Free Republic

(Harrisburg) — A family in Cumberland County is quarantined at home after one member got sick with COVID-19. Dominic and several friends cut short a spring break trip to Spain when President Donald Trump announced a travel ban to the United States from Europe last Wednesday. He said he landed in New York City Thursday but wasn’t screened at the airport as he expected. He took a bus back to Philadelphia to collect his things. It wasn’t until Sunday, when one of his friends who had been on the trip texted him that he had tested positive, that Dominic realized...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump treated four World War II veterans to an Oval Office meeting Thursday, fulfilling a birthday wish for 95-year-old Allen Jones and giving three other veterans age 100 and older a day to remember. One of the men, 101-year-old Floyd Wigfield, of Cumberland, Md., managed to win a promise from the president for a return flight on Air Force One following June’s ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. “We’ll work that out,” Trump said. “You’ll like Air Force One.” Trump had met Jones at a Veterans of Foreign Wars...

Palmyra, TN – In 1865, Queen Victoria ruled England. Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term in the United States. And Reverend Nute Larkins organized the Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Palmyra, Tennessee. This year, the Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church celebrates its 150th birthday. The old Ebeneezer Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which was founded in 1846, was renamed Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1865. Originally, a one room log cabin in the hollow of East Creek, the early location was on the creek, subject to flooding. The congregation persevered, building three different buildings on that site until they purchased the...

CUMBERLAND — Thanks to a small group of local men, the tradition of erecting a Nativity scene and decorating a large Christmas tree on the lawn of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in downtown Cumberland will continue. Two years ago, city officials decided to end city government’s involvement with the Nativity scene. According to Michael Mudge, one of the men who is keeping the tradition alive, city leaders had received a complaint from two people who objected to local government being involved in the Christian Nativity tradition.After Christmas 2009, the city donated the Nativity items to The Cumberland Nativity & Tree Display...

ANNAPOLIS -- Republican Sen. Richard Colburn of Dorchester voted against Maryland’s recently passed gas tax increase, but now hopes some of the new money will go to replacing the Dover Bridge in his district. The new taxes, initially expected to raise prices at the pump by 4 cents a gallon this July, might help to expand funding for the rehabilitation and replacement of Maryland’s deteriorating bridges. As of April, 87 of the 2,572 Maryland State Highway Administration maintained bridges were structurally deficient, which doesn’t mean they are unsafe, but that they have areas that need to be repaired or replaced,...

Nearly 150 years after they sank to the bottom of a river in Virginia, two Civil War shipwrecks are getting some modern-day scrutiny. A mapping expedition set off this week to examine the shipwrecks in hopes of assessing their condition and producing detailed images of the sunken Civil War vessels — one Union and one Confederate — that may shed light on the technology used in America's bloodiest conflict. Using state-of-the-art sonar technology to acquire data, researchers with the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will create 3-D maps of the two shipwrecks, the USS Cumberland...

After attempting suicide several years ago at a Cumberland penitentiary, a prisoner spent his days lying alone on the floor of his tiny cell. Staring at the ceiling and speaking few words, the man seemed lost. Father Milton A. Hipsley, then the pastor of St. Mary in Cumberland and a chaplain for the area’s prisons, was moved by the man’s despair. Wearing his black clerics and white collar, the priest entered the cell and lay down beside the motionless figure. He became a channel of God’s mercy. “Inmates are good people,” Father Hipsley remembered. “They are lonely and they’re frustrated....

(edit) The truth is that until 1920, Britain’s gun laws were so relaxed they made Texas look effeminate, but we had virtually no gun crime. That only really began to increase here after we abolished hanging. But that truth doesn’t fit the Leftist dogma which has everyone, including the Tories, the media and the police, in its grip, so the facts will be ignored.(edit) But I’d also like to urge another line of investigation.  Was Bird taking the anti-depressant pills that are now prescribed so readily by NHS doctors to so many people whose lives – like Bird’s – have...

From 1811 to 1838, the Federal government funded the construction of a new route west. Beginning in Cumberland, Maryland, and running through Pennsylvania, now-West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and into Illinois, the National Road was in its day an important part of the westward expansion of population and trade. [Vintage pictures]

Video and photo included. SNIPPET: "FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — After four days of deliberation, a Cumberland County jury found hit-and-run rampage suspect Abdullah El-Amin Shareef guilty of 10 charges, including first-degree murder and attempted murder, for a hit-and-run rampage that encompassed parts of three counties in 2004. Shareef, 31, of Raeford, will be sentenced on Thursday. He faces the death penalty." SNIPPET: "Shareef's family and friends say the jury’s decision ignored testimony from mental health professionals like Rashad Rahmaan. Rahmaan, a friend of Shareef's family..."

CUMBERLAND, Md. — A dispute has erupted in Cumberland over the distribution of a brochure that purports to explain the history of the Confederate battle flag in Allegany County public schools.

Teacher Controversy A former Asheville teacher causes a stir on the internet when bloggers say she berates a young student for supporting John McCain. Diantha Harris used to teach at Jones Elementary, and now works for a school in Cumberland County. A video clip making its way around the internet shows Harris asking students why they support certain candidates, and then singling out a young McCain supporter. She tells the girl, whose father is in the military, that McCain would keep her father in the service for another 100 years. Harris tells News 13 the clip is heavily edited, and...

Sorry for the vanity, but we are wondering if anyone knows about the Cumberland Presbyterian church. We have friends that are thinking of joining it, but I have read that they are affiliated with PC(USA), which has anti-Israeli views, pro-homosexuality views, etc. I searched online and could not find explicit proof, other than the Cumberland and PCUSA conventions were held in Birmingham in 2006, and that the PCUSA came away with some very anti-biblical statements. Was the Cumberland branch part of that, or are they ok? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Column: You sometimes must go where your heart is By James Goldsworthy CUMBERLAND TIMES-NEWS (CUMBERLAND, Md.) CUMBERLAND, Md. — I’ve had another chance to see America and am glad to report that it still works. There was to be a big anti-Iraq war rally in Washington, and the word got around that some (unflattering characterization deleted) were going to vandalize the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and other veterans monuments. That wasn’t going to happen. A nationwide “Gathering of Eagles” was formed to act as a deterrent, and my friends and I decided to join it. We took a busload, about 55...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 217th General Assembly (2006) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which will be the denomination's first biennial meeting, will be different in many ways. *** The Cumberland denominations will hold their General Assemblies in Birmingham, Ala., at the same time that the PCUSA General Assembly is meeting there. The dates for the PCUSA meeting are June 15-22, 2006. The three denominations have agreed to come together for worship services and some other parts of their meetings, although they say the time-sharing is not tantamount to a merger of the three bodies. ***

WSMV-TV, Nashville, Tennessee, E-mail: lbrinton@wsmv.com January 24, 2005 The cream always come to the top. Now let's think back a bit, about two years ago. Ann Zimmerman was a widely-praised Metro School teacher with a lot of experience. Along came Metro Schools Director Pedro Garcia, who required students to be taught from a remedial reading program called "Language!" Zimmerman believed the program was a step-back for her students and that "Language!" contained too many errors and too much jargon. She put her foot down and said no way was she going to use the controversial program for her students. Zimmerman...

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has condemned capitalism and elected Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), as its new president. Meeting in Accra, Ghana, the alliance's General Council elected Kirkpatrick to a seven-year term. Ten U.S. denominations are members of the council, and most are generally regarded as conservative or moderate, with the PCUSA being the most liberal of the 10. But the majority of the delegates worldwide have reflected a liberal and anti-American bias. *** With Kirkpatrick's leverage, the PCUSA gives millions of dollars a year to the WCC, the NCC and the alliance –...

Fox News reporting that an Amtrak Train has been evacuated near Cumberland, Maryland. There appearently were concerns about the route earlier. Updates will follow when available.