Free Republic

Judicial Watch settled its election integrity lawsuit against Pennsylvania after the commonwealth acknowledged it removed more than 178,000 ineligible registrations on its voter rolls, the watchdog group announced Thursday. The settlement commits the commonwealth and five of its counties to publicly reporting the number of registered and eligible voters, both active and inactive, for the next five years. “[Pennsylvania] also agreed to publish the total number of address confirmation notices sent to registered voters and the number returned as undeliverable or not responded to,” according to Judicial Watch, and “the total number of voters removed from the registration rolls on...

Climate change is a major concern for a majority of religious Americans, but it’s not discussed much in congregations, according to the Pew Research Center. This has led to increased feelings of sadness, loss, and despair as people witness negative effects on the environment. This is known as “ecological grief,” which has led some to turn to religion for comfort and support. In response, leaders from the four biggest faiths in Pennsylvania (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) will gather at the Gettysburg Seminary Chapel for an Earth Day interfaith service focused on environmental stewardship. Judy Young, a former pastor who...

Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has finally returned to Capitol Hill, having spent most of his tenure as a U.S. senator at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center being treated for clinical depression. Fetterman was discharged on March 31. While it’s good that he’s progressed with mental health issues, we haven’t forgotten about the lingering cognitive impairments that became a major issue of the campaign, as it was clear to anyone that this man wasn’t fit to serve in the U.S. Senate. His May 2022 stroke left him incapacitated for weeks, and he was lucky to survive. Despite this, he chose...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is back on the Hill after a lengthy hospital stay to treat clinical depression. What started as a few weeks' stay turned into weeks with reports that the Pennsylvania Democrat wouldn’t be released until mid-April. Fetterman’s doctors were reportedly trying to figure out his medication. As soon as that news broke, the former Braddock mayor was discharged on March 31. We’re glad that the senator is doing better with his mental health issues, but it doesn’t mitigate the cognitive ones impacting his ability to do his job. Mr. Fetterman suffered a severe stroke in April of...

The federal government is giving Pennsylvania a down payment to plan how to best adapt to and mitigate climate change locally. In Harrisburg on Friday, state and federal officials said Pennsylvania will get about $6 million to create priority climate action plans. The commonwealth will receive up to a $3 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant through the program set up by the Inflation Reduction Act. The resulting plans can include things like installing air quality monitoring systems, plugging old oil and gas wells, or converting school bus fleets to electric vehicles. The plans will make the state eligible for grants...

The City of Philadelphia issued an advisory to locals on Sunday that they should drink bottled water “out of caution” following a chemical spill in the nearby Delaware River. On Twitter, the city wrote that it is currently “responding to a spill of a latex product that occurred along a Delaware River tributary” and that “more information will be provided as it becomes available.” As of Sunday, it wrote that “no contaminants” were discovered in the city’s tap water but said that any potential contaminants would most likely be found at the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant. “Out of an...

The handlers responsible for cognitively impaired Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., once again avoided questions about his return to the U.S. Senate as even the mainstream media begins to wonder if they are being forthright. Meanwhile, some conservatives have begun to question whether Fetterman is alive at all. Questions about Fetterman’s status exploded in late February as rumors spread via social media that he might be clinically braindead and that his staff was attempting to forestall an announcement until after an August deadline had passed, allowing the state’s far-left governor to avoid calling a special election. Despite the gravity of the...

A group of religious leaders headed by the state’s Episcopal Diocese is asking lawmakers to move forward with a list of gun safety measures, hoping to frame the issue as a religious and moral imperative rather than a partisan one. The group rallied at the state Capitol on Monday – less than two weeks into Lent, “the season of self-examination and repentance, and we have much to repent for,” said Rt. Rev. Audrey C. Scanlan, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. “It is our view that the missing component to the gun violence prevention movement is the faith...

A group of Pennsylvania Republicans are demanding that Democratic Sen. John Fetterman either appear on camera and demonstrate he is still capable of doing his job or, failing that, that he resign from his federal office. Fetterman has been hospitalized for nearly two weeks due to reported clinical depression; little is known about his status as an inpatient at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, though his staff said on Monday that he is "on a path to recovery." The Washington County, Pa., Republican Party, meanwhile, said in a Facebook post on Monday that it "refuses to take assurances from...

A Pennsylvania county has ended its “sanctuary” status for illegal aliens as the nation’s fentanyl crisis has hit the community, spilling over from the United States-Mexico border. Officials in Butler County, Pennsylvania — which has consistently voted Republican in the last few election cycles — have ended the area’s sanctuary county status that helped keep illegal aliens from being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 15: Sen.-elect John Fetterman (D-PA) stands for a photo opportunity in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) office at the U.S. Capitol on November 15, 2022 in Washington, DC. Senate Democrats will meet later on Tuesday for the first time since the midterm elections. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is reportedly set to miss weeks of work after checking himself into a hospital this week for severe depression. NBC News reporter Dasha Burns tweeted, “A senior aide to Senator Fetterman tells me he will likely be in inpatient care for clinical depression...

@wesyang Rachel Levine: “Medicine and science are being politically perverted around the country — this destroys human lives Clip...

Newly elected Sen. John Fetterman has described his severe hearing disability as causing him to hear the voice of the teacher from the "Peanuts" cartoon when listening to people speak, the New York Times reported. Fetterman suffered a stroke in May 2022 while campaigning for Pennsylvania's open Senate seat, causing him to have cognitive issues, including a problem with auditory processing. The senator, who is in the hospital after experiencing lightheadedness Wednesday, has also struggled to adjust to life in the Senate, given the challenges of recovering from his stroke and the need for technological tools to help him conduct...

Pennsylvania Democrats won a trio of state House special elections Tuesday night, handing them a clear majority. The victories give Democrats the upper hand in a chamber that has seesawed in control since the November elections, resulting in a bipartisan "independent" speaker arrangement that quickly went sour. But with Tuesday's wins, the Democratic Party now is in a stronger position to block GOP-led initiatives, including a potential anti-abortion ballot measure. Democrats won in three districts, according to projections by The Associated Press: 32nd District: Democrat Joe McAndrew defeated Republican Clay Walker. The seat was left vacant after the death in...

My former OANN colleague Christina Bobb has shared.. Despite Congress’ failure to act, Pennsylvania could well go down as the worst case of election theft in our country’s history. When election officials halted the count on election night, President Trump was ahead by 700,000 votes. But three days later, they declared that Brain-Dead Biden had won. President Trump was winning by the greatest margin on election night, that I believe Democrats were convinced they couldn’t catch him. So, Democrats stopped the counting, blocked Republicans from even entering the building, and then somehow counted an alleged 1.4 additional million ballots without...

Audits of 12 school districts has state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor believing school boards are playing a “shell game” with taxpayer funds by moving money into reserve accounts to allow them to make a case for raising property tax rates. State laws limit how much school districts can raise property taxes and sets limits on those increases but allows for exceptions to be granted in one of two ways: ask voters’ permission through a referendum or ask the state Department of Education for a referendum exception. “These 12 districts collectively raised taxes 37 times during the four years we reviewed...

The policy covers pronoun usage, preferred bathrooms and diversity training for staffA school district in Pennsylvania recently released a proposed policy that prohibits educators from informing parents of their child's gender identity or preferred pronouns unless required by law. The Upper Moreland School District's proposed policy on "Transgender and Gender Diverse Students" was discussed at a school board meeting on Jan. 17. Pronoun usage, preferred bathrooms and diversity training for staff are all covered under the new policy.

Three state lawmakers from Philadelphia said they will soon introduce legislation establishing the observance of “Jan. 6 Day” in public schools. The companion proposals from Sen. Art Haywood and Reps. Chris Rabb and Ed Neilson – all Democrats representing districts in Philadelphia – would also support a resolution to formally condemn the events at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 and designate the two-year anniversary of the incident as "1/6 Day" in Pennsylvania. Rabb and Neilson teased the upcoming legislation last week and said schools should recognize the day and honor the five police officers who died...

Democrat Josh Shapiro, 49, was sworn in early Tuesday afternoon at the state Capitol in Harrisburg as Pa.’s 48th governor. Joining him was Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who was sworn in Tuesday morning. Here is Shapiro’s inaugural speech, as prepared for delivery: I am humbled to stand before you today as Pennsylvania’s 48th governor. Along the winding road that led to this moment, I’ve been grounded in my faith and family. And so I begin by saying to my high school sweetheart and Pennsylvania’s first lady – I love you, babe. Lori and I are blessed with four amazing children...

Brice Williams, a local drag queen who counseled LGBT youth in Harrisburg, has been charged with downloading photos and videos of child pornography two years ago, court documents said. Williams, 26, of Chambersburg, is charged with 25 counts of child pornography for at least 49 photos and 25 videos of naked, prepubescent boys that the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said he downloaded between May and December 2020. The sexually-explicit content showed genitalia and boys performing sex acts on one another — sometimes with an adult man, as well, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed Thursday. Authorities said the...