Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has become the third U.S. state to designate Diwali — the Hindu “Festival of Lights” — as an official statewide holiday. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Tuesday to go into effect on Jan. 1. It would authorize public schools and community colleges to close on Diwali. State employees could elect to take the day off and public school students will get an excused absence to celebrate the holiday. The new law recognizes that Diwali is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. Pennsylvania was the first U.S. state to make Diwali a...

Public data show that the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, under Larry Krasner, may be leveraging violence prevention grants for political capital, raising troubling questions about transparency and accountability, especially surrounding the surge in funding to so-called “violence interrupters.” These groups, composed of faith-based organizations, nonprofits led by former felons, and other community groups that promise to use their roots in the community to intervene in “beefs” before they escalate to violence, gained national traction following the 2020 “defund the police” movement. The evidence shows that the vast majority of the grants to violence interrupters was dispensed outside normal city auditing...

Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voiced his support for President Trump's proposed 20-point peace plan to end the war between Hamas and Israel, as the conflict approaches its two-year anniversary. On Sunday, the Senator posted on X, "Good morning to everyone except all the protesters who aren’t protesting for Hamas to accept the peace deal." On Friday, Senator Fetterman posted an image of a headline that read "Hamas says it agrees to release all Israeli hostages under Trump Gaza plan," writing, "Hamas must choose peace or its own destruction.Send the hostages home, now. As an unapologetic supporter of Israel, the...

Antifa activists are hosting a three-day training conference for fellow antifascists in Philadelphia this week, despite Democrats insisting that antifa is not an organization. The annual Philly Skillshare Convergence will occur over the coming Friday through Sunday, according to an advertisement circulating in antifa circles. So-called “skillshares” are educational sessions where activists gather to learn street-level strategies, often militant in nature. This year’s skillshare in Philadelphia is slated to offer a series of hourlong workshops, including a lesson on evading law enforcement and eluding capture.

An American man dying of heart failure received the heart of a Canadian man with ALS who chose a medically assisted death in what is being described as a landmark case of a heart transplant following euthanasia. Organs have been donated after MAID before, involving liver, kidney or lung transplants. “Here we report the first case of a successful cardiac transplantation after MAID,” a team of doctors from The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and The Ottawa Hospital report in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. The case involved a 59-year-old man with rapidly worsening heart failure who wasn’t...

The left-wing climate scientist and political activist Michael Mann resigned on Tuesday from his post as vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania. Mann stirred up controversy repeatedly over the past several months, most recently when he shared a social media post that compared Charlie Kirk to a member of the "Hitler Youth." Mann will remain at the university as a professor and the director of its Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media. Mann explained in a blog post Monday that his environmental advocacy work "at times feels in conflict" with the University of Pennsylvania's institutional neutrality policy. "At...

Philadelphia officials on Tuesday raised the flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at City Hall. The ceremony marked the CCP’s Oct. 1 National Day and involved a co-organizer with ties to Beijing’s regime, according to The Epoch Times. The event reportedly whitewashes a violent legacy of mass killings, religious crackdowns and cultural destruction that began when Mao Zedong seized power in 1949. Outside the event, protesters from the Tibetan Association of Philadelphia demanded the city take down the banner. “The red flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not a symbol of culture; it is the emblem of...

Climate scientist Michael Mann has resigned from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) after fallout from controversial comments he posted following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Mann went on a social media spree in the wake of the murder, sarcastically describing the assassination as "white on white violence" and reposting multiple inflammatory remarks about the conservative leader, including one that referred to Kirk as the "head of Trump's Hitler Youth." Despite later attempting to backtrack, Mann has now resigned from his role as Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action. "I have reluctantly come to the...

Three Senate Democrats voted in favor of the Republican Continuing Resolution, bucking their party and hoping to avoid a Schumer Shutdown. Those Senators are Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), John Fetterman (PA), and Angus King (ME). In a post on X, Fetterman explained his vote, writing, "I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them -- but I won't vote for the chaos of shuttering our government." He added, "My vote was our country over my party." Earlier, Sen. King had expressed concerns over the CR and played coy as to how he would vote. "You'll find out...

A number of Penn State football fans were seen wearing Charlie Kirk’s “FREEDOM” T-shirts at Saturday night’s game against Oregon. Footage and photos of the students in the shirts went viral across social media. Oregon, which was Kirk’s favorite college football team, went on to win the game in a 30-24 thriller. Oregon defensive back Dylan Thieneman pulled in a game-sealing interception in overtime, ensuring Kirk’s favorite team won in front of thousands of supporters wearing his signature shirt

Progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner launched into a rant when confronted by a young Republican activist in a local park in a video that has since gone viral. "Donald Trump is a fascist," Krasner said during the confrontation. When prompted to elaborate on what he meant by the remark, Krasner instead deflected and continued his tirade.

Nate Robinson spotlights fentanyl’s devastation with a stark Philly video.Former NBA guard Nate Robinson recently used his platform to shed light on the devastating impact of fentanyl addiction. On Instagram, Robinson shared a disturbing video from Philadelphia that showed individuals slumped over and staggering in public, their movements eerily resembling “zombies.” The clip was set to Rae Sremmurd’s hit song Black Beatles, the same track once associated with the lighthearted “Mannequin Challenge.” The mix of the upbeat song with such grim scenes made the footage even more jarring. “Man who put this music over this post? Smh. Swaelee the song...

A young Republican activist was blocked from a church in Philadelphia by woke activists who formed a human wall to keep him out, according to video footage. Frank Scales, 22, founder of Surge Philly, shared footage showed a group of activists barring his entry to a town hall with woke Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner last Thursday night at the historic Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Society Hill. “You’re not coming in. You’re not coming in. Simple as that. You’re not coming into our sacred spaces,” a man outside the 19th-century church holding a bullhorn tells Scales, in...

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, during an appearance on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, said the Trump administration is trying to “stifle dissent” following ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. “Without question, they’re trying to stifle dissent,” Shapiro said after noting that selectively firing people for their viewpoints is “dangerous.” The indefinite suspension of Kimmel’s show came after his Monday night monologue about the 22-year-old man accused of shooting and killing right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. On Wednesday afternoon, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr on a conservative podcast threatened to cancel ABC affiliate broadcast...

The mask continues to slip in Pennsylvania, where Democrat officials have openly mocked, justified, and even celebrated the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk—a reaction that reveals just how deeply entrenched political hatred has become on the American left. Bernville Mayor Shawn Raup-Konsavage ignited national outrage after declaring he was “glad” Kirk is dead, posting the comment publicly alongside a video of the late conservative leader. “This is what MAGA represents,” he wrote, attacking those mourning Kirk’s death and doubling down by saying, “If this represents you, then I don’t want to hear that you are offended that...

The Associated Press has named Matthew James Ruth, 24, as the suspect in the deadly York County ambush of five police officers on Wednesday in North Codorus Township. Five officers were shot. Three were killed and two were critically wounded...

Kamala Harris settled on picking Tim Walz to be her running mate last year because she felt Americans were too racist, antisemitic and homophobic to accept her preferred option – Pete Buttigieg. In an excerpt from the former vice president’s forthcoming book, “107 Days,” obtained by The Atlantic magazine, Harris describes Buttigieg as her “first choice” but later deemed the openly gay former transportation secretary to be “too big of a risk” on the ticket. Buttigieg “would have been an ideal partner —if I were a straight white man,” Harris wrote. “But we were already asking a lot of America:...

Last night, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner spoke at a town hall meeting at a church in Kingsessing, one of several appearances he’s scheduled to make this week. The topic, in part, is the Trump administration’s repeated threats to send National Guard troops to major American cities. ---SNIP--- Scales went on to argue that “lawless Larry, crumb bum Krasner” was only speaking about the National Guard situation in order to “distract the people of this city from his failures.”

Five law enforcement officers were shot, three fatally, in York County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, state police said.The officers were serving a warrant in North Codorus Township at the time, law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation confirmed to ABC News.

Five cops have been wounded after being shot in rural Pennsylvania Wednesday afternoon. Three officers are in critical condition and a York County Sheriff Deputy was hurt in the incident, officials said. Authorities were reportedly serving a warrant when an alleged suspect opened fire, sources told NBC10. The alleged shooter is believed to be dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound, the sources added. Schools and hospitals in the York County area have been locked down as emergency crews respond. York Hospital is treating two people who are in serious condition. The building has enhanced security measures because of the...