Free Republic

Two cocktail cuties at The Standard say they got canned for not fitting the mold of "willowy, svelte and statuesque runway models" at the trendy hotel's Boom Boom Room. Aspiring actresses Faye Rex and Stephanie Jaggers are suing the Meatpacking District hotel, claiming management sees fit to employ only women with runway model looks at its sexy playpen above the High Line. "There's definitely a type at the Boom Boom Room - and that type is beautiful, tall and skinny," said Richard Roth, a lawyer for the women. "Compare that to the men." Rex and Jaggers lost their jobs as...

A powerful House Republican wants Amtrak's chairman and top lawyer fired. Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a recent letter to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV that both Amtrak Chairman Thomas Carper and General Counsel Eleanor Acheson "unlawfully interfered" with the independence of the rail agency's Office of Inspector General.

We should have known about Juan Williams long ago. The signs of a simmering bigotry were always there. The political commentator wrote the book "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965." He followed that up with an admiring biography of Thurgood Marshall. Then, more books on the African-American religious experience, historically black colleges and black farmers. If there was anyone clearly on the verge of exploding in a venomous rant against a minority group, it was Williams. And then, inevitably, it happened. At least that's what National Public Radio must believe. The government-funded media outfit fired Williams for...

National Public Radio's (NPR) firing of Juan Williams had less to do with his (benign) remarks about Muslims on airliners, but more about finding a pretext to dump him. Just yesterday, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller stooped to name-calling against Williams, stating, "that whatever feelings Williams has about Muslims should be between him and 'his psychiatrist or his publicist -- take your pick'." This belies the deep resentment NPR held against Williams for his "controversial" views. Many at NPR probably considered Williams an "Uncle Tom," just as the same left-wing epithets were tossed at great minds like Condi Rice and Colin...

CNN’s firing of Senior Middle East News Editor Octavia Nasr has prompted an outcry from Arab-Americans, angry about what they see as a double standard when it comes to coverage of the Middle East in the American media. Nasr’s 20-year career at CNN ended Wednesday after a tweet mourning the death of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a Lebanese Shiite cleric whom she called “one of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.” Facing a rash of criticism, she explained her tweet in a blog post, saying her respect was based on Fadlallah’s advocacy for women’s rights.

KrisAnne Hall will join me on Sunday afternoon at 3p ET for a special edition of my radio show. KrisAnne, former Florida Assistant State Attorney, will talk about why she was fired for speaking at a local Tea Party rally. Both Florida's attorney general and Lt. Governor supported KrisAnne and condemned the firing. KrisAnne has asked a federal judge for a ruling that would allow her to keep speaking and prevent her boss -- a Democrat -- from firing her. You might also have seen Kris Anne's appearance on Fox News explaining what happened. On Sunday at 3p, she'll join...

DRAPER, Utah (AP) - After two days of testimony about a condemned Utah man's journey from a life of violence to reformation, his lawyer said Friday that fairness should compel a state parole board to stop his execution by firing squad. "He came from a family that exuded criminality and violence, and that is what he was," Ronnie Lee Gardner's lawyer, Andrew Parnes, told the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. "He's changed, he's overcome that." Gardner wants the board to reduce his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A McDonald's restaurant was wrong to fire a worker for giving a colleague an extra piece of cheese on a hamburger, a Dutch court ruled on Tuesday. The dismissal was too severe a measure," the district court in Leeuwarden, in the north of the Netherlands, said in a written judgment. "It is just a slice of cheese." A written warning would have been a more appropriate punishment, said the court, which ordered the fast-food chain to pay the worker the salary for the remaining five months of her contract - a total of 4,265.47 euros (£3,660).

Congressional Republicans raised new concerns this week about the Obama administration's firing of Gerald Walpin, who served as inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service. GOP lawmakers said White House visitors logs contradict statements made by the former chairman of CNCS, the agency that oversees AmeriCorps.

White House officials who fired whistleblower Gerald Walpin last week have sparked a series of investigations that pose both political and policy threats to the Obama administration. Describing the probe into the dismissal of the AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, one Capitol Hill source on Thursday compared Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s demand for facts in the case to a row of dominoes ready to tip over. Grassley is asking questions, a team of Senate investigators is poring over documents in the case, and where the investigation proceeds now “depends on what dominoes fall next,” explained the source, who spoke on...

PETITION Senate and House to Investigate the firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Sign the Petition at:gopetition.com/online/28746.html Americorp Inspector General Gerald Walpin was fired by President Obama after Walpin, through an investigation by his office, alleged that Americorp funds had been wrongfully spent by a friend and supporter of the President. The firing of Inspector General Walpin appears to be a clear violation of the 2008 Inspectors General Reform Act which President Obama supported while he was a Senator. The Act requires the President to give 30 days notice and an explanation of cause prior to firing an Inspector General....

A top White House lawyer called the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin an act of "political courage," according to House Republican aides who were in a meeting with the lawyer Wednesday. Norman Eisen, who is the White House Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, met with staffers for Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday. Eisen, along with another White House staffer who accompanied him, "wanted to talk broadly about inspectors general," says a GOP aide familiar with what went on at the meeting....

Inspector Generals in this government are for one job, to work independently to ensure that the taxpayer is protected from government corruption and abuse. Not in Obama's government it seems. Three IG's have been fired in the last week and some pushback has started. First in this list is Gerald Walpin. He reported to Congress about the settlement of 400 grand paid by Obama cohort Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, St. HOPE academy (a pet of Johnson) and former executive director Dana Gonzalez. He reported that Johnson was not being required to repay all the money he misused AND he would...

The White House said Wednesday that President Obama had dismissed a government agency’s internal watchdog because he was incompetent and had behaved bizarrely, disputing accusations that he was fired because he had uncovered embarrassing problems in the AmeriCorps program

In an email and fax sent late Friday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, demanded that Alan D. Solomont, the chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, provide "any and all records, email, memoranda, documents, communications, or other information, whether in draft or final form" related to President Obama's firing of CNCS Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Walpin had investigated Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's community service organization, St. HOPE Academy, which confessed to misusing AmeriCORPS grants. In April of this year, St. HOPE Academy agreed to pay a $423,836.50 settlement -- $72,836.50 of which would be paid personally by Mayor Johnson....

The White House's decision to fire AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin came amid politically-charged tensions inside the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that runs AmeriCorps. Top executives at the Corporation, Walpin explained in an hour-long interview Saturday, were unhappy with his investigation into the misuse of AmeriCorps funds by Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California and a prominent supporter of President Obama. Walpin's investigation also sparked conflict with the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento amid fears that the probe -- which could have resulted in Johnson being barred from ever...

WASHINGTON – An inspector general fired by President Barack Obama says he acted "with the highest integrity" in investigating AmeriCorps and other government-funded national service programs. Gerald Walpin's job was to review grants awarded by AmeriCorps and its parent agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service. He told The Associated Press he has no doubt he acted properly in investigating Sacramento mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson. Obama told Congress on Thursday he had lost confidence in Walpin. As a result of Walpin's investigation, Johnson and the nonprofit St. HOPE Academy that he headed were ordered to repay...

The eighth-grade boy held out his wrists for teacher Carlos Polanco to see. He had just explained to Polanco and his history classmates at Virgil Middle School in Central Los Angeles why he had been absent: He had been in the hospital after a failed attempt at suicide. Polanco looked at the cuts and said they "were weak," according to witness accounts in documents filed with the state. "Carve deeper next time," he was said to have told the boy. "Look," Polanco allegedly said, "you can't even kill yourself." The boy's classmates joined in, with one advising how to cut...

I always thought coaches got fired for losing. On the same day he sent an email refusing to apologize for his team's success, a Texas high school girls' basketball coach was terminated. The coach, Micah Grimes, of Dallas' Covenant School, had come under fire for winning a game 100-0, making national news.

t’s been over 12 hours now since Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, has been named as GOP choice of Veep. Already, a desperate Obama camp of supporters are in search of talking points… other than the obviously poor choice of “inexperience”… or a scandal to take back what they perceive as the DNC ticket superiority. Knowing the Palin-Monegan-Wooten investigation of abuse of power was their prime target, I’ve been spending time this AM researching the chain of events in hopes of beating the media to the political and biased distortions creating a new, and false “truth. I took into consideration that...