Free Republic

For the third time in less than five months, the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more content from their platforms. On March 25, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will interrogate Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Facebooks’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai at a hearing which the Committee announced will focus “on misinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms.”

For the first time, the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden tells his story — speaking not just about the raid and the three shots that changed history, but about the personal aftermath for himself and his family.

The site where Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting is building a new meetinghouse was damaged by arsonists during Christmas week, and police are now "absolutely" sure the attack was the result of a dispute between members of a Philadelphia construction union and the project's nonunion contractor.

Wide receiver recruit Will Fuller of Philadelphia reiterated his commitment to Penn State on Saturday after speaking with Nittany Lions head coach Bill O'Brien -- as did several other players. "Yeah, I'm 100 percent going there," Fuller said in a text. Several Penn State recruits met with O'Brien on Saturday. Among them was tight end Adam Breneman, who said the sentiment applies to several players.

Joe Paterno has died at the age of 85

I don't ordinarily post vanities, but I am soliciting input on an important parenting question. Earlier this afternoon my 3 year old son was "helping" me work outside our home when our Democrat candidate for the State House of Representatives approached me to campaign. I was respectful to him. However, my son immediately ran over to his sandbox, picked up a partially-filled bucket of play sand, and while trying to show it to the man he nearly spilled it all over his shoes. I intervened before the accident could happen. My question to you: Based on his actions, do you...

Hauling brush and old tires out of the woods in Allentown early Friday, members of the Service Employees International Union learned an Eagle-Scout-to-be is just as forgiving as he is trustworthy, loyal and helpful. The Eagle Scout service project of Kevin Anderson, 17, of Upper Saucon Township was caught up in a national media firestorm after Nick Balzano, an Allentown union official, threatened to file a grievance over Kevin's work clearing a trail in Kimmets Lock Park. Conservative pundits seized on the remark as evidence of the SEIU's ''thuggery,'' and Balzano later resigned. To show there were no hard feelings,...

For decades, an anti-snitching mentality has hampered law enforcement in Coatesville, but the code of silence may not be fireproof. The string of arsons plaguing the once-thriving steel town in Chester County - 44 fires set in the last 13 months - may be prompting some people to think twice about their reluctance to cooperate with authorities. [snip] Some residents, who declined to identify themselves, said not even the $20,000 in reward money from the Coatesville Arson Task Force would motivate them to cooperate with police. One older woman said that she believed her grandson had information, but proudly added...

THE PRESTON family has lived at 1623 Butler St. for five years, ever since the city relocated them when their previous house collapsed. "They gave me the house for a dollar," Frances Preston said, sitting at the dining-room table with some of the 10 other family members who live with her in the six-bedroom rowhouse. According to extensive news coverage at the time, former Mayor John Street took pity on the family and intervened to rescue them from homelessness. But now they're facing it all over again. Because Preston, recently received a certified letter from the Redevelopment Authority notifying her...

The patient was blind. Maguire's hair-thin needle traveled through the "white" of his eye, all the way back to his badly scarred retina, where it would deliver billions of genetically modified viruses. Each virus carried a single gene: the recipe to produce a crucial enzyme that his eye was unable to make on its own. Within weeks, beyond what anyone had predicted, the experiment worked. The young man and two other patients began to regain some vision. The results, reported online today by the New England Journal of Medicine, represent a dramatic advance in the field known as gene therapy,...

Alpha Company, a National Guard unit based in Northeast Philadelphia, drew its roster from across the region. Six members were killed during the nearly 11 months that Alpha spent in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. The 131 survivors are police officers and college students, construction workers and drug store clerks. More than two years after coming home, many are still struggling to get their lives back in order and to sort out the meaning of their sacrifice. Nearly half have been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet many say they‘d go back to Iraq if asked. They‘d do it...

PHILADELPHIA - A young couple accused of financing a lavish lifestyle through a large-scale identity theft scheme surrendered to police Wednesday to face additional theft and burglary charges. Jocelyn Kirsch, 22, and boyfriend Edward Anderton, who turned 25 Wednesday, used the scam to live affluently in Philadelphia and take numerous international vacations, authorities said.

The Tour de France was rocked by news that Astana's battered team leader, Alexandre Vinokourov, tested positive for a homologous blood transfusion after Saturday's time trial in Albi. L'Equipe reported on Tuesday afternoon that the Kazakh's blood had shown evidence of a transfusion from another person with a compatible blood type in an analysis done in the Châtenay-Malabry laboratory. The positive test was later confirmed by the Astana team. Upon receiving the news, the Astana team suspended Vinokourov and quit the Tour de France, according to a statement which read, "According to the ethical code of the Astana Cycling Team,...

GILBERT, Ariz. -- Blood tests show former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson's blood alcohol level was below the legal limit when he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving June 22, police said Monday. Johnson's blood alcohol level was .072, under the presumptive limit in Arizona of .08 percent, Gilbert police Sgt. Andrew Duncan said. Under Arizona law, Johnson could still face a charge for "impairment to the slightest degree." The state has separate charges for blood alcohol levels of .08 or higher and .15 or higher. The "slightest degree" charge usually accompanies the other charges, but the state...

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. -- Michelle Wie withdrew from the Ginn Tribute on Thursday after playing much of the first round with bandaged wrists and shooting 14 over par through 16 holes. After Wie bogeyed the par-4 seventh, the 17-year-old star from Hawaii told an LPGA tour official: "We're not going to play anymore." [snip] Wie had not played competitive golf since missing the cut at the PGA Tour Sony Open in January. She had been recovering from wrist injuries.

And right now, after the NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics last week proposed a ban on the use of male practice players in women's intercollegiate athletics, there might not be a hotter topic in sports. [snip] According to the CWA's statement, "any inclusion of male practice players results in diminished participation opportunities for female student-athletes, contrary to the association's principles of gender equity, nondiscrimination, competitive equity and student-athlete well-being." [snip] Still, my biggest issue is that the CWA thinks it needs to regulate coaches. Basketball coaches should not be told whether their players are getting enough playing time or when...

James Polehinke, 44, of Margate, the copilot and sole survivor of Sunday's Comair Flight 5191 crash in Lexington, Ky., kept to himself, neighbors said. [snip] Ida Askew, 51, was arrested and charged with attempted murder in July 1999 after she shot Polehinke in the stomach with a handgun while the couple was arguing, police records show.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb has expressed surprise and disappointment after hearing of racially charged criticism made by Philadelphia NAACP president J. Whyatt Mondesire in a Nov. 27 column in the Philadelphia Sun. [snip] "Especially being the same color I am," McNabb told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Obviously if it's someone else who is not African-American, it's racism. But when someone of the same race talks about you because you're selling out because you're not running the ball, it goes back to: What are we really talking about here? [snip] "I always thought the NAACP supported African-Americans and didn't talk bad...

Per Karl Rove on Hannity & Colmes interview, in Florida Republicans lead in absentee ballots while Democrats lead in early voting. Taken together, the GOP holds a lead. I know there's been much back-and-forth over this issue, and it's hard to know whether this is disinformation or legitimate data.

Since, it's clearly just a matter of time, I say we help Dan write his resignation speech. Here's my start...Tonight, this reporter speaks to his beloved American public for the last time. Internet pajama posters have succeeded in generating enough heat to peel paint off a house. The spin has come faster than a Texas Twister. And tonight, that heat and spin has generated a crackling hickory fire that threatens to melt this network faster than ice cream in a microwave. Even though these extreme, ultra right-wingers’ claims are shakier than cafeteria Jell-O, this reporter will sacrifice himself to save...