Free Republic

Barack Obama turned his political attention Friday to Pennsylvania — a state Donald Trump won in 2016. The former president campaigned in Philadelphia with two leading Democrats running for re-election, Gov. Tom Wolf and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. At a campaign rally at the Dell Music Center in Philadelphia, Obama implored Pennsylvanians to vote in November because the election was more consequential than any he could remember. “This time, it really is different. This time, the stakes really are higher,” Obama said. “The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are far more dangerous.” During the speech Obama...

One person is dead and four injured after a shooting at a Pennsylvania courthouse, according to authorities. Four people who were shot at the Fayette County Magistrate Court in Masontown, Pennsylvania, Wednesday afternoon were transported to the hospital, a spokesperson for the Fayette County Emergency Management told ABC News.

NPR described Kermit Gosnell as an “abortion doctor” back in 2013 when a Philadelphia court convicted him of murdering babies. But last month, the taxpayer-funded radio group rejected an ad that used the exact same term to describe Gosnell, claiming it is not “value neutral,” according to The Daily Beast. The makers of the movie “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” have been hitting roadblocks since they began their project more than four years ago. Their struggles started when the crowdfunding site Kickstarter refused to allow filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney to fundraiser there. They later broke...

Haverford College and some nearby residents for years have been trying to get a polling place closer to or on the grassy Main Line campus. Students — most of whom do not have cars and who make up the majority of voters in the precinct — must travel about a mile and a half, partially on a road without sidewalks, ---snip--- the lawyer representing petitioners, alleges the reason is more sinister: a largely Republican county government that is far from eager to make voting easier for a Democratic-leaning college campus.

HAZLETON, Pa. — Federal authorities suspect a man accused of having threatened President Donald Trump and other officials may have stolen a truck overnight from the same northeastern Pennsylvania business he is believed to have burglarized earlier this month. U.S. Marshals, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service have been searching for 27-year-old Shawn Christy of McAdoo for more than two months, saying he has threatened to use “full lethal force on any law enforcement officer that tries to detain me.” ~snip~ The Maple Shade, New Jersey native’s parents said Thursday that Christy sent a Facebook message to them saying...

PLEASE just memories NO "editorializing"!

President Donald Trump spoke at the 9/11 memorial service in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, recalling the attacks of September 11, 2001. Trump praised the valor of the 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93 for resisting the terrorists in control of the hijacked plane, which led to the crash in a Pennsylvania field. “At this memorial on this sacred earth in the field beyond this wall and in the skies above our heads, we remember the moment when America fought back,” Trump said, praising the Americans aboard the flight–“changed the course of history” by resisting the terrorists. Trump recognized...

On Friday, One News Now reported that West Virginia pastor Rich Penkoski is preparing to hold Facebook accountable for allowing an LGBT supporter to stalk, harass and defame him and his family online, using the social media giant. According to Steve Jordahl, a civil court has already found the woman guilty of defamation. “This is a woman who claims to be an LGBT supporter who has harassed, stalked, and defamed me and my family on Facebook for well over nine months,” Penkoski told One News Now. Jordahl said the woman “questioned the chastity of his wife and the intelligence of...

Full Headline: CDC Investigating After Multiple Passengers Fall Ill On Separate International Flights Coming Into Philadelphia International Airport Officials say 12 passengers arriving at the airport on American Airlines flights from Paris and Munich experienced flu-like symptoms. Multiple ambulances were dispatched to the airport.

Over the past few months, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has faced fierce criticism for his role in the Trump administration’s family separation policy. But while the White House continues to deal with the fallout from tearing kids away from their parents at the border, Sessions has been busy orchestrating another, much quieter attack on the country’s immigration system. Tensions have been simmering for months between the attorney general and the hundreds of judges overseeing immigration courts, but they reached a new high in July. The flashpoint was the case of Reynaldo Castro-Tum, a Guatemalan man who was scheduled to appear...

---SNIP--- After the Inquirer and Daily News reported that eight women had accused Leach of unwanted touching and sexually charged conversations, Muth demanded that Leach resign. She also criticized him for lashing out at several women on social media afterward; he called one "a human wrecking ball of hate." So Muth's campaign contacted the organizers of the event — a high school Democratic organization to which Leach's teenage daughter belongs — and told them exactly why she didn't want to appear with the senator. He was dropped. Shortly thereafter, Leach fired off an angry email to Joe Foster, chairman of...

Los Angeles police are investigating the vandalism of disgraced comedian Bill Cosby’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after it was marked with the words “serial rapist,” authorities said. LAPD officials learned someone had scrawled the words in black marker on the star about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. It is not clear when the message was written, said Officer Mike Lopez. Authorities cleaned the plaque and reported the vandalism, Lopez said. Cosby, 81, once known as “America’s dad” for his role on the sitcom “The Cosby Show,” was convicted in April of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a former basketball...

Upper Darby police say they've arrested a suspect accused of shooting the owner of a beer distributor. Pablo Quintanilla, 24, was arrested Monday morning and is being charged with attempted murder. They say he is the one who opened fire inside the store on the 700 block of Garrett Road on Saturday night. According to police, Quintanilla is in the country illegally. The native of Honduras was deported from Texas in 2015. At some point, he returned and was in the country illegally living in New York.

All, As you know the battle for the House is tight. I've been trying to keep on top of the races for several publications, including BigLeaguePolitics, but tracking even 40 of the closest races is tough. If you are in TX and are in Sessions or Dent's district; in PA; in CA in esp. CD 39, 48, 49 or other real battles; in NC, and have info on the House races there, particularly those that are close, please get in touch with me. Just heard Culberson (TX7) in fight, but optimistic. Last poll had him up 4, and "Matress Mack,"...

One of the world's leading biochemists pleaded guilty Friday to stealing proprietary information potentially worth millions from a GlaxoSmithKline research facility in Montgomery County to help a Chinese company launched with financial backing from that nation's government. Yu Xue, 48, told a federal judge in Philadelphia that she pilfered promising cancer research she had developed while working for the British pharmaceutical giant's Upper Merion Township location between 2006 and 2016. She had hoped to market the potentially ground-breaking therapies through a business she set up in China with two other co-defendants. The case is the latest in a string of...

The boyfriend of a woman who was killed when her car slammed into a tree has admitted to cutting the brake lines to fashion a crack pipe.Pennsylvania police say that 39-year-old John Jenkins Jr. admitted during an interview that he had cut the brake lines on Tammy Fox’s car the night before the fatal crash on Aug. 22. in Lackawanna County.The mother of five was driving her black Hyundai Sonata at around 10 a.m. in Scranton when “her vehicle began to accelerate,” police said in a news release. The car crossed through an intersection before it “violently struck a tree.”Fox, 38, died...

The Greensburg Catholic Diocese removed the name of the late Bishop William Connare from a retreat center in Unity Township, Bishop Edward Malesic said Wednesday. The move was the latest of a series of aftershocks rippling across the state in the wake of the Aug. 14 grand jury report that detailed seven decades of priest sexual abuse allegations and cover-ups by church leaders in six dioceses across the state, including Greensburg and Pittsburgh. Malesic said the decision to strike Connare’s name from the center was made at the request of several survivors of priest sexual abuse who said it was...

Pennsylvania, a state that helped put President Donald Trump in the White House, isn’t too keen on the president’s tariff push, a new NBC News/Marist poll finds, as a near majority fears that the ongoing trade war will ultimately damage the U.S. economy. Forty-five percent of Pennsylvania adults believe that tariffs and other import barriers will raise costs of consumer goods and hurt the country’s economy. By comparison, 27 percent believe they will protect American jobs and help the economy. The administration’s trade policy is unpopular across virtually all demographic groups in the NBC/Marist poll — the only groups where...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Police say 16 Antifa protesters were arrested on Saturday after clashing with officers in Center City. Organizers of the protest rallied dozens to meet at City Hall to oppose the Blue Lives Matter March being held at the Liberty Bell. Philadelphia police say 75 Antifa protesters were in the area of Broad and Arch Streets around 11:30 a.m. During the protest, police say, several members started to fight with police. Sixteen Antifa protesters were arrested. Nine of those protesters were issued citations and seven were charged with disorderly conduct. The Blue Lives Matter March, organized by a...

Philadelphia police made several arrests as police clashed with Antifa protesters at a "Blue Lives Matter" rally on Saturday. Hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters gathered downtown to demonstrate support for law enforcement and against police brutality, stop-and-frisk policies and mass incarceration, according to CBS News. Pictures and video posted to social media showed police arresting several people and overturned bikes blocking a street while onlookers chanted slogans. Some chanted "Who do you serve?" and other messages directed at officers making the arrests, which began after some demonstrators were blocking traffic. It was unclear from the video how many people were...