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During a drive between the Mon Valley towns of McKeesport and Elizabeth, a man named Ray was overheard calling into a local radio station to talk about the subject of the hour: November's presidential election. The first thing he said is that he is a Democrat who voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Pressed by the talk-show host, he said he would not vote for Obama this time. The rest of Ray's answer was not unique or remarkable: Yes, he is a union member. Yes, he wanted Obama to succeed. And, yes, he is very disappointed after giving the president...

C-SPAN's coverage of the 39th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) continues Friday with speeches by the leading presidential candidates and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. The three top GOP candidates for the Republican nomination -- former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum -- are taking a break from the campaign trial to address attendees. Rep. Ron Paul was invited to speak but will instead continue campaigning.

Pa. GOP Voters Quit Gingrich For Santorum By Debra Erdley, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW February 9, 2012 A Tribune-Review/WPXI-TV poll conducted Feb. 2-6 shows the former senator was gaining strength among Pennsylvania Republicans even before this week's victories in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota that threaten to shake up the GOP presidential contest. The statewide poll of 500 Republicans showed Santorum's support more than doubled from 14 percent six weeks ago to 30 percent, putting him in a statistical dead heat with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who increased his support to 29 percent from 18 percent. Santorum's gain was former House Speaker...

The odd creature was discovered by Percy and Connie Emert in Jeresey Shore, PA on Sunday. “We have bird feeders out in our yard, and the squirrels are constantly into them,” Connie told Accuweather.com. “My husband traps them and then sets them free elsewhere so they don’t get into your bird feeders.” She said she had seen the little creature on the property before, but no one would believe her. “I kept telling my husband I saw a purple one out in the yard. ‘Oh sure you did’ he kept telling me,” she added. “Well, he checked the trap around...

Something tells me that the University of Pennsylvania is not in the toy business. Got to see this!

Experiments performed with a team of nano quadrotors at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. Vehicles developed by KMel Robotics. Special thanks to Professor Daniel Lee for his support.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The old newsreel videos of the Johnstown Flood of 1936 are certainly terrifying as residents flee the rising river. The aftermath left a city destroyed with 30,000 homeless. With such carnage apparent, Pennsylvania enacted the Johnstown Flood Tax, a tax on every bottle of alcohol purchased in the state. It was enacted to rebuild the city. “By 1942, they had sufficient funds to rebuild the city,” says State Rep. Jim Marshall, R-Beaver Falls. “And yet the tax continued.” “It continued and it was even expanded,” he says. And that’s the rub. Nearly 70 years after Johnstown was...

‘Call in the Guard:’ Retired Judge Congressional candidate says Philly needs military action to help curb crime By Catherine Brown | Tuesday, Jan 31, 2012 | Updated 7:24 PM EST ‘Call in the Guard:’ Retired Judge Retired Judge Jimmie Moore wants to call in the National Guard to deal with violent crime in Philadelphia. Former Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore wants to call in the National Guard to support Philadelphia’s crime fighting efforts. Moore announced last year that he is a candidate for the First Congressional District seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D). In a campaign press...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - The state capitol was the scene of two events promoting distinctly different ways of changing the way Pennsylvania’s presidential electoral votes are awarded. Actor and former Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson is part of a bi-partisan effort to create a compact agreement among states to award all of their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, no matter who wins the state vote for president.

One teen is dead and another is wounded after they were shot by a man who authorities say acted in self-defense. It happened on a trail along the Schuylkill River in Berks County. Police say three teens confronted the man who was riding his bike along the trail in Cumru Township. The teens knocked him off the bike and assaulted him and that's when he pulled out a gun and shot them. One of the teens died and another was hurt. Police took the third teen and the man in for questioning. They released the man and took the other...

Akron, Ohio, January 26, 2012 — FirstEnergy Corp. generation subsidiaries will retire six older coal-fired power plants located in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland by September 1, 2012. The decision to close the power plants is based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which were recently finalized, and other environmental regulations. The total capacity of the competitive plants that will be retired is 2,689 MW. Recently, these plants served mostly as peaking or intermediate facilities, generating, on average, about 10 percent of the electricity produced by the company over the past three years. The following plants...

The (Pa) House Committee on State Government, yesterday, Jan. 24, voted overwhelmingly to send to the House floor a bill that would cut representation in Harrisburg. The bill, HB 153, would cut the number of representatives in the State House from 203 to 153. It would leave the membership of the state Senate unchanged at 50. The bill would also mandate that counties, municipalities and wards not be divided in forming a senatorial or representative district which would about the only bright side of this wealth and power grab. The argument for the bill is to cut cost since the...

On February 7, Governor Tom Corbett will deliver his annual budget address to a joint session of the Pennsylvania House and Senate. In addition to spelling out his budget plan for the year, this annual tradition provides the governor with a platform to identify his legislative priorities. Help us encourage the governor to make the Property Tax Independence Act his top priority by signing the online petition on my website. We want to show the governor that this issue deserves his attention and support as he outlines his agenda for 2012. To help us achieve this goal, we are collecting...

Rick Santorum said he would be pleased with a third-place finish in South Carolina Saturday but vowed to stay in the presidential race through the Florida primary no matter what. He also blasted his "desperate" rival Mitt Romney for perpetrating "cheap stuff" as Mr. Romney's position as front runner here melted away the past week... "We finally were given the victory in Iowa," Mr. Santorum said. "If we had had it two weeks ago, it might be a very different situation. It might have been a very different race." Mr. Santorum also said he was disappointed in Mr. Romney after...

With the field of Republican candidates down to four, GOP voters trickled to the polls on the first day of early voting in South Florida with plenty of opinions about their choice to challenge President Barack Obama in November. Many said they were deciding between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in what has been a rollercoaster race. Romney is ahead in Florida, with more than 40 percent of GOP supporters, followed by Gingrich with 22 percent, Sen. Rick Santorum with 15 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 9 percent, according to an average...

The Allentown Morning Call reported on Twitter at 8:50 p.m. that former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno died tonight at the age of 85. The newspaper said football players received an email confirming the former coach's death.

Joe Paterno has died at the age of 85

Joe Paterno, the man who for decades was synonymous with Penn State football and was known by the college football world as just "JoePa", has died. Paterno, 85, had been receiving chemotherapy as part of his treatment for lung cancer, and complications from that treatment claimed the longtime Penn State coach's life on Saturday. Paterno was the head coach of Penn State for 46 seasons before being fired in November as his role in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal came under greater scrutiny. Combined with the time he spent as an assistant, Paterno spent a total of 61...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (CBS Cleveland/AP) — Former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno died Saturday night from lung cancer at the age of 85, Onward State, the student-run university website, reports. The winningest major college football coach of all time, Paterno was diagnosed shortly after Penn State’s Board of Trustees ousted him Nov. 9 in the aftermath of the child sex abuse charges against former assistant Jerry Sandusky. Paterno was getting treatment since, and his health problems worsened when he broke his pelvis — an injury that first cropped up when he was accidentally hit in preseason practice last...

Legendary former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is gravely ill and his family is rushing to State College to be by his side, his family has confirmed According to Onward State, Paterno was taken off of a respirator earlier today. However, the Paterno family has not confirmed that report.Facebook and Twitter are flooded with students and fans saying that they are praying for Joe and for the Paterno family. “Over the last few days Joe Paterno has experienced further health complications,” spokesman Dan McGinn said in a brief statement Saturday to The Associated Press. “His doctors have now characterized...

Joe Paterno, Division I's all-time winningest coach who was fired by Penn State in November, has experienced further complications from treatment from lung cancer and is in "serious" condition, a family spokesman said in a statement Saturday. "Over the last few days Joe Paterno has experienced further health complications," a Paterno family spokesman said Saturday. "His doctors have now characterized his status as serious. His family will have no comment on the situation and asks that their privacy be respected during this difficult time." The 85-year old Paterno has been battling lung cancer. A source told The Citizens' Voice on...

A six-term Pennsylvania congressman said Tuesday he would not seek a seventh term, calling himself a believer in term limits. Republican U.S. Rep. Todd Platts said he planned to “remain an engaged servant of the people” through the end of the year. Platts, 49, said he has sponsored bills that would have capped terms at 12 years since he arrived in Congress in 2001. His south-central Pennsylvania district is reliably Republican, and Platts, a York native, was a formidable campaigner, thanks to a dedicated cadre of family, friends and other longtime supporters. Platts’ district includes York and Adams counties and...

U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York, announced this afternoon he will not seek a seventh term in office. During his time in office, Platts developed a reputation as a political moderate, who strongly supported the military and veterans. He routinely advocated more transparent government. In 2010, Esquire magazine named him one of the top-10 members of Congress. In the last year, Platts has drawn fire from the York 912 Patriots, a Tea Party group that criticized Platts for supporting the bank bailouts and the stimulus program. Platts, 49, is stepping away before a new district map for the state goes into...

We’ll see if a rough debate or a stumble in South Carolina derail the Romney train, but so far, he’s on path for a big, big win at the end of the month in Florida: Two weeks away from the Presidential Preference Primary, Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead over the Republican presidential pack in Florida, according to a Sunshine State News Poll of likely primary voters. Romney tops the poll, which was conducted by Harrisburg, Pa.-based Voter Survey Service (VSS), with 46 percent. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich places a distant second with 20 percent. Former U.S. Sen....

SHELBURNE, Vt. — Richard Ketchum, a historian, writer and editor who co-founded a magazine about country living and wrote 17 books, has died. He was 89. Ketchum died Thursday at the Wake Robin retirement community in Shelburne. Ketchum wrote 17 books, six of which focused on the American Revolution, including "Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War," and "Winter Soldiers." After moving to Vermont for good in 1974 with his wife, Ketchum co-founded Blair & Ketchum's Country Journal, written for people who had moved to rural areas after growing tired of hectic city and suburban life.

Jon Huntsman was endorsed by Columbia, S.C.'s The State newspaper on Sunday. The endorsement comes less than a week before the South Carolina primary and comes as Huntsman quickly tries to gain traction in the Palmetto state. The State's endorsement is actually similar to what happened just before the New Hampshire primary: Mitt Romney's hometown paper, The Boston Globe, backed Huntsman in a long editorial in which it compared Romney with the former Utah governor. Like the Globe endorsement, The State praised both Romney and Huntsman but said Huntsman was the better candidate. "There are actually two sensible, experienced grownups," The...

Philadelphia weatherman John Bolaris lost $43,712.25, his job and, arguably, his dignity from one fateful trip to Miami Beach.

With Newt Gingrich breaking out of the pack as the conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney in South Carolina, he came under attack Friday from an old friend and colleague in Congress, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Santorum had largely avoided political attacks against Gingrich, whom he once considered a political mentor. But on Friday, the glove came off as Santorum took the former House speaker to task for being insufficiently conservative on climate change, free markets and health care. "Conservative alternatives don't go out and attack the capitalist system as he has done. Conservative alternatives don't promote...

ATLANTA -- As the GOP races settles into South Carolina, Mitt Romney isn’t enjoying the double-digit lead he held in New Hampshire, according to a survey conducted Wednesday night. The former Massachusetts governor’s lead is so small in the Palmetto State that he’s essentially tied with Newt Gingrich, according to a poll for the Savannah Morning News and the Augusta Chronicle conducted by InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research. Romney’s 23 percent and Gingrich’s 21 fall within the 3.6 percent margin of error. Rick Santorum, who came in second in the Iowa caucus is in third place in South Carolina with 14 percent,...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency abruptly changed its mind Saturday about delivering fresh water to residents of a northeastern Pennsylvania village where residential wells were found to be tainted by a natural gas drilling operation. Only 24 hours after promising them water, EPA officials informed residents of Dimock that a tanker truck wouldn't be coming after all -- an about-face that left them furious, confused and let down -- and, once again, scrambling for water for bathing, washing dishes and flushing toilets. Agency officials would not explain why they reneged on their promise, or say whether water...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Residents of a northeastern Pennsylvania village where a natural gas driller has been accused of tainting water wells with methane and possibly hazardous chemicals say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is promising to deliver fresh water. Homeowners in Dimock Township have been without a reliable supply of clean water since Houston-based driller Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. stopped making daily deliveries more than a month ago. Three Dimock residents say the EPA told them Friday it's hiring a private contractor to deliver water to their homes about 20 miles south of the New York state line....

In Iowa, in the days leading up to the caucus, one political radio spot was particularly ubiquitous: a game-show-style ad from the Perry campaign that blasted Rick Santorum’s earmark history. When the announcer in the ad asks which GOP contender supported the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, “Susie from Des Moines” answers, “Santorum.” “Correct!” the announcer bellows. “Santorum voted for the Bridge to Nowhere and a highway bill full of pork.” Perry’s campaign isn’t the only one ready to jump on Santorum’s earmark record. Sen. John McCain said in a CNN interview yesterday, e-mailed by the Romney camp to reporters, that...

“This is not a time for us to shrink. This is a time for us to have bold colors, not pale pastels.” -- Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum campaigning at the Rockingham County Nursing Home in Brentwood, N.H. It doesn’t look like Mitt Romney could lose New Hampshire, but then again, he can’t really win it either. Even a 20-point landslide by Romney in New Hampshire would be instantly discounted as merely meeting expectations for the former governor of the neighboring state who keeps a summer home there. The only way Romney could make news in New Hampshire would be...

As a supporter of Sarah Palin before her decision last October 5 not to run for President, I have been casting about for a candidate who might fill the void left by her departure. Last night, I believe Providence answered my prayer with a thunderclap from the Hawkeye state and the emergence of Rick Santorum as the "not-Romney" candidate. Let me say at the outset that I have tremendous respect for Newt Gingrich and I fervently hope that he and Santorum can form some sort of entente cordiale against the common foe....Mitt Romney. Gingrich has already made an overture in...

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch on Monday urged Iowans to back firebrand social conservative Rick Santorum, one day before they cast the first votes of the 2012 White House race. "Can't resist this tweet, but all Iowans think about Rick Santorum. Only candidate with genuine big vision for country," Murdoch, 80, said on his official Twitter feed on the eve of the heartland state's nominating caucuses. Santorum has surged into third place in recent days on the strength of his take-no-prisoners social conservative ideology and seemed poised for a strong finish in the largely symbolic first-in-the-nation ballot.

--SNIP-- Miles was beaten nearly to death by three Pittsburgh police officers who say they mistook a bottle of MountainDew in Miles’ pocket for a gun ... The cops claimed they confronted Miles because a neighbor had complained that the music student with no criminal record was skulking about her property. That neighbor denies ever making such a complaint. The cops also say Miles should have known they were cops, and say he’s responsible for his own beating for fleeing them. Miles is suing. Which brings us to the update: In response to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by...

Liberal talk show host Alan Colmes sunk to new a new low when he said on Fox News that former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum took his deceased baby home to 'play with it.' Noting that the GOP has "speed-dated" every other candidate, Colmes said voters should "get a load" of what he called the "crazy things" Santorum has said and done. "Like taking his two-hour old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple hours so his other children would know it was real, I mean..." At this point, Fox News contributor Rich Lowry...

Another audience member questioned the candidate about Santorum awarding former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky with the Angels in Adoption Award. Santorum explained that he lacked knowledge of the situation at the time and noted that the award has since been withdrawn. In response to his explanation, the audience member asked, "So we shouldn't trust Obama with our kids, but we can trust you?"

DES MOINES, IOWA — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is in town today to be a walking Daisy ad on behalf of his father, Ron. His main target: the surging Rick Santorum. On Iowa talk radio this morning, Rand took after Santorum with a line of attack reminiscent of that infamous Lyndon Johnson dig at Barry Goldwater. In short, Rand asked, is Santorum the kind of guy you want with his finger on the button? The line came in response to a question about Ron Paul’s foreign policy, which has given many in the pro-Israel right pause. They worry that Paul...

ATLANTIC, IOWA — Rick Santorum really has arrived, it seems. After meeting with voters in a diner here Sunday, Mitt Romney hosted a rare press conference where he was more than happy to take Santorum on in the way he has other surging candidates in the past. It’s a sign that Santorum’s surging poll numbers have caught the attention of Romney, who’s pushing hard to win here in Iowa, a state he wasn’t able to win during his 2008 White House run. Anecdotal evidence suggests some voters are choosing between the two men — three undecided Iowans I talked to...

In May of 2011 I watched the Kentucky Derby with my wife. ...A horse who had never raced on dirt, or finished first in any major race, ridden by a last minute replacement jockey, with 20-1 odds against it - not even considered in the top tier by many "experts"- won the most exciting Kentucky Derby in years! I later used the race in an article to describe the possibility of Rick Santorum emerging as a leader in the field of contenders for the Republican nomination for President. Back then, most people thought I was engaging in what is called...

Check out this amazing image from Rick Perry's ad, instructing voters to believe in... Mitt Romney??? I was arguing on FR that Perry always seems to attack Romney's rivals, but never Romney. Apparently, Romney learned from McCain that to win the primary, you have to get a tool to attack your enemies FOR you. But I figured before making the assertion that Perry doesn't attack Romney, I'd better confirm what 1,000 bloggers have previously complained about. I did quickly find an ad from Perry attacking Romney, but was amazed at what I found. The video ends with the question, "Change...

National Review Editor Rich Lowry and Liberal commentator Alan Colmes clashed on Fox News Monday when Lowry interjected to rebuke Colmes’ criticism of the way Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and his wife handled the death of their infant newborn Gabriel, who lived for only two hours in 1996. “I even think some of the dastardly characters we have in the main stream media are not going to go as low as you just have Alan,” Lowry said at one point. The heated rhetoric began early on in the segment when Colmes said undecided voters will ultimately not stick with...

In Monday afternoon Fox News interview, ex-Alaska Guv praises Santorum again and adds "Donald Trump has a lot to offer." Palin: "I did praise Rick Santorum and I'll praise him again...

"Once they get a hold of the crazy things he's said and done like taking his two-hour old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real," Democratic commentator Alan Colmes said on FOX News today. "That's a cheap shot, Alan. To say it's crazy, something that's that personal and hurtful as losing a child and to mock it like that is beyond the pale and beneath you," Colmes' conservative opponent Rich Lowry said after the personal attack. “I even think some...

In what seems to becoming a trend, MSNBC's partisan hosts are going on the trail in Iowa not to observe the Republican presidential candidates, but to question them as if they were a campaign embed or a reporter without bias. Consider the following. Last week MSNBC's liberal stalwart Ed Schultz followed rising candidate Rick Santorum, a strong social conservative, in Iowa for a few days. Chris Matthews, an admitted Obama supporter and Newt Gingrich hater, caught the candidate off guard in Iowa yesterday to ask him about PAC money among other topics. If you recall, last year Matthews said Gingrich...

With less than 48 hours until Iowans kick off the GOP caucuses, a crowd of California lawmakers have joined Steve Forbes, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and other supporters making a final push for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. California Assemblymembers Dan Logue, Shannon Grove, Brian Jones and Curt Hagman have all hit the ground in the Hawkeye State Iowa Monday, ready for duty. Logue, in a phone interview, just told us that “Iowa is going to do well for Perry — and this is just the first step of many steps.”

InsiderAdvantage's latest poll numbers, completed Sunday night, find the following shape-up for the Iowa caucuses Tuesday: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — 23 percent Texas Rep. Ron Paul — 22 percent Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum — 18 percent Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — 16 percent Texas Gov. Rick Perry — 10 percent Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann — 6 percent Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman — 2 percent Other — 1 percent Undecided — 2 percent The poll was completed Sunday night after the Des Moines Register poll of 729 Iowa Republicans likely to vote Tuesday and has a...

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa--Here's where we stand in the final day before the caucuses. According to the latest survey from Public Policy Polling, it looks like a statistical dead heat between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum for the top slot in the state. With a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, Romney leads with 19 percent, followed by Paul with 18 percent and Santorum with 17 percent...

With just over 24 hours before the Iowa caucuses, Texas Governor Rick Perry's campaign has produced a blistering web video highlighting former Senator Rick Santorum's passion for pork and his history as a big government big spender. The 60 second spot also draws the comparison between Mr. Santorum and 2008's Candidate Barack Obama - both in favor of wasteful spending and neither with any executive experience - the ad describes them as too close for comfort.