U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige - in hot water for calling the National Education Association a "terrorist" organization last month - received a standing ovation yesterday from nearly 1,000 members of the Black Alliance for Education Options in Milwaukee. The Black Alliance - which supports charter schools, home schooling and other educational reforms aimed at helping black youth - remained on its feet for five minutes after Paige was introduced, one participant told Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker, adding, "Everyone I talked to agreed with him that the NEA is an obstacle to education reform. So when a man tells the truth, he needs to be supported." (PageSix)
And in other news:
Rosie O'Donnell was seeing red yesterday after the conviction of her pal Martha Stewart. "This is unbelievable," O'Donnell said in a statement. "I am outraged and beside myself. [Yikes, does that mean she's twice as wide?] This is a travesty. Shame on the federal government." [For enforcing the laws? Now if only a few states would enforce those marriage laws ...]
O'Donnell was one of a string of celebrities who dropped in on Stewart's seven-week trial. She even jokingly offered a prosecutor a bag of M&M's as a bribe to drop the charges. rest of story