Free Republic

PHILADELPHIA (May 23) - Maurice Cheeks is running the show again for the Philadelphia 76ers. In a surprising move nearly three weeks following the end of their season, the Sixers fired Jim O'Brien on Monday after one season as coach and replaced him with Cheeks, one of the most popular players in franchise history. "Mo is family. Mo bleeds 76ers. He bleeds Philadelphia," team president Billy King said. Cheeks will be introduced as Philadelphia's 21st head coach at a Tuesday news conference. Philadelphia is certainly banking on the former point guard to have a happier homecoming than O'Brien, a Philadelphia...

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego City Council unanimously agreed today to spend $250,000 to hire the former chief accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission to help in federal investigations of the city's finances. Lynn E. Turner, now a senior adviser with Kroll Zolfo Cooper, would be retained to review investigative reports by the law firm Vinson & Elkins and the City Attorney's Office, and make recommendations to the City Council. The city's goal in hiring Turner is to secure an audit of San Diego's 2003 finances, which was held back by the outside accounting firm KPMG pending further...

By PETER PORCO Anchorage Daily News November 26, 2004 ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sixteen-year-old Rachelle A. Waterman would appear to be any parent's ideal child - an honor student, an athlete, a gifted singer. But for months, she planned her mother's murder with two of her former boyfriends who are eight years her senior, according to Alaska State Troopers. Two weekends ago on Southeast's Prince of Wales Island, their plot ended in the death of 48-year-old Lauri Waterman of Craig, according to court papers. Lauri Waterman, a teacher's aide and community activist, was killed by one of the men using a...

Nov 13, 2003Franklin Mint Dismisses 200 Employees From Suburban Center The Associated Press FRANKLIN CENTER, Pa. (AP) - The Franklin Mint, a prominent collectibles maker, plans to lay off two-thirds of its employees in suburban Philadelphia, a company spokesman said. The company, seeking to implement a new restructuring plan, on Wednesday notified 200 workers at its Franklin Center site in Delaware County that they would be dismissed over the next several months, said spokesman Howard Lucker. Weakened by decreasing sales of figurines, Franklin Mint plans to shift its focus to production of die-cast cars, airplanes and Harley-Davidson collectibles. "We're going...

<p>CLARKSDALE — Not since legendary blues singer Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads here has a tale stirred more speculation than this one.</p> <p>Robert Hunter, the principal at Jonestown Elementary School in Coahoma County, is charged with attempted first-degree murder in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme.</p>