Free Republic

A New Jersey man is in legal trouble after he allegedly assaulted the Easter Bunny at the South Hills Village Mall. According to the criminal complaint, a woman working as the Easter Bunny on Monday at the mall was taking pictures with children and families when a man approached her and began to ask her questions, which she referred to an assistant. The man refused and began touching the woman dressed as the Easter Bunny's arm, then the top of her chest, and then grabbed her breasts. According to the assistant, prior to the alleged assault, he asked questions such...

PITTSBURGH -- Plenty of kids know the joy of a snow day, but what about a draft day? Pittsburgh Public Schools students are about to find out. The district notified staff and families that it will operate remotely April 22-24 as the city prepares for and hosts the NFL draft. With city officials anticipating up to 700,000 visitors and travel disruptions around the region, the school district determined that it would be less disruptive to students to transition to "asynchronous teaching and learning." "Our priority is maintaining continuity of learning while recognizing the extraordinary circumstances the city will experience during...

Pittsburgh police officers did not intervene as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents struggled to detain a suspect near a police station, and claims circulated that officers were told to stand down.

A person was shot inside a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus on Saturday. PRT officials say the shooting happened just before 5 p.m. in a P1 bus near the Homewood Station along the East Busway.

Aurora Innovation said it has tripled its driverless trucking network to 10 routes as it prepares to expand autonomous freight operations across the southern United States. The Pittsburgh-based company said its latest software release enables its Aurora Driver autonomous control system to operate on longer lanes, serve direct customer endpoints, and navigate a wider range of adverse weather conditions. The company touted these as key steps as the company moves toward scaling commercial operations. With the addition of Phoenix to its network, Aurora now operates driverless freight lanes between Dallas and Houston, Fort Worth and El Paso, El Paso and...

For just the third time since Chuck Noll was hired in 1969, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be hiring a new head coach. Mike Tomlin's run with the Steelers is over.

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...

Pittsburgh is looking for some extra luck in a key matchup.The Pittsburgh Steelers are calling on some extra help. Before their game Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, a priest was seen blessing the field with holy water. The video was captured by Jenna Harner of WPXI, NBC's Pittsburgh affiliate. Pittsburgh, 9-7, is hosting the Baltimore Ravens on NBC's Sunday Night Football for the last postseason spot left from either conference. The winner will claim the No. 4 seed and host at least one playoff game, with the Houston Texans entering as the No. 5 seed. If Pittsburgh and Aaron Rodgers gets...

I began my career with Allegheny County Pretrial Services in April 2008. I was sworn in by a judge, issued a badge, and placed into a system built on neutrality and public safety. Our job was simple: interview defendants, verify information, review police reports, pull complete criminal histories, and present magistrates with fact-based recommendations. We weren’t advocates for release or detention. We were there to present facts. And for a long time, the system worked because facts were the only thing that mattered. Failures to appear happened, but they were usually honest mistakes. Multiple pending cases were rare. Dangerous charges...

Voters on Tuesday will choose either Democrat Corey O’Connor, the Allegheny County controller, or Republican Tony Moreno, a former Pittsburgh police officer, as Pittsburgh’s next mayor. O’Connor, 41, of Point Breeze, is a former city councilman and son of the late Mayor Bob O’Connor. He defeated incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey for the Democratic nomination in the May primary. Moreno, 57, of Brighton Heights, spent 24 years on the Pittsburgh police force. He came in third in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary — behind Gainey and then-Mayor Bill Peduto — before running as a Republican in the general election, again losing...

A fan is “in critical condition” after falling “from the 200 level of PPG Paints Arena” during the Penguins’ game against the Blues last night. The incident happened “after the Penguins scored their second goal 55 seconds into the first period of their 6-3 victory.” Fans said they “saw the man in a Penguins jersey stumble down several stairs between sections 201 and 234 as he approached the bottom of the section before falling into and tumbling headfirst over the glass.” The fan “fell into the suite level and hit another person,” then “dropped another level into the walkway between...

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 26 — An ambitious terrorist plot to attack a host of American interests overseas was foiled by the capture of a key Osama bin Laden operative, sources tell ABCNEWS. Intelligence sources in Europe and the United States say the intended targets included the American embassy in Paris, the U.S. consulate in Marseilles, France, buildings at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France. The outlines of the plan were known to French and American authorities before Sept. 11, but the attacks were not ...

Pennsylvania’s highest court has declared that Pittsburgh’s attempt to force all athletes who compete in the city to pay a tax, even if they aren’t Pennsylvania residents, is unconstitutional and unfair. The city had passed the tax more than a decade ago, forcing visiting athletes to pay an income tax just for the privilege of playing there. But the state’s supreme court has ruled that the tax unconstitutionally discriminates against nonresidents, according to Legal Newsline. The ruling is a win for MLB, NHL, and NFL players who visit Pittsburgh to play the city’s home teams. The lawsuit was brought way...

The agency revealed that suspect Donald Henson, a former military member, is still at large The FBI's Pittsburgh field office is investigating a “targeted attack” that took place in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Sept. 17. “At approximately 2:40 a.m., an individual driving a white sedan proceeded to ram one of the vehicle entrance gates at FBI Pittsburgh,” authorities wrote on social media. “This individual exited the vehicle, removed an American flag from the backseat, and threw it onto the damaged gate. The individual then left the scene on foot.” Investigators identified the individual in question as Donald Henson,...

UPMC has confirmed it will end gender-affirming care for patients 18 and younger in response to the Trump administration’s policies aimed at transgender youth. A spokesperson for UPMC, the region’s largest hospital network, said federal guidance has made it clear clinicians who provide care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy run the risk of criminal prosecution. UPMC will continue to provide behavioral health support and other care “within the bounds of the law,” the spokesperson added. The spokesperson declined to say when care will end, but impacted families have been told June 30 is the cutoff.

The “stick to sports” door swings both ways. While the term rose to significance as a catchphrase for conservative voices who hoped to shout down athletes and media with conflicting beliefs (athletes and media who agreed were and are exempt from being told to shut up), fans who have concerns about the current state of the union are objecting to those athletes who are aligning with the person who’s running the show.

Any suggestions/help on PA Republican choices, in particular for Pittsburgh and Western PA. We will be voting later today and will appreciate information from conservatives here. Thanks.