus of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “The problem for the ALA is that the health experience in states with widely disparate pollution levels does not match up with its rhetoric,” says Jake Haulk, also a senior advisor at the Pittsburgh think tank (in Policy...

City officials in San Antonio, who discriminated against Christian-owned Chick-fil-A in their airport contracting, are trying to hide from the public their conversations now that they’re under investigation for their behavior. WND reported in December the chain with the famed cattle urging “Eat More Chikin” has been forecast to leap past Taco Bell, Burger King and Wendy’s to become the third largest restaurant chain in the U.S. The liberal hatred for the chain erupted when Dan Cathy, the son of founder S. Truett Cathy, said in an interview in 2012 he supports traditional marriage. Since then, students on college campuses...

HARRISON CITY (KDKA) — A video produced by students in the audio-visual department at Penn Trafford High School has prompted concern. It was meant to be used as a training drill, should there ever be a real emergency like a shooter in the building. According to the school district, the video was only to be seen in-house, but without authorization, it was placed on Facebook by students. Once viewed, some, like Jim Atkins of Harrison City, thought the person portrayed as the shooter was made to look like a Muslim by wrapping a scarf around his head. “It shouldn’t be...

PENN HILLS, Pa. — A man who is a driver for a rideshare company, as well as a college professor, is accused of holding two women against their will. Richard Lomotey, 36, is charged with kidnapping, harassment and false imprisonment. He is free on bail while he awaits a court appearance next week. According to police, two women who got in his car after calling an Uber escaped his car and were screaming for help. Lomotey was allegedly supposed to drive the women from Homewood to Penn Hills on Saturday morning but started to drive away from the route. The...

For more than four hours Saturday night, Mayor Bill Peduto sent multiple messages on Twitter, warning residents and visitors that towing would start at midnight for vehicles parked along the route of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon. Problem is, towing started at 11 p.m., courtesy of the Pittsburgh police and city contractor McGann and Chester Towing & Recovery. Mr. Peduto said he was in Cappy’s Cafe on Walnut Street in Shadyside when people came in about 11:30 p.m. complaining about cars being towed from streets in the area. “People were enraged,” the mayor said Monday, when asked about the...

RUSH: Let’s move on to Democrat Party politics. It’s actually kind of fascinating. Last week or the week before, I don’t remember when, I was on Fox News, and every time I’m asked this question when I go on Fox News, “Who do you think the Democrat nominee is gonna be? Who do you think?” I always tell ’em “Biden,” and I do it on purpose. Also, you know, I’ll throw out, “Keep a sharp eye on Mayor Pete.” I’m trying to throw monkey wrenches into the works when I do this, ’cause I actually think Biden would be one...

When two mosques in New Zealand were attacked last month and 50 worshipers were murdered, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez went on a twitter rampage firing off 14 tweets about the shootings. She mocked "thoughts and prayers" offered to the victims and attacked the NRA. Following the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue she again went ballistic, not waiting for the bodies to cool before politicizing the tragedyThere was another tragedy which left AOC uncharacteristically mute- the carnage in Sri Lanka. Ocasio-Cortez’s reaction differs starkly compared with the aftermath of the terror attack in New Zealand last month, where 50 Muslims were brutally...

VIDEO The Pittsburgh campaign kickoff speech by Joe Biden was notable only by its dullness. However, the person who stole the show was the yawning guy behind Biden.

PITTSBURGH — In his first official event as a 2020 presidential candidate, Joe Biden skipped past the primary on Monday and went right to the general election. From the atmospherics of his first campaign rally to the substance of his speech, the former vice president delivered a carefully calibrated message: While his rivals are chasing the Democratic nomination, Biden plans to pursue a mission focused on Donald Trump. “If I’m going to be able to beat Donald Trump in 2020, it’s going to happen here,” Biden told a packed crowd at the Teamsters Local 249 banquet hall. Biden offered an...

The two-year extension is worth $68 million and includes a $37.5 million signing bonus and a $30 million injury guarantee, a source told [Adam] Schefter. Roethlisberger had one year at $12 million left, meaning he will make $80 million total over the next three seasons. The extension all but guarantees Big Ben ends his career with the same franchise that drafted him in 2004. “I am grateful to the Rooneys and the Steelers organization for continuing to believe in me," Roethlisberger said in a statement announcing the deal. "It has always been a goal to play my entire career in...