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"Dr" Alex Kemos Texas A&M's No. 3 administrator presented himself as a warrior-scholar: A former Navy SEAL with a doctorate from Tufts University. But records obtained by The Eagle indicate Alexander Kemos never was part of the elite fighting force, and Texas A&M officials confirmed Friday that he doesn't have a doctorate or even a master's degree, which was a posted requirement for the $300,000-a-year position that serves as the top adviser to Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin. ...

A civil case brought by a former director of the Collier County Extension Service against the University of Florida is headed to trial. A U.S. District Court judge in Fort Myers has denied the university’s motion for summary judgment, saying there’s enough evidence for the case to move ahead. Denise Blanton has sued the university, saying she was unjustly reprimanded and then terminated as a senior extension agent after filing a race and gender complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission. Judge Paul Magnuson ruled against the university’s motion on Feb. 27...

BAGHDAD, March 20 — Insurgents detonated a bomb in a car with two children in it after using the children as decoys to get through a military checkpoint in Baghdad, an American general said Tuesday. Speaking at a news briefing at the Pentagon, Maj. Gen. Michael Barbaro, deputy director for regional operations at the Joint Staff, said American soldiers had stopped the car at the checkpoint but had allowed it to pass after seeing the two children in the back seat. “Children in the back seat lower suspicion,” he said, according to a transcript. “We let it move through. They...

SAN FRANCISCO, March 15 — A scathing 18-month evaluation of California’s public schools has concluded that the state’s educational system is “broken,” crippled by a complex bureaucracy, flawed teacher policies and misspent school money, leaving it in need of sweeping reforms that could cost billions of dollars. The report, a compilation of 22 university studies titled “Getting Down to Facts,” was released in two parts on Wednesday and Thursday. The long-awaited report, requested by a bipartisan group of state educators and legislators in 2005, cost $3 million and evaluated why California’s 6.8 million school-age students have lagged behind children in...

Should teachers offer advice on what color underwear is the right color for their students? Should students give roses to their teachers on Valentine’s Day? A criminal trial is not normally the place where you might expect to hear questions worthy of consideration by Miss Manners. But a Manhattan jury was asked to ponder such etiquette questions on Thursday — to the evident amusement of some of them — in the statutory rape trial of Lina Sinha, the East Side private school principal and teacher accused of having sex with two of her junior high school students. On the witness...

Billionaire Carl Icahn plans to launch a $22-a-share offer for struggling Bonita Springs-based home builder WCI Communities Inc. Icahn, a major investor in WCI with nearly a 15 percent stake, announced Tuesday that he and his affiliates would buy "any and all" stock at the offer price. His offer price was 16 percent more than Monday's closing price. It's a deal valued at more than $950 million. WCI's shares surged on the news. The stock closed at $21.80 Tuesday, up $2.83, or nearly 15 percent. Icahn, known for pressuring management to improve financial performance in the companies he has invested...

A Lemon Bay High School music teacher would rather give up his day job than stop stripping at night in the musical "The Full Monty" at the Venice Little Theatre. Jason Brenner, who is in his third year as a part-time music teacher at the Englewood high school, said Lemon Bay administrators gave him a letter Thursday that offered him three options: "stop doing the show; continue the show but take yourself out of the last scene so that you're not naked on stage, or continue doing the show at full capacity but hand in a letter of resignation." Brenner...

NEW YORK Though laws in every state say government records and meetings must be open to all, reality often falls far short: Laws are sporadically enforced, penalties for failure to comply are mild and violators almost always walk away with nothing more than a reprimand, an Associated Press survey of all 50 states has found. Even in the handful of states that monitor such cases, when citizens appeal over lack of access to information, the government usually wins - and keeps public business secret. Why does it matter? Advocates for open government say public trust is at the heart of...

Just wondering what you thought of it...

GOP FL Gov Charlie Crist Gov. Charlie Crist invokes Robert F. Kennedy and channels Al Gore on global warming. He embraces paper trails for voting machines. Florida's most powerful Republican pays homage to the teachers union and speaks so passionately about civil rights that one legislator dubbed him "Florida's first black governor." What's a Democrat to do? "Gov. Crist is a political nightmare for the Democrats," said state Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller. "How do we run against somebody who whenever we come up with a good idea, he goes, 'Hey that's a good idea, let's do that.' " State...

Editorial written by summer Whenever I start writing something I hope can be appreciated by both sides of the aisle, it seems like my hope quickly fades, because of a bad situation I can’t ignore from one side, which more often than not is the liberal side. For example, FreeRepublic.com enforces a strict policy of not allowing a news headline to be discarded; but, over at Huff Post, they literally “eat” the press. When I surfed over to Huffington Post last night, I saw a front page news headline I hadn’t seen posted anywhere else, screaming about Jeb Bush. Apparently...

Welcome to the Charlie Crist for Governor Web site. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to earn your vote to become Florida's next Governor. My time in public service has been dedicated to fighting for you. I am running for Governor to carry on the outstanding legacy of Florida’s finest chief executive, Governor Jeb Bush. Florida needs to continue following consistent conservative principles so that all residents may share in the hope, safety and opportunity that makes ours such a great state....

We Watched... By Aimee We watched as people suffered and died, as orphans and widows prayed and cried, as the planes hit the towers the world held its breath, as everyone saw the destruction and death, the workers stopped working the teachers stopped teaching, all the alarms sounded and the preachers kept preaching, we could all feel the pain of the people stuck up there burning, and when another person jumped our stomachs started churning, everyone was on their knee's praying for the souls, that were going up to heaven and had lost their dreams and goals, we were losing...

Yes, the rumor’s true. Greg Palast is facing a criminal complaint from the Department of Homeland Security stemming from his filming the Hurricane Katrina investigation for Link TV and Democracy Now. The film’s producer, Matt Pascarella, is also facing the legal wrath of Big Brother. It appears the complaint is about filming a sensitive national security site owned by Exxon petroleum. It seems that photographing major Bush donors is now a federal offense. Reached at an undisclosed location, Palast says, “Let’s not get over-excited. They haven’t measured us for our orange suits yet.” During questioning by Homeland Security, Palast asked,...

Florida's Favorite Governor, Jeb Bush, hits the campaign trail for Charlie Crist For the past eight years, Gov. Jeb Bush has been the rock star of Florida politics. Now, he's just the warm-up act for Charlie Crist, the newly minted Republican nominee who hopes to replace him. "There is definitely a power shift on the Republican side," said Jim Krog, a former chief of staff for the late Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles. "Jeb will never be irrelevant, because of the strength of his personality. But you can see it. The switch is on." Bush took the stage with Crist during...

NEWS ANALYSIS Democrats divided, Republicans united The contest to replace Gov. Jeb Bush features a Republican who wants to preserve his legacy and a Democrat who wants to tear it down. Charlie Crist coasted to victory. Jim Davis stumbled into it. Crist, the Republican, and Davis, the Democrat, will meet each other in the Nov. 7 general election, but they begin the race to be Florida's next governor in vastly different shape. Davis, a congressman who blasts the way business is done in Florida's capital, arrives at the general-election race battered and broke, still shaken by the pounding he took...

See current poll numbers on the Miami Herald front page HERE.

September 5, 2006 -- Seeking a 30-year prison term for terror lawyer Lynne Stewart, prosecutors argued the attorney engaged for more than two years in "extremely dangerous and devious" conduct to help blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman communicate with followers despite U.S. efforts to silence him. Stewart's "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, deserves to be severely punished," prosecutors wrote...to the Manhattan federal judge who will sentence her next month. Stewart was convicted in February 2005 of providing material support to terrorists by releasing the statement of her client, Abdel-Rahman, who...

MIKE MALLOY FIRED BY AIR AMERICA RADIO There will be no Mike Malloy program on Air America Radio as we have been terminated as of 8/30/06. We are as shocked as you are, especially since as recently as last Tuesday we were told we had the go-ahead to announce our return to NY airwaves and that our contract was "on the way." We are told it's a financial decision. More details to follow as we hear them ourselves. Members of the press can contact malloyproducer@aol.com to schedule interviews.