Free Republic

The Trump administration said Monday that the University of Pennsylvania violated laws guaranteeing women equal opportunities in athletics by letting a transgender swimmer compete on the school's women's team and into team facilities. The administration's statement does not name Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022 and was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title that year -- an award Thomas now faces losing. But the investigation opened in February by the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights focused on Thomas, who became a leading...

Next stop: Trump Station President Trump fired the MTA from the long-awaited revamp of Penn Station on Thursday, instead putting the feds in charge of a gold-plated makeover for the decrepit transit hub. Amtrak will spearhead the renovation as the feds champion a “public-private partnership model,” announced Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. “President Trump has made it clear: the days of reckless spending and blank checks are over,” Duffy said in a statement. “New York City deserves a Penn Station that reflects America’s greatness and is safe and clean.” Gov. Kathy Hochul had been engaged in tense face-to-face talks with Trump...

President Donald Trump’s administration is withholding $175 million from the University of Pennsylvania due to the school’s failure to ban men from women’s sports. The White House announced the decision in a post on X Wednesday, citing the university’s “policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.” The $175 million makes up approximately 20 percent of the total federal funds the university received last year, with the payments coming from the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services, a White House official told The New York Post.

Penn is vying to be the site for former Benjamin Franklin Professor of Presidential Practice and President Joe Biden's presidential library according to a recent interview given by the president. In a Jan. 8, 2025 interview with USA Today, Biden stated, “[the] University of Pennsylvania, which has the Biden School of Foreign Policy, wants me to do [the library] up there.” Penn joins Wilmington, Del., the University of Delaware campus, and other locations in the city of Philadelphia as potential contenders for the library's location, according to Biden. Biden said that he hopes the library will be in Delaware –...

Scientists report the first known observation of a variety of quasiparticle that exhibits a very peculiar behavior: it appears to have mass, but only while moving in one direction. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University recently succeeded in detecting the unusual quasiparticle while conducting studies involving a semi-metallic crystalline material. Known as a semi-Dirac fermion, this unique formation of particles was first theorized more than a decade ago, but until now had never been directly observed. The discovery potentially paves the way toward future advances in a range of emerging technologies that include power storage and novel forms of sensor technologies....

Former adviser and pollster for President Clinton Mark Penn said Sunday on FNC’s “Special Report” that at this point in the election, he would rather be on the side of former President Donald Trump’s team. Host Bret Baier said, “Who do you want to be right now? Who do you want, which side do you want to be this evening looking at what you’re looking at? Penn said, “Well, I’d rather be Trump this evening for the simple reason that there are lots and lots of polls that show it dead even. The only fact we know is that the...

For second consecutive year, Harvard bottom ranked school with score of 0.00 The top five worst universities for free speech also all happen to be mostly Ivy League institutions, according to a major new student survey released today by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Harvard, Columbia, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College made up the bottom five schools, respectively. Conversely, the top rated school was the University of Virginia. Last year’s highest, Michigan Technological University, came in second best for free speech. In third place was Florida State University, and fourth and fifth were...

Police disbanded the two-week-old pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania this morning, resulting in 33 arrests of those who defied orders to leave, 6ABC reported. A Penn spokesperson said the university’s police department and the Philadelphia Police Department began an operation around 5:30 a.m. to dismantle the encampment. Protesters received a two-minute warning 20 minutes later to leave. Some of the protesters defied order and locked arms by the Benjamin Franklin statue on College Green. Thirty-three people were arrested without incident and cited for defiant trespass, according to the university. “Those who chose to stay did so knowing that...

From “Mystic River” to mystery meetings. Sean Penn was spotted linking up with first son Hunter Biden at Soho House in Malibu, Calif., Wednesday. The “I Am Sam” star was photographed with a cigarette in his mouth, wearing a plaid blue shirt, a pair of cargo pants and holding a tan jacket as he exited his vehicle. Biden, meanwhile, kept a low profile in a black baseball cap, aviator sunglasses, a dark denim jacket and a pair of gray slacks. The two men were seen chatting casually while posted outside the swanky members-only club. We’re told Penn, 63, and Biden,...

The University of Pennsylvania is embroiled in yet another scandal in the wake of October 7: communications school lecturer Dwayne Booth is under fire for political cartoons that critics say are antisemitic. One of Booth’s illustrations, entitled “Slaughterhouse,” shows Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with red glowing eyes, covered in blood and holding a knife. The controversial images were published on Booth’s personal website, crowncrack.com, where he uses the pseudonym Mr. Fish.

The National Park Service on Monday suddenly withdrew its plan to remove the statue of William Penn from the site of his home during a "rehabilitation" of Welcome Park in Philadelphia. NPS had opened a public comment period on Monday but by 6:30 p.m., it was closed. "The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned," the NPS said in a statement. The NPS faced widespread backlash after announcing its plans to update the park to "provide a...

Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period, the National Park Service (NPS) said Monday. The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned, according to the press release, which continued: “The National Park Service remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Upon completion of all the necessary internal...

Joe Biden's National Park Service under Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will remove the statue of William Penn from the park erected in 1982 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his founding of the colony of Pennsylvania. The park is on the site of his original home in Philadelphia. The park, located in Philadelphia near the Delaware River at Sansom and Second Streets, will be "rehabilitated" and that proposal will include an "expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia." The plan was "developed in consultations with the representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware...

Joe Biden's National Park Service under Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will remove the statue of William Penn from the park erected in 1982 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his founding of the colony of Pennsylvania. The park is on the site of his original home in Philadelphia. The park, located in Philadelphia near the Delaware River at Sansom and Second Streets, will be "rehabilitated" and that proposal will include an "expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia." The plan was "developed in consultations with the representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware...

The Muslim holiday known as Eid al-Fitr could become an official state holiday in Pennsylvania. House Bill 1752, sponsored by a trio of Democrat representatives in the Philadelphia area, would provide “for the annual designation and holiday observance of the first day of the Islamic lunar month of Shawwal as Eid al-Fitr Day in this Commonwealth.” Eid al-Fitr, one of two major Muslim holidays, is celebrated at the end of Ramadan, a month of intermittent fasting and religious observances. According to a House memo, the holiday “includes two to three days of celebrations, and it begins with a special prayer...

At a hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) grilled the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania about students at their schools publicly calling for Jews to be killed. "Is this appropriate behavior?" she asked. Penn President Liz Magill said "it depends on the context. First of all, there is the issue of freedom of speech. Under the US Constitution people are free to express their opinions. Second, there is the issue of freedom of religion. The Palestinian Authority tells its own people that killing Jews is for Allah. The repetition of...

A University of Pennsylvania donor is withdrawing a gift worth around $100 million to protest the school's response to antisemitism on campus. The big picture: The final straw for Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, was Tuesday's widely criticized congressional testimony by Penn president Liz Magill. Details: The gift from Stevens, a Penn undergrad alum, was given in December 2017 to help establish a center for innovation in finance.

True Leadership Stops It.. People talk about the Weimar Republic that gave rise to Adolph Hitler but very few understand what the Weimar was all about. ... from deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.. The Germany of the late 1920s and early 1930s was a world leader in most fields of art, science and intellect. ... Berlin had three opera houses, and Germany as a whole no less than eighty. Every middle-sized city had its own orchestra ... And in science, of course, the Germans were preeminent…. The Germany of 1920 had a significantly higher per capita educational level than...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In testimony before the United States Congress, Ivy League presidents showed off nice new mustaches while explaining to House members that not all calls for mass murder are wrong. "Some chanting for fellow students to die is okay - it's all about context," explained Penn president Liz McGill, adjusting her Swastika armband. "You have to consider the context of the three of us goose-stepping into Congress chanting 'Final Solution'." According to sources, the three presidents arrived at Congress each driving Panzer tanks and surrounded by "SS" bodyguards. After warmly saluting each other, the three women carefully affixed...

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman will stop making donations to the University of Pennsylvania over its lack of a response to Hamas’ attack on Israel, he said in an email sent Saturday.News of the email was first reported by the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper at Penn, which is a member of the Ivy League. Huntsman, who also served as a U.S. ambassador to Russia and China, sent the email to Penn President Liz Magill. He wrote the university had become “deeply adrift in ways that make it almost unrecognizable.”