Free Republic

Philadelphia has banned masks on its Center City SEPTA public transportation system in the hope of curtailing gun violence incidents. CBS News reported an individual in a mask shot and killed a high school student on a SEPTA bus last week and on Memorial Day, another gunman in a mask shot a 19-year-old on a bus. The 19-year-old survived his injuries. SEPTA police chief Charles Lawson announced masks will no longer be allowed, saying, “Those face masks are prohibited on SEPTA property. You come on SEPTA property wearing your shiesty, you will be engaged by police. … You got two...

After two men were seen in social media video being handcuffed and removed by police officers from a Philadelphia Starbucks Thursday, the coffee chain issued an apology and said it is looking into the "unfortunate result." Authorities were called to the store in Center City when the two men allegedly remained in the Starbucks after a manager told them they had to order something, according to the witnesses inside the Starbucks at 18th and Spruce streets. About five to seven police officers arrived about 4:30 p.m. and arrested the two men. The men, who have not been identified, were later...

Thursday at his weekly press briefing, House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) lashed out when a reporter asked if funding was an issue on the heels of this week’s tragic crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia, killing 7 and injuring hundreds.

There's nothing quite like that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you just know that you've lost something important. It happens to people all the time - especially travelers. Some folks leave a favorite T-shirt behind in a hotel room. Others drop a set of keys at the airport. Just ask, ahem, President Obama. Seems the big guy lost a magnetic presidential seal that was affixed to the side of his limousine as he wrapped up a fundraising visit to Philly on Thursday.

Is President Barack Obama counting his eggs before they even hatch in regards to the Presidential elections of 2012? It sure seems like he is doing just that. At a time with a still struggling economy, which includes the debate about the issue of raising the “debt ceiling” in the American national debt during in the days leading up to the July 4, 2011 Independence Day holiday. Add to that, and with what is going on in a number of states that are having major budget battles, including Minnesota which brought about at the beginning of a new economic year...

... Under the rules adopted by Philadelphia’s primary civil court, no owner-occupied house may be foreclosed on and sold by the sheriff’s office before a “conciliation conference,” a face-to-face meeting between the homeowner and the lender aimed at striking a workable compromise. Every homeowner facing a default filing is furnished with counseling, and sometimes legal representation. ... When homeowners in Philadelphia receive legal default notices from their mortgage companies, the court system schedules a conciliation hearing. Canvassers working for local nonprofit agencies visit foreclosed homeowners, distributing fliers that inform them of their rights to a conference, and urging them to...

About 200 people gathered at Center City's Love Park for a midday "tea party" to protest excessive government spending. The rain-soaked rally is one of dozens being held throughout the country. Protesters held "Don't Tread on Me" flags, banners and signs as they recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the "Star Spangled Banner." Then a parade of speakers lit into Washington's lack of fiscal restraint

ABOUT 90 percent of the people shot in the city last year were African-American. While figures are unavailable, it is assumed by most that close to 100 percent of the perpetrators of these shootings were African-American. Almost all the firearms used in these shootings were obtained, possessed and carried illegally by those who perpetrated the shootings. If, as is constantly claimed, we MUST DO SOMETHING to stop this violence, then why not ban African-American residents of the city from owning handguns? The answer is that that is patently unfair and discriminatory. To judge an entire group as a problem and...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Authorities in Philadelphia will suspend foreclosure sales of homes whose owners have fallen behind on adjustable-rate subprime loan payments -- potential relief for tens of thousands of struggling debtors. Sheriff John Green said on Friday he would halt sales of foreclosed properties in April and would seek a court order extending a moratorium for an unspecified period. His action follows a nonbinding resolution passed unanimously by the Philadelphia City Council on Thursday calling on Green to stop the sales to give borrowers more time to seek a settlement that would prevent them from losing their homes. Philadelphia...

In some ways, Barack Obama's speech on race last week was as brilliant as it was nuanced. But for all its rhetorical beauty, it was also an enormous step backward and, in the end, a rather self-serving call for more discussion about racial grievance in a country that has already done way too much talking. Until last week, so much of Obama's appeal lay in the fact that he was not asking us to talk about the racial divide. Instead, he offered himself as a living and breathing symbol of racial reconciliation; his very origins pointed to the goal of...

Thanksgiving turned bloody for some city residents, with one man slain in Mill Creek, two children playing with a gun seriously injured in Fairhill and four people hospitalized after a family fracas in East Germantown. As reported in yesterday's paper, Coy Sharpe, 50, of Parrish Street near 48th, was found shot in the stomach shortly before 4 a.m. on Parrish Street near Ramsey, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police knew of no and had no suspects. At 9:20 p.m., an 11-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy were seriously injured when a gun discharged as they played...

Video shows aftermath of store owner shooting 2 robbery suspects The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA - A store owner shot two men who tried to rob him, killing one of them, in a confrontation that was partly recorded by a neighbor with a cell phone, police said. The two men entered the North Philadelphia store at about 6:40 a.m. Thursday and announced a robbery, after which the owner and one of the men exchanged gunshots, said city police Sgt. Ron McClane. A cell phone video shot by a nearby resident shows the aftermath outside the store, where the owner confronted one...

In a week marked by Philadelphia's 300th homicide of the year, Democratic mayoral candidate Michael Nutter said Mayor Street should declare a state of emergency in pockets of the city that have endured the worst violence. Such action, according to the city code, would allow the government to clear people from public sidewalks, close bars, prohibit liquor sales, and establish curfews for children and adults alike. The proposal topped several crime-fighting ideas Nutter pushed in an interview this week. Others included policing more aggressively to recover illegal weapons and encouraging experienced officers to postpone retirement. Saying he was angered and...

Posted on Mon, May. 02, 2005 Under the Sun Black voters warm to GOP By Harold Jackson Deputy Editorial Page Editor Could it be the Republicans have finally gotten it right? For more than two decades, I have been among those raising a skeptical eyebrow at GOP claims that the party of Lincoln wants more blacks under its tent. Talk is cheap, and their actions said otherwise to me. Until now. The 2004 elections and their aftermath have provided persuasive examples of effective Republican outreach to African Americans. Having successfully smooth-talked the formerly segregationist Dixiecrats into their fold (it took...

Mayor: Don't like it? Go GOPBrothers & sisters are 'in charge'By RON GOLDWYNgoldwyr@phillynews.comAN UNREPENTENT Mayor Street wants to update the NAACP convention with some hot old news:In Philadelphia, the brothers and sisters are still in charge.Street, in welcoming remarks yesterday to the 8,000-delegate gathering at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, recalled how he "got myself in trouble" in 2002."I said in the city of Philadelphia the brothers and sisters are in charge," he declared. "They never let me forget it."Street apologized at the time. But yesterday he brought delegates to their feet roaring approval when he said he "will never apologize"...

The following email contains several important announcements: - MAY 19-20: Nationally coordinated local actions protesting Bush's new attacks on Cuba - JULY 4 in Philadelphia: Thousands will march to protest George W. Bush - MAY 17-18 in New York City: National Conference Against War, Colonial Occupation & Imperialism - Important story in today's Washington Post - Ramsey Clark on C-Span --------------------------------------------------------- SAY NO TO U.S. AGGRESSION AGAINST CUBA! PROTEST BUSH'S SPEECH ATTACKING CUBA MAY 19-20: Days of nationally-coordinated local actions protesting Bush's new attacks on Cuba On May 20, President Bush is scheduled to speak in Miami, announcing a new...