Free Republic

The family-owned company that operates The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said on Wednesday that the newspaper will cease publication on Sunday, May 3, signaling the end of a publication whose origins date to 1786. The company, Block Communications, said it had lost more than $350 million over the past 20 years while publishing the newspaper. In a statement, it said the financial pressures facing local journalism had made “continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable.” The company cited recent court decisions that required The Post-Gazette to operate under the terms of a 2014-17 labor contract, which it described as imposing...

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, founded in 1786, will shut down on May 3, its owners announced Wednesday. Block Communications Inc. has hemorrhaged over $350 million in cash while owning the newspaper over the past two decades, the outlet reported. The firm asserted that it could not sustain such significant cash losses. *** “Recent court decisions would require the Post-Gazette to operate under a 2014 labor contract that imposes on the Post-Gazette outdated and inflexible operational practices unsuited for today’s local journalism,” Block Communications said in a press release, according to CBS Pittsburgh. *** Prior to Block Communications’ closure announcement, Supreme Court...

PITTSBURGH — Two Pittsburgh business owners are accused of stealing food benefits and turning them into profit. Investigators with the Attorney General’s office call it a fencing operation, where someone buys and resells stolen goods for profit. On Monday, the AG’s office issued a warrant for the arrest of a husband and wife who were reportedly stealing from the federal government. “You’re robbing from the taxpayer that’s working so hard,” Mike Ichimura said. Shoppers like Ichimura were shocked to hear Munir Chaudhri and Rachna Anwar are accused of coming to Sam’s Club on Mount Nebo Road to use stolen EBT...

STATE COLLEGE — The State College Police Department underreported hundreds of rapes in its public crime data over nearly a decade, a 10-month investigation by Spotlight PA found. The mistake, which led to highly inaccurate public crime statistics, was not disclosed to the public before the story’s Dec. 18 publication. State College police, who serve over 57,000 residents in three municipalities in Centre County, reported a total of 67 rapes in crime submissions to the Pennsylvania State Police from 2013 to 2021. But the department conceded to Spotlight PA that it had been using an outdated definition of the crime,...

Two men were killed and another was injured in a New Year’s Day shooting in Philadelphia. The incident occurred at about 11:13 a.m. Thursday along the 7100 block of Oakland Street. Philadelphia police told NBC10 that one man was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 11:55 a.m. Another was taken to a hospital by a private vehicle but was pronounced dead at 11:52 a.m. A third man is currently hospitalized but his condition is unknown at this time. According to 6ABC, the shooting started as the result of an argument. All of the parties involved knew...

More than 2,800 pounds of grass-fed ground beef has been recalled over possible E. coli contamination. “Mountain West Food Group, LLC, a Heyburn, Idaho establishment, is recalling approximately 2,855 pounds of raw ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O26,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced. Nearly 3,000 pounds of ground beef across six states was recalled on Saturday due to possible E. coli contamination, the Department of Agriculture said. https://t.co/rVv3fSebPC pic.twitter.com/2aeSpqRZkp— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) December 30, 2025Fox Business has more: The “Forward Farms Grass-Fed Ground Beef” items packed in 16-ounce...

Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro will soon become the top-earning governor in the U.S. after an automatic cost-of-living pay bump goes into effect on Jan. 1. Shapiro, a Democrat up for re-election next year who is often named as a 2028 presidential contender, was already the second-highest paid state leader after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. At about $245,000 this year, Shapiro earned about $5,000 less than Hochul, whose salary, according to state law, for the past few years has been $250,000. But along with dozens of other Keystone State officials of both major parties, the new year will bring Shapiro...

🚨 WOW. Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke CONFIRMS MASSIVE fraud in Ohio, another hotbed for Somalis They run fake "home health" and bill $250,000 PER YEAR, per FAMILY, when no work is actually being done. She says it also happens in PENNSYLVANIA. "Audit America. Audit Ohio now. And I'm pushing for that in every single state!" "The state will, as long as the doctor has approved it, continue to pay you. It could be for 10 hours, 12 hours, up to 24 when it's critical care." "So you could sit at home without caring for an elderly parent who really doesn't...

A Pennsylvania principal whose antisemitic tirade about “Jew money” was inadvertently recorded has been fired. Lower Gwynedd Elementary School Principal Phillip Leddy was axed Tuesday by the Wissahickon School Board. Leddy, 45, was returning a call from a parent when he got the dad’s voicemail and left a message, but then apparently failed to end the call, Philadelphia’s ABC 7 reported.

“A mass casualty situation has been declared after an explosion ripped through a Pennsylvania nursing home leaving multiple people trapped. The blast tore through Silver Lake Healthcare Center in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania at around 2.17pm. First responders and emergency management officials had described the scene as a gas explosion. However, that will not be confirmed until the agency can examine the scene up close, Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, the press secretary at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, told the Associated Press. There is no word on how many people have been injured. The explosion was labeled a mass casualty incident by Upper...

BRISTOL TWP., Pa. (WPVI) -- Two people are dead after an apparent gas explosion collapsed part of a nursing home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday afternoon, leaving an unknown number of people trapped in the rubble. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro confirmed the two deaths at a news conference Tuesday evening. Rescuers believe five people remain unaccounted for, Shapiro said, but he cautioned that the numbers remain preliminary. Action News has also learned that at least 21 people were sent to various hospitals. The extent of their injuries remain unclear.

BETHESDA, Md. (WBFF) — A $2.3 million home in one of Maryland’s wealthiest neighborhoods has become the latest test of the state’s ability to respond to squatting, exposing how legal gaps, slow court processes, and limited enforcement can leave communities waiting for action – even when ownership is clear and criminal complaints are filed. The Bethesda case, now winding through Montgomery County courts, mirrors a pattern Spotlight on Maryland has documented statewide: Vacant homes, disputed occupancy, and neighbors caught between civil law and public safety concerns. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy’s office said it cannot comment on this matter...

(DCNF)—A Montgomery County, Pa., elementary school principal is on administrative leave Friday after admitting he used antisemitic language, Philadelphia-area media outlets reported. After leaving a voicemail for a parent, Principal Phillip Leddy of Lower Gwynedd Elementary School allegedly went on the antisemitic rant while using profanity after he thought the phone had been hung up, Fox 29 reported. During his diatribe to another staff member, Leddy allegedly used the phrase “Jew camp,” claimed that the parent in question was probably an attorney and had “Jew money” while also repeating an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jews and banks, according to a...

The House GOP passed a bill outright banning transgender surgeries for minors, yet some Republicans still objected. Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill Protect Children's Innocence Act passed in a 216-211 late-night vote on Wednesday. This legislation would make it a felony to perform sex changes or provide puberty blockers and hormone therapy to children. Although the bill was passed largely along party lines, both Democrats and Republicans had some defectors. On the Republican side, Reps. Mike Lawler of New York, Mike Kennedy of Utah, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Gabe Evans of Colorado voted against criminalizing transgender surgeries...

Yesterday the Pennsylvania state House passed the measure for abortions up to birth by one vote. Not only would it allow abortions on demand throughout pregnancy, it would force Pennsylvania residents to fund abortions. ““House Bill 1957 is a highly regressive form of legislation which would wipe out protections against taxpayer funding of abortion at a time when the vast majority of taxpayers do not want their hard-earned money to pay for abortion,” said Maria Gallagher, executive director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, the Keystone State affiliate of National Right to Life. “The vote was as tight as it could...

The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday evening to pass the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which will make it a crime for sex-change surgery and hormonal treatments to be provided to minors. The bill, authored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), makes it criminal to “knowingly perform, or attempt to perform, genital or bodily mutilation on another person who is a minor” with penalties of up to ten years in prison. It further protects minors from chemical castration or hormonal treatments. Parents who facilitate, consent to, or transport the minor to receive sex change surgeries could also be charged. This...

Four moderate House Republicans are rebelling against Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to join his Democratic counterpart in forcing a vote on enhanced Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of this year. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., all joined a discharge petition by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on his push for a three-year extension of the subsidies. A discharge petition is a mechanism for overriding the will of House leaders to get a chamber-wide vote on specific legislation, provided it has support from a majority of lawmakers. In...

The House voted 231-195 on Thursday to pass legislation that would nullify President Trump’s efforts to strip more than 1 million federal workers of their collective bargaining rights, sending the measure over to the Senate, where its prospects are less rosy. Twenty Republican lawmakers broke ranks to support the Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550) on the floor. Introduced by Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., the measure effectively nullifies Trump’s March executive order barring unions at more than 40 federal agencies under the guise of national security and bars federal agencies from terminating any union contracts that...

We have received word that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives plans to vote on a package of seven abortion bills this coming Wednesday, December 17th. It is critically important that we raise our voices against these dangerous bills, which would allow abortion up to the moment of birth and widespread taxpayer funding of abortion. One measure would also wipe out parental rights, allowing an abortionist to perform an abortion on a minor girl without the parent’s consent. Here’s more: A set of extreme abortion bills in Pennsylvania could make the Keystone State one of the most radical pro-abortion states in...

MARTIN, MI –– Drag racing fans in Michigan, rejoice. The wait is over. For the first time in more than six decades, championship drag racing is set to return to the Great Lakes State. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) announced it will host a national event at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, from Sept. 18-20 via a release on Monday –– marking the first-ever NHRA national event at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park and the first NHRA national event held in Michigan since 1960. Michigan last hosted an NHRA national event when Detroit Dragway –– now defunct ––...