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ESPN has fired Numbers Never Lie host and former NFL star Hugh Douglas after he purportedly called his co-host Michael Smith a “house n*gger” and an “Uncle Tom” during a drunken confrontation earlier this month. During the National Association of Black Journalists Convention earlier this month in Orlando, Douglas allegedly shouted the slurs at his co-host. Deadspin was the first to report on the incident: Douglas was, again, very drunk. Lots of people were drinking, so this was less of a big deal, but then he started making some movements toward the stage at the club. … One person told

Hugh Douglas’ drunken tirade cost him his job at ESPN. A week after reports surfaced of Douglas acting belligerently and screaming racial slurs at colleague Michael Smith, the former Jets and Eagles linebacker tweeted that he was “leaving ESPN.” * * * Douglas then called Smith an “Uncle Tom’’ and a “house n----r and threatened to fight him several times, according to the Web site The Big Lead.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri State Fair on Monday imposed a lifetime ban on a rodeo clown whose depiction of President Barack Obama getting charged by a bull was widely criticized by Democratic and Republican officials alike. The rodeo clown won't be allowed to participate or perform at the fair again. Fair officials say they're also reviewing whether to take any action against the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, the contractor responsible for Saturday's event. The entertainment during the bull riding contest featured a clown wearing a mask of Obama with an upside down broomstick attached to his backside....

A Florida beach safety officer was fired on Friday after he referred to Trayvon Martin as a “thug” on his personal Facebook page. Todd Snipes, a beach officer of 15 years who was stationed about 40 minutes from where Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Fla., was initially suspended for the post he made on Facebook last month. “Another thug gone,” Snipes wrote the night of George Zimmerman’s acquittal. “Pull up your pants and be respectful. Bye bye thug r.i.p.” In his termination letter, Department of Public Protection Director George Recktenwald wrote that Snipes had “engaged in behavior that threatens...

Mark Russell, whose nearly three years as editor of the Orlando Sentinel were marked by coverage of the Trayvon Martin case and the hazing death of a marching band member at Florida A&M University, was ousted Wednesday in a reorganization that eliminated his job. Russell was replaced by Avido Khahaifa [pdf], a corporate manager who is also African American and for whom the editor's job will be an additional role. Both men were at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week in nearby Kissimmee, Fla...........

'I was expressing my frustration with the high cost of living in New York': Top Lacoste salesman is fired after posting his paycheck on Instagram A top salesman at Lacoste's flagship New York store has claimed that he was fired for posting a picture of his paycheck on Instagram. Wade Groom, from Brooklyn, New York, told Gothamist that he was merely 'expressing his frustration' with the expensive cost of living in New York, not with Lacoste in particular, when he shared a zoomed-out image of his pay slip.

Drew Johnson, the editorial page editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press was fired after 14 months on the job for publishing an editorial with a headline that read: "Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President." The editorial ran Tuesday, the same day Obama visited Chattanooga. The powers-that-be posted a notice Thursday explaining the firing: The headline was inappropriate for this newspaper. It was not the original headline approved for publication, and Johnson violated the normal editing process when he changed the headline. The newspaper’s decision to terminate Johnson had nothing to do with the content of the...

“HERE’S A fascinating story,” the longtime host of NBC’s Tonight Show With Jay Leno told his audience last week, mentioning a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling “that a dentist could legally fire his female assistant because he found her too sexy, too attractive, and a threat to his marriage. She didn’t do anything. She’s just good-looking.” The payoff: “Hey, I’ll bet that’s what happened to me here at NBC!” It’s the sort of joke that is rapidly becoming a staple of Leno’s monologue. (On Monday’s show, riffing on the royal baby, he confided that he was “a little bummed out,...

“HERE’S A fascinating story,” the longtime host of NBC’s Tonight Show With Jay Leno told his audience last week, mentioning a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling “that a dentist could legally fire his female assistant because he found her too sexy, too attractive, and a threat to his marriage. She didn’t do anything. She’s just good-looking.” The payoff: “Hey, I’ll bet that’s what happened to me here at NBC!”

An Arizona police officer has been fired after he made an early morning stop at a local gas station, wearing his bulletproof vest and pointing his service weapon at the clerk. Off-duty Tuscon Police Officer Kyle James McCartin, 23, and a friend entered the station early Tuesday shirtless beyond the bulletproof vests and appeared to be intoxicated, according to the station clerk. In the security-camera footage, the men made no attempts to disguise themselves or hide their faces. Both of the men appear to pay for their goods. Following the completion of their transactions, the two men left the station...

Jacksonville FL - State Attorney Angela Corey fired her office’s information technology director Friday after he testified last month about being concerned prosecutors did not turn over information to George Zimmerman’s defense team in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. On the same day attorneys finished their closing arguments in that nationally watched trial, a state attorney investigator went to Ben Kruidbos’ home about 7:30 a.m. to hand-deliver a letter stating Kruidbos “can never again be trusted to step foot in this office.” The letter contended Kruibos did a poor job overseeing the information technology department, violated public records law...

An Ex-Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee tells CNN he was fired for not arresting Zimmerman. Bill Lee was pressured by city officials who didn’t care if Zimmerman was innocent, the city officials just wanted an arrest. Bill Lee told the officials you can’t arrest without probable cause, and was fired for upholding Zimmerman’s constitutional rights. [video] CNN reports the following: The George Zimmerman investigation was hijacked “in a number of ways” by outside forces, said the former police chief of Sanford, Florida. Bill Lee, who testified Monday in Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial, told CNN’s George Howell in an exclusive interview...

Just how much of a hole did Paula Deen dig for herself? With the Food Network's announcement that it would not be renewing its contract with the Paula's Home Cooking star, along with QVC distancing itself from the celebrity chef and Smithfield Foods cutting ties with her altogether after she admitted to past use of the N-word and other hurtful remarks, it would seem that Deen's culinary empire is currently up in flames. But her bank account isn't under as much fire as one might think. Sure, her ranking as Forbes' No. 4 highest-earning celeb chef is definitely at risk...but...

Celebrity chef Paula Deen was today sacked from her job at the Food Network despite begging the public for forgiveness over her past use of racial slurs in a heavily-edited video apology. A Food Network spokesman issued this statement today: 'Food Network will not renew Paula Deen's contract when it expires at the end of this month.' It came just hours after she released the 45-second video in which she says: 'I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong I have done. I want to learn and grow from this. 'Inappropriate, hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable. I have...

Men's Wearhouse executive chairman George Zimmer has been "terminated," the clothing retailer said on Wednesday. Zimmer opened the company's first store in Houston in 1973. He's been the bearded face of Men's Wearhouse (MW) in television ads for years, famously promising men "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it."

FP - An obviously tired German bank employee fell asleep on his keyboard and accidentally transformed a minor transfer into a 222 million euro ($293 million) order, a court heard Monday. The Hessen labour court heard that the man was supposed to transfer just 62.40 euros from a bank account belonging to a retiree, but instead "fell asleep for an instant, while pushing onto the number 2 key on the keyboard" -- making it a huge 222,222,222.22 euro order. The bank discovered the mistake shortly afterwards and corrected the error. The case was taken to court by the man's 48-year-old...

People can believe a lot of crazy stuff nowadays and not be fired from their jobs, but a senior research associate at the Catholic University of Leuven learned that you better not believe that God can heal. The university is the oldest and largest in Belgium. It was founded in the 1400s under the approval of the Vatican. But as modern Europe has secularized, so has the University, and even here, faith has come under fire. Fernando Pauwels worked at the University's Research Institute for Work and Society for 11 years without a negative review when he was suddenly fired....

The findings, which are expected to be made public this month at a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting, concluded that Dorner had a history of embellishing stories, misperceiving slights and making bogus complaints against his fellow officers, Rice said. He took more than twice as long as most officers to complete his training, was nearly incomprehensible during the hearing over his firing, and only filed a complaint against his training officer when he learned she gave him a bad performance review, Rice said.

KMOV (Channel 4) fired Larry Conners after a social-media controversy, prompting St. Louis' longest-tenured anchorman to defend his claim that IRS "pressure" followed his 2012 interview of President Barack Obama. Freed from a KMOV gag-order Wednesday, Conners said his statements on Facebook were simply questions about the possibility of an Internal Revenue Service vendetta in the wake of national stories about the agency. "I never said that's what happened, and I'm still not saying it," Conners said. "I'm only asking that question." Conners also said a televised statement he made about the situation last week — which he conceded damaged...

The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes. [Emphasis added] ************** Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from...