Free Republic

A Melbourne gay bar has been granted an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act in a landmark ruling which will allow security to refuse entry to heterosexuals. The owners of Collingwood's Peel Hotel, which came under fire in April for promoting a gay Anzac Day party, successfully argued to the state planning tribunal that banning heterosexuals from the club would prevent "sexually based insults and violence". The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal granted the controversial powers to the club last week, the Herald Sun reports. VCAT deputy president Cate McKenzie claimed that allowing straight men and women into the club...

(CBS4) GASSVILLE, Ark. A teenager suspected of a hatchet and gun attack in a New Bedford, Mass. gay bar shot and killed a small-town police officer and the teen's female passenger before he was critically wounded in a gun battle with police Saturday, authorities said. Jacob D. Robida, 18, was shot twice in the head and "it doesn't look good right now," said Bristol district attorney Paul Walsh Jr. Walsh said the teen shot Officer Jim Sell, 56, twice with a 9 mm handgun during a traffic stop in this northern Arkansas town. About 25 miles away, Robida sped his...

Teen Wanted in Gay Bar Rampage Is Caught GASSVILLE, Ark. - A teenager suspected of a hatchet-and-gun attack in a Massachusetts gay bar shot and killed a small-town police officer and the teen's female passenger before he was critically wounded in a gun battle with police Saturday, authorities said. Jacob D. Robida, 18, was shot twice in the head and "it doesn't look good right now," said Massachusetts prosecutor Paul Walsh Jr. Walsh said the teen shot Officer Jim Sell, 56, twice during a traffic stop in this northern Arkansas town. About 25 miles away, Robida sped over spike strips...

CNN just reported that Jacob Robida, accused in the Mass. gay bar attack, has been captured in Arkansas after a shootout. I think they said a patrolman was killed in the attack. (Link is to article from today's Boston Herald) Details soon

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/03/attack_at_gay_bar_leaves_3_injured/

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The owner of a gay bar accused of racial discrimination agreed Sunday to mediation to settle the dispute. Les Natali, owner of the S.F. Badlands bar in the Castro district, has said all the allegations stem from misperceptions and misunderstandings. The city's Human Rights Commission determined 13 complaints were valid from eight complainants who said they had been barred from patronizing or working at the bar because they are African American. Natali has agreed to allow former mayor Willie Brown and attorney Scott Emblidge to mediate the dispute. Julius Turman, lawyer for the complainants, said Sunday he...

The very same day that the Clintons go to Long Island to meet with the TWA Flight 800 families, security guard Richard Jewell is patrolling the grounds of Centennial Park in Atlanta. He's a little Barney Fife-ish, but a good guy and very observant. Right around midnight, Jewell spots a large, olive-green, military-style backpack, known as an Alice pack, under a bench. He immediately shares this information with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. When the GBI cannot find the pack's owner, the GBI officer and Jewell begin to clear an area around the pack. Soon afterward, the pack explodes. Two...

OK... the Viking kitties are starting to scare me.

Patrons at Lucy's Saloon watched in amazement around 1 a.m. Sunday when the man they say started a bar-clearing brawl began barking orders at police officers who arrived to quell it — and the officers responded.The man turned out to be St. Paul police Sgt. Jon Loretz, the son of Police Chief William Finney. On Monday, the department referred an investigation into the fight to the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to avoid a conflict of interest, Finney said. The chief pledged his department's full cooperation with the agency's probe.The 34-year-old Loretz was at the 601 N. Western Ave. tavern...