Free Republic

The Portland Thorns are removing a T-shirt from store shelves and the team's website in response to criticism that its slogan "Feelin' Thorny?" was sexist. The T-shirt was gone in slightly less than 24 hours since the controversy broke on Facebook and was fueled on other social media platforms.

A local state forester is "spreading the word" about a way to spread a disease to stem the proliferation of one of Pennsylvania's most dreaded invasive plant species -- mulitflora rose. Thomas Fitzgerald, of the state Bureau of Forestry, has been sharing with colleagues a recipe of sorts for using rose rosette disease to kill the tenacious thorn bushes choking some fields and forests. Believed to be of viral origin, the disease is spread by a microscopic mite species, said Fitzgerald, a service forester with District 4 in Laughlintown, Ligonier Township. "But this method bypasses the mite and speeds up...

Opening Prayer Mary, my Mother, you were the first to live the Way of the Cross.You felt every pain and every humiliation. You were unafraid of the ridicule heaped upon you by the crowds. Your eyes were ever on Jesus and His Pain. Is that the secret of your miraculous strength? How did your loving heart bear such a burden and such a weight? As you watched Himstumble and fall, were you tortured by the memory of all the yesterdays-His birth, His hidden life and His ministry?You were so desirous of everyone loving Him. What a heartache it wasto see...