Free Republic

The Waffle Shop is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants live variety talk show and restaurant. It opened in October of 2008 as a two semester social experiment for an art class at Carnegie Mellon University. Two years after the experiment was scheduled to end, I found myself on the smallish stage tag-team ad-libbing a fantasy story with the local writer and zinester Artnoose while a man pantomimed our tale in a full gorilla costume. Local writer Artnoose at Waffle Shop (Photo Credit: Daniel McCloskey) Carnegie Mellon professors joke that the Waffle Shop was made to prepare art students for working in the food...

A statue unveiled on Monday in Johnstown of the late John P. Murtha evoked vivid memories of the longtime congressman who in his lifetime encountered both criticism and praise for his twin devotions, national security and domestic economic development projects for his sprawling Western Pennsylvania constituency. Rep. Mark Critz, the man who took Murtha's place in Congress, said in the wake of the devastating Johnstown flood of 1977, his former boss "picked up the (Johnstown) economy and stuck it on his shoulders." One of his achievements, Critz said, were new water and sewer lines and other district-wide infrastructure improvements that...

Hey Pittsburgh FReepers.....looks like our fun starts this Saturday. http://www.occupypittsburgh.org/

So I get to work this morning only to find there is a "national shortage" of fentanyl. Am I suppposed to offer my patients a bullet to bite on?? I asked the operating room pharmacist why, after 14 years of nursing, I am seeing a new drug shortage every few weeks over the last 2 or 3 years. Her answer is that there are more "inspectors" now in the pharm industry who are picky about safety so they have been shutting down pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. Has anyone else heard such a thing? Seems a little stinky to me

Wow, what a strange night at the vigil!  I was only there for the last hour, and I will tell you all about the surreal event that was taking place inside of Planned Parenthood tonight, but first, here are some photos from the vigil this morning, which was maintained by our shift managers, Sally and Al Brunn, and members of St. John Neuman parish from 9am-11am, and then Shift Manager Jim Flaherty and St. Joseph’s parish in Cabot from 11am-3pm. Ron from St. John Neuman parish Bob at his regular post Sharon and Diane from St. John Neuman's parish, with...

Along a palm tree-lined road, a red neon wheelchair beckons with promises of affordable medical supplies. Ten miles away, the administrator of a jam-packed nursing home puts three more people on a waiting list. And in the Aventura Medical Center, cardiologist Dr. Enrique Hanabergh justifies ordering an expensive nuclear stress test, looking for the peace of mind that a conventional stress test won't give him. "You don't look at the cost," Hanabergh said. "You don't look to see if it's expensive or not expensive. My philosophy has always been to do what's right for the patient." Health care is big...

Monitors of corporate donors to Planned Parenthood have released the latest edition of their boycott list. They say its boycott has helped cost the United States’ largest abortion provider $40 million. “As a direct result of the commitment, action and prayers of pro-family people, at least 281 corporations have stopped funding Planned Parenthood,” said Kenneth C. Garvey, Life Decisions International communications director. “This should serve as a testament to those who think it impossible to change corporate behavior.” New boycott targets include Mesa Air Group and Trinity Investments.

BRADDOCK (KDKA) — When Braddock Hospital closed in January of last year, several communities were left without a full-service hospital. But now a free clinic is opening in one community. The clinic will be open weekends from 9 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Braddock Municipal Building. “And I thank God for the people who listened to the cry of the people,” Diane Thompson-Baley, of Braddock, said. The free medical clinic was organized by the Muslim Council of America.

Help!!! I'm on vacation, yet lying on the beach FReeping from my iPhone! Do I have an addiction?????

Tim Burns, a wealthy former executive of a bio-tech company and former congressional candidate from western Pennsylvania, met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee last week about a possible campaign against Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., his adviser tells Hotline On Call.

ITTSBURGH -- A teenage boy is on a ventilator after his parents said he smoked what he thought was marijuana. Ray and Tonya Rice's 13-year-old son Brandon was a healthy soon-to-be eighth-grader at South Moreland Middle School. The Rices said in mid-June he was having trouble breathing and said he thought he was having a heart attack. "He was telling me that he couldn't feel his hands and his legs," said Ray Rice. "He said he couldn't breathe. He was vomiting and had a high fever." His parents said following his sudden illness he ended up in intensive care at...

PITTSBURGH (NEWSRADIO 1020 NEWS) — Tea Party “terrorists?” Democratic Congressman Mike Doyle told KDKA’s Adam Kirk Tuesday morning that he did, in fact, refer to the conservative group of Republicans as terrorists during a closed door meeting Monday with Vice President Joe Biden. Rep. Doyle said he was expressing his frustration “that we were in this situation, that we were even, you know, negotiating this way,” said Doyle. “It’s like you’re negotiating with a terrorist, or a hostage taker.” Had he chosen another word, like “hostage taker,” Doyle said the story would not have grown out of control, to the...

Police had a rough night in East Liberty on Sunday. A large mob of teens damaged several stores along Penn Avenue. Our Channel 11 News crew was listening to the police scanner when they heard a call to 911 for hundreds of teens causing trouble in a strip mall. Police said they went inside the McDonald's, Trader Joes, and finally ended up at the new Target. Officials said it's fortunate that no one was hurt during the chaos. When reporter, Dave Bondy, arrived on scene, police were everywhere. At least a dozen officers were ordering hundreds of teenagers to leave...

Two doctors and a staff member at a Pittsburgh abortion clinic have been charged in connection with prescription drugs allegedly being abused by one of the staff members. Nobody immediately returned a message for comment at the Allegheny Women's Center, which offers surgical and non-surgical abortion services according to its website.

The federal government made no guarantees that it would buy vaccines from a proposed factory at a former LTV steel mill site in Hazelwood, a UPMC representative said in explaining why the hospital stopped the project. "It just wasn't going to happen," said Sean Logan, vice president for community relations for UPMC and a former state senator. About 50 people gathered at a community meeting in Hazelwood on Tuesday night to hear why the project, which was touted as a means to create up to 1,000 permanent jobs, was shelved this month. The factory was expected to produce vaccines to...

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear". Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons. Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism. The Austrian authorities required him to obtain a doctor's certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive. The idea came into Mr Alm's noodle three years ago as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point. A self-confessed atheist, Mr Alm says he...

Dear Pittsburgh 40 Days for Life family, A good friend and true warrior for the unborn just gave me some bad news yesterday. I want to share it with all of my 40 Days for Life family so we can all be praying. There are dark clouds on the horizon here in Pittsburgh. This friend was looking on Google Earth, over Neville Island, and he noticed a large construction project, which has the name "Planned Parenthood". I checked it out for myself. It is true. It looks like Planned Parenthood is building a new facility (a very large one) on...

While a chaplain at Allegheny General Hospital, the Rev. Charles Christen was approached by a cancer patient who told him family members were too afraid of the disease to talk about his diagnosis. "I never forgot that," Father Christen said on Thursday. Father Christen, of Hazelwood, plans to fight similar stigma associated with HIV/AIDS when he becomes the new executive director of the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force on July 18. He currently serves as director of operations for the Center for Health Environments & Communities at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Stigma against same-sex orientation also...

He loved Ron, yeah yeah yeah… That’s right – peace and love uber hippie John Lennon was a closeted Reagan Republican at the time of his death, according to the Beatle’s last personal assistant. Fred Seaman, who worked for Lennon from 1979 until he was gunned down in the street outside his apartment in 1980, said the singer admired Reagan, who was running for president against Jimmy Carter at the time. “John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on Jimmy Carter,” Seaman says in a...

An employee of Bed, Bath & Beyond in St. Davids Square shopping center reported to Radnor Township Police on June 5 a package containing human vomit was left in the parking lot there.