Free Republic

When HISD Superintendent Kaye Stripling announces her retirement, perhaps as soon as today, many expect the school board to do something few other urban school districts have done: hire a Hispanic to replace her. "Well, good luck in trying to find one," said Carlos Garcia, who runs the nation's sixth-largest school system, in Clark County, Nev., which includes Las Vegas. Garcia is one of only four Hispanics in top jobs among the nation's 64 largest school districts. In Texas, Hispanics hold fewer than 100 of the state's 1,000-plus superintendent jobs, according to the Texas Education Agency. Houston, the seventh-largest school...

MOSCOW - Semyon Tokmakov stretches out his hand and points to a thick scar he got from assaulting a black U.S. Marine six years ago. The attack cost him 1 1/2 years in jail, but Tokmakov says he has no regrets. "We are waging a racial holy war," said Tokmakov, 28, an informal leader among Moscow's skinheads, whose violence appears to be rising. Over the last several years, Russia has become a strikingly hostile place for all those with African, Asian or so-called Caucasian features — the dark skin and dark hair typical for the peoples of the mountainous Caucasus...

OSLO, Norway -- An American soccer player in Norway was subjected to racial taunts and spit on by fans during a game. Robbie Russel, who is black and was born in Amherst, Mass., plays for the Norwegian club Sogndal. "I've experienced racism, but never anything like this," the 24-year-old player told the state radio network NRK. He said four or five Brann fans on Sunday grabbed his jersey through the fence about 27 minutes into the game. "A woman spit in my face," he said. "The entire time a group of supporters were yelling racist things at me." Russel was...

PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - You can pump, but you can't hide. Some motorists in Michigan have found out the hard way that you can't just gas and go. They discovered that because of a computer glitch they could swipe their drivers' licenses instead of credit cards to gas up for free at the pumps outside the Meijer chain. A total of 107 people figured it out, many of them students from nearby colleges in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. In some cases people got as many as 15 fillups over a three-week period. Meijer got hosed for thousands. But it turns...

A US man has been rejected in his bid to become a police officer for scoring too high on an intelligence test. Robert Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took an exam to join the New London police, in Connecticut, in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training. Mr Jordan launched a federal lawsuit against the city, but lost. The 2nd U.S....

When Billy Joel met descendants of the man who pushed his Jewish grandfather out of business in Nazi Germany, he took pains to remember that the sins of the father were not the sins of the children. "I only expected understanding on their part that something very bad happened because of their grandfather," Joel said yesterday, recalling the frosty Vienna meeting that is the basis for "The Joel Files," a 2001 documentary having its American TV premiere at 10 o'clock tonight on WNET/13.

LYONS - It was hard enough to choose whether to attend the white prom or the black prom at Toombs County High School, but Yuri Flores hit another roadblock after she made her decision. When the Hispanic student and a friend tried to purchase tickets for the white prom, a girl with the prom committee wanted to know if their dates were white, black or Hispanic. ''She told me that it was a white prom - not a Mexican prom, not a black prom,'' Hart said. ''It made me feel mad. That's not right. I wanted to put my fist...

<p>The FCC has taken the first step toward investigating Oprah Winfrey after receiving "more than a few complaints" about her show, a spokeswoman said yesterday. The agency is reviewing the complaints, the spokeswoman said. She would not describe their nature - although the Federal Communication Commission's Web site says a review generally results in an initial determination of whether a show's programming can be considered obscene or indecent. If it decides it can, a formal investigation is launched.</p>

<p>It isn't always easy to be politically correct. Sometimes, in fact, it's an outright struggle.</p> <p>For instance: you hear a statement that you're sure is politically incorrect. Your nerve endings tingle. Your juices start to flow. Oh boy, you say to yourself, here's yet another example of injustice in a society absolutely riddled with the stuff. You cannot wait to tell teacher and get patted on the head.</p>

WASHINGTON (March 15, 2004) -- Washington Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington filed a grievance over $6.5 million he claims is missing from his latest contract. The three-time Pro Bowl linebacker signed a nine-year, $68 million contract in December, but Arrington claims he actually agreed to a $74.5 million deal. Arrington contends the contract was supposed to include a $6.5 million roster bonus for the year 2006. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league received a "standard non-injury grievance" from Arrington's lawyer. He said the league will work with the players' union to schedule a hearing, with the case being decided by...

Unless you have a strong interest in law enforcement, this is not the best of times to be a sports' fan. Personal trainers of major league baseball players indicted for selling illegal steroids while some of the American pastime's biggest names are under suspicion for abusing performance enhancing drugs. The NFL's leading running back, Jamal Lewis, indicted for alleged involvement in the sale and transportation of cocaine. The NBA's brightest star, Kobe Bryant, facing trial in Colorado on a rape charge involving a teen-age girl he'd met only hours earlier. University of Colorado football coach Gary Barnett and his program...

BOULDER - A University of Colorado football player named in connection with an alleged sexual assault went public Friday to proclaim his innocence and said he has been the victim of racial profiling. "I feel that my rights have been violated. ... I feel harassed and mistreated," the player wrote in a statement. The player, clad in a black CU shirt, stood stoically in front of cameras as his attorney, Nancy Holton, read the statement on his behalf. In the statement he expressed pain and said the investigation seemed to be more the product of racial profiling than evidence. The...

Jordy Connolly is a fairly run-of-the-mill teenager: he plays tennis, does karate, enjoys Japanese animation and loves his family. But this fresh-faced teenager from Georgia is one of a growing number of people worldwide who suffer from a distressing new syndrome: 'Keanic Dismorphia' - which means, in layman's terms, that he's absolutely convinced that he looks like Keanu Reeves, but doesn't. "I'm not very big", says Jordy on his website, "but some say 'dynamite comes in small packages'." And his young tennis-toned body throbs with pride when he reveals: "A lot of my friends say that I look like Neo...

ONE of the biggest Welsh movie stars in Hollywood kicked off a race storm last night after making anti-Muslim remarks. Outraged Islamic leaders in Wales demanded an immediate apology from Lord Of The Rings actor John Rhys-Davies, who claimed an increase in Europe's Muslim population was a "demographic catastrophe" threatening "Western civilisation". The 59-year-old Ammanford actor's comments were originally made in an interview with American journalists from World magazine, but this week they were used by the far right British National Party in a leaflet to campaign for support among cinema-goers. Last night Rhys-Davies stood by his views which follow...

He's given hundreds of flu shots over the past few months, but health officials say he isn't a doctor and they still don't know exactly what he's been injecting. It's a story you saw First on News 3. Shahid Shiekh is under police investigation after shutting down one of his clinics in Washington State. News 3 has learned that Shiekh has also operated an office in Henderson. News 3's Kori Chambers is digging deeper. It's still unclear whether this phony doctor fooled any Las Vegans. We spoke with Shiekh's attorney and asked him point blank whether the man was giving...

ATLANTA -- The man in the big chair taking Christmas requests at The Mall at Stonecrest might not fit the image most Americans have of Santa Claus. Though he has a beard, wears a red velvet suit and is pleasantly plump, this St. Nick is African-American. Two years ago, during the first Christmas season at the newly opened mall in Lithonia, a suburb east of Atlanta, a white Santa was on hand to grant holiday wishes. Then requests started pouring in from African-Americans who said they wanted a Santa their children could relate to. Before long, there were two Santas...

A "religion of peace," says President Bush about Islam. But investigative journalist Robert Spencer, in his new book "Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West," argues that what we call "Islamic extremism" stems from a straightforward reading of the Quran and interpretative Islamic texts. On Nov. 10, 2003, I interviewed Spencer. Larry Elder: Is Islam a religion of peace that's been hijacked by Islamic extremists, as George W. Bush says? Robert Spencer: There are millions of peaceful Muslims ... but the fact is that radical Muslims are using core texts of Islam that are deeply rooted...

<p>LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former Lexington television news producer sued a media company yesterday, claiming she was fired for standing up to reverse discrimination in a newsroom rife with racial tension.</p> <p>Audrey Port also claimed she was a victim of libel, slander and harassment in her suit against Media General Inc. and several former co-workers at WTVQ-TV in Lexington. Media General, of Richmond, Va., owns the station.</p>

The parents of a Maria Carrillo High School student are suing Santa Rosa City Schools, alleging that their daughter was harassed for her religious beliefs and unfairly reprimanded for uttering a phrase deemed inappropriate by school officials. The parents of 15-year-old Rebekah Rice said the district unfairly gave her a written reprimand rather than a simple warning when she uttered the phrase "that's so gay" in a freshmen humanities class on Oct. 11, 2002. Rice did so in response to classmates taunting her for being a Mormon, the lawsuit states. "It was clear she was being singled out," her father,...

Sometimes you have to deal with strange phone calls from giggly stars. Russell Crowe tells Time magazine that he got several odd phone calls from Michael Jackson. Crowe says Jackson "used to put on these funny voices and then giggle."