Free Republic

These are partial results for Libertarians who were candidates in the November 3, 2009 elections. We will post more results as we learn them. In Georgia: Karen Richardson was re-elected to the John's Creek City Council. Chris Neill, running for Mayor of Marietta, got 14%. Richard Segal, running for City Council in Douglasville, got 41%. Jeffrey Sexton, running for City Council in Leesburg, got 22%. Kellie Weeks, running for School Board in Gainesville, got 32%. Dr. Thomas Smoot, running for School Board in Valdosta, got 24%. In Iowa: Roger Fritz was elected Mayor of Roland. Nick Taiber got 46% running...

HARRISBURG - Joan Orie Melvin, a Republican judge from Western Pennsylvania, prevailed in the Philadelphia suburbs yesterday to claim a decisive win in the hard-fought battle for a vacancy on the state Supreme Court. Melvin's victory shifts the political balance on the state's most powerful bench to Republican, and could portend a re-energized conservative base in the 2010 gubernatorial and congressional elections. With 91 percent of ballots counted, Melvin had won every suburban county around Philadelphia except Montgomery, where Democrat Jack Panella of Easton led by only a few hundred votes. "It's clear to me she won because of the...

Joan Orie Melvin is maintaining a 6% lead over Jack Panella for the lone vacancy on the Commonwealth Supreme Court. This contest is considered critical due to a 3-3 party split in the current court makeup. Panella had been heavilly favored to win, but in the waning days of the campaign, his lead dwindled and he begin running attack ads on Orie Melvin as a right wing extremist.

HARRISBURG – Senator David G. Argall (R-29) announced legislation today that would reduce the size of the state legislature by more than 20 percent. Argall’s proposal would eliminate 10 House seats each decade through 2053. It would also eliminate five Senate seats. The legislation would ultimately trim the size of the Senate from 50 members to 45 and the House of Representatives from 203 members to 153.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has agreed not to charge ACORN with violating a state law regarding quotas for registering voters, under an agreement reached in a federal lawsuit today. The agreement between attorneys for ACORN and Zappala's office drops the district attorney from the lawsuit that challenges a state law barring use of quotas to pay voter registration canvassers. Under the three-page agreement filed today, Zappala agreed not to charge ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, with violations of the state law it is challenging. The agreement does not immediately affect pending...

In a major deal for the Pennsylvania snack foods industry, which is under pressure from national players and from America's increasingly ambivalent relationship with junk food, Snyder's of Hanover Inc. is buying crosstown rival Utz Quality Foods. Inc. The two family-owned companies were short on details in their announcement today, which is sure to unnerve residents of Hanover, Pa., where the two companies have five factories that are major employers.... The price was not disclosed. Snyder's, a pretzel maker founded in 1909, has plants in Indiana and Arizona, in addition to its flagship site in Hanover. The company employs 2,250....

Both the family and the Church stand in the way of socialism's triumph, former US Senator Rick Santorum told Christians gathered for the 17th International Week of Prayer and Fasting last week. The pro-life champion warned attendees, however, that both institutions are under heavy attack from Obama-administration policies. "We are under a great assault with this President and this Congress on the issue of life. We are under a great assault, maybe even greater assault, on the foundational issue of the family," Santorum told those gathered for the October 11 dinner at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Santorum said that the...

Police: Jewelry store owner's actions 'commendable' Daily Record/Sunday News Updated: 10/17/2009 02:05:26 PM EDT Two people attempting to rob a Shrewsbury jewelry store Friday night were chased away when the store owner fired a shot at one of them, according to Southern Regional Police. Chief James Childs said this morning that police will be looking at what Alexander's Jewelry owner Ken Zampier did, but said, "I think what he did was commendable," and described Zampier's actions as "sort of heroic." Police said Friday night that Zampier may have hit one of the people attempting to rob the store. The (Baltimore)...

A large trough is in place over the eastern U.S. and will remain so through this weekend allowing for it to be quite cold for this time of year. Temperatures will be averaging between 15 and 25 degrees below normal!

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of likely Democratic Primary Voters in Pennsylvania are not sure how they will vote when it comes time to select a Democratic Party nominee for governor in 2010. In this wide open setting, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato attracts 19% of the vote, while state Auditor Jack Wagner is the choice for 14%. Former Congressman Joe Hoeffel is preferred by 11%. Two other candidates pick up single digit support: Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty at six percent (6%) and businessman Tom Knox with four percent (4%).

NEW YORK – A mortgage fraud crackdown announced Thursday resulted in the arrests of dozens of people, including six lawyers, seven loan officers and three mortgage brokers in four states. Thirty-one people were arrested in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina. They were among 41 people charged with engaging in mortgage fraud scams that defrauded lenders out of more than $64 million in home mortgage loans. Of the 10 other defendants, one was expected to surrender later Thursday, four were previously charged and five remained at large. Authorities gathering for an afternoon news conference in Manhattan said the crackdown,...

Pennsylvania legislators may be relieved just to have a budget in place after a 101-day impasse, but one group of citizens wants to throw them out of office and start from scratch. A petition asks the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to invoke a provision of the state constitution to dissolve the General Assembly within 45 days and convene a constitutional convention to establish a new elective body. Proponents want to replace the current crew — 50 state senators and 203 house members — with a single chamber of no more than 70 members. Current assembly members would be barred from serving...

In last year’s presidential election, Barack Obama won 70 percent of the gay vote, John McCain just 27 percent. Does that kind of clearly dominant constituency — one that’s more politically-attuned than the rest of the electorate — come with any political obligation regarding gay rights? You bet it does, and this weekend Obama is acknowledging the debt. On the eve of Sunday’s National Equality March, expected to draw thousands to Washington, he’s addressing the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights group. ...Marriage and the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay men and women in uniform...

Dear Mr. XXX: Thank you for taking the time to contact me about the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). I appreciate hearing from all Pennsylvanians about the issues that matter most to them. ACORN is a network of community organizations dedicated to reducing poverty and empowering low-income people through direct action, negotiation and voter participation. In September 2009, a pair of amateur filmmakers released startling videos in which ACORN employees, unaware that they were being taped, appeared to encourage tax evasion and other illegal activities. The conduct in these videos is disturbing, and I believe the alleged...

With the state facing a dire economic situation and a continuing budget crisis, Rep. Stephen E. Barrar (R-Chester/Delaware) garnered passage of a measure to prohibit organizations under indictment, such as Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), from receiving state funding. “Pennsylvania cannot continue to provide state funding to organizations that are under investigations for criminal violations in a number of jurisdictions,” said Barrar. “We must ensure that recipients of taxpayer dollars are operating within the law, and they are using those dollars for their intended purpose.” Barrar’s amendment, which was approved in the House by a vote of...

Pennsylvania historians announced plans Tuesday to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with a statewide commemoration. "The Pennsylvania Civil War 150 commemoration is far more than a formal remembrance," said Barbara Franco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. "It is a collection of stories brought to life that are as epic as the fields of Gettysburg and as small as the struggles of a soldier's wife working to survive her husband's absence on a Pennsylvania farm." The early kickoff of the Civil War program is primarily a call for participation to state residents and historical...

Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R) raised more than $1.5 million in the last three months for his campaign against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.). The fundraising matches his haul during his first three months as a candidate and gives him a platform from which to run against Specter, who has a massive fortune of his own. Toomey, the former head of Club for Growth who narrowly lost to Specter in the 2004 Republican primary, will report raising more than $3.1 million since he announced his candidacy. The campaign has already surpassed the total number of donors it had during the 2004...

A new Quinnipiac University poll found Republican challenger Pat Toomey with a narrow lead over Sen. Arlen Specter. Statistically, the survey's trial race -- 43 percent for Mr. Toomey and 42 percent for the incumbent -- was essentially identical to the school's last survey in July, when Mr. Specter was ahead by the similarly tiny margin of 45 percent to 44 percent. Both results were well within the survey's 3 percentage point margin of error. But the reversal of their positions threw a symbolic spotlight on the veteran's vulnerability in the closely watched race. When he made his surprising departure...

Next week, investigative journalist and author Dr. Paul L. Williams will be tried in a foreign court for his investigative work on reports of al Qaeda terrorists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. But he broke no American statute and his alleged violation of Canadian law took place not in Canada, but at his home in Pennsylvania.

After World War II, the U.S. government invested an enormous amount of money in medicine; medical research, medical procedures and medical technologies. This investment made contemporary scientific medicine into American medicine, characterized by a continuing flow of new treatment possibilities. These advances raised all kinds of ethical questions. Some were personal and individual, others were social and political. Both type questions are addressed by a new academic discipline called bioethics. The first attempt to develop a scientific medicine took place in Greece in the 5th century B.C. It was called Hippocratic medicine. Closely linked with this first scientific medicine was...

Attorney General Tom Corbett (R) is the most well known of the candidates looking to replace the term-limited Gov. Ed Rendell (D), and therefore leads his potential opponents by wide margins, a new Quinnipiac survey finds (Sept. 21-28, 1100 RV, MoE +/- 3%).

It's time to impose economic sanctions on Iran in response to the regime's secret nuclear program, says U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. But more analysis is needed before deciding if additional U.S. combat troops should be sent to Afghanistan, Casey said during a meeting Monday with the Pocono Record editorial board. The U.S. should lead an international economic embargo on goods to Iran, said Casey. This follows the Obama Administration's announcement last week that a secret Iranian nuclear installation has been photographed by American intelligence. "I think we've got to consider some sanctions," Casey said. "If not for the effect,...

Members of Congress know all they need to enact effective health care reform and shouldn't delay, U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa., said Monday during an interview with the Pocono Record editorial board. "The idea this is complicated is a myth," Casey said. "We know what works and what doesn't work. We just haven't got over the hump of 'You have to do this, insurance companies.' This idea of sitting around and studying this and scratching our heads is ridiculous." Casey's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has approved a health bill that calls for universal coverage, requires insurance...

Sen. Arlen Specter isn't inconsistent -- he merely follows the political winds, no matter how they're blowing. His latest shift: He now wants to help labor bosses start more unions. As a liberal Republican in 2007, Specter backed the Employee Free Choice Act, a cynically named bill labor was pushing because it would ban secret ballots, making it harder for coerced workers to resist organizing drives. Then, feeling heat from the right -- in the form of a primary challenge -- Specter decided it best to oppose the bill, and quickly flip-flopped. Sponsored Links But then the winds shifted yet...

I called Casey's office yesterday after the ACORN defunding vote tally was made known. I left a message telling them I want a callback explaining why Casey voted the way he did to fun a corrupt organization like ACORN after many tapes were release showing them setting up brothels. BOR had the Gang of 7 on last night as did Beck, and today when I called (as I will be calling every day until I get an answer), the message said that the voicemail of nearly every office I called was full. Keep calling! Hold them accountable! ****** Washington D.C....

A conservative television and radio host who called President Barack Obama a racist will be performing at the State Theatre in Easton, despite an NAACP request the event be canceled. Merrill Fennell, president of the NAACP's Easton, PA branch, made the request in an Aug. 24 letter. He cited Glenn Beck's penchant for race baiting.

Dr. Anna Chacko is currently the head of radiology at the Pittsburgh VA Hospital. Dr. Chacko manages the radiology department as a tyrant, an incompetent, and she has created a culture of fear throughout the department. That's not me saying this. In fact, according to my sources, that's the testimony of six of the fourteen radiologists in the department that she runs this past March as part of an investigative board that was convened to determine if she should be removed. At this board, members of the radiology department testified that Dr. Chacko routinely spreads lies about members of radiology...

August 30, 2009 The week of August 31, I will be hosting three public forums to discuss the Affordable Health Choices Act, the Senate's Health Care Bill. Details for each forum are below. Please plan to come early. Doors will open an hour before each event and seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Public Forum #1: Monday, August 31 at 10:30 am Erie County Public Library H.O. Hirt Auditorium 160 East Front Street Erie, Pennsylvania Doors open to the public at 9:30 am. Seating is first-come, first-served. Public Forum #2: Tuesday, September 1 at 10:00 am Community College...

One night last August, John Murtha, the U.S. Representative from PennsylvaniaÂ’s Twelfth Congressional District, paid a visit to the LBK Game Ranch, a private hunting camp in the hills above his home city of Johnstown. About 60 people had gathered in the ranchÂ’s lodge--a luxury five-bedroom log cabin decorated with deer antlers and flat-screen televisions--to raise money for his 2008 campaign. There were two odd things about the event. One was that the host was a former drug dealer. Bill Kuchera, a stocky man with a balding pate and a bristle-brush mustache, had run a bar near Johnstown in the...

Need help. Our cowardly Democrap Congressman is having a telephone thing Monday. I want to ask him about the exemption for himself and other government employees built in to the bill. I am unable to download the entire text in PDF form. Could one of you FReepers please tell me which section of the bill covers this exemption, and what is the exact language used? Thanks so much.

Take it from those who have been there: Prison life is hard on people who need to be in control. Especially politicians accustomed to giving orders, cutting deals, spending millions - and getting their way. Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo is due to report to federal prison tomorrow, assigned to serve his 55-month sentence at a low-security institution in Ashland, Ky. His attorneys have fought that, wanting Fumo placed closer to family in Philadelphia. What's definite, experts say, is that prisons specialize in turning people like Fumo from kings to peasants. In free society, his dominion included four homes,...

PHILADELPHIA – A former Pennsylvania state senator convicted on fraud charges is scheduled to report to federal prison in Kentucky on Monday. Sixty-six-year-old Vincent Fumo has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for defrauding the Senate and two nonprofits of several million dollars. ... The 66-year-old Fumo was a wealthy Democratic power broker during a 30-year state Senate career.

Dear Friend, Recently the Congressional Rural Caucus, of which I am a member, sent a letter to the President urging him to personally visit rural areas during the Administration's rural tour this month in order to gain a first-hand understanding of the real need for a White House Office of Rural Policy. In the letter, the Caucus also requested a meeting with top White House officials to share bipartisan information about the many issues of specific importance to constituents in rural districts. Small towns and rural communities are the heart and soul of this country. Our rural and agricultural towns...

Exactly 447 years to the day that St. Teresa of Jesus founded the first convent of the Carmelite reform, a solemn Mass and blessing of the enclosure of a new Carmelite community took place at the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Elysburg. The community of 11 Discalced Carmelite nuns arrived from Valparaiso, Neb., in April and came to the Diocese of Harrisburg due to a constant increase of vocations.... Father Joseph Howard of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, who will serve as chaplain at the monastery, celebrated the Mass. Those present included Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, Msgr....

STROUDSBURG — Congress will pass health care reform that includes a government-run program to compete with private insurance, Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., predicted Wednesday morning. Specter told a friendly audience of Monroe County Democratic activists that the so-called public option is the only way to prevent profiteering by private insurance companies. The public option is the most controversial element of proposals to provide health insurance for the estimated 45 million Americans without it.

Just got a robocall from his office this evening (Aug 24)...... Altmire Invites Constituents to Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform on August 26 August 18, 2009(???) (PITTSBURGH, PA) -- Today, U.S. Congressman Jason Altmire (PA-04) announced that he will hold a town hall meeting on health care reform in Farrell on Wednesday, August 26 at 4:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the auditorium at Farrell Area High School, located at 1600 Roemer Boulevard in Farrell, PA. Doors will open at 4 pm. If anyone knows applicable town meeting sites could you please post this there. BTW,...

When it comes to municipal pension plans, Pennsylvania is king. Pennsylvania has four times more pension funds than any other state, and more than one-fourth of all the municipal pension plans in the country, according to the Public Employee Retirement Commission, an agency that advises the Legislature on pension issues and oversees the soundness of local plans. The number of local plans is growing by about 30 a year. Most of the 3,100 retirement systems, for police, firefighters or nonuniformed workers, are small. That's costly for members and taxpayers. Of 2,462 that reported administrative expenses, the cost was $36 million,...

The new set of nuns has moved from Nebraska to inhabit the Elysburg Monastery, which had been home to a revered group of Carmelite nuns who moved to Danville in January 2008.... ...Mother Stella expressed the nuns' happiness and excitement in living in the Elysburg community. "We are very privileged to be able to come back and open this monastery," she said, noting the close bond the nuns have formed with former Elysburg Carmelites, who are now referred to as the Danville Carmelites.... At the chapel, an Extraordinary, or Latin Mass, will be celebrated Monday through Friday at 7 a.m....

Activists affiliated with several dozen groups on the east coast will again descend on the Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia at 2:00 pm on Saturday, September 12, 2009. A protest on May 2, 2009 at the Army’s interactive video recruiting center was attended by 250 people and saw 7 arrests, but failed to generate mainstream print media coverage. This time, demonstrators are being encouraged to form small affinity groups and enter the mall through one of several locations. Protesters are encouraged to express their outrage in creative, nonviolent ways. At 2:00 pm people will come...

This is a police report done by then Lieutenant Ivan Hooper of the Pennsylvania State Troopers.. ( Part II here) It is a police report that should have finally brought to an end a nightmare that lasted nearly ten years for Dr. Jim Singer. That's because this report confirmed everything that Dr. Singer had been saying for nearly ten years not only about a case of child abuse but systemic corruption at all levels of Pennsylvania government that tried to cover it up. Instead, following the release of this report much of the political help that Mr. Singer received from...

The oil boom that began 150 years ago in this small northwestern Pennsylvania town changed the world and made countless people rich, but not the man who found the way to successfully extract black gold from the earth.

US healthcare reforms cause outrage and fears of a 'socialist state' Imre Karacs, Kittanning, Pennsylvania The retired coal miner queuing in the midday sun has come to the town hall meeting with heavy political baggage. “I’ll keep my money and guns — you keep the change,” warns the badge pinned to Carl Anderson’s chest. In his hand is a banner that states simply: “Revolution is Brewing.” He is here to protest against health reform. Mr Anderson, 70, has travelled 65 miles with seven of his friends and family to add his booming voice to the pensioners’ revolt that has shaken...

Sen. Arlen Specter might have greater worries than receiving rancorous receptions at town hall meetings. A Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday shows the Democrat trailing Republican Pat Toomey by 12 points in next year's Senate race. The survey indicates that a majority of Pennsylvania voters view Specter unfavorably. "I was staggered by the low base of support that Sen. Specter received," said Scott Rasmussen, president of the New Jersey-based independent polling firm. "It did not surprise me that his numbers were down, but I was blown away by the extent of the drop." The poll, an automated telephone survey of...

got an opportunity to speak with Pat Toomey, former Congressman and president of the Club for Growth, who will run for the US Senate against either incumbent Arlen Specter or Rep. Joe Sestak. Toomey talks about the broad appeal of economic freedom, and how he routinely attracted Democrats to his banner in a working-class Congressional district. Find out the shocking thing Toomey did as a politician, and don’t forget to visit his campaign website and read his new book, The Road to Prosperity: How to Grow Our Economy and Revive the American Dream.

The back-and-forth between Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter and several attendees of a town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pa., this week may become the lasting political symbol of the summer of 2009: a politician and his constituents standing inches away from one another, angrily debating the merits (or lack thereof) of President Obama's health-care reform plan.

Poverty in Our Cities. City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level 1. Detroit , MI 32.5% 2. Buffalo , NY 29.9% 3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8% 4. Cleveland , OH 27.0% 5. Miami , FL 26.9% 6. St. Louis , MO 26.8% 7. El Paso , TX 26.4% 8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2% 9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1% 10. Newark , NJ 24.2% U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007 What do the top ten cities (over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common? Detroit , MI (1st on the poverty rate list)...

MILFORD — A gathering of concerned residents wanting to voice their opinion on universal healthcare turned into a confrontation that had everything to do with First Amendment rights and little to do with healthcare. http://pikecountypress.com/wordpress/2009/08/05/carney%e2%80%99s-rep-hammered-in-pike/

HARRISBURG -- State workers will have to wait another week to be paid for days they've worked since July 1, but House Democratic lawmakers have checks in hand. They paid themselves first. Their paychecks were issued Tuesday as they voted on a $27.3 billion budget, which Gov. Ed Rendell today chopped to $11 billion through line-items vetoes. He left intact funding for items including public safety, state parks and employees' pay. Some 77,000 state workers will have to wait a week or more for their checks to be processed, while lawmakers have their money. The money was available even before...

Lawmakers pay themselves first But state workers must wait another week to get paid Thursday, August 06, 2009 By Tracie Mauriello, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau HARRISBURG -- State workers will have to wait another week to be paid for days they have worked since July 1, but House Democratic lawmakers have checks in hand. They paid themselves first. Their paychecks were issued Tuesday as they voted on a $27.3 billion budget, which Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday chopped to $11 billion through line-items vetoes. He left intact funding for such items as public safety, state parks and employees' pay. Some 77,000 state...