Free Republic

ABC’s Modern Family actor Ed O’Neill says he plans to give back his honorary doctorate degree to Youngstown State University in protest of the school hiring former Republican congressman Bill Johnson as its new president. “I was so disappointed when I heard about this decision,” O’Neill told MSNBC. “He’s a polarizing guy, an election denier. He’s not the biggest fan of the gay community. He’s anti-choice. He’s just a polarizing, far right-wing fanatical guy.” O’Neill, who is from Youngstown, Ohio, also criticized Johnson for supporting former President Donald Trump after the 45th president was indicted, saying, “It’s crazy.”

Hillary Clinton likened Donald Trump's rally in Ohio last weekend to Adolf Hitler courting Nazis, a comparison that drew a sharp rebuke from a spokesman for the former president. "I remember as a young student, you know, trying to figure out, how people get basically brought in by Hitler. How did that happen? I'd watch newsreels and I'd see this guy standing up there ranting and raving, and people shouting and raising their arms. I thought, 'What's happened to these people?'" Clinton said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. "You saw the rally in Ohio the other night, Trump...

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said he prayed for Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) to win their 2021 runoffs so people would more readily believe claims of election fraud. Lindell made the remark while speaking to a crowd at former President Trump’s Youngstown, Ohio, rally on Saturday, according to a clip posted online by Mediaite. “All of a sudden, I started praying,” said Lindell. “I go, ‘God, please let them take both of these senators.’ ” Lindell on Saturday said Democrats would have been “smart” to win only one of the two Georgia seats, because some Republicans may...

LIVESTREAM AUDIO WILL BEGIN WHEN PRESIDENT TRUMP ARRIVES. President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, Delivers Remarks in Youngstown, Ohio on Saturday, September 17, 2022, at 7:00PM EDT.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – A traveling group of supporters of former President Donald Trump has been camping out at the Covelli Centre ahead of Saturday’s rally. They came from all over — Indiana, Tennessee, Connecticut, Florida and near Cleveland. Some have been in Youngstown since early this week. “We come and hang out so we can get a good place in line,” said Sharon Anderson, of Tennessee. Anderson is part of a group called the “Front Row Joes.” They head to the former president’s rallies early to tailgate, in a sense. What you need to know: Trump in Youngstown “We...

President Donald Trump will join GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio Saturday. Trump will travel to Youngstown, Ohio where he will appear with Vance at an event on Sept. 17, 2022. Vance was endorsed by Trump early in his primary campaign and is running in the Ohio Senate race against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio., who currently serves in the state's 13th Congressional District.

Democratic lawmakers want to increase voter drop box access throughout the state of Ohio, proposing to install hundreds of boxes for future elections. State Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, and Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, believe the additional drop boxes will make voting more convenient for Ohioans seeking to cast absentee ballots. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who oversees Ohio elections, restricted each county to having one drop box apiece during the 2020 General Election — and is directing the 88 county boards of elections to follow the same rule in the upcoming May election. House Bill 209 would significantly increase the...

YOUNGSTOWN — An East Palestine man is jailed in connection with more than a dozen religious statues vandalized at the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, in what Diocese of Youngstown Bishop David Bonnar described as a senseless act. Police Friday afternoon arrested the 20-year-old in connection with a felony count of vandalism for the early morning incident. After the damage was reported, two patrol officers recalled dealing Thursday morning with a suspicious man in two car break-ins on East Commerce Street, a short distance from the church, said Capt. Rod Foley, chief of detectives. That man was...

YOUNGSTOWN, Pennsylvania — The morning after the night before, and the line for the Trump House is 75 strong. Most were at the previous night’s rally to see President Trump fly in on Air Force One and are rounding off their visit to this corner of Pennsylvania with pictures in front of the red, white, and blue building, posing for selfies with the 14-foot figure of Trump, and collecting a free hat and yard sign in the crowded interior. Others will take down a form from the bins on the wall and, with help from owner Leslie Rossi, 49, register...

In 2016, Donald Trump handily beat Hillary Clinton in the Buckeye State. As commentator George Will noted, for quite some time, the GOP presidential strategy was to win the south, the Midwest, the West, and then spend the equivalent of the GDP of Brazil to win Ohio. There are stories about George Bush knowing that his second term hinged on him winning Ohio, which he did. Barack Obama changed all of that. Yet, public opinion shifts like the tides. Trump won Florida outright, a state that has many worrying about the competitiveness of the GOP in national elections due to...

Today, Google announced that Youngstown, Ohio, will be the first city in its Compass Experiment, a joint venture with newspaper publishing company McClatchy to revive local news. The announcement couldn't be more timely, as Youngstown's long standing publication The Vindicator will close its doors on August 31st. The Compass Experiment, part of the Google News Initiative, aims to develop sustainable business models for local news organizations. It plans to launch digital platforms in three mid-sized communities, with the Youngstown site going live this fall. In addition to covering local news, Compass will test a variety of revenue models. The goal...

OUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Police were stationed outside a fireworks business' corporate offices in Youngstown, Ohio, for hours after two bomb threats were called into Phantom Fireworks. The threats were made just hours after a tweet from President Trump, according to NBC affiliate WFMJ. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump Thanks to “Phantom Fireworks” and “Fireworks by Grucci" for their generosity in donating the biggest fireworks show Washington D.C. has ever seen. CEO's Bruce Zoldan and Phil Grucci are helping to make this the greatest 4th of July celebration in our Nations history!

The list of daily newspapers that have shut down grows more rapidly by the year, not to mention those that have had massive layoffs. Monday, another of America's oldest dailies, the Vindicator, which serves Youngstown, Ohio, said its last edition would be on Aug. 31. The paper had just celebrated its 150th anniversary. The local television station reported that 144 people will lose their jobs. The Vindicator was of modest size by daily newspaper standards. It claimed 100,000 online and newspaper readers. Like many papers, it has been owned by a family. Due to unsustainable losses, the Maag-Browns could not...

YOUNGSTOWN -- There is a house I see every so often in my travels. It is perched where the alabaster 33-mile marker stands along the long-defunct Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad line, by an old stone foundation that has likely stood for over a century. Every year, ivy and wild vines suffocate its simple charm, climbing up and over its slanted gingerbread slate roof on its right side, the one that faces Cedar Street. And every year, it loses one more shingle and sheds more luster from its ancient apricot-colored paint. In the back of its sloped property, a smaller...

Ohio district says it will stop allowing white students to leave district, citing 'racial balance' An Ohio school district with a growing proportion of minority students says it will stop allowing white students to attend a neighboring district through open enrollment and take public funding with them because it wants to avoid becoming segregated. The Liberty Local Schools board just north of Youngstown unanimously backed that resolution this week, stepping into the knotty intersection of education funding and race. It cited a nearly 30-year-old state law that districts can object to students enrolling elsewhere tuition-free "in order to maintain an...

In the past couple of weeks, Youngstown police have responded to over a dozen of these raccoon calls — all of them with reports of the same strange, zombie-like behavior. The majority of the calls happened in the daytime, too, even though raccoons are nocturnal. “I looked over there and got distracted because I saw a raccoon coming our way,” said Robert Coggeshall, whose playtime with his dogs was interrupted by a fiesty and sick raccoon last week. He put the dogs back in the house, but said the raccoon followed them to the door. “He would stand up on his...

President Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports horrify Republican leaders in Congress — but they could yet pay political dividends. Trump’s move, cast by the White House as an effort to protect American manufacturing, has significant appeal in the Rust Belt states that were pivotal to his shock 2016 election win. Some Democrats in the region worry that senior figures in their party, especially those whose bases are in affluent coastal cities, are underestimating the political potency of Trump’s announcement. “It worries me as a Democrat that the national Democrats don’t see that Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and...

Amman, Jordan - With nothing but the clothes on his back and less than $300 in his pocket, Amer Adi was put on a plane and deported to Jordan, the country he left 39 years ago to pursue his American dream. His 94-year-old mother sat in a wheelchair at the arrivals gate, overcome with emotion as she waited for Adi. She hadn't seen him in 20 years. As he walked out, his siblings, nephews and nieces broke out in cheers. But they were soon in tears. Adi fell to his knees, a broken man in his mother's arms. "I have...

CAMPBELL, Ohio — Forty years ago, on Sept. 19, thousands of men walked into the Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet and Tube along the Mahoning River before the early shift. Like every fall morning, they were armed with lunch pails and hard hats; the only worry on their minds was the upcoming Pittsburgh Steelers game on “Monday Night Football.” The only arguing you heard was whether quarterback Terry Bradshaw had fully recovered from the dramatic hit he took from a Cleveland Browns player the season before. It was just before 7 a.m., and the fog that had settled over the...

Triple murder defendant jumps to his death off courthouse balcony YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A triple murder defendant jumped to his death from a fourth-floor balcony in an Ohio county courthouse Monday, CBS Youngstown affiliate WKBN reports. Robert Seman landed in the courthouse rotunda. A sheet was put over his body. In 1947, Frank Rigelsky committed suicide by jumping off a railing -- from the fourth floor -- in the same courthouse where Seman jumped to his death, according to court employees. Rigelsky had been worried about making alimony payments to his estranged wife following his involvement in a car accident,...