Free Republic

Two up-and-coming U.S. rappers, XXXTentacion and Jimmy Wopo, were killed on Monday in separate shootings near Miami and in Pittsburgh, police and local media reported. In Florida, the Broward County sheriff's office said that XXXTentacion, 20, was shot while leaving a motor sports dealership in Deerfield Beach, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Miami. The rapper, whose real name was Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was later pronounced dead, the sheriff's department said. "The adult male victim has been confirmed as 20 year old Jahseh Onfroy, aka rapper #XXXTentacion," the sheriff's department said in a posting on Twitter....

PITTSBURGH - Local rapper Jimmy Wopo has died following a double shooting in Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood Monday. The drive-by shooting was reported around 4:20 p.m. near the intersection of Wylie Avenue and Duff Street. Wopo, whose birth name is Travon Smart, died at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital about two hours after he was shot, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office. Channel 11 talked to Wopo's grandfather outside of the hospital. "He has everything going for him. Everything. But the streets will kill you," James White said. XXL Magazine recently called him one of the best and brightest new...

PITTSBURGH - Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to support long-time cartoonist Rob Rogers. Rogers has been drawing political cartoons since 1993. But in the last few weeks, many of his controversial cartoons haven't been making the paper. They've covered topics like immigration, racism and the National Football League. The story has now gained national attention. Participants told Channel 11 they hope their action will hold the Post-Gazette accountable. In a statement to the Washington Post, the Post-Gazette's publisher and editor-in-chief said this is an internal, personnel matter that has little to do with politics, ideology or President...

In Spring Hill, early 20th Century houses look out over cinematic views of downtown Pittsburgh. The front of 36-year-old resident Randal Miller’s home appears fine, but the back is a mess. Part of it was slammed by a landslide this February. Landslides have always been an issue for the city due to its steep hills, clay soil and narrow valleys, but they usually occur in late spring and early early summer. Winter is typically Pittsburgh’s driest period, which is good, because the soil at that time is very wet as plants have yet to sprout and pull water from the...

The most popular place to put a city park is, increasingly, on a highway. Cities looking to boost their downtowns, or to improve downtrodden neighborhoods, are creating “highway cap parks” on decks constructed over freeways that cut through the urban center. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Denver and Dallas have deck parks underway. Atlanta, Houston, Minneapolis and Santa Monica, California, are among the cities considering similar projects. In crowded cities, highway deck parks are a way to create new acreage and provide green space that can spur downtown development. Capping a highway to create a park also can reconnect urban neighborhoods sliced apart...

Updated 23 minutes ago Pittsburgh's monument to native son Stephen Collins Foster has returned to its old stomping ground. A Department of Public Works crew removed the controversial statue of the Antebellum songwriter known as the father of American music early Thursday from Forbes Avenue in Oakland and hauled it by flatbed truck to a facility in Highland Park. The city will store it until officials find it a permanent home. The 1,000-pound, 10-foot-high bronze statue stood at the entrance to Oakland's Schenley Park for 74 years after the city moved it from its original location near the entrance to...

<p>A 118-year-old statue of the "Oh! Susanna" songwriter was removed from a Pittsburgh park Thursday after criticism that the work is demeaning because it includes a slave sitting at his feet, plucking a banjo.</p> <p>In October, the Pittsburgh Art Commission voted to take the Stephen Foster sculpture out of Schenley Plaza and find it a new home. For now, it will remain in a storage lot, out of the public view.</p>

PITTSBURGH - The statue of composer Stephen Foster that stood in Schenley Plaza in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood since 1940 was removed Thursday morning. Controversial for its portrayal of Foster, a Lawrenceville native, with an African American man seated below him, the bronze statue has been scrutinized as racist for years. Future of Pittsburgh's Stephen Foster statue in question Pittsburgh’s Art Commission decided with a unanimous vote on Oct. 25 that the 10x4 foot statue, which sits on a granite base, would come down within six months. Under city code, the Art Commission is responsible for overseeing the alteration, relocation or...

PITTSBURGH - A man was stabbed early Thursday morning while at a bar in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood, investigators said. Police were called about 2 a.m. to a residential area near Pollock’s Cafe, located on Liberty Avenue. Investigators said the 40-year-old victim was stabbed in the shoulder after he apparently got into a fight with the person who stabbed him inside the bar. The man did not seek medical attention and stayed in the bar for about 30 minutes after he was stabbed before going to the residential area, police said.

“We have received information of a potential large scale protest in the Central Business District. The protest would be semi-spontaneous and more than likely happen on short notice,” the email says. “Beginning Thursday, all Major Crimes detectives are required to bring a full uniform and any issued protective equipment (riot gear) with them to work until further notice.”

PITTSBURGH - Pittsburgh Police officers are preparing for a potential protest in the city in the event President Trump fires special counsel Robert Mueller. “We have received information of a potential large scale protest in the Central Business District,” an email sent to Pittsburgh officers said. If Mueller is fired, it could result in “a large protest within 24 hours of the firing,” the email said. “The protest would be semi-spontaneous and more than likely happen on short notice.” Beginning Thursday, all Major Crimes detectives will be required to have a full uniform and any issued protective equipment, like riot...

INGRAM, Pa. - An Ingram couple is facing charges, accused of running a brothel out of their home with three children inside. According to police, the parents were busted during an undercover sting. An investigation was launched after police got a lot of complaints from neighbors about men going in and out of the apartment at all hours of the day. Brittany Dawn Patrick is facing charges of selling sex with kids in the home. Police are still looking for her boyfriend, and father of her 18-month-old, Lukas Trout. According to police, their investigation began in January after several neighbors...

The FBI on Friday night raided the Sterling, Virginia, home of a Muslim convert, Sean Andrew Duncan, who, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case, stated that he attempted to join ISIS in Syria and shared bomb-making instructions with a woman currently in international custody. Sterling, about 20 miles from Washington, D.C., is home to a large Muslim community. According to an Instagram post by Duncan, he converted to Islam at age 17 and moved to the area from Pittsburgh this past June. When reports emerged Friday night that an FBI raid was ongoing, there was no indication...

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. - A woman who is in this country illegally is accused of breaking into homes in the Pittsburgh area. Monica Coria-Olvera was arrested along with two men in Missouri. According to police, she broke into seven homes in September and stole, stealing more than $150,000 in money and other items. Police said she targeted five different communities, including Cranberry and Franklin Park. In each burglary, she’d pry the back door open and then ransack the home, police said. "On Sept. 14, 2017, we had a breakthrough in our investigation. It led us to this suspect found it...

BROOKVILLE, Pa. Authorities are on the hunt for a possibly rabid coyote that mauled a Pennsylvania woman, leaving her badly wounded and "drenched in blood." Brookville borough police say a night shift employee of an assisted living community was attacked ... Brookville Police Chief Vince Markle says the woman was "drenched in blood" and required over 20 stitches and a rabies vaccination. He says the woman may also need reconstructive surgery. Brookville is about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The FBI came out empty handed at the remote Pennsylvania site where Civil War-era gold treasure is rumored to be buried, officials said Monday. Dozens of FBI agents, Pennsylvania state officials and members of a treasure-hunting group dug in a rural site where local lore has it that a Civil War-era gold shipment bound for a U.S. Mint in Philadelphia was either lost or hidden around the time of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. President Abraham Lincoln reportedly ordered the shipment to pay Union Army soldiers, according to a local treasure-hunting group called Finders Keepers.The FBI said it conducted...

Has $55million worth of lost gold from the Civil War era been found in central Pennsylvania? That's what locals seem to believe after FBI agents, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and treasure hunters Dennis and Kem Parada were seen digging around a remote area in Benezette Township, called Dents Run. Dennis and his son Kem, the owners of the treasure hunting organization Finders Keepers, have claimed for years that 52 gold bars were buried under a fire pit at Dents Run more than 150 years ago during the Battle of Gettysburg.

When Sgt. Jim Connors tipped back a few too many, he’d talk about the legend of lost Civil War gold, and boast about its whereabouts deep in the hills of Western Pennsylvania. Connors, according to a 1978 United Press International article in the Pittsburgh Press, was part of a special Union detachment tasked with transporting 26 gold bars, each weighing 50 pounds, from West Virginia to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in the summer of 1863.According to one version of the story, Connors staggered into Lock Haven, in north-central Pennsylvania, as the lone survivor of an ambush. The gold was...

As a 155-year-old legend goes, a Union Army wagon train left Wheeling, W.Va., before the Battle of Gettysburg, carrying two tons of gold, but never completed its 400-mile mission. The gold was supposed to be used to pay Union soldiers. But it first had to make it to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, according to the Associated Press. It never did. The wagon train traveled northeast and was last spotted in St. Marys, Pa. Searchers found the wagons and the bodies of dead soldiers — and the gold was gone. But maybe not forever. On Friday, dozens of FBI agents,...

Folks, It's time to open a POTUS, Donald J. Trump and Congressional Candidate, Republican, Rick Saccone comment thread. Big political rally, today, Moon Township, PA starting at 7:00PM local time. Doors to hangar open at 4:00PM, local time. Rally will be carried in full by Fox New Network and Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN). RSBN will begin live cast at 3:00 or 4:00 local time to chat with attendees awaiting entrance to hangar (Atlantic Aviation, FBO). CSpan is saying they will carry the full rally later in the evening.