Free Republic

Natural gas developers in Pennsylvania are hoping a recent water quality report by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission could squelch plans for a fracking ban that’s currently being considered by the neighboring Delaware River Basin Commission. The SRBC’s Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network report, which was released last month, revealed that water quality scores at 14 of the 16 stations in the basin were in the “good” or “excellent” categories According to a fact sheet from the Susquehanna commission, the monitoring stations are located in areas where active drilling takes place, as well as areas free of development, in order...

The Pentagon has identified two soldiers killed Friday in Kunduz Province in Afghanistan as a result of what it said were wounds sustained while engaged in combat. The two soldiers were identified as Spc. Joseph Collette of Lancaster, Ohio, 29, and Sgt. 1st Class Will Lindsay, 33, of Cortez, Colorado. Collette was assigned to the 242nd Ordnance Battalion, 71st Explosive Ordnance Group in Fort Carson, Colorado, and Lindsay was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Carson. Two US defense officials told CNN Friday that the two US service members were killed during a...

LANCASTER, Pa. -- A Pennsylvania police officer is seen on video using a stun gun on a man as he's sitting on a curb. Lancaster police says officers were called around 10 a.m. Thursday and told a man was confronting people with a bat. Video posted to Facebook captured Officer Philip Bernot telling 27-year-old Sean Williams to sit on a sidewalk and stick his legs out. Bernot then uses his stun gun on Williams while the man is sitting, facing away from the officer. Police told Lancaster Online another officer, Shannon Mazzante, arrived on the scene just after 10 a.m....

A photographer captured the moment two of the most iconic planes in Britain's history flew just yards apart in the skies above North Wales. A Lancaster bomber - the type of plane which carried out the Dambusters raid - and a Spitfire fighter - the like of which defended the UK during the Battle of Britain - flew alongside each other on Saturday to celebrate Armed Forces Day. The two aircraft were joined by a Hawker Hurricane, another Battle of Britain fighter, and flew in tight formation to wow crowds of 250,000 in Llandudno. The 10th annual Armed Forces Day,...

Lancaster County’s dairy farmers could be facing devastating drops in corn yields by 2050 because of global warming, according to a new research study. “If climate projections hold, it will threaten the dairy industry in Lancaster County,” said Heather Karsten, an associate professor of crop production ecology at Penn State. That’s because extremely high summer temperatures in Lancaster County could mute key reproduction phases in corn plant growth, decreasing yields for a winter feed that is a linchpin in affordable dairy farming. The extreme temperatures - which are projected to be higher in Lancaster County than anywhere else in the...

The Pennsylvania SPCA removed 15 dogs from an unlicensed breeder in Lancaster after humane law-enforcement officers found that some of them had been illegally “debarked.” State law prohibits devocalization, also known as debarking, of a dog unless the procedure is performed by a licensed veterinarian using anesthesia, said Gillian Kocher, spokeswoman for the PSPCA. The officers, acting on a tip that an adult female husky had been debarked, removed the dogs from the Quarryville breeder last Friday, and brought them to the organization’s Philadelphia headquarters to be examined and treated. The debarked dogs included the husky, named Rosella, a Doberman...

Britain's last surviving Dambuster says he still misses his crewman as they are remembered on the 75th anniversary of the iconic WWII raids. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, George 'Johnny' Johnson says he feels lucky to still be alive as he turns 96 later this year. On the night of May 16, 1943, Mr Johnson was one of 113 airmen from the Royal Air Force 617 Squadron to fly to Germany for one of the most complex military operations of the war. Operation Chastise set out to destroy three dams deep within Germany’s Ruhr valley in order to set back the...

The Dambusters Raid on the night of May 17, 1943, carried out by 19 Lancasters from Gibson’s squadron, has gone down in history as one of the most audacious exploits of World War II. Not only was the colossal Mohne dam breached, but a second, the Eder, was also smashed, while a third, the Sorpe, was damaged, though not broken. Although the attack cost the lives of 53 RAF airmen, it caused devastation to the German economy and gave a tremendous boost to public morale. The tale of the assault on the vast structures almost seemed a national metaphor for...

One of the last survivors of the Dambuster missions has lashed out at revisionist historians who criticise Britain's tactics of razing German cities to the ground. Johnny Johnson MBE, 95, hit out at historians who were not there at the time, telling them to 'keep your bloody mouth shut,' as he demands bomber crews are finally recognised with a medal. The former bomb aimer for a Lancaster bomber was a part of the top-secret Operation Chastise, that sought to breach dams and flood munitions factories in the Ruhr valley.

Five female family members were arrested in Pennsylvania Sunday after they got in a violent brawl with three other unknown women at a Waffle House restaurant. The intense scuffle transpired at around 2:45 a.m. in Lancaster, according to the Lancaster Online.(snip) While it is not perfectly clear who is fighting who, a barrage of fists are consistently thrown throughout the roughly one-minute video. “Let’s go. Let’s go. It’s time to go,” one person can be heard yelling, likely advising the participants of the brutal altercation to leave before local authorities arrive. “Get off my mom. Get off my mom.” Towards...

The mayor of Lancaster says a Chinese company wants to build a 10-story-tall statue of the Buddha in the Southern California desert community. Mayor R. Rex Parris told the Antelope Valley Press that the company — which he won't name — is willing to spend $31 million to build the statue and a cultural center. He says the company contacted city officials about two months ag

Photographs described by experts as 'extremely rare' which show the damage wreaked by the famous Dam Busters in World War II are to be auctioned next week. The aerial shots taken by German Intelligence depict the Möhne and Edersee Dams before the raid and after they were breached by the ingenious bouncing bomb, designed by Barnes Wallis, causing catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley. Operation Chastise, as the famous raid was officially known, was an attack on major dams in Germany's industrial heartland carried out on 16-17 May 1943 by the Royal Air Force's renowned 617 Squadron, based at Scampton,...

Refugee children in Lancaster can choose to attend the city’s main public high school instead of the privately run alternative academy to which the school district had funneled them, according to the settlement of a nine-month legal announced Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. The agreement, approved by the Lancaster School Board on Tuesday night, opens the way for newly arrived 17-to-20-year-old immigrant students with little or no English fluency to attend a newcomer program at J.P. McCaskey High School, and restricts the district from outplacing them to the for-profit Phoenix Academy, which plaintiffs in a federal...

According to the New York Times, the Church World Service wants Muslim immigrants from the Middle East to feel welcome.  And they seem to think: what better way to make them feel welcome than to put on a hijab and head over to the local mosque for feminist fun and adventure! These ladies, who likely hate Donald Trump for being "sexist," think nothing of wrapping themselves up in an outfit closely associated with some of the worst sharia law has to offer women – the subservience, the second class citizenship, the beatings, the clitorectomies, the sex slavery, and so...

A good Samaritan was an unwitting getaway driver in a bank robbery after offering a ride home to a man he met in a Columbia tavern Monday. Greg Kreiser said he was just trying to help out the man when he expressed hesitation about driving after having a few drinks, and didn’t mind as the man asked if they could make a few stops on the way.

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant died Wednesday after he was shot while responding to a call of a residential burglary in Lancaster, authorities said. The sergeant killed was Steve Owen, a 29-year department veteran, according to sheriff’s Executive Officer Neal Tyler. “This has been a very dark day for the Sheriff’s Department,” Capt. Steve Katz said. “We are all suffering right now.” From the archives: L.A. Times reporter rides along with Sgt. Steve Owen last year » The shooting occurred as Owen and his partner responded to a 911 call about 12:35 p.m. from a woman reporting a burglary...

COLUMBIA, Pa. —A police incident is happening now in Columbia, Lancaster County. Police are looking for a shooter. ... Police on the scene confirm to News 8 an "active shooter" shot at police cars and people between 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Since that time, police have not heard any shots. Police said the shooter was mobile, either on foot or in a vehicle.

Aerial flood maps of Britain are revealing more than just at-risk regions - they have also led to the discovery of several Roman roads. Amateur archaeologists have been able to use the flood-mapping technology to trace the paths of Roman roads which have remained buried under the land for some 1,600 years. The aerial flood maps were created by aircraft equipped with laser scanners which measure the distance between the aircraft and the ground. Using light detection and ranging (Lidar) technology, the Environment Agency was able to detect the areas of Britain which are most at risk of flooding. The...

LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) – Charges have been filed against five people, including three teens, in connection to a group of fights that escalated into a stabbing over the weekend at the Park City Mall. Police say the violence resulted in a 14-year-old girl’s face being slashed, a 20-year-old man cut in the chest, and a 15-year-old girl’s wrist split.

Dr. Paul Chappell personally supports Cruz for PresidentHOUSTON, Texas – Presidential candidate Ted Cruz today announced the personal endorsement of Dr. Paul Chappell, a nationally recognized leader of independent Baptist Christians."I am humbled and grateful to have the support of Dr. Chappell," said Cruz. "All across the country, people of faith are waking up to realize that their values are not being represented in Washington. I am encouraged by Dr. Chappell's leadership in getting Christians to understand that they must get involved."Cruz went on to point out that if even a fraction of evangelicals who routinely don't vote were to...