Free Republic

The long-awaited state grand jury report into sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses, including Pittsburgh and Greensburg, has finally been released. The 1,300-plus page document, two years in the making, shines a light into the dark corners of these dioceses going back seven decades, exposing the predators and the efforts of their bishops to protect them. The report begins with the following statement: “We, the members of this grand jury, need you to hear this. We know some of you have head some of it before. There have been other reports about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church. But...

Kittanning Council does not have the authority to remove a councilman from office despite charges he engaged in sexual contact with a disabled 14-year-old, Council President Kim Chiesa said Friday. On Thursday, Council Vice President David John Croyle, 60, was arrested and charged with felony counts of statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault of a person with a mental disability, corruption of minors and related charges. Croyle is the editor and publisher of the Kittanning Paper and senior pastor at the Family-Life Church on South Jefferson Street in Kittanning. Also arrested...

(Note: Croyle also runs a paper and a radio station) Kittanning (PA) Council does not have the authority to remove a councilman from office despite charges he engaged in sexual contact with a disabled 14-year-old, Council President Kim Chiesa said Friday. On Thursday, Council Vice President David John Croyle, 60, was arrested and charged with felony counts of statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault of a person with a mental disability, corruption of minors and related charges. Croyle is the editor and publisher of the Kittanning Paper and senior pastor at...

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, August 8, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pennsylvania’s Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order Monday creating the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, a body dedicated to promoting homosexual and transgender interests in a wide variety of ways. “The creation of the commission on LGBTQ Affairs is one step of many we have taken to ensure obstacles are removed for anyone who is facing an unfair disadvantage based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression,” Wolf said. “It’s a step we took together with our stakeholder and advocacy groups and one that those involved asked for – a commission...

A Jordanian immigrant facing the death penalty in Houston praised Osama bin Laden for the terror attacks on New York City on September 11, 2001, and said the violence was deserved, his daughter testified Tuesday. Nesreen Irsan, 30, told jurors that her fervently Muslim father, 60-year-old Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, was living in Conroe when the infamous attacks occurred and was happy that Americans had died. He also told his 12 children they should become suicide bombers if asked. “He said it’s what America deserves,” the daughter said as she testified against the father who has been convicted of killing her...

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) sent a letter to Bank of the West President and Chief Executive Officer Nandita Bakhshi pushing back on the bank’s decision to no longer conduct business with companies engaged in the exploration and production of coal, oil and natural gas. Bank of the West, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, has 23 branches with dedicated employees who work hard to serve communities and families across Wyoming. In his letter, Barrasso condemned the San Francisco headquarter’s attack on Wyoming’s communities and businesses that depend on fossil fuels for energy security, jobs and economic growth. “This misguided and...

A previously deported illegal immigrant from Honduras who raped a little girl in Philadelphia after being let loose by police instead of being handed over to ICE has pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the US. Juan Ramon Vasquez, also known as Ramon Aguirre-Ochoa, was first deported from the US in 2009

Washington (CNN) Conservative activists Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk were accosted at a Philadelphia restaurant on Monday by protesters from a local antifa group. Owens and Kirk, who lead the conservative super PAC Turning Point USA, had their breakfast at Green Eggs Café prematurely ended when protests erupted outside. Owens told CNN that the protesters, who bore an antifa sticker, "immediately recognized" Kirk and her, and a much larger group approached the restaurant about 20 minutes later. She said the protesters began harassing and throwing things at Kirk and her from outside the restaurant. Videos posted by Owens, who is...

Philadelphia, PA – U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain announced that Juan Ramon Vasquez, a citizen of Honduras, pleaded guilty today to illegal reentry after deportation. In May 2009, the defendant was deported from the United States. Thereafter, in March 2014, the defendant was found back in the United States by U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) officers. At that time, Vasquez was in the custody of the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. The City of Philadelphia thereafter chose not to comply with a detainer lodged by ICE for the defendant, who was instead released from custody by...

Confident talk in Washington that swaggering Republicans will fatten their majority in the Senate to a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the fall elections is shifting to nail-biting whispers the Democrats could take charge and install Sen. Chuck Schumer as leader. Already fretting odds that the House will turn Democratic and that potential Speaker Nancy Pelosi will open impeachment proceedings against President Trump, a path to a Democratic Senate is beginning to emerge based on historical statistics and the anti-Trump sentiment in some areas of the country. Geoffrey Skelley, associate editor of the University of Virginia Center for Politics’ Larry Sabato...

Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday created the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. "The creation of the commission on LGBTQ Affairs is one step of many we have taken to ensure obstacles are removed for anyone who is facing an unfair disadvantage based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression," Wolf said in a press release. "It's a step we took together with our stakeholder and advocacy groups and one that those involved asked for - a commission to help coordinate and drive statewide equality efforts." The 40-member commission, believed to be the only one in the country, will be...

Coal has become the enemy of city-dwelling, affluent believers in global warming. Yet it continues to be cheap and available for many countries, especially China and India, that want to expand their power grids to raise their standards of living to a level approaching that of the warmists who insist that doom awaits if atmospheric CO2 levels rise. So how can the poorer countries in the world, whose governments insist on improving their citizens' lives with electricity now and worries about hypothetical assertions based solely on computer models later, be forced to comply with the elites' desires? The warmists have...

A reverend says a black doll found hanging from a makeshift noose in a Philadelphia playground was apparently staged by a group of kids who wanted to “creep people out.” Police say they received a 911 call around noon after a city worker found a black doll hanging from a telephone wire with a makeshift noose around its neck at the Weccacoe Playground at 4th and Queen Streets.

While Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens were having breakfast in Philadelphia on Monday morning, a group of protesters started to heckle them. Watch the videos below: “We [were] just enjoying life,” Kirk, TPUSA's founder and president, told IJR. “And then they came outside the window and started screaming.” In a video posted to Twitter, it is shown that when Owens and Kirk went outside, a protester poured water on Kirk: Police had to then intervene to prevent the situation from escalating. “Is there a colored-only section for black police officers and black conservatives that I missed,” Owens...

Two of Turning Point USA’s leaders were accosted by protesters they say were Antifa in Philadelphia Monday morning, according to videos posted to Twitter. Turning Point USA communications director Candace Owens tweeted a video saying she and Charlie Kirk, the organization’s founder and president, were “ATTACKED” and protested while they were eating breakfast in Philadelphia, Penn. Candace Owens ✔ @RealCandaceO Charlie Kirk and I just got ATTACKED and protested by ANTIFA for eating breakfast. They are currently following us through Philly. ALL BLACK AND HISPANIC police force protecting us as they scream “[expletive] the racist police”. [snip] Candace Owens ✔...

Joe Biden is leading the Democratic field in some early polls asking voters about the party’s prospective presidential candidates in 2020. But in his old stomping grounds in the U.S. Senate, there are plenty of skeptics who point to the former vice president’s age, his support for the Iraq War and his two failed presidential bids as reasons to doubt he would be successful. “It’s hard to see someone [winning] who voted for the Iraq war. People are looking to turn the page,” one senior Democratic aide said. A second senior Democratic aide said “polls show that voters want someone...

Kate Mazzochetti is the self-identified QAnon follower who says she foiled an assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. On the day of President Trump’s rally in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, Mazzochetti wrote on Twitter, “Well @Potus – Our paths cross at the Rally today This ‘Mystery Woman’ would really like to hug OUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT I’m sure @SecretService would have stopped this guy too but I’m glad I got him off the streets before you arrived 😗.” Accompanying the tweet is a photo of a newspaper article detailing the arrest of Jeffrey Boyd of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Heavy.com has reached out...

After a day of tension between the White House and CNN, the crowd at President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Thursday night broke out into chants of “CNN sucks” when the president blasted "fake news." Trump at the rally in Wilkes-Barre cited multiple examples of what he called "fake news," including saying the “fake news refused to call” Pennsylvania for him during the 2016 presidential election. The crowd responded with boos and jeers, with some chanting, “CNN sucks.” Trump later returned to the issue of the media during the rally, asking, "Whatever happened to fair press? Whatever happened to honest reporting?"...

The crowd at President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally broke out into chants of “CNN sucks” after the president referenced “fake news” during his remarks. Trump was discussing how he won the state of Pennsylvania during the 2016 presidential election when he claimed that the “fake news refused to call” the state for him. The crowd responded with boos and jeers, with some chanting, “CNN sucks.” Trump later returned to the issue of the media during the rally, asking, "Whatever happened to fair press? Whatever happened to honest reporting?" The incident took place just hours after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee...

President Trump's rally Thursday night in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was interrupted by a protester who was escorted out of the arena after causing a disturbance. Trump was speaking about his popularity and election day victory in Texas when he was distracted by a loud chorus of boos coming from the right side of the arena. Cameras showed a woman wearing yellow being escorted out by security personnel. "All right. Get em out. Get em out," Trump said as the demonstrator was removed. "Get 'em outta here." As the woman was leaving, media cameras caught her making obscene gestures toward the crowd...