Free Republic

Leave it to a Red Sox scribe to rain on Mariano Rivera’s historic quest. Bill Ballou, of the Worcester, Mass., Telegram, spent about 1,500 words Saturday arguing that the Yankees legend shouldn’t receive a bid into the Hall. We checked the calendar. April Fools’ is months away. “...The Save — the baseball kind — is the lowest-hanging fruit on the game’s statistical tree,” Ballou writes. “Closers are its naked emperors.” Ballou continuously bashes the role of the closer, and even brings up Craig Kimbrel for sake of argument.

No reason ever for teachers to hit any of their students I was following the threads from the post above and was reminded of the shooting at Ballou High School in Southeast DC yesterday morning. On the way home from work yesterday afternoon, listening to the radio, I heard the rantings and ravings of students, parents, and – of course – Marion Barry, on how more needs to be done to protect the students. Somehow, the above thread is connected to this story. If more discipline and respect were administered by the parents, would something like this happen? On...

<p>The D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department is encouraging District residents to get rid of thermometers containing mercury, to prevent future incidents of mercury poisoning from spills of the type that occurred at Ballou High School in Southeast.</p> <p>Under a program set up over the past weekend, residents can drop off old thermometers at Engine 12 fire station on the corner of Fifth Street and Rhode Island Avenue NE between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.</p>